2014 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show Review

One of my favorite times of the year is watching the annual Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show! Each year I stay up re-watching the show a few times before going to bed, yes I know how pathetic that sounds. This year however was entirely different…

Like every year, me and my friends sat around our TVs, had a bottle of wine and were ready to strut around, BUT overall this year’s show was a yawn-fest. Of course, all the models looked absolutely stunning and my girl Alessandra Ambrosio freaking killed it!  The main issue was the music selection. Taylor Swift wasn’t horrible but very predictable and Ariana Grande did a great mashup of her hits but still nothing special. Then it totally went downhill at record speeds when red-headed / boring ass Ed Sheeran hit the stage. Don’t get me wrong, his music is not terrible when played during a cold & rainy day when you need some calm background music to get work done. You DO NOT play his music during the year’s sexiest fashion show, it is NOT runway music. To make matters even worse, he was the singer for the reveal of the ‘Fantasy Bra’ when the two sexiest VS models, Adriana Lima & Alessandra Ambrosio, strutted out. Now, if I was the creative and/or music director for the show and I am planning the best way to showcase two of the most beautiful models in the world, there is no way in hell that I would have them walk out to slow music ESPECIALLY when both of them are known for their fierce runway walks. VS was setting up the reveal of the ‘Fantasy Bra’ by highlighting the careers of Adriana & Alessandra and wanting to honor them, both models did not disappoint, they were absolutely flawless but the music was a total buzzkill. When I thought things could not get any worse, they had Hozier come out and perform “Take Me To Church” which I already hated but this performance made me despise the song even more. I just sat there in total disbelief that these were the song choices for a runway show. VS started to make a slight comeback when they had Taylor Swift close out the show with a more upbeat song, but at that point I was just over it. Overall the show was a huge FAIL, in my opinion. Obviously, I will not give up hope that next year will be amazing but until then I will just resort to watching VS fashion shows from previous years, hoping to erase this year’s show from my memory.

One last critique… I am so over the air kisses!!!! It is so predictable and I feel like they tell each model to walk out and half way down the runway blow out a random kiss and then do it again at the end of the runway. It is so overdone and it is now at the point that it looks so cheesy, but again I partially blame the music selection for that since the music did not allow the models to get into their fierce struts which may have prohibited half of the air kisses…maybe.

-Deuces, BHill

I’m a dreamer, don’t wake me up.

For most of my life I’ve had a tendency to zone out, partially because I am incredibly ADD and am easily distracted (thank god for Adderall), but the other reason is because I am a big time dreamer.  Growing up I thought that was weird and I would constantly attempt to snap myself back to reality and focus on what I thought was important. Now that I am so much older and wiser (insert a few chuckles), I have come to realize that my dreams are what have led me to the life I am living.

I am big on reading daily quotes and reciting my morning affirmations: ‘You is kind. You is smart. You is important.’ Obviously said in a southern accent, hahaha just kidding! The other day I read a quote that says, “What consumes your mind, controls your life.” This couldn’t be truer. Currently, I have made a name for myself as a Realtor in Southern California and I definitely love my career and real estate, but the last couple years my mind has started to drift again… Real estate provides me with the lifestyle I’ve always wanted while giving me the freedom to make my own schedule, which is freaking amazing! Recently, I have started to question whether real estate is able to give me the creative outlet that my mind keeps vying for. In some aspects, real estate does require a creative mind to make things happen but that is when I start to question what type of creative outlet I want, aka the million dollar question. The other question I always ask myself is why I don’t pursue more of my dreams…the other million dollar question. Life can get complicated and incredibly chaotic, the thought of adding more to it somewhat stresses me out, but then again isn’t the point of adding this creative outlet to reduce stress in my life?!

Over the last few years I’ve really gotten into music, specifically EDM (electronic dance music). I have toyed with the idea of taking up classes to learn how to DJ, but I always found an excuse to not really pursue. I have even gone as far as meeting with an instructor to discuss the course but then just left it at that. Last week I was talking with my boyfriend and told him that one of the things that I think would be so amazing to do would be a creative director for music videos. When I said it out loud, it finally went from this dream I’ve been having in my mind to something that would be pretty incredible to tryout, in some weird sense it made it more real. When I am listening to music, I am always envisioning how I would produce the music video and make my friends suffer as I explain in great detail the vision I am having. I’ve actually made my boyfriend listen to this one song (Clockwork feat. Taylr Renee – Signals) at least 20 times one day because I was trying to explain every single angle, mood and effect that I would implement; he was of course a good sport which I think was primarily because I had some anime-type effects in mind. The thought of coupling the music I love while creating a story is really exhilarating, which then makes me think that if I get this excited about something why am I not trying it out?! The obvious answer is that I have become content with my current life/routine and it scares me to try something new with the possibility of failing. From many of my conversations with friends, I feel like this is a very common trend, but aren’t dreams supposed to be or at least seem overwhelmingly impossible but at the same time possible?!

From when I was a kid to now, I have been a somewhat controlled-type of person, doing exactly what I need to do to get what needs to get done completed. With that being said, as much as I think I am a controlled-type of person, I think my subconscious has definitely played a role in taking all my positive thoughts through the years and somehow implementing them to help me create my current life.

…I always dreamed to swim at a division-1 university, accomplished that. I always dreamed of moving back to California, done that. I always dreamed of living in a major city, achieved that. I always dreamed of living on the beach, doing that. I always dreamed of being an actor, did that. I always dreamed of modeling, reached that. I always dreamed of owning my own company, doing that…

You see, without me knowing it, my thoughts and dreams were forming my life, aka the law of attraction. For so long I thought my life was so boring and I was just going through the motions without even realizing all the things I was achieving. I would literally come up with every excuse: “I’m just in a rut.” “It is what it is.” “I am just too busy.” Now going back to when I said I have become “wiser” over the years, well I am starting to realize I am using those excuses again which is causing my creative outlet blockage. Just to clarify, my life is pretty amazing I’m not bitching. I have a career and company that is continuing to grow and succeed, I have an amazing family who supports 83% of my decisions, I have a great group of friends on both coasts and I have been lucky enough to meet a guy that balances me out. Do I think real estate is something I will do the rest of my life…ABSOLUTELY! I do not want people to misconstrue this by thinking I have lost my passion for it; I am just the type of person that constantly seeks a challenge. If you ever want to piss me off or bore me then bring repetition into my life and you will see a miserable Brett. My swim coaches can attest to that. When they gave me sets that were the same thing over and over and over and OVER again, I would act like an 8-year old spoiled brat and act as if I haven’t been swimming for nearly 20 years and swim at a snail’s pace. That even goes for my nightlife… I get so bored when me and my friends do the same s**t every weekend, it makes me turn into a hermit and have no interest in going out.

Life needs spontaneity and I think when we are constantly dreaming we are opening our minds to amazing opportunities and keeping life stimulating. I refuse to be one of those 60-year old men who wake up at the same time every day, goes to work from 9-5, comes home and eats dinner then gets ready for bed, and repeats it every day…that is like my death sentence. NO SERIOUSLY, if I ever break the law and since our system is always “overpopulated” then just throw me into a repetitive routine for my punishment, I will legit learn my lesson. The moral of this story is that life is far too short to not follow your dreams and all I can say is: KEEP ON DREAMING YOU SEXY DREAMER!

-Deuces, BHill

When you mess with the Bull, you will get the horns!

Like the saying goes, “when you mess with the bull, you will get the horns,” this past weekend was no different. Let me set up the scene first… This past weekend I voyaged out of the Newport Beach bubble with four of my friends to one of their family’s “compounds” in Arroyo Grande. By “compound” I mean a large custom 6,000 sq.ft. estate sitting on five acres offering a private barn with horses and a custom 2,000 sq.ft. separate saloon, which was fully stocked that we took FULL advantage of! Obviously, me and one of my friends thought it would be a fun idea to make-up alter egos for the weekend which led us to become Canadian Socialites…French Canadian though NOT English Canadian, just too clarify. When arriving at the compound my fellow socialite and I were led to our private room in the main house which included an en suite bathroom and a king size tempurpedic mattress that felt like heaven on Earth. Two of our other friends were led to the saloon where there was an additional private room and bathroom. Now, if you know me and my friends then you know we love to bust each other’s balls when given the opportunity… So, I initiated a joke that they were our “farm help” since they were not staying in the main house. First let me say that the saloon offered a private bedroom, bathroom, pool table & entertainment system and fully stocked bar, it was nowhere near being subpar but again I thought it was funny to just press their buttons which gave me a good laugh but I am sure caused some unnecessary tension. For the most part this was all taken in a joking manner, granted I am sure me and my one friend probably took it too far a couple times, but isn’t that what socialites are supposed to do, to be totally oblivious?!?!?! Needless to say, I slept like an angel floating in a cloud and was awoken by the beautiful smell of coffee and a homemade breakfast the next morning!

The next day our host family had set up a day full of winery tours, which included a private driver so that we can really take full advantage of all the wine drinking. All of this started at 11:00am and went until around 5:00pm. We received the VIP treatment everywhere we went which meant excessive amounts of wine tasting. Basically by the time we got back we were all feeling pretty good and continued drinking the wine we all bought from the tours, I mean why the hell would we want to stop at that point, that would make no sense. We were treated to a filet mignon dinner which obviously included more wine. Everything was going so smoothly, I was even killing it in darts, even though my eyes suck and I could barely see the board! It is worth noting that I have been officially crowned the dart champion, my southern roots definitely came out; I told you all I was a country-boy at heart.  Around 9:00 – 9:30pm the youngest of the group made the smart decision to go to bed, I mean nearly 12 hours of constant drinking should be enough for most people, but the rest of us looked at them like they were crazy and thought they just “couldn’t hang,” man was I wrong…

Now back to the saying regarding “messing with the bull.” As most of you are aware, I love astrology and my music, specifically EDM. I am a hardcore Taurus and love the feeling of “controlling” the music.  One of my other friends is a hardcore Taurus and we typically never have any issues because we are usually on the same page, but this time I think we were on different planets.  I will be the first to admit I was probably the one on Mars while they were chillin’ on Earth.  It came down to the last four of us hanging out in the saloon and starting to play a drinking game…yes, we thought it was a brilliant idea to initiate a game which includes making people chug.  My music was obviously providing the background entertainment, and by “background” I mean we had to shout to each other even though we were maybe a foot from one another; but again my brain and ears were drowning in wine…  My one Taurus friend asked to put on their music, which typically annoys me since I think I am the only one on this planet that has any taste (insert a sarcastic smirk and rolling of the eyes), but this time I was like that’s fine I wanted to text my boyfriend anyway (even though he is probably the worst texter and/or his phone is always f**ked up so he doesn’t get all my messages which drives me up a wall because I don’t want to look like a crazy person when I follow-up with multiple messages as to why he wasn’t responding, which at the end of the day makes me look like that crazy person I was trying to avoid…man this is a whole other topic, but something I am definitely working on, hahaha)…  Anyway, when they went to switch out the phone I asked them to bring mine back, which didn’t happen, they just left it on the bar and totally ignored me.  In their defense, we have been drinking all day and we were not really aware of other people’s requests, but at that specific moment in time I thought they were just being an a$$.  So, once I got my lazy ass up and took that five foot journey to get my phone I was filling up with anger…YES I am fully aware how ridiculous this sounds, but again at that moment I was infuriated.  When I returned to the table, I was obviously the dealer of the drinking game and started making stupid digs/comments directed at my friend who just pissed me off.  Now this is where it goes back to how we are both hardcore Taurus’s and very similar, basically we feel we are never wrong when we are upset especially when drunk.  My friend then starts making comments back to me, which caught me off guard since my friends usually just call me out when I’m acting like this and do not engage, but instead their comments were just making my anger tank rise to unusual levels.  As a grown up, I should be more aware of this feeling and know how to better handle my anger but I was slowly creeping to the part where all I saw was red…  Now, up to this point the comments being exchange were so freaking gay and when we were sober it literally made us laugh how mad we were getting over stupid shit.  I am not going to go into details on the comments that were exchanged except for the following, which was the comment that pushed me over the limit…  As we continued to bicker back and forth, I encouraged them to “check themselves” (I guess I turned into Bobby Fisher and was about to put them in “checkmate” or something) which they replied with (insert bitchy tone and eyeroll) “…really check myself, where are you even from Brett?!”  For whatever reason this just tipped me over the edge and like my other friend and I later started joking about, this was when the gloves came off…  My reply was “I am from f**king Washington D.C. not f**king OC!”  I find out later that their comment was in a total joking manner to try and diffuse the situation, remember we love busting each other’s balls, but at that time I felt like they were insinuating they were better than me and I do not respond to snobby people/comments very well.  At this point my eyes were filled with red and like most Taurus’s we both started to lash out at each other’s weakest points saying stuff that we knew would bother the other person even though it may not be true.  After about five minutes of this exchange I abruptly get up and say I’m over it and head to my room. My “socialite” friend comes back to the room and asked if that was my audition to be one of the housewives because that was the most out of the blue and ridiculous fight they have ever seen.  I slowly began to come back to planet Earth and realize that I acted totally irrational.  The next day we both woke up and apologized, then we both realize how true astrology is because we both began to act so irrationally but were too stubborn to pull it back, two typical Taurus’s.  We all joked that maybe the youngest member of our group was actually the wisest, but that statement was quickly attacked by all of us with sarcastic comments…man, a person must have a pretty tough skin to be able to hang within our friend’s circle, judge free – shame free.

I also must note that I have nothing against the OC, especially since I now call this place my home; it was just an irrational come back that made no sense. I love all my OC family & friends :)!   

-Deuces, BHill