You are currently browsing the monthly archive for September 2008.
No liveblogs today, in addition to the sad lack of articles lately. My new job has become interviewing, and it takes up more energy than you’d think.
I will say, however, I completely related to Marshall’s predicament on How I Met Your Mother. There were indeed days when I don’t put on pants or go outside. I have not, however, ever spent my time watching Regis, nor has my no-pants radius extended past taking out the trash. Frankly I saw someone walking down the street in her PJs today so I am doing fine relative to the rest of the population.
Here’s to hoping a job works out soon, and every day can be a pants day.
A few days ago I saw an episode of What Not to Wear from 2007, featuring Erin, the Florida vegan with a funky art school style. She got some pretty sweet shoes, not to mention a great short haircut, so I tried to track down some info on her purchases and maybe more photos of her haircut in order to replicate it.
In my search, I found her MySpace page. As this is one person on one episode of What Not to Wear, and there were also some pictures only someone who was actually Erin (or knew Erin) could have taken, I was fairly convinced it was really her. So I sent her a message. And she replied!
People on the TV are real!
This is obviously an idea that many of us only partially grasp, if grasp at all, given the sort of faceless internet commentary on peoples’ personalities, skills, looks, and so on. Case in point, all my Project Runway raving in Kenley’s general direction. She’s a real person. But because she’s on TV, and maybe a little crazy, and has definitely been edited, that makes it okay – and easy – to pretend she’s not.
And before, I really wouldn’t have cared, because I didn’t believe in a million years (and really, still don’t) that she or anyone she knew would ever read this blog and be affected by what I said. Also, because I knew in my head I was commenting on limited-in-scope and carefully-crafted-portrayal-TV-Kenley, not the real person who existed in the real world, it was okay.
But tonight, Petrova Hammond may have commented on my blog. I am not sure if it was really Petrova Hammond or an (extremely bored) internet impersonator, but if there is even a chance that a designer from Australia could come across my American blog (which, to be fair, comes up 7th if you Google “petrova hammond lady”) then anybody could. The internet works in mysterious ways.
So I’m sorry, Kenley, or friends or family of Kenley, if you ever in a million years actually read what I wrote. I know nothing about you as a human being. I am just commenting on how you’re shown on TV, which, after editing, may or may not remotely resemble you. I have a personal preference that is not in line with some of your work. Also, you shouldn’t give a damn about me.
So all that aside.
Petrova Hammond (might have!) commented on my blog.
:D
There are no other words.
Oh Project Runway, how it hurts me to see my love for you wane. But you’re really scraping the bottom of the barrel this season, and it’s becoming increasingly obvious that Kenley survived the zodiac challenge purely because she brings the drama. I only hope you have the decency to make the final three Korto, Jerell and Leanne, and not give that shrieking crazywoman a shot at something she has not earned.
And now, the two greatest moments of the episode:
#1 Leanne rapping: “Yo Kenley’s gonna make an outfit for me, she’d better not make it look like it’s from 1950.”
#2 Tim, saying ‘Kenley, you are insane, and not to anyone’s benefit’ in his own special way: “I’m just trying to follow your thinking. And you led me off a precipice.”
If PR has taken such a downward turn already, I can only imagine the horrors in store when it moves to Lifetime. Be strong, everyone, be strong.
Liveblogging season four, episode four of Bones.
20:02: Is Sweets the only psychiatrist in DC or something?
20:11: I sort of missed the whole son / author impersonator thing. What?
20:12: “She is wicked literal.” Agreed.
20:20: Oh Temperance, you don’t even know when you’re sexually harassing your interns.
20:22: I understand that they all love Zach and shit, but seriously, he blew up his own hands and murdered a man with a knife. That is very good reason not to be all buddy buddy anymore.
20:25: Really, a confession in the first 25 minutes? There is something else going on here.
20:32: Aww his name is Wendell!
20:40: Well now at least I understand the situation with the double, even if I had to suffer through a guy in a ski cap and a bad haircut to do it.
20:44: I thought that OCD guy confessed to killing him? Not that I believed him, but where did he go?
20:49: I like Wendell, even if he is a shallow white working class stereotype! I hope he sticks around.
20:51: Zach stole Sweets’s card to escape the insane asylum. So can we report him to the police now? And never, ever see him again? Really, there’s enough obsessively logical for one show already.
20:53: No Wendell, don’t go, we love you!
20:54: I still protest this unequivocal Zach love. He killed a man and doesn’t regret it!
20:56: Oh, apparently he didn’t kill anyone. Well that makes him marginally more sympathetic.
20:57: Wait, what? The master didn’t commit the murder but someone else did and then the master killed that someone else and he’s still out there? This flies in the face of last season! I object! Also that Gormagon thing went on way too long, I’d really like to drop it (and Zach).
Meh, a lackluster episode. If there hadn’t beeing the Deus ex Machina of Zach and all this weird buddy-buddyness with a guy they thought was a cold-blooded killer it would have been much better. I understand the actor needs to make money and it is great for him and all, but I would rather he just get locked up and we never hear from him again. Or, you know, he not be written as a redundancy of Temperance.
Liveblogging episode three of the first season.
21:02: Open on poor tortured psychic!
21:03: This show enjoys its massive chemical exposures on enclosed transportation plot points.
21:06: I still cannot get behind this floating block text to indicate scene location. It just looks funny.
21:08: “I wasn’t going to tell you this… but he said he loved me too.” Bless you for lightening her angsty mcangst, whatever your name is, Gravely Voice Man.
21:10: Mystery! Intrigue!
21:15: Walter’s moments of lucidity are dangerous at best.
21:17: Nicaraguan drug cartels hear about The Pattern, too. This is dangerous ground people.
21:19: Massive Dynamic, why do you keep coming up? Oh, perhaps it’s because you’re evil.
21:23: Where is our Mulder to jump to the conclusion of “psychic”?
21:25: Evil Red-haired Lady raises a good point: These strange occurrences are suddenly very localized around our intrepid protagonist, since she became our intrepid protagonist.
21:27: And their psychic woke up around when they learned about The Pattern. HMM. At least they are addressing the sci-fi trope of strange things happening in a convenient distance from the heroes.
21:28: They are also addressing why Dunham doesn’t get to know everything when really they might just not want the audience to know everything. Thank goodness for basic logic amid scientific illogic.
21:34: And finally, an explanation as to why Walter doesn’t remember his own Ghost Network experiments on Harvard undergrads: He’s crazy! I think we’re done here.
21:37: Who hides medical equipment in a wall? Really?
21:38: I think we can all agree Astrid has a better bedside manner than “Strap him down!” crazyman Walter.
21:41: The set designers for this show must have so much fun. Not as much fun as the set designers for LOST, but we can all dream.
21:43: “Dammit don’t you FEEL anything?” “Well I’m a little scared.”
21:44: Also I would argue that Latin is not a handy language to use on modern topics, given they stopped speaking it centuries and centuries ago. Also not as sneaky as they’d like, apparently, since Astrid conveniently speaks Latin.
21:46: Damn, can’t we find a good, non-dirty government agent these days?
21:51: TV shows that make you loudly “GASP!” are the best.
21:54: Stop your whining, Dunham, isn’t it worth it to get this thing out of evil hands? And look, you got extra clearance, now aren’t you happy?
21:56: I’m still curious as to how these men were broadcasting on the Ghost Network. It doesn’t seem to be a thing that one can do through a cell phone. Though I may have lost that information when my cousin and her friend were chatting over the dialogue.
21:57: Why does Massive Dynamic want something they already have? Why is everyone trying to poach Dunham? Is that the dead DEA agent? Maybe I would know what was going on if some people would quit talking over the show!
Lesson learned: Watch Fringe alone, or with people who’ve watched it from the beginning and know better. I’m going to have to try to catch this online to figure out all of what happened at the end. But really, if this was the greatest trial in my day, I am doing pretty well.
My commentary on the Project Runway: Australia finale has been notably absent for a week now. All I can say is I was woefully disappointed. Deep down, I knew Petrova would not win, she was too brilliant, too bright, too fanciful for this show’s inaugural season. It would be better for them to go with the safe designer. So they did. When it was down to the final three, Petrova was the first to leave the stage, which, pardon my overuse of the phrase but it is apt, a joke. It had been between her and Julie the moment Lui was out of the competition, and to send her off the stage first just meant the winner was announced all the sooner.
Don’t get me wrong, I liked Julie’s collection. But the judges said it themselves. She played it safe, and she didn’t do anything different than what she did on the show. Petrova showed a real range, real innovation, and took real risks – and her only criticism was that people might not ‘get’ the little tricks (a dress that can clip in the front for one look or unclip for another, a dress whose train is attached to a belt and can be taken off). Are people who buy high fashion really so dumb they don’t know what to do with some buttons?
Well, no. Don’t answer that. But regardless. Petrova Hammond will always be a winner to me. If I ever get a chance to go to Australia, her shop, Lady, will be my first stop.
Liveblogging episode four of the season, “Safe and Sound.”
21:03: My cousin and her friend are talking loudly from the other room so thankfully I can’t hear Mahone and his wife being emo drama llamas.
21:06: This does beg the question was T-Bag does with his days in the office.
21:10: You hired Michael, annoying FBI man, can’t you just trust him?
21:11: You know something is overplayed when Mahone says, “That’s the man who killed my son,” and your first reaction is “GOD enough about your son.” Really, to make a dead son unsympathetic? Serious effort.
21:18: Again sir: You hired Michael Scofield for this job. It’s time to get on the Michael Scofield Bus and trust the man.
21:19: Really, gentlemen, an insurance payout is your ploy? Dressed like that? Yet the inappropriately dressed secretary doesn’t seem to fall for it. Go fig.
21:27: T-Bag, this leprechaun metaphor is really not making you as scary as you want to be.
21:30: Damn you and your mysterious nosebleed, Michael, you just ruined that woman’s shirt.
21:31: Dear Token Asian, saying a murderer can’t help being a murderer is not something to tell a grieving father. Just FYI.
21:37: “It was a big deal when you were thirteen.” Ooo, mystery surrounding Michael’s nosebleeds. My cousin’s friend says childhood nosebleeds are a sign of leukemia. I, however, vote for mysterious brain disease. That’s how all the brilliant TV minds go.
21:54: I liked their “The ocean IS your backyard!” conversation much more than this sort of cold and angsty talk about trust. Really, where is the chemistry from season one?
21:57: …really, Prison Break? Did you just use the fakest, most overused scream sound effect ever? You have jumped the shark.
Again, an ok but ultimately lackluster episode. As Mahone’s quest for his son’s killer got tired the second it started, I’d recommend a little more Michael/Sarah interaction. But now that there’s no prisoner/prison doctor forbidden love there it seems like the writers don’t know what to do, other than give them a sibling level of affection and casual acquaintance level dialogue. I may quit watching, but I suffered through season 3 to get to this point, it’s hard for me to give up now.
Liveblogging the third episode of the season, “The Mousetrap.” As in build a better?
20:01: Putting those two clips back to back in the recap, Riley is totally a mini Kim Kelly. Oh Freaks and Geeks, you ended too soon.
20:02: Why can’t people flee to more populated, less The Hills Have Eyes places? Also, I’m really glad I didn’t think of that when I was driving through the No Man’s Land between Phoenix and LA.
20:04: I admire her wherewithal to scream for her husband rather than just sort of generically scream. That is some fast reaction time. Anyway, don’t just stand there man, call the cops!
20:05: Wow Busy Phillips is really, really pregnant. And haha, Beast Wizard 7.
20:07: “Nobody that pregnant should be forced to watch network television.” I concur! Pregnancy seems rough enough already.
20:08: Get it together man, time is of the essence and your wife has been kidnapped by a killer robot!
A brief interruption here, and another amusing Cameron moment missed because I had to open the door for my cousin. Damn you life, depriving me of two seconds of television!
20:16: She’s a strong girl, she eats her spinach, what can we say. And really, John, trying to outrun a Terminator? You should know better by now.
20:17: Hahaha Beast Master 7! In the spirit of supplementary web content I hope we will see clips of this on the internet.
Commercial: Iron Man on DVD September 30! Excited? I know I am.
20:25: Those crazy Terminators, they just love reciting their facts.
20:26: “Yarn collector,” the new term of endearment. And really, Cameron, you don’t know how to be sneaky at all? They didn’t teach that in robot school alongside burning and destroying?
20:29:
Commercial: I still maintain that REC, the original Spanish version of this movie, will likely be much better than Quarantine. It has got Jennifer Carpenter in it, but in the vein of most American remakes it will probably try to explain all the inexplicable supernatural stuff and get bogged down in the process.
Also, really, a commercial where nothing but a wide array of people say “I’m a PC”? That says nothing about the product, other than a lot of people remain inexplicably dedicated to it. It is, however, less detrimental than the “Windows Mohave” commercials, in which someone said, “It’s not so bad once you learn how to use it” of Windows Vista. (Not an exact quote, people.)
20:37: John, shouldn’t you know by now that if your mom calls you in a panic, something legitimately bad is going down? I don’t care if you’re shopping with Busy Phillips Jr., this is old hat.
20:44: Oh Penny Widmore, you are just causing so many problems today. First you get kidnapped by an unstoppable robot, then you get hurt by an explosion. For shame!
Again I miss essential robot/FBI discussion because of life. Pardon the gap.
20:48: Really Cameron, you can’t follow John properly but you can follow Riley? Tsk tsk.
20:49: Also I’m not certain how stopping the car is going to make this woman bleeding out any better or any worse. Since her husband is an EMT I would expect him to know this, but, you know, crisis.
20:53: Speaking of knowing better, you are totally not helping by stealing and then running away in a panic, John. It sort of attracts attention from the Terminator you just spotted.
20:54: I think we’re all disappointed we didn’t get to see Cameron do the Robot right there.
20:56: Terminators do not swim: Good to know! Thankfully the good one was aware while the evil one was not. But I imagine he will just be walking to the surface shortly, so this isn’t the last we’ve seen of him.
20:57: Yep, there he is! People should get more funny looks in this show, I know it’s LA, but still, guy walking out of the water?
20:58: Oh Penny, or whatever your character’s name in this show was, we’ll miss you. Oh wait, you play a much better character with a much better love interest on LOST. Carry on then!
20:59: Throwing the Bible on the coffin was quite good. Sometimes even The Sarah Conner Chronicles has good imagery.
I believe the wrecked car count for this episode is one, but only because the engine got wrecked. No exploding cars! They’re two for two now. I look forward to Cameron’s backstory next week, especially since it seems to involve a Battlestar-esq identical robots plot.
Dear Nylon,
This is like a bad relationship. We know we’re not right for each other. Last month you extolled the virtues of Cory Kennedy and the LA fashion culture (the latter two words I use with more than a little factitiousness) she represents. But this month, you had your “It Girl” issue, and Zooey Deschanel was on the cover. You also had an article about Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist and seemed as enamored with Michael Cera’s talent, and as excited about this newest installment in the teen movie lexicon, as I am. In these things you had done something so delightful, and wonderful, and I was ready to forgive you all your faults.
And then you had a photoshoot with Cory Kennedy in the back.
I’m sorry, but though I wavered, I cannot budge. It’s over. Cera and Deschanel or no you cannot buy your way back into my heart.
I posted a few days ago about Ellen DeGeneres as the new face of Cover Girl. Today, Jezebel addressed the suggestion that Cover Girl’s choice of representatives is more pandering than progressive. Says a commenter on Jossip, also quoted in the Jezebel article:
“Unfortunately, I think describing P & G as ‘progressive’ is a bit naive. Cover Girl is among the least expensive of major drugstore cosmetics; one could easily argue that marketing to black women is a cynical attempt to make poor people buy their cheap product. Are KFC and McDonald’s progressive because they use black people in ads? As for being ‘gay-friendly,’ I think the fact that Ellen DeGeneres has a popular daytime talk show with the right kind of demographics is why she’s in their ads. Capitalism trumps prejudice every time, if the price is right!”
First, I think the comparison between Cover Girl’s marketing and McDonald’s is unfair. Cover Girl has used the same “easy, breezy, beautiful” taglines and design to all their advertisements, regardless of whether the model in question was black or white. McDonald’s tactics, however, see a marked difference depending on the race of the people in their ads. (Though I can’t for the life of me find the ad with the black grandson praising his Southern grandma for her down-home cookin’, only to find it’s from McDonalds. My crack team is scouring YouTube.) That, my friends, is pandering. Representing your product in the same manner regardless of a model’s race, age, weight or sexuality is not. And you know, right now, with how little such a thing really is happening, it is progressive.
In regard to Ellen being chosen because of her popularity, regardless of her sexuality – isn’t that a good thing? A woman was chosen for her fit with the brand image and the perceived sellability, dare I say her qualifications, rather than some inherent trait that really has no bearing on what sort of person she is. Now the latter would have been pandering. (Hmm, and vaguely reminiscent of a certain VP nomination.) But her sexuality being neither a contributing nor detracting factor, something that the company neither shied away from nor wanted to exploit – progress! And, with the current popular attitude towards gays, maybe even progressive.
I’m sensitive about a lot of things, but I can’t find a reason to call foul on Cover Girl for this one.
