Mumbles

There’s a Twitter Account - www.twitter.com/70s_party - that posts recipes and photos of “fancy” 1970s food, and some of Brendan’s bakes would have fit in there. I have no doubt Brendan’s bakes tasted great but by the final he had two formidable contenders and I can see why all things equal, his dated styling and decoration could make a difference. Especially when it kept coming up in the critiques.

JC is always the worst of them jumping around waving, but maybe I just notice hin more.

Yeah I agree with you wrt the latter especially, but like the rest of you I am putting the odds of that happening very low. She would have to *win* something and not just a "Ruth Gordon in Rosemary's Baby" dress-alike contest. I remember Kevin getting berated for saying hi to Mark on his eviction week. What an ugly, mean season. So I've learned from you guys that Sam was "recruited" for the show by the producers. Which explains why she doesn't understand the game as evidenced from her mewy, tearful "I don't understand this game, I thought these people were my friends, why won't they let me win a million dollars?" confessionals. Or why she was so sanctimoniously outraged by Hayleigh and Kaitlin's rather mild flirtations with Fessy (has she SEEN what has gone on in other seasons? I guess not.) Anyway.....still can't stand her.

Sam may be one of the most deluded people to have played this game. A few weeks ago she tried, with a straight face, to encourage the rest of them to let her win hacker. Tonight she agrees to approach Fessy about putting up his closest ally, and house gf, with complete confidence that she would pull it off. And, there was something so mean and cruel in her pitch to Fessy. What has Hayleigh ever done to her? I hate this veto comp because it’s all luck.

Do we know this was the case? I’m asking seriously, was there some article or talking head bit where this was mentioned, that I missed? There are an awful lot of assumptions here being made about Ireland being repressed and homophobic and how hard it must have been for Brendan to grow up there. Maybe it was for him. But was being gay easy for anyone in any country, for any gay person of Brendan’s generation? Ireland was the first European country to legalize gay marriage by popular vote and has a gay prime minister - these things just didn’t happen out of nowhere, and they make Ireland certainly more progressive than the US. I’m just kinda side-eyeing the stereotypes of Ireland being backward and repressive- or at least more backward and repressive than other countries, including my own (U.S.).

She came in last the first week, second to last the next three weeks. She came in first on week 5, fourth out of 7 on week 6, first on weeks 7 and 8, 4 out of 4, and first the final week. One person’s growth is another person’s inconsistency.

But if memory serves, she came last or close to last on the ones she didn’t do well. That’s just my memory and it’s a few years old. ETA: I looked at the results, curiosity got the best of me. She came in last the first week, second to last the next three weeks. She came in first on week 5, fourth out of 7 on week 6, first on weeks 7 and 8, 4 out of 4, and first the final week. (Shrugs) I think if she had slowly gotten better every week, I would view it as growth. But this pattern, I view it as consistency. YMMV.

So glad Maher came out for Alex Jones’s First Amendment rights. Maybe his theories are crackpot, but hoaxes have been known to happen (the Gulf of Tonkin incident, the U.S.S Maine) and we shouldn’t silence people just because they’re obnoxious weirdos. Maybe Bill is thinking of his own experience of losing Politically Incorrect for challenging the Bush official line.

I do, and he has Kurt’s cheerful charm of his Disney movie days, before he became Snake from “Escape from New York.” I’m not sure this is going anywhere, but it has its charms.

Yes that works too!!!

Argh. The glasses, the caftans....she's less Rock Star, more Auntie Mame. Manic Panic does not a rock star make.

At this point I’m beginning to think she only started calling herself this dumb name when she auditioned for the show. She’s the least rock-starry person on TV. And if she’s stick of being on the block, she should start winning things, although I suspect *that* might be too late. And while Angela is horrible, Rockstar sniping that she got off by being feminine and flirty was off the mark. Unless I’m missing something from not watching feeds, Angela hasn’t flirted with Tyler.

From her Instagram, it looks like Bitsy is going full-on Christian something-or-other and has a book coming out on her faith in the spring. I never understood the market for that kind of thing, given that faith is such a personal thing. But whatever, I'm not in that marketing group.

Yeah I hadn't really noticed her but was gobsmacked at how beautiful her and Darius's lines were in the Mandy Moore routine. I'm rooting for them now.

Agreed. The way I look at it, if your designs are already in ETSY (or in fashion, in Vogue) you're already too late. One thing I did appreciate this episode is that the judges' comments are more critical and pointed. I did laugh out loud at Simon's psyche-out ("Your spaceship looks like a leftover prop from a cheesy 1950s movie....and that's why I love it!") I can do without the host bits, didn't we have to endure a pun run on celebrity names already last week? The one thing I *do* appreciate about this show is that while the guy with his own YouTube show has a technical advantage as a quasi-pro at this stuff (I mean he etched the sides of his terrarium), the judges look beyond technical ability and actually assess a piece's "heart."

A few times I threw my head back and laughed out loud last night: * When the Israeli defense guy talked about the armed kids at school shooting a crazed school shooter and adding, "that substitute teacher didn't stand a chance." * The same character describing how he was almost beheaded and adding that the guy who tried to do it now runs a PR agency in Turkey. * The comment that Miss Piggy is a strong woman. A little disappointed that SBC didn't get Lewandowski in any trouble. Dude's pretty slick.

Yeah so far we've been relatively lucky wrt golf. I record the show after BB. Probably the only person in the country who DVRs "Bull" or "NCIS Los Angeles."

I can’t stand Sam’s mewy voice, and that exchange with JT was just plain creepy. And I had to laugh when she asked to have a moment alone with Hayleigh, as I remembered how sanctimoniously she declared that she would have no private conversations when she was HoH.

They kept giving Melanie contemporary and jazz routines to do. The one time I remember her really being out of her element was a disco routine where she looked like she was going to have a heart attack when she was done. Imagine her trying tap like they made Chelsea do this week. It would have been comical.

I Me too. He didn’t seem that sharp but was genial and a good sport, and kind of cute.

Please, just replace her with a rotation of choreographers/All-Stars, already? Yup. I have long maintained that Marko carried Melanie Moore the season she won. He put an artistic gloss on her stomping around. When they cut to Anthony in the audience, he looked a little teary. Not sure if it was because of the shout-out as a great choreographer (which he is) or if he was taking the criticism of the routine to heart. And I agree with y’all, the complexity and technique of tap dancing is discounted, as are genres considered “folky” like clog dancing and Irish step. Very hard to master and an awful lot for them to ask Chelsea to learn in a day with a masterful partner who will make it look easy.

Yeah, what the hell is up with that? I don't know if anyone else watched "Flava of Love" back in the day but there was a very "performative" contestant nicknamed BuckWild, who had a very exaggerated fake accent. The show she was voted out she dropped it and Flava Flav asked what happened to the accent. There have been a few times this season that I asked myself whether Rockstar was BuckWild.

YMMV but I love Kornacki. He knows his stuff cold. He's an unapologetic geek. He used to have the 9am slot after Morning Joe and it was refreshing, just him in a pullover sweater and khakis analyzing the numbers and trends. Before he was on MSNBC he was a very insightful writer for Salon.com. On the rare occasions that he's on Morning Joe (rare, because in his Salon days he correctly called out Barnicle as the sleazy fabulist/plagiarist hack that he is) he calls them on their conventional wisdom bullshit.

Cathryn is one of these women who I can’t imagine being friends with in real life - a little too hyper and fussy and fake-cheerful - but yet who I’m drawn to rooting for because they work hard, buck up and try their best, and do not try to be “cool” or put on airs. And yes, she seemed to understand it was her turn, gave it her best, but it just wasn’t in the cards for her. I liked him at first - I am fond of the seniors on this show who follow the the beat of their own drum, like Norman for a few seasons back. But he’s been coming off as smug in recent weeks.

That bitchy remark tonight, about if she were in Rachel’s shoes at 30, she would be questioning her choices in life? Screw you.