Friday, April 4, 2008

Domino Decorno Man Style


Shopping at Lowes the other day, buying mundane things like light bulbs and baseboard wood for the endless bathroom renovation. The hubs goes one way, and I go the other. We agree to meet near checkout, if one gets there first, just hang. I always get there first at Lowes.
They have a big mag rack, so the waiting is painless as I leaf through them all. There are really so few major decorating magazines around anymore. Mmmm Veranda - nice issue. Traditional Home - not bad. O at Home - already have it, ditto Domino and Elle. No Metropolitan Home or House Beautiful here. Oh yeah, there's AD. Then there are a slew of the "how tos." In about sixty seconds I'm done, and still no hubs. I resit the urge to go to the garden department to look around.
Dum de dum, dum de dum. I check the mag rack again just in case there's something else. I see Ty Pennington At Home. It's in a plastic wrapper. Well how ya gonna look at the thing if you can't touch it? Anarchy vamp tears open the plastic. I almost didn't want to touch it, because, well it's Ty.
I am no fan of this big goofy guy who screams his lines on the tragic ABC TV show I call Move That Bus, or as it is really called Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. My best designer friend (BDF) calls me on Sundays and asks if I'm going to watch it. NEVER! (I scream as loud as Ty).
The show just makes me cringe. The design work isn't bad, and the poor family in need isn't bad, and really Ty is an okay guy, but I just can't watch this show.
So what made me think I could read this magazine? First I noticed that this is a first issue. Well that got my attention. With design mags on the wane, a new offering is always interesting. Then I see there was a premiere issue last year, sort of testing the waters, and since the response to the launch was good enough, we now have the first regular issues coming out. I think it will come out only four times a year. It's hard out there for a magazine pimp...
A slim 112 pages, the first thing you notice is the pages have a different feel. The paper stock is not glossy, and has some kind of "green" vibe. You find out that it's not really green, but just a quest to try do something different, though Ty says he's is all for going green.
I am repulsed.
But still no hubs.
So I keep looking. Is this supposed to be a magazine for guys, gay or straight or both? For women who like to read Playgirl? I check out the mast head, and see the support staff is 90% female.
Well, after a few minutes, I am liking this odd little mag. It has good shopping info. The design spreads are not bad. It has one room three ways. It has expensive versus the same for cheaper.
It has corny horoscopes. It has tools and organizing. It has behind the scenes of the show. It has projects. It has 12 room makeovers. It has a party section with recipes, one for brunch that involves a baked tomato with an egg in it that I'm going to try.
This is published by Women's Day Special Interest Publications. I can feel myself throwing up in my mouth a little. But I don't, so I breath instead of spitting, and I say in a very Ty TV way, cool, no problem. I see the hubs and scream "move that bus!" I'm laughing like a lunatic, and he smiles and pays for my stack of mags and takes me to lunch.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You TOOOO Funny! You must be a complete hoot to be around. Well, you're braver than me. I saw this mag, picked it up (opened the plastic, shh...) flipped thru it and put it down. Maybe I should have given it more of a chance. Ty is in a Bayer aspirin commercial and her jerks so much it almost makes me nervous! You be a sweetie! Shelia (aka - Picklepoo)

mrsben said...

Re the magazine. Haven't seen it here in Canada yet but it appears you and I share the same sentiments about Extreme Makeover.
Must give credit to 'Ty' however as one must admit, he has come a long way from being a 'goof' carpenter on Trading Spaces..."Only in America, The Land of Opportunity"!