Miss Pop is exactly the kind of person you’d expect from that nickname: bubbly and bright with a dash of sass. From bows with polka dots to Nicki Minaj’s bubblegum pink beehive, this nail art diva’s arsenal of funky fresh designs definitely blow your average mani/pedi right out of the salon. Miss Pop dished with us about her artistic influences and inspirations.
Howcast: What was it like shooting the Nail Art series?

Miss Pop: The Howcast team were a bunch of sweethearts, but doing over 20 nail looks in like 3 hours? My table was a mess and so was I! Usually when I get down with my polishes, I play some tunes and it’s just me, my client, and my colorful kit. But, since we were taping, it had to be pin-drop quiet and there were like 5 people watching my every stroke up close. When the director, Ben, offered to let me get some air, I put my headphones on, turned up the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and took a stroll around the block. Just as I was starting to get my strut on, a few construction workers told me just how cute I looked (I’m paraphrasing there). And POW! Just like that, I was feelin’ it again and ready to do up some digits!

Howcast: What inspires your funky designs?

MP: I’m super obsessed with pop iconography in Dima Drjuchin’s paintings. He uses all of my favorite colors — pink, red, yellow, turquoise, black, and white — to create these massive, elaborate stories with adorable monsters. His work is the best parallel universe I’ve ever seen. I have one painting of his hanging across from my bed. I love that it’s the first and last thing I see everyday.

Howcast: You must have a ton of nail art designs in your arsenal. Did any not make it in the series?

MP: OMG, so many! But I feel like every week I do new things. That’s the great thing about nail art! Everyone is so unique and it’s fun to really give all my clients something that suits their personality perfectly! Ladies who love nail art tend to be extra creative and open to having fun with it. Sometimes I even pull patterns straight out of their clothing and put them on their nails.

Howcast: Do you have a particular favorite nail art design?

MP: I love having bows and polka dots on my nails — although I just did that for my mom and now she’s obsessed with them. And she’s my toughest customer! So, I think I might have to let her have that look. Last week, I did them with kind of a twist by painting pink poodles with bows in their hair on a polka-dot background.

Howcast: When did you realize that you wanted to do nail art professionally?

MP: I can trace my love of nail art back to the movie Earth Girls Are Easy. It has this amazing salon scene where everyone’s nails are tricked out! I loved the hair, loved the clothes, loved the whole vibe of the movie, but the minute I saw the hand close-ups, I was hooked. So, ever since I saw that movie as a lil’ Baby Pop, I’ve been obsessed with nail art, which got me in a lot of trouble in prep school. But I kept doing it on the weekends back in the day, and now I’m still doing it!

Howcast: Speaking of your professional career, you’ve worked with some pretty cool clients and bedazzled nails at some awesome events. Any particularly cool stories from these experiences?

MP: Burlesque beauty La Maia has a couple pet snakes. Clearly, she’s a total badass! Anyway, inspired by Terry Sillaci, she brought me their skin sheddings a couple weeks ago and asked me to put them on her nails. At first I was like, “Eeww!” but it turned out mega awesome.

– Betsy Bloom, Editorial Intern

Last weekend, as part of my diligent research as Howcast’s video game guru, I decided to venture out to a popular little spot deep in Brooklyn’s hipster country called Barcade. This isn’t the kind of arcade where you drop a dollar for five minutes in an elaborate race car simulator or team up with friends for a game of air hockey, but the kind where a quarter gets you a joystick and three lives in games like Asteroids, Smash TV, and 1943, just to name a few.

After grabbing a beer and hitting the change machine, I made a beeline for the vacant Donkey Kong cabinet. All it took was one quarter and three swift deaths to remember something I had long forgotten:
Old games are hard. Forget about a killscreen — I couldn’t even get past the first level. But with each barrel to the face and “game over” screen, I found myself putting in quarter after quarter to keep trying.

Some gamers complain that games today, like those we cover at HowcastGaming, are too easy and don’t hold up to the golden titles of yesteryear. To that I say: Yeah? So what? Arcade games were never hard because their creators thought difficult equaled fun. They were hard in order to make you part with as many quarters as possible — and judging from my recent Donkey Kong experience, the strategy was incredibly successful. Today, however, when I slap down my $60 for Skyrim (why isn’t it November yet?!) that’s all I’ll have to pay. The publisher at that point doesn’t need my quarters, so why try to kill me over and over? Developers, with massive advancements in the technology at their fingertips, can instead craft a unique experience that focuses more on immersing the player in another world.

That said, Barcade still ended up being an awesome place to drink and geek out to those old-time games. And P.S. I totally rocked at 1943.

– Rob Pimentel, Post-Production Coordinator

Howcast Producer Tanner Almon may not have been the obvious choice to shoot our Halloween makeup series, given his aversion to cosmetics. But after powering through six classic Halloween characters with expert Kenneth Llambelis of Abracadabra Superstore — vampire, cat, drag queen, mermaid, Barbie, and broken doll — he’s now reconsidering whether he might dab on a bit of powder himself come October 31. Read on for the behind-the-scenes scoop!

Howcast: What was your favorite look?

Tanner Almon: The broken doll. It probably took Ken 15 minutes to transform Barbie into a completely scary character. And we got this really cool B-roll after we finished the makeup part, with her kind of creeping around a headless, armless mannequin we found in the studio. My second favorite was the mermaid. I didn’t know what to expect, and the end result was a total surprise. When I think of a mermaid, I think of Darryl Hannah in Splash or The Little Mermaid, neither of which appear to be wearing much makeup. But Ken did these cool gold scales that were really beautiful — I hope I captured them well on camera.

Howcast: Any other surprises?

TA: The drag look was the one that I was like, “Holy cow! This is way more involved than I ever thought it would be!” Just the eyebrows took 30 minutes; it was really intense. You’d have no idea that he was the same guy who was a vampire an hour and a half earlier.

Howcast: How did you get creative on the shoot?

TA: [Howcast Filmmaker Program Director] Heather [Menicucci] and I decided that at the end, after the makeup was done on each person, we’d grab the camera and get B-roll in different locations with the actors still in character. The first was the vampire lounging on a vintage couch and looking very True Blood. For the cat, Heather bought some toy mice and had the actor play on the floor with them. It was fun to shoot a bit of narrative to tie it to the documentary part on how to do the makeup.

Howcast: Any challenges?

TA: I’ve never had to operate 2 cameras and separate sound by myself. The first camera was a wide shot with the character and Ken from the waist up. Then the other was nearly the same angle, but a close-up of the character’s face and trying to follow Ken’s hands while he was working with the makeup. I was nervous about keeping all the brushes in focus — sometimes I got it, sometimes I didn’t, but I always had that wide shot to cut back to when I needed it.

Howcast: What did you learn about makeup?

TA: I’ve never worn any makeup. Even on Halloween, I don’t like how it feels. But I was amazed by the attention to detail. In some cases, you use a powder base, and then for other things, a liquid. Ken had so many brushes and there was so much layering. You do the base, then highlights, then contours, and build and build and build. I never really appreciated it all.

Howcast: Do you have a newfound appreciation for your wife’s makeup?

TA: Definitely a newfound appreciation for all she does in the morning. I should be a bit more patient when we’re trying to get somewhere.

Howcast: So will you use your new makeup knowledge this Halloween?

TA: Maybe I’ll go crazy and do something with makeup, but I don’t know. If I were I woman, I don’t know what I’d do. I remember being Dracula as a kid, and I just couldn’t deal with the makeup — I was in hysterics about it. So my mom washed it all off, and I went in my Little League uniform instead.

– Bene Cipolla, Editorial Director

Shir Moscovitz loves technology — and he wants you to love it, too. Whether it’s teaching Fortune 500 executives to create compelling PowerPoint presentations, or showing senior citizens how to see their grandkids’ photos on Facebook, Shir knows how to make it all less intimidating. We asked Shir about the Excel tutorials he made for Howcast.

Howcast: So what’s sexy about spreadsheets?

Shir Moscovitz: What isn’t sexy about them? What it comes down to is me being a big nerd. I get a lot of joy from discovering better and faster ways to get things done using technology.

Howcast: Why are people afraid of Excel?

SM: It tends to be generational. People who didn’t grow up with Excel think of it as something only math-minded people can do, and they’re afraid that it’s overly complicated.

Howcast: So how do you make learning it less intimidating?

SM: The key is to use everyday language when explaining what it can do, instead of throwing around techno jargon. Also, I focus on teaching functions that are relevant to the person’s business. A lot of computer teachers turn people off by teaching stuff that’s totally unnecessary for most people.

Howcast: You got nominated for a local TV station’s “New Yorker of the Week” honor for giving a free computer class at a senior center. What was that like?

SM: It was a lot of fun. That age group gets marginalized because people assume they don’t want to keep up with technology. But I found they were eager to get up to speed. Even if they didn’t want to use Twitter or set up a Facebook account, they wanted to know what those things were and how they worked so when people referred to them they’d know what they were talking about.

Howcast: You’ve taught salsa, too. How did you get involved in that?

SM: I was always fearful of dancing and took a class as a way of overcoming my fear. I picked it up pretty fast, so I began teaching it. I’ve found that teaching is a great way to learn — whether it’s Excel or salsa — because it forces you to know your subject inside and out.

Howcast: Final thoughts on the virtues of Excel?

SM: When I was using an online dating service, I used it to analyze the responses to my messages to see what worked and what didn’t. I found that women were much more likely to reply to a short message than a long one. In fact, if you or anyone you know is an avid user of OkCupid and would like their response rate analyzed, I would be happy to set that up for them.

Howcast: Er, let’s talk offline…

– Rosemarie Lennon, Senior Writer

When we asked Steven Milton to write the music for a Howcast series of educational children’s songs, he didn’t hesitate. “My plan was to get back at all my friends with children,” says Steve, who’s apparently been forced to listen to one too many tunes for the toddler set. Here’s what Steve had to say about writing songs for kids.

Howcast: First off, We have to ask: Are you the former rubber band ball world record holder Steve Milton?

Steve Milton: No. But I have heard of that guy.

Howcast: Have you ever created music for children before?

SM: I have. After undergrad I was a junior high school teacher for a couple of years, and I’d help write the annual musical. One year I helped the kids compose their own musical. It was cool because at the time I was closer in age to the students than I was to most of the faculty.

Howcast: What was your process in writing the Howcast children’s songs?

SM: I looked at what was out there and also thought about the stuff I liked as a kid, like Schoolhouse Rock! and The Letter People. I found a lot of the stuff today to be very safe and not very interesting. And one thing I learned from teaching children is that they are really just adults without the experience — they still want things that are interesting and cool and fun. So I thought, we could do these lukewarm, or we could just go weird with it and see what happens.

Howcast: Well, we’re glad you went weird. Because weird turned out really well.

SM: Thanks! I just saw the videos myself and I’m really happy. I made all of this music without knowing what the visuals would be, and it turned out that they were even better than what I had envisioned. That was the coolest thing.

Howcast: We do have one bone to pick with you, Steve. We really like the Animal Sounds song — so much so that now we can’t get it out of our head.

SM: You’re welcome.

– Rosemarie Lennon, Senior Writer

Don’t ask Candace Draper how you look in a bathing suit unless you want an honest answer. Her mission is to find the most flattering swimsuit for your body, not tell you what you want to hear. Brace yourself for some brutal truths from Candace in our Howcast swimwear video series and in our Q&A below.

Howcast: How was the shoot?

Candace Draper: Great! Though the models were a little taken aback when I began spraying hairspray on their bottoms. They didn’t know it’s an old pageant trick that keeps the bathing suit in place.

Howcast: What’s the biggest mistake women make when they’re shopping for a swimsuit?

CD: They walk in and ask for the bathing suit that they saw on a celebrity, like Kim Kardashian, but they have a completely different body type. Or they think that a big butt is going to look better covered up. No. A whole lot of Hawaiian print across a big bottom is not the answer. I tell them the half-and-half rule: Showing half skin and half suit is the most flattering look on everyone’s butt. You don’t want Grandma bottoms.

Howcast: Do most women have an accurate idea of what their body looks like?

CD: No. They often think they’re smaller than they really are, so I hear a lot of, “OMG, this suit can’t be a size 4!” Then they start blaming the way their body looks on our dressing room lighting. And I’m standing there thinking, “Do you not own a mirror?”

Howcast: What body area do women worry about most when they buy a bathing suit?

CD: It’s a cross between the butt and the tummy. With the butt, women want whatever they don’t have. Women with large bottoms want smaller ones, and women with flat butts want curvier ones. And nearly every woman has an issue with her stomach, including me. Whenever a customer comes in with a 6-pack, I want to say, “You can just help yourself. I can’t even look at you.”

Howcast: Is there one swimsuit style that flatters most women?

CD:  A one-piece can flatter anyone. La Blanca makes one called Solid As a Rock. It has a sweetheart neckline and rouching detail that’s great if you have a little tummy you want to hide. We’re always selling out of that one.

Howcast: Do you automatically “correct” women’s swimsuit problems in your head when you’re at the beach?

CD: I do!  Just last week I saw a very cute girl in a two-piece that didn’t suit her athletic build. I thought, “If only she had a bottom that tied at the sides, she’d look more curvy and feminine.”

Howcast: Is there anything you see at the beach that just makes you cringe?

CD: Women in suits that are either too small or too baggy. I always suggest that women get a bra fitting before swimsuit shopping, because so many just don’t know their correct size. They’ll say, “I’m a 36D,” and I know just by looking at them that they’re not. But they don’t want to hear it. I’ve actually ripped size tags off tops to get women to try them on.

Howcast: What can women do to make bathing suit shopping less painful?

CD: Get a spray tan before you go. Bring a pair of stilettos — they lift your calves and make your thighs look smaller. And play the Rocky theme in your head.

– Rosemarie L., Senior Writer