Saturday, July 19, 2008

Weekend Rant - Reality Round Up

So you think you can Dance continued with eliminations this week and the Top 10 was reduced to the Final 8.

Unfortunately that meant the end of Gev, who in my humble opinion, went way beyond his B Boy roots to be a great competitor on the show. I had Mark pegged for leaving and was quite surprised that Gev had gotten less votes ... I thought the guy was cute and charismatic and had the chance to go far.... anyways buddy, you were a pleasure to watch and it will be fun to see you bust a move later in the season when they bring back the Top 10.

My money is still on Mark to be the next guy to go ... he moves okay but is lacking some of the technique the other dancers have. The way things are developing you might be seeing Debbie Allen's protege, Will , taking home the title this year. The guy is drop dead gorgeous, has incredible technique and is willing to run around mostly naked. I think he will be getting quite a few votes from the boys and girls out there in TV land.
On the girl's side of things, I was happy to see Comfort hang around for another week. Her look in the opening Bollywood number was astounding -- wow -- and I loved the number. At this rate we should start seeing a whole plethora of dance styles by the end of the season and I think it will add some interesting challenges to the competitors. I do find it interesting that if the Judges do not mention the choreographer during their summation of the performance, they didn't really like the work they created. Luckily, there hasn't been that many "bad numbers" so far (a few questionable ones maybe...) and it looks like the dancers are being kept on their toes. Unfortunately for Kherington it's the end of the line, but I was kind of getting bored with her. Courtney & Joshua, Comfort & Twitch and Katee & Will were all outstanding and I expect to see them around for the next while.

Project Runway returned this week with a whole new pack of designers. Not only was it a fun episode, but they brought back one of my favorite challenges from the very first season, the infamous grocery store challenge. Putting a bit of fabulous icing on that cake was the introduction of guest Judge Austin Scarlett and our merry band of designers are sent off with not much money or time to get their supplies.

Now maybe I am getting a tad jaded after several seasons of this show.. but I was getting a frustrated as Tim was with the number of participants who chose tablecloths as their main fabric. I was hoping for some creativity in base materials and only a few of the designers rose to the challenge.Thank god Tim Gunn was around to state the obvious and tell them to more than "make it work", but that they had to step it up also and show their creativity.

There is no way that I can do the show enough justice, and if you want to read the best dirt about all the competitors, you have to read Project Rungay for the absolutely best commentary about all the contestants. If I have a blog idol it is definitely my sisters over there -- they are beyond fierce.

I have thank them up front for their perfect name for one of my favorite competitors of this season, our kind-of-reminds-me-of Cher designer herself, the rock chick Stella. Project Rungay calls her Cheroin and it works for me -- ( I hope you don't mind if I borrow... my first impression of her was that she was Cher on acid ). I love Stella! Cheroin and can hardly wait to see what she will create next. She seemed quite off with her choice of garbage bags, and I just wish that she had gotten her rock ass in gear earlier instead of being all distracted by the whole situation. Cheroin was this close to leaving and I hope she gets it together for the next Challenge.

Do I really need to talk about our (and not half baked but more than over baked) baked one? Seriously -- I have no idea what the Judges were thinking (I do have to say that I do appreciate the level of fear the contestants view Nina with) but did Blayne really survive this week with that disaster he threw together to go down the Runway? Puhleese.... if baked boy is kept around just for the shock factor can he at least do something half interesting?

It goes with out saying that Keith is this year's hunky designer but I was a little disappointed with his choice of tablecloth ... I hope things improve or we might not get to see much of him, or his nipple rings and that would be a shame. That look in his hoodie was hot stuff ....

As for my faves of this week, our winner, Kelli, went out of the box completely and dyed and tinted vacuum bags and burnt coffee filters to make her dress. She did tons of accessorizing and did the most creative job (and most artistic) and clearly deserved the win. She did ... but for me the "eye popper" was the simple, yet impeccable, paper dress made by Korto. She put on this great kale/tomato/pepper trim that was beautiful. She was the only contestant to use living produce and that won lots of admiration. I really like her and her design aesthetic, and she is one of my choices for the finales -- and gets her very fine design up on the blog.

Daniel did a great job with his plastic cup cocktail dress, which was a very creative use of materials. Jennifer did a nice job with her dress made of lipstick and paper towels, and Terri blew me away with her use of macrame and mop heads to braid together her top. Leanne and Joe put some effort into using stuff like candy and pasta for materials but the majority of designers played it too safe for my taste. I think they will be pushed harder next week and am really looking forward to seeing how they will be tested.

Heidi looks as fabulous as ever!

Celebrity Circus finished up the season with all of the Celebrities returning for an encore performance and we got treated to an incredible performance by Judge Aurelia Cats.

Blu Cantrell started the show off by singing one of her hits, and proving once again that she is some bad ass Diva by doing some completely passive spinning on the Cerceau. Yawn, I was happy when that was over with but she does have a lovely voice. Too bad it's such a bad attitude that comes with that package ... you just know that the only way in hell she was going to go back on that stage was if she could do her thing and she played all bitchy walking by Aurelia a;; "in your face". No worries, our Catty Judge got very sweet revenge on all the celebrities by doing the most amazing trapeze act. O M G. That woman knows what she is talking about (and the flexibility -- ouch!) and I think she gained a ton of new found respect from the viewing public and the participants.

It was quite enjoyable to see all the professionals perform again -- there are some very talented people behind the scenes or in supporting roles and it's nice to see them get the credit that they deserve. Those circus folk are sure easy on the eyes ... I look at this as a bit of a warm up for the Olympics next month and we get to see all the gymnasts perform and sit in complete awe.

Janet Evans did another fearless number (that girl has got guts), we caught up with Christopher Knight (who is still recovering from that twice broken arm) and got some nice, behind the scenes of the cable guys. Rachel Hunter came back to do a nice number (cerceau again, but more flattering than the hammock act). After way too many recaps and road to the finale montages we finally get a final performance from the Final 3. Wee Man does his Partner Balance thing, Stacey is flying around in the air as well as Antonio. All of them do nice jobs and it's a highly electric carnival atmosphere. What I don't understand is the pace of the show and the continual Top 3 montages, and before you know it Wee Man is eliminated and it's down to Antonio and Stacey for the trophy. For some reason we don't see any more of the Judges (huh?) and it ends up with Antonio taking home the Wheel of Death Trophy (it's bedazzled to death so it's not that scary). I am not sure if am more impressed with the trophy or that bulge in Antonio's tights ... it's all pretty distracting. After all of the glitter,drama and tights, here's hoping they do another season !