Music Stuffs: NPR and a Video

I love NPR's All Songs Considered hosted by Bob Boilen and Robin Hilton. It is one of my top sources for finding new (to me) music. They do a lot of great things, but I particularly like two of their features. First, are the Tiny Desk Concerts where they invite a musical guest to play few songs while shoved into a tiny office space. (Here's one from a while ago with The Swell Season. And from their most recent concert, highlighting Jeremy Messersmith.) The intimacy of these performances is a nice way to really get to know a band. No auto tuning, no choreographed dancing, no fireworks, just simple and pure music joy.

Second, is the First Listen feature. For a couple of weeks they offer a link that allows you to listen songs, and often whole albums, that have not yet been released. Which is how I became cozy and familiar with the new Beirut album The Rip Tide. And it is just delicious.

But this whole preamble is just an introduction to a video by Army Navy called "Ode to Janice Melt"  that I recently came across in the NPR Music twitter feed. The video is fresh, clever, and funny. Plus it stars Jason Ritter, actor and son of the late and great John Ritter. I have an unexplainable soft spot for Jason Ritter.

Both the All Songs Considered's regular weekly podcast and the Tiny Desk Concert podcast are free on iTunes.

Project Runway, Episode 8: Where Boring Wins

I thoroughly enjoyed the latest episode of Project Runway. This week the gang had to design an outfit for a real woman (as opposed to fake models) as directed by her husband or boyfriend. I actually laughed a few times and I thought the episode was actually really charming--aside from that guy who went on and on about his wife's breasts. It was a little grating. I mean, for Pete's sake he "motor boated" the mannequin to show his enthusiasm for them. Keeping it klassy.

It was no surprise that Bryce went home. He's not great at construction and his dress was just horrifying to look at, from the bad fit to the overall sloppy and unpressed quality. Michael Kors really lit into Bryce about the pockets making the thighs look bigger, but I don't think that this is the case--for this body type anyway. In fact, the pockets are my favorite part. Bryce's final words on the show are rather priceless: "I’m just going to lock myself in my room, listen to as much Lady Gaga as I can, and sketch until I have a genius collection." He wasn't trying to be funny, but I admit that it made me laugh pretty hard. If that makes me a jerk, so be it.

Anya was again in the top three. I do love the main animal fabric, it has a really nice drape. But other than that...I really don't get it. On the runway, you could see the sleeve was pulling and looked ill-fit and extremely uncomfortable. And the four inch organza trimming around the whole hem is bizarre. It looks like a novice sewer put that trim on not caring about puckers or quality. Oh wait, she IS a novice. 

Why, oh why is Oliver still in this competition?! He made it perfectly obvious this episode that he doesn't want to make clothes for a customer, and if he does they better shut-up about it and wear whatever he says. He commented about how he doesn't like to work with women with "boobs" because they ruin the line of the clothes. What? I, um, what? Maybe he should design clothes for pre-teens then. Well, pre-teens who like drab and depressing color palettes. 

And then we come to my precious baby boy Anthony Ryan, who wore the worst hipster glasses I've ever seen, but I digress. The couple that AR worked with was my favorite. The husband looked like a lumberjack, and the wife was about the sweetest thing (in a good way) ever. However, the judges hated AR's dress, and he was in the bottom two! I didn't think it was bottom-two-bad, but there really is nothing special about it.  It was well made at least. Heidi kept saying she looked like a "grandma." I don't know what Heidi's grandma wears, but most the grandmas I know would not wear this. My 92 year old grandma simply doesn't have the legs or arm tone for it.

And finally we come to the injustice. Josh M. wins again with a boring black dress. The judges only fawned all over it because Josh didn't bedazzle it like he does everything else. There really is nothing exciting about it. Michael Kors himself said, after her praised the dress, that he's glad Josh added the turquoise shoes because they added "personality." Doesn't that mean that personality is lacking in the dress? Jeesh. 

How could it win next to Viktor's delightful design? His outfit had tons of personality. And I'm pretty sure not just saying that because this is something I would wear. Love the color combo, love the dropped pleating, love the vintage nod. I also love her hair. I would like to see Viktor in the final three.

Picture Pages

Baarains.

I Like It When: Website Edition

I like it when the design or function of a website surprises me. Maybe it's because I have no skills, knowledge, or talent that goes much beyond the basics in the area of computing. Recently I've run across two websites that fit into this category. First, there is Built by Wendy. When you get to her site, just slowly-ish scroll down and watch the magnet-like effect unfold before your eyes. It delighted me with surprise. I wouldn't say I'm necessarily a fan of all her fashion, it's mostly just okay. Here's one I like well enough, even though she needs more stabilizer in the pocket flaps.

Second, there is Patrik Ervell. I gasped a little when I first saw this "fidgety" site, based on its fresh, surprising presentation. (And this time I DO like the fashions.) Not only is it visually interesting, but I think that the movement better shows customers how the clothes move and function, and on some level, how comfortable the clothes will be. The tiny repetitive loops of the models' movements are oddly hypnotic.

I wonder if the site designer was inspired by the moving photos and posters in the Harry Potter movies.

Project Runway, Episode 7: A Bully and Some Chaos

I started to watch Project Runway Season 1, Episode 1. Obviously I was attracted to the concept of a fashion competition, and I appreciate the entertainment value of some drama. But this season, for whatever reason, the producers changed the balance of fashion and drama, with much more focus on the drama. In the previous season the show increased the run time to 1 1/2 hours per episode, which I thought would be great because I would see more of the designers' processes and how they make decisions and edit and all that. Nope. It's all dedicated to the absolute drama of, well, Josh M. I don't know what I can say about him except that he is a mega-diva and a ultra-mega bully. And that's all the time I wish to dedicate to him.

Surprisingly, even though there was so much over-the-top drama, this episode produced some of my favorite fashion of the season. Two teams of 5 had to create a concept, their own fabric, and their own fashion show video backdrop. It's a tall order for two days. Of course, one team (Nuts & Bolts) spiraled into...not good. When Tim Gunn came in to critique, he made them all join hands to try and foster unity. Of course it was futile. (Also, I love Tim Gunn so much. So much.) The other team (Chaos) met the challenge with cooperation and grace. I won't bother even talking about the losing team's garments, you can view their hot mess (as well as the winning team's styles) here.

Team Chaos' inspiration came from psychological chaos, which they chose to represent with Rorschach ink blot inspired prints. Anya's bore-fest technically won overall. Barf. I will say that I do like the surprising mix of pattern in her dress, but it was overall a snoozer. I mean, it kind of looks like a jumper with a t-shirt under it.

I loved Anthony Ryan's sweet and sophisticated sportswear outfit. It's so durned polished, yet so playful, and again it mixes patterns so well. Personally, if I were to wear this, I'd make the tie from a softer fabric (and maybe a softer color) to play hard and soft against each other a little more.

But I loved Viktor's dress the most. It is simple yet fresh, and totally red carpet ready. Viktor was completely off my radar at the start of the season, but he has really impressed me the past couple of episodes. I may even hope for him to be in the final three. I'll ruminate and let you know.

(Sorry about the grainy pics, I couldn't get them to work right.)

Giveaway: Dragonfly Fabrics

 
House of Marmalade is helping Dragonfly Fabrics promote their new site with a giveaway, which you can enter here. It is the last day to enter, but Dragonfly has some really lovely things that I have not seen elsewhere. And they ship to the U.S.! I hope to soon add some of them to my horde of fabric.
 

Project Runway: Avant-Gard

I always dread the avant-garde challenge on Project Runway. While I understand the “pushing the limits” aspect of avant-garde, I can’t seem to get behind it. To be sure the techniques and construction skills are incredible, requiring all sorts of innovation and creativity. But to what end? It feels like such a waste of time, especially when no one but Lady Gaga would ever wear it, and I’m pretty sure she has all creative control of her looks. Ultimately I do believe that fashion is art, but to reach its pinnacle, it has to be functional art. And I don’t think the judges really want avant-garde anyway. I mean, they told more than one contest that they weren’t “avant-garde enough,” but then they criticized others for not making it wearable enough. And of course, the winner’s look was probably the most layperson-wearable of the lot. But congrats to Anthony Ryan, who was long overdue for a win. He’s talented (I keep forgetting he’s colorblind!) and sweet and Southern. And I do love me some Southern.

 

Poor, poor, Josh C. He was brought back into the competition during the last challenge, only to be sent home once again. He definitely has some serious skills, but he simply has not found his point of view yet. Not only do his looks feel recycled, but he seems to pick the worst fashion to recycle. At one point Viktor called Josh C.’s look (before he edited for the runway), “Carmen Miranda meets vampire.” Which was a little mean, and a lot funny, but in reality the most accurate description of anything I’ve ever heard. The guest judge, Kenneth Cole, called the finished product "generic dominatrix," which is the best thing he said all night. (He was generally a terrible judge because he simply struggled to put together complete sentences.)

 

Oliver really did give Josh C. a run for his money, though. He uses the same washed-out and depressing color palette for every single garment. Plus he tried to glue part of it to his model so it wouldn’t “flap” while the model was walking. Get real. But Tim busted him, so Oliver put his model’s hair over the offending part of the garment as a cop-out. Hopefully he will be out soon.

 

I do have to say something about Becky’s look. I was frightened by her choice of denim for an avant-garde look. Denim? Really? But I was surprised by how her dramatic hemline really made the dress stand out in a good way. I think she really “made it work,” as it were. Not my favorite look, but she definitely made me take a second look.

 

 As to my favorite look? I did like Anthony Ryan's, but I was surprised how much I liked Laura's look. I don't feel that it's truly avant-garde, but it is dramatic, energetic, strong, and sweet all at the same time. Not an easy thing to accomplish. I can see her in the top three.