Project Runway

So, I've commenced watching season 6 of Project Runway ...which I heard them tout (just the other night) as "The most talked about season of Project Runway ever!" Very tricky of them, saying that. It totally infers that there's some big drama brewing or astonishing talent catalyzing this "talk" but what everyone is chatting about is "Is Project Runway gonna suck now that it's on sucky Lifetime?"

Well, I'm only 2 episodes into it, but at this juncture, I'd say NO, it does not suck. They didn't particularly change the show that I can see. Although I did think it unusual for Project Runway to be weeding out all the wackadoos at the outset (Ari, Malvin). I think, historically, they've kept the "eccentrics" around 2 or 3 episodes longer than they should stay just because they make for good TV.

Here's some other quick, early impressions...
Christopher Straub-- this dude cannot mention his lack of formal training enough, huh? So OBVIOUSLY they're trying to set him up as some kinda "underdog" figure. Well despite that, he's really done some nice work so far...
Johnny Sakalis-- designated red herring of the season premiere. If this guy was *genuinely* that freaked for challenge #1, then I am skeptical that he'll be around for too much longer...
Louise Black-- Kenley Lite (drama free and no criminal record!!) I like the vintage vibe and I just loved her dress for the pregnancy challenge (it was my favorite one!) but some of her work examples from her gallery on the Project Runway website is a bit offputting. I like my vintage vibe without the side of Goth, please and thank ya...
Irina Shabayeva--Promising... I like her stuff so far...I kinda confuse her with Shirin
Ari Fish-- Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs, what , with the no sketching and all her overtly nonconformist standing on her head. Okaaaay. We get it. I am surprised guest judge Lilo didn't react more to her very Sam Ronson-ish vibe...
Nicholas Putvinski-- This guy bugs me. Can't exactly pinpoint why yet..
Mitchell Hall-- Ahhhh, Mitchell. Maybe you oughtta hold off on being so cattily critical (calling Ramon's dress a bowling ball bag? It was on mark perhaps--and backed up by the judges later--but still, he was such a little bitch about it...) Wait until you get your shit together, li'l man...then criticize..
Shirin Askari--Promising... I like her stuff so far...I kinda confuse her with Irina
Gordana Gehlhausen-- She's maybe gonna be the maternal old foreign broad of the crew--Uli redux? I like her submissions for the 1st 2 challenges, particularly her cute little red carpet dress
Carol Hannah Whitfield-- Here we have the second set of interchangeables. This one & Althea get mixed up in my noggin. Cute kid though...
Ra'Mon Lawrence-- reminds me a bit of Season 5 Jerrell...'cept I liked Jerrell more.
Logan Neitzel-- Mehhh. Go home kid.
Malvin Vien-- His first dress was blaaah, and his second dress was O-M-G...but not in a good way. What preggers lady wants to look like a vessel of a ginormo egg? Good, gooood riddance to you, with your Rockadoodle hair.
Qristyl Frazier-- Who the hell said you could spell your name like that? It's absurd! Am also questioning this chick's taste level...not just because one of the judges said something to that effect, but for the more petty reason that Q looks like she dresses herself with sale items from Fashion Bug. Which is fine por moi.... but a rising star of design should really take more care...
Epperson-- token old dude. I can't even remember what he's designed thus far. Sorry, Ep..
Althea Harper-- Good work so far. Tho, like I said, her & Carol Hannah aren't particularly differentiating themselves in my mind.

I discovered in writing this that Lifetime's PR site (which I was accessing to check names and review designs) is pretty damn marvy. On the Rate-the-Runway pics, you can zoom in close and really see the detail & fabric texture & what not...

but speaking of DECENT movies...

.. I watched several on Wednesday when I was outta work sick. The best thing I watched was the magnifico , Neil Simon-scribed, Murder by Death.

I *highly* recommend it.

Mmmkay, so if you've seen the movie and want to fondly rehash some of its best bits, check out my embed below. Ohhh, and I suppose if you don't give much of a rat's arse about my hearty recommendations (which this blog is maybe over-laden with I suppose) and therefore have no intention of seeking out the movie, then you also should go ahead and click the play arrow. Anyone else, that may consider tracking down MbD for purchase/rental... skip my embed (thar be SPOILERS!)




So good! My chum Paul suggested, based on my enthusiasm for MbD, that I would very much like The Magic Christian. So I've been wanting to track that down for a day or two now. And of course, I spied The Cheap Detective on IMDB and am very keen on seeing that one...

The Ugly Truth is...

...that I went by myself to the movies. To see "The Ugly Truth" as it happens. So, you see what I did there, with the title & my circumstances? Haa. So very clever...now at this moment (2:16 AM Eastern Standard Time) so yeah, let us nod to the fact that we are now -- or I am now-- entering into what's considered the "wee small hours of the morning"-- a time when I am highly predisposed to be inordinately amused by myself. Nevertheless: LOL & the like.

So yes. I did go to the movies all by myself Thursday night. Kinda pathetic. But really, I get tired and bored with trying to friggen RECRUIT people for outings . Oftentimes solo society is truly not so bad. (I can just hear those skeptical snorts of "Yeah! Riiiiight..")

"The Ugly Truth" was the only movie playing that I really wanted to see. I find Katherine Heigl kinda likably nerdy. I would consent to this rom-com because of that. I would not (and will not to this day) see PS I Love You. See, I have this inexplicable but nevertheless STRONG aversion to equine Oscar winner Hillary Swank. Sorry, that's *multiple* Oscar winner (and Secretariat look-alike) Hillary Swank. Mah bad! So anyways, I knew I couldn't stomach watching my Gerard Butler be all schmoopy over Swank. Oh yeah, haveI mentioned my longstanding Rrrrrawr for Ger Butler?? It's odd about Ger, actually---- about 60% of the still shots I see of him are rather unimpressive. But to watch him in a film- yumm-o!! And I'm not just having residual twitterpations over his uber-ripped & oily torso in 300 (which is not to say that such residuals wouldn't be totally dogdamned justified!) but really there's a whole slew of movies that he's nice to ogle in. Hell, the movie "Timeline" exists solely for the purposes of ogling Gerard Butler. Ugh.. FOR REALS, amigos....that flick is a rolled up crap crepe with shitty poop filling. THAT bad. So unless you have a *severe* Ger. jones...don't even watch it gratis on TV.
And "The Ugly Truth" is a fine Butler fix. It has some cute moments too...mostly on account of Heigl I must say. But of course it was total formulaic pablum... and really the most predictable of its whole predictable ilk. But yeeeeaah, I liked it (guiltily so). Cinematic junk food. A Peep of a movie.

Oh, forgot to mention...the only showtime for this movie is 9:45pm. Yep, I'm there 9:45pm on a Thursday night. As you can imagine, I didn't exactly have to do battle for a decent seat. Actually, I was surprised when I heard the door open and allow in other moviegoers during the 2nd preview. Or, I thought it was moviegoers... I didn't realize, until after the flick was over and I did an about-face to the EXIT, that actually it was just uno moviegoer. Yep. Just me and one other soul. Some middle aged broad. And it struck me as amusingly apropos...ohhh yes, "The Ugly Truth" is just the sort of movie that a broad goes to see alone. Lovely. As I filed outta the theater after her, I suddenly panicked that if *she *was gonna show *ME* up and out-pathetic me by going home to 5 cats, then I would simply have to cross the parking lot to Price Chopper to buy some cookie dough and commence to eating it raw outta the tube. And with what reading accompaniment, do ya think? Woman's World or True Romance magazine??

Ok..for the record..I did NOT do that...the cookie dough nor the mag.. there was no throwdown showdown of pathetic betwixt me & moviegoing stranger lady

it's a big enough umbrella but it's always me that ends up getting wet

Long time no bloggie. Forgive me. If it's any consolation, I am in a glum place, right now, looking at my first Monday back to work after a week's vacation (my big adventure was a daytrip to NYC. I put the photos on Facebook if ya wanna see). And it's not just a pure I-hate-the-9-to-5-grind sort of dread that I feel upon my return. I get a nervous dread. Kinda like: What did they figure out about me when I wasn't around to watch my own back? I always get that feelin' when I get done a vacation. Paranoid? Perhaps a little.

The other night I was checking the offerings for Comcast On Demand music vids. What I was really in the mood for was classic, back-in-tha- day videos, but I found that even though they had a smattering of vids in a "Totally 80s" category from VH1 Classsic, they didn't really have anything that great (Eddie Money, anyone? mehh.) However, I did enjoy this one--



Not my *fave* Police song (though I do like it) and I really like best the music vids with storylines. That said though, you can't help but like this. Goofy antics from a gaggle of rather cute fellahs...what's not to like. Well, in Sting's case, "rather cute" is rather an understatement. Every time I see Sting (even modern-day old Sting) I am struck anew with " Wow, I forgot what a fox he is. Yumm-o!" And Sting circa 1981 is at optimum yumminess. Really, the most marvelous thing about this video is that Sting makes an Ed Norton hat + short sleeve sweatshirt= DAMN sexy. Not everyone can achieve that!!

coffee table book-palooza

I am a hopeless collector of coffee table books. It's not that I must have EVERY book proffered in the Borders Bargain Corral, but I have been unable to resist many, many, many of 'em.

I think the genre name "coffee table books" significantly limits these books. It was no less than a stroke of GENIUS for me to take 3 of my "coffee table book" collection and install them in the magazine rack in the bathroom of my folks' house. Yes, there is a magazine rack in there. Not only is there a magazine rack, but it goes much deeper than that. Said rack is the lower half of a mini island next to the toilet, planned &built by my very own grandfather when he built the house. So there you have it. Reading on the shitter is IN MY GENES.

Magazines are all well and good, but don't your eyes kinda glaze over and you get annoyed/bore (bore-noyed) with 4month old mags when you've perused 'em 20 or 30 times before?? So why not trash 'em all and instead have some fine nonfiction lit? You can get some educational input whilest making with some, err, output.

One of the books I put in the potty-island 'zine rack is American Songbook. I kinda dig folk music like that (partly because lots of it has a backstory...y'know the whole oral history aspect of folk music) I find myself amused with how at the top left hand corner of these songs is ....well, it's kind of like stage direction . An adverbial/adjectival clause to clue you in the manner in which you should belt out the following song. For example-- America the Beautiful? The top lefthand corner word is "MAJESTICALLY". Swing Low Sweet Chariot: "WITH FEELING". For some reason, The Yellow Rose of Texas is "SPIRITED" but Dixie is "WITH SPIRIT". Hmmm, I suppose there is some subtle difference there.

It might be amusing to do a parody songbook where the only parts that were parody were those stage direction words. Just put the most befuddling things you can there to confound anyone who might genuinely look to those for guidance. Yeees, sing this next one "Quixotically but with a soupçon of skepticism"

One of my best c.t.bk finds was at this year's *magnifico* Five Colleges Booksale. Thing is FRIGGEN GINORMOUS, so I'm afraid it would quite overwhelm the potty-island zine rack. It's Terence Conran's House Book circa 1974. Despite its publication date, there is barely anything in this book that is too faaaaaar out dated. Lots of cool design. So this is what passes for fun for me and my sister... a few nights after I got this we paged through the whole fatty brick of a book --448 illustrated pages --- and played a game of "Okay, I'm locked in on which one I like best. Guess which one's my fave."

Yeah, we're both so old and dullsville we didn't even turn that into a drinking game. (Nooo! I like the dark beadboard with the No. 14 chairs and stained glass light fixture. Do a shot of Jäger!!)

Tea with Mona Lisa

The most interesting news story I saw today.

I like its brief history of attacks on art (art attacks..haaa) and also that it mentions Stendhal Syndrome which is damned interesting and happens to be referenced in the book I'm reading (Diary by Chuck Palahniuk)

recommended reading

Don't ask me how, but I got to reading up on Spring Heeled Jack today. I'd heard of him before, but the refresher course was compelling. It's some fascinating shit..

I'll share here a bizarro pic to rouse your curiosity (rouse it enough to conquer your link-o-phobia, yes I mean you, Jill)

the freaky and the geeky

One of my coworkers just joined Facebook and friended me. This coworker--Eileen-- I think I may have groused about her before. I do disparage her from time to time, but I can't manage to do so without winding up with this thick residue of GUILTY all over me. She is nothing but nice to me, and in general is 100% good will toward one and all. I feel I must be petty and/or evil to be irked by her but nevertheless.. .. yeah...she is so geeky it pains me.

For one thing, she's got this excessive enthusiasm about EVERYTHING. I gave her like, 4 large binder clips for a project and that evoked 2 minutes of "Oh WOW. Thank you. These are great. Aren't these great? They work really really well. THANK YOU SO MUCH. Wow." Please note here that though I may have a mile-wide mean streak, I do work to suppress it. Therefore, I limit my response to "You're welcome, Eileen" and refrain from adding "just simmer the hell down, wouldja?"

REEEEALLY vexing is her propensity for looking over my shoulder at my computer screen. She doesn't even attempt sneakiness. She'll inquire as to what page I'm on. "Ah, well, Eileen, I'm not supposed to be pissing away company time on the internet right at the moment, but ohhh sure...why don't I send you the link??"

Also she does this thing when someone's cell phone goes off. Y'know it's embarrassing enough when you forget to shut off your cell at work (or neglect to switch it to vibrate) but when one goes off in the office with its own unique tune or tone or whatever, Eileen invariably goes "WHAT is THAT??" But not joking, or like she's trying to tactfully ask "Who's the stupid schmoe who left their cell on & unattended?" She says this--everytime-- like she's genuinely bewildered. I really don't know how someone over the age of 6 can get this far into the 21st century and not recognize what a fucking cell phone sounds like. If she wasn't proficient in Microsoft Excel, I might seriously suspect she was a golden retriever trapped in a person body.

Anyways, all that grousing (possibly re-grousing...I can't remember all my past blathering) just to preface the fact that she friended me on Facebook. And OF COURSE I accepted. I haven't the spine to reject anybody (consequently I have a lot of WTFs on my Friends list, lemme tell ya) I accepted with a feeling just like I felt when I friended my aunt. Like, I'd known for weeks she'd gotten on FB, but was blissfully ignoring the fact, when two of my cousins "recommended her " to me. I dunno what kind of pushy asshat does such a thing (my cousins, apparently). So that ended my run of pretending not to know she was on Facebook, so I friended her...with mucho reluctance.

Now on to the freaky... I was accessing this patient file to check for insurance info (don't worry, am not going to divulge any names here...no HIPAA violations on this bloggity blog!!) and on the first page of a patient profile, there's this space "Non-clinical Notes" it's called. In there we input little helpful hints such as "if no answer to your knock, walk in. Door is open, patient slow to get up" or "Make sure you don't let the cats out!" Well, I happened to catch a glimpse of the nonclinical note for this particular patient and it read: PATIENT & HUSBAND HAVE A MONKEY THEY CONSIDER A CHILD; PLEASE REFER TO IT THAT WAY.

Ooookay. I'm mildly weirded out by just the first sentence, but concede that I am a bit biased on account of some anti-monkey sentiment I harbor. I mean, freakin' monkeys KILLED THE DEPUTY MAYOR OF NEW DELHI. Okay, this was some time ago, (2007)and I wasn't particularly close with the deputy mayor, but nevertheless, it's an apt example of what crazy unpredictable mo-fos monkeys can be. I, personally, would *NOT* keep one for a pet. Ok, that said, I can be open minded (when I try hard) and allow: some people like filthy monkeys ...and like 'em enough to domesticate them. And OK--people get very schmoopy about their pets, think of them as their "babies". ...still passing for semi-normal here. It's that last sentenece, though, that gets me, makes me wonder about this lady's relations with reality (or lack thereof). So now everytime I read this patient's name (during my day-to-day med supply ordering duties) I hafta chuckle and wonder just how our nurses' visits there go. I wonder what kind of hell breaks loose if they mistakenly refer to the pet monkey as...(gasp!) a pet monkey.

crafty crafty

Today I went with my friend Roxanne to the League of NH Craftsman craft fair held at Sunnapee Mtn. Resort. I enjoyed that I was hanging out with Roxanne, and that it was a lovely day outside, but aside from that I had trouble enjoying myself.

OK the crafts-- the crux of the whole shindig. They were beautiful. But I'm not the kind of person ( I wish I was) that can just admire beautiful goods up for sale and be perfectly content that she can't buy any of it. I have $40 to my name this weekend. That's it. So yeah, in light of that fact, it was highly moronic of me to go to this craft fair in the first place. Roxanne pitched the idea, and I just wanted to have somewhere to be.

First off, they charge you a $10 admission fee and that set me off in a bad mood. In fact, it occurred to me more than once today that I really seemed to be channelling my Dad. OK to be fair, I don't know how it feels to be my Dad. But, what seems apparent if you observe the behaviors of an Arthurias Sandrasdadopithicus in the wild, is that : 1. Everything is overpriced and that is highly vexing and 2. Flatlanders are annoying. Try as I might to suppress it, that was TOOOOOTALLY me today. Why were they charging $10 admission for you to walk around and spend money? What the fuck was I getting for my $10? The food was overpriced, and it wasn't all that high-qual if you ask me.
The crafts, they were damned expensive, but that didn't annoy me exactly. Well, it annoyed me that I didn't have any $$ to spend on them, but I wasn't annoyed at the prices being so high. I mean, I do appreciate things that have been crafted with care, individually handmade, such a tremendous contrast to the mass-produced cookie-cuttered out of CRAP over in China fare that is ubiquitous in our country nowadays. Here's the funny thing--I don't know if it's ironic...(I always struggle with the definition of that word, and I know I can blame much of that confusion on Ms. Alanis Morrissette) it qualifies perhaps as a "Catch 22" Even though I esteem what is tailor made, fine quality, and hand crafted ,and purveyors of the like are the sort of businesses that I would like to support with my hard earned $$....I only have enough hard earned $$$ to load up with the mass-produced crap that kind of saddens me...begrudgingly perpetuating an economy of mass-produced crap shillers. Ok, I know "catch 22"s like I know irony...but that fer sure qualifies as a "pissah".

Ohmigod that crowd there today. Massachussets must've been empty along with a good chunk of CT & NY. I try to give everybody a fair shake and on principle, I would *never* judge a person based on what state was on their license plate. But some of these people there..(late middle aged ladies in particular) ..I swear, their decibel levels are about 10 notches above everyone else's... they also seem to perambulate as if they believe themselves to be in a vaccuum. I dunno, maybe they were from NH... (yeah, ok, that's totally my inner give-the-benefit-of-the-doubt Pollyanna wannabe talking...none of these broads were from NH, VT, or ME)

epicurean findings

Ohhh, lest your inner foodie get all excited, I should warn you at the outset that I have some very lowbrow eats on the docket. No haute cuisine reviews here.

I bought these in KMart:

Not only did I love the little chortle-fits that that name sends me into, the little crackers are crab-shaped!! How could I *&%^#ing RESIST? (I couldn't) Flavor-wise, it's basically generic cheezits with yummy crabby spices added.

I have long been a fan of magic shell. That is some awesome and truly magical shit. However I just recently discovered that it can actually be improved upon when my sister bought...

I guess the chocolate has a hint o' caramel in it (which, I'll be honest, I can't taste) but it's the pecan crunchies that really make this kick so much ass. And I don't even like pecans!! Or I never have, anyways. Apparently when they're crushed up finely and awash in a sea of chocolate, I don't have a problem with them...

Lastly, I am also raving about Wendy's Sweet & Spicy Asian Chicken. Am hoping they make it a permanent addition to the menu (don't think they're planning on that though). It's sort of in the tradition of General Tsao's Chicken only BETTER than any General Tsao's I've ever ordered. And I'm somewhat of an afficianado, as that used to be my go-to entree to order back when I ordered lots of Chinese food (Mexican food has since surpassed that as my preferred cuisine )

Pictoral Evidence

I was explaining to Kara today (At work..via totally work-irrelevant emails--VAAA) how although Ernie (yes, SESAME STREET Ernie) most likely has higher approval ratings than Bert, it is unfair and Bert's bad rep as an uptight prig is totally unwarranted. It's not directly addressed on the show at all, but Ernie.. ...kind of a bastard.


Behold: exhibits A-E

Wonder how long he's going to make Bert sit there, holding perfectly still, for no good reason. What--a--BASTARD!


Niiiice, real nice. Not only are you totally ignoring your fallen--possibly injured-- "friend", but you then proceed to nearly rollerskate over a squirrel !! Bastard.



Hogging all the bromo-fizz or whatever the hell's in the tall glass. He probably made Bert pay for it too. .... bastard.

What the hell is this all about? Bert, here, is secretly upset and putting on a faux happy face. He doesn't want to upset others, or admit to being upset or whatever...pretty normal. Ernie is gleeful and making himself look sad? 'Sup with that ploy? Manipulative bastard.






Oh, but here we see he is not ALL smiles & good natured self-centeredness. He's also a bastard with a temper. A jealous bastard with a temper.