People are ragging on Chelsea Handler for doing a sucky job hosting MTV’s Video Music Awards the other night.

Of course I didn’t watch the VMAs. In fact, in the last decade, I’ve been totally oblivious to them until Kanye West was so mean to that nice girl with the hair that never moves…Taylor Swift. Because of the kerfuffle his antics created and like few other pop cultural happenings, it penetrated my addled working-mom-of-two Formerly brain. For half a day, like everyone else, I thought, What a douche. And then it was over, and I once again forgot there was a such thing as the VMAs. (more…)

Stephanie Dolgoff

In the car–and, sadly, nowhere else–I am Mixmistress Steph, DJ extraordinaire, and as such, I give my husband and kids an unparalleled musical education for which I know they are deeply grateful, even if they don’t show it. The sound track to every car ride that’s long enough for me to find my iPod in the bottom of my gigantic mom purse consists of random hits from the AM radio days of my youth, the few current uberpopular songs (mostly by Lady Gaga) that even I, a harried 43-year-old working mother of twins couldn’t help but absorb, and, of course, ’80s music.

The ’80s were when I was in high school and college, when, like every raw and angsty adolescent, I felt on some level that Simon LeBon and Natalie Merchant and even Ozzy Osbourne were living inside my head, shouting out all the raw and angsty things I wish I could express, and would have if I had talent and a recording contract. READ THE REST AT HUFFINGTONPOST.COM

You know when you’re at a party or a school function with women you don’t know well, and something happens that strikes you as absurd or annoying or worthy of an eye-roll. You scan the crowd, looking for a comrade in ridiculousness, someone else who you just know feels as you do. Often, there’s no one, and you just have to giggle inwardly and wait until you can leave so you can share the abject oy of the moment with a friend or maybe a husband.

But once in awhile, you lock eyes with a complete stranger across the room, and you just know you’re on the same page. One of you lifts an eyebrow or maybe covers her mouth to keep from guffawing, and instantly you feel validated and a smidge less alone in an uncomfortable situation. It’s the grumpy Formerly’s version of a warm fuzzy.

Well, that’s how I felt when I saw this:

So of course I had to track her down and get her on the phone so we could have our little raised eyebrow interaction. Her name is Marija (pron. Mar-eye-ah) Thomas, and she’s a 35-year-old actress/photographer/videographer/blogger in Los Angeles (where you’re a Formerly way younger than anywhere else in the country). Marija was asked to test out a video camera for a photo equipment website and used it to do this Lady Gaga parody of Poker Face. The site had 9000 hits in one day! (more…)