Jeffrey is mean

Oh, Robert. We shall miss thee... especially your catty gossip sessions over lunch with Kayne. I'm sorry that you were kicked off when you listened to your client (and she was happy with the outcome!), even though Jeffrey was a meanie who called his client a "crazy bitch" (who also hated his outfit) and is still in the game. Such is reality television. (By the way, Vincent's sister looked unhappy because apparently she has arthritis and was in severe pain walking down the runway. I still love my Robert.)

Anyway, this week's challenge was really unfair and ridiculous. I mean, some of the designers are working with thinner bodies like Uli's mom and Robert's sister, and some others are designing for larger women like Angela's mom and Vincent's sister. HOW MEAN was it for the designers to have to choose? They should've done it randomly or something. The bigger ones all got picked last! :-( How mortifyingly reminiscent of gym class.

Yeah, so Uli should've won. She made Kayne's mom look really stylish and great! But the second that the judges all proclaimed that they loved her, I knew that she wouldn't. Stupid Project Runway judging. But seriously, everyone should read Tim's Take. It's so hilarious because Tim so obviously can't stand That Designer and doesn't think he should've won. But yeah, this was so annoying because you can tell that he just won because the judges are trying to validate his presence at Fashion Week. (Gross.)

I don't have much to say about this episode except that Jeffrey's a bastard, but both Angela and her mom are kind of annoying. :-P Oh well. Jeffrey's mom was surprisingly normal. But I thought the best thing ever was finding out (according to Rucker's Blog) that Uli's father's name is Wolfgang. Wolfgang! That is so cute.

Ooh, so Project Runway is the cover story for this week's Entertainment Weekly. Here's a link if you don't want to pay four bucks to buy it:

http://www.ew.com/ew/report/0,6115,1328871_3_0_,00.html

Funniest quote ever: Unlike most, it can truthfully call itself a meritocracy. Sure, if getting your name picked out of a bag (read: model selection in "Iconic Statement") requires any real merit. According to the article, the judging also takes past performance into account (which really accounts for why That Designer is still here).

Oh, and so for those of you who care (probably nobody except Nicole but she knows this already), tonight's Larry King Live is featuring Tim, the judges, and a bunch of past designers (nobody from this season though). I have my Friday night plans, baby! Haha.

How I spent the afternoon in my cubicle

So today, I went to search something on Google, and I stumbled upon tviv.org for the first time ever. It's basically another wiki site that's purely made for TV-related info. According to the homepage, it launched over a year ago on 27 July 2005, and as of this afternoon, there are 105,268 articles (versus 1.3 million general articles on Wikipedia since 2001).

At first, I was confused (and frankly kind of angry). What is the purpose of this site? Why does it need to exist when the granddaddy of all wiki sites is so deservedly well-known? If you search a show on TV IV, you'll see that most of the articles are in extremely primitive stages and only exist for fairly recent and more popular shows (Family Guy, Lost, etc.). For example, there isn't anything yet for All in the Family or Pacific Palisades or Charles in Charge (just to name a few).

BUT there are actually some TV IV articles that almost surpass the quality of their Wikipedia counterparts! For instance, when I searched Charles in Charge, the second article to pop up in my search was Desmond Hume (no idea why), a character on Lost. Surprisingly, it was pretty extensive, so I checked it against the version on Wikipedia. The TV IV article includes a much more extensive section on Desmond's similarities to Odysseus as well as a link to Kelvin Inman (the guy who was in the hatch before Desmond and recruited Sayid as an interrogator... the entry is pretty extensive considering he's only appeared in two Lost episodes) whereas Wikipedia doesn't even have an entry for Kelvin! What the hell!

(Okay, I realize that due to the nature of wiki, linking all these entries is pretty futile. But this is all true as of this afternoon.)

So what's really the issue here? The issue is that there are good people like me in this world who are trying really hard to get some quality work done in the office. And we cannot do this when all these time-sucking sites keep popping up... and then come their cheap imitators that look pretty dumb but have a certain edge that make us go to their sites anyway. Like Friendster (which, in my defense, I have never visited). Then Facebook came along which, according to my friends who were addicted to Friendster, was a cheap imitation but had the seductive angle of academic elitism (which has since been completely obliterated by the pitiful cries of public university students, but that's another story), so people flocked there. First, the extremely reliable People, then its snarky Manhattanite cousin Gawker (and later their creepy uncle Gawker Stalker). Also, you've got the wide variety of functions on AIM (very early-2000's College Student) versus the low-key simplicity of chatting on Gmail (extremely NOW Post-Grad Cube Monkey). And now, this TV IV business... and their entries for even D-list actors on current shows have really large headshots of very good quality which you would be hard pressed to find on Wikipedia!

Stop this madness! :-( Stop it, I say! I'm trying to get some freakin' work done... AND I CANNOT! Now I'm going to spend a ton of time looking up various TV shows to compare pages and edit all the content to match up in quality! Especially since the only Wikipedia pages that I ever edit are the ones related to TV (and movies... I have diverse interests).

Very annoying.

(Anyway, Lucy's probably the only one who cares... or even made it to the end of this entry... or even reads this blog at all... so thanks, Lucy. I appreciate it.)

I just ate the most disgusting lunch

My lunch today was so unbelievably unsatisfying. I mean, yeah I do appreciate that I have food at all and am afforded the luxury of even being able to classify my food as subpar, but it was still pretty gross.

Lately, my dad has been eating a lot of salads... I guess his cholesterol is high or something. So there's a ton of salad in the fridge. And since I've been eating nothing but PBJ or turkey-and-cheese sandwiches for the past two weeks (except that time when I was suckered into paying $19 for an unworthy Indian buffet at Columbus Circle when I could've paid like $7.95 in Davis Square for an even better selection), I decided to be a grown-up and bring some salad for lunch.

Oh man. It was disgusting. Red peppers and onions (actually those are okay). Celery bits and some lettuce (that's okay too). But this salad consisted mostly of these weird... clover-like plants. It was like eating flower stems! Stems everywhere!

I don't have anything clever or conclusive to say. It was just gross. I shudder just thinking about those stems. I didn't even eat all of them (threw maybe the last third out), but now I'm all... wishing that I had some Nutella so I can get rid of the taste. Yuck.

PS - If you go to www.nytimes.com today, there are some pictures of very fattening-looking Boston Red Sox cookies... YUM...

I want to hurt the people at Bravo

The outcome of tonight's episode was the most unfair, ridiculous, and insulting thing ever in any so-called competition. Omfg. I am still in disbelief that Bravo actually had the gall to keep The Consistently Worst PR Contestant Ever (this guy makes Wendy Pepper look like Coco Chanel) over the adorable and (more importantly) talented Allison Kelly.

This is seriously so ridiculous. I am positively livid. He's been in the bottom three for five of the six challenges, and the one challenge (Designer's Best Friend) where he was lucky (really, it was pure luck) enough to pass without a beating from the judges... well, his outfit was really the ugliest one out of all of them, and I'm not just saying that out of bias. Those leggings? That "dress"? At least past crazies like Santino actually showed some talent.

I can't even comment on the rest of the episode because I'm so furious at Bravo. Is this a joke? Allison has consistently designed some great things, but That Contestant should've been sent home a long time ago... and this week's so-called dress was just awful (and according to Tim, the model couldn't even walk in it). And the producers added that ridiculous comment by Heidi how That Contestant "likes to push the envelope" as a justification (or something) for his still being there. AND HE'S STILL HERE!

He's going to show at Fashion Week. It's so obvious. (I mean, the whole thing with Jia being matched up with a finalist... I was hoping against hope before, but there's really no doubt anymore.) I cannot believe that Bravo is subjecting us to this "drama" bullshit and completely wasting a spot at Fashion Week (not to mention the remainder of the show) instead of showcasing the work of actually talented designers (which is supposedly the purpose of this whole thing, right?). If I didn't love some of the designers so much, I'd just quit watching. I feel like I've been slapped in the face.

Some half-hearted observations:

-I absolutely adore Michael and his work, and I'm thrilled that he's the only designer to have won two challenges, but let's be honest... Jeffrey should've won. He's pretty much a bastard, but his dress was great (especially in the context of the challenge).

-Laura's irate outburst made me a fan for life. Sure, it wasn't the most mature thing, and she was acting in the heat of the moment... but she said everything that nobody else would say. (And did she actually beatbox?)

>:O

Still seething. I hate you, Bravo. I think Tim Gunn does too (read his blog and listen to his podcast... he can't stand That Contestant), but he's contractually obligated to be your puppet. People were drawn to this show because it required actual talent (unlike all other reality shows out there)... but you sold out, Bravo. Shame on you.

Well, as Kayne maturely said, the most important thing is to focus on Allison. We'll miss you, Allison, and the wonderful designs that we won't be seeing because That Contestant supposedly makes good television. (I'm gagging. I am.) But when this is all over, Allison still be working while That Contestant will long be forgotten and mumbling something about "art" in his padded cell.

Captain Save-a-Ho finally gets some airtime

Hooray for Michael! :-) He was actually featured for more than four seconds, and the judges finally picked him as a winner for a challenge! But seriously. What a cool guy. He works hard, he loves his mom, and he even sticks up for freakin' Angela. (Now you REALLY know he's a nice guy.) She's still annoying as hell... and Jeffrey did have every right to be mad at her for messing up a machine even though he could've been less of a bastard about it... but that was pretty sweet of Michael to stick up for his old teammate. Even his little dance was totally cute (not cocky) and actually made Nina smile. Thank you, Chloe Dao, for recognizing Michael's talent when nobody else did.

But seriously. Even though Michael's win was totally deserved... could you imagine any of the judges criticizing an outfit made for Pam Grier? What would they have said? "I experimented with blaxploitation looks with my last spring line, and this is not it"? :-P Haha. Nazri looked amazing, as always, and I'm so excited that these two are paired up together (smart Nazri).

Is anybody else completely terrified of Heidi's frightening "HAHA!" in the Bravo commercials?

But yeah. Poor Bradley. He was picked last again AND auf'd! Sniffle. We'll miss you and your beard, Bradley. TRESemme should really use him in their ads. I mean, he plugged their products for free (which was gosh darn hilarious). Speaking of which, if you check out the TRESemme website, some other models (Vincent's, Allison's, Kayne's) are all featured in ads too! Boo. Totally takes away from Michael's win. :-( Dumb.

So Angela's referring to her rosettes as "fleurchons" (or something) now? Sorry, Angela. A rosette by any other name still looks just as stupid. Her dress wasn't as hideous as I thought it'd be (Audrey Hepburn in a whickety-whack-adorned bubble skirt?), but I still hated the hem. She's lucky that the dress was in black... it would've looked gross in another color (I don't care what Heidi says). I re-watched last week's episode before this one, and she mentioned the Empire State Building unnecessarily in like every other sentence. Annoying.

My poor Robert. :-( I still love him. Even though his outfit was... questionable (okay, I'm biased, he's totally one of my favorites), Tim mentioned in his podcast that Diane von Furstenberg said that she knew Jackie O personally and that she probably WOULD have worn the outfit. Praise from Diane von Furstenberg! Go, Robert!

My top three are still Michael, Robert, and Uli (although she needs to venture out of the halter-dress territory)... Kayne is working his way up there... his dress was awesome (as was his Cher hair-toss)...

I just do not understand how Vincent is still in this competition.

What else? This week's method of weeding out models was totally unfair, Jeffrey quacked a lot, Allison was designing off-camera somewhere, and Laura is still Cool Mommy (even though she makes a mean crack about New Jersey in next week's episode... but then again, if my home state had produced such luminaries like Louis Armstrong, Fats Domino, and Britney "We're Country" Spears, I'd probably look down on the rest of the world too). But yeah, I counted down the weeks left until Fashion Week (since I'm a freak), and I think there's going to be another team challenge (gross) where two designers are going to be eliminated. Team challenges suck. :-P

It's almost the weekend! :-D

Update: Awesome interview with Michael on bravotv.com! Andy Cohen rules.

How 'Snakes on a Plane' is challenging (and changing) Hollywood

In a summer film season chock full of stale television remakes, tired sequels with running gags long past their due, and predictable teen comedies, audiences should regard the little-known writing team of John Heffernan and Sebastian Gutierrez, whose highly anticipated Snakes on a Plane hits theaters August 18, as a breath of fresh air.

Studio executive Pekkle Duck lauds the work of these two relatively unknown screenwriters. "Movie-goers are looking for originality, a story that's never been told. Look at March of the Penguins or Napoleon Dynamite," he said, referencing recent summer sleeper hits. "You can't just bank on a franchise anymore. Mission: Impossible III didn't break even domestically. Audiences are more fickle."

Acclaimed filmmaker David R. Ellis, whose past hits include the enormously successful Final Destination 2 and Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco, directs a diverse cast led by Academy Award nominee Samuel L. Jackson as tortured F.B.I. agent Nelville Flynn in a story about snakes. On a plane.

Veteran film critic Keroppi Frog of the Donut Pond Times notes the critical difference between this snake film and others. "In movies like Anaconda or Aladdin, the snake is always a very one-dimensional villain," Mr. Frog explained. "You don't get a chance to get to know him or why he's trying to kill people. Here, you really get to see these characters ask themselves, 'What makes me slither? Why was I unleashed on this plane?' Whether you grew up in Manhattan, Kansas, or Manhattan, New York, everyone can relate to these issues, and that's really appealing to a mass audience."

Unfortunately, casting proved a bit more rocky. After the title roles were filled in a surprisingly quick series of auditions, casting agent Spottie Dottie found herself at a common fork in the road that many in her line of work encounter. Unlike her peers, however, Ms. Dottie took the film's message of equal opportunity to heart in what she describes as "a life-changing reality check."

"Normally I try to cast mostly skinny white girls and maybe one black guy. I felt like people just liked it better that way. But David really sold me his vision of a multi-cultural cast that reflects today's airline passengers," Ms. Dottie recalled, smiling at the memory. "We got Negroes, chinks, Cher Horowitz, fatties, Canadians, and a guy with funky-tasting spunk. In real life, snakes don't discriminate. And we shouldn't either."

Despite the fact that the film has yet to open, Oscar buzz is already starting to generate. Mr. Heffernan and Mr. Gutierrez are tapped as shoo-ins for a Best Original Screenplay nomination, as are Mr. Jackson and Mr. Ellis for their acting and directing. A source on the set dismisses the speculation with a wave of his hand. "David doesn't give a damn about accolades. He just cares about touching people's hearts. And this film is going to do exactly that."

With only a few precious weeks of summer left, Hollywood insiders and film buffs anticipate a record-breaking opening weekend at the box office. "The diversity, the storytelling... this is going to blow everything out of the water," Mr. Duck predicted. "The success of this picture is going to force Hollywood to really evaluate the quality of movies that's being produced. Mark my words, fifty years down the road, pop-culture fanatics are going to be quoting Sam Jackson's 'I've had it with these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane' in the same breath as Brando and Bogart."

The depletion of the Dollar Menu at McDonald's

This is a pretty upsetting trend that has been happening for the past few years, particularly in Manhattan. I've sort of ignored it since I rarely eat fast food now, but I was craving a McChicken sandwich today (since my lunch from home looked so unappetizing... roast beef and cheese on wheat, if you care) only to go to the McDonald's "restaurant" at 56th and 8th to discover that the McChicken was almost $3 there! What the hell!

This location's "Dollar Menu" consisted of three pathetic items: the parfait (yuck), two apple pies (who orders this?), and something else that I don't remember (but was probably unappealing if I can't remember it). Pretty sad. To their credit, at least this location HAD a Dollar Menu. Some don't even have any! But Dollar Menus used to consist of tons of items! Small fries, cheeseburgers, McChicken sandwiches, small drinks, fajitas, ice cream cones, etc. In high school, my friends and I would shun the Value Meals in favor of a $1 drink, $1 fries, and $1 McChicken. And it was gosh darn wonderful. Now, small fries are like $1.39 (so was the cheeseburger). That stupid McChicken (which I obviously bought anyway) was $2.-something. Even the gosh darn HAMBURGER (who buys McDonald's hamburgers?) was $1.29!

Anyway. I refuse to blame this on regular inflation. Instead, I choose to blame the terrorists who are infringing on our God-given rights for even the poorest Americans to get fat. I mean, honestly! $1.29 for a HAMBURGER?

:-P

I'm still mad about the McChicken.

I loathe Bank of America

But I love Project Runway. :-) Check out the newest preview on www.bravotv.com/Project_Runway...

What happened with the models and designers? Looks like people got new models, i.e. Michael with Nazri. :-D I am SO excited for that combination. Maybe Michael will finally get some respect. The previews make it look like the judges aren't happy with his design... and I'm hoping that means that they will be because the editors always cut up the footage to be all tricky!

Also, notice that Angela is supposed to be doing an updated outfit for Audrey Hepburn. (Feel free to join me in my guffaw-fest.) With any luck, she'll put her "signature" rosettes all over the thing and finally get cut. I don't think anybody mentioned immunity for the last challenge.

I spent the afternoon watching Child Star Confidential in my pajamas. Sigh.

Keith Michael is ridiculous

It's really too bad that Keith is gone. His stuff was really pretty and well-made... but he's ridiculous for thinking that production was "one-sided" about the whole controversy thing. I mean, rules and rules, and he signed a contract (plain and simple) that he would not be in possession of fashion books of whatever kind (even menswear). And he broke those rules. I mean, the contract could've said, "I will not eat any apples during the production of this show," and if he signed an agreement to not eat apples but did it anyway, he should get kicked off for doing that even if it in no way helped his designs.

http://people.aol.com/people/article/0,26334,1222957,00.html

I'm making no sense. Anyway, Keith mentioned his boyfriend in this article, so now we know... he's gay. I guess he's really too pretty to be straight, but I was really confused by his man-handling of Miss USA. That seemed like something a creepy straight guy would do. But yeah, my friend Nicole (who works at NBC) saw him at 30 Rock yesterday, trying to hide behind sunglasses. Sneaky little thing. But I still find him strangely intriguing.

Tim Gunn was on Late Night last night. Tim and Conan together. Sigh. I love Tim Gunn. I love Conan. It was a glorious episode.

I like Jumi

Thanks for being my first comment-leaver. :-) I didn't even realize that you had to have an account to comment (that's the default, I guess) so I changed that. This is a dumb way to leave a message, but I realized that I didn't know how else to get this across to you.

You should totally check out Blogging Project Runway if you don't already. They update it like ten times a day. It's awesome.

By the way, Macy's probably commissioned like 50 outfits just to be able to say that it sold out quickly. I thought the outfit looked great, but frankly, I don't know where you'd really wear that. I thought Daniel and Andrae's BR outfit was much more... wearable to places.

Looks like Miss YSL Ohio breaks a machine in the next episode and refuses to fix it or something. How annoying. But yeah, I hope there are no more team challenges... I'm getting really sick of those. And I felt so sad for Bradley when he said he felt like the kid who got picked last for kickball! :-( Sniffle. But I love Michael so much more for (initially, at least) being annoyed that Angela picked him. Haha.

That skirt! Those pants!

I mean... does she look into the mirror in the morning and think she looks okay? Those are hideous clown clothes! That multicolored monstrosity of a skirt... then those pants that look like she peed out a rainbow or something! WTF! And she has immunity now! Gross. TWO MORE WEEKS (at least) of Angela and her rosette-adorned bubble skirts!

Sigh. Well, the outfit was great, but... There would have been no win for her had Laura and Michael not tamed the beast, as Tim Gunn put so eloquently. (And also thanks to Jay McCarroll whose stunning Chrysler Building dress probably inspired Angela's Empire State Building idea. Copycat!) And Michael styled the model! Hooray! But it's pretty ridiculous for team leaders to be the only ones who are susceptible to elimination or eligible for immunity. Just for that reason, it was obvious that Angela's outfit (and not Keith's) was going to win... I mean, who would've gotten immunity? Jeff or Allison?

Speaking of which, Keith's elimination was totally anti-climactic. Although you definitely saw the extent of his bastard-ness... I mean, he haggled prices at Mood (doubt that's allowed), left production to go online, brought fashion books (hello, you're on a reality show with cameras), and after the casting special aired, we find out that he copied sketches from other designers for his PR audition. Shrug. Oh well. Lucky for him, he's pretty good-looking.

But yeah, did anybody notice that Vincent picked Jia again? I was so excited when they were able to change models since Jia is definitely one of the top three models for Fashion Week... and it's looking more like he somehow defied Good Taste to make it to the end... please no...

Anyway, in other news, today at the pool, my goggles snapped at one point so I started swimming with my head above the water. I could overhear the conversation between these two 60-ish ladies, and they're talking about their lives, and at one point, the louder woman in her Cuban accent proclaims to the other, "Maybe you just need a good HUMP!" before starting to cackle madly. The other woman agreed, and then the Cuban lady advised her not to tickle the guy's penis because you can't do that anymore at their age... SO... basically, I just wanted to die. So I left.

Whenever I hear the word "tickle," I'm now going to think about an old man's penis. Help.

Michael Knight, why must you remain so elusive?

Michael is my favorite designer on Project Runway... and he's barely had any screen time! :-( Blogging Project Runway (a ridiculously awesome and comprehensive PR site) has no record of any website, he's the ONLY one so far not to have been called out by the judges as either the best or the worst (which is incomprehensible since his coffee-filter dress should've won the first challenge, and his criss-cross dress was definitely one of the best in the last episode), and he STILL remains a man of few words in one of the few interviews online... which only fuels the mystery and allure!

http://www.dailycandy.com/article.jsp?ArticleId=26678&city=12

I'm hoping that this lack of early screen time indicates his longevity on the show as well as (at LEAST) a top-three finish (a la Daniel Vosovic who was barely featured in the beginning of the second season).

Michael Knight, I love you! And I don't hold the fact that David Hasselhoff played a character with your name in Knight Rider against you!