Austin360 blogs > Tex & the City
Signing off
This is it for this blog, friends. Thanks for reading. I’m closing shop here and will now be tending the Austin Movie Blog. I hope you’ll stop by there.
This does not speak well of my character, but as soon as the new blog got planned here, I quit looking after my old online home. I apologize for being a lame duck. This has been a lot of fun, and I’ve loved everything you’ve had to say on vital topics like “Project Runway,” Hello Kitty, mattifying skin gel, Duran Duran and, of course, the Camisole Crisis. Inanity like mine can’t be contained for long, though, so if you’d like to be notified when I get a personal blog going, please drop me an e-mail.
OK, you should be going now. I’ll wait till you get out of sight and then tear up a little. Take care.
Permalink | Comments (4) | Categories: By Sarah Lindner
Today in celebrity crazy talk
Teri Hatcher as the new Mary Tyler Moore?
Mary herself — sainted Laura Petrie-Mary Richards Mary — has suggested that if the MTM show were ever made into a movie, Hatcher should play Mary.
No. God bless you, Mary Tyler Moore, but your little idea will give me nightmares.
“The Mary Tyler Moore Show” should never be touched. Never. And the idea that Hatcher could fill Moore’s beret is like creating a new version of the Go-Go’s with the Duff sisters, Lindsay Lohan, Amanda Bynes and Jojo.
(Actually, that’s marginally more acceptable. But still, forget I even put it out there.)
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: By Sarah Lindner
Tim Gunn update
The source of that Defamer item is our own Austin blogger, E.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: By Sarah Lindner
Back to the ‘Race’
Don’t tell Phil Keoghan, but we had missed a few weeks of “The Amazing Race.” Sure, we did have a series of Tuesdays with stuff to do that wasn’t TV, but that’s no excuse, and I won’t try to justify our behavior.
Things seemed much as we’d left them, though, with hippies B.J. and Tyler and frat guys Eric and Jeremy completely dominating. I go back to “TAR 5,” and I don’t remember two teams ever taking such control. I think they’ve been first and second every week.
I don’t have anything against this teams, but I’m not sure I’d want to be on a long car trip with them, either. And I have no idea which one is B.J. and which one is Tyler (same with Eric and Jeremy).
A major source of amusement last night was hearing all the various botched pronunciations of “Palermo.” Come on, people — you’ve never seen “The Golden Girls”? Sophia Petrillo would have schooled you on this.
The team I most want gone is Lake and Mrs. Lake. (We will not list her name here, because Lake is the man and men are the leaders and make the rules, and wives are just help-mates. Help-mates who do everything wrong, but luckily have wise and knowing husbands to point this out to them.) The South should file a class-action lawsuit against them.
It’s been a few weeks since the end of “Project Runway,” and we are all, in our own ways, trying to deal with our grief. As we wait for Season 3, Defamer reports indications that Bravo may have bigger things in mind for Tim Gunn.
I had been hoping that if Tim Gunn left “Runway” it would be to take on the full-time, unpaid position of managing my life, but I support all of his endeavors.
Permalink | | Categories: By Sarah Lindner
Great moments in drama
During the UT-West Virginia game last night, right after Kevin Pittsnogle got whapped in the face and got a nosebleed, did you see the fan in the stands dramatically re-creating the incident? I haven’t seen pantomime like that since the Texas Music Magazine party at SXSW 2005, when a gentleman jumped up on a table and acted out “Me and Billy the Kid” as Joe Ely sang.
Permalink | | Categories: By Sarah Lindner
Pour me a Tab
This may be kind of Nicole Richie of me, but I really like Tab Energy drink.
By “like” I don’t mean “enjoy consuming.” There are two things I appreciate about Tab Energy, and flavor is not one of them.
First, it works. Possibly, Tab Energy is eating its way through the lining of my stomach even as we speak, but I am wide awake right now. It’s a tradeoff.
But more importantly, I find Tab Energy glamorous. I know this is hard to imagine, but when I was a child, there was no such thing as Diet Coke. I think there were a few low-rent pretenders, but Tab was really the only game in town when it came to diet sodas.
Not that I, in the sugar-laden innocence of youth, drank diet sodas. But I was aware that grown ladies did. They enjoyed a Tab after their aerobics class, or maybe while out with their girlfriends at a restaurant with exposed brick walls, where they would order a Tab with their salad. (Note: At the time, I disliked all vegetables, but still approved of the concept of salad.) Back home at their apartment they would pour themselves a Tab over ice. And their apartments would always include wicker furniture, potted plants, thick carpeting, a hefty collection of Olivia Newton-John albums and huge, fluffy cats. It goes without saying that they would also have a waterbed.
Tab Energy is my romantic notions of adulthood distilled and captured in a slender, pink can. I’ll never be as cool as the girls of the ’70s. But at least I’m alert.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: By Sarah Lindner
Welcome to my world, Britney
As you know, the world is consumed with concern about whether Britney Spears is expecting again. The evidence we have for this — aside from Brit’s established track record of bad decisions — is her protruding tummy.
I had been savoring this as much as the next Us Weekly reader, until I realized I was being a terrible hypocrite. Britney, if in fact you are not once again filled with the miracle of Federline-sired life, then I feel your pain. Hi, I’m Sarah. People think I’m pregnant, too.
I am a woman with a pooch. A pot belly of the kind that Maria de Medeiros rhapsodized about in “Pulp Fiction.” Sometimes it is diminished, but even in the skinniest of times it’s always there. My friend Kim and I named my bump Desmond.
And some people, God bless them, ask about Desmond. Surely, they mean well.
I don’t like those people.
The upside is that they feel very awkward after I tell them that I am not great with child. I don’t try to assuage their guilt, because I want the life lesson on minding one’s own business to really sink in.
But you know, actually, I don’t feel Britney’s pain, because there’s a big difference between an embarrassing little moment in the nail salon and having your paunch splashed all over tabloids.
Hang in there, Britney — and maybe rent “Pulp Fiction.”
Permalink | | Categories: By Sarah Lindner
It is finished
“Project Runway,” that is, with an ending that I thought was both exactly right and a total surprise.
Chloe has been my favorite since early on, but, while I wasn’t wowed by anyone’s collection, I thought Chloe’s puffy coats were going to sink her.
I’m going to assume that the judges considered factors beyond what was on the runway at Fashion Week — namely, Chloe’s strong cumulative record on the show, her emotional groundedness and her business savvy. With Season 1 winner Jay McCarroll kind of foundering and squandering his opportunity, I’m guessing that the “Runway” gurus really want a success story, and they saw their best chance for it with Chloe.
Of course, there’s no need to weep for Santino and Daniel V. Michael Kors seemed ready to take Daniel under his wing, and Santino is on his way to establishing himself as a professional celebrity.
And how sweet is it that our Chloe — sweet, hard-working girl from Houston — got to stand up there and beat the competitors who said she didn’t even deserve to be at Fashion Week?
I will blame the loooong delays between posts on busy-ness around here with the Oscars (a snooze except for the “Crash” upset) and the South by Southwest Film Festival. From what I’ve previewed so far, here are some fest recommendations:
— “Friends with Money” — great actresses Frances McDormand, Catherine Keener and Joan Cusack (and OK actress Jennifer Aniston) in a smart, honest comedy.
— “Slam Planet: War of the Words” — a locally made doc about poetry slams. Well-made and full of fascinating personalities.
— “This Film Is Not Yet Rated” — another superb doc, this one about the MPAA film ratings board. Sounds dry, but is really subversive and funny.
— “Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey” — My screener copy died on me, so I didn’t even get to watch all of this, but it’s awesome and totally reminds me of my years as an Iron Maiden groupie.
Outside the fest, if you like hip-hop and neo-soul even just a little bit, check out “Dave Chappelle’s Block Party.” The concert film bursts with joy, especially during Kanye West’s show-stopping performance of “Jesus Walks” backed by a college marching band.
And speaking of Kanye, we were doing the “Best Song of the 21st Century” brackets in the new Esquire and it came down to a final two of “Jesus Walks” and Jay-Z’s “99 Problems.” How do you make a choice like that? I finally gave a slight edge to Kanye, but now I’m vacillating. So what’s your choice for best song of the 21st century?
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: By Sarah Lindner
Bizarro ‘Runway’
So, last night’s episode was apparently beamed in from an alternate universe that has a different version of “Project Runway” — one where Chloe is flighty and silly, Daniel is not talented enough to have won five competitions and Santino is a gentle soul who creates exquisitely beautiful clothes.
There were things to like. I enjoyed the glimpse into the designers’ real lives, especially the pictures of Santino as a funny-looking kid you just wanted to hug and the visit with Chloe’s large family. Although I am jealous that she got a holiday visit from Tim Gunn. I want Tim Gunn in my Christmas pictures.
(A personal side, unrelated to our rigorous academic analysis of “Runway”: When Tim Gunn and Santino were sitting by the basketball courts in Venice Beach, they were at the exact spot Jeff and I sat during our L.A. visit last month. I think we must have sensed they’d been there.)
And I really like what we saw of Santino’s collection. I wanted him to make those outfits in normal-girl size and give them to me. Maybe it was all editing or an act, but he seemed like he’d been changed by the experience.
Now the gripes, or if not exactly complaints, points of hurt and confusion: What was up with Chloe’s collection? After all the marvelously accessible clothes of the season, she now turns in a puffy coat? I hurt for Daniel and those bags he brought. And how could he have construction problems like uneven hems at this point in the game?
But what really bothered me was that “one final surprise”: The designers have to come up with one more look to be part of their Fashion Week shows. This is just sadistic. You could see the despair on their faces. The show didn’t need this element of artificial drama. The upside, though, is that it was good to see the other designers again, especially Andrae!, when the finalists got to pick an assistant for the last design.
I understand why Chloe picked Diana — they’re good friends, and she probably wanted a supportive presence around — but I think it’s a huge mistake. Diana wasn’t that good at sewing, as I recall. Chloe would have been better off with other best bud Emmett, who also had some sewing problems, but would have been better than Diana.
The previews of next week make it look like a full-on disaster, but I doutbt it’s that bad. Until then, bravotv.com has so many “Runway” extras that I feel daunted by them. In that spirit, here’s my own “Runway” extra from pop-culture guru Sharon:
“Last night’s ‘Runway’ was topsy-turvy world. I loved Santino! It was sweet seeing him with his friends; those little girls clearly loved him. Tim Gunn seemed touched by it, too. I don’t recall St. Charles, Mo., being all that small, but it’s been awhile. I am concerned for Chloe. I hate that Santino went with the tired ‘Hollywood glamour’ theme, but I liked what I saw. Chloe’s collection did not seem cohesive. But it’s all probably an editing smoke-screen — I doubt there is that much concern about Daniel V.’s work.”
Carry on!
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: By Sarah Lindner
The ‘Race’ is on!
So how much did you want to shake Fran and Barry when they kept walking RIGHT BY the clue box last night on “Amazing Race”? I had high hopes for this team, but they’re dead to me now.
On the other hand, I was pleasantly surprised by the strength of all-female teams Danielle and Dani, who had a lot more common sense than I imagined, and all-around endearing Wanda and Desiree. Sadly, past races haven’t led me to put much faith in women’s teams. I would like to add, however, that even I don’t like pink as much as Danielle and Dani do.
Also stronger than expected were sweet nerds David and Lori, whose every appearance was accompanied by the haunting “Amazing Race Nerds in Love” theme.
Then again, there were some things that weren’t surprising at all. Texas sisters Lisa and Joni were exactly the hot mess that I imagined. “Why can’t they be from Oklahoma instead?” beau and “Race” companion Jeff opined at one point. We weren’t a bit sorry to see John and Scott go, but, for the sake of Texas honor, I hope Lisa and Joni are next.
And right after them, Lake and Michelle can go home. Insufferable! Especially him. Meltdowns loom.
We also weren’t feeling any love for Monica and Joseph, especially after learning they’d dubbed themselves MoJo. Sure, that seems cute when you’re back home in Arkansas and still think you’re invincible, but when you find yourself hauling cinderblocks in Bangalore and about to collapse from exhaustion and pure hatred of your teammate, that perky little moniker is going to come back to mock you.
Ray and Yolanda didn’t have the strong showing I’d hoped for. Poor Ray — he was struggling to put together that motorcycle while a throng of Brazilian guys blatantly ogled his girlfriend. I hope things get better.
Eric and Jeremy had a great show, except for the unsuccessful pickup attempt of Danielle and Dani. I also respect their honesty in admitting they want to be rich but don’t want to work for it
But our favorites overall were second-place finishers BJ and Tyler, aka The Hippies. We are not fans of all the mean nicknames like The Frosties and Barbie and Ken, but BJ and Tyler are indisputably The Hipppies. Funny, bursting with enthusiasm and clad in godawful hippie clothes, they are downright lovable. But beyond that, I think they’ll be tough competitors. They weren’t a bit fazed by being out of their culture (that’s past travel paying off) and they get along beautifully, which is key to longevity in the Race. Being no fan of jam bands and hemp clothing, I never thought I’d say this, but go Hippies!
And then, of course, “Project Runway” is on tonight. This week and next mean both “Race” and “Runway.” which means chances are excellent my head might explode. I really, really, really, REALLY want Santino and Andrae to become reality-show repeaters and go on “Amazing Race” together. A girl can dream …
Permalink | | Categories: By Sarah Lindner
Latest comments
oh no . . . you are my favorite. do let me know when you have a personal blog, please.
... read the full comment by Brenda Thompson | Comment on Signing off Read Signing off
*sniff*
I'd follow you anywhere, Tex.
... read the full comment by tonie | Comment on Signing off Read Signing off
Farewell, Tex. It's been a great run. I'll see you at your new home.
... read the full comment by Jeff | Comment on Signing off Read Signing off
don't leave me.
... read the full comment by Kimmy | Comment on Signing off Read Signing off
See more recent comments