u/fashion-roadkill

Please feel free to write totally unhinged alternative storylines in the comments. Just for entertainment purposes.

Just to get it out of the way the book is not good but I am not here to comment on that.

I have been working for ultra rich people for 4 years as a high class nanny so I got to experience their lifestyles from the inside. Most of the time their lives are boring and supercicial and I would never want to live like them. Their houses are ugly and souless and ridicusly big, their cars are huge and aggressive, they lack common skills like keeping a house clean for a day and they are completely disconnected from reality. They also lack community and true friendship. They will do everything they can to avoid walking an extra meter.

The rich people depicted in Candace Bushnell's book are different though. Don't get me wrong, they are superficial and hollow too, but still I prefer them to today's rich. They go to shitty bars and strip clubs, they walk places, some of them even rollerskate for fun. Sometimes they enjoy luxury, like carribean vacations or driving expensive cars but they combine that lifestyle with normal activities too, and they mingle with "common people". They use the train too! The rich people I know seek luxury 24/7, that's why they are so disconnected from us. They exclusively move in certain circles and places and refuse to leave their bubble even for a second.

This can be seen in the show too, big's apartment is modest and practical, his car is expensive but it is elegant unlike today's SUV monstrosities. He frequents high class places but also cheap ones. Stanford is born in high class society but mingles with other classes like a normal person would.

It just feels like a more balanced society overall. The walls are thinner. Maybe I am mistaken and honestly I don't know how it is today in NY in particular. But where I live, you don't find rich finance bros hanging out at the same bar with the average person. Just my 2 cents.

Hi! As I was returning home today I found my pillowcase on the street in front of my apartment building, dirty and ran over by cars. It must have flown from the balcony where it was hanging to dry. I washed it at 90 degrees celsius for 3,5 h and now it looks clean and fresh. Is it though? Should I run another cycle? It is cotton and as old as I am so I don't want to throw it away as it has sentimental value. Thanks!

EDIT: You guys are AMAZING! I created a whole new watchlist just from this post. I will try to watch some of them and maybe I will come back with a new post ❤️

I have this obsession with these types of documentaries. You know, when the director follows a person or a group of people for years as they grow older and face life changes. In some cases the director becomes part of the story, or does voiceovers. What is it about them?

They basically feel a lot like a movie, because the director starts filming and as time goes by stuff happens and become part of the documentary and by the end of it there is a complete story with an arc that nobody directed, it just happend naturally and a director recordered it so we can all see. These stories touch me deeply, more than documentaries that tell a story that has already happened through interviews and narration.

Am I weird? Is there anybody out there who loves this type of art?

Examples:

Stevie (2002): In 1995, director Steve James (of 'Hoop Dreams') returned to rural Southern Illinois to reconnect with Stevie Fielding, a troubled young boy to whom he had been an "Advocate Big Brother" ten years earlier.

Hoop Dreams (1994): A film following the lives of two inner-city Chicago boys who struggle to become college basketball players on the road to going professional.

HEROINOHIO (2020): Chronicles the transformative efforts of twin brothers Mike and Chuck Rollins through their nonprofit, Gemini Reliance. Over four years, amidst the peak of the opioid crisis, the documentary captures their mission to turn neglected properties into safe, sober living environments for individuals in recovery. While their efforts offer hope and healing, their journey to sobriety remains a continuous and challenging battle.

American Street Kid (2020): Filmmaker, Michael Leoni heads to the streets of LA to shine a light on the epidemic of homeless youth in America. Once inside their world he realizes he can no longer be an observer; every day is a matter of life or death and he'll do anything to get them off the streets.

Streetwise (1984): Gritty documentary that looks at the lives of teenagers living on the streets of Seattle.

Children Underground (2001): A profile of homeless Romanian children who were born victims of the nation's reckless population growth policy during its communist era.

Agelastos Petra (2000): The past and the present coexist in a place spoiled by modern industry but which long ago hosted the Eleusinian Mysteries, the secret ceremonies that initiated the ancient Greeks into the miracles of life, death and the afterlife.

Bombay Beach (2011): Bombay Beach is one of the poorest communities in southern California located on the shores of the Salton Sea, a man-made sea stranded in the middle of the Colorado desert that was once a beautiful vacation destination for the privileged and is now a pool of dead fish. Film director Alma Har'el tells the story of three protagonists. The trials of Benny Parrish, a young boy diagnosed with bipolar disorder whose troubled soul and vivid imagination create both suffering and joy for him and his complex and loving family. The story of CeeJay Thompson, a black teenager and aspiring football player who has taken refuge in Bombay Beach hoping to avoid the same fate of his cousin who was murdered by a gang of youths in Los Angeles; and that of Red, an ancient survivor, once an oil field worker, living on the fumes of whiskey, cigarettes and an irrepressible love of life. Together these portraits form a triptych of manhood in its various ages and guises, in a gently hypnotic style that questions whether they are a product of their world or if their world is a construct of their own imagination.

Happy People: A year in the Taiga (2010): A documentary depicting the life and work of the trappers of Bakhtia, a village in the heart of the Siberian Taiga, where daily life has changed little in over a century.

Πραγματικα εχω κουραστει να βλεπω σχολια για διαφορες περιοχες του κεντρου της Αθηνας που δεν εχουν επαφη με την πραγματικοτητα. Γραφουν ξενοι στα subreddit μας "ειναι ασφαλη τα κατω πατησια;" και βλεπω απαντησεις τυπου "ειναι η χειροτερη περιοχη της Αθηνας". Πες μου οτι εισαι απο προαστιο χωρις να μου πεις οτι εισαι απο προαστιο.

Αρχικα οι περιοχες στο κεντρο αλλαζουν απο τετραγωνο σε τετραγωνο, δεν ειναι σωστο να τις κρινει κανεις εξ ολοκληρου. Επισης τα δεδομενα αλλαζουν γρηγορα, πριν τον κοβιντ ηταν επικινδυνο το πεδιον του αρεως πχ και τωρα δεν ειναι. Μετα ηταν ο σταθμος Αττικη γεματος τοξικομανεις στη Λιοσιων, τωρα δεν ειναι.

Οπως και να εχει μη γραφετε οτι σας κατεβει αν δεν ζειτε η αν δεν κυκλοφορειτε στη συγκεκριμενη περιοχη. Κι εγω σε υποβαθμισμενη γειτονια μενω αλλα δεν ειναι αυτο που διαβαζω κατα καιρους σε ακυρα σχολια εδω κι εκει. Βασικα μια χαρα ζουμε, εχουμε μαγαζακια για τα παντα, συγκοινωνιες, περπαταμε απο το ενα μερος στο αλλο. Οκ υπαρχει φτωχεια αλλα ο περισσοτερος κοσμος προσπαθει απλα να ζησει. Δεν ειναι δα και το gotham, ελεος. Κυριολεκτικα υπαρχει κοσμος που ζει εκτος κεντρου και δεν εχει ιδεα αλλα μιλαει. Δεν χρειαζεται να εχετε αποψη για τα παντα.

They are so comfortable hiring workers to do everything for them that they end up acting handicapped. Little every day issues and chores become huge mountains of difficulty. The house cannot run without the help. Their needs come above everyone else's. They live in a bubble and have no clue how the average person lives. They overspend when it comes to themselves but will deny us bonuses, insurance, GH etc, because "money is tight" or "let's not complicate things". They tell you you are family until you aren't. They ask for a million things from workers that they would never be able to do, and become strict in case one of them is not done perfectly.

Armand, the hotel manager from White Lotus S1 said it best: "You have to treat these people like sensitive children... They wanna be the only child. The special, chosen baby child of the hotel. And we are their mean mummies, denying them their Pineapple room".

Amen.

They have cleaners. They have nannies. They have free time. Yet they can't keep a room clean for more than a few hours. These people will die without the help. Even taking the trash out is too much. Or calling the pool guy to clean the pool before it turns green.

Also these modern luxury houses are a nightmare. Designed to look like Kim Kardashian's house while nothing works. And it's not even luxury really, the floors are fake plastic wood and the counters are lined with fake plastic marble. Little things break constantly. It's hard to do basic chores because the spaces are designed so badly. And you have these people who don't know how to keep a household running, wandering around in these huge spaces, wondering why their house is never clean. It's because these houses need servants and nobody cares about them struggling.

After years in this profession I am dumbfounded by it. People with designer bags and outfits that look so successful until you get in their car and the smell of rotten nuggets hits you.

Be gentle, I am burned out and everything bugs me.