Aug/090
Project Runway: In or Out?
The Reigning Queens of Project Runway
The sixth season of Emmy nominated Project Runway premiered last night. For those who don't know, this took a hell of a long time to finally get on the air. It was actually filmed almost a year ago, starting in Sept. 2008. The Weinstein Company, the producers of the show, struck a deal with Lifetime to move the show to their channel and produce five seasons. Bravo's parent company, NBC Universal was not too pleased and immediately filed an injunction which they were granted. It bared Lifetime from showing or promoting Project Runway.
For months, nobody knew what was going to happen. The entire season had been filmed, the final collections had anonymously been shown at NY Fashion Week in Feb. 2009 and a winner had been chosen. But still, the show couldn't air. In the meantime, Bravo created a designer knock off of a TV show as fast as they could. It was interesting, but it didn't have the zest that Runway had. Finally, Weinstein Co. agreed to pay an undisclosed sum to NBC Universal and the show was able to air. What strikes me is what the poor designers have had to go through. Especially the winner and the others that have done well. They want their prizes, the publicity and the attention that comes from getting your clothes shown on television.
I expected there to be a lot of changes with the move to Lifetime. But I realized Lifetime snatched up the show because they liked what they already saw and wanted more of it. They did make two big changes. The first was a change in location. Goodbye New York, hello Los Angeles. The second change we will discuss later. First, the challenge.
L.A. is the land of Hollywood and award shows, so the contestants are asked to make dresses worthy of the hottest red carpets. Lucky bitches. The first challenges of the show have included making a garment from items purchased at a supermarket, with items stripped from their apartments, and made only from the clothes they were wearing at that moment. Making a red carpet dress should be instinctual to a designer, right?
The results were decidedly ehhh. I will agree that the top three were quite good. Here they are:
1st place: Christopher Straub, 2nd: Ra'mon Lawrence Coleman, 3rd: Johnny Sakalis
I thought the winning dress was perfect for something like the Video Music Awards, but I agreed with the judges that the ruffle at the bottom was the wrong color; it looks like dirty white. The blue dress was really chic, especially on that particular model because she had an Angelina Jolie kind of look. The red dress looked better when it was moving and had a pretty open back, but still wasn't the best. It looks cheap to me.
The losers were horrendous. Speaking of losers, did I mention Lindsay Lohan was the guest judge? She had absolutely nothing interesting to say, but she couldn't shut her trap. On to the losers:
Losing designs: Ari Fish, Mitchell Hall, Qristyl Frazier
Yikes. One of the judges described Ari's design as a disco soccer ball and it was right on. Just atrocious, especially on a red carpet. The second last design was just as bad, but I had to root for it because the designer's name was Mitchell and it is nice hearing Tim Gunn say my name. His bad design was blamed on his model for lying about her measurements, forcing him to make something in a hurry right before the runway. Qristyl's design looked tacky. Bright colors are OK, but it just seemed like these colors didn't work.
I certainly wasn't wowed, but I am intrigued. Instead of high caliber designers of seasons past, the show has gone back to its roots a bit. They all seem greener, with a yearning to learn and try new things. Even the few older contestants are rekindling the designer inside of them and it makes me curious to know more. It is nice having designers that aren't all experts by making the show more accessible and exciting.
The second big change that I mentioned earlier is the addition of a complementary half hour show about the behind the scenes lives of the models. I love me a bitchy model show, which this promises to deliver. But it seems to be about them discussing the designers and then waiting as their fate is decided by someone else. They can try to be the best they can be, but their future isn't really in their own hands. I'm curious to see how it plays out, but am no sold yet.
But I am sold on Project Runway. I am so excited it is back. The diverse crew this year will be highly entertaining and there is nothing like Tim Gunn and Heidi Klum. They are enjoyable to watch, especially Tim as he inspects the designers garment and prods them to be more inventive. For me, this season is definitely in.
Here are my early season picks of who I think will win it all:
Althea Harper, Epperson, Gordana Gehlhausen
It's hard to pick after seeing just one design, but I am willing to give these three a shot. I like Althea's personal style and she has that fresh out of design school inspiration. Epperson worked in window displays so he knows what looks appealing. He's also rebooting his fashion career so he may have a now or never attitude. Gordana owns a dress shop so I am sure she has a lot of back-up designs at her disposal.
Aug/090
Top Chef Vegas premieres
Let's face it, Bravo's competitive reality programming hasn't been on par lately. Top Chef New York was a huge disappointment. Top Chef Masters was a boring flop. Make Me A Supermodel was a dud. The Fashion Show wasn't received well by fans who wanted Project Runway. Project Runway is premiering tomorrow... on Lifetime that is. Something tells me that the execs at Bravo pushed a bit more money towards Top Chef Vegas in hopes of salvaging not only the franchise, but in hopes of beating their former friend and now enemy Project Runway.
From the get-go, the show flat out totes their bevy of talented chefs this year. James Beard Award nominees, Michelin star recipients, former employees of known chefs, executive chefs and a few wild cards. They also cast brothers to compete against each other; they've never had family members compete before.
The 17 contestants meet Tom and Padma in the Top Chef Kitchen. The first Quickfire Challenge is a crowd-pleaser: the ever popular mise en place relay. They are randomly divided into teams of four with a very lucky Robin (the token older woman for the season) getting the golden poker chip. This enabled her to not participate and get immunity for the week. The relay included shucking clams, peeling prawns, cleaning out lobsters and breaking down two chops.
While most did impressive jobs, one contestant, Preeti, couldn't get her team past the clams. It was a sad sight. Top Chef she is not.
Bryan, Mattin, Jennifer and Jesse kick ass
The winning foursome then competed against each other in a cook off with the ingredient they interacted with during the relay. Lucky Robin is given the choice to gamble her immunity for the potential to win some money, but she declines. The top two were a Clam Cevice with Citron Vinegar from Jennifer and Jesse's Shrimp and Grits with Polenta. Jennifer won the quickfire and was given a chip worth $15,000. It's not clear whether the monetary incentive will continue in future challenges, but it does fit with the Vegas theme. Also, it might 'inspire' chefs that might disregard the Quickfire Challenge under other circumstances, so I hope it continues.
Getting to the Elimination Challenge, we learn that they will be competing against their teammates. One of each of the groups will go to Judge's Table as a winner and one as a loser. Their theme was to create a dish around their vices. The majority cited alcohol as their vice, which seemed too easy to add whiskey or red wine to a dish. In fact there was so much booze in most of the dishes that I am pretty sure that Wolfgang Puck, the guest judge this week, was drunk. He threw one of the contestants doughnuts across the room and was boisterous as can be.
Kevin's winning dish
Besides booze-infused dishes, there was a bevy of spicy dishes for those whose vice was being hot tempered and slow poached fish for the procrastinators. There were a few clever takes on the challenge, but it seemed like an odd one to start the season with. Most just wanted to show off what they could do instead of thinking about the personification of a vice in food form. The winning dish looked pretty damned yummy in my opinion: Slow poached Arctic Char with Salsa Verde and Celery.
Losing dish... ick
The losing dish on the other hand looked like shit covered in breadcrumbs.
A Chile Relleno stuffed with Seiten. What is Seiten you may ask? It is an odd gluten meat used as a meat alternative. Its very vegan-rific. The chef, Jen, thought it would impress the judges. If she had made it taste good, maybe they would have been impressed, but they asked her to pack her knives and take that crap with her.
Who do I think will take the competition this year? Here are my picks for the final three:
Kevin Gillespie is an Atlanta based Chef with tons of experience. He's got the talent, imagination and guts to take the competition. Yes, he did win the first Elimination Challenge, but I swear I picked him before they announced the winner.
*
Jennifer Carrol won the quickfire and showed the others that she is a force to be reckoned with. Out of all the women, she has the best shot of winning, in my opinion. She is a Philadelphia native and worked with Eric Ripert.
*
Bryan Voltaggio is one of the brothers competing. I figure that the producers will want to keep the bros around for a while for the drama. The odds are good that one will make it to the finals and this brother seemed like the more talented chef of the two.
*
All in all, a good premiere. I always like it once we get a few weeks in and the amount of chefs is pared down some. The level of chefs and production value seems to have been kicked up a notch from previous seasons, though, which has me curious. It appears Bravo is serious about getting some ratings and a leg up on other competitors out there.
Aug/090
District 9 Review
District 9 - Paving The Way To Unity
District 9 opened on August 14th and took the top spot over the weekend. It raked in over $37 million in its first four days while the entire film cost $30 million to make. So far a success, particularly for a sci-fi movie, the film has become the little engine that could of the summer season.
I, like many others, expected a more by the books alien movie. I thought the movie would begin with the arrival of the aliens and the effect of the Earthlings, particularly near the location where the ship arrived. But as the movie begins, you are thrust into the world of the movie as if the aliens being here is old news. You are caught up to date rather quickly with the effective usage of news reports and interviews from those involved in the situation.
They arrived out of nowhere. Their ship came to a rest over Johannesburg, South Africa, and just floated above the city for weeks. Nothing happened. Once we went to them and forced open their ship we discovered a large group of malnourished aliens who need our help. We gave them an area of land right below their craft for them to recover in: District 9.
But now twenty years later, District 9 is a mess and an organization wants to move them nearby to District 10. A team must hand out eviction notices to the Aliens to try and legally make them leave.
That's about all of the plot that I want to share, because I think the surprises that pop up in the movie are rather interesting and some are quite unexpected. The results, for me were gripping. The movie was a clever juxtaposition of the documentary format and an alien movie. The special effects were incredible. Every moment with a CGI alien or ship was so well integrated into the film. The sound effects were also spot on, especially the odd clicks of the alien language.
What might hurt the film is its genre: sci-fi isn't for everyone. There are also no known actors in the film. There is essentially one main character and a slew of others that come in and out of the movie. Without that big name actor to draw in additional viewers, I think the movie may slide down the box office a bit next weekend. But word of mouth may help this movie as well.
For a sci-fi movie, it was very well written. It honestly didn't seem that far fetched. You can replace the group of aliens with any race, religion or orientation on Earth that is given unfair treatment simply because they are who they are, and see that situations like this have already happened all over the world.
It had great twists and turns as well as the cutest little alien baby you will ever see. The ending was what it needed to be. While it left room for a sequel (which I would support), it wrapped up the film effectively and didn't leave you with a ton of unresolved issues.
Aug/092
Space Case
When I was younger, I had a fascination with space. I've recently rekindled my love of the universe. The awesome Hubble Telescope has taken some truly incredible photographs after the recent Shuttle mission to repair it. Here are a few of my favorites:
Orion Nebula
Messier 82
Crab Nebula
Click Here to check out more Hubble-tastic pictures.
Aug/091
College Blog
I had a blog in college that I completely forgot about until recently. Turns out when you create an Angelfire website, it stays around forever. Didn't know that. If you care to take a glimpse at a former version of myself - Click here
Aug/091
Family Guy Abortion Episode!
While 20th Century Fox decided that a recently produced Family Guy episode about abortion was not going to air, a reading was performed for the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. The reading was also filmed by a Family Guy producer to possibly include on next season's DVD along with the episode itself.
Entitled "Partial Terms of Endearment," the episode starts with Lois agreeing to be a surrogate for another couple. Once she is impregnated, the couple dies and Lois must decide what to do.
A few clips have been released and I loved it! Really funny, candid and blunt. See for yourself:
Funniest line: "If God wanted us to kill babies, he would have made them all Chinese girls."
Aug/090
Wii Sports Resort Review
Released at the end of July, Wii Sports Resort is an addition and rehashing of the console's most popular game: Wii Sports. Boasting 12 different sports with most having different playing options, Wii Sports Resort is also the game helping to 
launch the new Wii Motion plus. The attachment joins to the bottom of the wiimote and adds a higher level of control. In fact,one comes free with each Wii Sports Resort but since many games are meant to be played with others, you're probably going to want to get a second one. I must say that I did notice a bit more of a synergy between my movements and my on-screen likeness, so it looks like it works. It worked best in the first of the 12 mini games, swordplay.
You can battle one opponent in a duel scenario, a slew of enemies coming at you or test your precision in a speed slicing game. It keeps track of your progress and your increasingly difficult opponents keep it fun yet challenging.
The next game, wake boarding, is a throw away. It helps show you the ease and sensitivity of the controls but being dragged by a ship and jumping off of its wake gets a bit boring. Frisbee, on the other hand, I couldn't get enough off. To help you train, you throw a Frisbee at a marker while a dog chases after it and tries to catch it. The real action is in Frisbee Golf. There were several different options for courses and sizes of your Frisbee for different lengths. I have already played this one for hours.
The next three sports were in the 'eh' middle 
ground for me: Archery, Basketball and Table Tennis. The archery controls used the nunchuk attachment and felt quite reminiscent of a bow and arrow, but after you get the hang of the controls, it becomes a bit monotonous. Basketball was actually hindered by the controls. You spend so much time dribbling and shooting, dribbling and shooting... I think even fans of the sport would be bored with it. Table Tennis, while reminiscent of tennis from the original Wii Sports, is fun in its own way. The Motion Plus attachment shone in this game; the slight flick of your wrist sends the ball spinning.
The next two were reworked games from Wii Sports: Golf and Bowling. I found the first version of golf annoying and tedious, this version makes it even more difficult by making you focus on the angle of your "club" along with the speed. Bowling, on the other hand, is a total upgrade. The controls are incredible as are the two alternate ways to play. The first is called 100-Pin Game and it is exactly how it sounds. Each frame you try to knock down 100 pins. Warning: this is the most addicting game of the bunch. The other version is Spin Control which is helpful in teaching you how to spin the ball to get it to do what you want it to do as you are faced with barriers blocking parts of the lanes.
Of the last four sports, the only one that I enjoyed was Cycling. Power Cruising, Canoeing and Air Sports just wasn't doing it for me. The cycling was surprisingly fun, though. You start out in last place and have to race as fast as you can to try to get to first place. If you sprint too much, you lose your energy, but you can draft behind competitors to get your mojo back. There are several courses and you can unlock multi-day competitions which have more competitors, but rest points to secure your position. My forearms are still sore from peddling as fast as I could.
All in all, it is worth getting. I have a feeling that the Wii Motion Plus is going to start becoming mandatory for more and more games. If you have to get one anyway, this game is a great way to see the improvements and get one for free. With so many ways to play, the game will stay fun for a long time whether with a group of friends or playing solo.
Aug/090
Spidey Dead In A Web
I have been angered about it for months... Spiderman: The Musical. Gross. Julie Taymor of Lion King Fame and Bono & The Edge from U2 were trying to helm this monster, but news broke today in the NY Post that its done.
Last week, crews were put on hiatus because of lack of funds. Now, all associated have been released from their contracts with no incentive to hold out for the project to attempt to get back on its feet.
I am so tired of these huge Broadway Productions. This one was set to cost $45 million to mount. Ridiculous.
Maybe, maybe, just maybe, this can be the realization that shows on Broadway don't have to be gigantic mammoth productions. As long as the story, performers and crew are passionate, you've got a show. You can keep ticket prices down as well by not trying to mount something so epic. Make it more accessible.
R.I.P. Spiderman
Aug/090
The Colony
Have you ever, like me, wondered how you would survive in a post-apocalyptic society? I'm not sure too many others have even thought about it in passing. Discovery took that idea and made a show out of it which I am glued to.
The Colony reminds me of the PBS shows where they would take modern day people and send them to live for months in a recreation of a specific era (colonial times, frontier times, cowboy texas times, etc.) to see their modern mentalities would fare in that epoch. This show takes some of that concept but comes off as more of a Survivor in East L.A.
The ten week project takes a group of people and forces them to try to coexist as a unit in this society-less future. They are given next to nothing except a huge abandoned factory that they use as home base.
Marauding bandits, lack of supplies and varying personalities make for interesting TV. They've gotten a generator working and have started to focus on security due to a recent break in. There big project is a huge truck they are going to turn into a mad max inspired battering ram to eventually get them out of the city for a far off spot on the country.
Check it out... Tuesdays on Discovery Channel.
Aug/090
Uh oh
I thought I would be able to avoid the whole Guitar Hero and Rock Band freight train. But today, walking by my local Game Stop, I see this:
From the trailer, I could see that you follow them on their path of fame from playing at The Cavern to the Ed Sullivan Show to Shea Stadium to the psychedelic madness that ensued after. You can view the trailer and see other pics here: The Beatles: Rock Band
Me want!
