What, no posts?

Yeah, uh. There was this thing where I hated the challenges and outcomes of PR episode 4 and then I got sick again again, and I'm sure someday I'll have something else to say, but for now, eh, no one really reads this anyhow, so it's not like I'm letting anyone down by delaying posting. Enjoy your holidays! (There's no more. Go home.) (Continue reading...)

PR Episode 3 rundown

I'm going off the Bravo TV pictures again so if I misidentify a colour because of that you'll forgive me, I hope. Or maybe I'll just avoid naming colours at all, that might be safer...

First off, a note about Elisa: I notice that she has that same "Wow, check out the planet I'm on, I kinda like it here" look when she's caught casually as when she knows she's on camera, so I'm now about 95% sure it's not an act. She really is just sorta out there. Yay, out there!

Also, I still like Chris, I like Jack even more now than I did before, and Kit may actually be moving into "clothes I can root for" for me, despite that first thing she put out. On the flip side, I'm totally over Rami and still don't like Christian, who should still brush his hair.

Okay, first off, the challenge: design a menswear outfit for Today host and former football player Tiki Barber, which is a kinda cool challenge since making the designers step out of their comfort zone is definitely a challenge. Some people are dissing the challenge because the Today show is bland or whatever, but since Tiki said he likes a little extra colour or interesting texture, they had some room for creativity, and considering how much they struggled with the basics, I'm pretty sure giving them even fewer guidelines would've resulted in more hot messes.

I was a little disappointed with the results. I realize that menswear is a very different proposition from women's clothing, and if you're used to the latter the former can be really tough, but they were also given considerably more time in this challenge than average, which should've made up for it. In addition, the sharing of Jack's shorts-based pattern should've helped speed things up. I'm not sure I understand why they struggled so much with this given the extra time (a day and a half is something like three times what they got for the Bitten challenge), even though I'm aware that men's clothing is generally more tailored... I don't know. Maybe it really is 4 times harder.

By the way, Rami is a little bitch, isn't he? I mean, Jack specifically asked on camera if tracing the existing clothes was okay, and was told yes, and then later said he'd asked about sharing, and was told that was okay, too, so what the hell was Rami sniping about? Especially since his outfit wasn't all that great anyhow.

So, Tiki Barber, who I don't know much about other than what was said on the show (I stopped watching football a while back for some reason and don't really watch talk shows), seems like a nice guy, and it seems like he was trying hard to critique fairly when the runway show happened, which makes two episodes in a row where the guest judge was pretty cool, which is a nice contrast to Top Chef's guest judges, who are often assholes.



And, congratulations Jack! Even though he didn't do his vest (and I wish he had, since I'd love to have seen it) what he did make, tailoring flaws aside, was a nice design. I think the double-stripes thing saved it from being boring, especially with the bias-cut details. It had some nice touches, and it was a pretty nice outfit, so I'm not going to bitch about the win, even if I understand why some people were all 'eh' about it. (I'm looking at you guys, Project Rungay.)

I didn't like Kit's as much, mostly because I'm not a huge fan of putting together dark jackets with light pants, though I realize that's an opinion, not a fashion rule. And I think the judges were right that her choice of fabric made the outfit more interesting. The shirt seemed a little odd in the collar, but collars are probably one of the hardest parts of a fitted outfit, so I'm not surprised. If she'd won, I would've been okay with it.



The bottom two... I saw them coming. Carmen, I actually was starting to like her, but what she had was a hot mess... and she knew it was. I feel really bad for her, because honestly it must kinda suck to go home for a design of something you're never likely to make again, but I can't disagree that it was a pretty bad outfit.

I really wish I had a TiVo, because I remember agreeing Ricky's outfit was not very good, but the picture I have to work off of doesn't remind me why. I also remember being pretty sure he was going to go from the commentary, so when they named Carmen I was a little surprised... but only a little, cuz, well, see above.

(Note to self: win lottery and buy better TV and a TiVo.)



Jillian's was eh. I feel like I should like it more, since honestly it wasn't bad, but I just really didn't.

Christian's... I didn't like it, and it didn't fit his model well. The jacket had some potential, but, again, eh.

Rami is lucky no one called him on his trip to the 80s with that Members-Only-reminiscent jacket, an irony since another Carmen was called on a resemblance to said jackets. Seriously, throw a couple of useless loops of fabric on there and I'm pretty sure I owned that jacket in 25 years ago.

Sweet P's shirt and tie were a mess, but the pants looked really good, and may've been the single best-fitting thing up on the runway. I'm pretty sure she was in no real danger of going home, and I'm glad she didn't.

Steven had something really funky going on with his collar, and the pants were too long (but they didn't know their models' dimensions in advance, I don't think, and pants can be hemmed), but the idea looked pretty solid.

Victorya's was kinda interesting, but I wish she'd get off black and white. I thought the jacket was really pretty cool, though. I suspect she should've been a contender for the win again, and this time with an outfit I didn't hate, but I think Tiki wanted colour, so maybe that's why not.

Kevin's purple shirt was way too intense (Dear Kevin: You keep telling us you're straight, but then you do things like this!), and the fit wasn't great, but it was a solid idea with some interesting touches. I think if it'd been put together a little neater it would've been a contender, too. Also, I forgot to snag a picture of it when I was doing the composite above, but trust me, I'm saving you from the purple.



My boy Chris was a little unimaginative in colour, which is kinda funny given his background and some of the things we've seen him wear, but it looked like it fit well. If he'd done a different colour for just one piece maybe it would've worked better... but I liked the outfit as an outfit, and as usual he did one of my favorite pieces.

And Elisa's may have been the most interesting and imaginative, though I question her colour choices (but not, I note, her fabric). I think what got her was the rather raw look of the shirt. It's not a bad shirt, but it's not right for the challenge quite; if she'd done a different neckline I think she could've been a contender for the win. Alas, I don't think what she did was Tiki's style.

So... just curious... when do we get to see the evidence this is the "best group of designers yet"? I'm waiting. I mean, I'm not saying they're bad, but so far I've been unwowed by most of the outfits sent down the runway.

Lastly, the Tim summary: seemed like he was a bit more there than the last couple weeks, but still not enough commentary from him. It's like they trot him out to make some taglines and show maybe two pieces of commentary. Come on, Bravo... you know he's one of the reasons PR is so popular, so stop cutting his airtime! (Continue reading...)

Bizarre colour changes, so new notes

Okay, it's not just me, right? The pictures I posted of Kit and Chris's outfit were BLACK, right? And I remembered it as black, too. But it's not. So...

I think I want to come down even more firmly on their side as having put together a cute outfit now that I've seen pictures of it in brown. Like, completely, totally brown, top and bottom. Granted, I wouldn't wear an all-brown outfit, so the comments I made before sort of apply, but at least it's two different shades of brown. If they'd done the leggings/capris (and now I'm not sure which it is, as I thought both were capri outfits but they appear to be both legging outfits now that I've gotten to see more pictures of them) in black and the top they did, I think I wouldn't have had anything bad to say about the outfit at all... and it definitely fits the line. So I think they should've gotten more props and Kit should've been a contender for the winner.

This is not the first time a Bravo picture or my perception of an outfit has later been contradicted by someone else's screencaps, either. Maybe it's their TV (their model looks a lot browner than I remember, too), but I'm pretty sure it's not entirely. I don't know. I'll try to keep a better eye out on it in the future. (Continue reading...)

Editing Episode 2

Okay, boys and girls, it's Photoshop time again! That's right, I've taken the losing outfit (Marion's) from Episode 2 and the two all-black capri+top outfits that I think needed some colour, and made some changes to them with my favorite editing tool. As with last time, the editing's a bit rough, but I think you'll get the idea.

First off, Marion's design:



While it does look better in less drab colours and with less knitty-looking fabric, unfortunately I think it still would've been in the bottom. The shape of the top is just... off. I think I see what he was trying to do and it was an interesting idea, but I think actually it would've worked far better paired with leggings or tights and done as a dress (with it extending a bit lower, obviously).

Kit's design (I think I got the shape of the top right, it was hard to see the line between top and pants):



I took the colour from the bracelet; I can't imagine it'd cost any more; brown is still an inexpensive colour. Incidentally, I also took a look at it in blue and that worked, too. And it definitely looks better to me than the all-black version.

Rami's design:



I took the colour from the bag, and it goes really well with the necklace as well (the headband has also been tinted slightly). Again, I can't imagine it'd cost any more, though I also took a look at how it'd look in green (also nice), and again, with a bit more contrast, I think this works better.

So, I stand by my statement: I wish both Kit and Rami (or their partners) had decided to not go monotone, and I wonder what would've happened if they hadn't. I suspect that Kit's would've been considered too simple, alas (which is a shame as I rather like it in part because it is simple, and fits the aesthetic of the Bitten line IMO), but maybe Rami would've gotten more attention. Not that he needs it. :) (Continue reading...)

PR #2, it leaves me blue

Yeah, I'm still sick, do you care? No, because no one is reading this. Well, that's okay, I'm writing it anyhow, albeit several days later than I meant to. And then I'll go on to work on Thanksgiving dinner. Yes, I'm serious; because of illness, we put the turkey-making off. You don't care about that either. It's okay, I forgive you; I wouldn't care either.

Anyhow, I want to take back everything I said about thinking Elisa should've gone home last week.

Yeah, that's right. I decided I love her. She's outré, and she knows it, but she's willing to take a left turn into our world and see how it works for her. It's great. And while I still wasn't thrilled with her outfit this week, I see that she does know what she's doing, and want to see what else she's going to do. If she wins the whole thing—which unfortunately I suspect is unlikely—I will laugh and laugh and laugh. Also, I take back any comparisons to Vincent. She's crazy, but she's actually a) talented and b) not scary so much as just... odd.

Okay, let's talk about the challenge. I don't have the serious love for Sarah Jessica Parker so many others do, mainly because I've never seen "Sex in the City", but I have seen her in interviews and such and she does strike me as an interesting person... and she was super-nice on the show, obviously thrilled to be part of it. I don't really know anything much about her clothing line, but it looks like it might be decent enough, and if their profit philosophy really does boil down to "we'll just take a fair profit and make it up on volume", then I really like them even if the clothes are more or less another Wal*Mart alternative. (They look like they might be better, though.)

Even without that in mind, the challenge was a great one... the idea of restricting these guys to $15 worth of fabric and making them make something reasonably fashionable and everyday out of it is just a terrific way to see how creative they are, IMO, and that's what all challenges should be about. Love the reactions people had to the budget, it was funny.

So, let's skip past all the work and to the clothes, except for mentioning that watching Elisa work and Sweet P's reaction to it was really, really funny.

First off, let me say, given the constraints, I am surprised that several designers managed to do the jacket/cap/vest thing and keep it under budget. That part was impressive. The clothing? Less so.

Once again, VictorYA (working with Kevin) made a shapeless dress, and bogglingly, won with it. I didn't like it. I liked the idea of a dress with a vest, but not the execution. Plus if you're going to make a black dress, why not give the vest a more intense colour? I did like the racer-back on the vest, but I think it hung oddly on the model.

The other contender for the win was Elisa's dress. She went with blue again, and I wonder if that's her signature colour or just a concidence? She paired it with a nice mid-tone grey for the cape. I don't like capes, and I'm not sure how practical it is to have one. The dress itself was not bad, nothing special though. But between her and VictorYA I'd rather she had won. Neither was my personal favorite.

So who did I like?



Ricky (working with Jack) gets my favorite of the week with this dress. I'm not too sure how well the butchy '80s styling would work for some people, but I actually kinda liked it, and aside from that, it's a cute dress in a pretty colour—not sure I'd look good in that colour myself but it's still a nice one. And I like the belt, though it might work better with a different one. Maybe it was a little too intense for the Bitten line, I don't know; most of what I've seen of it is in calmer colours. I'm not sure I like the sleeves, but overall it's nice.

In terms of actual cut and style, I also liked the top+capri outfits that Kit (with Chris) and Rami (with Jillian) put together, but I wish both of them had used something besides all-black. I hated the hair on Rami's model, too. Still, they're both the exact type of thing I could see myself going into a store and trying on, nice, normal, semi-sporty, inexpensive clothes. If they'd gone with some different-coloured shirts it just would've had more oomph, and maybe given one or both teams a better shot at the win.

The bottom two? Yeah, they deserved to be the bottom two. Marion (working with Steven) produced a depressing, stretchy, misshapen outfit, and Christian (working with Carmen) made a completely mind-boggling jacket, though the dress itself seemed fine. And as much as I hate to say it, since Marion seems like a nice enough guy, the aufing was deserved, because at least in Christian's case you could see the design and the construction and fabric choices were all fairly good... I don't know if anything could've salvaged Marion's other than starting over from scratch. I'm hoping Christian got a bit of a wakeup call there, but I doubt it. And someone please cut his hair, okay?

All in all I wasn't terribly wowed with the outfits this week... which makes two weeks in a row where I've been wondering why Tim Gunn keeps saying this is the best group yet.

BTW, I don't think we saw enough Tim this week but he looked extremely dapper (as usual) and seemed pretty happy to have SJP as the guest, though with him sometimes it's hard to tell if he's truly pleased or just being polite. And I loved his suit.

I think I'll throw together a 'what if' recolouring of the two all-black capri outfits later today, and to be fair I'll do one for Marion, though honestly I'm not sure it'll matter. (Continue reading...)

A little editing can make a big difference

Seriously, I just wanted to see what would happen if a few things from PR4E1 were a slightly different color...

The picture editing's a little rough, but you should be able to get the idea. [Edited to include comparisons]


Rami's dress is, I think, rather prettier in a less grey colour. I pulled the flower off, too, and while it's probably an improvement, the area needs something, IMO, so maybe that was what the impulse was... just a place to gather things.



I think Simone's dress really just needed a bit different colour choices, though I guess even with a bit more oomph, it's still a little odd-looking (and that's not just the difficulty I had editing around the ribbon, alas).




And I maintain that with a different fabric for the dress, Sweet P's offering would have been delectable. I've seen people harsh on it for its shape but honestly I think they're more reacting to the very bleh oatmeal colour she actually used. It's got some adorable trim (I took the blue from the shoulder trim) and while the shape is a little shapeLESS it's still curvier than, say, Victorya's thing (which oddly people liked). I definitely want to see more of her stuff.


So, I might make this a regular after-show feature, since it was so fun to do, but no promises. (Continue reading...)

Poor Health Killed the Cat, Project Runway Brought Her Back

Not that anyone really noticed my little hiatus, I'm sure, but I did mean to post more about various things between my last and this first Project Runway Season 4 post. Well, as they say, execrement occurs. Shall we move on to PR?

So, already I'm kinda questioning the judges. Oh, don't get me wrong; Rami's pretty grey dress isn't by any means bad—quite the opposite. It was pretty and flowing and they had $50,000 worth of fabric to choose from and he made a grey dress...

Okay, let's back up. *rewinds* Let's back up to initial impressions of the designers, in no particular order:

• Chris: I know, everyone's said it already, but he really does remind me at least a bit of Jay. They do at least both seem to have an irreverant sense of humor, and the ability to poke fun at the world instead of blowing up at it, but we'll see how Mr. March distinguishes himself as time goes on.


• Jillian: Spoiled. Little. Rich. Girl. Okay, maybe it was a mistake to watch her bio tape (I blame the boys at Project Rungay for linking to it), but now all I can see whenever I see her is her jumping up and down demanding to be on the show... and honestly the way she acted when she got on the show? Didn't change that impression in the slightest.


• Rami: Rami is too sexy for his shirt, too sexy for his shirt, so sexy it hurts, too sexy. Or something. I mean, yeah, he's kinda hot, but really I hope there's a bit more to him than that, and that we'll get to see it.


• Elisa: Umm... did anyone else notice that... um... she's a little... strange? Anyone?


• Christian: Honey, you're 21, you're not old enough to have that much of an ego. Put the ego down before it crushes you. (Though to be fair, I did see a few signs a lot of that is just the way he presents himself rather than something he takes too seriously. We'll see.) Also, will someone please get this boy a better haircut? Please, I'm begging you.


• Jack: No strong impression of his personality so far, which is a shame as he had one of my favorite actual dresses so I feel I ought to have more to say about him. Well, maybe he's quiet, or the cameras didn't like him enough, or something.


• Carmen: I took a bit of a dislike to her on first viewing, and I don't know why, exactly. It's a little early to be forming strong opinions, though, so maybe I'll end up really liking her, who knows?


• Kevin: Was he in this episode? Really? Oh, right, I remember him putting that silver thing on the dress, and thinking it looked like something I'd seen someone else do, and then I forgot about it... um. Right, didn't make a strong impression, I guess.


• Simone: I don't think we got to see her enough for me to really have a strong impression of her, but I really don't think she was as ungrounded as the edits made her look. Sorry, Simone, I wish we could've gotten to know you better.


• Kit: Um. Hrm. I know they showed her. I'm sure of it. Well, um. I'll let you know what I think after I see the next episode, or something.


• Ricky: For a few moments, during one of the confessionals, I was very afraid he was going to be overly emotive like that one thing with Andrae that one time... but then he just sorta faded into the background for me. Sorry!


• Marion: Did they show him at all? Other than the brief intro? Seriously. Well, he had a good bio video, so I hope we see more of him.


• Steven: Say, Steven... are you gay? I was just wondering if you might be gay. What with your bio video and all. It wasn't clear. Are you? Gay? I'm just saying.. that impression from the bio video? It really stuck with me. He seems like he's probably fairly nice and has a sense of humor, though, so hopefully we'll see more of him later.


• Sweet P: They didn't seem to spend much time on her, either. I hate that editing thing where the middle folks get almost no camera time. Anyhow, I don't yet have a very strong impression of her because of that.


• Victorya: I'm sorry, she didn't make much of an impression, possibly because I was too busy wondering every time her name came on the screen if that was a typo. Sad, I know.

Okay, so that's the people. Now... the challenge. OMG, have the world's easiest first challenge. 50 grand worth of beautiful fabrics from Mood? Okay, granted, 12 hours is not a generous amount of time, but when you can have the terrific fabric, you can still do some nice things with it, right?

So why am I yawning? Aside from being out of coffee, that is.

First off, let's go back to Rami, since he won. Yes, the dress is draped beautifully. I'm not keen on the flower—a braided gather or something would've been nicer—but I don't want to pull it off and stomp on it, either (unlike a certain other flower on a certain other dress). But... seriously. Plain grey fabric? If you're going to do something that whooshes and cascades all over, why not do it in something more interesting? A print, or a more eye-catching colour? No? Just me? Okay, fine.



My favorites were Jack's and Chris's outfits. Jack had a really nice print which worked well on the silhouette he chose, and he paired it with a really eye-catching bright solid for accents. It was lovely. Chris used an absolutely gorgeous dark purple and a matching purple and gold print. I wasn't 100% happy with that thing in the back, but the front was beautiful and the fabrics went so well together that I forgive him.

Biggest Mouth That Should've Shut Up: Jillian. Honey, picking a bright orange-red does not make you daring or whatever you were claiming. I forget what word you used because I am already tired of you. It's not even a pretty colour IMO. And the dress itself? Ugh, bubble skirt. Plus way to make up your model to look like you. *eyeroll*

Bottom two: Between Elisa and Simone? I would've gotten rid of Elisa. I understand they kept Elisa because the part of her dress that was not an obnoxious "the rest of my fabric bag got accidentally sewn to my dress" train was really, really well put together, and Simone's was less so, but I think Simone had a better idea... the dress would've been a lot cuter with better fabric choices, and the jacket was adorable.

Anyone else thinking Elisa is this year's Vincent? Crazy, gets kept on the show when you're not sure why... anyone?

Neither of the bottom two were actually my least favorite, though. That distinction goes to Victorya. I'm sorry, the big flower (stompinate!) and the shapeless dress did nothing for me. And that whole "I bind my model's arms" thing? Yeah, your kink is fine, but can you not show it on national TV, kthxbai?

Christian surprised me. I was not expecting him to make something that looked like that. Really, I'm not sure what I did expect, but that wasn't it. And that skirt? Boring colour. Seriously. But the jacket was nice.

Steven's dress was nice. But again, can I say: all that fabric, and what you made was a black dress with a red accent? Oh, and maybe some trim on the sleeves... hrm. A better look at that might be in order.

I'm not sure what's up with that asymmetrical jacket thing Kit did. I like the dress (and a nice little print, yay!) but the jacket thing sorta... threw me. It was very odd.

I like the basic combination of things on Kevin's dress, but I'm not sure how I feel about the cut of that... bodicy silver thingie. It seems off somehow. But props for one of the best pairs of shoes chosen as well as nice, simple styling for the model.

Carmen... uh. Well, interesting that she choose to go with pants... they're pretty nice pants, too. And since I was complaining about all the plain colours, I shouldn't complain about her top thingie, only it went a bit too far the other way. A little too much oomph.

I'm still not sure what I think about Sweet P's dress. I like the shape, and the trim, but I'm not keen on the actual fabric chosen for the dress itself as combined with the trim chosen. Different trim or different main fabric? Not sure which'd have worked better for me.

Marion... completely unfinished. The raw draping of the skirt is nice but the lack of hems (don't say "deconstructed", I'll hurt you) is just very eye-drawing. On the plus side, it distracts from that... thing... on the top. I'm not sure what's up with that.

And I think that just leaves Ricky. I can see why they weren't totally impressed, but I think that's a cute little dress with a great fabric choice. Yes, it's simple, but the fabric really works for it, which I think elevates it a bit. Eh, it's early on, we'll see if he gets more creative with more time to settle in.

So... that's it. Go home! Or, well, come back next week, when at the very least there should be a new Project Runway post. I'd say I'll be trying to fill in some of the other pendings, but I've got the chest cold from hell, so I'm not promising anything. (Continue reading...)

Why do people like Emily?

In reading through other blogs about Top Chef I keep seeing people referring to Season 2's Emily as, oh, edgy, funny, interesting. They love her. Absolutely wonderful. Over the same incidents that made me hate her. WTF?

Okay, first of all, there's the kids thing. Like, oh my god! I sure hope that my ice cream customers aren't kids! It's ice cream, bitch, kids are a normal part of that target market. Give them the ice cream, let them leave, move on. Anyone can deal with kids in tiny doses, except our Emily, who hates kids and apparently took lessons on how to gracefully handle clients one does not prefer from Tiffani Faison. Seriously, if they were serving, I don't know, mixed drinks, would she hope they wouldn't be handing them out to a bunch of testosterone-laden drunks? Because I'd much rather deal with a kid for 2 minutes than one of those for 2 seconds—and I'm not really a big rugrat fan either.

Secondly, there was the whole "fat ass and four teeth" thing. Okay, I realize that it's considered okay to pick on fat people still, but a) I don't think it's okay, b) if you're going to pick on someone for their looks, you better be a beauty queen yourself or you suddenly make yourself fair game for similar criticism, and c) "not enough sugar" is a perfectly valid complaint for ice cream, which most people like sweet. I realize sweet is a foreign concept to Chef Baggy-Eyed, Spare-Tired, Man-Jawwed, Scarily-Pale, Boring-Ice-Cream-Making Emily, but really, that's what most people want, I promise, and did I mention that if you're going to pick on someone else's looks, you'd better be a beauty queen yourself? Guess who I find really significantly unattractive?

What would she have done if the customer complaining was thin? "Like your scraggly-ass thin self has eaten enough ice cream to know what tastes good" wouldn't have been as good of theater, and I bet most of you wouldn't be laughing at it. But, no, it's okay to pick on the fat chick. That's funny. No, it's not. It's a bitchy way to ignore your customer's complaint... and since Emily was crucified during the elimination challenge for a seasoning problem, I bet it was a valid complaint, too.

I think Emily went into Top Chef wanting to be Season 2's Tiffani (they even have some of the same poses and a bit of the same look to them, though Tiffani's far better-looking), and frankly, I don't understand that, because look at how fans reacted to Tiffani... why repeat that? Or maybe she just thought "I will say these things that make me look like a tough woman", which apparently a lot of people bought. But "tough" is not the same thing as "petty-minded bitch", and learning the difference would be a good thing for everyone, especially Emily. (Continue reading...)

Project Runway Canada, Not Really My Thing

(We'll return to Top Chef soon.)

So, courtesy of Blogging Project Runway, I got a chance to see the first episode of Project Runway Canada. I'm afraid I haven't bothered watching episode 2.

Okay, in full disclosure, I must admit, I'm not a fan of Iman. Her accent drives me nuts... she's been living in the U.S. (well, with time in England) for 30 years and she still has an accent I find difficult to understand, and I'm sorry if that makes me petty but I don't enjoy listening to her. And, honestly, I don't find her nearly as attractive as others seem to. I know high cheekbones are usually associated with beauty, but hers just don't seem to fit her basic face shape. (On the other hand, at least unlike some models she looks like she eats regularly; she's got a great shape with nice curves and doesn't remind me a skellington as way too many models do these days, and considering her age she looks damn good.)

So, I admit I was a bit predisposed to not enjoy her as a hostess, but really, I don't feel she stacks up to Heidi Klum. Yes, Heidi was a bit awkward in Season 1 of Project Runway. Yes, Heidi's accent was more pronounced then. Yes, given some time, Iman could very well become more polished at it just like Heidi did (by season 3, Heidi was rocking the hostessing like nobody's business, after all). But I still think Heidi's delivery of the stock lines was better even in Season 1... and the lines themselves were a lot better. (That latter may not be Iman's fault in the slightest, though.)

So, there's that.

Then there's their mentor. Brian Bailey may be a really nice guy (there was certainly some evidence of it) but he just is not Tim Gunn. Now, again, I have some bias here: I love Tim Gunn to death in his role on PR, as I've said already. Obviously, it would take someone pretty amazing to come off well in any comparison to him. But... really, Bailey just doesn't do it for me in any way. Again, maybe it's because it's early days. Maybe he'll settle down a lot and turn into a lovable (if obviously far more blunt) mentor in his own right.

I'm afraid I just don't really care enough to find out, though.

Maybe with a season under their belts to polish it up and iron out the wrinkles in the lines they'll start putting out a show I'd like. I mean, first seasons are often awkward, and I didn't see the first season of PR until after I'd seen the second (though I actually like Season 1 better in most ways so I'm not sure that would've mattered). But really, from the judges to the contestants to the clothes themselves I wasn't terribly impressed overall, so I'm not likely to give this one too much more attention for now. If it makes it to a second season, maybe I'll give it another look. (Continue reading...)

Top Chef Contestants Overview: Season 2

My rundown of Season 2's chefs (contains elimination spoilers).

Contestants in Order of Elimination

Chef: Suyai ("Soo-jye") Steinhauer
Personality: She seemed nice, but we didn't get to see her very long.
Cooking: Not enough to be able to tell.
Stand-out moments: Being gleeful about flambé.
Elimination notes: Her nerves got the better of her, which is a shame, but understandable.

Chef: Otto Borsich
Personality: A little weird, but in a nice way.
Cooking: Gone too soon to stand out in any way for me.
Stand-out moments: Lychee-gate (see below).
Elimination notes: Self-eliminated as the combination of the possibly-stolen lychees and his absence while returning them hurt his team.

Chef: Emily Sprissler
Personality: Came off a bit bitchy.
Cooking: Nothing memorable, really.
Stand-out moments: Bitching about having to serve ice cream to kids. Hear my eyes rolling? They are rolling.
Elimination notes: Eliminated for salting her dish into inedibility. Also, honestly, how surf-and-turf is a childhood classic, I don't know.

Chef: Marisa Churchill
Personality: Bland, despite the sex-kitten attempt.
Cooking: Well, you could tell she's a pastry chef.
Stand-out moments: "This is what happens when pastry chefs handle sharp knives."
Elimination notes: Eliminated with teammate Josie for some not-so-great-looking "palate cleansers". Honestly I give her props for having the balls to try to expand herself from "pastry chef" to "top chef", but I didn't really think she'd win.

Chef: Josie Smithe-Malave
Personality: Loud, cheerful, slightly braying.
Cooking: I'm forced to admit I barely remember what she cooked.
Stand-out moments: Her laugh, which was, erm, memorable.
Elimination notes: Eliminated with teammate Marisa for what I also could call a "questionable intermezzo". Sort of a pity, I'd like to have seen what else she could do, provided she didn't laugh anymore.

Chef: Carlos Fernandez
Personality: Seemed like a really nice guy overall
Cooking: Seemed oddly uninspired considering what he went on to do.
Stand-out moments: Sitting around not doing anything besides salad.
Elimination notes: Eliminated for pretty much just sitting around not doing anything besides salad. Now has his own web show, Miami Spice, on which he does more complex dishes in less time... go fig.

Chef: Frank Terzoli
Personality: Macho, prone to bullying.
Cooking: Sloppy, venturing into strange.
Stand-out moments: Threatening Marcel with a beating.
Elimination notes: Shoulda gone when he did the insane Alice in Wonderland thing, IMO, but his poor showing at the beach breakfast got him instead. Also, goodbye bully!

Chef: Mia Gaines-Alt
Personality: Tough lady with a hard past, and it showed, but maybe a little too by design.
Cooking: Sounded really good overall, clearly influenced by Southern styles.
Stand-out moments: Cooking despite being sick; giving up her place for someone else.
Elimination notes: For all that I don't like that she backstabbed people a couple times, I have to give her serious credit for volunteering to go home rather than let Elia—who she considered more talented—be eliminated. If she hadn't left, she might've made it to the finals.

Chef: Betty Fraser
Personality: I thought she was gonna be another Cynthia, but she turned into a screeching harridan instead.
Cooking: Sloppy presentation, comfort-food style, a little one-note.
Stand-out moments: Screeching at Marcel like a harridan. Many times.
Elimination notes: Went home for sloppy, sloppy glasses of boring soup, and aren't we glad?

Chef: Michael Midgely
Personality: Like, um, dude, were, like, you on, like, drugs?
Cooking: Not hugely inventive or particularly notable, but obviously not bad, either.
Stand-out moments: Painkillers improving his focus. Seriously.
Elimination notes: After taking both the Quickfire and Elimination in round 9 with some really good-sounding food, he got sent home the next episode, which seems kinda harsh. I was saying it would be funny if he made it to the top, but it was not to be.

Chef: Cliff Crooks
Personality: Often quiet, but had a temper.
Cooking: Good stuff, most of the time.
Stand-out moments: The Case of the Shaved Head
Elimination notes: Cliff was not eliminated; he was disqualified for breaking the "no aggressive contact" rule. (See commentary below.)

Chef: Elia Aboumrad
Personality: Dedicated and driven, but later showed a petty streak.
Cooking: I really found her ideas to be either serious hits or serious misses, but note that some of what I thought sounded bad was regarded as good.
Stand-out moments: Chocolate facial meltdown; The Case of the Shaved Head.
Elimination notes: I would have far rather her in the final episode than Ilan, but from what I saw it was fair... the food wasn't bad, it just wasn't what they were looking for.

Chef: Sam Talbot
Personality: Another quiet one, though we saw him snap a few times.
Cooking: Overall, he was decidedly a serious contender for the win.
Stand-out moments: Stupidly bitching out Marcel; not helping Marcel in The Case of the Shaved Head.
Elimination notes: Definitely should've gone into the finals rather than Ilan; he was robbed. Yes, I'm picking on Ilan. Deal.

Chef: Marcel Vigneron
Personality: Geeky undersocialized annoying little brother type.
Cooking: Not as freaky as you'd expect from a self-proclaimed "molecular gastronomist"; actually interesting and tasty-sounding.
Stand-out moments: Standing up to Betty; rapping on the roof.
Elimination notes: Personally I'd much rather he'd won than Ilan, and it wasn't just because I detest Ilan, but also because I thought his menu, flaws and all, was far more inventive.

Chef: Ilan Hall
Personality: Butthead. I liked him at first, but really? Butthead.
Cooking: One-note. Sorry, but seriously, get another style besides Spanish and put down the Saffron. Yes, it was obviously often good, but seriously.
Stand-out moments: The Case of the Shaved Head.
Elimination notes: Alas, he wasn't eliminated. Second winner of Top Chef.

Overall impressions

This season was full of a lot of very petty and immature people. Two particular things stand out the most.

The Case of the Shaved Head (and why I mention things in relation to Marcel a lot)

Here's what you should know: I didn't really like Marcel that much, but while at first I wanted to just smack him for being another Stephen, it turned out to be more complex than that. Marcel's problem is that he's a geek, and like many geeks, most of his socialization skills are only practiced through talking about what he likes, and therefore are a little lacking. He's also got that "annoying little brother" vibe. If he were a little younger he'd probably get more slack but he needs to grow out of it.

So, I can understand how he rubs so many people the wrong way, but the hand, it was gotten out of considerably, to the point where people were reacting badly to him not being annoying. A lot of people really lost a lot of my respect for how they treated Marcel, and I was pretty sympathetic to him even though I do think he needs to mature some before he's good company.

Then came the episode that Cliff was disqualified for: the Case of the Head Shaving. Apparently, Ilan and Elia decided it'd be fun to shave their heads, and somehow that turned into the idea that it'd be fun to forcibly shave Marcel's admittedly-ridiculous hair off. Cliff made the mistake of holding him down—see what I mean about that "little brother" vibe? I think that Cliff realized he'd gone too far even before he had the sit-down with Colicchio, and in all fairness to him he took his disqualification gracefully and offered what I think was a sincere apology to Marcel (who was in turn reasonably cool about the incident; I think he just wanted everyone to shut up about it so he could get back to cooking).

I seem to recall Colicchio wanted to send them all home (Sam should've intervened and didn't) and was vetoed by the producers.

Aiming for the Middle and Possible Cheating

This was the rest of what bugged me about this season. Overall, as the judges repeatedly pointed out, it seemed like a lot of people weren't cooking to win, but rather cooking to not lose. In addition, there was the possible cheating in the Camp Glucose episode, and some hints that there may've been more of that going on in other episodes. I was not impressed with the dedication of many of the contestants, and if they were cheating on top of it? Bad, bad mojo.

Speaking of cheating, I love that Elia accused Marcel of cheating but couldn't name a single instance. In fact Elia was really the person who disappointed me the most. At first she sort-of-stuck-up for Marcel, who she knew before the show; she admitted he could be annoying but didn't think he was as bad as people made out. Somewhere along the line, though—possibly after her crisis of motivation in the Thanksgiving episode—she stopped playing the cooking game and started playing the Hate Marcel game. When she was involved in the stupid head-shaving incident, I lost all respect for her, but she took it even lower when she made unbackable claims of cheating. At one point I would've been happy if she won, but not after that.

By the end, despite Marcel's annoyance factor, he was the only one I wanted to win. Ilan didn't deserve the win in my opinion, and his head has only been swollen by it. And I was really hoping they'd get a better bunch for Season 3. Luckily, they did, something I'll be posting about soon.
(Continue reading...)

y 1 donut lyk ch4tspk n bad grammer

I mentioned a few posts ago that I really despise chatspeak, but I want now to go into a bit more detail about why.

Here's the thing: web forums, bulletin boards, blog posts, and blog comments are all written media, and therefore to get your point across in them, you have to at least put together basic sentences and paragraphs. So why do so many people not seem to believe this?


Chatspeak... I don't even like it in chat, to be honest, but at least if it's confined there, I sort of understand the point. If you're trying to keep up with a realtime conversation or you really do have a limited number of characters you can put per message, abbreviations make sense. But that only works for a sentence or two; anything beyond that is too much and delves into "skip this mess" territory for me.

Needless to say, this means I skip a lot of posts in certain busy forums (*cough*World of Warcraft*cough*).

People often ask why it's such a problem that they're posting in chatspeak... and it's hard to answer that in a way that really gets the point across. One could point out it's harder to read, but that's countered with "but you know what I mean" (although, truthfully, I don't always). And in some people's opinions (yes, mine included), it's sloppy, which is usually countered with calling the person who claims that an elitist snob. But really, that's what it boils down to: it's far harder to parse and fully understand a paragraph laden with chatspeak and it does come across to many people as lazy because it is a shortcut. And there's a time and a place for shortcuts, but longer text communication is really not it.

But it's not just chatspeak that's the problem. Sometimes it's also just sheer bad grammar and spelling (often mixed with chatspeak, to boot). Now, I'm not expecting everyone to write completely perfect posts; people make mistakes, sometimes habitual ones, and that's fine. But when what you basically have is one long run-on paragraph after another (or worse, several paragraphs worth of stuff in one big one), with a significant number of poorly-spelled words (sometimes so bad that you can't figure out what they were supposed to be) and then mix in some completely bizarro grammar, it becomes pretty hard to really understand what the poster is trying to say.

Which is exactly the reason it's a problem.

Whether it's a discussion or debate or just a quick opinion, the only useful approach is to try to make it as clear as possible. That means wording, yes, but it also means using reasonably correct grammar, spelling, and (please!) punctuation, so that people don't have to struggle to find your meaning. If you look at your post later and realize even you're not sure what you were trying to say, you can be doubly sure that's true of your readers. And even if you do think what you're saying is clear, it can only be clearer for putting some effort into the writing.

(It's also worth pointing out that the Internet is, well, international, and non-native speakers of English (or your posting language of choice) are likely to have a harder time understanding chatspeak, parsing misspelled words, or figuring out the right way to read poor grammar.)

In short (too late!), if you truly want to have people read what you say, make it readable! (Continue reading...)

Top Chef Contestants Overview: Season 1

My rundown of Season 1's chefs (contains elimination spoilers).

Contestants in Order of Elimination

Chef: Kenneth Lee
Personality: Obnoxious jackass.
Cooking: What little we saw was sloppy.
Stand-out moments: Plate-flipping and primal knife-sharpening.
Elimination notes: He deserved it.

Chef: Brian Hill
Personality: Playa.
Cooking: Didn't stand out to me, really.
Stand-out moments: Admiring Candice's ass.
Elimination notes: Mushy carrots? Yeah, bye!

Chef: Cynthia Sestino
Personality: Tough-minded, no-nonsense older lady.
Cooking: A bit disorganized (which may've been circumstantial).
Stand-out moments: Mostly I remember her dealing with her dad's illness, rather than anything about her cooking.
Elimination notes: Went home voluntarily so she could be with her hospitalized dad.

Chef: Candice Kumai
Personality: Bubbly, young.
Cooking: A bit simple but some good ideas.
Stand-out moments: Her knock-down drag-out argument with Stephen.
Elimination notes: Eliminated for not realizing quiche won't stand up to microwaves. Her lack of experience got her, but that's easily curable with time; if she sticks with it, she'll probably be a pretty good chef.

Chef: Lisa Parks
Personality: Another no-nonsense lady, seemed generally focussed.
Cooking: Solid but maybe not spectacular.
Stand-out moments: Being the voice of reason in the kids' challenge.
Elimination notes: Between probably not being used to the time constraints and not having the restaurant experience I think it's not terribly surprising, but I was sad to see her go. I hope she kept cooking.

Chef: Andrea Berman
Personality: Seriously focussed on health-food advocacy, obviously passionate, seemed like a nice woman overall.
Cooking: Showcased her feelings about food, didn't compromise. Some of it was probably pretty tasty.
Stand-out moments: Repeated talks about bowel movements.
Elimination notes: Eliminated twice, once in episode 2, where it was too early to tell for sure how good she'd be, then again in episode 6. Probably a bit too focussed on the health food to make it to the end, but you gotta give her props for sticking to her ideals.

Chef: Miguel Morales
Personality: Class clown.
Cooking: Not much stood out, but it seemed solid.
Stand-out moments: Chunk La Funk, Master of Junk Food.
Elimination notes: As was pointed out, he tended to avoid leadership roles. I imagine he makes a superb chef tournant, but as for Top Chef? He didn't quite seem motivated enough for that.

Chef: Stephen Asprinio
Personality: Self-involved avant garde snob
Cooking: Too frou-frou foam and art for me, though in fairness from comments I gather it was often good.
Stand-out moments: Arguing with Candice; boring diners at Restaurant Wars.
Elimination notes: "This is Top Chef, not Top Sommelier!" He needed to focus on cooking, and too often, he didn't.

Chef: Lee Anne Wong
Personality: Tough, strong, frank, cool.
Cooking: I wish I could've tasted most of her dishes (save the ones using ingredients I don't care for); they seemed to be superb overall.
Stand-out moments: Actually I can't think of one particular stand-out moment, but she was overall the chef I'd most like to meet personally.
Elimination notes: She was robbed. Seriously, she was my personal pick to go to the top and while I suppose I can't disagree that last dish was a little busy, I still think she should've gone to the finale.

Chef: Dave Martin
Personality: Frazzled, emotional.
Cooking: Solid and tasty if not exactly upscale. Tied with Lee Anne for "dishes I most wanted to taste regularly".
Stand-out moments: "I'm not your bitch, bitch." (Letting Tiffani know how he felt about her behavior towards him.)
Elimination notes: Even though technically he didn't follow the rules, I still think he was robbed, too, since clearly the dishes he did put out were considered better than Tiffani's.

Chef: Tiffani Faison
Personality: Bitch. But, let's be fair; after the season was over she seemed to get a lot better.
Cooking: I will give her this: she made some really good-looking and good-sounding food. Whatever her other flaws, she clearly can cook.
Stand-out moments: Lying about back-stabbing Miguel; interrupting everyone at the reunion.
Elimination notes: Sorry to say, I was glad she lost because I didn't like her, but if I'm being fair, she did take a lot of risks in that finale and obviously put out some quality food.

Chef: Harold Dieterle
Personality: Quiet, shy, occasionally snarky.
Cooking: Mostly seemed to be really good.
Stand-out moments: "I'm a chef, not a..." It was like Dr. McCoy, only a chef.
Not-eliminated notes: First winner of Top Chef, and clearly someone who deserved it, even if I still wish Lee Anne had won.

Overall impressions

The personalities were many and varied, a good mix overall. I think you're always going to get a few people who are bitchy, if for no other reason than competition tends to bring out people's bad sides; likewise, the arrogance was no surprise, since it takes a certain amount of arrogance to think you can win something like this. It was nice to see a mix of experience and lack thereof, though obviously the lack thereof was a significant handicap for people.

Stephen was definitely the person most people disliked the most, but he actually redeemed himself a bit with me when he apologized to Candice during the reunion. He's still a snob, but he seems to have tempered it a bit with a dose of reality.

Dave was someone I was glad to see in the top, in part because he wasn't about the upscale dining. I think he gets too emotional to really be great at running a kitchen, but he definitely found the right career to switch to in terms of skill and passion. It was terrific to see someone who re-invented himself go so far, and it was seeing that that made me think this was a show that really was more about the food (though subsequent seasons dented that feeling a bit).

Lee Anne remains my favorite chef from all three seasons, and I'm really tickled she went on to continue being involved with the show behind the scenes; she also writes one of my favorite blogs about the show. She also does a great weekly video on how to cook the winning dish, The Wong Way to Cook (link goes to Season 3's finale dish, so, uh, spoiler).

I think all the chefs were dedicated and passionate (yes, even the ones I didn't like), which was nice, because it was really what the show was supposed to be about. Too bad that didn't necessarily carry over to Season 2, which I'll be posting about shortly. (Continue reading...)

Top Chef Season 1 Still My Favorite

Now that Top Chef S3 is over, I've been thinking a lot about the differences between the seasons. Season 1 remains my favorite, and I've been trying to figure out why I feel Season 3 came up short against it. (S2 was another story.)

I don't think it's just the chefs. I did like Lee Anne quite a bit; she was really the one person I was rooting for 'til the end. Season 3, by comparison, had Tre and CJ, both of whom I was rooting for until they got knifed, but neither of whom I liked quite as much as Lee Anne. On the dislike side, S1 had Stephen and Tiffani (and Ken, but he was off right away); S3 had Joey, Howie, and Hung -- though in fairness all three got better. Still, overall I'd call it slightly to S3's favor, but not far off.

In terms of skill... well, since I can't taste the food, it can be hard to be sure, but I think they were overall on par with one another. Possibly S3 had a slight edge there, judging from how much better judges' table went in the finale, but anyhow, both seasons were very interesting to watch cook and create.

That leaves editing, and I think that's really where S3 suffered. I'm not sure precisely what it was, but it felt like S1 had far more emphasis on the food and cooking, and S3 tended to skip more of the tasting and showing us the dishes in favor of extended other scenes.

See, when I watch a cooking show, what I want to see is the cooking. Since the judges emphasize time and again that personality isn't important and cooking is, I think that should be the focus. This season it seems like the editing tended to emphasize the people over the cooking at times, and it bugged me.

Hopefully they'll strike a slightly better balance in S4, while still giving us a rounded bunch of interesting people with interesting food ideas.

I could blather on about comparisons more here, but I'm going to split that off into a separate post. (Continue reading...)

Copy Protection Really Doesn't

So... many companies use copy-protection programs on their released software. Whether it's the entry of a serial number, requiring the user to have the CD in the drive, encoding methods to make copies difficult to make, or active programs that try to validate the authenticity of the CD (or any combination of the above), they've all been tried, and they've all been defeated. So it doesn't really deter people who weren't inclined to pay for the program in the first place. What does it accomplish?

Well, according to some gamers who have used products using StarForce or SecuROM, it accomplishes opening up security holes, aggravations from not authenticating original disks, disabling CD and DVD burners or burning programs, conflicting with antivirus and spyware programs (refusing to load or authenticate while they are running), and forcing users to manually hunt down and clean up hidden files if they choose to uninstall the product "protected" with it.

So... it doesn't stop the people inclined to pirate, and it causes problems for people who purchase the games.

And the companies using the products think this is a good idea, why? (Continue reading...)

i can has readers?

Actually, I'm curious how long it'll take before someone finds this blog and starts commenting on it. We'll see. The post isn't about that, though. Instead, I'm hitting the other twin idiot box today: computers.

Right now, I'm noticing a very interesting contradiction in my life: I hate chatspeak and l33tsp34k, but I love lolcats -- which use something much like chatspeak in their captioning.

I have I CAN HAZ CHEEZBURGER bookmarked for two reasons. The first is I'm a sucker for cute cat photos. I admit it, I own it, let's move on. The second, of course, is that it's one of the better lolcats sites. It's not the best web layout (crowded side bars do nothing for me), and I don't "lol" at every post, but the ones submitted generally are fairly good.

The curious pidgin that's evolved for lolcats really is a distinct entity from chatspeak (thankfully), even though you can draw parallels. Overall, possibly because the captioning is shorter, I find the pidgin far easier to understand. There are also certain repeated memes that are often used well: I'm in ur $foo, $verbing your $nouns; FAIL, DO NOT WANT, and, of course, I can has $object?. The repetition means some people get sick of the concept quickly, and I know some people who never want to hear that first one again, but the key words in that sentence were "used well". No doubt at some point I'll hit the point where I never want to hear that joke again, but please note that I still find occasional uses of 'all your $foo are belong to us' funny, so I may be a lost cause.

People have taken the idea and branched out, using other animals, people, and characters from games. As with the original cat macros, some of these are done better than others. Game-based picture macros suffer a bit if you don't play the game, though I've seen some for games I do play executed very well.

On the other side of the divide falls true chatspeak, which I loathe in any setting except for actual length-limited messages (I'll give a little leeway for time-sensitive situations like battles in games, too, though). Its use in forum posts, I find completely unforgiveable. Personally I feel that if someone can't be bothered to type the other two letters in 'you', I can't be bothered to decipher the mess that they've spewed on the screen.

Game forums are where I see the worst offenders. I spent some time playing World of Warcraft, which I rather like, and naturally I checked in with their message boards when I started playing it. With any game, the percentage of players who post regularly is pretty small, but when you have 8 million users, a small percentage still leads to a pretty large pool of posters. As far as I can tell, at least half of those are people incapable of constructing a basic sentence in English.

I'm not talking about people for whom English is clearly their second language. Odd syntax doesn't bug me, and odd workarounds for words the writer doesn't know are frequently far more understandable than the alleged English-speakers' forays into chtspk. People who supposedly are at least in high school (or possibly even in college or out of school entirely) should, however, be capable of putting together a basic sentence.

Instead, what you often get is a string of letters and spaces, more or less indicating words, with seemingly-random punctuation and a lot of ellipses.

Here's a hint for these people: "every1 typs lik ths" is not an excuse for this. Obviously not only is that not true, but when people are telling you you're hard to understand, what they're saying is "write better or we're just going to pay no attention to you".

Luckily, there seems to be a growing trend lately to encouraging people -- nicely or otherwise -- to use clearer language and try harder to put together grammatical sentences. This means that possibly in a few years, I will find the average game forum far more appealing.

Next time: I possibly post about Top Chef, since the reunion show is on tonight, or I begin my collection of "secret messages in commercials", or something else entirely, depending as usual on my whims. (Continue reading...)

Tim Gunn, Speaker to Designers

I will be the first to admit that one of the reasons I enjoy Project Runway so much is because of Tim Gunn. I think that I would probably watch it anyhow, but the segments involving him are generally my favorite.

I think I may have a little bit of a crush on him. He's one of the few people, in this day and age, that merits the description "dapper". He's neat, well-turned-out, well-spoken (with a lovely, precise vocabulary), and perceptive. I may not always agree 100% with his aesthetic, but even when I don't, I generally understand why he makes the comments he does. And, unlike commentators in many "reality TV" shows, he's a genuine mentor and does a fine job at it, which just makes him more interesting; people who are good at teaching are hot.

I also love Tim Gunn's Guide to Style, of course -- the show, not the book, which I do not yet have (though I plan to get a copy when budget allows).

Sometimes, when I see a designer failing to heed Tim Gunn's advice, I want to smack them. "Listen to the man! At least take what he said seriously and consider it!" I wonder, sometimes, if the fact that he tends to couch things in non-aggressive terms leads people to not feel what he's saying is important—though you'd think anyone who watched prior seasons' shows would realize he's usually got some very good points. I also wonder if a "Tim Gunn to Blunt" dictionary might be helpful.

For instance, when he starts his critique with "I'm a little concerned", it seems like what people hear is "but not really". *red strike a la Family Feud* Based on the way he uses it, however, what he means is: "You have a good idea, but your execution could use some help.", or: "You have a good idea, save for this thing I am now about to bring up." It's definitely one of the gentlest negative critiques he will use, yes, and possibly if after considering it you think your way is better, you could be right, but the important bit? Think about it!

If he says "I'm not sure how I feel about...", he isn't just making conversation, okay? He's saying "This bit here? Not so great... convince me it'll work, or change it."

Beware if he starts a sentence "I really don't think...", for now you are entering into harsher Tim Gunn-speak. It still sounds like a fairly mild negative, but if it were someone else, they'd likely say "This is just a bad idea."

Once in a while, he actually will either be speechless and furrow-browed (shh, it's a word now), or actually say something definitively negative. ("Not good.", while still gently said, is definitively negative, in case anyone was unclear on that.) At this point, the designer should take a step back, try to re-assess the project as objectively as possible (yes, I know, this is hard, but try), and listen to the specific critique... and start redesigning in their head. When the negative words are blunt, he's essentially approaching other people's pointing and laughing stage.

I rather wish I had the DVDs for the earlier seasons of PR so I could catalogue more of these. I seriously quite enjoy how he goes about critiquing. Only on rare occasions does he devolve to significantly blunt, whether because the designer is being a doofus or the design really is that bad in his eyes. One could wish the average teacher had half his poise and gentleness. I realize he's not the only good mentor in the history of mentoring, but he is a decidely rare thing these days: a true gentleman.

Project Runway's fourth season starts November 14th. Only 5 weeks to go! I can hardly wait. (Continue reading...)

Armchair Gawker (Reality TV and Me)

I first heard the term "reality TV" associated with Survivor, I think. It's a strange term, since it's not like there haven't been non-fiction shows pretty much since the beginning of television broadcasts. "Unscripted television" might be better -- though I question whether it's always accurate -- but I suppose by now the term has sunk in enough that it's here to stay.

I think Wikipedia's article on reality television actually does a fairly good job of separating the various types of shows that get this label, but in particular, it's elimination shows that I generally think of when someone uses this term (with what they call "special living environment" shows like The Real World sometimes coming to mind as well). Shows like Survivor, of course -- the big mama of current reality shows -- as well as American Idol, Top Chef, Project Runway, etc.

For a long time I avoided those shows. I'd hear people talk about Survivor and I'd think "that sounds kinda stupid". (Okay, I admit to having watched Star Search back in the day, and if you want to count The Gong Show, there's that, too, but I mean the newer ones.) I totally didn't get why people were so invested in their outcomes, why discussing what happened on Survivor or who got eliminated on American Idol was so popular.

Then, one day, I was channel-surfing out of sheer boredom and happened to catch the opening credits of Survivor... and said to myself, "Self, why not see what the fuss is all about?"

20 minutes later, I was boggling that these people were real. I'm still not convinced that some of it isn't scripted, but... I couldn't... look... away. So much stupid in so little space. The horrible challenges. The sheer bizarrity of people subjecting themselves to this. The people who thought they were Machiavelli instead of Elmer Fudd ("Hehh-hehh-heeh. Be vewy vewy quiet. I'm hunting AWWIANCES!"). Honestly, it was just astoundingly bad, yet somehow...

And the next time it was on, I watched it deliberately. In fact, I watched through the end of the season -- 7 or 8 shows in total, I believe. I wasn't emotionally invested in it -- I didn't like any of the contestants. I didn't think it was exciting. I just... gawked, as if it were some horrible accident. I couldn't look away.

When the season ended, I stopped watching. For a few years, I didn't care any more. Some of that's just that I'm not really a hardcore television watcher, but most of it was that, once it was over, I stopped feeling any need to watch.

Fast forward to the premiere of Top Chef. Now, I used to watch the original, Japanese Iron Chef, and I love cooking shows in general, so it fell well within my usual interests. Top Chef became the first elimination show to attract me sheerly for its concept and to see how they executed it, and kept me as a viewer because I thought they did a good job of it. For the first time, I started to understand why people get so involved in these shows -- I loved Lee Anne, found Dave alternately amusing and annoying, wanted to slap Tiffani, and was dying to see how the chefs would handle making a gourmet meal out of vendor food or whatever the challenge was that week.

"It's just this show being a cooking show", I would think. "It's not that I really care about the reality TV thing in general," I would add to myself, even as I was vilifying chef's attitudes and rooting for my favorites. Hah.

Then one day I turned on the TV to see if I could find something to put on for background noise (I do this a lot when I'm home alone) and it was, of course, tuned into Bravo... and what should be on but Project Runway. Well, I do like me some fashion, even if I don't really understand the things high-end fashion designers choose to make, so I figured, eh, why not.

They were showing a marathon. I watched all of it. I was hooked.

"Okay, maybe there's something to this format," I admitted to myself. But, hey, it'd have to be a subject matter I cared about, right?

This weekend I turned on the TV for something to stare at while I ate. I'm out of books to read and we owe the library money so I can't get anything new from them until we pay off the fines. I figured I might find a weekend movie or something.

I paused for a moment when I saw models, wondering if it was a fashion show. But, no, it wasn't... exactly. It was a bunch of girls finishing up some sort of photo shoot and then going back to the house they lived in. (If you pay attention to TV culture at all, you probably know of this show -- America's Next Top Model.) My sweetie and I watched the show until the end, and when they announced they were showing a marathon, did we just turn it off and go back to playing silly console games?

Of course we didn't. It was the trainwreck/accident/whatever syndrome all over again. We watched two more shows, and then finally turned it off out of sheer desire to move on to the things we'd actually planned for the weekend.

Now, watching a bunch of wannabe models live together and perform bizarre challenges is firmly outside my usual interests. (Project Runway isn't exactly interesting to me for the models.) I doubt I'll be watching it again. But while it was on? Couldn't look away.

So is there a point to this? Not really, except to note that no matter how much you might think the format is silly when you think about it, somehow when you're watching it, it's hard to stop. At least for me, and given the popularity of the various reality TV shows, I expect it's the same for a lot of people. Maybe my comments can serve as a warning: Turn it off. Don't get hooked. Or maybe I just want someone to say "Yes, that happens to me, too; you're not that weird." Or maybe I'm an insomniac and wanted to post something besides an introductory post. (Okay, it's all of those.)

Next time: I talk about how much I love Tim Gunn, or possibly I comment on stupid commercials, or maybe something else entirely depending on my whims. (Continue reading...)

Introductory Post

You might have two questions at this point.

"What's this blog about?"

Commentary on TV shows, commercials, computer games, online phenomena, and other things related to the twin idiot boxes of modern life: our televisions and our computers. Recaps, reviews, rants, opinions, essays, jokes, one-liners, whatever. No promises about any particular schedule; just posts as they occur to me.

"Who the heck is J Random Blogger?"

Someone who isn't sure they want to put their real name on this blog, obviously. Duh.

Seriously, that's pretty much it. It's not like you really care who writes it as long as it's interesting, right?

So, next time? Interesting. I promise. (Continue reading...)