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:

Things I don't get

Here's one thing I don't get: A lot of people seem to think the Republicans are being taken over by crazy right-wing extremists, but also think the Democrats are a bunch of liars who make promises about how they're going to change things but then support the status quo. So, uh... why is no one seeing "vote for a third-party candidate" as the obvious answer? I mean, here we have a fair bit of evidence the two-party system just is not working for us, and yet... somehow it doesn't occur to people to try to change that.

Here's another thing I don't get: Why is it so hard for people to accept the word "moderate" means "actually holds positions in between the 'left' and 'right' positions", and that people who demonstrably don't do that aren't really moderates? No one seems to have a problem calling people on labeling themselves "liberal" and yet expressing non-liberal positions, or people labeling themselves "conservative" and yet expressing non-conservative positions. But if you call yourself a "moderate" yet express non-moderate positions, people will apparenty use this as "evidence" that "moderate" means something other than, well, moderate.

Here's another thing I don't get: The context of the following quote is that the Texas Board of Education—that bastion of eliminating accuracy in the name of upholding their narrow views, but I guess that's another topic—has decided that there is a bias in textbooks promoting Islam and condemning Christianity.

In interviews, Mr. Rives has likened his concerns about Islam to those he and other Americans once had about communists infiltrating American society. [source]

Why would anyone think this was a good position to publically take? The Americans who once had "concerns about communist infiltration" included people who did things such as use blacklists to keep people from being hired based purely on accusation, rather than evidence, and those people are fairly widely regarded as having been extremists and witch-hunters who damaged American society and played fast and loose with the rule of law. Why would anyone want to associate themselves with that?

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.

Er... no thanks.

From my local paper today:

Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group is teaming up with a Silicon Valley start-up to reward smartphone-equipped shoppers for walking into Simon's shopping malls.

The partnership with technology company Shopkick Inc. is a big step in realizing retailers' long-held dream of using cell phones to beam ads and coupons to people passing by to convert them into buyers.

I think someone needs to look up the definition of "reward". I'm pretty sure it doesn't mean the same thing as "annoy".

Top Chef & Project Runway

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

That word you keep using...

"Israel will never apologize for defending its citizens," a high-ranking Israeli government official told CNN Monday, after Turkey reportedly demanded an apology or an inquiry into an Israeli raid on an aid ship that killed nine Turkish citizens.

"Of course we regret the loss of life, but it was not the Israeli side that initiated the violence," the official said.

Yes, it was. Armed men rapelling onto boats from military helicopters is an act of aggression. Threatening people with those armed men is an act of aggression. The people who engaged in self-defense were those who attempted to repel the pirates.

Yes, I said pirates. That's what we call armed forces that board boats in international waters with the intention of securing control of said boats (outside of war). Israel was not in a state of war with Turkey. (Though they sure seem to want to be.)

And there would have been no need for the Israeli military to "defend" themselves if they hadn't deliberately gone onto those boats with armed men with the intent to commit violence in international waters.

(I realize there is a great deal of legal debate on whether or not this was acceptable legally. I note, however, that there is a great deal of legal debate, rather than it being cut and dried. Just once, I'd like to see the Israeli government admit they've made a mistake with their responses of overwhelming force. But I'm not holding my breath.)