Silly Angel

Josh's mesh shirt at camp! I'm still laughing. I want shot that to be my avatar for everything.

I just wonder whether so many of these restaurants go back to their old menus because Gordon's "everything fresh, fine ingredients, cooked to order" dictum is just too damn expensive. A failing business that's been on the butt-end of bankruptcy for months can't always afford to fly in fresh fish and use the cook's time shucking oysters and lovingly shredding lettuce. Does he ever think of a reboot in terms of what their current budget is and where he'd be willing to let them cut corners? I say this as a big fan of canned green beans.

I'm so mad at this episode, it's difficult to marshal my thoughts, so one quick thing, aside from stealing the macarons. Selfish little post-millennial bitches. If they are so impressed by Adele Marchand's atelier, stop calling it the "a-till-ier." Such a weird pronunciation and both Sutton and Jane used it.

Hi, Pachengala! You are right. Just like epaulettes and brass buttons and camo print filtering down into the mainstream, the tricorn was originally a functional military item that became popular among the masses, particularly the upper class. The Spanish three-cornered hat was military headgear whose upturned sides kept rain off the officers' faces in battle, and to allow them to manipulate bayonets and long muskets without whacking their hats, but it spread across Europe and to England--wars are great ways to introduce fashions and customs to other cultures--and became popular among civilians, even women, who could highlight their femininity with the sassy military note. As wigs became more elaborate and low necklines and fancy neckgear became fashionable, a topper with an upturned brim showed off those areas with less interference than a broad or droopy brim. Again, if the show continues and the fashion evolves, we'll see the tricorn drop fairly rapidly out of style an the bicorn replace it--that's the fortune-cookie-looking hat with two folded sides either pointing, first by naval officers side to side (think of Napoleon), then later front to back. This is all from my aged memory and reading a lot of fashion histories so anyone is free to correct my mistakes. Fun fact: there is a defunct Spanish-themed ballet called The Three-Cornered Hat, the title, I believe, indicating to audiences that the setting was exotic.

Costuming ho here. Just rewatched the first season to set myself up for this one, and, plot aside, I'm loving the deeper colors as the pastels and powder of High Rococo go out of fashion. The white wigs are gone, except on the older Mrs. Quigley, and natural hair is coming into fashion. Interesting to note that the high-end ladies still cling in part to the old style while the whores are swathed in deep brocades and layers of jewel tones. Trendiness seeping down to the mall rats of the culture, in any period, while the old guard clings to the classics. The interiors, of course, are still whites and pastels, as they are more expensive to redo every time a new fad rolls in. It's very smart. If the series continues, and I hope to god it does, we'll edge into the Neoclassical period. Should be good fun! I'm writing a Regency-era erotic romance and I find the contrast between the buttoned-up Austen period and the sex workers' style interesting and challenging to draw out. It is, after all, the oldest profession, and even while Elizabeth Bennett and Emma and their upright sisters plotted to make decent marriages, there were whores lounging in brothels in nothing but stockings and pearls.

Does little Papi the drug dealer ever walk? We never see him doing anything but hanging around the house eating Mother's food. She doesn't want drugs in the house, so what is he doing there? I may be forgetting how he came to the house.

Thumbs up to every word! So much dumb, pointless scrawling over the gang's characters to make cartoon outlines of new characters. Val wants to "be someone else for a night"? And that person is Kelly, whom she has loathed for 102 seasons and has no respect for? Okey-dokey. Psychology graduate Kelly calling a girl who got raped a whore, just for a giggle? Sure, that tracks. Steve the West Bev prankster, not the felon and cheater? I'd buy that for a dollar. But Brandon... jesus, that cockwinkle. His braying up in Nana's business was bad enough, but the "failed marriage" crack. You fuckstank. Believe me, when you go through a divorce, you feel exactly that, like you're a failure who failed at marriage. Andrea's thing was always succeeding at everything she did, but she let go of all the threads of her life and must be aching with self-recrimination and misery. And not one of those fartnozzles told Brandon to STFU and back out of her business for reals. His whole life is just a reason to yell, "What's it to you?" Next week is Sex-In '98, and I'm here for it. It's so boring.

That episode was gold. Perfect plots, subplots, pairings, lines...definitely needs a rewatch or two. But the show seriously dropped the ball on one major point: WHAT MADE HIM SMELL LIKE AN ENGLISH GARDEN? I have to know!

That was one of the saddest episodes of This Is Us I've ever seen. But so real. Ouch. It hurt me to my core. When you're so backed up with all the history and the rage and the frustration and the sorrow that you just can't give an inch...

They're saying that the reason he could evade dogs' attention during his attacks was related to his carrying dog repellent. Information isn't abundant yet, but I saw that somewhere while frantically researching. God, what strange mixed feelings. 1) they found the monster and can make him pay. 2) so, so, so many years late. My heart grieves for the victims, their families and friends. There is no such thing as justice after all this time.

I am so sorry to hear that, Glade. I just finished bingeing the season and was struck in the heart-place by the treatment of Antonio. It's not often Ryan Murphy can make complicated points with relative, long-game subtlety, but this was beautifully done. To me, it was how a vicious expression of how the law and the culture perceived gay relationships before marriage equality. Not that I'm claiming everything is peachy for spouses now, but it looked as if, to them, same-sex companionship was just a sliding scale of the same unsavory thing. Hustling low means AC cut off by Norman, beginning his descent; hustling high means Antonio left with no rights, no claim on the man he spent 13 years with. Without law to protect the likes of Antonio, it's all hustling. Makes me sick. Lizzie also grossed me out from her first appearance to her last. She was no less a needy try-hard than Andrew, except not actually a psychopathic killer. One of those women who longs for a "fabulous" gay friend to round the edges of her shitty existence. The wanted poster with lipstick and a wig looked just like her. I wonder how deliberate that was. And the final shot of Donatella looking in the etched mirror virtually turned her into the Medusa head--creator and destroyer; the new, quite literal, now-horrifying face of Versace; virago enacting vendettas against outsiders. If only Gianni had given the company to the drag-queen Donatella impersonator. She seemed like fun.

We can't have anything nice!!!!

Oof, Sagrada Familia. Try climbing all those stairs after having a 2-inch needle plunged into your thigh. (Not very interesting story: Went to Barthelona for, like, $2.99 right after 9/11 when prices were really low, with husband, best friend, and his NIH immunologist partner. We met a friend for tapas and I had a small octopus salad, which must have contained mussels, to which I am deathly allergic. Woke up around 5 with my throat swelling shut, so husband slams the Epipen into my leg and off we go to that day's site--Sagrada Familia. I am limping gamely but with obvious pain up each staircase and immunologist sidles up behind me, taking the steps two at a time, and whispers, "Got shot up last night, sweetie?") Anyway, I'm so glad Leelee Sobeiski and her debate boyfriend came in first! They really rallied after last week's grueling frite-race thingy. Also glad it was a NEL, which I kind of suspected, because usually it's the fourth episode of a season but the racers don't experience the legs as cleanly as we do, I don't think, and I suspect that the damn fries challenge took much longer than expected. First the ring girls, then Team Women & Women & Goats First, Slum Dunkers still in it... this is shaping up to be an emotionally satisfying season. It helps that I've never seen Big Brother, so I'm not annoyed by Cody and Jessica, especially since Cody speaks a little Arabic and is humble about it, and Jessica helped Brittany, despite what Brittany has to say about it.

I'm weirdly invested in Toby, Kate and baby. They don't actually bore me. Annoy, sometimes, but I have come around on Toby I feel like he knows he's a lot to take, and whether it was patience or just settling, Kate tolerated it and found herself with the right guy. That feels to me pretty real, realer than awesome Kate, who's been used or ignored, finding the perfect man from the jump. However, after they told Kevin, they went to the next person on their list--Toby's mom. What kind of order were they going in? One sibling, one parent, etc? I hate hate hate how Randall has always been the plus-one to Kate and Kevin. Loved young William and the judge. I was mesmerized by the judge's gorgeous blue eyes. Never seen anything quite like those on TV. Keven and Sophie, on the other hanzzzzzzzzzz.... oh, sorry, fell asleep. Kevin needs a storyline I give two shits about stat. Pill addiction on TV makes me pass out with boredom. Unless it's Coke!Kelly, I'm not gonna care.

I was so weirdly pleased by the appearance of Boys in the Sand. My housemate in the late '80s had a huge selection of what now would be valued as vintage queer pornography, including this gem, and a lot of Peter Berlin sort of stuff. Most of it was almost Skinemax mild--shadowed and blurred and shot from angles that were far from hardcore, in today's terms, but they had stories, such as they were, and artistic effects. I feel like BitS was the beginning of something that was never really fulfilled. As an author of erotic romances, I think that someone could make millions producing plot-driven, romantic erotica geared toward women. And as a student of queer history, I applaud the show for recognizing that "artistic" porn was blooming not just on David Krumholtz and Maggie Gyllenhall's set, but out on Fire Island.

I thought Michael's model was much more of a backstabbing horror than Liris. At the final look-see she walked out saying, "Here comes the hooker." Aw girl, tell us what you really think. They are paid to wear clothes and stomp it out, not volunteer as guest judges. Liris's skin should not have been that close to fiberglass--it's not just uncomfortable, but dangerous, and the judges noticed. Then again, as someone smart said above, don't include fabric-like things like firehoses if the designers are not allowed to use them.

God, yes. Every time someone said "Harvey," I shuddered.

That was amazing. I thought Zosia Mamet killed it, and I find her...problematic on that other show. The way Heidi was simultaneously wary, disinterested, and full-heartedly down with Gretchen's fucked-up shenanigans. You can see her mentally calculating, picking and choosing how much of Gretchen she will let in. So good. The lighting was really wonderful too. That early-morning light while they walked away from the rental car. I hope this interlude gives Gretchen something to think about. It's not cute at 30ish, and she's seeing herself that way for the first time. The cinnamon thing had me cringing. Jesus, grow up.

"They split the flan!" Gawd, Amy.

Maybe this is a basic question, but aren't rings supposed to look nice? They're like jewelry for the body, if you think about it. It's not like we all have to wear government-issued identity rings or something. It's a fashion choice. So why wear an ugly, breakable rubber one? Also, and this is an interesting fact: they are removable. Maybe don't wear things that can catch or tear or set you on fire or suck you under the escalator in risky circumstances? I guess I'm not a born entrepreneur. The only thing I've ever bought off the Tank is Elephant Pants, and I don't wear the pants and kimono while rock-climbing.

Aw, now I feel bad. Your ink sounds amazing, AZChristian! I have stocking "seams" running up the backs of my legs with little bows above the backs of my knees, so I don't have to think about clothes to show them off, beyond short dresses or skirts. I'm just very literal when it comes to showing skin where everything else is covered. I know what it's like to consider your tattooes every time you get dressed. I'm 51 but the dancer's legs are still showable. (I hope.)

As an Emotional-American, I kind of get where Margarita was coming from. god help me. I mean, it wasn't great, for sure. It wasn't mature, thoughtful, considered or how grown-ups should act. But I have been in that headspace where you're just freaking buried under accumulated frustration and overwhelmed by a sense of injustice, to which you may or may not be entitled, and you try to stop your stupid mouth from running and spitting out nasty asides, and can't cut a thing properly and your design (or whatever) goes to shit, and that tiny sense of propriety that knows you're being an ass pops up at the wrong moment and you say some dumb shit like, "I wasn't raised to throw anyone under the bus..." And your resting bitchface is doing you no favors, and it's a horrible snowball of rage and even though you know you're the one who will end up looking the worst through all of it, you just can't stop it. She let the garbage accumulate in Michael to the point that he was the one who acted out even though she'd been running her bitch mouth in the workroom all day. Poor everyone. I just felt really bad for the contestants, that they had to wade through this. Probably TMI about my lack of emotional restraint, sorry. Another thing: I hate the "cold shoulder." It's like the peep-toe boot. Are you cold, girl? Wear proper boots. Have sleeves. Are you warm? Wear normal shoes. Short or no sleeves. Sleeveless tunic "jackets"? Bitch, if you cold, you need something that covers your arms. I don't care what fashion says. Some of us have to go outside in weather. You kids get off my lawn! That older judge has some janked-up trout-lip work going on. Does anyone who gets these injections think she looks 22 after them? You look like an older lady (I say this as an older lady(with janked-up lip injections). Ramon the cabana boy isn't buying it, hon.

I never much liked Shawn but I am sorry she died. She must have died, right? Considering Clair'e reaction to her sister "conceding." It occurred to me while watching this episode that it isn't so much their over-enunciation but their physical mannerisms. My PR superfan friend and I watch this together and try to imitate the twins but it's really nothing without their queenly ways of moving and posing and emoting. They must be annoying AF in person. The judges should really buy Kentaro dinner before they ass-rape him next time.

Yet another condescending, patronizing depiction of romance fans on TV. (I'm a writer of them, full disclosure.) The stupid masks, the overheated cat ladies yelling at Jimmy to take his pants off, the stupid sex puns. Fuck you, show. Do some research.

Hush. Yoo vill spoil eet. The show is usually so fantastic with accents.