Sunday Funnies 8-6-06

Sunday Funnies 8-6-06

Good grief, it is Sunday again! All stories are written about with my tongue planted firmly in cheek, sometimes I just can’t help but think outloud.

Today I’ll tell you about a story by Lisa Rosen, Special to the Times. Exactly what does that mean anyway, “Special to the Times”?

It seems there is a new home improvement show debuting tonight on A & E. Oh goody, there just aren’t enough now!It should be something to behold, especially if you fancy having a room in your home made over…by a blind man! I kid you not. Eric Brun-Sanglard, or Eric B., as he prefers to be called, is a legit designer, working as a designer since he lost his sight, ten years ago. Wow, who else would have thought, “Yeah, designing interiors is what I will do now”? That was real foresight.

The premise is; some lucky couples get have a room completely redecorated. Man, you gotta have faith to give up a room for this….or such horrendous taste to begin with, that you figure anything will be an improvement.

The article tries to assure the reader that this is, “No gimmick”. Oh yeah? You gotta have a gimmick to get yet another reality show on the air….more about this later. So, he has a co-host by the name of Alexandra Hedison, a photographer and sometimes actress. She can see I reckon, or they’ll soon have to rename the show, “The Blind Leading the Blind”. She says, “He doesn’t have to have sight, he has vision.” Well, that explains how he’s going to do it. I should have thought of that!

Okay, here is how it goes; Bear with me now, lol.

He begins by sussing out a space sussing?, “The first thing I do is use a sense of energy. Which most people don’t understand”, Eric B. explains, in a very “accented voice.” Hey, the reporter said that, not me. (He was born in the French Alps.) “It’s about getting in touch with the flow of a room and its layout…how the room works or doesn’t work.” Oh….I see…errr…understand. Here’s a cool part; He uses a talking tape measure, then a computer program makes a raised blueprint which he can feel. I want one of those tapes! For his low tech approach, he wanders through a room slowly, touching and feeling everything in it. He claps to hear the height of a ceiling and the acoustics. Hmmmm, if he does it twice do the lights go on and off? Just wondering… He smells the scents in the room, from plants and gawd knows whatelse…shivers…, and feel the light and breeze coming from the windows. I’ll bet!

As for figuring out colors, his former occupation as creative director for a perfume advertising company comes in handy; “You can pull out a Pantone color book and go to any color out of thousands and read off the number, and he can describe it exactly,” his co-host said in amazement. Oh, she is not the only one amazed here. He says, “the important thing to keep in mind is that colors are emotions and prople respond to colors emotionally.” That I know is right, as I think back to how Hubby responded emotionally to my color selection in the living room…yikes! He studies the clients’ personalities as much as he does the space he will be designing. Well, that makes sense, he can’t see their style.

The first couple whose room he was going to do entered, on camera, and met Alexandra and Eric B. for the first time. Hedison gave them the news that their designer is blind; their response was….not printed in the story. I guess that would be known as the “hook” to get us to watch…sigh.

His next step is to take the couple on a “feel trip”. No comment. It’s really a field trip with a twist. I would say so. He blindfold the clients, so they can experience things as he does. Does this sound fun to you? They touch furniture, or he takes them to a petting zoo or… gulp….dance class, anything Mr. B can think of to help them learn more about his methods. I might consider a therapy session at this point.

Well, I guess we will just have to tune in to see,…afterall, Eric B says with a laugh, “I really don’t care about being famous, and I am certainly not getting rich. The people whose perceptions I change, as well as the rooms, well, that’s what makes this entire experience of losing my sight worth it.”

If he says so. Actually, you kind of have to admire a guy who can have such a positive outlook. I do.