Gypsy Love

Tags

#America, #debt, boat, drunk, dublin, gay, gypsy, Ireland, love, travel, traveler, USA, vodka, whiskey

My third day in Dublin I felt lost. I was on an extended trip from my country. I was supposed to get well and then you walked into the room. I’d spent two days prior, alone, by myself, ready to spend another three months isolated, and then you walked in the room.

“Come on if we leave now we could sneak on the boat,” you called.

“Naw I’m staying here,” called a girl sitting next to me on the couch. She looked at me and rolled her eyes and I laughed. I’m sorry I laughed at you.

Ten minutes later you returned to the room because your plan to sneak on the ferry didn’t work out. You walked over to me and sat down.

“Where ya from?” you questioned. I looked into your brown eyes and fell in love.

“New York,”

“Yea been there once or Florida I mean,” you say.

“Didn’t like it?” I question.

“No too hot,” you say.

“Fair,” I reply as I lean down and carefully drink my rum and coke, I don’t want to get to drunk.

“So you’re here for how long?” you question, testing the water.

“Three months,” I say and smile.

You don’t really react, but why would you? You’ve never worn your heart on your sleeve.

“Grand, so we’re going out, you coming?” you ask, a glimmer in your eye.

“ ‘Course,” I reply.

“Right thought Americans couldn’t hold their drink,” you say.

“Well I can,” I mumbled as I gulp my drink. I have to impress you, God help me if I can’t.

A blur later, we return from the club, and I look at you, you look at me. And before I know it, I can’t see anything because you’ve swallowed me into you and I never want to leave, but you eject me. It was too much too fast and I’m leaving. Always I will love you and always you’ll evade me because I’m the traveler never allowed to return.

My Drunk Obsession

Tags

comedy, cooking, drinking, drunk, Hannah Hart, My Drunk Kitchen, my harto, review, yourharto, youtube

            So let me preface this entire piece by saying I still can’t believe I found this show on a day that I truly needed to laugh. This past week, it hasn’t been the best: I lost my job (yay for waitressing), I lost my boyfriend (yay love sucks), and I’m currently stuck in my apartment with a glass of wine, (ok I’ll admit its actually a bottle), binge watching My Drunk Kitchen.

            Technically, it’s a cooking show and the host, Hannah Hart, always makes a valiant effort to create something that could be considered appetizing to the starving drunk. However, I’d like to argue that really it’s a drunken philosophy show. Most of the conversations she has with the camera would be one’s I would drunkenly have with my friends as well. The puns, euphemisms, and occasional “idioms” are just the spice that makes this show explosive. I could even watch it sober, but I’d rather not!

              The first season primarily focused on Ms. Hart getting, well, plastered. Almost never making anything that was appetizing. The pilot episode is essentially Hannah eating a piece of bread, while talking for five minutes. It’s not cooking, but god you’re tricked into thinking that perhaps she really will make that grilled cheese sandwich. What stands out about that episode, and the subsequent eleven after that is that it felt honest. It was as though there was no acting persona, but perhaps she is just an incredible performer.

              In season 2 the only change was that she was shooting in HD. The heart of the show was still there. The style wavered occasionally, depending on the guests she brought on, but most episodes are still just her alone in the kitchen. In my opinion, the essence of My Drunk Kitchen is Ms. Hart, drunk, alone, and talking to the camera, spewing out whatever comes to her mind. Honestly, when someone else is in the kitchen in many ways she becomes filtered, but don’t we all?

               The cooking that takes place is merely the filler between conversations that give life lessons, revelations and time to finish a bottle of something, at least during the first two seasons. The style of the show changed abruptly at the beginning of season three. Ms. Hart was able to self-fund a tour of the show and for this reason every episode has guest stars that are hosting her in their kitchen. Although its not apparent until the Minneapolis Hot Dish, the show has become a skit show of sorts and although improvisation happens, the show begins to feel scripted. This is blatantly apparent in the Chicago episode when there are puppets in the kitchen. I’ll admit it was funny, but I wasn’t watching My Drunk Kitchen any longer.

                Ms. Hart is a talented comedienne, but she is making a mistake by changing the layout of the show, especially with the new trend of bringing guests on in every episode. On her other youtube channel, yourharto, she is able to experiment with different types of acting and comedy. Honestly, though, she needs to keep the scriptedness to that channel and not fundamentally change the show that garnered her fame in the first place. Not to say Ms. Hart isn’t funny, she is. But it’s not the best idea to change the make up of a “character” during the third season. Youtube in truth is democracy at work, and ultimately that’s what art is at its truest form. I would argue that My Drunk Kitchen is actually art, but only if it stays with its roots. 

 

Please check out her channels… its worth it! My Drunk Kitchen can be found at the first link.  

http://www.youtube.com/user/MyHarto?annotation_id=channel%3A5241496f-0-2d9f-8df2-89e013a2908&feature=iv&src_vid=nIvOqHfia2s

http://www.youtube.com/user/yourharto