Martha Stewart Halloween Issue!

[3113]

The special one with all sort of ideas for costumes, treats and alcoholic beverages is on the stands! Anyone got it? Like any of the ideas?

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

To quote a long forgotten radio announcer... "Oh the humanity!"

 

[3113]

To quote a long forgotten radio announcer... "Oh the humanity!"

No regrets! I loves that magazine and I make no apologies for it.

 

[Stella_Omega]

No regrets! I loves that magazine and I make no apologies for it.

As an aside, here's some subjective emotional responses to MS from me. I wonder how other people have responded?

Why do I hate Martha Stewart?

Because in order to make a fortune off of the things that impoverished creative types -- mostly women-- have done forever-- by themselves out necessity-- she simply goes out and hires credentialed designers-- mostly men-- for wonderful salaries-- to do it for her. And she graciously explains how to invent the wheel that I have had to invent myself. There's a HUGE element of sour beans and I make no apologies for it. I feel belittled and insulted by her making money off of what was women's unpaid work.

Why do I like her?

Because she lets her coal-black Friesian horses run around in the sun (true afficiandoes never let them stay in sunlight for long because it bleaches their hair red) and because when she saw the multi-colored eggs that her black-and-white chickens laid, she changed her palate to the soft blues and greens and creams of their product.

Unfortunately, the other reasons I have for hating her include the way she bought an historic architect built house and then gutted it to the point that the next owner demolished it rather than try to restore the mess she left. Kindness to animals is nice, but destroying historic dwellings is immoral in my book.

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

Also Stella, don't forget. Rather than the "self made woman" she pretends, her ex-husband was one of the top executives at NBC (I believe) and set her up, including a tv film crew and his influence in getting her a show.

Self made, my ass!

 

[Freefall_mc]

The special one with all sort of ideas for costumes, treats and alcoholic beverages is on the stands! Anyone got it? Like any of the ideas?

I try not to judge a creative idea, art, process, or invention based on the individual. I may have to check it out; even though I'm not a subscriber.

Is is cheating to flip through a magazine for ideas while in the drugstore w/o actually purchasing it? I am so guilty.

 

[3113]

Wow. You look forward to discussing fun ideas for halloween and end up with one bummer of a thread. We've discussed the Martha Halloween issue in the past, so I guess I'm a little surprised that this thread got steered down down this tediously cliché road ("I hate Martha because...!") so fast. Ah, well.

As for my thoughts on Martha, I'm a human being. I fuck up. I do good things, I do awful things. Some awful things I don't forgive others doing. Some I do. Because they're human beings. One thing I can't do, for sanity's sake, and for the sake of enjoying this one short life I have, is hate everyone who creates something I love because they've been human. Or, putting it another way, I have to pick my battles, or I'm never going to enjoy anything. Thomas Edison, for example, was a real shit who stole from others and abused his workers...but I don't think I'm ready yet to give up lightbulbs.

And I feel no insult in Martha making money off women's "unpaid work." We might as well take Julia Child to task for making money off cooking that the French had been doing for thousands of years, including poor unpaid women. She and others got the idea to sell such recipes to Americans. It could have succeeded or flopped. It succeeded.

Ditto with Martha. She got that idea to present such "unpaid work" in a magazine and television. It could have flopped. It didn't. Other women could have done this before her. They didn't. This is not because she did that work better than any other woman, but because she presented herself as an aficionado of such things, infusing them with a feeling of being beautiful and worthy of time and effort. In her shows, she often tours small businesses of handmade crafts (pots, quilts, maple syrup) which benefit from her shining a light on them. And I don't think anyone can argue that she did work her butt off, and continues to so. I'd much rather hate someone who was rewarded for being lazy and sloppy and giving a bad name to something that deserved a good name.

Finally, I look at all the magazines, shows and such that exist out there and would not have if she hadn't demonstrated that there was an audience for them. Magazines on crafts and home improvement and such. Magazines, shows and such that have given a lot of people work and success that they would not have had otherwise, and respect rather than distain for what they do. Why would I disparage anyone for doing that?

There are a lot of magazines, shows, and such that foment hatred, bigotry, being rude, cruel, evil, even murderous. I've never seen Martha offer any such messages in her mag or on her show. So I'll forgive her those very human sins that make her less, far less in many ways, than a saintly person, and enjoy the feelings of fun and enthusiasm she's given me for things that, when taught to me by others, always felt like a chore. For that I think I can, forgivably and understandably, like her.

 

[3113]

Is is cheating to flip through a magazine for ideas while in the drugstore w/o actually purchasing it? I am so guilty.

Naw. Because if you see something you really like, you usually know you can't get away with ripping it out of the mag, and so you buy it. Win-Win for you and drugstore

 

[3113]

Self made, my ass!

And? Once again, does that mean I have to stop reading Edith Warton because she was rich and had the leisure to write? Do I have to only read or like things from people who started from the bottom up? And does having money or opportunities mean that you put no work at all into what you did and deserve no credit for it's success?

Are you saying that because her husband worked at NBC, there was no way in the world her show could have flopped? Or not been a huge success? She had nothing at all to do with it?

And in the end, why should the way someone got to where they are--sort of sending people to concentration camps and gassing them--matter to me whether I like the recipes presented in their magazine? Or tips on household decor? or want to fucking discuss the halloween ideas in their latest issue?

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

And? Once again, does that mean I have to stop reading Edith Warton because she was rich and had the leisure to write? Do I have to only read or like things from people who started from the bottom up? And does having money or opportunities mean that you put no work at all into what you did and deserve no credit for it's success?

Are you saying that because her husband worked at NBC, there was no way in the world her show could have flopped? Or not been a huge success? She had nothing at all to do with it?

And in the end, why should the way someone got to where they are--sort of sending people to concentration camps and gassing them--matter to me whether I like the recipes presented in their magazine? Or tips on household decor? or want to fucking discuss the halloween ideas in their latest issue?

No, 3. It means I'm jealouse I haven't found a hony publisher to set me up with a $1,000,000 book deal

 

[xssve]

I'll buy it 3113.

 

[glynndah]

Whatever, Martha...

Martha Stewart's daughter and friend talk trash about Martha...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npBPuJwbwyI

 

[Stella_Omega]

Also Stella, don't forget. Rather than the "self made woman" she pretends, her ex-husband was one of the top executives at NBC (I believe) and set her up, including a tv film crew and his influence in getting her a show.

Self made, my ass!

I have no problem with the help her husband gave her, actually.

... She got that idea to present such "unpaid work" in a magazine and television. It could have flopped. It didn't. Other women could have done this before her. They didn't. This is not because she did that work better than any other woman, but because she presented herself as an aficionado of such things, infusing them with a feeling of being beautiful and worthy of time and effort.

yeah I know. But-- she wasn't presenting the actual work of actual women, she was hiring men to do it for her. In particular, i remember she showed the world how easy and elegant and virtuous it is to splash brown paper with gold paint for giftwrapping. I had been doing that for years because, if i wanted decent wrapping paper for a gift, i had to invent it. In my lifetime there was never a sense that this was a virtue-- only that it was the best i could do.

And some person got a salary for making my make-do into something she could sell. She could sell it because she had the bucks to throw at the market as I never did.

These are very personal sour grapes.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Stella, honey, we know you are really creative and ingenious. What you need is a marketing consultant. Ninety per cent of life is marketing. That's the main trouble with the artistic community, lack of business acumen. My father had the same problem. He could make great stuff but he didn't have enough killer instinct to make money at it.

 

[xssve]

The unpublicized life is not worth living.

--M. Jackson.

 

[Elianna]

Okay 3113. I'm a girly girl. I haven't checked out the MS magazine, but I always glut myself on all those home magazines around the holidays. My favorite is Christmas because of the cookie recpies!

What I DO like about MS is that her decorations are a little less "tacky" than some of the BHG things, but also less kid-friendly. I'm all about felt and pipe cleaners for the kids, but for the grown ups I love the luxury of silk and velvet and real flower arrangements.

I'll check out the magazine and let you know.

 

[Freefall_mc]

For the first time, contributed to MS's percentage. Flipping through, thought I'd try some better window stencils, one of those drinks, maybe add a graveyard to distract from my usual coffin bed on the porch (patience is a virtue).

And then,...well darn it...my adult daughter came in, saw me with MS, mocked me with an incredulous look, and then ripped it out of my hands. And there it goes...well poo.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Since my fenced-in front yard is all vegetables, I haven't gotten a trick-or-treater in years. Halloween? Whassahalloween?