Egg

Jujubee's Black Velvet remains one of my favorite lipsynchs on this show. Jujubee remains one of my favorite queens on the show--she was charismatic, funny, determined, personable, vulnerable. Other than Alaska (my other favorite), I can't think of anyone who demonstrated all of these qualities. I was ambivalent about Raven, but I think she developed tons between Season 2 and All-Stars. She showed up to All-Stars with a killer fashion sense that was second (that season) only to Manila. And although she's not in the same league as some of the others, I think she's pretty damn funny.

I watch Chris on occasion and enjoy him but I can't watch too much because a) Chris, more than anyone else among the evening broadcasters, treats his show like New York local news. It's really off-putting. And b) he's a pretty big know-it-all, and I feel like his inner monologue is always "I'm so much smarter and wittier than anyone who's ever existed." I like him in small doses but I'm not surprised that he isn't blowing everyone out of the water.

Does anyone know when this season will start? Everything I can find says January 2015, but that's now, and I'd like something more specific so that I can, you know, find it when it's on. Have they not announced a date yet?

I'm just catching up on old seasons and I'm trying to figure out--why does everyone hate Kate? I admittedly haven't seen her on All-Stars yet, but I didn't mind her either on Season 11, her post-elimination appearances, or Season 12. Is it because of her talent, taste, or personality? I personally haven't seen anything terrible about any of those things, and I've liked her a lot.

I don't have a problem with Keith not being able to bring his family out of the projects, either. What I'm suspicious about is the idea that he couldn't do it with NFL money, but he thinks he can do it with ANTM money. $100,000 is good money. I would be thrilled with it, even after taxes wipe a bunch off of it. But if your NFL salary, even if meager by pro sports standards, couldn't lift your family out of poverty, ANTM won't, either.

She said she was never going to get over it last time she was eliminated. I guess she really hasn't. Kinda sad.

Goes to show it's all a matter of taste. Alaska is my all time favorite (tied with Juju), and I love Nina and really like Ongina. And other than Yara Sofia, I wouldn't put any of those ones on my list.

When I read "Whitney biopic" I immediately thought you were talking about Whitney Thompson, and I got excited about hate-watching a movie about a woman bicycling through New York, eating cupcakes, and slack-jawed-ly telling skinny women to go suck an egg.

I have a slight preference for Mr. Jay over Yu Tsai, because while they're both catty, rude, and give unhelpful instructions ('do better,' or 'like, bring it,' or 'ENERGY!'), Jay Manuel is at least less screechy. But I preferred Johnny over either of them, because even if he was useless, I never felt like he was being intentionally rude just to upset the contestants. I also paid very little attention to the seasons he was on, though. They're really working hard to yank Keith's overall score. A few episodes ago, Will and Lennox were a lot higher than everyone else in their week-to-week average. Now Keith, with all of his mediocre 9's, is within striking distance. I have no problem with Keith winning. He doesn't have a lot of range, but he's very attractive and persistent. He's dull as dishwater, but he seems like a nice guy. And I'm okay with making sure a guy wins for the first time, and making sure that we have a person of color win for the first time since Krista (not counting Laura James's hilariously fake color). I just wish they'd make it interesting.

Yeah, even if he's going to be made to look like an idiot, I don't want to watch a live interview with a klan member.

Keith really is a void of charisma. I think he's very attractive, and I think he's a fine person, but I feel resentful of him because he's being pushed so hard. I like his persistence and his positive attitude, I just wish he were a little more interesting. I like Will. I want him to win. Matthew's shot is amazing, though. If he were still around I'd probably be rooting for him.

Cycles 1-3 are such ancient history in my mind that I no longer feel like anything that happened during them can be questioned. 4: It's pretty hard to pick a favorite, since they're all flawed in their own way. I guess Kahlen. 5: I love Nik and Nicole both. I would take either. I think Nik earned it more, but Nicole has had a much stronger post-show modeling career. 6: Danielle. 7: Eugena. While I understand that she sucked too much in the beginning to make up for it in time, I found her hilarious, entertaining, and gorgeous. Where the two dinosaurs who beat her were either maniacally self-possessed or obnoxiously unhinged, Eugena was reserved but willing to give whatever was asked of her. Where pretty much everyone else in the cycle was a simpering pool of self-doubt, and embarrassment, Eugena was confident without ever seeming cocky. I really loved this girl, and her post-show career speaks for itself 8: Jaslene. She earned it and really was far above the others in this cycle. While possibly just as flawed as her competitors, Jaslene knew how to hide her flaws, or use them to her advantage. 9: Jenah. Or Heather. Or Lisa. Or Bianca. Or Chantal. Or Ebony. Or Sarah. I honestly loved so many of the contestants this cycle, and not just to replace Saleisha would I have been happy if any of them had won (on first viewing, I didn't like Chantal or Bianca, but having rewatched it, with knowledge of their post-show fierceness, I like them both). 10: Fatima, although there was loads of potential this cycle, too. 11: Analeigh. I don't think McKey was a bad choice, and I get that Cover Girl preferred to have the face, but I think the gracious, personable, cute Analeigh was as close to the full package as they had this cycle. 12: Allison is my favorite (ever!), but I think Teyona was the right winner. Allison would have been miserable trying to sell wetslicks. 13: It's a tough call for me between Erin and Nicole. I think Nicole killed the competition, and was incredibly consistent (the only time they dinged her was on a photo in which they chose the best shot of the other people in the picture). But Erin had some of my favorite pictures ever from the show. If she were model height, she would have a chance at being one of my top 5 from this show. It was also the closest we'd come since Jade to having a villain who was a hilarious buffoon, rather than just evil. 14: Early on, Gabrielle was my favorite. Then after she left, Simone. So a third of the way into this cycle, I was just in it to watch young women tear each other apart. Honestly, I'm just glad bRENda didn't win. Those two are among my least favorite TV characters ever. 15: I guess Jane, although I didn't feel a strong connection to any of these contestants, either. Like 14, the most satisfying thing was seeing an incredibly annoying person (Liz) not win. 16: I thought she should have been sent home for unprofessionalism. I hated her. But week after week, I had to begrudgingly admit that Britani was a killer model, and I agree that she deserved to win, although I really liked everyone in the top 9 other than Alexandria. 18, 19: who cares? 20: I'm a sucker for the weird ones. I liked Nina. 21: In photos alone, I think Lenox is running away with this thing. I hope for the show's sake they eliminate her soon, because she still has some amazing photos coming up, and they wouldn't want her to interfere with the Chosen One.

I'm glad Shei won. She looked the best on the runway. I agree that she's not very photogenic; maybe she'll be one of those that goes on to book a lot of runway after the show, but won't be in magazines or ads. I also like that she really doesn't give a shit that Mirjana was jealous; I even think she might have been flirting with Denzel intentionally to piss Mirjana off. Love it. She also was the only woman to really figure out how to be carried, and picking her up was all that Denzel was good for. Good riddance to Denzel. I hope Mirjana flames out now that he's gone and there's no boy to hang off of. Wasn't she just telling her real-life boyfriend that she was done messing around behind his back? I'm glad that an anti-Mirjana coalition is coalescing, but considering the way she blames others for her failures, I anticipate that having everyone around her won't make her reflect very much on how she sucks as a person. I'm stunned that Ben beat out Matthew. I honestly don't understand that at all. Ben has had a few good shots, but so has Matthew, and I find Matthew to be far more attractive than Ben. I think Chantelle is going to be the one, anyway, but I really wanted more Matthew on my screen.

I don't think it was a learning experience for him. He has since told The Advocate that he was taken out of context, which is pretty much blame-your-lying-eyes 101. Also, I never liked Denzel. Even before this episode, he's shown himself to be a person with archaic, disgusting views about gay people and especially women. He, along with Keith and Mirjana, were the ones berating Matthew for having a more fluid sexuality. He's also the one who talks about Mirjana being "his woman" and Kari being "Keith's woman," and has spoken about how Mirjana's behavior reflects on him. I think he is the kind of person who sees women as an accessory to men, which is not okay whether you're 3, 23, or 43. He can lose immediately, please.

I wish that Denzel understood that what he said about the high heels was nowhere near the most offensive thing he said. Instead, it was the stuff about Will not being a real man, about gay models creating a negative stereotype for male models, and treating "gay" and "female" as an insult. I'm glad he got called out, and I'm glad how strongly Tyra was willing to do it, but I just wish he understood how offensive that other stuff was. Also, I wish he understood that when you bash someone, you're creating an unsafe space for them, and thus making it even more difficult for that person to confront you. So it wasn't that Will was being "female" about it (or maybe he was? Obviously that's a troubling accusation he made for many reasons), it was that he created a hostile environment in which responding to the things he said was made extra difficult. Lastly, I don't think Denzel is that attractive. I mean, good-looking enough, but I really never got him.

I disliked her the first time around and liked her in All-Stars, but the All-Stars viewing gave me a better understanding of her, and now when I rewatch her original cycle, I don't mind her as much (I spend the whole cycle hating Whitney, so).

I'm going to close my eyes and cross my fingers and against all odds pray that's a typo and it turns out Tiffany is coming back.

Did Rachel and show make an embarrassing geography mistake during tonight's debuntion junction? She went from talking about Obama's trip to Estonia and segued into debunking the story that the last time a US president went to the Balkans his (Bush's) watch was stolen. She didn't expressly state it, but it seemed pretty strongly implied that it was to contrast it with this time a US president is going to the Balkans. Except, Estonia isn't in the Balkan Peninsula. It's one of the Baltic States. And from what I can tell, he has no plans to go to the Balkans during any part of the upcoming trip. Whoops.

Somehow missed the NSFW tag...I did not expect to get that much Chantata.

I know that of the original 16 cycles, Cycle 7 is often considered the worst. I don't disagree that 7 wasn't bad, but I would prefer to watch it over a few others..: 11. This, to me, is the absolute low point (before all-stars). I was so bored by this. Everyone but Analeigh is super annoying to me. The only things I remember from that cycle is the catharsis of Clarke breaking down at her elimination, Tyra saying "Elina, what a little...stiff girl" when she clearly wanted to say "bitch," and Analeigh messing up and calling it wetslacks. Otherwise, I found very little worthwhile in that cycle. 13. Yawn. I loved Nicole and Erin. I thought Laura was likeable. But otherwise the whole thing kinda felt pointless to me. 1. My opinion on this might not count, because I haven't actually sat down and watched the whole thing. I just can't. Not only is there, as mentioned above, terrible fashion, but it's so thrown together that I just feel embarrassed about the whole thing. The few shining moments "the Ginselle," "he was lustin'," "how excellent," "shitslice," just don't make it worth it for me. 15. Am I supposed to like Ann? Is Ann supposed to be the girl from 90's movies? The second coming of Shandi? I guess I didn't really "get" Cycle 15. I didn't really like or hate anyone, except for Liz, who is The Worst. With that out of the way, I think I have a few unpopular opinions on my favorites, as well. Yes, I love 3 and 6, as does everyone else. But I also enjoy: 9. Despite the obviously flawed outcome, I actually enjoy Cycle 9. Once you get to the top 6, you actually have 5 really great options. Lisa has proven her worth post-show, Heather took great photos and was a great role model, Bianca is unbelievably gorgeous (and has been successful), Jenah was immensely talented on the show, Chantal I didn't enjoy at the time but can now see why she was good (and I think her post-show work in Mexico has been impressive). If it weren't for Saleisha, the crop of models this time around would have been phenomenal. 5. So many people hate this one and I don't understand why! I think I like it because I really like both of the final two, for as annoying as Nicole can be. She's really had some success, too, and still looks amazing. I love the petty drama of this season--granola bars! red bulls! nightlights! God don't like ugly! Yes, in that way, it's kind of a knock-off of Cycle 3, but who doesn't enjoy a knock-off of a damn good thing? 16. Yes, at this late date, I really thought the show was turning around. There were some interesting photoshoots with great results (lions, bees, the one where be-freckled Dominique went home, blondes vs. brunettes, virtually anything they did in Morocco). Brittani, to me, is among the very top tier of winners, with Molly, Hannah, and Kasia producing strong challenges. Mikeala was gorgeous. Monique was hilarious. I thought we were starting to look up. Yeah. Sorry, it's been a while since I talked top model. Guess I had a lot to say.

As much as I dislike Cutrone, I actually found myself agreeing with much of what she said, especially the things that contradicted the terribly homophobic Rob. She's awful and harsh and not in a funny way, but I'd prefer her to someone who constantly tells the gay contestant that he's not a man.

Aw I liked Michelle. I thought she took a few great photos (her 1-800-Flowers, and the Lubriderm zebra shot she was eliminated for). Yeah, she had some issues, and her post-show life hasn't exactly been stellar, but during the cycle I thought she totally was a good model. Also, I think I remember some people theorizing that the bleach job could be what caused the impetigo.

Yeah, that first segment Friday was brilliant. She started with a great big "fuck what you heard. That's all fan fiction." And then, just as I was starting to think (and, frankly, fear) that she was about to reveal evidence that suggested Ukraine was responsible, BOOM, she showed some pretty credible, damning evidence of the rebels' responsibility. Loved it.

I've been convinced to watch Cycle 20 this week, and I have to say, Tyra is kind of likeable! She's lost that crazy, over-the-top thing she had in Cycles 7-8, and the mean, rude thing she had in Cycle 10. She seems now like she's as close to an actual person as can be.

Based only on the show, I've always thought of Nicole L, Dani, and Brittani as the very best. Based only on the show, and the dreadful bits of personality I've seen from Whitney after the show, I regard Whitney, Saleisha, and Lisa as by far the worst. I'm pretty much ambivalent on the rest. Poor Naima. I just rewatched Cycle 4 and I like Naima, and it seems like she could have been a decent role model, but out of the top 6 she was probably the worst fashion model. I kinda think no one should have won Cycle 7, but I worship at the post-show alter of Eugena, so based on that she would have been my pic.