Thursday, July 24, 2008

Project Runway 5.2

Greeen! It's a great idea, but do they really need to combine it with having the models pick the material? If they had given the designers more time, maybe they could have dyed hemp in interesting colors instead of shiny baby poop brown. At least we get to see more of the models -- they're usually so anonymous. Last season they were really lousy.

Stella is the biggest whiner. Actually the whole group is whiny.

Stella: "Whine, whine, whine, whiiiiine, urban, whine." At the beginning of the last show, Stella, didn't you say you wanted to break out of your leather mold? So much for that. "More whine."

Oooo, Blayne, you are so not funny. Darthalicious, ark, ark ark. How many nights did you stay up thinking about that lame line?

Suede likes to talk in third person. Moo finds it very annoying. So does prime human, Lou. Leanne is so funny. Now I'm cheering for Leanne even though I can' tell her from Jennifer, Emily or Kennley. "Leanne likes Suede but Suede needs to stop talking in third person." Too true.

Tim is giving cogent advice again, but I'm not seeing the charm of Suede's creation. And Leanne is getting a loser edit. Whenever someone disregards Tim's advice it's the harbinger of doom.

I hate to admit it but the leather exchange between Steeeellaaaa and Blayne was amusing. The first time Blayne was being real. He's still too orange.

Tim is being drill sergeant again. Is he impatient with this crew?

Jerrell was funny: team ugly brown fabric was an amusing observe.

Just about every dress was short, short, short. Guess models aren't good at estimating fabric needs.

I loved Terri's dress and I can't believe she once more was ignored by the judges. Hope it's a Michael Knight thing.

New words to live by: Shiny tight and short is the quickest way to look cheap.

OK Suede's turned out better than I expected, so Tim showed his unerring eye. I liked Kennley's much better. And I don't understand why Whinella is up there.

Poor Korte. Nina loved her so much last week and now she's so disappointed. Wesley "shorts" dress looks pretty hideous. It looks badly sewn, so maybe Leanne will live to see another day.

Ick Suede won. Third person talk will rule for another episode. But he was sweet to Korte when she came back.

Leanne looks 16 as Heidi tells her her outfit looked like a school project.

Poor Wesley. He did look as though he had potential, but oh well.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Jury Duty Part II

Was just describing this to S. I said being a juror was like playing blindman's buff. That's exactly how I felt. Or the blind men with the elephant.

Jury Duty

So after 10 years of living in DC and being called for jury duty, the last two times, I actually got put on trials.

And based on those two experiences, I have to say there must be a lot of questionable lawyers in DC. The first case was someone who refused to move out of a house that was foreclosed and bought by someone else. The buyer sued the previous owner to evacuate the premises. The case left us jurors with more questions than answers. We ended up voting to evict the previous owner, but the new owner's attorney certainly didn't completely settle our questions. And if the previous owner had a better attorney, he may well have won. Or maybe lawyers in civil cases are so busy obfuscating the facts that they leave jurors full of contempt. Maybe the guy didn't have a case.

Now, this second case. A slip and fall. It ended up settled, so the jury didn't have to do a thing. Lucky for everyone. The case was pathetic. The cement stairs crumbled underneath the guy as he came down them and he broke his leg. Then he suffered an infection and had to have his leg amputated. The defense tried to throw up smoke screens. The man didn't have a great relationship with the mother of his children and they had lots of arguments. She swore out a warrant for his arrest, so the guy was dodging the police by going down those stairs. They also threw in the remote possibility he might be drunk. And that it was not well lit. They even questioned why he didn't come straight down the hill instead of using the stairs (because there was a 10-foot retaining wall. did they even do their homework?!) The question still remained: did the stair crumble? Pictures were taken, but we weren't shown them. And despite his possible shadiness, the fact remained: if the stairs were in bad shape, the victim could have been a 10-year-old running down them and having them crumble. So did they crumble? That's what we wanted to know.

The witnesses, including the plaintiff himself, were ill-prepared. The one witness we would have liked to have seen was only on videotape. Actually they should have had other witnesses, such as, oh, a building inspector, research on DC codes, etc.

The defense appeared not to have any witnesses. Not that we knew because they never presented. We spent more time staring at the walls in the jury room than in the courtroom. After the plaintiff rested, we erupted in the jury room with whaaaat the -----???? One very funny juror said, "I could have done a better job."

But we still felt sympathy for the guy and may very well have ruled in his favor, depending on the defense. But it wouldn't be because of his attorneys, who clearly did as little preparation as possible. It didn't even seem as though they had the plaintiff -- or his relatives -- review their own damned depos.

OTOH, I have to say the courtroom staff, judge and clerk, were wonderful in both cases. I rather thought the judge in this case was trying very hard to keep his temper in check. The previous case's judge was marvelously patient with the ineptitude. I wonder how much time these judges have to spend working through incomplete, shoddily put together cases.

And both juries I served on were full of amazingly smart people. It gave me faith in the people who actually serve on these things.

So if it isn't ineptitude, if it is just plain trying to hide facts from the jurors, dear personal injury attorneys, you're causing citizens to lose respect for you and your profession.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Project Runway 5.1

So it begins, the final season on Bravo -- and I'm soooo worried about the move to Lifetime. You know it might not be so bad to move to LA or Lifetime because apparently it's trying to become more hip. But the Magical Elves won't be involved and some reality tv producer who is more known for sleeze is taking over. So I'm not optimistic. And the darlings over at Project Rungay report a vile rumor about the finale judge that, if true, is a big giant FU to Weinstein.

On to the show.

I didn't take notes, so some of the designers are a blur -- especially since Bravo kept them under wraps until Monday. But of the designers not in the top 3 or bottom 3, I was impressed with Terri and her mop crochet, the woman who made the paper towel dress, and the married guy with the pasta dress. The married guy I think of as Kevin II -- straight and bearded. The paper towel dress girl I couldn't identify in a police lineup. All those little twentysomething girls became a big blur.

They could have made a triple elimination and I wouldn't protest. All three designs were h-i-d-e-o-u-s. I felt for Jerry...but those gloves, those galoshes, that gauze. Stella was pretty defeatist. If she spent as much time in her design as she did futzing about the trash bags, she might have done something cool. And Blayne is tiresome -- and tangerine orange. As Robin Givhan of the WashPost said, he's Christian without the talent. Heidi was right. Butt ugly.

Of the finalists, I thought Koti (sp?) made the final three because she actually used produce. I loved Daniel's innovation and thought he pulled it off really well. Kelly's -- loved the skirt, hated the top. Have to say that I was wowed by the back and the way she used notebook clasps as her hooks. That was innovative. Either one winning was fine. Was it me, or was Nina less...incisive this time?

Overall, a good intro, except there are just too many designers.