burn in hell, bitch!

Thanks to one of Bianca’s friends, I was able to watch the first season of “Project Runway” on DVD. From the title, you can tell this reality show is focused around fashion. Twelve fashion designers take on challenges, which revolve around designing, creating and modeling an outfit based on the theme for each episode. It’s a lot like “Iron Chef America,” only here both the designer and their selected model are up for elimination with the judges’ decision. Three finalists from the original twelve get to create their own fall-season collection for the Olympus Fashion Week, where one will ultimately be judged the winner.

Okay, fashion to me is normally the kind of high-budget nonsensical folly I merely tolerate but never really try to understand. However I found this show rather interesting—enough to sustain my interest in it to stay up until 5am watching the episodes in a marathon. In those hours I spent in front of the TV, I gained at least a little understanding of what designers and the fashion world look for. Yes, they do look for wearable and flattering outfits, not simply nonsensical avant-garde clothing mishmash that looks good on the runway but is pretty ridiculous everywhere else.

“Project Runway” also highlighted the lengths some people would go to just to win, and the pressure can get so elevated it’s no longer entertaining. This was personified in Wendy Pepper, the “longshot” of the final three designers—she was the most unlikely to succeed, as she was a 40-year-old mother with inconsistent results, coming close to elimination so many times.

What she obviously lacked in talent, she made up for with sheer tenacity.

A slowly but surely warping Wendy literally fought off every one of her rivals, backstabbing them, humiliating them and throwing her weight into the judging to make sure she wouldn’t be eliminated. The woman obviously has no taste—or one that is incompatible with what the show was looking for. So many of her competitors had a lot more talent than her, but got eliminated. Age isn’t a factor either: heavy favorite Kara Soun was just three years her junior but had overwhelming amounts of creativity and fashion sense. It’s horrible watching Wendy survive all that way and in my opinion it is just correct that she should not win “Project Runway.”

I am so glad one of my favorite contestants won, a real character whom I didn’t expect win at first but bowled me over with his lovable personality and unique fashion sense. Jay McCarroll absolutely deserved it.
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Ten things I currently hate

1. Wendy Pepper of “Project Runway.”

2. Infocom Warpspeed and its eternally busy dialup number. And I thought PLDT owned this?!

3. The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority and its misguided “urban renewal projects.”

4. The sickening traffic along Aurora Boulevard.

5. My monitor, which shows me everything in a twitchy blue tinge.

6. My 56K modem, which works no faster than 19.8K.

7. Peter Chung’s 1995 MTV animated series “Aeon Flux.” What was the point of it all?!

8. Unemployment. Rather obvious, this.

9. The overeager ants in my house.

10. My noisy next-door neighbors. Turn your goddamn stereo down!
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Ten things I currently like

1. The Sun Valley Music Ministry.

2. PLDT Vibe post-paid. Expensive and slow, but a good stopgap when in between prepaid Internet cards.

3. Sleep. Believe it or not, I actually like sleeping more now.

4. Driving...now that I don’t get to do enough of it.

5. A good Dance Maniax workout with no one to make fun of me. Five games or longer.

6. Austin Scarlett, Kara Soun and Jay McCarroll of “Project Runway.” Likable, they seem. Talented, they are.

7. Ely Buendia’s jingle “Watcha Lukin 4?” for Aileen’s pet project, the Mobile Yellow Pages.

8. Junk food. Yes, yes, I should be eating healthier, I know.

9. Talking to my Leyteña “fwend” Cher again over YM after so long.

10. SM Megamall and its cheap Initial D ver.3 machines. Play more.