For Tim Gunn I feel the need for a "<3!!!!!111" tag

Even though I have certain ideological issues with the normativity of the fashion industry (even as practiced by Tim Gunn), eg the makeup and other performative elements and the insistence on clothes being fitted/flattering for every occasion (I don't believe there's anything wrong with visiting the corner store in your sweatsuit, since there's no one at the corner store you need to send a message to, aside from "give me food"), you just can't help loving Tim Gunn, and it's somewhat amazing the way he raises clueless, oblivious women to semi-conscious awareness of what they're saying with the language of clothes and gives them shortcuts to appear to be consummate masters of it. (For the most part, these are only fully relevant to the urban, professional women he actually focuses on in his show, but still intellectually interesting for everyone else.) I wish Tim Gunn could be my lifestyle coach not because my lifestyle would be particularly amenable to that (my lifestyle consists primarily of walking the dog, at this point, although I am chomping at the bit to change that...) but because Tim Gunn's earnest, wise pronouncements are so utterly charming and adorable. And I love the way he shudders about capri pants and leggings. I have been gorging myself on Project Runway and Tim Gunn's Guide to Style in the past few days, as you are aware (possibly to your chagrin) if you follow cimness, and here are just a few of my favorite pronouncements:

• "She's too young to be dressing like a mortician."



• "If your viscera says 'Uh-oh', it's probably true."



• "Forgive me, but I worry that this is going to look like a halter diaper."



• "So, Daniel, I have to ask you: WHAT IS THIS?"



• "I would wrestle you to the floor of Bloomingdale's before I would ever let you walk out into the real world wearing this."



• "It's a very quick route to dowdiness!"



• "The big butt factor is a big 'but'!"



• "She's playing dress-up for some costume party; I just don't know what the party is. And DON'T invite me."



• "I do not care what state of repair or disrepair people are in."



• "It's very INTERESTING. I'm NOT bored."

plebefic summaries: “So you’re saying,“ Patrick blinks up at Pete, “That’d I’m the spawn of Satan?”

It's a special summaries-only edition! Classic bandom is excellent for this. It's such a rich fount of crazy, contradictory, incomprehensible, infelicitous, ironic, bizarre, and just plain bad ideas.

1. Summary: He needs some fucking curtains.



2. Summary: Patrick studied the little sign quietly for a moment, the big red circle with a slash through it a too-late warning for the stick figure already halfway over the too-shallow water.



3. Chapter Summary: Gerard meets a fan who doesn't want his autograph. This doesn't settle with the coked-up singer.



4. Summary: Thizz - def. Ecstacy, MDMA, X. Drug taken when two horny boys want to "make up" a whole lot.
   Thizzface - def. The nasty looking face you make when you chew a pill, kinda like you're smelling something fowl.



5. Summary: “So you’re saying,“ Patrick blinks up at Pete, “That’d I’m the spawn of Satan?”

shoe post that's not all sneakers: red or dead!

Red or Dead is a brand with some awesome hits (and some horrifying misses too, but for those you'll have to look yourself) sold exclusively through shuhstore.co.uk, which is a big chain in the UK but an online shop for the rest of us. "Bert" and "Elsie", menswear-inspired heels; "Admiral", a playful granny boot with military styling that's a bit steampunk (I really want these - if only it were that easy to drop a hundred bucks on shoes); "Charleston", an adorable retro mj (And these are so cute that, even though I never wear heels and already own some killer retro red mjs, I would almost buy them); "Reyka", a practical low boot that is very Finland-ish; and "Scooter", a classic engineer boot with a cute kick (I really want these too).

singin in the rain, lolversion

Remember when I said that the local theater's doing Singin' in the Rain in Finnish with hilariously incongruous casting? Yeah. Here's the promo picture side-by-side with the artwork it's imitating (I presume the fat guy is probably Cosmo, in which case they've staged it backwards; but if it's Don, that's so fascinating and enchanting - a fat romantic lead, that NEVER happens - that it's clearly a purposeful political statement, and I take back everything I've said).





Click for bigger versions.

I wanted to note, though, that in response to my initial rant, my beloved shiroi_chi said that you can't really see what the actors on the stage actually look like anyway, and they don't have to be classically pretty to be awesome and that's kind of what she loves about theater. And she has a point there, I mean, surely in casting SITR to be viewed in spotlights on a stage from a distance in the dark, the dancing skills are what counts. If they've cast for dancing skills, well, they probably still don't have Gene Kelly or Donald O'Connor, but it could be awesome.

And also I agree with her, that is awesome, and Enya knows Hollywood has always put way too much emphasis on looks, right? But on the other hand, SITR is a film about Hollywood, and actually problematizes the question of looks - you know, not thoroughly, but a bit - in the form of Lina. Don's looks, particularly, are important to the plot.

And on a note of I'm-running-out-of-hands, if theater lets people who don't meet ridiculous beauty standards compete specifically because they can't be seen then in other words... it's not actually fighting those standards at all, it's just saying 'here, you can PRETEND that you DO conform to these stupid fascist beauty standards'. From a point of view of challenging ridiculous beauty standards, you kinda need to be able to tell what people look like.

And finally, leaving all that behind, Chi said she might go see it just to piss me off. And I realized that since this production will be in Finnish, and I know Singin' in the Rain pretty much by heart, seeing it would actually probably be a pretty cool way to improve my Finnish. And even if it didn't make much difference to my skillz, it would be fascinating and my prior knowledge (coupled with incredibly elementary Finnish skillz, LOL) should enable me to follow the events onstage. So if she meant that I might tag along. If that won't take away too much from your satisfaction at pissing me off, shiroi_chi.