A Very Belated Praise-Be! for "Project Runway"

This is a post and admission that's long overdue: I can't get enough of "Project Runway." Every time we hit the end of the TiVo bar and the machine reverts to live TV, I ache for the next episode. I love Santino's mad (i.e. insane) skills. I love that Daniel Vosovic is full of kindness and compassion and that his talents dazzle, that he was a competitive gymnast for 12 years (!), and that he still manages to seem cool even though he totally derailed by putting Chloe in a 40 year-old hostess-bar-costume. (I also love that Daniel V. looks exactly like Andy Samberg.) And Heidi Klum sparkles with every "You're Out!" while simultaneously embodying the definition of preggers-sexy.

I am a relatively new convert to PR. I didn't watch the first season and Emmett was one episode shy of being kicked off when I began to watch this one. But what totally hooked me was Tim Gunn, that invisible glue that holds the show together. One obvious reason why Tim Gunn has become a favorite with me and my friends is that all of our friends can do dead-on impressions of his voice. (I think we have a couple of impersonators who could take Santino to task...) He's also, first and foremost, the mother hen who pecks to make sure his kiddies are on top of their hems, he assigns their tasks with a fairness and level-headedness you could only wish for in your school-marm, and he has shown stellar moments of counsel (like when Zulema pulled a fast one and switched models with Nick!). And isn't it really only appropriate that an awesomely power-gay dresser chairs the fashion department at Parsons?

Even though I'm always excited to see Heidi in the most fashionable maternity-wear ever, and American jet-set king Michael Kors, internationally fabulous Elle fashion editor Nina Garcia and the guest judges, there are two reasons why I keep watching: the clothes, and Tim Gunn's muted enthusiasm. The designs seem easy to explain--I'm really excited to see what these people will come up with on a limited budget and tight time constraints. That part seems obviously fascinating, and the reason why the show was born.

But wry Tim's enthusiasm for PR--and how it's veiled in his visage of authority--is priceless. It even seems to come not on-screen, but on the web. Not only does he have a blog on the PR website, he also records a podcast which explains what's going on, answers viewer-submitted questions, and has given the endeavor space in his chic Greenwich Village institute. He's taking this gig seriously and "joyously" (to slightly quote judge Kors) -- and it shows every time he eyeballs the designers' bullshit over his wire-rimmed specs, every time he dishes out a leveling critique, and, really, just about every time we see him waltz into the workstation room in his clean-cut, mostly-navy suits. He most certainly is in.

Stress

When I looked up the word "stress", here are the definitions/references that I found:

In the OED: 1st definition: Hardship, straits, adversity, affliction; and interesting usage: 1830 CARLYLE Richter Again Ess. 1840 II. 326 "The *stress-memorials and siege-medals of Poverty."

First Google hit: the American Institute of Stress

First Google Image hit: on the left (c/o the BBC)

First working Google Blogsearch link: "Duh of the Week"

First JSTOR hit: Robert W. Wilkinson, "A Homonymy-Avoiding Transderivational Constraint in Terena," International Journal of American Linguistics, Vol. 42, No. 2 (April 1976), pp. 158-162.

First Arnet.com artwork: "Tending the Children in Medina."

I'm really being a horrible blogger, and not really keeping up to speed here. But once this week is over, I think things should settle down a bit in Lo-Land! And, at least the world keeps providing us with links to whet our whistles...

• Two great things c/o The Morning News: Double-Tongued Word Wrester Dictionary and a "Lost World." Plus, more lost world pics via the Los Angeles Times.
• From Things Magazine: an aircraft graveyard.
• A very amenable pair of recipes, via DailyCandy.
• And, Style.com keeps me up-to-date and boredom-free, especially during Fashion Week...

I'm on an academic article kick as of late, and found this wonderful paragraph in Lorraine Daston and Peter Galison's article, "The Image of Objectivity" (Representations, No. 40. "Seeing Science", 81-128):

What unites the negative and positive sides of mechanical objectivity is a heroic self-discipline: on the one side, the honesty and self-restraint required to foreswear judgment, interpretation, and even the testimony of one's own senses; on the other, the taut concentration required for precise observation and measurement, endlessly repeated around the clock. It is a vision of scientific work that glorifies the plodding reliability of the bourgeois rather than the moody brilliance of the genius. It is also a profoundly moralized vision, of self-command triumphing over the temptations and frailties of flesh and spirit. Like almost all forms of moral virtuoisity, it preaches asceticism, albeit of a highly specialized sort. The temptations and frailties had less to do with envy, lust, gluttony, and other standard sins than with seeing as rather than seeing that; with witting and unwitting tampering with the "facts." But in the view of late nineteenth-century scientists, these professional sins were almost as difficult to combat as the seven deadly ones, and required a stern and vigilant conscience.

Super Bowl XL wasn't so exciting. The pass to end all passes was awesome, but, the game on the whole sadly lacked that extra oomph. I remember before watching last year, our friend sent out an email whose subject was "Let's get XXXIXited!" which, indeed, got me very excited. (Not to mention the fact that the Patriots were playing and, though I rarely admit it, I do have some allegiance to my college town...) Since no email went out this year, I started thinking of what the emails could have been...

• Get XL-irated!
• Super Bowl XL!
• Let's Get this XL Party Started!

None of these really compare with last year's, and that's why I conclude this year's Super Bowl was not as exciting.

Perhaps even more disappointingly, even the ads were downers... especially that awful GoDaddy.com ad that referenced last year's terrible strappy tank top ad. And, as much as I am for the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty, when did it become a good idea to air that during the Super Bowl? However, I will say that the "Oh, The Places You'll Go!" teaser (can we call it that?! and if not, what is it to be called?!) was absolutely hilarious for its utter mismatch-edness. I can truly say that I've never seen anything quite like it!