Tag: entertainment

LJ Runway Monday: And Sew It Begins (PR 8:1)


Guess what?!? It’s a new season of Lifetime’s Project Runway! For me, that means a few weeks of stabbing myself with needles, hurling unruly bobbins across the room, and wondering what crazy misfire in my genetic makeup drives me to sew these challenges at 1:6 scale. But sew I will.

In the season opener, the contestants were gathered into a group with their luggage. Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn–that’s Tim in my user photo with me–told them to remove one wearable item from their suitcases. Most people would think, This probably means I’m about to have to destroy an item of clothing. Let me take out something I can work with but I’m willing to sacrifice. In other words, NOT a thousand dollar pair of Dolce & Gabbana pants.

But I digress. It was a great first episo—-mmmbbhft.


Heidi: Welcome to LiveJournal’s Runway Monday! I’m Heidi Klum, and this season, I, along with my cohosts Mattel Top Models Barbie and Summer, will be doing the talking. Becks is here to sew, not ramble on and post spoilers for those who haven’t seen the previous week’s episode.

Barbie: I’ll be helping Becks pick her model each week.

Summer: And I’ll be her muse. If one of her designs displeases you, it’s probably because she didn’t listen to me. She’s very stubborn.

Heidi: This also provides us the opportunity to model Mattel’s Barbie Basics little black dresses. Don’t we look great?

Barbie: Yes, we do. And I’ve chosen a stunning model to wear the first design of this season. She’s Collection 001, Model No. 08, but this isn’t Star Trek, so her actual name is Maia.

Heidi: To try to adhere to the show’s challenge, in which each designer had to hand over an item of his–

Summer: –or her–

Heidi: –own clothing for the person standing next to him–

Summer: –or her–

Heidi: –to use, we asked former LJRM designer Timothy J. Lambert to dig something out of his wardrobe for Becks to use as the basis of her design. She then had a few minutes to pick out any other fabric and notions she needed, and five hours to complete her design.

Summer: Finally, we advised her to choose wisely from the Mattel accessories wall.


Maia.
Timothy’s selection.
Lindsey modeling Timothy’s selection.

Heidi: Ready to see what Becks came up with?

Click here, please.

Eight more days!

I suddenly realized that it’s only eight more days until the return of my second favorite (and maybe the only one I’ll watch this fall) reality show, Lifetime’s Project Runway. It’s moving up an hour (9 p.m. Eastern and Pacific, which means 8 p.m. Central–and I don’t know what time Mountain people can see it) on Thursday nights. The format is ninety minutes, but details haven’t been provided as to whether they’ll feature another season of Models of the Runway or are expanding air time for the design competition. This season has more contestants than usual–seventeen–and tonight I watched all their casting videos and picked my favorites to keep an eye on and my favorites to go home early.

Will I be playing along and designing for Mattel’s Model Muse dolls?

Does Barbie have a dream house?

I’m already auditioning my models. In case you think they’ve just been lying around naked in a wicker box all summer, you should know that some of them have joined together to form an all-model rock band, The Opposite of Math. As for whether or not my own personal muse Summer will return–stay tuned!

Enjoying…

I’m enjoying tonight’s moon. I’ve always had a fondness for crescent moons. Who am I kidding? I have a fondness for all moons. Must have something to do with one of the names I was given at birth.

Tonight was Murder By the Book’s and Brazos Bookstore’s Moonlight Madness sale, meaning the stores stayed open L-A-T-E. Just my schedule. So I swung by and purchased a few books, took the above photo, and came home to write in LJ.

Oddly, I was writing about an actor and as I was putting it all together, Tom came in to tell me he’d just seen him on a new TV show (Rizzoli & Isles, based on novels by Tess Gerritsen) at the same time that I was reading the actor’s Tweet about the show’s highly-rated launch. ACK! The synchronicity!

But let me get on with it.

If you read here, you know that I like the Twilight books and the movies, and I’ve decided to stop feeling sheepish about it. Somewhere there’s a woman happily reading a paperback with a whimsical little cover, maybe pink, maybe blue, and someone sees her, raises an eyebrow, and says, “You don’t actually like that romance crap, do you?” And for a minute, she probably feels bad, maybe defensive, and then she rests the book on the table while she reads so no one else can see the title and MY AUTHOR NAME on it. So I say, “Honey, lift up that book. Like what you want to like. And I’ll do the same.” If I want to shelve Stephenie Meyer between Herman Melville and Marcel Proust in my living room, so be it. Kidding. Proust is French–he’s nowhere near my American novelists’ shelves.

Now when it comes to the Twilight movies, I can enjoy them on the campy level, on the story level, on the how-do-they-compare-to-the-book level, on the dramatic level, on the special effects level, and for the degree of commitment that the screenwriter, actors, director, and crew have put into their work. I can also enjoy the fun-phenomena aspect of the movie releases, from the Twihards to the Twimoms to the ‘tweens.

But in truth, I don’t get all worked up over Robert Pattinson/Edward or Taylor Lautner/Jacob. I can appreciate their work and their pretty faces and bodies, but if you want to know who I have a crush on, it’s Charlie, Bella’s dad. Not a swooning-OMG-crush. I like the way actor Billy Burke portrays Charlie. He reminds me of someone special from my long-ago past: laconic, reserved, protective, kind–a sports-loving, hunting, hardworking, decent guy. The awkwardness that exists between Charlie and Bella makes for scenes that entertain and touch me. Kudos to Billy Burke for pulling that off so that I like Charlie better in the movies than in the books.


Because I liked his work, I looked up Billy Burke some time ago and followed his Twitter account, which led me to his web site, which led me to his music. I’m a complete sucker for a singer/songwriter with a whiskey voice. So when his new album Removed became available, I downloaded it on iTunes (it’s also been the number one seller on CDBaby) and I’ve been enjoying it. Sort of has a low-key Mellencamp/Tom Waits/John Prine vibe–though I’m not big on comparing artists because that’s the whole thing about being authentically creative–every artist is unique. In addition, a portion of Removed’s sales will go to VH-1’s Save The Music, an organization that helps keep music education in our schools–I’m totally on board with that.

So this is my shout-out/thank you to the multi-talented Billy Burke. Nothing like being an “overnight” success after working your butt off since you were nine years old!

30 Days of Creativity: Days 29 and 30


I went by Edwards Cinema at Greenway Plaza in Houston just before midnight on Tuesday. I wanted to see how many people were waiting to get into the six theaters that were showing Eclipse for the first time. I talked to some of the people standing in line and they were really excited. It was a more diverse audience than I was expecting–plenty of guys, and they didn’t look like they were forced to see the movie. There were also some tired parents. Mostly, there were people of all ages who looked happy to be there. Whether you hate the movies and books or love them, it’s fun to see people excited and having a good time.

ETA 2022: I created a little video for all of this, but the site who hosted it deleted it. Oh, well.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my contributions to 30 Days of Creativity. I’ve had fun participating.

30 Days of Creativity: Day 12

Today I’ve mostly unplugged so I can do a bit of catching up. Clearly I’m not quite myself, as I actually turned on the TV to watch a little of the soccer match between the USA and England. This is the kind of craziness the Internet incites in me.

I have been working on a sketch that may never be finished because it’s annoying the fire out of me. Sometimes the creative spirit is willing, but the skill is weak.

For 30 Days of Creativity.

All My Dolls

Thanks to Laurie S and her desire to clean out her garage, I’m now the proud possessor of two of Mattel’s Erica Kane dolls. I’ve said it to some of you All My Children fans before, but back in the dark ages when it was a brand new soap and everyone was all about mousy, goody two shoes Tara Martin, my mother watched Susan Lucci and said, “Forget Tara. Erica’s going to be the star of this show.”

She’s certainly been the reigning queen of daytime–and just yesterday, Tim directed me to two episodes of the sitcom Hope & Faith in which Susan Lucci put in a hilarious guest appearance as a scheming soap diva.

From the back of the doll’s box: Erica Kane, played by the beautiful and talented Susan Lucci, is a character many viewers aspire to be. So maybe it’s the approximately twelve-times-married Erica who’s to blame for today’s news about the Gores’ divorce–although Tipper looks a lot more like Nikki Newman on The Young and the Restless.

Thanks, Laurie! I’ll have Erica dressed by Becks and up to no good soon!

Bribe me!

I was just reading a story about how the Duchess of York got embarrassed in a scam in which she promised access to Prince Andrew for large sums of money. Look, I LIKE Sarah Ferguson, and some might call her resourceful.

So, inspired by her, I’m willing to make this offer. Though Tim is my friend and not my ex-husband, I DO have access to his inner circle. In exchange for large sums of money, I’m willing to get you an audience with Rexford G. Lambert and Pixie P. Lambert. They practically live with him–wait, they do live with him!–so you see that I’ve got enormous inroads.

Failing that, does anyone want to buy twelve paintings or three others that are hanging in my living room and pictured below? I painted all of them, but I could probably get Tim to breathe on them or something before I give them up. Negotiate with me!

Or see my good name ruined in the tabloids. Your choice.

Art Cars

This past weekend was Houston’s Art Car Parade, an annual event since 1987. I wasn’t able to go to the parade, but as I was running errands Saturday afternoon, I was able to shoot (with my cell phone) some of the entries in various parking lots.


This made me want a bus so I could convert it to a Partridge Family bus.


Recognize the Griswolds’ car from 1983’s Vacation?


They’ve even got Aunt Edna tied on top.

And look, Chaaaarlie, it’s a Unicorn Car: