My Favourite Post Secrets - from this week!

Hi all :)
A little bit earlier than last week I thought I would do a Post Secret blog.

I realised that in my earlier blogs about Post Secret I didn’t say what it was all about, so before I talk about it anymore I will present to you a little bit about the site, who owns it and why it was started.

Post Secret was started by Frank Warren as a Community art project back in 2005. He asked strangers across America to write a secret on a postcard and send it to him. No restrictions were placed on the content of the card, other than it must be your secret, and that it had never been told before. Warren has now been posting between 10 and 20 anonymous secrets on his blog http://www.postsecret.com/ every Sunday for the last 6 years without fail (with only a hand full of missed days over that time).

I discovered this blog in my first year of college, recommended to myself by a class mate called Flo. It soon became a tradition on Monday mornings in college to go into the IT suite and check that week’s secrets with different people over the 2 years I spent there. Comments were made on the quality of their design, on the artistic-ness of the message and we always loved (I still do) an encrypted message to work out. But I like to think we never judged the content. These were people’s secrets, and it was not for me to judge what ever event or thought they needed to share.

I have been visiting the site every Sunday evening and saving secrets for the last 2 years now, and have compiled quite a collection. I only save my favourite secrets, as I am not creating a record of what has been posted but a scrapbook folder of the ones that drew me in.

The content of the blog has inspired many other projects, that I only learned the extent of its reach when researching for this post today. There are 5 directly affiliated blog sites that post secrets, some in English with translations, and some are sent in native languages. Currently there has been 5 books published including secrets never seen before. Enlarged copies of the secrets were used in the Washington Art Gallery for an exhibit, and Warren had done a number of Post Secret Events in American Colleges. The All American Rejects even used the project as the background for their song – Dirty Little Secret. (see the end for links and videos)


So with the introduction over, I will place my favourite secrets from the original Post Secret blog this week. Keep in mind that it was Mother's day in America last Sunday, hence the topics.

Am I the only one who wants to know what?

I found Wally (or Waldo as he is called in America) in this picture quite quickly.
But I can't help but wonder if there is a cartoon of this persons Mum that is more important.

The construction of this secret is unusual and that's why I was so attracted to it.

The links:

http://postsecret-uk.blogspot.com/ - UK version of the blog.

http://postsecretfrance.blogspot.com/ - French language version.

http://postsecretdeutsch.blogspot.com/ - German language version. [translations available]

http://postsecretpt.blogs.sapo.pt/ - Portuguese language version.

http://elmundopostsecret.blogspot.com/ - English secrets translated into Spanish.


All American Rejects song:

http://tinyurl.com/postsecretbooks - Link to books.

Thank you all for reading, 

Love Rie xx

My TV Guilty Pleasures

Here is the first part of a series of posts on my TV favourites.

This blog is all about my guilty pleasures currently broadcast on the box an why i enjoy them so much.

Emmerdale

Although some people may take pride in watching this soap opera, it is not a programme with a high amount of viewers of my age.

However there must be a part of me that wants to run away and start up a farm in the countryside as I love catching up with what has been going on while I have been away.

I am not a big fan of the ITV Player as I find it so slow compared to the iPlayer, but even if I could stand the site for long enough, I am not sure I would watch Emmerdale online.

I think the biggest part of the pleasure of this show is my Friday night catch-ups with mum on the sofa finding out what has been going on with the town’s residents.

I am particularly fond of the idea of the farm shop, and the Woolpack

gatherings, simply the whole dying concept of village living that I have never really experienced.

For those cynics of my sanity, I do know that it is all created for the show, but I like the added drama and narrative that only a regular soap can provide, and I am sure I will continue to indulge in the show more often now, whilst I am home for Easter.

Snog Marry Avoid

As a media student, I often ponder how this show fits into the BBC’s remit to: educate, inform and entertain. Yes it may inform people on how to be naturally beautiful and certainly entertains those such as myself who bask in its triviality. But how far will this remit bend?

But don’t mistake these thoughts about the BBC’s motivations for the show as criticism. As for escapism TV I couldn’t think of anything better.

An acquired taste, but a must see for those who observe how people have taken ‘fakery’ the extreme, and chuckle to themselves at orange fake tans, clumpy fake lashes and outfits that look like they haven’t yet got dressed.

POD (personal overhaul device) is witty and cutting and such a giggle.

Shown on BBC3, normally in the late evenings it is a show aimed at the teenage audience, but I know that friends into their 40’s still enjoy a bit of a giggle at the state of the people willing to appear on the show.

Another of my core guilty pleasures.

Take Me Out

Oh Paddy McGuinness makes this show for me. That accent, that cheeky smile and wicked sense of humour make me grin every time.

Again I must bore you for a second with my wonderment on its reflection on dating culture in the UK. The objectification of men is really interesting to me. As well as how women perceive different aspects of the contestant’s life and decide so quickly that they do not want to know any more about him.

Whenever I watch it I think of my dad saying “chuck her a sugar lump and send her home” with reference to one of the women looking like a horse, and it makes me think that maybe these cutting observations are best made behind closed doors and not told to the male contestants so openly.

It’s so cruel, it’s so cutting, and so totally my ultimate guilty pleasure.

A class entertainment for those who want nothing more.

Thank you all for reading :)

Please comment and let me know what your TV guilty pleasures are.

Love Rie

xxx

Oh the Wonders of Television!!

As some of you may know, I spend most of my week at university in Southampton. I don’t have a television licence in my place currently, so I rely on YouTube and BBC iPlayer for my entertainment.

But there is nothing like indulging in a bit of good old television when I am home. I have just come home for the Easter break, and as I told you what entertainment I enjoy watching at university I thought I would do a few posts on what television I enjoy watching a home.

Look out for 3 posts in the next 3 days on my guilty pleasures, my crime drama genre favourites and my addiction to cooking programmes.

Don’t forget to comment about what shows you like to watch, what you think of my favourite shows and programmes you think I might like.

Thanks reading,

Love Rie xxxx