Vampant

Not having cable means I don't watch a lot of the home shows that are a precursor to the cursed reality shows so vampant today. Like that? Vampant: vapid and rampant, vamp-like in appeal, vampire-like in that the thing sucks your soul. I just made it up.

But when I am not home, I get to tune in to a show or two. So tonight, I watched something called Relocation, where two people helped a young man in London, England give up the bustle of the city to buy a seaside property and a crash pad in town. Viewers follow the hosts as they show housing finds to the man. Those seaside properties in Margate, England were all beautiful. So were the crash pads in London.

I'm thinking, how does this designer guy do it, buying two properties like that? It seemed so easy. He's 37 and had $330,000 pounds to work with. He gave the show hosts a list of requirements - original features, fire places, tall ceilings, bright, studio use. The hosts managed to find him two properties under budget.

We don't know what other assets this guy has. We don't know where his funding comes from. Does he really live in a different stratosphere than I do or did the program show a lifestyle many aspire to but few can actually afford. And I'm thinking, it's no different from fashion and beauty ads. The model is always skinny with flawless skin. We don't know how the model got that way. But looking at the ad, we all think we want to be that model, living the lifestyle the ads suggest while posing in that way.

Is that what mass marketing is about? Persuading us how we could be different than what we are? I guess it's just not entertaining and people don't want to spend their money if marketers show us it's discipline, hard work and sometimes luck and circumstance that get us what we want.

Despite that, would I like to have a seaside property and a crash pad in town, be young and skinny with flawless skin? In a New York second.