Chippings

I skipped several episodes, and only tuned in because it said Red Carpet dresses and four finalists, and I figured there would be some cool designs. I figured wrong. The bottom two, Michelle and Helen, were actually - to my eye - no designs at all, just an absolutely basic black dress with no features at all, except the dipped back [don't even mention the obligatory chain-ette], and a basic spaghetti-strap dress. You could, seriously, buy a pattern for either of 'em in the Butterick book or the McCall book (probably the Vogue book wouldn't bother), and then use a sparkly fabric. End of story. Gawd ! What wouldn't Christian Siriano have done, or Chris March, or even Rami (he'd have draped it), or Austin Scarlett. They'd have done ** stuff**, an actual design. These are the cream-of-the-crop, beat-out-all-the-others designers at this point? May check by the finale week(s) but after last night I couldn't care much. For some hot design ideas I'll just drop by my JoAnn's Fabrics and look at some pattern books.

I went to his IMDB to see what his bio was, and the thing that caught my eye was that he had a small part ("Jazzy Jeff", I think) in 'The Neighbors' last year. I particularly remember the character; he was one of the aliens who'd come down to stir things up, and was incredibly good looking and snazzily dressed but was quite a dim bulb otherwise. A very memorable little bit. The cool thing about that was reading that the producers of Galavant had done 'The Neighbors' .. In show biz I think a whole lot depends on who you worked with before. Worked for him; and he's perfect for this. Bio-wise, I also learned that he was in a revival of "Mamma Mia" in London.

I always look forward to the updates at the end. My memory is that the owner had done zero -- had not locked the doors at night, had not invested any further money &c. Williston is hugely interesting; Lisa Ling had done an hour on life there in her specials .. a genuine boom town, for good and ill.

I so agree that $10,000 at JoAnn's is no prize at all. As one whose only fabric store within 25 miles is JoAnn's, I know that unless you're a quilter or a crafter it's enough to kill your creativity. The fabrics shown in the 'fabric room' pretty much represent their style. It seems as if, from the spin-offs they're doing, that the PR producers are so in love with their 'add another 'twist' to this project' and 'do it in an hour and a half' concepts that they'll never abandon them, even though it absolutely prevents contestants, grown or tween-y, from doing really good work. I was glad the little girl with the black New York dress won; both her looks were quite good. It was interesting that the judges seem resolved to not say anything bitchy about the garments, even though there was plenty that could've been said. Also, yes, Christian Siriano is doing a lovely job. He grew up good - both in his mentoring technique and his design career.

I realize they had a specific story line they wanted to follow, but it was frustrating to see the Civil War Pension Application and only get to see one item on it. Those applications go on for pages and pages of details; this one would have described her relationship to the son, what her circumstances were, and much more. If Ms Nixon wanted to know more about Mary's life, that would have told a great deal instead of jumping from the release from prison to the cemetery. Also the Censuses in 1860, 1870 and so on .. I wonder if the network web site has more details about the story? Have to check. Anyway, it's great to have this show back.