"the biggest nightmare . . . "

Was [working with Angela] as horrible as you said?
"It was totally the biggest nightmare of my life."

Here are a few highlights -- with some editorial commentary -- from the Entertainment Weekly interview with Vincent:

Regarding his role in the group:

"I was more of the older guy who would help everybody. I grounded the rest of the guys and let them see reality. . . .

If you think about it, he's quite functional for someone who is that insane.

. . . I said, ''Let's all hang in there.'' . . .

Except for the time that his dry cleaning was screwed up and a producer had to convince him not to quit.

. . . I was kind of the elder statesman. I brought out a lot of camaraderie."

He's a uniter, not a divider. Of course we know that everyone could agree on one thing: that Vincent was barking mad.

[note -- I moved my discussion of the boat trip to its own entry. See Part II above.

EW: Among the designers who are left on the show, which one do you think is worthy of winning?
"Myself. I love the truth, and I'll say this: If you look at the show and you know anything about design, you can see clearly who the designer was. They are amateurs. This show is full of amateur designers. I think one was way, way above and alone on the show. But I don't do the ego thing. It's not my style. But I love the truth."

What?! He makes less sense than Lupe. (See Season 2 reunion if you don't know what I'm talking about.) Knowing about the "Dunning-Kruger Effect" may be a way of understanding what is going on here.

Regarding the judges' criticism of his work:

"When judges see something new, they get intimidated themselves. With Catherine [Malandrino] and Michael Kors, I think there was a little bit of intimidation. I might frighten other designers."

Indeed.

The statements above are amusing but I am most interested in his assertion that working with Angela was: "totally the biggest nightmare of my life." I have a few things to say about this. And that means it is time for another installment of "bloody hell" (i.e., kora's rants):

A couple of days working with someone you don't like is "the biggest nightmare" you have ever experienced?! When I first heard Vincent say this I thought, "Well, how nice for him. I guess he's led a pretty easy life." I also reasoned that he said this immediately after he worked with Angela when he was still upset so he made this crazy exaggeration. Of course it is possible that he was using it in some ironic fashion (e.g., see the title of the previous posting) but he doesn't seem to have much capacity for irony. It has been months now and he is still saying that this was his biggest nightmare and I suspect that he actually means it. And that is scary. There is something profoundly wrong with a guy who has reached the age of 50 and thinks that having to make a dress with someone who isn't being helpful enough was "totally" his biggest nightmare. This is what takes him to the brink? Get a grip. It was an annoyance. At worst it was an unpleasant experience. You didn't work well together. Your personalities didn't mix. This is not a nightmare. And I seriously doubt that Angela was the most annoying person to work with. Ahem. PR is a glorified game show. It simply lacks the depth needed to create a "worst nightmare." A bad dream, maybe. For the viewers. Or perhaps some indigestion. He always looked rather dispeptic. It probably just gave him some bad gas.

Note: Deleted parts of this entry have been reworked into another piece called "The Nightmare" (click the title to read) which has been posted in the arts section of this blog. The changes do not affect the general meaning of the entry and therefore should not invalidate any of the comments that were made prior to these changes.