Project Runway reunion

I finally watched the Project Runway reunion last night, and just like everyone said, it was very awesome. I very much loved the extended Tim Gunn impersonations, everything Andrae said and did, Lupe having totally lost her mind, and of course the musical numbers. I thought Santino did come across somewhat remorseful for how his absolute insanity had affected people. Maybe? I kind of hope so, because I think when he's not being an ass, he's great. I liked that he jumped in and attributed Andrae's skill to his emotionalism. That he both thought of Andrae as talented and was willing to admire the feeling that fed it. And by the way, Daniel on TWOP is right that Andrae really was the glue.

That said, I also really prefer both Jay and Kara Saun's designs to those of Chloe, Daniel V, and Santino.

And in a self-absorbed moment, Diana Eng--who I love love love--was wearing a shirt I own. I don't know why it gives me such a thrill to see TV personalities I love wearing things I have, but it really does. (Look at John!)

Lists

Here are two lists. The first is things I want to make. The second is what I want to spend my Best Buy gift certificate on. Unfortunately there are more things on the list than dollars on the certificate, but that's part of the fun.

Things I want to make/do:
-Family/friends photos in frames
-Frame Tiny Showcase print
-Figure out how to hang World's Fair rug
-Cloth in embroidery hoop
-Spirited Away top
-Little Red Riding Hood cape for my Blythe
-Shrinky Dink charm bracelet
-Shrinky Dink mobile (this is going to be based on the really great globe art installation on Michigan Avenue right now--I'll try to find a link at some point).
-Shrinky Dink cabin
-Embroider shirts with Link for boys and pirate Lisa Simpson for girls. Empire and Rebel Alliance for both.
-Knit a leaf hat (seen at Penelope's for way too much money)

Things I want to spend my vouchers on, as Brent would say:
Undeclared
Fiddler on the Roof
Hitchcock Collection
Devil’s Backbone
Kwaidan
Firefly
8 Women
*Shadow of a Doubt
*Pride and Prejudice
Serenity
Sufjan Stevens—Illinois
Secret of My Success
Neko Case
City of Lost Children
Amadeus
*12 Monkeys
The Cure
*Bleak House
Harry Potter 4

the * indicates a top tier contender

Presents from people who rock

At last some pictures.

I saw these yardstick/ribbon shelves on merwing.livejournal.com, and Stephan created it today while I 'worked' on my dissertation. It's perfect for our smaller toys, which otherwise look funny on normal sized shelves. I think it looks beautiful.


















Here's a close-up, including the two new Kigurumix Stephan bought me for my birthday.



















This is one of TWO shirts that Lily on 'How I Met Your Mother' and I share.


















Here are some other gifts I've received. First, Stephan bought me a bracelet I've been coveting, which I think looks great next to this box my parents gave me. I collect World's Fair stuff, particularly 1933 Chicago. Pretty!



















Last, my cousin in Toronto sent me magnets that rule over all other magnets:

Luella at Target

So like many people I was very excited about the Luella line coming out at Target. When it first came out I went to a Target in town, and while they had the really great suede and leather jackets, I can't afford those. As for all the other stuff, it was quite picked over. So later I went to a Target out in the burbs and they had lots of stuff and I bought the cherry bikini. I didn't wear a two-piece at all until I was like 22, which is absurd and already too old to wear a bikini but I'm going with it for a couple more years. Plus I will never return to a real one piece because I hate that you can't go to the bathroom easily or quickly. Tankinis are next.

The other great thing about the Luella line is that they have these mirrors attached to the displays and when all the racks were squished together (ie I could only stand like 6 inches from them), I just barely noticed that they are funhouse mirrors. Like, they elongate you beyond belief. I don't know what I think of that. Normally I'd be pissed, but I like to think that perhaps Luella's punk background makes it an ironic dig at our weight-obsessed culture. OR maybe because she's British I accept the fact that she's slightly disgusted by our American tendency to overeat. OR my ideals about empowering women only extend so far as talking about it. There's that Simpsons where Lisa gets weight conscious and says that she knows it's misogynistic, etc, but that's what a fat girl would say.

The New World

Wow, I guess I've been gone awhile. I have a few amazing presents to show that I've received in the mail or whatever, but I'm always too lazy to use the camera by the time Stephan gets home with it. So that will be a later post. In the meantime, I have a comment about the New World, which I saw quite a while ago at this point.

Basically, the friends I saw it with and the boys at Cinecast (http://www.cinecastshow.com/) both saw Pocahontas/Rebecca as choosing Christian Bale over Colin Farrell as some sort of domestification whiteness project. Yeah, normally I'd get on board with that type of thing, but no. Colin Farrell left to seek his fame and fortune and told P/R he was dead. This is a dick move. He had several opportunities to turn his back on the kind of demands the king or white society was making and chose not to. He was not stuck. This is not Brokeback. Society was not conspiring against him. I find it problematic that men read this as a race issue rather than a gender issue. P/R chose Christian Bale because he chose her. He committed himself to the exchange entailed by marriage. Done and done. Give me a break boys.

Shrinky Dinks on TADO X Urbanites

So this is a blurry picture also (Stephan says to step back, then zoom), but this is my shrinky dink version of Leon and Mathilda from the Professional, standing on top of my favorite part of my customized Smorkin' Labbit, by TADO and Chris Lee. You can't imagine how nice this is in real life. I'll take a picture of the whole thing later. In the meantime, thar she blows.

12 Monkeys, 12 Monkeys, 12 Monkeys

I saw most of 12 Monkeys on TBS or TNT or something last night. That movie is so mf good. I first saw it at a Millenium Conference, which my friend J thought meant a Welcome to the Apocalypse thing, but was actually a Millenarian Thought thing. I won a water bottle in their Millenium raffle. I'm secretly really good at raffles (besides the water bottle, I've also won a Sampler, a set of Kitchenaid pots and pans and some really nice knives, and a gift certificate to Chilis. That's what I can recall off the top of my head).

Anyway, back to 12 Monkeys. I love that he knows his past, present, and future at the very end, and there's still nothing he can do to prevent what happens. I love that Terry Gilliam claims he hasn't seen La Jete. I love that you don't actually know how awful the dystopian future is because all you see is a prison, which looks dystopian now. I love that the future bureaucrats are totally wrong about the Army of the 12 Monkeys, but close enough that they get what they want anyway. And as J pointed out, I love that they don't want to save 'that dying world'--they just want to recover topside in their own time. 12 Monkeys is great.

AJ Moye

Over the weekend, Stephan and I bought our first pet together, a tiny frog we named AJ Moye. We were at Walmart looking for a child's drum set that didn't cost $200 (whoa) when I saw these poor cute very small frogs in cups. Which was sad. And the little aquariums were only $10. And a very nice lady buying fish encouraged us to get a little guy (although warned us never to put the frogs in with other fish due to some very graphic frog-eating-fish scenarios). And so we rescued AJ. Stephan chose AJ because he was swimming around actively, while the rest of the frogs were either chilled out or sick. And I named AJ because my brother always names his fish after random sports players (Manut Bol for example). AJ Moye is my favorite IU basketball player of all time, and in my top two favorite sports players period with Reggie Miller. I wondered if I should write and tell AJ Moye I named a frog after him but decided that was either creepy or insulting or both. This picture is a little blurry, but you can still probably tell how awesome he is.

TRAPS

Wow, I'm really upset by this. Basically, the Indiana House of Representatives has passed a bill that will essentially close every abortion clinic in Indiana at least temporarily, and possibly forever.

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060203/NEWS02/602030492


In other sad Naptown news, Edge sounds like he's being forced out of the Colts. Which is ridiculous because he was the only one who didn't fuck up the Steelers game. And worst of all, Edge is offended and should be by the lack of Colts support. Fuck you Peyton. I blame your stupid salary and your failure to run the ball in that game and your bitchy little comments after the game for all of this. Fuck.

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060203/SPORTS03/602030449

Shrinky Dinking

Today, before the archive opened at 1 pm, I drew some shrinky dink guys. Sadly, the brown was too dark, and once they shrank you couldn't see the eyes or noses or anything. Oh well, I'll try them again soon.