Sunday, March 31, 2013
Saturday, March 30, 2013
I Ain't One To Gossip, But ....
Friday, March 29, 2013
PR 11 Ep 10: Wherefore Art Thou?
You can tell we’re getting near the end because the designtestants
are tried and cranky and more than a little bit sullen. When Heidi Klum greets
them from the runway, she asks, "Why are you not smiling?" Um,
because they don’t like their teams, they’re tired. Daniel’s mustache; Layana’s
accent; Richard. All good reasons to be in a mood.
But, Heidi begs them to soldier on and then sends them off
to meet Tim Gunn at the Guggenheim Museum where he gives them the news teams—Stanley
and Michelle, Chic and Quirky; Daniel and Layana, Old School and New School; Richard
and Patrica, Hack and Artist. Then comes the challenge: create a piece of wearable “over the top,
grand, big” art along with a companion, ready-to-wear, piece. Plus, they’ll be
able to create their own textile to use in their designs, and they get a bonus:
the winning designer gets $10,000 and a new HP Envy X2. Then Tim lets them
loose in the Guggenheim to study the art and become inspired. This bodes well
for everyone but Richard ….
Back in the workroom to create their textiles, Tim also
offers up some unique choices for their creations: bubble wrap, chicken wire,
crayons [at least I think I saw crayons] Popsicle sticks and, of course, glue
guns galore! Plus, they get a trip to Mood to get supplementals.
Let’s rip ….
STANLEY and MICHELLE
These two make a great pair because their each have their
very own clear aesthetic, but they also know how to, um, listen, and play off
one another.
Michelle—who takes over at the computer to create the textile,
while Stanley [is he not a computer geek?] takes a back seat—creates a dark, eerie
woman’s face, and then tilts it in every degree. I’m getting sick, seriously, because
I think it’s too literal and too much.
I.Was.Wrong.
When the fabric arrives, it’s very cool; you can easily read that it’s a face,
but it’s not so crazy-wack-a-doo.
Michelle decides to create an artsy-fartsy overcoat, and
then handpaint the six-foot train. Stanley sees her wack-a-doo and raises her a
bubble-wrap, but using the plastic to make a very voluminous dress for under
the coat.
Michelle creates a corkscrew head-piece for the art look, which works
fine, but when she designs a little top hat with Crazy Woman Faces coming out
of it, Stanley wisely nips that in the bud; Michelle ends up wearing the hat
herself on the runway.
Stanley takes Michelle’s textile and makes a very chic, very
full dress. While I couldn’t see it as ready-to-wear—it looked giant—it moved
well and the fabric looked amazing. Almost as amazing as Stanley’s ass in the
yellow green; I had to mention that.
It was obvious when those two looks came down the runway
that this team would win. While Michelle brought the quirky, Stanley brought
the chic, and the two pieces—as Stanley said—looked like part of the same show.
Michelle's art coat was so edgy and cool and
modern, while Stanley’s dark lady screaming baby doll dress was lovely.
Guest judge, designer Tracy Reese, loved that the two looks
seemed compatible, while Heidi loved Michelle’s print, and the dark colors.
Rachel Roy—subbing for The Adorable Zac Posen™ again…damn—called the fabric
quirky and crazy; she loved the print, and loved Stanley’s dress. Nina also
loved Stanley’s dress, in Michelle’s print, but wondered if the Baby Doll Crazy
Lady might not be so commercial. Heidi loved that Stanley went bubble-wrap, and
loved that Michelle created art by painting the back of the coat. But, in the
end, Stanley gets the win, for bubble-wrap and baby doll. I thought it might go
to Michelle, and would have been just as happy, but I liked Stanley’s
exuberance at winning.
Plus, without The Adorable Zac Posen™ I needed a little
cute.
DANIEL and LAYANA
This was rough because, well, Layana’s a bitch who thinks
that because she’s the youngest designer, fresh from design school, that she’s
the best thing ever. She instantly tells us that she’ll be in charge and
running the show this week. And, I imagine, that had Daniel not been so ready
to be dominated, she might have had her meltdown earlier. Layana is that girl
who, if she doesn’t get her way—by batting her eyelashes and smiling—she gets
angry and the weepy.
She controls everything: "I’m going to make sure [Daniel]
makes something sexy..."
Now, tis true that Daniel needs to stop with the matronly
dresses, he doesn’t need this pipsqueak to act like she knows everything.
Especially when she opts to make a dress that looks exactly like the Guggenheim's
circling ramps; oh, how literal. I get it! Art!
She also creates the textile—which I loathed—and then, I’m
guessing, because she created it, thinks she gets to use it all. Daniel
literally had to grab a pair of scissors and hold the fabric hostage before she
gave him a yard and he gave her a finger.
Layana then trashes her Guggen-horror dress because, well,
it’s ugly, and tries something new. When Tim comes by, he calls her look flat
and uninspired, and she cries. And cries. And cries. And tells us how much she
needs the money. Honey, we could all use 10K so your waterworks don’t work.
But Tim’s critique does because Layana comes back inspired
and begins hot-gluing netting and rosettes and more netting and bows and, well,
anything that wasn’t nailed down—seriously, I think I saw Richard’s bracelet on
the dress…more on that later—all over
the dress. Daniel, in the meantime, works best by himself, and does another
jacket with the Daniel Shoulder™ that he does every week, though I will say
that this version is less 1980 and more 2013.
His look was sleek and sexy and modern, while Layana’s final
piece was Trashy Victorian, or Turn Of The Last
Century Whore. Heidi loved Daniel’s look—she gave it the new buzz phrase: “I
would wear that!”—and said it was a killer jacket. Nina loved that Daniel was ‘back’;
back from making old lady dresses and jackets to making young lady dresses and jackets,
and called Layana a good muse. Rachel Roy loved the Daniel Shoulder™ and Reese
thought his look was from today, while Layana’s look from yesteryear….Eliza
Doolittle…..Scarlett O’Hara Barbie. Take your pick, they’re all good. Nina
thought it looked as though Layana threw in "everything and the kitchen
sink." Rachel Roy said Layana should have asked herself if she’d wear that
dress—the answer would have to have been ‘No’—and then maybe she’d have trashed
it further….into the trash.
When asked who should win, Daniel quite rightly said that
since they all loved his dress he should win. This causes the Second Layana Meltdown
in the back room as she wailed about how she created the look with him and how
it wasn’t just his dress and how she feels so betrayed. I don’t think they
showed it, but I think came in and gave her a Cher Moonstruck Slap™. Or that was just wishful thinking on my part.
I.Don’t.Like.Her. But she’s safe.
RICHARD and PATRICIA
Team Don’t See Eye To Eye About Anything.
Other than agreeing almost at once that Richard should create
the commercial look and Patricia, the artist,
should create the art piece, this match didn’t work at all.
There was no talking, except for Richard saying he wanted to
wait and see what Patricia did before he picked up a needle and thread. Well, except
for spending hours creating a bracelet and then having the walnuts to utter, “Fashion
was born this morning.”
Patricia works—and, to be fair, she doesn’t explain herself
very well—while Richard doodles and dawdles and hot glues leather and beads to
a cuff for Layana to try on.
When Tim comes in and sees Patricia’s art project
and Richard’s half-finished dress, he accuses Richard of trying to pawn off
responsibility for their designs on Patricia should things go wrong. And then, in the confessional, Richard says, “What?”
but there’s a gleam in his eye that says, Damn!
Had Tim not said that I totally would have done it.
Patricia keeps calling Richard "Daniel" and Richard
keeps calling his team “Oil and water.” I believe he’ll be calling it Auf’d by
the end of the day.
I felt bad for Patricia, who’s a little crazy and a little
stubborn and little hard t understand, because this was her challenge to win,
and then being paired with Richard automatically sinks her. He has no creativity,
unless it’s a jersey colorblocked dress, and cannot fathom how to create a
companion piece until he sees Patricia’s look completely finished.
But I loved when
Patricia said, “My piece scares you? GOOD! If I instill fear in you, at
least you FELT something!" I loved that because Richard mostly feels ready
to go home.
Now, that said, I found her piece, while artistic, kind of
scary—hmmm, she instilled fear in me, too—and strait-jacket-esque. That said,
Richard’s travesty was a hot ugly mess. The top didn’t seem to go with the
bottom, and the bottom looked like a chef’s hat.
Nina hated Patricia’s
veil, while Heidi loved it, and Nina also called the print—which Patricia
called a play on an eagle’s feather …. Huh?—kind of circus tent. She did,
however, love the layering of fabric on the art piece. She politely said that
it was clear Richard struggled with the skirt; it looked tortured. Heidi gave a
heavy sigh, said she hated it and called it bad.
And Auf’d.
MY TAKE
Again, here we are nearing
the end, and still the designers don’t get that, even if you create a masterpiece,
if your partner sucks, you will not win. Now, I’m not saying Patricia should
have won, but out of all the art designs, hers was the most artistic. But
Richard’s sad aesthetic, and inability to sew a zipper correctly, brought the whole
team down.
I’m over Layana. If
she shows at The Tents I’ll Elvis my flatscreen.
Funny bit: when
Michelle called out Richard for his one-note aesthetic, and said if he showed at
The tents he’s parade twelve jersey-colorblocked numbers down the runway. A
quick Google search, and you see that Richard did show at The Tents—as a decoy collection—and
he did show twelve jersey-colorblocked messes.
Next week: no teams,
although some Aufee’s come back to, um, ‘help’ or sabotage. Plus, the return of
The Adorable Zac Posen™.
What did YOU think?
I Didn't Say It ....
Evan Wolfson, of Freedom To Marry, to Tony Perkins on Face
The Nation:
"Marriage is not defined by who is denied it. When gay people share
in the freedom to marry, it doesn't change your marriage, it doesn't change Tony Perkins' marriage.
My marriage is my marriage. And it means that I'm able to share
in the same aspirations of commitment and love and support and dedication and
connectedness, and that my parents are able to dance at our wedding. And our family
and friends are able to support and celebrate and hold us accountable for the
commitment we've made to one another. That takes nothing away from anyone
else... The gay people are not going to use up all the marriage licenses when
we enter marriage. And this is not just somebody saying it. We now have nine
states including the District of Columbia, fourteen countries on four
continents in which gay people share in the freedom to marry and the result is
families are helped and no one is hurt."
Like Wolfson, I’m still waiting for some heterosexual couple
to make their appearance, state, and
prove, their case that same-sex marriage ruined their marriage.
Yeah, won’t happen.
Samuel
Joseph Wurzelbacher, AKA Joe The dumber, er, Plumber, having a sadz because he
can’t call queers queer:
"30 years ago
we use to play a game called “smear the queer;” a game where whoever had the
football got gang tackled. It was a normal. If you had the ball, you were the
queer, because no one else had the ball, and having the ball made you odd or
“queer” in that respect. Of course, you could throw the ball to another player
and the pack would quickly turn to smear that queer, without regard to his or
her sexuality, I might add. Queer, gay, homo, fag meant nothing having to do
with what you were attracted to and no one committed suicide, got beat up or
even called names in that regard. That was my experience. Then, about ten
years later, the media and the ever-tolerant Hollywood (not), began portraying
homosexual (men) on television and film as the “Funny” one or the one you felt
sorry for – just to get us used to the idea. C’mon – who didn’t laugh at Paul
Lynde or Charles Nelson Reilly? And not until Ellen demanded her character come
out of the closet (which she was summarily fired for) did gay characters litter
the big and small screen alike, whether it was important or not. (Just to go a
little further with this point, Hollywood will put “gay” characters in TV
show/movies that are not relevant to the plot. They try to portray this as
“Normal” America. I can tell you right now, when I’m tossing the football with
my son in front of the house, I have never seen 2 men hand in hand prancing
down the street. You?"
Out of the mouths of morons ...
Joe, you’re an
idiot, Gay people, fags, homos and queers, have been name-called, beaten, and
murdered for years, even as far back as your tiny mind can fathom … 30 years
ago. Times change. The
use of words change.
And I imagine two
men wouldn’t be caught dead holding hands in front of your house because you
might try to smear the queer.
Grow up, Joe, your
fifteen minutes is up. You were irrelevant in 2008 and you’re irrelevant today. Get a job.
"If there's one thing you don't mess with in life, it's love. My
parents and all the other gay and lesbian people here want to be happy, just
like you. All they want is to be treated fairly. But unlike most of you, they
have to come again here year after year and explain over and over why their
love is equal to yours. This year, you have the opportunity to change that. I
say, choose love.”
Out of the mouths of babes …..
"To legalize marriage between two
people of the same sex would enshrine in the law the principle that mothers and
fathers are interchangeable or irrelevant, and that marriage is essentially an
institution about adults, not children; marriage would mean nothing more than
giving adults recognition and benefits in their most significant relationship.
How can we do this to our children? No matter what the Supreme Court rules,
this debate is not over. Marriage is too important and the issues raised by
treating same-gender unions as marriages are too fundamental to just go
away. Just as Roe v. Wade did
not end the conversation about abortion, so a ruling that tries to import
same-sex marriage into our Constitution is not going to end the marriage
debate, but intensify it. We will have a bitterly polarized country divided on
the marriage issue for years if not generations to come."
Howsabout, rather than thinking
of a child having a mother and a father, Howsabout wishing children had a
loving parents, or parents, of either gender. Howsabout, Archbishop, shutting
your pie-hole about what’s best for children when you belong to a group that
has been raping children for decades.
Ronnie Musgrave, former Mississippi
governor, now regretting signing a law to ban adoptions for gay couples:
"After thinking about this for some
time, I realized that if you're fortunate, age and knowledge breed compassion.
The more I read the (U.S.) Constitution, the clearer it became that you just
can't deny rights to a specific class of people just because some are
uncomfortable with what they do not understand. Too many elected officials take
positions without thinking about the real impact on people and families. I am
glad Sen. Portman had the same evolution I did, but I wish all of us had the
compassion for other people to think about the impact of political positions
before making them policy."
Nicely put; people can change
their minds, but many times, if they just thought first, they might have made
the equal choice in the first place.
“They might. And if they do, they’re going to lose a large part of their
base because evangelicals will take a walk. And it’s not because there’s an
anti-homosexual mood, and nobody’s homophobic that I know of, but many of us,
and I consider myself included, base our standards not on the latest Washington
Post poll, but on an objective standard, not a subjective standard. I have
great sympathy and extraordinary admiration for Sen. Portman. I consider him a
friend and I value his work in the Senate and think he’s a great person. The
mistake is that we sometimes base our public policy decisions on how we feel,
how we think, maybe even some personal experiences, and we don’t regard a lot
of these issues from the standpoint of an objective standard."
I love how he says denying equality to one class of people,
based on his own religious indoctrination does not make him a homophobe.
Yes, it does Mike. Equal is equal, plain and simple, and
until the GOP gets that, they’ll forever be on the outside wondering how to get
back in.
"I support marriage equality for so many reasons: my father’s
experience in an internment camp and the racial intolerance his family
experienced during and after the war, the gay friends I have who are really not
all that different from me, and also because of a story I read a few years back
about a woman who was denied the right to visit her partner of 15 years when
she was stuck in a hospital bed ... My belief is rooted in a childhood nurtured
by a Christian message of love, compassion and acceptance. It’s grounded in the
fact that I was adopted and know there are thousands of children
institutionalized in various foster programs, in desperate need of permanent,
safe and loving homes, but living in states that refuse to allow unmarried
couples, including gays and lesbians, to adopt because they consider them not
fit to be parents ... In articulating all my feelings about marriage equality,
I almost don’t know where to begin. And perhaps that’s part of the problem. Why
do we have to explain ourselves when it comes to issues of fairness and
equality? Why is common sense not enough?"
Word.
"Bishop" Harry Jackson, on how much better straight marriages are for everyone involved:
"When a man and a woman are in the house, poverty is lessened. When a man and a woman are in the house, kids don’t go to prison. When a man and a woman are in the house, there’s less domestic violence. When a man and a woman are in the house, sexual abuse does not happen."
No poor straight couples?
No kids from straight marriages in prisons?
No domestic violence among straight married couples?
No such thing as spousal rape?
Apparently Bishop Jackson doesn't read a newspaper, for if her did he could find out in one sitting how unbelievably stupid a man he truly is.
"Bishop" Harry Jackson, on how much better straight marriages are for everyone involved:
"When a man and a woman are in the house, poverty is lessened. When a man and a woman are in the house, kids don’t go to prison. When a man and a woman are in the house, there’s less domestic violence. When a man and a woman are in the house, sexual abuse does not happen."
No poor straight couples?
No kids from straight marriages in prisons?
No domestic violence among straight married couples?
No such thing as spousal rape?
Apparently Bishop Jackson doesn't read a newspaper, for if her did he could find out in one sitting how unbelievably stupid a man he truly is.
Thursday, March 28, 2013
Random Musings
Just because… Chris Pine. I could get totally lost in those baby blues.
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