Anything good on?

Have I ever mentioned I love dogs?


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I had a dachsund when I was little, but we had to give him away because my brother was allergic. Anyway, I was delighted last night when the task was to design matching outfits for the models and little doggies. So cute. The main drama on the show surrounded Bradley, who was having trouble getting it together and threatened to "bow wow out" (get it, get it?) for the runway show. He did manage to pull something together, though, which the judges ended up loving, so ya never know... Keith continues to be incredibly arrogant and everyone knows it so he will probably make it to the end, for entertainment value, just like Santino. So annoying that he seems to sew really well and is so handsome, too. Uli (who won) would also appear to be an early frontrunner. Angela keeps coming in near last -- they said her design looked trashy. (Though Vera Wang actually seemed to like it a bit.)Alison seemed to think she was going to win and showed obvious disappointment that she didn't. I did like her white ensemble better than Uli's.

Has anyone noticed that you can't turn on the TV without channel flipping by a rerun of Project Runway?

Next week someone does something bad and gets kicked off. I can't wait.

project runway

A Native Oklahoman, Jennifer Lynn Barnes has been a competitive cheerleader, a volleyball player, a dancer, a debutante, a primate cognition researcher, a teen model, a comic book geek, and a lemur aficionado.


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Jennifer wrote her novel GOLDEN when she was 19. GOLDEN, a young adult chicklit novel about a girl who has special powers, must be based in part on the author. Jennifer has just graduated from Yale, and is spending the next year doing autism research at the University of Cambridge. You may assume that someone as well-rounded, educated, and gorgeous as this would have no time for TV and would in fact shun the idea of television watching in general. But guess what... on top of everything else, Jennifer is an accomplished TV junkie! I asked her the usual questions...

Are you a TV watcher?

I'm an absolute TV junkie, and follow at least eight to ten shows in any given
year.

What's your favorite show ever?

Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I'm a big fan of shows that mix the ordinary and the
supernaturally extraordinary, and nobody did that better than Joss Whedon.
Besides which, I love a show that can make me laugh, and the dialogue on Buffy
always managed to do that at least once an episode.

Runner up shows include Party of Five (I loved the family dynamics) and Veronica
Mars.

What TV character (past or present) do you identify with most?

Wow, that's a hard question. The characters I tend to like the best are the
ones who are the most different from me, and the ones who I probably should
relate to the most tend to irritate me. If I had to pick, I might go with Joey
on the first two seasons of Dawson's Creek, before her character got too over
the top.

Does your main character watch any TV in the novel?

Sadly, between moving cross country and engaging in the age old fight between
good and evil (not to mention braving the high school cafeteria), Lissy doesn't
have much time for television, though she does lament the fact that being in the
central time zone is going to mess up her tv watching schedule.

To be further impressed by Jennifer, visit her website and blog.

chick lit

I didn't expect to like Malan. As a matter of fact I thought he was going to be one of the evil players this season. But he actually seemed kind of nice this episode, and he said how he was glad to have the chance to be meeting the other designers, and I thought "awww, how sweet." And I began to care for him when he mentioned how his mother told him when he was 13 that his designs would go nowhere, so he really had something to prove, so I began to pull for him. And then he was quite decent when he was asked who on his team should go if his gown was to lose and he said that HE should be the one. AND THEN HE GOT KICKED OFF!

And that annoying Vincent got to stay. Even though he wouldn't even LET Angela help him with his gown, and then he totally dissed her to the judges. (And why didn't Angela tell them how he wouldn't let her do anything?) I dunno, maybe we were missing something in the editing.

At least they didn't kick Angela off. That just wouldn't have been fair. I'm reserving judgement on her, but she really was in an impossible situation, or so it seemed to me. Vincent absolutely failed at team work AND his dress was not good (except for the back, okay, so you like it when she's leaving the room) and last week he made that stupid hat and was almost kicked off, so perhaps his days are numbered.

Maybe Project Runway was getting back at Malan because he rejected them before. (Evidently he tried out for the show before, was asked to be on it, and then he said he didn't want to do it.)

Did you know you can bid on the clothes they design if you go to the project runway site? Isn't that cool? And they don't seem to get bid up all that high. Maybe I'll go bid on Jeffrey's dress. It's still only ten bucks!

project runway

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Lauren Barnholdt's YA novel REALITY CHICK has a fun premise. Five college students shack up together to be filmed for a reality show. It's like REAL WORLD goes to college. It was a Teen People pick: “An oh-so-accurate portrayal of what goes on behind closed dorms..” And author Sarah Mlynowski, who co-wrote with Farrin Jacobs the how-to-write-chicklit book SEE JANE WRITE (and is also the author of MILKRUN and AS SEEN ON TV among others) calls it hilarious.

Lauren Barnholdt is 26-years-old and lives in Connecticut. She teaches an online course that I hear is excellent called How to Write and Sell the YA Chick-lit Novel. I asked her the usual questions...

Are you a TV watcher?

YES. I love TV. Although I must confess that I’m a season behind on a lot of really good shows, like Lost and Desperate Housewives. This is because I get so impatient that I make myself wait for them to come out on DVD, so that I can watch episode after episode.

What's your favorite show ever?

Eeek, I have to pick just one? Hmm.. probably Friends.

What TV character (past or present) do you identify with most?

Angela Chase from My So-Called Life. She was just this great, multi-layered character that I think almost everyone could identify with.

Does your main character watch any TV in the novel?

Yup. She watches Lifetime movies when she gets upset. And of course, everyone else watches HER on TV, since she’s on reality show.

To learn more about Lauren and her so-called life, visit her website and blog.


chicklit
chick lit
real world
reality tv

1. Who was the RCA executive whose determination to promote the development of TV earned him the title "Father of the American Television"?

2. Who was the son of a Philadelphia cigar manufacturer who turned the CBS network into a money-making venture?

3. Who was the first scientist to develop a working all-electronic television system?

4. Who was the CBS newsman who set the standards for broadcast journlism with such programs as See It Now?

5. Who is the "old redhead" who pioneered the "natural" style of talking directly to the broadcast audience?






ANSWERS

1. David Sarnoff
2. William Paley
3. Philo T. Farnsworth
4. Edward R. Murrow
5. Howdy Doody

television
pop culture

Did I actually watch The World Series of Pop Culture on VH1? Yes. Two nights in a row. Why am I being entertained by this? First of all, I was in shock to see that Pat Kiernan has a profile. I’m used to seeing him on NY 1 news, where he anchors in the morning. Does this count as his big break? Or has he now lost all credibility?

Second of all, I saw that it takes place at the Ziegfeld Theatre in midtown, one of the nicest, biggest, one-screen movie theaters left in this city. (Could it be the only one-screen movie theater left in the city?) And, by the way, this is NOT the actual location of the original Ziegfeld Theatre, where the Ziegfeld Follies Vaudeville acts happened. That was down the block, was demolished, and is now the site of a high-rise office building. Okay, I admit, I only know this because I googled it.

Third of all, I was horrified at how many answers I didn’t know. I always prided myself on being bad at Jeopardy because there were so few questions about TV and movies. I always used to defend myself by insisting that different people know different things and I happened to know the fun stuff, not the boring stuff. Now I’m faced with the sad fact that I would lose Jeopardy even if there were only fun stuff questions. Because that’s basically what this is: Jeopardy for slackers. But it’s organized like a sport’s competition. Teams of three compete against each other. The teams that prevail will go on to compete again later until one “champion” is left.

Sure, I know some of these questions… (What sitcom starring Heather Graham was cancelled after just one episode? Emily’s Reasons Why Not… which I wrote about here, by the way…) But I should’ve known more. I should’ve kicked butt. And I was just… mediocre. My brain kept freezing! I made stupid errors. It is humbling.

Irony of ironies, I happened to watch the final question on Jeopardy when I was channel flipping earlier today, and I knew the question to the final answer: a company that first made their product out of Detroit in 1903. What is Ford? Yes! I got it. Hmmm. Maybe Jeopardy isn’t so hard.

The World Series of Pop Culture
jeopardy

Joshilyn Jackson's second novel BETWEEN, GEORGIA is out and, like GODS IN ALABAMA, it's a number 1 Booksense pick. Joshilyn has been compared to Fannie Flagg, who was born in Alabama and is the author of the amazing book FRIED GREEN TOMATOES.(And used to be the lover of Rita Mae Brown, who outed her as a lesbian.)But I always will think of Fannie Flagg as an actress who used to be a contestant on 70s game show THE MATCH GAME. This never exactly made sense to me. I mean how many actresses go on to write best selling novels? But guess what... Joshilyn used to travel around the South acting in a Dinner Theater Troupe. Coincidence? I don't think so!

I asked her the usual questions...

Are you a TV watcher?

I am. I LOVE TV!!! I am a professional insomniac, and if I READ at night, and the book is good, I get too interested to sleep. So I put on my lovely, lovely talking box, and it soothes me and makes the hamster who runs so endlessly in my brain-wheel be still.

What's your favorite show ever?

BUFFY!

What TV character (past or present) do you identify with most?

Probaby Velma, from Scooby-Doo. Luckily, my husband thinks Velma is hot. So.

Does your main character watch any TV in the novel?

Nope. The novel takes place over a small amount of time, and it begins with a hideous, violent interlude that throws a whle town into a big fat mess. No one really pauses to watch TV. A couple of them READ though. *grin*

For more on Joshilyn visit her website and check out her blog.