Consonants and vowels all together, equally

Top Chef March 12!

Last night's Project Runway: Mostly, I can't believe that Ricky makes his own hats. He's so annoying. ( spoilers! )

In my experience of competitive reality shows, there are three phases (and if I were Barney Stinson, they'd all have awesome names). In the initial phase, those who wouldn't have succeeded without a lot of luck or some coattails are shed by the machinery of the show. The midperiod is the most frustrating, when you get the surprise eliminations of one or two folks everyone, including the judges, thought were going all the way, plus the mysterious hanging on of one or two people no one thought would get that far. Depending on their methods, abilities and personalities, these people are either lovable underdogs (AI5's Elliott, TC3's Dale) or hated interlopers (PR1's Wendy Pepper). Mostly, though, the midperiod gets rid of the competent-but-no-fire types. Then, at the end, you get a pure competition where usually almost any of them could win, and it really depends on who brings it and who doesn't.

Now we're about done with phase one on PR, ( some thoughts. )

It snowed today. So much for going to the post office!

Magical Elves first. So Tom Colicchio was the guest judge on Top Design last week, but didn't do a guest blog because he's busy on the new season of Top Chef which according to Bravo will be coming "later this summer." Now, the dumb hair cutting show, Shear Genius, comes on when Top Design ends in mid-April and will run for 12 weeks or so, meaning that the new Top Chef will start sometime in July.

What does this mean for you? No Project Runway until at least the fall, is what it means. Dang! Oh Tim Gunn, how we miss you.

Meanwhile, last night on Top Design, ( we had an elimination. ) I also think that the problem with this show is that they haven't worked out how to edit the show so that we can understand what was going on with the challenges or really see how the room went from concept through execution to end result. I'm not sure if that's because a room is too much to take in at a glance, or what, but it's definitely an easier show to deal with when there are fewer designers.

Idol: It was the right elimination. At this rate Sanjaya will not be voted off until the top 5 or so, though I would love him to be gone by the Idol Gives Back because I cannot stand the idea of him singing some "inspirational" song and being on the same stage as Bono.

Before I start, I just saw the new Gap ad where they take Audrey Hepburn's beatnik dance from Funny Face and edit it to AC/DC's Back in Black and I still don't know what I think about it.

( PR spoilers and a poll. )

You know, the non-Magical Elves reality shows on Bravo aren't that great. Like, what was that show with the hair stylist? That was so lame. I know those producers did the gym show, "Workout" which was only really interesting thanks to the lesbian love drama of the gym owner and her insane biting girlfriend. Orange County Housewives or whatever? The only cool one was the now-slightly-rounded former Playboy model-ZZ Top Eliminator girl who now sells real estate and spoils her children, not only because she's still gorgeous 20 years and 40 pounds and two teenagers later, but also because it's interesting to see a person in that position who is still in her first marriage. And now they have on this Million Dollar Listing show and I don't know how much I care about that, either. Why would you be all, I'm a gay man and America sucks so I'm moving to Puerto Vallarta???!!!

slytherincess noted the other day that I hadn't made a post about all dem reality shows in quite a while. Project Runway doesn't really lend itself to polls since we aren't voting and the whole thing gets wrapped up in the one episode. And _sytycd_ had such great expert commentary that I stopped talking about the show here. But I find I do have a few things to say.

( Dance 10 Looks 3? Not hardly. )

( Even Ralph Finnes is a fan! )

Anyone going to watch Simon's celebrity duets thing? Anyone excited about any of the new fall shows? I'm sort of underwhelmed, and also, I really don't want to pick up any new shows!

I'm in DC for a fun spring weekend with P. Why, already we've had Indian food and gone grocery shopping and watched some of Aida on the tee-vee. We also watched Longtime Companion and I promised P that if he gets sick I will not let anyone put him in a baseball cap.

In other news thank you, Carrie, for reminding me to find a comm to post that PR story to. It was mostly full of Nick/Daniel but someone had actually challenged Tim/Emmett a while back so I felt a little more confident posting. Why oh why do I never do the popular pairings? This is because I don't really like boyish boys much, isn't it? First the HP, then the Rent, now the PR—I can't even find Ryan/Simon in the glut of Will/David, who hello aren't even on the show anymore.

Ooh, today we're going to buy sheets!

Who should be reading about the New Deal? Yeah. Instead I watched yet another lackluster episode of American Idol, plus Project Runway. The only thing I have to say about Project Runway is that that last twist was really just sort of dumb.

( Cut as always for spoilers and the uninterested. )

Sometimes I despair for the media industry. They're so desperate; they've put a lot of eggs in the wrong basket and wall street keeps pounding them for having such an up and down industry. But entertainment isn't widgets; no one really knows what is going to work. In the meantime, they'll just sue us all for using their products, which will piss us off and make us want to steal even more. It's a time of very high uncertainty, and I think they all know that when it sorts out almost none of them will be there anymore. It would be nice to think that what will be decimated is the larger corporate structures and leave us with something more streamlined that puts more money in the pockets of talent, but I'm not prepared to be that optimistic. Just another reason to be glad I've moved from the trenches to the sidelines.

The Project Runway reunion show was killer, but I don't have much to say about it other than that it revived that vague Tim/Emmett thing that was in the back of my mind. And as ely709 texted, Santino is the devil. They're stretching the finale over two weeks; poll next week after we know that last twist.

Meanwhile, because I was only vaguely interested in the ladies' free skate, I caught up on American Idol on the TIVO. ( Cut for lenghth, spoilers, people not caring. )

Well, maybe one AI poll now, very non-spoilery. I feel I should have an American Idol icon, I think, if I'm going to be posting about it; Sifl and Olly are great but they don't scream American Idol. I don't want to use a current contestant because I want to be able to use it no matter who ultimately wins; I don't like any of the other previous winners enough to icon them; icons of Paula or Randy just don't appeal to me.
[Poll #679260]

I love that I still don't have Thursday classes, so Wednesday is the end of my week and I get rewarded with TELEVISION. Yes, yes.

( Veronica Mars! )

( Project Runway--including a poll! )

Thanks to everyone who participated in the meme the other day! You are all dears.

ely709 reminded me that I forgot to do a Project Runway recap! ( Was it the shirt? )