Friday, June 19, 2009

Summer TV Preview Countdown #2

2) Psych


Oh James Roday. You're so cute. And swoon-worthy. And, of course, a complete fake. This fun series returns this summer, and I will be absolutely glued to my TV set. For one thing, Psych is not just the story of two best friends getting in and out of trouble. It's also a fast-paced journey back in time with numerous 80's references that only those of us born '85 and earlier will get.

Then there's the show's unique brand of humor and focus on friendship. All the characters have different relationships to each other and play those parts well. The young ingenue detective, Juliet just wants everyone to be happy and cheerful. She was a sorority sister, and probably also a cheerleader at one point. She's happy and sunny, and the only thing that brings her down is when her partner, Lassiter just doesn't want to be happy. Which is always.

The cast has fun doing each taping, and you can tell. The excitement is palpable. Shawn's twitchy over-acting for his part of the SBPD pet psychic is just right here. And after last season's fantastic Tuesday the 17th episode, I can't wait to find out what else the writing team has in store for us.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

More shrinky-dink earrings

Another pair of earrings for my friend today. This time using shrinkydinks. I know that she's a huge Zelda fan, so I figured I'd work with that. I also figured today would be a good day to experiment with using permanent markers on the shrinkydink plastic.

Before:


After:


The colors come out MUCH darker with permanent marker. Parts of Link are done only in colored pencil, and some parts are also a mixture of both media.

I also sealed the drawn side with clear nail polish. Without the nail polish, the rough side feels like painted wood, and I worry that if the piece gets wet, the colors might run (who the hell knows. It's permanent marker, but then, it's also been through the toaster oven).

I'm pretty certain my friend's gonna love these earrings.

Origami Earrings

A friend of mine recently posted in her journal that because she had recently gotten her ears pierced, she had been looking through various Etsy.com shops and finding slews of earrings that she wanted to buy. She provided a link. I'm a curious sort of person, so I followed the link and found that all of the earrings she was looking at were $10 or more! One pair was even $20! "Enough," I told her, "I will make you some earrings and send them to you and you won't have to pay a cent. Additionally, the cost of my materials comes in at a bit less than $15 and I can make maybe 20 pairs of earrings with them. Not a bad deal.

Materials:

Scissors
Needle
Thread (Yellow silk) - $1
Origami Paper Srips - $2.50
Origami Squares - $2.50
Clear Nail Polish (not pictured) - $1
Beads - $5
Fish Hook Earring Bases - $2.10
Optional: 2" Head pins ($2.10), Needle Nose Pliers ($8)

Because I didn't have the head pins, I ended up using needle and thread instead of the pins and pliers. The needle and thread is actually a nice way to lower your overall costs if you find yourself without pliers which can be hard to find and/or costly.

The Origami strips come with directions which allow you to fold them up into handy little stars. When I was younger, my friends and I used to make them by the dozens and fill pretty jars with stars. Fold your stars first.



Next, I threaded my needle with the silk thread. Silk thread can be tricky to work with. You need to really bulk up your knots to make sure stuff doesn't slide right off. So I put the thread through the needle 3 times before tying off a knot on the bottom and trimming it.



Silk thread is also very slippery. To ensure my knots don't come out, I brush the knots and the knot tail with clear nail polish and I wait for it to dry before I trim.

Thread your stars on. I always push stars onto the needle "crotch" first (concave side) so that the needle comes out through a point. I placed beads between my stars to give the earrings a bit more flexibility. You'll find that if you stack stars one on top of the other, they come out stiff and sometimes crooked.



Finally, tie on your fish hook. Again, you should brush with clear nail polish before you do any trimming. And Voila!



I also made her a pair of crane earrings. Same principles apply. I love putting cranes on thread because the knots get hidden inside the crane's body.

Before and After


A pair of Crane Earrings

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Summer TV Preview Countdown #3

3) (It's a tie!) Monk & Royal Pains


Monk is saying goodbye. Maybe even to wipes? We can hope.

With this summer comes the 8th and final season of Monk. And, I'm sure, quite a few revelations. Monk may have lost me as a viewer around season 4, but that won't stop me coming back when I have a feeling that a lot of old strings will get tied up this season (well, they'd have to, right?).

My dad and I have some theories about what will happen this season:

Plot line the first
a) Monk will finally confront Trudy's murderer.
b) Trudy's murderer will be killed in some way that is only marginally Monk's fault.
c) Because Trudy's murderer is dead, Monk will start making headway on conquering some of his OCD
d) Monk will be reinstated to the police force
e) Natalie will be paid, in full

Plot line the second
a) Monk will finally confront Trudy's murderer.
b) Monk will fall in love with a secondary or tertiary character
c) This love interest will help Monk get over some of his fears.

In any case, it looks to be a nice little wrap-up. And I'm excited to see how the whole thing concludes.

As for Royal Pains . . .

Concierge Doctor with denial is a hottie.

I caught the pilot of this little gem last week. Frankly, for the most part, USA could take just about any actor and any plot and keep their writers the same and I'd be all over it like iguanas on a warm rock. Royal Pains is slightly different from their usual fare. The camera work is slick and clean. The main character isn't the wise-cracker but the straight man, while his brother is the main comedic force of the show.

The pilot was actually a very nice balance of drama and comedy. And you really get the sense from the show that you'd love to punch some of those rich people right in the face. If that's not good story telling, I don't know what is.

Potential down-sides: Will Americans want to see rich people living high-on-the-hog and throwing away money on fancy cars and postage stamps, particularly in this down-turn economy? I'm not really sure. This is definitely a slow-starter series. And I can see it either being pulled late-season, or becoming a sudden break-out hit. In the case of the latter, the writers WILL need to step it up. This is not really a medical mystery show so much as a interaction drama. We get to sit and watch all these rich people relate to one another and money change hands, but for right now, none of the major characters (save one, the female hospital doctor) have a long-term goal.

It can be truly unnerving to watch these people prance around the screen in their yuppie/preppy suits, acting on whims and not on future plans. So Royal Pains is a waiting game. As it stands though, I'll be tuning in each Thursday to catch it (perhaps even at the cost of missing "The Fashion Show").

Friday, June 12, 2009

Summer TV Preview Countdown #4

Let the countdown of Summertime TV continue!

4) Project Runway (Season 6)


Heidi and Tim weren't sure if you were aware that
they've moved their whoring over to Lifetime TV.

Now you don't have to feel bad when the contestants
design something so bad, it makes you cry.


So here's the thing. I've been an avid PR watcher since season 1 aired while I was in college. The girls in my dorm would gather in someone's room and eat popcorn and critique like mad for an hour and the whole experience was very cathartic. There's something splendid about just being mean about someone else's creative output. This is obviously an emotion that Bravo knows only too well, since they made sure to have an extensive line-up of shows based solely on this premise (Blow Out, Top Chef, Flipping Out, Tabatha's Salon Takeover, etc.). When they sold it to Lifetime TV, I thought they were nuts. But it turned out they were in talks to start up The Fashion Show (and we can see how well that turned out).

In any case, Project Runway will be starting up on August 20th this summer, and despite the change of venue, I remain as faithful as always. I only hope it contains less bitchery than The Fashion Show contains; shouldn't be too difficult.

Summer TV Preview Countdown #5

Alright folks, now that I'm moved back to New Jersey and have most of my stuff in order (and I'm unemployed), the unofficial GG hiatus is over! And we're starting the summer off with a bang to talk about some of the upcoming TV shows (and a few that are already in full-swing) that I'm looking forward to watching. Let the dizzying array of TV-brain-meltiness begin!

5) The Fashion Show

Boy Isaac, for someone who always complains
that the contestants don't use enough color,

you sure do wear a lot of black!


While Project Runway was being shuffled over to Lifetime Network, Bravo was scrambling to recoup their losses. "Let's make a copy of it," they likely said to themselves. "We'll set it in the same city, with the same number of contestants, the same number of judges. But we will change the shape of the runway. We won't give the designers a mentor. And we will make sure that when we critique a design, we will do it in the bitchiest and most inane way possible."

And while the producers were likely squealing with joy at their own "good" ideas, they probably also jumped up and down and hugged. That's my theory.

The Fashion Show is trying. It's trying soooo hard to be the new Project Runway, but despite my initial excitement over this show, it's fallen flat. The guest judges sometimes have no insight into fashion at all, a lot of the designers have NO sewing skills of which to speak, and the challenges are frequently pointless or of little consequence. Not to mention, giving someone immunity for designing a high schooler's t-shirt strikes me as the height of the inane. Bravo isn't even manufacturing drama for the sake of drama here.

Unfortunately, I really like design shows, so although I'm not happy with it, I'll probably continue watching it.

Stay tuned for the rest of the countdown!