Business Casual Superstar
TV is good for two things: Serving as an inert medium on which to project our deep-seeded insecurities, AND FAN MIXES! Booyeah!
I just got off the phone with Phil from Marketing, and he had the latest focus group results. You guys will be happy to know that last week's Lily Aldrin fanmix post was a big success here, on Twitter, on Facebook, and on LiveJournal. We're still waiting for how it went over with the WSJ and NYT, but I'm optimistic, you guys. Bob from Accounting tells me that based on our great results, I may be able to buy myself that pony after all. I'm going to keep the pony in the room that I keep as my home office, so I can write it off as a deduction. This is why I'm going to law school, you guys: to write ponies off on my tax forms. Success. That little piece of paper has basically paid for itself already.
I did Lily last week, and as I browsed through my folder today, I found I wasn't ready to leave the How I Met Your Mother mother ship. So I won't. This week, we're going to dress ourselves up as Robin Scherbatsky, and it's going to be LEGEN-wait for it, and it's too bad that I *am* lactose intolerant because the next word is-DARY.
But first, I have to share this awesome secret that I came across on Fandom!Secret during the course of my weekly Heave-related-trolling at that site.
It should probably creep you guys out how much I agree with this. I may as well have made this secret. (I didn't.) But I may as well have. If you read last week's post, which undoubtedly cost me numerous suitors for my hand, you know how much relationships and commitment and codependency freak me out. Sometimes I legitimately get the shakes when I'm talking (ie, decrying) or thinking about commitments. And I don't mean any old commitment: I mean marriage. You want me to commit to a cell phone plan, fine. You want me to commit to giving up a certain number of hours a month for a certain charitable organization, done. You want me to commit to severely curtailing my swearing (which I have!), no sweat. I can commit so hard it would make you weep.
But when it comes to commitments as in relationships? Man, I leave dust clouds the size of the entire city of Detroit's carbon footprint in my wake. The Road Runner's got nothing on me.
You also know that I secretly despise Lily and Marshall's relationship. It makes for good TV because it's cute and amusing and a constant in a show that's about revolving door relationships as Ted searches for The One. But I can't escape the fact that it's a terrible depiction of a 'real life' relationship, in that it's hardly sustainable. I refuse to believe that two people can actually live their lives in love the way those two do. Plus, I feel like the relationship has been put on a pedestal that it doesn't deserve, and that it's this cutesy idyllic image of love that Carter Bays has in his mind that he compares everything else to (go read some of his interviews; it's all there in black and white) and that it's just not realistic. And it's pathetic and shallow and gives me hives. Also, Lily and Marshall never really seem to *deal* with their problems, and the show just glosses right over them.
I mean, yes, they have their amazing moments where I can honestly see two people in real life behaving that way, like when Lily told him they'd figure something out when he wanted to quit his horrible job, even though they agreed that after she put him through law school he'd support her. I'm not disputing those great moments. It just seems like their relationship is made up of only 'great moments.' And even their fights become a morphed version of that.
And then it's like, get a grip, self, THESE ARE NOT REAL PEOPLE YOU ARE JUST PROJECTING YOUR OWN FEAR OF LOVING SOMEONE AND BEING WITH HIM FOREVER ONTO THESE TWO CHARACTERS AND THAT IS PATHETIC.
But whatever. That's what TV's for.
And all that stuff above is why I love Barney and Robin so much. We've talked about this before, how I identify with Robin Scherbatsky so much. She's pretty independent. She's career-minded. She's got a really weird sense of humor that often doesn't translate well. She's got that cultural outsider persona, being Canadian, that I identify with even though I'm American, born and bred (but Muslim/Asian, so there is always necessarily going to be a barrier in how I am perceived and how I perceive myself in relation to others). She's totally gun-shy when it comes to relationships and commitments and saying I Love You. Speaking of guns, she loves them, as do I (secretly). (Only now not-so-secretly.) She's private, and it takes a lot for her to open up to people. She doesn't like children and doesn't really want to have any (although they leave that open just a crack in the episode with Jeremy's sock). And she loves cigars.
We might as well be the same person, really.
And her relationship with Barney is perfect. Or it was, until the writers took the lazy way out and destroyed it, and then Carter Bays made ridiculous, icky remarks that made me despise Lily and Marshall secretly a little more. But whatever.
Today, I come bearing fan mixes. I didn't make these, but I found them and love them. Since school started up this week, I don't have a lot of free time and probably won't get to make mixes on my own that much. But to make up for it, I will continue what I've been doing and find either other fan mixes or other cool fandom stuff to share.
For now, enjoy these two fanmixes. All the pertinent links are given.
Slow Chemical A Robin/Barney (BroTP) fanmix
Click for the original post on LiveJournal.
Click covers to enlarge images.
Again, head on over to the original post on LiveJournal to get the download link (if that's what you choose to do) and get little blurbs of the songs that were picked for BRoTP.
Also, isn't that just the best couple name ever?! BRo as in 'bro' for Barney and Robin, and because they were suit wearing, Johnny Walker Blue drinking, cigar smoking, innuendo dropping bro's long before they started dating, and because OTP = one true pairing, an acronym used to assert one's favorite pairing of all time, or in a given fandom, like, Barney and Robin are my HIMYM OTP.
Fandom lingo. It's a science, you guys.
Don't like that fanmix? No biggie. Try this one.
Swarley 'n' Tacos A Barney/Robin (BRoTP) fanmix
Click pictures to enlarge
Such pretty colors and blending! Look at that. Seriously. So happy and bright and pretty. I love the choice of pictures, too, and the font layout. Very nice. Also pretty typical of fanmix covers; replace the characters with any others and you're still in business. Fanmix covers also use a lot of cutout shapes in their layout.
But that's neither here nor there. Click here to head to the original LJ post and get the download information. And! Bonus! The poster also put up three great BRoTP wallpapers. I might have to switch mine to this one:
Click to get the full-size image.
I love this scene. I absolutely love it. It's great and sad and WHAT all rolled into one. It's from when Barney barges into Ted and Robin's apartment (they're roommates at this point) to finally put his feelings into words and tell Ted that he's into Robin (Robin is Ted's ex). He barges in and is like, TED, I LOVE....and then sees Robin in the kitchen grabbing a beer, and is like...TACOS. I LOVE TACOS.
And then later in the scene he tells Robin he loves her and she thinks that he's just impersonating Ted (because Ted is a total romantic) and doesn't get that he's actually saying it to her and HIS FACE YOU GUYS HIS FACE. Gah. I love Neil Patrick Harris so much.
Okay, fan-gurling over. (Lies.) Now that you've gotten your fill of fandom stuff, let's look at my Robin!outfit.
Yes, it's a little too sexy for work. But it's the outfit from her and Barney's first Bro-date, back when they were just friends, and he took her to a cigar bar and then to play laser tag and finally they wound up at her place and played Battleship. That is, after Barney got naked because he thought she invited him back because she wanted to do him and she was like OH GOD NO and then they played Battleship because they're awesome.
So yes. A little too sexy for work. But sometimes you just want to get dolled up (or suited up, really) and head out to a cigar bar (there are a ton in Chicago, but if you guys want one in the burbs, there's a good one in Schaumburg, trust me on this), or go out for drinks in a kind of work-y environment or whatever. I'm sure you can find the perfect occasion to wear something like this.
Before the outfit, though, a picspam. A picspam, dear readers, is a collection of screencaps, resized, cropped, and recolored, taken in sequence to show the reader a flash of a particular scene. This is what happened when Barney called Robin and told her to suit up and meet him at a cigar bar.
I never noticed before, but looking at the amount of ash on Barney's cigar, he's been there quite a while. At least a half hour, forty-five minutes for a long one like that. But I guess a girl can afford to keep 'em waiting while she suits up.
Here's what I came up with, outfit-wise:
Romeo & Juliet Boyfriend Blazer Jacket .......... $15 Black Trousers .......... $15 Pleat Detail Bustier .......... $35.39 Kassidy Pump in Black Patent .......... $28.33
Yes, I put together a suit in $30. I'M SORRY. But do you know how hard it is to even find an acceptable blazer alone for $30? There was no way in the world I was going to include a suit and fit in my budget.
And I had to include a suit, you guys. You know the importance of suits.
So I included the badly mismatched suit and jacket, hoping that you ladies already have a lovely suit to substitute here. And if you don't, you really should! Every girl needs a suit. Head to Macy's or Nordstrom Rack for great sales on suits if your budget is tight enough for you to even consider my affordable series here. Whether you've got the coin or not, find a suit in your range that makes you feel amazing. Maybe a black pinstripe number with a tailored jacket and very slightly padded shoulders. (VERY SLIGHTLY. As in, sewn into the jacket rather than with pads stitched on. Dear Lord, stay away from the pads. They look horrible. Or, at least, in my opinion, they do. I don't care what the latest trends say. Bleh.)
Anyway, I found this little bustier to wear underneath, and seriously, Robin had the right idea. The bustier totally amps up the sex appeal and makes a normal black suit look just stunning. Advice: go for something with buttons, like Robin's, for an added menswear-inspired touch, or coarse-appearing types of fabric, like certain gingham corsets/bustiers, and stay away from corsets/bustiers with straps that might peak out or be hard to tame. It's just easier to go for the strapless look. Also, consider staying away from silky or satin bustiers/corsets, because they look a little too 'lingerie' to salvage, you know? Even if it's just the cups of the bustier that are silky or cut from satin.
And finally, black patent shoes. Vamp it up a little: go with red. Add blue for a nice, bright pop of color. Or go with purple and a matching bag, because purple shoes are under-rated. Make it your own.
And there we have a Robin Scherbatsky-inspired outfit, along with lots of fandom goodies, and I can get on with my life, because this post took me forever to write.
Posted by Huma Rashid on Aug 25, 2010 @ 9:09 am
