Pop Culture Princess

Pop Culture Princess
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Thursday, September 25, 2008

Heroes introduces us to their villains,Project Runway sings a song and it's man cave time on Top Design



The time has come on Project Runway when the designers are challenged to make outfits for each other to model and this season,the theme was music genre. Tim Gunn handed out the assignments via random drawings(I love the bag of buttons,very appropriate) and to top things off,the guest judge was LL Cool J. Sweet!



Leanne had Country as her category and Korto for her model. While I do somewhat agree with the judges that her top and skirt could have used a little more flair(perhaps a touch of fringe?)and glamor to it,she really did do a good job here.

Leanne and Korto's big concern was not having the clothes come all costumey and Nina was right about the colors that were selected being great;however,as much as I like this,LL Cool J did have a point about it being a bit too subtle.



Jerell's genre was pop and his concept for his design was "Kenley Spears". He really nailed this one on the head and gave Little Miss Mouthy a slamming glitter top dress that successfully towed the line between sexy and slutty.



Jerell was hoping for a third win in a row,but Korto's punk look for Suede made her the clear winner.

She truly went all out for this one,even going so far as to bleach both the pants and the shoes that he was going to wear. Korto also was wise enough to listen to Tim Gunn in the workroom and take his advice on making the top look less basic. See,Kenley-sometimes it pays to have a smart head rather than a smart mouth.



Speaking of Kenley,her hip-hop look for Leanne was about as authentic as a three dollar bill. She was beyond clueless and refused to admit it at all. She was insanely defensive with the judges and nearly snapped Tim Gunn's head off when he politely questioned her choice of form fitting clothes(even LL Cool J thought the high waisted pants looked like "Mom jeans").

Granted,I'm not the most down with the music scene gal around but even I know that Alicia Keyes(who Kenley cited as a current stylist in that genre) is not at all hip-hop. Queen Latifah,yes,Lauren Hill,sure,Mary J. Blige,most definitely-not Alicia,who,as I think Suede pointed out,is more R&B.



Alas,poor Suede-while a number of his entries have been rather lackluster(including this rock star ensemble for Jerell)and his third person bit has gotten so old that it grew a long,grey beard and is eligible for Social Security,I didn't think he had to go.

Kenley's bad attitude is completely unprofessional and counterproductive. She automatically rejects any ounce of constructive criticism or creative input,not to mention having no respect for Tim or any of the other judges. She prefers to lock herself into this narrow little shadowbox of kitschy 1950's design,which is fine if your goal in life is to be a one trick pony of fashion.

Oh,well,we still have another round to go and another chance to see Kenley get the Auf she so richly deserves. Keep your fingers crossed,folks!



More teamwork was the order of the day at Top Design,where the big challenge was to re-do three bachelor pads. Sitting for Kelly Wearstler at the Judges' Panel was Jeff Lewis from Flipping Out(a show I don't watch but know enough about to expect some major snark from his corner).



Wisit worked with Andrea and Teresa to make a "masculine Zen" place for a fella named Obie and they clicked together very nicely. Obie had wanted a screening room look for his living room and his team gave him a great one that both male and female visitors could be comfy in.



The bedroom was the true crowd pleaser,as the judges and Obie both adored it. The colors in the room ,and particularly the bedding,were superb. Team Obie was the winner of this challenge and glad to see Wisit and Andrea work so well with each other.



Eddie,Ondine and Natalie were asked to make "panty-dropping chic" for James,a law student with a permanent case of bed head. Ondine decided to decoupage some screens with a animal and insect wall paper which was neither manly or mature looking. Jeff Lewis hated it with a fiery passion and would've gladly shown Ondine the door for that sad style selection.



The bedroom that Team James whipped up wasn't bad,but as the judges pointed out,James wouldn't even get a girl to even consider spending any time with him there for romantic purposes with such a neutral,non sexy set up in the rest of the place.



The big losers were Nathan,Shazia and Preston,assigned to Eddie for a "contemporary chic" that turned out to be incomplete and incoherent,as Shazia and Norman kept clashing with one another over just about everything. Shazia was being a major pain,winging and whining about no one paying any attention to her or acknowledging her presence,especially during the shopping.



Preston wasn't thrilled with Shazia either,mainly when she insisted on having valances made for the windows at the last minute. The valance was not a totally bad idea,just one that they didn't have time to pull off better. Since Norman had immunity(from a flower arrangement Pop Design win),Shazia was sent home. Hopefully,she has learned from this experience that there's difference between being forceful with your opinion and just being annoying.



Heroes started off season three with a double dose of trouble,as Peter's own worst enemy is his Future self,Claire survived her encounter with Sylar physically but was left with severe emotional scars,Nathan came back from the dead but may not be all that right in his mind and Hiro's need for a quest leads him to hunt down the sexy Speedster girl who stole his father's deadly secret formula.



A lot of good mysteries and intrigues were set in motion,including the return of Niki Saunders,or one of her doppelgangers. Her name is Tracy Strauss and like Niki,has a connection with Nathan Petrelli as the liaison to a governor willing to give Nathan an open senate seat.

Tracy flat out denies that she's Niki but that doesn't quite wash with Nathan or an investigative reporter(William Katt,aka The Greatest American Hero)who is easily able to dig up a load of internet dirt to link those ladies together.

Tracy's temper,however,is not as strong as Jessica's was. Her way of dealing with stress has a much more chilling effect on people:





The most dangerous villain of the bunch,in my opinion,is Angela Petrelli,who is now in charge of Primatech Paper and all of it's levels,due to Sylar's break in and zappage by Electro-Girl Elle which lead to a big breakout of the Level 5 baddies. Angela's first order of business is to kick Elle out and start grooming Sylar as her right hand man(not to mention having Future Peter find Present Day Peter,who is trapped in one of the L5 gang's bodies).

Angela is a stone cold power broker,and despite what she whispered to Sylar by the end of the episode,has all of the motherly instincts of a barracuda. She may not have a flashy power(her dreams of the future seem to always be grim)but her influence over others can be just as lethal as Maya's black eyed death dealing is. On a final note,Mohinder,do you not have a Netflix account? It might have been a good idea to check out Jeff Goldblum in The Fly before using yourself as a test subject for that power granting formula,seriously:



RANDOM NOTES:



UGLY BETTY: The third season kicks off tonight and hopefully,we will find out which love of her life that Betty chose to be with. I hope it's Gio,because while I liked Henry,his baby momma drama was much too much to deal with.

One thing is for certain and that is that Betty will have plenty of work related hijinks to deal with. That burden might be a tad heavier to tote as Daniel's newly found son adds to the usual chaos surrounding Mode's photo shoots:

3 comments:

Ladytink_534 said...

I loved the look on Tim's face when he saw everybody in their makeup and hair lol! There were some really bad outfits this episode. I think it was neat they got L. L. Cool J! He's one of the best guest judges so far. Jarrell did a great job with his pop outfit, I hated Kenley's Hip-hop outfit (thought she should go home for it)-and her attiude, Korto's outfit for Suede was the best by far. Jarrell's outfit by Suede really needed more oomph and I agree with Heidi, it looked a lot like what Jarrell normally wears. The country outfit was funny but not really bad (again, needed more oopmh). I don't understand how Suede went home before Kenley did. His was a bit boring but it wasn't as hideous. I think Jarrell or Korto has a very good chance of winning Project Runway.

I haven't seen Top Design yet but I'll see about that this weekend.

Hubby is always trying to get me to watch Heroes. I just know how impatient I am so I'm afraid to start a series until it gets further along in the seasons.

Ah! I missed NCIS and Criminal Minds! I'll have to watch those tomorrow. My mom is a big Ugly Betty fan but thats another show I've never seen.

Victoria said...

Anyone else a bit disappointed with heroes opener?

Kind of like, oh here we go again... we have to save the world. again.

lady t said...

I agree with you,Lady Tink,about Jarell and Korto(it would be shocking if either of those two didn't make the Final Three)but I'm still holding out some hope for Leanne there.

Kenley has definitely morphed into Satan's Spawn over the course of the show,which is why I guess she's still on. Suede's outfit wasn't a hit by any means but it came much closer to the target genre he was supposed to aiming than she did.

Oh,and I didn't get a chance to watch the Ugly Betty premiere(Kitchen Nightmares had two episodes back to back!)so,I'll have to see it online.

Hi,Victoria-I liked the Heroes opener but would have enjoyed to see Sylar have some more battle scenes(loved the "ouch" after he recovered from Mr. Bennet's bullets).

Yeah,it is a "time to save the world" deal again,but with times like we're going through now,it cheers me up to watch somebody with super powers try to tackle the job.