A Question of Taste: Nature vs. Nurture

Apparently an Aesthete is born at an early age. Even back in the days of Smurfs and Muppet Babies, Betsy and Phat Tony had distinct fashion points of view. Sadly, other, differing opinions were often foisted upon us by meddling parents. We remember clearly the irritation when the offending items were introduced into our wardrobes. For Phat Tony it was the dreaded cardigan while Betsy feared the floral dress.


While there's nothing inherently evil about said garments we nonetheless had violently negative reactions to them. To this day, neither of us can stomach either of these trends which have recently become a part of mainstream adult wardrobes.


As you can see fair reader, there's nothing that horribly offensive about either item. Aside from the danger of looking like Mr. Rogers when wearing a male cardigan or like a librarian in a floral dress, most laypeople can pull off wearing both. For us however, we're just not going there. We're too busy playing Mario Kart and Zelda anyway.

We Love Ice Cream Sandwiches

We're definitely grown-ups as evidenced by a known propensity for easy listening radio, but yet we still have a deep appreciation for this rather childlike food. What could be better than a slab of vanilla ice cream between two chocolate wafer cookies. A classic hit, timeless, sort of like Janet Jackson. Sing it with me now, "when I think of you...baby, all I think about is love." Diversions aside, we learned recently that the venerated ice cream sandwich was actually invented in about 1900 in the Lower East Side. We're not sure when the Chipwich brand variety was invented,


but we definitely remember the summer when Phat Tony introduced us to the ice cream sandwiches at Diddy Reese in Westwood. Your choice of fresh baked cookies surrounding a healthy scoop of the ice cream flavor of your fancy.

When I think of you...baby....

We Love Neil Patrick Harris

We all need role models and who better than the original blogger himself, Doogie Howser, M.D. Doogie, in all his precocious glory, was at the helm of one of the best of the "lost" sitcoms of the 80s i.e. one's that were not beaten to death by the syndication horse. Really, what's not to love, a 16 year old doctor who actually has compassion and a sense of humor and only mildly grazes the lovable end of the nerd spectrum.

Can you say suspension of disbelief?


Dr. Douglas Howser was adeptly played by Neil Patrick Harris whom we have grown to love more and more over the years.


Clearly Mr. Patrick Harris has grown into a healthy sense of style (and hair products) and has made said transition remarkably better than his peers (see: Fred Savage). He's made such a reasonably smooth transition in the world of celebrity and child stardom even in the face of such obstacles such as coming out and self parody (although the cameo in Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle was hilarious), it has come to the point that whenever we get stuck, we the aesthetes, always ask ourselves what would Neil Patrick Harris do (WWNPHD)? Certainly, this catchy acronym is a clear adaptation of the much more common WWTBFCD (what would the Barefoot Contessa Do)? Look out for WWNPHD bracelets and t-shirts coming soon to a mall near you.

Phat Tony Addendum: We wish that any sort of recent appearances he has made on the world's stage (anything having to do with "How I Met Your Mother," coming out of the closet, etc.) actually improved our opinion of him... However, combine his Doogie beginnings with his Christina Aguilera-esque vocal riffing-con-finger jiggle in "Undercover Brother," and he has already reached a zenith that is virtually uncalled for in the magical world of AQoT. WWNPHD, indeed...

After School Special: AQoT Edition

Ah childhood...Rice Krispies Treats, Capture the Flag, You Can't Do That on Television...those were simpler times. Unfortunately, our inevitable aging has left us prone to sigh's of "kids nowadays..." as we are confronted with that which we do not understand, Ne-Yo, Gossip Girl, The Hills, Justin Timberlake. Ha, just kidding, we totally understand that stuff. What we don't understand lately is what is going on with the next generation (are we at Z yet?) of budding superstars.

Let's start with Vanessa Hudgens. Fine, she took some pictures of herself naked and in the grand scheme of things we're not going to go all Republican on you and say that this is an immoral thing to do we're just saying, did no one explain to her how the Internet works?

And then there's Jamie Lynn Spears. Sure, Britney has made some bad choices that $100 million should be able to prevent one from making, but at least she had the decency to wait until she was in her 20s to have a baby by her totally not famous boyfriend. Shockingly, Nickelodeon seems not to have a problem with the situation. We wonder if they'll try to cover up Zoey 101's baby bump with strategically placed grocery bags a la Claire Huxtable in the 80s.

Apparently, Lily Allen is also pregnant. While not in her teens, she's also not too far removed and she was recently asked to design a line of maternity clothing specifically intended for juniors, like Delia's juniors, otherwise known as girls in their teens and VERY early 20s. In what universe is that a good idea? The least we can do is force girls to wear ugly florals and stirrup pants through their pregnancy as a deterrent.

We've come to the point where we fully expect the next breaking news item on CNN to be Miley Cyrus' gruesome killing spree.

What have we learned here kids, naked photos and pregnancy will not actually harm one's chances of a lucrative future in Children's Programing and if corporate America had their way we'd have a totally rocking line of skinny jeans and crop tops suitable for the second trimester of only the most fashionable teenagers.

Phylicia, Lisa & Keshia KP - Cosby's Angels

I know Bets doesn't necessarily experience this day by day, but doing the corporate America thing tends to sometimes stagnate creativity. In light of that, it can be inspiring to witness any sort of reinvention, whether in the office, on the streets or anywhere in the media.

Everyone's made pretty ridiculous aesthetic moves since 1984 (I seem to remember yellow gingham overalls... but I was 5, and in no way in control of my wardrobe), but who knew that some of our favorite ladies from those days would be pulling out some really smart choices in 2007? We don't really want to judge (wait, what am I talking about, of COURSE we want to judge), but I think it must be really difficult to stay very smart and retain the positive aspects of your fashion choices, and carry them through, updating as necessary, while adding another entire dimension to it.

Phylicia Rashad
She's the classic, older woman with a strong presence, just like then, but really has defined a very specific perspective. Claire Huxtable epitomized the archetypical strong working woman. The idea was renegade in the 1980s and only a woman with enough presence to impart strength in the mere raise of an eyebrow could pull it off without coming off as "hard" in any way.

Then:

Now:



Lisa Bonet
Denise Huxtable was always the controversial one on the show. Not entirely buying into Cosby's strict education precepts, she ended up kicked out of the dynasty after her first season on A Different World. Luckily, exit Bonet didn't deprive us of years of Dwayne Wayne, Whitley Gilbert and Jaleesa and that show also thrived for years after her departure. Bonet was always cute but we think she came into her own in the Lenny Kravitz years and peaked in her appearance in the John Cusack film "High Fidelity."

Then:



Now:


Keshia Knight-Pulliam
She went from annoying, only barely cute little girl who was SEVERELY upstaged by the casting of little Olivia to the show, to an arguably drop-dead beautiful woman. I think we all had that moment of whoa is that Keshia KP? while watching the video of Chingy's "One Call Away."

Then:



Now:


Bravo Cosby's Angels, way to keep it together through the decades. We have much to learn from you.