Yahoo! The Broadway strike is over!!! One down. One more Writers Strike to go!
Spring Awakening and August Osage County here I come!!!
I'll update this more in the morning. I'm still on a Pushing Daisies high but I need sleep so I'll finish that post tomororow too. Does that mean our beloved Alfredo Aldarisio Raúl Esparza will be back on Broadway doing The Homecoming? Wahoo!!!
Beauty and the Geek - Meet the Parents - Ep. 412
Gossip Girl - Blair Waldorf Must Pie! - Ep. 109
You know all those times when Gossip Girl was hilariously cliched and revelled in its own sumptuous gloss, celebrating the trivialities of pretty people so that we could laugh at the ridiculousness of it all? Yeah, well, this is the episode where the tides are turning and I found myself laughing WITH the characters more than AT. GASP. WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME??? I'm actually FEELING something for Blair, Serena, Dan, Jenny and Eric? And, GASP. Even a little for Nate? Well, at least we can rest assure that Chuck will still be slimy and terrifically evily slick but he doesn't appear in tonight's episode where the beautiful and the rich gather for Thanksgiving dinner. Who knew they ate?
Over on Beauty and the Geek, it's the finals... almost. In order to stretch it just one more episode since The CW has nothing really to replace it with (well, it does but it doesn't look pretty), the last two teams (Dave and Jasmine YEY!, and Sam and Nicole, yey) get to visit each others homes before returning for the final elimination. Which IN THE MOST SHOCKING CHANGE EVER (okay, no), let's America (or whoever has the Internet and can fake a US address) vote for the winner (ahem, Dave and Jasmine, though if I could, I would have Nicole win too).
Essentially, Beauty and the Geek has turned into the Bachelor but at least that was always one of the best episodes anyways, getting to see the contestants in real life settings. It was fun to see Jasmine totally take in the Larking and getting really into it after being apprehensive with it at first (who wouldn't be?). It's so cute how these two, who were complete opposites and a disaster in the making, come together and grow as friends to work as a team.
I think Sam still helped Sam and Nicole get to where they are by winning many of the challenges and the guy is funnier than I thought he would be but he's still kind of an egotistical tool, but at least a semi-lovable one now, who learned how to use his brain to study. Still, you could tell he was freaked out when he met Nicole's even geekier friends. Which is too bad for Nicole since she seems like someone I would probably have been friends with in school.
So as much as I would love to see Nicole get some prize money, my votes for Dave and Jasmine, who is just too cute.
Meanwhile, back on Gossip Girl, it's Thanksgiving and the Humphrey's are making dinner, and dinner plans. While Serena, Eric and Lily try to figure dinner plans out in Chinatown (what's wrong with Peking Duck for Thanksgiving? No floral scents in the hotel room?), Dan invites them over for dinner, being the gentlemen that he is and not letting them starve in their kitchenless hotel room (what, no room service?).
Lily of course doesn't realise that Alison, Rufus' wife (technically) and mother to Dan and Jenny, is in town. I didn't realise that the kids still didn't know that Rufus and Lily used to have a thing so this will be AWKWARD. TERRIFIC!!!
The discomfort starts right away as the adults try to hide all the dirt, but things unravel slowly with Jenny, Dan and Eric discovering that they all could have been brothers and sisters. Luckily, Serena was out to go save Blair from her evil mom (a wonderful Margaret Colin) who hid her away from their gay dad (John Shea).
There's more with Nate and the Captain with the Captain being found unconscious and the mother (looking a lot like Alison that I'm getting confused over the mothers. Could the casting director been a bit more varied?) is still all in denial about everything, leaving us to feel oh, so sorry for poor little rich boy Nate, but since I just want to tussle that hair, I actually feel for him. A bit. On a good day.
Anyways, loved the tabloid styled titles that flashed back to last years Thanksgiving, when all was still well, Serena was still drunk, Blair and Serena were still best friends, and Nate was still secretly in love with Serena while dating Blair. Ah, good times good times.
Dan was still invisible to the cool kids, and Rufus and Alison were still happy together. Blair's dad wasn't gay (well, wasn't with his future boyfriend yet though there were hints that Eleanor outright knew in some strange arrangement) and everything looked just a little muddier (okay, we get it, it's a flashback).
I actually kinda liked this episode. It seemed to give a lot more depth to most of the characters. I liked the Humphrey kids and the van der Woodsen hanging out and discovering their parents' past. The hilarity in their faces over what could have been and the strange taboo-like implications made us finally laugh with them instead of at them. I don't know why but I love Connor Paolo as Eric and his deep voice and grown up poise all in the baby body of a mini Colin Farrell. It's amusing.
The drama amongst the parents seem to be sorted out well, some clarity amongst the messiness if you will. I'm liking Kelly Rutherford more as Lily everytime, and Matthew Settle, while still creeps me out that he's playing Penn Badgley's father since they look like brothers, is winning me over. Um, dare I say they win the hottest father-son team around?
This week's MTV end montage sequence of the week was brought to you by "Nolita Fairytale" by Vanessa Carlton. I forget that I actually like her. I get her confused with Michelle Branch who I hate (long story but basically I'm still bitter about the $12 I lost in service fees when she cancelled her concert). I don't get over things fast. I would be perfect on Gossip Girl.
The website is up the website is up!
There's tons of pics in the gallery and there's a nice red rollover on everything. Here's a longer trailer of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Longer than I've seen before:
Tons of embeddable stuff and things to email (though the Music section is still coming soon). Now THAT's how you run a promotion campaign. I don't know why some make it so hard to steal help promote their products by holding back on images and videoclips? (I'm talking to YOU Universalmusic). It's still a little slow but the site seems nicely done and easy to navigate. Now let's just hope the movie is good.
At least as good as the stage version.
The Merry Widow - The National Ballet of Canada - Four Seasons For The Performing Arts Centre - Toronto
So I haven't had time to mention this but I went to the ballet again after loving it the first time. Apparently nothing actually happens in my life until I blog about it. Then I feel like I actually experienced it. I need help.
Anyways, I don't really have much to compare it to, as this was the first big traditional ballet I saw and while I feared I would be passed out asleep in my third row seat, I wasn't. In fact, I was like a little kid on the edge of my seat sitting straight up the whole time (which I never do because I'm 6'1" and thus I usually feel bad for the people behind me with my big head in the way, but the way the Four Seasons slopes, the sightlines are really good for everybody).
I seriously loved every minute of it, with all the big costumes and sets and the sound of the full orchestra in our new Opera house. It was glorious!
The story of The Merry Widow was actually easier to understand than I thought, pretty much a cute little romantic comedy of mixed signals and a comedy of errors. Not hard to understand and not easy to dislike.
The dancing seemed pretty fantastic to me (but again, the only comparable knowledge I really have comes from So You Think You Can Dance which has little ballet in it) although here's a good primer to the language of ballet. Still, I'm guessing the bravo's from the older crowd was a testament to the performance. I myself was just overwhelmed by it all that I knew I loved it, I just didn't really know why.
Here's a good video clip of The National Ballet of Canada's production of The Merry Widow.
The Merry Widow plays at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa on April 24-26, 2008.
Project Runway Canada - Splash From The Past - Ep. 108
Project Runway - I Started Crying - Ep. 402
Since I'm always going to be behind on Project Runway since we aren't getting it simulcast, I'll just stick to my opinions but Liz at Glowybox has a good recap here. It's Sarah Jessica Parker, Tim and Christian's demented sidemullet! Great word Liz!
But first, let's talk about another shocking result on Project Runway Canada. 10 points by the way if you actually get my reference in the title above. For regular readers (or the observant), it's probably pretty easy since I don't exactly hide my obsessions.
Granted, we are down to 6 players now so basically every result will be shocking now. I mean, we spent so much time waiting for Megan to finally leave, that now that she's actually gone, I realised we were left with 6 pretty talented designers.
Stephen is probably the weakest but he's been having some good weeks and he's entertaining, plus he's kinda like that poor puppy underdog we kind of root for.
Meanwhile, after winning the Charity competition, Biddell goes from funny obnoxious to just obnoxious, sitting on his laurels and needling his ego into the others, particularly Lucian. Poor Lucian. Seriously, from the way these two bitch fight with each other, I swear they were in love in some old classic war-of-the-words romantic comedy movie with Katherine Hepburn or something. Only gay(er).
So the task at hand is to pick a model with an assigned iconic fashion from the past, then use that inspiration to design a swimsuit not just for the model, but for an added plus-sized model as well. Did I mention they have a tiny budget again?
In the end, after most of the rest of the group gets fed up with Biddell's antics (who is mostly sitting idling by this competition resting on his immunity), Biddell and Stephen remain safe right away, and some weird piss off match happens backstage as Stephen (in a friendly way I think) tries to warn Biddell that people are tired of his shit and Biddell will have nothing of it. Whoa, what happened to sweet life-saving Biddell from the last challenge?
I love that Kendra calls out the boys as high maintenance, even Biddell with his rougher exterior.
MG with her designs inspired from the Brit Punk Rock era wins this week, which does work well, though I have to say, I feel I've seen it many times before since it would seem pretty easy to work with the British flag, but whatever.
Meanwhile, two of the early strong contenders, Kendra and Shernett falter and Shernett has a horrendous flapper design for her plus-sized model that seems to accentuate the plus part of it. I was sure she would be out since Kendra's seemed more adherent to her era (Victorian) and while a little boring and tame, was not accentuating anything bad at least. So I was shocked when Shernett was safe (especially after having two bad weeks in a row in the judges eyes) while Kendra just didn't measure up.
The pictures of the swimsuit designs are below.
On Project Runway, I must say. Elisa is crazy. Not just for spitting on her material but TELLING PEOPLE PROUDLY that she spits on the material. On the other hand, who doesn't know Elisa is crazy now?
I'm sure I would have teenage girl geeked out screaming too but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have cried if I met Sarah Jessica Parker. Oh wait. I HAVE met Sarah Jessica Parker and when I could see her (the girl is TINY. I was like. That's all her? Where's the rest of her? No wonder they set the budget at $15 for this competition. It only takes that much material to cover her), she was very nice and kindly let us take a picture with her. Still, I was calm. Cool even. Ha.
But seriously, from the designers reactions you would have thought it was the next coming of Christ or Coco Chanel at least?
Anyways, I didn't think Marion and Steven's design was THAT ugly. It wasn't good but maybe cause I kinda like Marion but he didn't deserve to go (though poor Steven was trying to scramble his way into saving himself after seeing the dress that would tank). 
Christian and Carmen's dress was FUGLY though. Seriously, they let him get away with that? I mean, he's entertaining for the show but I think that's the only reason he stayed. He's annoying but amusing to laugh at/with/at.
I liked Ricky and Jack's dress but I think mostly because of the belt and Elisa and Sweet P. Got lucky because of that shawl.
Meanwhile, I keep changing my mind on Victorya and Kevin's dress. Sometimes I think it's quite cute and nice. Sometimes I think its big, black and bloaty.
Anyways, in the end, Marion got screwed as was Auf'd. It's too bad. I'd like to find out what his skin care regiment was. I can't believe he was 39. He looked GOOD for 39.
Designs of all the pairings at the bottom of the post.
Here are the Project Runway Canada designs:
Biddell's designs:
Kendra's losing designs:
Lucian's designs:
MG's designs:
Shernett's designs:
Stephen's designs:
And here are the Project Runway designs:
Christian and Carmen's design:
Elisa and Sweet P's design:
Victorya and Kevin's design:
Ricky and Jack's design:
Rami and Jillian's design:
Marion and Steven's losing design:
Kit and Chris' design:
Here are my recaps so far for Project Runway Canada:
Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episodes 4 and 5
Episode 6
Episode 7 (Includes Project Runway Ep. 401 recap)
Episode 9
Watch Project Runway Canada online:
Episodes 1 and 2
Episodes 3 and 4
Episode 5
Episodes 6 and 7
Episodes 8 and 9
Bones - The Santa in the Slush - Ep. 310
House - Games - Ep. 409
Bones killed Santa (the show, not the character). And again, somehow it's the one of the most sentimental shows (without being shlocky) around. Explain that?
A dead Santa is found in an alley and his name is Kris Kringle. For real. Apparently. He was killed by a reindeer, he claims to have come from the North Pole, and he lives above a toy store (with a big secret wad of cash). But the most shocking part is, Bones believes it could be true while it's Booth who seems skeptical this time.
But let's talk about the REAL story. Max wants a REAL Christmas while he's in jail, but to do that, Bones needs a favour from AUSA Caroline Julian (an always amusingly unamused Patricia Belcher). In turn, Caroline blackmails Bones... to kiss Booth underneath a mistletoe for a good 5 seconds. On the lips.
The kiss? Was hysterical. Booth and Bones described it like kissing your brother or sister. Caroline seemed half bemused and half grossed out and half hot and bothered (yes, I know that makes 3 halves) and I thought it looked like they were kissing their workmate/co-producer but the look AFTER the kiss sold me on the potential chemistry. Now those two just need to practice their kissing a bit more.
Anyways, Max, Russ and the kids want a tree but that's a no-no in the conjugal trailer but Booth comes through in the end to help out Bones in a nice sweet Christmacy moment.
Meanwhile the killer was another DeLuise. Isn't it always a DeLuise? (How many of them ARE there anyways? Where they keep all appearing from?)
Plus, John Francis Daley is in the opening credits as a main cast! Freaking Geeky Do! (Wait, was he in last week? I only noticed this week).
On House: 4 new ducklings. 2 spots. House wants all 4. Cuddy says he can have 2. Let the games begin!
New case. Diagnose it correctly, become the winner! Winner gets a job! And through various misdiagnoses, everyone gets fired at some point. Evil Bitch works too hard. 13 actually cares. Points are lost, points are gained. Foreman is appalled that helping a patient has become a game, but House insists the game works.
In the end, Kutner and Taub are hired leaving both girls out of a job, until Cuddy allows for 13, giving House the three new ducklings he always wanted. Cutthroat Bitch cries. Eh, oh well, she was entertaining during the competition but I'm not sure I could deal with a whole season of it. Though apparently she will be back.
So after 9 episodes, we finally have a new team, though I think the fun was in trying to find the new team. Let's hope House doesn't fall back into its old procedural ways.
