by: gleny

SO as you all know, I watch a lot of TV. Ok, ok, I probably watch too much TV. On some nights I watch 4-5 hours of prime time programming, this of course made possible by the magic of DVR... God damn, I love my DVR. I used to be a strict porn or CNN guy, but I have opened up my TV listings to reality, and drama, and comedy. Hell I get hooked on almost any show. I love House and Bones, I love that new sitcom TIL DEATH, I watch IDOL and Celebrity Duets... Truth be told, I am shameless… I even get hooked on HBO shows and crap on like USA…

Ok back on the point of this article. I watch more and more TV to escape from all the bullshit of the news and the mess of a time we live in. Something odd has happened, now it isn't completely unprecedented, I mean shows often pull from the headlines or take real live twisted news and write them in, but this one is a little more colorful then usual.

Now I guess about a year ago Condoleeza Rice got promoted. For those of you who live under a rock, Dr. Condoleezza Rice became Secretary of State on January 26, 2005. Prior to this, she was the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, commonly referred to as the National Security Advisor, since January, 2001. And this real life promotion of an AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMAN has started to directly affect my TV. I love almost everyone, I am not a bigget or a racist. I would shag Condoleezza, well maybe, but for certain the 3 other ladies to the left are all gorgeous and well there isn't one of them that I would want to see bungee jumping naked.

I was watching Bones, and the season premier they introduced a new director of the research place and I was like, odd they got rid of the old black boss and got a new one. Then it happened in NIPTUCK… the practice was sold to JR EWING… ha-ha, I love NIPTUCK, and his black wife decided to run it. Now NIPTUCK is a sick show and they often take regular news and make a twisted stint on it… Then there is a brand new show… STANDOFF, that is about FBI negotiators and they have this huge sexual tension, blah blah blah.. But their boss, you guessed it.. An African American Woman. .

Now I don't know if this a rant or an opinion and I don't really care all that much. It was just a thought I had while watching some TV this week. Hey come to think of it, maybe it isn't Dr Rice, maybe it is all up to OPRAH? hmmm

Psych is one of thoe USA original series... I usually try to avoid them, cuz you get 1 or 2 good episodes, then you are sucked into a whole season of crap. Some examples would be MONK, 1400, DEAD CALM, and shit like that.

Psych is an exception though, this show is great. It is fast and witty, with lots of sexual inuendo.. And we all know that is where I live. It is about a goofy ball that is a problem solving genius with a photo graphic memory. Paired with the occasional help from his little black buddy, they solve police crimes. Now these cases aren't really hard to figure out, it is USA and all, but it is hilarious. See he fakes being a psychic to let the cops let him in on it, so when it comes to letting the cops know what really happens, he does these fake vision acts.. They are good stuff.

Well the first season was only 8 shows, but the 2nd season is full length and start in january of 07.. So check it out.

the name of the company is SMASH, where did that come from?
---Well, the name kinda came up on a whim becuase we couldn't find anything else. But it does have some meaning, when i was little i used to hang aroudn with my mom and all her party friends and i was the crazy little kid- Smashley so i figured smash- hey y not.
tell me about your sidekick a minute...
---Well, val- my partner is crime- is pretty much just a smaller more italian version of me. We agree on most things and laugh way too much about it all. It's cool that we're alike tho because we can bounce ideas off eachother pretty well, it's jsut the problem of accomplishing them.
how long have you been manipulating clothing for your silly pleasures?
---hah well we started technically in january of this year but we've been "manipulating" for about a year or two, mostly just messing around.
when did you and your partner decide you should try to make a company out of it? How is that going? is there money coming in, and shirts going out?
---we decided to make a company out of it when both of us on a daily basis would get the same response when we wore the clothes, "you should sell that," so we did. It's been going super well we're tryign to build a site right now with credit options, but for the time being it's just a buy as paint. Some money comes in, but most goes out haha
tell me about the process real fast, it looks like fabric paint and stencils.. what else is going on there.
---well, for the most part you're right. most of the stencils are painfully done ourselves and everything that goes on is not guna come off. Soon tho however we're guna rig up some silk screening, meaning mass quantities but still home done.

do you have end goals with SMASH clothing, like do you see it growing big?
oh absolutley, we have a few surprises in store taht are on hold for the time being just because when everythings hand painted we can't get it out to the masses, but once we get everything rolling SMASH will be everywhere you turn.what other company brands do you like, do any of them influence your style?
meh, i look up to a lot of brands for their own style, but the point of SMASH was to make a name of it's own. You know, have a brand that doesn't really have anything else like it.
do you have a URL? like is www.smashclothing.com yours or what not?
---sadly not yet. myspace.com/smashclothingetc was where we ahd all of our pictures up but after realizing that we were selling our stuff on MYSPACE we deleted most of it. However, u can still contact us there if u want to most of our pictures are up on here http://s66.photobucket.com/albums/h261/smashclothingetc/ . soon there'll be a website, soon enough.

--- Ashley of Smash Clothing Etc.