Don't bore Nina!

Is it me, or is the current season of Project Runway totally boring? I still watch, but I just don't care. Their clothes seem so-so -- not much is shocking, except occasionally for how BAD it is (skanky hot pants?! 30 yards of white ruffles?!). Could this be because the season was filmed so long before it aired? Carol Hannah's dress pockets, for example, don't seem like a big deal now, because pockets have swept the nation over the past year. Maybe what once would have seemed inventive now looks like old news. But, that doesn't address my other issue: there's not much fun conflict. Irina is bitchy, Carol Hannah is super cute, and Althea has giant 80s hair and a complementary wardrobe. But it just feels like it's missing something. Maybe a guest appearance by Wendy Pepper would help?

So hot right now

Have you lost the pulse of pop culture? Me too, but I'm pretending I'm on it. Things I'm loving right now:

• Ben Folds, who we saw perform with the Spokane Symphony on Sunday at The Fox. So fun! So much orchestration! And I loved the disjointed crowd - the dressy symphony season ticket holders, intermingled with the uber casual Ben Folds fans pleading for Folds to "Rock this bitch!"

• The September Issue - holy cow, what a cool insider's view of the life of Vogue, Anna Wintour and her insanely far-reaching influence over the world of fashion, and the Creative Director, Grace Coddington, who's more of a free-spirited artist in the commercial world. It's really great. My brain can't even contain all of that fashion.

• Mad Men, Mad Men, Mad Men. Beautiful, quiet, informative, heartbreaking, often hilarious. Keep your eyes out for riding lawnmowers - not for indoor use.

• Where the Wild Things Are - it looks perfect, the music is great, the characters are developed and believable and sad and funny. For what it's worth, I think it really captures the destructive yet cuddly yet angry yet loving yet stubborn yet dependent nature of boyhood like nothing else I've seen. Of course I'm an outsider when it comes to boyhood, but from what I've observed, this movie really nails it.
  

A bloggy deal

Here's what I just learned from my blog stats:

• Most readers come from the U.S. The country with the next highest number of readers? Obviously, Brazil!

Searches that have brought people to my site:

• "dressing up for sporting events" (like that has ever happened!)
  
• "zaftig veronica mars" (excuse me??)
  
• "doesn't that sound nice" (there's a nice, specific search, holy cow)
  
• "one year anniversary for lovers" (I recommend Vermont)
  
• "rory logan goodbye" (that might make a nice subtitle for part of the episode, robot)
  

And my favorite:

• "I'm a fembot" (you ARE? So is Francie!)
  

1 day of Zooey

I just saw 500 Days of Summer, with Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and it is really cute/funny and much more interesting and different from the typical, shall we say, rom-com. The 500 days are the 500 days of their relationship, but they're shown out of sequence. If I were hipper, I'd want to have Zooey's (she's kind of my girlfriend, so don't worry - we're totally on a first name basis) whole retro wardrobe.

AND - earlier today, I watched a rerun of Top Chef Masters, and the remaining chefs' challenge was to cook a delicious vegan meal for none other than vegan Miss Deschanel and a bunch of her vegan friends. I'm not a vegan, but if anyone wants to hold a competition to see who can prepare me the most delicious vegetarian food, I wouldn't put a stop to it. I've always thought being a food critic would be pretty fun, and I realize that I've really limited my potential there since there are now so many foods I won't eat. A vegetarian competition/feast/competifeast by amazing chefs sounds like a good idea. Anyone?

Fembot

I don't know how many of my tiny pool of readers are Alias fans, but as I've mentioned a few times, Brad and I are watching the episodes on DVD this summer. We're most of the way through season 2 now and all I have to say is (and I hope this isn't much of a spoiler): fembot?!

I've heard that this show devolves into something really weird by the later seasons. But I've been so in love with it for these past few weeks that I'll be really sad if it starts to get too bizarre to function. So far, it's just a little bit weird, but I'm starting to get scared. Sidney, Vaughn, and JJ, please give me at least one more good season, ok?

Two thoughts

It's late and I have to get up early, and I have only two thoughts:

1. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is much better the second time around.

2. I am in love with Alias, and don't know if I have a bigger crush on Sidney Bristow or Jennifer Garner.

Hogwarts explosion

So, Harry Potter. Well. I've seen the movies at midnight opening night several times, and this was by far the most intense pre-Potter experience. Danyeal and I drove down to River Park Square at 10, thinking that was more than early enough for even the most popular midnight movie. By the time we got there, though, the theater was already a Hogwarts explosion. There were people everywhere -- every one of the 17 (I think) theaters was set to start showing the movie at precisely 12:01, and our assigned theater, 17, was completely packed with people. Billions of seats had been reserved by coats, bags, and broomsticks. We had a group of four, and there were no groups of four seats to be found anywhere. After scavenging for a while and covering random groups of two and three seats with our sweatshirts and purses and stuff, Autumn found a much much much less crowded theater, lucky number 12, so we just ignored the fact that our tickets had assigned us to a certain room and headed down there. By the time the movie started, even theater 12 was completely packed. I think the entire place was sold out.

A few highlights of the pre-movie experience:

• 10 zillion people running around from theater to theater, wearing 10 zillion awesome costumes
• ranking our favorite Harry Potter books, movies, and moments -- and gasping when I saw Danyeal's shocking book rankings (The Goblet of Fire as the number one choice?! I did not see that coming)
  
• playing a Harry Potter version of "would you?" (or, our favorite adaptation, "Kiss or Push?")
• Autumn watching a teeny little bit of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on her portable DVD player
• Popping DayQuil at 11 in an attempt to fight off a giant coughing/running nose/sneezing catastrophe

As far as the movie itself goes, I'm sorry to say that I didn't love it. I have very low expectations for each of the movies; the books are what I really care about, and since I think they are almost perfect, any greatness in the movies is just a bonus. But this one was disappointing, I thought. Quite a few scenes were added, removed, or changed. I know that's what happens when you make a book into a film, but some of these choices seemed to lead to some mediocre storytelling and shortchanged really good stuff. Ginny Weasley was pretty bland. And a huge part of the book, a part that seemed destined for movie greatness, wasn't included in the film at all.

Of course, I am an old lady and did take a few teeny tiny catnaps from time to time, so to be fair, I should (and will) watch the whole thing again. There are a few things I liked a lot: Ron Weasley, who was a fine and hilarious specimen throughout; Horace Slughorn, who was way more likeable that I'd ever imagined while reading; and hunchback Harry on his lucky day.

nerds

So, tonight is a big night. Why? Harry Potter! Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince! I will be on my way to the theater for a midnight showing before long, which means I'll be staying up until 3 in the morning for the first time in a verrrry long while. I wanted to take 12 espresso shots at the stroke of midnight in order to stay awake, but that big baby of a coffee shop, Starbucks, is apparently only open until 9. Home brew it is!

Danyeal and I came up with a list of essential Harry Potter prefunk activities that we've been checking off over the past few hours. So far, we have watched part of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, gone on a Harry Potter dog walk, and had a race where we each did a (3-D!) Harry Potter puzzle as fast as we could while listening to wizard rock (Danyeal kicked the crap out of me). Soon, we'll slip into something more comfortable (our super hip Kingsley Shacklebot t-shirts) and go to the theater to meet Autumn and wait in line with all the nerds. Oh yes, that includes us.

series finale

I love Gilmore Girls, and I own most of the seasons -- but not season 7, a.k.a. the final season, a.k.a. the season where the show's creators left the show because they couldn't negotiate a contract for the rest of the series, a.k.a. where everything got kinda ridiculous.

Spoiler alert!

• Lorelei marries Christopher and they get divorced!
• Suki gets pregnant because Jackson never told her he didn't actually get the vasectomy he'd promised! And Lorelai talks her into being excited about the baby!
• Logan proposes to Rory at a fancy pants graduation party Richard and Emily throw for her. After Richard and Emily sing a duet (which is awesome--no complaints). Rory agonizes over what to do and finally decides she's not ready to get married. Logan says he won't do long distance. And all of the sudden they are broken up and we never see Logan again! Ever! He's out of there! No arguing, no pleading, no crying. So professional, those two.

I've been watching the episodes on ABC Family for the past couple of weeks since I haven't seen any of them since they were first on the air, and I love the show but it is nuts! Storylines are escalated and twisted and then wrapped up abruptly, and Rory is always just showing off her delightful face and lovely reactions. Why did things have to end this way? One thing that never went wrong, though: Paris and Doyle. All of the weirdness is almost a fair trade for getting to see those two hip hop dance to Hot in Here.