Our obsession with obsessions

Nowadays, it seems everyone has an issue, some physiological damage and an excuse to visit the shrink. At least, it seems this way in the world of television.

"Extreme couponer" digging
through the trash for coupons

Last night, I watched the premiere of TLC’s new show “My Strange Addiction.” The hour-long segment accounted the oddities of certain fixations that have taken over people’s lives. Among them: a toilet paper-eating addict, a woman who slept with a hairdryer, and a man who treated bargain shopping like a game of chess.

“Shopping is like chess. You’re trying to beat the opponent, which is the store,” he said, as he accounted his bizarre fascination for coupon clipping and stockpiling food.

The show featured two other women who also called couponing their “passion.” Really? While clipping coupons may be realistic on a small scale, I interpret their mass-stockpiling behavior as downright cheating the stores of their products. Basically, these people are “stealing” hundreds of soda bottles, candy bars, and toilet paper rolls off the shelves. It is one thing to clip coupons from the newspaper in order to save some extra money, but it is another to dedicate 70 hours a week to scouring the Internet for coupons, as one of the women featured did.

It is also selfish to fill 8 carts worth of food, health and beauty products (a value of over $600) and pay less than $10. No couple needs a thousand boxes of pasta in their house, do they? Not to mention, who wants to unload all of those groceries? I get sick of unloading ONE cart full.

This particular obsession relates to another show on TLC called “Buried Alive,” which features people’s hoarding issues. One of the men featured on  “My Strange Addiction” had accumulated enough deodorant to last the average person longer than a lifetime. This is a sign of unnecessary hoarding if you ask me. Sure, there are deep psychological issues involved here, but part of me thinks that these people never had anyone smack them into the reality of reality. Friends, spouses and parents put up with their issues for far too long, so they keep spinning in a downward spiral. This, to me, is deeply sad.

In the meantime, shows like these on TLC are successful, because they are entertaining. There is nothing Americans like more than watching other Americans’

unusual, comical—and often shocking—issues. This is why so many reality TV shows have taken over primetime.

One things for certain: if a nuclear attack or natural disaster struck our nation, these coupon-clipping, food-hoarding people would have their neighbors lining up outside their front door. One thousand packages of frozen dinners, anyone?

Curious, indeed

ghost sheet

"Whatever you do in life, be infinitely curious." This is a motto I strive to follow in life. If we lose our curious spirit, what is left to inquire of the world? Curiosity prompts questions, which often teach us more than their end point--answers. 

Curiosity also sparks conversations, helps children learn and, as they say, causes the cat to lose one of its 8 lives. But it’s more than that; it’s an innate force that keeps us interested in the world around us.

As a photographer, curiosity is key, because it keeps us asking. A look through the lens makes me think, "what is around that corner"..."what can I see if I zoom in?"...or "how will this look upside down?"

In this series of photos I experimented with square cropping. One day I’ll have a Holga camera and really get into that format, but for now here are a few examples of the curious nature of photography.

Curious? Good. Look ahead...

half a daisy in the summertime

a giant and a seagull

what's inside the window?

escape from Alcatraz Island

have you seen Alice? 

Freelancing for Patch.com!

I've signed on as a contributor for the recently-launched Newport Beach site on Patch.com. Their new sites are city-based all around the U.S. and feature articles and links to local community events, news, feature stories, and marketplace listings, etc. A great place for community members to check their city's happenings. 
My two articles so far:
Drunk Driving Arrests on Upswing in Newport Beach
NBPD Steps Up Patrol to Curtail Holiday Crime
More to come!

Published in F-Stop Magazine!

My first black and white film photography published online!!!

Four of my photographs from my photo essay in Chinatown are featured in the new issue of F-stop Magazine, Issue #44. The theme for entries was "Community"....scroll through the photographs down to the third row from the bottom to find mine. There are some great entries from other contributors on the page to browse as well.

Click HERE for the link!


You can also find my name under the contributors tab. This freelance thing is paying off....well, not paying THAT much, but I'm on my way.....

The best chocolate chip cookie recipe OF ALL TIME

They really do look as good as in this picture

Since I made a batch of these last night, I thought I'd share the not-so-secret recipe with everyone. These chocolate chip cookies are super easy to make...and always turn out practically perfect. Always dense and chewy--never crispy or greasy--the way a cookie should be.  

I discovered the recipe in college when my roommate Jessica brought the book How to Boil Water to our apartment one weekend. I laughed at the title, because we were both always cooking and baking; anyone who came over to our place expected something yummy set out on the table or inside the refrigerator. But if not for a late-night cookie craving, I may have never stumbled upon this recipe. In fact, I think it was the only one I ever used from the book. 

You can find the recipe on The Food Network or follow it below by clicking "Read More." I'm sure Santa will appreciate these on Christmas Eve!

Teen pregnancy on the rise...is media to blame?

Tough Consequences

A one-night-stand at band camp leaves
Amy pregnant

In recent years, the trends of teen mothers depicted on popular American television programs and films have exploded into a cultural phenomenon. According to a January 2010 study by the Guttmacher Institute, teen pregnancy rates have increased for the first time since the early 1990s.

Nearly half (46%) of all 15–19-year-olds in the United States have had sex at least once, and ten percent of all U.S. births are to teens. Movies like Juno, or television shows like “16 and Pregnant” and “The Secret Life of the American Teenager” have become household staples, a viable explanation for these heightened statistics.

What happened to ethics? When media formats portray teen pregnancy, especially with a misconstrued reality, the indirect harm to young adults in our society becomes apparent.

A study featured in Pediatrics called “Sexy Media Matter: Exposure to Sexual Content in Music, Movies, Television, and Magazines Predicts Black and White Adolescents' Sexual Behavior,” found that earlier exposure to sexual content in the media could predict a teen’s sexual behavior in the following year.

When Christmas comes too early

As I was driving yesterday, I flipped through the radio stations to find some music. To my dismay, all of them on my presets were playing Christmas tunes, except one. So I called up that station.

"I just wanted to thank you for not playing Christmas music yet," I told the DJ. "I'm just not ready. It's still November!"

Courtesy of www.evga.com

She laughed, reassuring me they wouldn't be playing any…yet. 

I have nothing against jolly holiday music or the holiday itself. In fact, I’ll proudly admit I know each line of the “12 Days of Christmas” song and I jump at the opportunity to string lights around the tree.

But why does the world seem to be forcing me to start Christmas so early?

Even before Halloween, Christmas decorations were up in stores like Target and CVS. Who needs to prepare in October? The day after Halloween, store fronts at the mall magically transformed into displays covered in shimmering tinsel and over-sized ornaments. Apparently, All Saint’s Day is Santa’s cue to arrive.

Those who put up their trees at Thanksgiving might frown at me. They would argue that moving Christmas further back gives us a chance to extend the merriment and celebrate the holiday season longer.

A friend even teased me, "what are you--a Scrooge? Hating on Christmas..."

But does lengthening the celebration time really make it more special?

Besides, the true 12 Days of Christmas are meant to start the day of Dec. 25. and continue to the Epiphany on Jan. 6. I bet not many people know this—or even care—because the day after Christmas, everyone takes down their trees now. By Christmas Eve, stores have already cleared out their holiday items and put them on sale. Television commercials start advertising diamonds and chocolate for Valentines Day. 

Must we rush everything? Walking through a shopping center I want to whisper, “breathe, little holiday shoppers, breathe...”

Published on the Matador Network!

My story, How Travel Reshaped My Notion of Strangers, is now up on the Brave New Traveler section. 
Read below, or click on the title to view the website!

How Travel Reshaped My Notion of Strangers

Nov. 24 2010 

Tori Masucci learns about going to the world in search for answers, instead of just letting the world come to her.

I AM SITTING on a ferry in New Zealand, moving from the North Island to the South Island. Across from me, an old man who resembles the Gorton’s Fisherman is eating a cold potato with his bare hand. He catches me studying him and offers a bearded smile. I shyly return it, then look back to my book.

Another interaction with a stranger.

As a child growing up in the suburbs outside LA, I was told to avoid strangers. I was supposed to be wary of their presence in empty parks and resist their tempting offers of puppies and candy on the streets. As I got older I learned how to treat strangers based on what I wanted at the time. How to smile at a waiter to get free refills or score notes from the girl in front of me for a lecture I missed last week. Selfish, really.

Now, though, I am in a new country. I must go to the world for answers and friendship.

The more I travel, the more I challenge this selfishness. In an unfamiliar country, strangers offer a glimmer of kindness and hope. I take in their voices, faces, and smells as a newborn would — curious, skeptical, and, oftentimes, in comfort. Outside of my bubble at home, it’s the strangers who teach me about life. They humble me and teach me about compassion.

As a laid-back and often quiet California girl, up to now I have done just fine in life by observing, listening, and letting the world come to me. Now, though, I am in a new country. I must go to the world for answers and friendship.

Through traveling, I’ve discovered how chatty I can be and how much I question. The feeling of freedom I get from boarding a 13-hour flight for the first time releases my inhibitions and the former fences I’ve built between strangers and myself. Suddenly, this “stranger-hood code” I have followed all my life — distancing and distrusting outsiders — disappears into the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean. I emerge from my comfort zone and greet the unknown.

*****

Photo: author

Outside on the ferry deck, I stand among other travelers, photographing the snowy mountains on the horizon and the rough coastline, with its green hills that I playfully imagine were sculpted by God’s hands from large mounds of clay. This landscape itself is a stranger to me, with its own stories to tell.

It’s foggy and cold on that winter afternoon in June, and as the ferry moves through the drowned river valley of Queen Charlotte Sound, tiny islands emerge from the mist into my view, then disappear again as we pass by. They remind me of everyone I encounter as I travel, appearing in my life and reshaping my notion of strangers. They do this in ways I often underestimate until they’ve left me.

On fears and phobias

We commonly use “arachnophobia” to label someone’s fear of spiders, or describe our avid hand-sanitizing friends as “germaphobes.” But less commonly-known phobias are even quirkier—like “pteronophobia” – the fear of being tickled by feather, or “arachibutyrophobia,” which coins the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth. Try saying that with a mouthful of peanut butter.

The fear of small spaces or feeling trapped
is commonly called "claustrophobia"

No matter the scare, fears are fascinating concepts and everyone has them. However, fears and phobias are not the same. A phobia can develop when a human’s fear becomes attached to his or her emotions, often causing extreme physical reactions, like sweating, crying, or panic attacks.

According to Guy Baglow, a phobia specialist and founder of the UK’s leading phobia clinic, “approximately 10 percent of people have a phobia. It's a very human thing.”

“This is the basis of a phobia: a fear response attached to something that was present in the original trauma,” he says. “It can get stuck to literally anything - animal, mineral or vegetable. It may not even be glued to the thing that caused the trauma.” In other words, someone who was bitten by a snake inside a small cave, may develop “claustrophobia” instead of the fear of snakes, or “ophidiophobia.”

After claustrophobia, the second most common phobia for both men and women is the fear of social situations, labeled “social phobia.” Like many phobias, this can develop during childhood and is often reinforced through culture and one’s environment.

Phobias shouldn’t be taken lightly. Calling someone a “scaredy cat” and a “phobic” are two completely different accusations, though we often use the terms loosely. If you want to avoid stacking on the pounds this holiday season like most Americans, that doesn’t mean you are “obesophobic.” Even if you may admit to dreading other family members like your parents-in-law, that doesn’t make you “soceraphobic.”

Cluck. Cluck. Even a phobia of
chickens could inhibit one's life.

Phobias can be restricting. Don’t order Chinese take-out if you have “consecotaleophobia” – the phobia of chopsticks. Avoid the county fair if you have “alektorophobia,” or fear of chickens. And life will get extremely difficult if you develop “cathisophobia” – the phobia of sitting.

So, can we evade phobias like these as we go about our lives?

Fear not! The answer is yes. It all comes down to how we handle stress and our emotions. At a basic level, if you take care of the frightful feelings behind the actual “thing” that causes you anxiety, phobias are less likely to take over your life. At their worse, they can be handled by physiological therapy and healed through various treatments that attempt to detach the traumatic memory from its emotional object or situation.

Perhaps the healthiest phobia to have is “phobophobia” – the fear of phobias.

For a complete list of phobias, visit The Phobia List.

Note: Tori is not a doctor; she simply came across a giant list of phobias and thought it would be fun to write about. She has slight “selachophobia,” ever since watching Jaws, but has never felt any “graphophobia,” which might keep her from maintaining this blog. 

Photos by Tori Masucci

Look Down

Bill Cosby once said, "Every closed eye is not sleeping, and every open eye is not seeing." To truly see the world around us, we must look beyond the familiar and expected. Sometime last year, I began aiming my camera towards the ground. So often as a photographer, I tend to look up at the world, the sky, the horizon. Yet the subjects below are also worth capturing. The ground we walk on and the shoes--or lack of--we wear as we journey through life reveals curiosities spelled out in cobblestone, mud, concrete and sand. Each step tells a story. It's all about perspective...

Celebrities & raindrops
Grauman's Chinese Theatre, Hollywood, CA

A look at pattern
Darioush Winery, Napa, CA

A dancing mouse
Disneyland, Anaheim, CA

Tip of the tide
Treasure Island Beach, Laguna Beach, CA

Picking blackberries
Grass Valley, CA 

Women and Freedom

The following photographs were part of a semester-long project I completed in the spring for my photography class. Using friends as my "models," we went out into the fields and dirt roads behind our school, right on the edge where the town ends and the hills and farms begin. We discovered an antique car lot, filled with forgotten vehicles from days long gone.

What you cannot see in these photographs are the rich yellow of the mustard flower scattering the meadows, the rusty green of the car fender, or even the rich folds of red and blue within the American flag.

But the flag does not require color; it's an iconic symbol of our country, recognizable even without hue. And the black and white tones of each frame--coupled with my stylistic choice to crop out subjects' eyes--hint towards a bit of mystery. I wanted to leave the young women ambiguous. They are every-women in todays world, with strengths, opinions, desires, and even boyfriends in the military overseas. What the flag means, and moreover, what "freedom" means to each of them will be entirely idiosyncratic.

This rings true for all of us: we each perceive the flag in distinctive ways--anger, indifference,or complete pride and reverence. Freedom, at its root, is an individual concept that has a powerful potential to bond us together.

To see more photographs, click "READ MORE"...

Playing with light

Though photography is often a very dark, mysterious practice, the presence of light in photography is essential. Without it, we would only stare at blank frames of artwork. A subject needs light to illuminate its features. Film needs light to expose the silver halide coated on its surface. Photo paper, though sensitive to light, needs portions of it to capture an image on the page. 

The various means of utilizing natural or manufactured light, however, is what turns the truly scientific and mechanical process of creating a photograph into ART.

Light bounces, shines, streaks, seeps through, highlights, reflects, spreads, burns, halos, flashes, glares, gleams and glimmers its way into our lives and our photographs. It can be playful, eerie, or highly particular and unexpected.

Below, are some of my digital photographs that illuminate (ha ha) the world of light.

Neon lights of San Francisco:

Light in nature:

California heaven

Nelson, South Island, New Zealand

Vintage Photography

My little camera and some film

        Last summer, I picked up a vintage Spartus "35" Camera (circa 1947-1956) from a local antique shop. I've always been fascinated with old cameras and the wonderful aesthetic of photographs they can capture. After doing some research, I discovered this model is somewhat rare. With only a single shutter speed and four aperture settings for "bright", "hazy", "cloudy" or "dull", it's a very basic tool.
        Still, the photographs it produces are complex and wonderfully flawed; blurred edges and areas that are out of focus offer a retro vibe. I experimented in color, yet found myself reverting back to black and white--the film it was meant to use--for old times sake. Wearing its brown leather carrying case makes me feel like a wartime explorer or adventurer out in the field. When I had the film developed, it recalled a more imperfect, spontaneous era before the age of digital. 

Summer photographs using the Spartus 35 camera and Kodak black and white 35mm film

Published!

My first freelance article in a magazine was published today in TNT: Travel Down Under magazine in Australia. 

Read all about the "Rough Seas" my friend Lindsay and I encountered on the New Zealand ferry under the "Traveler's Tales" section by clicking HERE!

The Next Endangered Species: Redheads?

(originally published Sept. 5, 2009 in the Sonoma State STAR)

As a natural redhead, I am now an endangered species. Like pandas or polar bears whose time on earth is sadly limited, my genes also rest in the mercy of time's hands.

As if nicknames like "Carrot-top," "Ginger," "Matchstick," or-my favorite high school tease-just plain "Red" weren't enough for us to contend with our entire lives, now we redheads must face the pressure of looming extinction.

When my aunt sent me a copy of an article in Smithsonian Magazine about the possible imminent disappearance of redheads from our planet, I became concerned and somewhat puzzled. Why are we vanishing? And does anyone seem to care?

Many scientists, philosophers and authors have made predictions for our world's future, but the tragic fate of redheads is rarely discussed. Certainly much more disconcerting situations are taking place in the world right now that deserve our greater attention, but I still find it shocking that new studies predict redheads will be obsolete by the end of this century. All I can picture is some sad archaeologist a thousand years from now uncovering artifacts of Raggedy-Ann dolls and pondering their unthinkable hair color.

Check out the entire article at The Sonona State STAR!

How did "The Tori Story" start?

In college, I spent a semester as a staff writer and a semester as Features Editor of Sonoma State's campus newspaper, The STAR. Following in line with a tradition of Features editors who titled their columns with puns on their first or last names, my own column was appropriately called "The Tori Story"....


Check out some of my articles and columns at the Sonoma State Star!

A Creation Story

Once upon a time, there was no world at all; there were just boxes and boxes of people under the sky, waiting to be opened. None of them knew each other. None of them really cared. One day they felt a great trembling in the air, so they crawled out of each box and went their separate ways. Some went east and some went west. Some went south and some went north. Some began to cry or laugh for no reason at all. Many fought with each other—over land, over food, over women. A few found love and prospered. Still, some missed their simple life inside the boxes, so they spent the rest of their breathing moments searching for their long, lost homes. When they realized their boxes would never be found, all they could do was curl up and die. And this is the way the world has been ever since.

Those who left their boxes became the wanderers and inherited the In-Between, piling road maps into vans and motor homes, guiding their lives across rest stops and road signs. Their children learned about the world by looking out windows and watching tree tops and birds and telephone poles fly by—blurry, but somehow perfect. They questioned the mysteries of the universe as they peered into the night sky. A telescope gave clarity, but no answers. They watched the solar eclipse for the first time, with its black round hole lit behind by glorious rays and concluded it looks somewhat like a dark, watchful eye.

Eventually some wanderers settled down, gathering in pews or around dinner tables. Their lives were written in windowsill words, thousands of pages written in silence. To the wandering settlers, writing words from the windowsill came just as naturally as bottling up shadows, and this is what many of them did. Some of them broke away and manufactured love, over and over again until it became mechanical pulp, robotic kisses on top of the dog’s head. They wrote the dark poetry, the wrenching back-alley murders. They dug deep within their souls and pulled out balls of grime and wadded hair, dreamed of killing, of avenging blood and tears. They rode the streets on rotting bicycles, crashing into the corners of the world, dreaming of an escape. Dreaming once again of the boxes their ancestors spoke of—the comforting encapsulation. Their pain was channeled into working, so they built more sky-scratchers and spread their wealth into rivers of concrete, glistening with glitter that once came from stars.

Exploring Los Angeles

Hollywood walk of fame

For decades, Los Angeles has been the hub of America’s entertainment industry, known metaphorically as a land of milk and honey where celebrities roam the streets and film directors mingle at glamorous hotspots over glasses of wine.

Yet L.A. emits more than just stardust and smog into the atmosphere over southern California. As the most populated city in the western United States, its 3.8 million residents make up an eclectic composition of cultures and neighborhoods, backdropped by the iconic Hollywood sign glowing in a hazy distance. Among the constant buzz of music, movies and television, Los Angeles lays claim to international cuisine, high-end boutiques and a plethora of diverse art galleries. Year-round sunshine and long stretches of playful beaches make it a visitor’s paradise.

In short, L.A. is equal parts reality as it is fantasy. Coined the creative capital of the world, it is ever-changing, exceeding expectations and begging to be explored.

Attractions: Seeing stars

Writer Erica Jong once said, “Every country gets the circus it deserves…America gets Hollywood.” No visit to Los Angeles is complete without a glimpse of “Tinsel Town,” where tourists meander all day through the Walk of Fame, posing for pictures along sidewalks that sport over 2,000 shimmering stars to commemorate Hollywood’s most prominent figures. Find more star power at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, where movie buffs can match timeless celebrity hand and footprints to their own.

Keep an eye out for famous actors and actresses in living form as you take a stroll down Rodeo Drive, known for its high-end fashion shops, where Julia Roberts shopped in the film Pretty Woman.

Those still dreaming of seeing their name in lights spend their time across town along the Sunset Strip. Here, a hip counter-culture of struggling musicians and artists enjoy the nightlife at numerous music venues and nightclubs, like the Viper Room, once owned by Johnny Depp and still frequently visited by Hollywood’s A-list.  

If you weren’t lucky enough to spot any celebrities while cruising through the city, star-gaze instead at the Griffith Observatory, a popular tourist attraction for its impressive display of science and space exhibits. Settled on a hillside within sprawling Griffith Park, L.A.’s own larger version of Central Park, the observatory’s unique planetarium and family-friendly atmosphere make it a worthwhile stop.

Outdoors: Like, hit the beach, dude

Visit any of L.A.’s many beaches and you’ll understand why Angelenos have inherited a “work hard, play harder” mentality. Whether you’re chilling in the sun or catching a wave, this section of the California coast is the ultimate destination for relaxation and some world class people-watching.

Rent a bicycle and cruise down the South Bay Bicycle Trail that runs for 22 miles (35 km) along the sparkling sand, beginning at one of the city’s hidden treasures, Paradise Cove in Malibu and ending south of Torrance. Along the way, check out Santa Monica, famous for its carnival-esque pier, complete with ferris wheel, street performers and caricaturists. Join a chess game at the tiny International Chess Park or play on the nearby over-sized swing set.

Head south to L.A.’s quirkiest: Venice Beach, where an eccentric cast of characters, including tanned body-builders, snake-handlers and grungy skateboarders coexist. Lively volleyball courts and lifeguard shacks give the area a timeless feel.

On the “wrong” side of the road: driving New Zealand by rental car

From rugged coastlines, to city streets lined with cafés, to breath-taking views of snow-capped volcanoes, New Zealand has it all. More and more visitors that flock—pardon the sheep reference—to this tiny country in the South Pacific are discovering the rewards and surprising ease of renting a car or camper van to mosey their way through its attraction-packed North and South Islands.

Sharing the road with a truck is a common occurence through New Zealand's countryside

New Zealand, though grand in scenery and adventure, is a relatively small country. In fact, the entire landmass of New Zealand could fit inside the U.S. state of California. And with only 160 kilometers (100 miles) of multilane divided motorways, most of the country is comprised of two lane roads. Even for drivers who fear city streets, tackling major cities like Wellington are a cinch compared to enduring rush-hour traffic in LA or parallel parking in San Francisco.

Without any experience driving in Commonwealth nations, my two friends and I left California for a four-week tour of New Zealand this past June and took on the challenge of mastering the other side of the road. About 2,400 kilometers (1,490 miles) of winding roads, a couple hundred roundabouts (oh, and one tow truck) later, we conquered our behind-the-wheel fears.

The following is a list of “do’s” and “don’ts” for traversing New Zealand like any proper Kiwi.

• DO take advantage of a rental car

Renting a car was a terrific way to set our own pace while traveling. We hired two separate rental cars during our trip—one for the North Island and one for the South Island. Transporting a vehicle across the Wellington-Picton ferry is much more expensive. Located in airports, ferry terminals, and throughout most large towns, rental car companies are easy to find and eager to do business with tourists.

In order to rent a car in New Zealand, one must be 21 and hold a valid driver’s license from one’s home country. Yet, my friend Lindsay was just under the mark and they still gave her the keys. Rules were more relaxed than we were accustomed to at home, and the process at the counter was, for the most part, quick and hassle-free.

Many websites negotiate deals through rental car companies like Avis, Budget, Europcar, Hertz or Thrifty and allow car seekers to search by car, dates needed, or city for pick-up and drop-off. Try www.vroomvroomvroom.co.nz or www.nzrentacar.co.nz.

• DON’T skip out on the insurance. 

Better safe than sorry is a good motto here. Our first night with the rental car quickly turned into disaster when a sharp left turn put our tiny lipstick red rental on top of a large pile of rocks in a hostel driveway in Taupo (I won’t mention who was driving).

However, because we spent the extra money on rental car insurance, we avoided monstrous fees and only had to pay off the friendly tow truck guy who came to our rescue, shaking his head at us silly American travelers.