The Human Times Column
Written By: Marianne Moro

#10 A Free Night On The Town In Hollywood - Marianne Moro ventures behind the scenes of the show Jimmy Kimmel Live... And survives to tell the tale! Read it [added April, 18th/03]

#9 The "Good Old Day" Of Rock Radio - What rock radio was like before 10 song playlists, shock jocks and Clear Channel!  Read it [added Jan, 4th/03]

#8 "Lives Of Quiet Desperation" Marianne Moro takes a look at "The Good Girl" and "One Hour Photo." Read it [added Sept 10th/02]

  #7 "Living Dolls" When one thinks of a hobby that involves collecting everyday items, coins, stamps, baseball cards and beer cans come to mind. Alas, not many of us consider that one of the largest collectible conventions in the country is geared for doll aficionados. Read it [added July 22nd/02]

#6 "One Generation's Rebellious Icon Is Another Generation's Old Geezer" ...On June 7th of this year Queen Elizabeth will celebrate her fiftieth year of her reign, as it were. Aretha Franklin, Brian Wilson, Ozzy Osbourne (?!!!) and  pop idols from England that no one in America has heard of will perform in a celebratory concert. Read it

  #5 "Sleep: The Best-Kept Beauty Secret" ...Jennifer Lopez, Penelope Cruz, and late Latina bombshell Dolores Del Rio have all claimed it as one of their best beauty secrets. It's one of the most potent tools for health, serenity and prolonged youth we have, and it works for both men and women. Read it

#4 "Souvenir Shops From Hell" ...I considered waitressing, but the restaurant managers I talked to questioned me with a suspicious vigor I thought reserved for aspiring brain surgeons and CIA agents. Read it

#3 "Who needs Liz Smith anymore? - Gossip and Meandering on Celebrity Message Boards!" What, if any, are the differences between the Internet exchanges by fans of various celebrities, known and unknown. Let's traisp around the Internet and see what we can find. Read it

#2 "Adapted for the Screen By" While updating a film industry website at my part-time job, I noted there where were about 100 reviews for Lord of the Rings– the bulk of the fan reviews on the website. Very few complaints from avid book fans about the movie how unusual is that. We all know how ardent and vociferous fans like to compare and complain that their fave book, comic, sideshow freak was co-opted and vilified by the corporate money-making machine. The best way to get a cross-section of opinions nowadays is to head to the internet! One especially erudite fan gave a detailed paragraph by paragraph description defending the movie and its faithfulness to the book. Now that's dedication – or a little too much free time. Read it

#1 "Low-rise pants..." While viewing the Superbowl half-time show last year, a friend and I stopped complaining about Aerosmith selling out long enough to notice Britney's pants were a suspicious replica of those worn by the Dan Akroyd repairman character on an old SNL episode."That’s on purpose, right?" my friend asked. Read it

Marianne Moro will be writing for a new Modamag.com column called "The Human Times. Marianne has written for magazines and websites as diverse as Playgirl, Unpop.com, ManifestReality.com, Aquarius/Sign of the Times and PeacockBlue.com, and is contributing editor of the hard rock music site at Suite101.com. She also works part-time for a film business magazine.

"The column will cover just about anything I can think of that has to do with fashion, entertainment or the media. In the next months I'll be covering such subjects as the adaptation of beloved novels to the screen (Lord Of The Rings, Harry Potter ,Queen Of The Damned), restaurants - healthy & trendy versus fattening & politically incorrect, Internet message boards about celebrities, child TV stars turned DJs, etc. Feel free to e-mail me at marianne@modamag.com with any comments."