November, 2007

blogging / San Diego — 1 Comment
30
Nov 07

Rainstorm in San Diego

I know, in some parts of the country, rain is not a big deal. However, in San Diego, it is. So much so that I find it to be blogworthy.

San Diego has been parched for months, which culminated in some fires a month ago. Now it’s raining and I feel for those out of towners who come here to experience those beautiful days we’re famous for, especially Chris. He is here for a conference and he’s greeted with rain the first day here. Hopefully, he has an umbrella handy, but it’s not too hard to grab one anywhere in downtown.

I’m definitely looking forward to the meetup. I wonder if it will rain like this tomorrow.

fashion — 3 Comments
30
Nov 07

Project Runway: Fashion Giant

In this episode, Project Runway boldly went where they haven’t gone before.

The first tip off was when Heidi shows up in an Uhura-like dress to inform them they won’t need their models for their challenge. Hopefully, the stylist is aware a red dress with black collar trim evokes classic Star Trek. Or, perhaps I’m showing my geekiness.

Rockerfeller Plaza is where they go for this unexplored frontier. They don’t need their models and given that Project Runway gives the designers very little or no information before they receive their challenges, their imaginations run wild. They meet Tiki Barber of the Today Show, and none of them, except for Pint Size, know who he is, especially when it comes to his former career. After Tim Gunn introduces him, Tiki drops the bomb: they have to design an outfit for him to wear on the Today show. This is enough to throw them all into a panic. Menswear? Drama is guaranteed, as we’ll get to Ricky later.

The flipside of the menswear panic is that they get to work with male models, which most of the models enjoy. Well, most of them with two exceptions. We get another reminder that Tom of Finland, Pocket Edition is straight when he says whatever. As for the other, who would have thought Bjork Lady was such a prude? The biggest surprise she gave us was when she turned away and had her model undress out of her sight. It’s nice to know she’s faithful to her boyfriend, but this is just unprofessional.

Unfortunately, Bjork Lady’s weirdness is limited to how she handles the fitting. There’s also her doing yoga in a confined space, but that is now routine. Her outfit turns out to be safe and on the Eddie Bauer side.

Some of the looks are dated. Harry Potter shows us what and 80′s queen he is with the shoulder zipper on the shirt. Andy Warhol creates late 80′s dandy, while Otho makes a suit more appropriate for MC Hammer in his heyday.

Pint Size makes the best constructed outfit in the group, but it doesn’t win. He should have tucked the guy’s shirt in.

Who says gods don’t make sacrifices? Abercrombie God takes off a pair of shorts and destroys them to use them as a pattern. Apparently, that’s not all the clothing he loses in order to win or get some attention, as my friend Chris points out. Originally, he planned to make a three piece ensemble, but must give up one in order to have a complete outfit to send on the runway. All of his sacrifices pay off as he wins the challenge.

Rami, that tasty Jerusalem artichoke, calls Abercrombie out on using his shorts as a pattern. He doesn’t raise a big enough stink to tell Tim Gunn about it, but he brings it up in a fun moment (for us anyway), when he tries on the muslin version of his pants. Needless to say, it fits him very nicely. Kudos to him to actually creating his own pattern and creating pants that actually fit on a man.

Ricky has the emotionalism of Andrae from Season 2 (without his flitty grace) and some of Raymundo’s personality (without being too out there), and he doesn’t fail to disappoint in the drama department. When Tiki’s wife visits the workroom, he shows signs of being overwhelmed and stressed out. While in the sewing room, he gets into a bitchfight with Carmen, Martha from Dr. Who, has her moment when she’s about to go. Ricky stresses over fucking up in the zipper and Carmen sings, “Don’t go home too soon.” Ricky sings back, “Shut the fuck up” and “Don’t go home too soon.” Carmen then says “Wrong note, bitch.” I’ll definitely remember that one and use it in the future. She’s very close to losing her cool, but holds back. She should have erupted and stopped short of smacking him. Then she would have been guaranteed a few more episodes.

Ricky stays, but he has to take some harsh criticism on his sloppiness. Tiki is nice but very frank. Nina Garcia, however, is much more brutal, especially when she says, “This looks dull, Ricky.” Ricky’s shirt is shoddily done, but Carmen has no shirt at all (and the pants are bad too). The kimono drape she does to pass as a shirt underneath the model’s jacket doesn’t pass with the judges at all, and it seems Ricky did sing a right note for once.

blogging / teaching / writing — 2 Comments
29
Nov 07

Is It Over Yet?

I’m stealing the title of Chris’s post, but it’s appropriate.

This latter half of the year I returned to teaching. Over the summer, I took on a job teaching at a private language school. I liked the students and my coworkers (including the director), but it was also the most temp-like job I’ve ever had. I also taught a summer class at the urban community college and it was a good getting my feet wet. I had taught for two and a half years (one year as a TA in grad school and one and a half years as an adjunct teacher) before I had a stint as a mailroom manager. That only lasted for five months before I got fired and spent a few months looking for a job. During that time, I worked every community community college I knew of in the county to get classes for the fall.

While I didn’t succeed with every college and English department chair I lobbied, I wound up with a decent workload at the schools that took me on. Actually, I took on a lot. Five classes were overwhelming, but I was happy to be working again. Also, there were things such as Christmas and a new computer to think about.*

Of course, returning to the classroom had its share of challenges. Some of the students were one. I’ve vented about this in some posts. The flow of papers was never ending. The hours were crazy, especially on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Driving to various schools and staying on top of all of them took a lot of time. God knows how much time I’ve spent in my car. I’ve found myself more and more fatigued as the semester comes to a close.

While I listed my cons first, it was not a bad experience overall. I liked most of the students I had this semester. That I could make grammar clearer for them (in some of my classes) was rewarding). Some of my students were fun, others were very interesting to talk, and some really got something out of it. I’ve given my headaches a lot of airtime, but I should have also taken the time to mention the great students as well.

I haven’t been a good blogger over the past few weeks. There would be a few days of blogging punctuated by a few more days of no posts. I have no plans to drop out of the blogosphere soon. August seemed to be month where there was a universal topic shortage. November, however, is not at all short of topics, yet it’s the worst month for me posting wise. That’s why I never put up the NaBloPoMo badge on my site. While NaNoWriMo sounds like fun, I haven’t had the time to crank out a shitty first draft of my great American novel. I even filmed a video log this past weekend, but I haven’t had the time nor energy to edit it. Wah, wah, wah.

It’ll all be over in a few weeks. Then, like the Pythian prophecy in BSG, it will all happen again in the spring.

science fiction / television — 1 Comment
25
Nov 07

Battlestar Galactica: Razor

In my second Vlog, I commented that Razor is the bone that Sci Fi is throwing to us Battlestar starved fans. Without giving much away, it was a nice, tasty bone with some meat on it. We get to know a little more about Admiral Cain and her motivations. Speaking of which, we learn the particular irony of an exchange that occurs in Season 2′s “Resurrection Ship II.” Before Gina shoots Cain, Cain tells her “Frak you!” Gina’s reply is “You’re not my type.”

The only other spoiler I’ll give is that Razor treats us to some old style Cylons who move much faster than the ones in the 1970′s series. They’re also involved in some kind of Frankenstein nightmare.

The DVD comes out two Tuesdays from now and it promises to have more scenes. In addition to any gritty violent action scenes, will we also get our healthy dose of BSG sexuality? Let’s hope so.

The one bummer is that Season 4 comes out in March, which means we have to hibernate on what we got with Razor. There’s something that pertains to Season 4 in this Season 2 flashback, but I’m keeping mum on this one.

fashion / television — 2 Comments
23
Nov 07

Project Runway: I Started Crying

This week’s episode’s guest star is a fashionista’s wet dream. Season Two had Iman, but this week Sarah Jessica Parker judged potential outfits for her Bitten line. Of course, the contestants are starstruck (who wouldn’t be). To keep this up, they’re going to have to get Alek Wek in Season 5.

Time to talk smack about the contestants.

We’ve established that the Bjork Lady is none other than Elisa. Last week, she does wacked out things such as using herself as a dress form and creating a a train that looks like the sewing table scraps. This week she doesn’t fail to disappoint. She sets out to create a polymorphously perverse outfit, to which Tim Gunn‘s initial reaction is “cuckoo” when he sees her work on it. Then, she achieves the most priceless moment of the episode – she spits on the fabric used to create the dress. The reason? To imbue it with her energy, however illogical or insane that may sound to the rest of us Earthlings. Sweet P and Heidi Klum must be on to something as they both wonder what planet Bjork Lady is from. The producers will probably keep her on, right up to Fashion Week as her weirdness safeguards interesting viewing.

My moniker’s going to stick as I find I need little explanation for Bjork Lady. Now to the other contestants. There’s Christian, the weird kid with the asymmetrical haircut who looks like a fey and bitchy Harry Potter. He’s definitely stuck in 80′s retro mode, even though he was a zygote in the era he seeks to recreate. My blog friend Chris calls him the Chris Crocker wannabe, but I think I’ll refer to him as Harry Potter from this time forward. He faces the chopping block for being too retro, and no one seems to care that he’s famous (like being in a room full of Snapes).

Chris (not to be confused with my blog friend) is larger than life, both literally and figuratively. He is very large (not an understatement) and he has a flamboyant knack for dressing drag queens. Last week, the poor guy was lost in the mad dash to pick out his fabrics, but luckily grabbed the ones he wanted. Hopefully, no other challenge will be so physically demanding. Finding a moniker for him is going to be challenging. A blogger some time ago compared him to Otho in Beetlejuice, so now I’m wondering if I should steal this or come up with another.

It’s always interesting when designers profess their straightness, which Kevin did last week. Apparently, he confirmed it in this episode when he pitched his design to Sarah Jessica Parker. After he was done showing Parker his sketch, he quickly got up, leaving her with her hand extended to shake his hand. A queen would have taken time to giver her a hug, which Harry Potter did. However, Tom of Finland (Pocket Edition) doesn’t pay her any deference.

I haven’t gotten a handle on local boy Ricky, though he seems to be a guaranteed source of drama. I need help to come up with a moniker for him.

This season has someone with a bit of an Andy Warhol vibe. In the first season, it was Austin. This time it’s Steven, who is physically bland, but very flamboyantly queeny. Definitely Warhol in his advertising days, while Austin was more like the Factory Warhol.

The challenge was to create an inexpensive outfit that could fit in with the Bitten line. I don’t agree with the winning design – a large, grey sack dress adorned with a matching scarf and a plaid vest. Victorya, as the designer, is the winner, but her team mate, Pocket Biker Daddy himself musters up more enthusiasm than she displays, as if his design was the winner.

I’m definitely sad for Marion and his dandy poor boy look. He created a poncho and skirt combo (which resembled something Carrie Bradshaw would wear), but Sarah Jessica Parker wasn’t wowed. In the end, he went home instead of Harry Potter. With the terms that got thrown at both designers, Pocahontas has got to be worse.

The outfit Chris helped build was surprisingly toned down, like a tunic equivalent of the black dress. The beret definitely helped with the Audrey Hepburn/gamine look, and understatement worked this time. Too bad it didn’t place him and his partner designer in the best or worst category. They were simply in.

I have to admit I liked the polymorphously perverse cape by the Bjork lady. However, I can’t get over that Tim Gunn said “cuckoo.” What other kinds of bitchiness will she draw out of him I look forward to seeing. Perversely, it will be fun to see him lose that urbane cool.

Next week, Ricky has a meltdown. Stay tuned.

Uncategorized — 1 Comment
22
Nov 07

Public Service Announcement from Perez


Perez, the best thing you could do is not mention his name. Perhaps if we’re nice, he’ll go away.*

Here, Perez gives a reading and commentary of the painfully illiterate letter from Chris Crocker posted on his MySpace blog. Has Chris Crocker really earned the privilege of posting such a nasty note to his fans? All he did was have a nervous breakdown while screaming at us to leave Britney alone. Well, he did more than that, but his biggest claim to fame is being Britney’s stalker. Speaking of which, was it necessary for him to show his wee bits when masquerading as her?

*line from “Only a Lad” by Oingo Boingo.

shindotv — 1 Comment
22
Nov 07

VLog 2: Happy Thanksgiving from ShindoTV

I definitely want to wish you all a happy Thanksgiving, however you celebrate it.

Yes, I’m putting up another VLog. It’s not going to happen every day as I always have to edit the vids, but they’re definitely here to stay. Now that I have found a way to truly make this this ShindoTV, I’ll do more for sure, but I think it will take some writing and planning. Right now, I’ll ramble while driving. The one thing I want to stop are all these um’s!

In this VLog, I get into “Me Days” (a shout out to Brian), overeating on Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Buy Nothing Day, and how I’m looking forward to Battlestar Galactica: Razor. I’ll have to talk smack about Bjork Lady and some other contestants of Project Runway in a text post a little later. Let’s come up with some monikers for the others.

blogging / shindotv — 4 Comments
21
Nov 07

ShindoTV VLog 1

This VLog was filmed in my car. My camera was mounted on a monopod fastened with a suction cup to the windscreen. I ranted on several topics while driving and later cobbled it together. I go off on topics such as the new Duran Duran album, Project Runway, the two special writing months, and Perez Hilton. Regarding Project Runway, there is a cast member whom I refer to as the Bjork Lady. Watch it this season, starting with the first episode. You’ll see what I mean.

teaching — 2 Comments
14
Nov 07

A Bad Apple out of the Bushel

In one of my English Courses, there’s a student who’s a serious bitch. I’ll call her Felica. Definitely a spiritual sister of Mindy Shatner‘s, but not as smart. She’s got a loud mouth and is very opinionated, but she fails to think critically on the subjects at hand. Plus, she’s been habitually late, left class early, been absent for days at a time, and texted in class. Her behavior is one of those problems when you don’t put your foot down early.

Last week, I caught Felicia with her thumb on her mobile phone and sternly told her cell phone use and texting in class weren’t acceptable. Her reaction was “OK” as if it were no big deal, but she stopped.

Yesterday, Felicia committed the unpardonable sin. She pissed Shindo off*. Early in the class, while I was getting class started, I had to break up a conversation between her and a classmate. I told them to stop. I said, “If you’re not interested in this class, you can leave. The drop deadline is soon.” She smiled as if that didn’t apply to her, which pissed me off, and said, “Thanks for the information.”

After I got the class into a ten minute writing exercise, Felicia got up and and left. As she walked out, she crumpled up her copy of the homework assignment I gave at the beginning of class for the next day. The class went along so much better without her.

It’s safe to say I’ve seen the last of Felicia. Good riddance.

*she was committing this sin all along.

television — No Comments
12
Nov 07

Help Buck Get His Own Show


Help Buck get his own show. E-mail him to show your support: buckontv@yahoo.com.

ShindoTV supports Buck on TV.

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