Thursday, July 26, 2007

my new favorite blog


princess sparkle pony

"I keep track of Condoleezza's hairdo so you don't have to."


It's like Wonkette + Barbie + My Little Pony.

Recent posts include some great material commemorating Tammy Faye including audio from a children's album (of Bible songs and stories) that Tammy and Jim recorded in the 1970s and described in this way:
This fantastic album consists of ten songs sung in a shrieky fake little girl voice and two stories told by Jim 'n' Tammy and all their puppetland friends. The stories are my favorites, because the musical background is so off-the-wall, at points it almost sounds like Captain Beefheart is providing the accompaniment.
The Princess also scores an exclusive interview with one of John McCain's "notoriously gay sweaters":
PSP: Were you the first gay sweater on his staff?
MGS: No, there were others. There was a small coterie of gay outerwear ...
Check out the educational posts on Fashion/Beauty history such as the evolution of Harriet Miers hairdo. (Shear Genius take note.)

Want more? Hilarious photoshopping.

Sunday, July 22, 2007

design star starts tonight

And Linda Merrill at Chameleon Interiors is blogging! So we are going to get some informed commentary. She already has her first post up and it looks like the second season contestants have been given much nicer digs than last year:
Design Star vs Top Design
There were ways that I enjoyed Design Star more than Top Design. While there is no substitute for Todd Oldham (be still my heart), Clive is a fine host, and the judges lacked some of the pretentiousness of the TD judges. (That was what I liked about Todd, is his lack of pretentiousness...but he was the exception to the rule.)

The contestents on Top Design were stronger and more professional and TD had bigger budgets. However, they weren't always more imaginative than Design Star. At least with Design Star the contestants got out of those white boxes!!!

Plus the amateurism of the DS contestants made the show more amusing. Who can forget that woman who seemed like a crazy homeless person who just picked up trash on the street. I still suspect that she just wandered into the set and they let her stay for the first episode.

Note: Linda Merrill's first "sneak peak" post has a good discussion of the problems with the first season of Design Star.

Color Splash
I have to say that the biggest disappointment with Design Star was the show (Color Splash) that they created for the winner, David Bromstad. Even though David was the obvious winner and he was great on the competition show, I thought the show they created for him was unwatchable. Furthermore, I was surprised by how much he annoyed the bejesus out of me on his own show. Everyone -- but especially David -- was insanely peppy and excited about everything. It was ridiculous. There is a difference between being warm and enthusiastic and looking like a friggin' moron.

The work David did on the competition seemed a lot more innovative than what he did on the show. I think on the show he was restrained by having to use products from certain stores.Also his color palettes were rich but not interesting. Sometimes they were just dark. They seemed really traditional, especially after seeing what designers like Matt did with color on Top Design (for example -- my top ten list). The entire show was too too tooo much. It needed to be toned down a notch. Or two. Or ten.

Design Star 2
But now we have the second season:
And oh my. I just gave this a perusal and it looks like it could be fun ... perhaps even hilarious (wait for it ... below).

First of all, they have gone to central casting and found their stereotypical southern belle, aged 30, with a high school education, who has lived out her childhood dream "to marry my Prince Charming and have children."

Ain't she sweet

Judging from her interview we can expect pearls of wisdom to fall from her lips.

But

here

is

the

kicker ...

I can't believe it's not butter.

I'm speechless.

And I can't wait to watch.

visit the photoshop of horrors

First of all . . .

For those of you who haven't yet seen it, this past week Jezebel has had a fabulous series of posts entitled "Photoshop of Horrors" regarding a recent cover of Redbook magazine featuring Faith Hill. They offered 10K to anyone who could get them a copy of a pre-photoshopped image of the cover. The result created quite a buzz. I've put links to the posts below.

and yet they couldn't do anything about that hideous dress?
  1. Here's Our Winner! 'Redbook' Shatters Our 'Faith' In Well, Not Publishing, But Maybe God
  2. The Annotated Guide To Making Faith Hill 'Hot'
  3. Faith Hill's 'Redbook' Photoshop Chop: Why We're Pissed
  4. The 'Redbook' You Should Have Seen On Newsstands
  5. The Week You Gave Us 'Faith' In The Internets
In contrast to Faith Hill (who is aging beautifully and does not need the distortions of Photoshop) there are the stars who are constantly getting plastic surgery in desperate attempts to look younger. Supposedly they would need less Photoshopping but I suspect that in practice the reverse is true.

JUST ADDED: For a recent discussion of Hollywood stars and plastic surgery check out Ms. Place's new post on her Dishin Dat blog:
If nothing else it will scare you off of getting a chemical peel. Ow! Ow! Ow!

On the other hand . . .
"The Photoshopping experts at PlanetHiltron.com have done the opposite of Redbook and given some of today's biggest boldfaced names "normal" makeovers, which, according to the Daily Mail, means they've made to look like your run-of-the-mill, fashion-challenged, badly-coiffed, fat Americans." ( Keira Knightley: Just Like Us? | Jezebel.com )
Check it out. The images are hilarious:

Tori and Candy Spelling

And finally . . .

If ever we needed a warning against combining drugs and plastic surgery, Gawker brings us
Courtney Love...


Warning: do not go to this link on a full stomach. My favorite comment:

Wow, has she been working out? Look how defined her arm muscle is...oh, my bad. That's just her skin sliding off. (MISSGOLIGHTLY AT 07/13/07 06:27 PM)