RealityGal

Its all good fun until it turns into an Investigation Discovery show. I could see this becoming an episode of "Nightmare Next Door", "Very Bad Men" or perhaps even a "Swamp Murder" depending on how Craig decides to get rid of the body...

I would agree with that for about 75-90% of the stuff that Char has made this season. It has not been that exciting, and some of it has been downright bad (the red suit for the muse was an especial fail for me). But I see the stuff in her runway collection, and I see things that are more "fly girl" and I can see more of her voice. She has been pretty bad most of the season, but her runway mini collection I thought did a good job of showing her voice. It is fly girl going to hit up the clubs in the Carribean, or she is flying to St. Barts and she thinks she is going to be on a yacht. In the first jacket, she is doing her street style thing, maybe she is wearing it with a pair of sneakers. But I think automatically dismissing her looks in this runway collection as "hoochie" or "slutty" isn't really fair. The clothes I saw on the runway two nights ago didn't look poorly constructed, everything looked like it fit well and was well made. I think of Char's girl as that girl from that LL Cool J song "'Round the Way Girl" What would she be wearing if she was going on vacation? That romper. What would she wear if she was just trying to look like she wasn't trying? The first look. The dress, while well made, had no place in the collection, LL Cool J's girl wouldn't wear that anywhere. I too, wish the save had been used on Fade, but I try to give credit where its due, and I thought her stuff looked nice, and I don't think fashion always needs to about about keeping out certain points of view, and only allowing that the customers that exist are boho chic, Upper East Side, and ladies who lunch. I also like fashion that is accessible to some degree as well, so I don't mind that some things on the runway are going to be things I could see in a store. And I'm not saying that its you in particular, I get where you're coming from, MV on fashion, but I get the impression that for some there is only room for some points of view, and I find that unfortunate.

I was watching TV the other day and was shocked at how loud the commercials were that were aimed at old people. The AARP car insurance commercial almost blew my eardrums.

at some point in this competition every one of the designers in the final four has been accused of ripping off of someone else. I'm starting to take it all with a grain of salt. The only times you really don't hear that something is a rip off is when its just unfortunate, like Sandaya's onesie for the good ship lollipop. I liked Char's stuff - I get concerned when there is a point of view that fashion can't have more than a few points of view. There is that Brooklyn, New York "fly girl" and I don't think she needs to be ignored because she doesn't want to wear a modified nurses uniform, an Inspector Gadget coat, or a boho chic dress. I think catering to that girl is just as important as catering to the Upper East Side heiresses.

I still care, I want to see Narcisse get his comeuppance. Chalky was one of my favorite characters on the show, a close second only to Richard. And because of that Narcisse became a character I loathed with a passion. The very thought of Chalky dying, and Narcisse continuing to live, happily make money infusing the black community with heroin while at the same time hypocritically selling them some bill of goods that he is a savior in the black community would anger me. I want to see him go down.

Is Richard supposed to be a permanent judge on Top Chef? I got the impression he would judge a lot, but not all the time, so there may be room for Emeril, and other guest judges.

I remember going to Europe and the hotel rooms were relatively small, and we stayed at a 5 star hotel. I think that may just be the norm for hotel rooms in Europe. But its tough, because normally if you go with an American chain, like Marriott, the rooms are bigger, because that know that thats what a lot of American travelers are used to. So I'm not sure if Best Western (Premier!) maybe purchased an already existing hotel and just kept the room sizes the same. Although, I will say, even if they had me in a room half that size I would be excited. Its a free trip to Rome! I'm not going to spend much time in the hotel room!!

But that "old lady" critique seemed to be based on the styling - straight flat hair, really heavy eye makeup, the accessories. Over and over and over they said that the clothing was good, with the exception of the coat (which Nina said was good, but just didn't fit the other two looks) and that the skirt with the white top should be changed to leggings/shorts. I didn't like Kini's collection, but I hardly thought it got eviscerated by the judges.

*le sigh* those crazy editors and their nutty tricks.

I was just trying to impress you all :) But the one time I was always on the internet is when a student starts asking one of those questions that they are only asking to either try to stump the professor, or impress us all with their brilliance. I just couldn't with all that. They were the ones making up super complex and nonsensical hypos "okay but what if you detrimentally relied on the contract, but then, you got in a car accident, but the consideration from the other party was just that they showed up, but they touched some downed power lines and now they are dead, can you sue the estate?" There is one guy that loved doing that, and the professor was too nice to tell him to shut the fuck up, so I was getting Amazon packages every week.

I want to see the preview for the reunion, can anyone tell me where to find it????

The following ideas have made me smile today 1. disemboweling Narcisse 2. sticking a can of raid in his mouth, after being stomped by black residents after they find out he killed that preacher 3. a two line obit - or better yet, if the obit was of an "unknown black male" 4. Not allowing him to be referred to as "Doctor", what exactly does he claim to be a doctor of anyways?

I thought Kini's skirt looked like something out of an 80's teen movie, all she needed was a headband and a volkswagen rabbit convertible. But I thought overall they liked Kini's pieces, but hated the styling, and said that he didn't need the jacket since he would have another wow piece in his collection and didn't really fit with the other pieces He said denim is his thing, so he is sticking to it. Who knows, the jacket in a different fabric might have worked. I did like the high waisted skirt though. Actually, I thought the judges said they liked his pieces, just that he should pretty much make a short or legging to go with the top, get rid of the jacket, because he has another "wow" piece in his collection and change the styling. Don't even put that in the universe! Personally, I don't mind product placement per se, but it does start to bother me when the product doesn't fit, so there has to be extra time devoted to trying to make the placement work with the show, or they have to make up a totally odd challenge to fit the sponsor in. Yoplait was a sponsor last year, or the year before, and the "Yoplait" challenge was that the designers had to go around asking people how eating Yoplait new yogurt product made them feel, they then had to take those words and translate them into an outfit. It was eye rollingly awkward. Lexus has done a good job as a sponsor, at some point the designers drive around the city in a Lexus, they can say a few nice words about the Lexus. That fits. A makeup sponsor fits the show, but I'm not sure Mary Kay is the right makeup sponsor, their makeup doesn't translate well to TV, and so I don't think its going to get them a lot of new customers. I look at a show like Top Chef, and how they have maintained their relationship with Whole Foods (a high end grocery store) for years. Many people would argue that Krogers or Ralphs sells the same food, but there is some connection between the quality of the show and the reputation of the sponsor. And I'll tell you the problem with the Belks sponsorship from my POV. A lot of people, myself included, have never been to, or heard of Belk's. I understand that they are looking to expand, and so they were probably using Project Runway as an opportunity to introduce themselves to a lot of new people, so that, if a Belk's opened up in your town, you would want to go. Where Belks was concerned, I was a totally clean slate. But, the accessory wall they had was AWFUL, and so I don't have a positive image of Belk's in my mind, because of that, and it tarnished the Belk's image. Both, they make shoes (I have a pair of evening heeled sandals from them that I wayyy overpaid for) and they have retail outlets. Their target market seems to be very young people, and girls looking for a pair of shoes for "da club" According to my banner ad and the accessory wall they also carry clunky boots, glitter velcro shoes which I have never seen in store (although, I'm mostly passing it to get to Sephora)

I can't agree with that. I used to wear drug store make up, and it was okay, but there is a difference between an eyeshadow from Cover Girl and and eye shadow from MakeUp Forever, Tarte, or Urban Decay or gasp! Marc Jacobs (pretty stuff, but too spendy for me). There are certainly differences in pigmentation, how well the makeup goes on and the subtle tones of the colors. Handlebar seems like a good makeup artist, and when the makeup sponsor was a little more high end, he created pretty looks, but the makeup right now just isn't high end. Which is fine, but its too harsh for TV, and I think maybe its not as pigmented, won't go on as well and so you have to keep packing it on to create the impactful looks that they want and then its just too much.

When I travel, I know I'm going to be walking all day because I'm going to try to fit in everything I want to see, and then I'll go to the hotel and dress for dinner. So during the day, I want to dress mainly for comfort. After getting blisters in a pair of wedges, I decided super soft, worn pair of Vera Wang Lavender ballet flats (which I can't find to buy another pair!) do the trick. A pair of jeans, or shorts or a summer dress and a light jacket/coat work for me. The weather in some areas can change on a dime I like my own style, and don't really work to emulate anyone. And I don't necessarily think anyone does it here, and I sort of like that. In the summer you can see all these different tourists and how they dress. Given the situation, I could understand dressing primarily for comfort.

I liked Char's middle dress too, but I see how it doesn't really go with the other two "girls" looks. I think the first and third of Char's looks represents her "girl", she wants you to look at her! The second girl had a dress that I liked but that would fade into the background. to me, it was Kini's skirt that was the worst offender. The judges love to talk about what a real woman would want, I can't think of a real woman that wants a waistband and then another band right below her belly. That seems to just announce "hey, look at my gut! have you seen my gut? Its right here, between these two pieces of fabric!!!!" His coat looked like one of those old timey detectives, like Inspector Gadget, he should have styled his model with some go go gadget aldo skates. Amanda's necklace was awesome Funniest line was when the first MK makeup guy was like "lets just let the face speak for itself...." which is code for "lets just not use a lot of this crap on her" I did like that he had a story that went with the trip. I liked the first dress, but I didn't really understand the point of the fringe in the back. The black outfit was beautiful though. I actually liked Char's pieces, and I'm okay that they aren't art. I really liked the sleekness of the romper, to me, the dress in the middle didn't belong, but the other two looks I could see belonging to the same "girl." And I think its the girl that Char describes, a fly girl. I think the styling fits with that image. When I think of fly girl, I think of Jennifer Lopez, back in the day. It's a certain type of woman, but I think that woman has just as much of a voice as Amanda's boho chic 60's chick, or Kini's heiress party girl, or Sean's woman.

So....no one is concerned that some middle aged guy is peeping in her window?

If the piece was super fatty, how come Richard didn't say anything or even agree with Padma? Padma was obviously looking for everyone to agree with her, and the person who probably got the same cut didn't have the same complaint, so while it was likely fattier than other pieces, I don't think it was so over the top.

That kind of reminds me of that coffee company in the 80's that had those soap opera like commercials...was it Tasters Choice? Except, that was the 80's, watching TV for the next Tasters Choice episode was all you could do. Whoever that company is, they can just suck it, because of all the things I can look up on the internet, the end of your ad? No thanks, I would rather google if the dodo bird could ever make a comeback from extinction or whats going on with the members of C&C music factory, or if the safety dance is really a thing, or if i can just keep doing a modified version of the robot everytime that song comes on.

I have such a crush on him. I'd like to see a lot of Eric Ripert, and I won't even tell you which parts :)

here is the thing, I can't help but think the piece of meat Padma got wasn't that bad. Richard was served right there with her, and barely said a word about the meat being fatty. The only special snowflake who had a problem with it was Padma. The judges are shown talking to various members of the audience, and to me, if someone was cutting up pieces of fat to give to guests, you would have heard about that, or the judges would have "magically" stumbled on that person. And when he was reaching in to serve Padma and Richard, it appeared as though he had a few pieces of meat left, so out of that bunch, he likely picked the best piece out of all of them. It would make no sense for him to serve Richard a reasonable piece of meat, and Padma something totally inedible. I just think Padma has nothing to add, but the very obvious "this is hard to eat!", "this has fat in it!" and she tries real hard to make it sound like a serious critique, but it all sounds like stuff I could critique someone on. I, too, know when meat has a lot of fat, and when something is difficult to eat. Let me listen to someone who knows things I don't know. When I listen to everyone else on the panel give a critique it always sounds more informed than whatever Padma is angry pants about. I find it telling that the two other chefs on the judging panel, one of whom was actually served with her, didn't have a big problem with the dish. I was amused when Padma thought that everyone else was going to get enraged over his dish, and it was basically crickets. I find anyone who spits out food to very likely be someone looking for attention or being bratty. I've eaten some gross stuff in my life, but I've managed to keep it down. Heck, half the homegrown remedies my foreign mother brought from her country would make your head spin, but I managed to keep it down, and I was just a kid. There is no excuse, she could have held it down and then said it was gross, no need for the dramatics. And I've said the same thing of that bald assclown on MasterChef.

I personally wanted everyone's chicken dish. Fried chicken skin, cheesy grits and green...yes please! Fried chicken and watermelon....yes please! Chicken and plaintain/banana and pepper.....yes please! That guy that went out first. His biggest mistake was not thinking logically. First, if he wanted the mackrel he should have fought a little harder for it, don't just make under the breath comments, come right out and make it happen. Second, if you wanted to stay on the show you were stupid to pick a really good chef, you should have gone for the lower hanging fruit, or someone that seemed easier to beat. As much as I like the large man (is fat offensive?) asking him to run around a kitchen to get ingredients right after the quick fire might have been a little more difficult for him, he might have been a little easier to beat. The woman who just said she feels totally outclassed by all the talent in the room might be a good pick to go up against. Dude who ended up making fishy corn soup.* But don't pick a guy just because you're mad at him because he got the mackrel you wanted. Dumb move. * - and by the way, I hate that my tastebuds have to keep up with trends. Maybe I should just eat what tastes delicious. Yuck. The challenge was a joke to me. I think the smart contestant probably chose what they wanted to make and then had a story to go with it. Although I found it funny that the one overused method they mentioned was something about cheese snow, or onion snow or something. I was sure Tom was going to talk about people pouring liquid nitrogen all over everything. Because that is a trend that has been overdone, and Wylie Dufraine ought to be suing all these people for stealing his thing. The unfair thing....now that I think about it was as basic as a salad is, didn't some girl basically make a cherry dessert that had flakey crust, ginger and a few cherries? Thats not a main dish, and it sounds like it wasn't tasty, and it sounds wayyyy simple for a first dish on top chef. As for the guy in the black cap, I'm not super upset with him yet, because a) I think if you are going to brag about an award, it should be an award that everyone has heard of, and that award sounded a little suspicious, not like she made it up per se, but just the chef equivalent of a "best attendance" award. On Top Chef, if its not a James Beard, it should at least be close. I might roll my eyes at something like that too and b) making a salad as your first dish on top chef is a little lame, and I don't think a little shit talking in the kitchen has ever been a big thing.

Padma annoys the ever loving snot out of me. I forgot how much she does because I recently saw her on 30 Rock and she was funny and charming. But she was pretty much ready to send that guy home for the crime of giving her a fatty piece of meat. And she was such a raging bitch about it. He didn't mean to give you a fatty piece, it was all he had left. He had enough meat, it was just that towards the end he only had fatty portions. Or was he supposed to keep the perfect piece of meat tucked away somewhere and serve the other guests the fatty meat? Sometimes special snowflake, when you arrive at the very end of service you're not going to get the best portion. Thankfully, Gail and Tom....also known as....those people actually really versed in the art of food called BS on her in the kindest way possible. Gail pointing out that the cut of pork was almost always fatty, and even Richard didn't seem offended by the dish, and he probably got the same portion. Her show of spitting food out makes me think that she doesn't even deserve to be there. Its just rude. I've choked down some pretty disgusting food in my life, and so has anyone who ever had someone cook them a bad meal. Heck, a guy once ate a turducken I didn't cook all the way through, and not only was that gross, it was also dangerous. She also lost me with her anger at the Mexican/Asian guy for not making a dish that was easy for her to eat. Really? That was the big problem with the dish? Everyone else had actually food based, substantive problems with it, she is the only one shooting him the evil eye because she spilled it on herself. I do like them giving everyone instant feedback, its been a problem for contestants on PR. If they aren't in the bottom three, they don't know where they stand, or how they did. At least this way they know. But I think Padma just needs to stand around and be pretty, let Gail talk about the food, Gail is always respectful and honest.

Enough to sit around on a phone and have a fucking conversation about it. Because you know, when I am chatting it up with my BFF, the subject of nasty ass Yoplait yogurt is always coming up. Because, you know, I'm a lady, and I'm always looking to drop a few pounds, because as a miserable nag I know if I lose my figure my emasculated husband might grow a pair of balls and leave me. Yogurt Bitch!

Well said Chicago Redshirt. Although, I agree with your professor, the process of outlining is what helps me to study. Furthermore, I wouldn't trust a lot of law school outlines, because there are so few students I trust to tell the truth about the grade they got in the class . I don't really want an outline from that guy who got the C- and thats just the guy I would suspect of telling me he "killed it" (although there are some people you know are the real deal, and thats an outline I would trust). But I've seen a lot of people with outline books, and they seem to like them, although I'm an E&E girl myself. I've seen people take notes longhand, and I have no idea how they do it. And honestly, sometimes its almost like the constant thinking will be too much, and I just have to take a quick mental break to look at shoes online for a minute or two.