One last PR post

I'm now kinda glad I wasn't able to spend more time doing recaps, but that's not what I'm gonna talk about. I'm gonna talk about the actual three finalists' collections and what I thought about them.

Well, that's one less show I'm watching again

Dear Nina Garcia and Michael Kors,

You have lost all credibility with me. Seriously.

I've been disagreeing with your choices for a while, sure. But this season, not only have I disagreed with you, I've started to wonder if you actually do have any real idea what's going on in the fashion world.

You just gave Gretchen the win over Mondo. And I'm pissed off about that, yes, but it's not just because I think Mondo is by far the better designer. It's also because of the bullshit that came out of your mouths in justifying it.

You see... I've been paying a lot more attention to the runway and the fashion world in general since I started watching this show, and you know what I haven't seen recently? Anything that looks much like the 70's aesthetic animal print stuff Gretchen did. In fact, I'm looking at Marie Claire's web site right now, and do you know what I am seeing? Clothes that look far more like what Mondo did than what Gretchen did. In fact, in specific, on the Fashion News page, I see one thing using almost the same pink and aqua I saw in Mondo's collection, and another using a black and white print.

Whose finger again is on the pulse of fashion trends?

Apparently not yours.

Sincerely,

Someone whose Thursday nights look to be staying free for the forseeable future.

PR: Lifetime Sucks

No, seriously. I just went to try to go look at finishing up E2 and found out they have taken down the full episodes for everything prior to E6. That means the four hours or so I spent on the E2 recap was a total waste, because no way to finish that one without the video handy. Oh, I probably could go dig up some other people's recaps and figure out which designers I hadn't yet managed to get to and get them in the right order, but, well, screw it. I'll just skip up to E6 and straight into my "shorter recaps" plan, and be caught up that much sooner, I guess. If I ever get ahold of E2 video again I might go ahead and finish it, but probably not.

PR recaps; Top Chef; Top Chef: Just Desserts

Because of the length of time it takes me to write a recap like the one I did for S8 E1—it's a good 5-6 hours of watching for a few seconds, pausing, and writing something, then starting the video up again—I'm clearly not going to get caught up. I'm going to try to finish up the one for E2 anyhow, since I was near the end of it, but then I'm going to try to find a way to write much leaner recaps for the rest. No promises, though; my painkillers aren't, lately.

On Top Chef DC: Totally disappointing season. I didn't really ever connect with someone I wanted to root for—the closest I came was deciding to root for Tiffany, and then she got eliminated right after I decided that—and one of the people I thought was not all that strong a chef won. Whoopie-doo. And apparently the next season of Top Chef is going to be an "All-Stars", starting in December. I haven't decided how I feel about that. It includes people from every season, many of whom made it near or into the finale but didn't win. (Thank goodness it doesn't include winners, or I might have to see that cockmeister Ilan again. Seriously, guys: stop inviting that douchebag back, okay?)

Top Chef: Just Desserts is probably not going to hold my attention. Basically, most of the contestants annoy me, and of the few I kinda liked, two are already gone. But I'll give it another couple episodes. And that's... seriously all I have to say about it.

The official lineup of Top Chef: All-Stars has already been announced, and I have some opinions:

PR recaps

I'm mostly done with my episode 2 recap, but I'm really distracted by all the info coming out on Guild Wars 2, I'm afraid, so it's not going up before the show. I'll get that up maybe tomorrow, and try to have 3 and 4 done before next week, and then do my best to start getting a more timely recap up, though no promises until my doctor decides to give me a better painkiller for my back problems.

Project Runway S8, E1: "And Sew It Begins"

Last season of Project Runway, I made a stab at doing a dress overview with my opinions of it, with a couple comments here and there on the episodes, and then realized I couldn't keep up and stopped trying until the end. This season I figured I just would be better off not trying, but you know what? I've got some free time and am sitting at the computer anyhow, so I think I'm gonna try again... and I even am going to do more of a "real" recap! Until, you know, I start getting behind and only throw up notes about the dresses and then stop being able to keep up. No, no, wait. Positive thinking! Recaps! Let's roll back the clock and start with episode 1 because I'm already behind! Fair warning: this is quite long.

Top Chef & Project Runway

Here's my reaction to Top Chef so far: x.x

Project Runway Finale: Pretty Darn Good

On the off chance there's anyone a) reading this blog, who b) hasn't seen it, have a jump tag. Oh, and warning: it's very, very wordy.

PR Pre-Finale Impressions

Should I go again with the excuses I could make about why I haven't done any more episode reviews? Naah, just fill in whatever reason you like. Anyhow, cut for anyone who hasn't seen the episode yet.

Well that sucked.

Tonight was not happy PR night. Nope.

PR S7, E7: "Hard Wear"

I hurt my back really badly right after posting about catching up, because it's kind of one of those laws of the universe that any time I try to get on top of something, my body rebels. So let's see what I can get done before tonight's episode.

Alone in the Opinionsphere

Apparently I am the only person on the entire planet who actually thought Ben's kid's dress was cute. I find that weird. I understand the people who thought it was plain, because most of the details were very subtle, but seriously, how can I be the only person who thought that a) lavender was a nice alternative to pink and b) it suited the girl's colouring really well?

Eh, oh well.

So, there's no PR this week, so I'm going to go ahead and try to get episodes 2 and 3 filled in, and then starting next week I'm going to try to actually get readers, gasp, by submitting my write-up for episode 7. Maybe I'll even throw in a "highlights" section for the pre-runway bits.

PR S7, E5: "Run for Cover"

I didn't get to this last week because I was too busy gaming. :)

PR S7, E6: "A Little Bit of Fashion"

Okay, I'm a little behind here, so let's go with the newest first and then I'll try to work some more on the skipped ones.

PR S7, E1: "Back to New York"

Since I've got some time and the inclination today, let's start back-filling those earlier episodes' dresses. This is going to be based primarily on the stills and whatever memory I have of how the outfits moved. I'll try hard to keep my later knowledge out of it but I can't guarantee that I won't be affected by knowing who ends up auf later.

PR S7, E4: "Design your Heart Out"

Okay, I've decided to belatedly start doing a little summation of Project Runway outfits and what I thought of them (and the judging). Maybe I'll go back and fill in the other episodes, but let's start with the most recent.

Project Runway is Back!

And by that, I don't mean "a new season is showing" (though, of course, it is). I mean that so far, at least, it's an interesting season!

Wow Me or GTFO

I'm going to rant a bit about Project Runway now, and then I'm going to tie it in a bit to my feelings about Top Chef, and then I'm going to wonder if I should go back to watching neither of them and just sticking to the recapper's blogs as I did for S5 of both. Suitable warning: This is extremely long. If you don't want to read lots of words, don't clicky:

Massive Eyerolling

Dear Designers,

You were asked to do a Bob Mackie-style outfit for a singer. Bob Mackie-style stage outfit! I know most of you would not normally do something like his costumes, but you'd think one of you might've realized that he rather likes colour. Black, white, grey, black, white, black and white, white, grey... I think I saw a hint of blue somewhere, but it was pretty subtle. 'Subtle' is not on the list of words I think of when I think of Bob Mackie's stagewear.

In fact, while we're on the topic: just what do so many of you have against colour this season? I've seen more black, white, and grey than I can take. And I like grey (and black, but everyone likes some black I think). Even when you were supposed to make something blue I saw grey! Yeesh.

That having been said, I'm glad to see Carol Hannah finally win one, even if it was with a black dress. She's not my favorite designer (sorry, but I like Gordana more!), but I think she got ignored for good outfits more than once, so it's nice to see her get some kudos for her skill.

Anyhow. Colour, people. Don't be afraid of it.

Hugs and Kisses (except to Irina)!

Why I Love Tim Gunn

Because who else, honestly, could possibly say "I am woeful." and not sound like an emo-freak?