My Two Cents on M.I.A.’s Grammy Getup

I might be the only person who thought M.I.A.’s Grammy outfit was flippin’ adorable.  Some have written that it’s risqué for a pregnant woman, but I think it is actually 100% appropriate for M.I.A. and a lot cuter on her nine-months-pregnant body than it is on this lady: I don’t know what it is… it’s just whimsical and cute and Super Mario Brothers-esque on M.I.A. whereas the whole thing falls flat (uh… literally) on this skinny model.  Humor and whimsy are so absent from fashion that I applaud M.I.A. for taking a risk.  I also applaud her for her insistence upon wearing sneakers at red carpet events:

So sue me, I adore this outfit as well.  She’s M.I.A.; she’s about to pop (and pop she did); she can wear whatever the eff she wants to the Grammys.

W.

As his tenure nears its end, I find myself becoming strangely sentimental about our president.  Watching W.last night, I found myself rooting for him as he makes his way through a series of jobs that don’t stick (this feels familiar) and a failed run for Congress.  I even found parts of it (especially the scene where he meets Laura at a backyard barbecue) quite touching. 

Compared to other presidents’ biographies, his is undoubtedly on the lackluster and even pathetic side, and yet the average person can probably relate to him better than to Reagan or even Clinton.  Maybe that’s how we ended up with a president who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth but didn’t make much of his life and was something of a loser until he ran for governor.  Many people can relate to his underachievement, or at least his sense of having to prove himself.

Josh Brolin is brilliant as the title character, and Richard Dreyfuss has got the mannerisms and look of Dick Cheney down to an eerie science.  The rest of the cast is almost *too* look-a-like for my taste, but on the other hand it is kind of amazing that they found actors who can so closely resemble and portray all the members of Bush’s cabinet.

As much as it made me wince at times (the gut-level decisions that go on during the meetings about invading Iraq are particularly painful to watch), I was surprised at how much of a good movie and even a historical document this was.  Though I don’t have great memories of Bush’s reign in particular, his presidency was the backdrop of a lot of pivotal moments in my life: from my first semester in college (when he was elected) to meeting my husband and getting married.  When my (hypothetical) kids ask me why we invaded Iraq, passed the Patriot Act, and reelected George W. Bush, I hope I can point them to this film.

Bridal Showdown

I was partly groaning, partly giddy when they announced that the four finalists would need to make a wedding gown which would determine who showed their collections at Fashion Week.  Ample time and money to design the gown of their dreams?  Oh, and of course they were asked to make a bridesmaid’s dress at the eleventh hour.  Let’s see what the top four came up with:

Let’s start with Jerrell:

Looks like she fell in the gutter.

Ok, so I see what he was going for with for the bride.  We’ve seen similar sillhouettes/construction from high-end bridal wear designers.  But the dirty color?  The exploding bust?  The flowers springing forth from her head? Not exactly how I’d wanna look on my wedding day (or what I’d what to see coming up the aisle). Freak-ay.  The BM dress looks decent to me, but almost seems too tame compared to the drama that is the bride.  I can’t decide whether or not I’d want to attend this wedding.  At the very least, it would *interesting.*

Korto:

She's not crying tears of joy for the bride.

I appreciate what she’s trying to do with colors and textures, but in the end it looks like a bride and bridesmaid on safari.  The texturing around the bride’s torso reminds me of corrugated cardboard, and her poor maid just looks sad.  I would be too if i had to wear a halter dress made out of grocery bags.  However I see the method behind the madness – there’s real constructino going on – and her collection looks like it rocks, so she deserves to be in.

Kenley:

Cute if you're 5'11" and 125 lbs

Kenley needs to learn once again that it pays to look at current fashions.  Kors says that ALexander McQueen just showed a similar wedding dress.  Kenley REFUSES to believe that a similar silhouette exists out there in the world.  C’mon Kenley, you live in BROOKLYN.  Are you in complete isolation from ALL THINGS FASHION?  I don’t think so.  Also the BM dress?  Kors says that every girl would want to wear it. Sorry, but most of the girls I know (including me) would FREAK if they had to wear that.  Can you imagine four of those in a row?  Most of the girls I know like dresses to a) cover their undies and b) flatter their hips, not inflate them to cartoonish proportions.  Kenley, you’re allowed to wear the McQueen-eque gown on your wedding day (I’ll refrain from jokes about the kind of guy who’d want to marry you) but please, please do not make your girls wear that BM dress.  It just ain’t dignified.

Leanne:

Ahhhh.....

Ahhh…. Leanne’s pieces were like a breath of fresh air.  Yes, THIS is a good high-fashion interpretation of what a wedding should look like, and there’s a small chance that real women might wear this.  The garments are soft and flowing, and follow the wave aesthetic of her collection.  The colors are more traditional and they LOOK GOOD.  Way to go Leanne, you understand that brides want to look beautiful. 

And in the end… it’s the freakiness that is Jerrell that just doesn’t make the cut.  I find it a little funny that we were being set up to see him, Leanne and Korto as the finalists (Tim doesn’t even meet any of Kenley’s friends or family when he goes to visit her.. wtf?)  But in the end, the ladies triumphed.  I think it was the right decision.

I’ve got my money on Miz Leannimal.  Anyone want to make a wager?

Mrs. Bee Responds to Rumors; Mrs. Creampuff and Mrs. Hummingbird Say Goodbye

Mrs. Bee posted a thoughtful response over at Weddingbee today, speaking to the rumors that eHarmony had financial ties to Focus on the Family, that they do not allow (or have not in the past allowed) interracial matching on their site, and that they have assumed editorial control of the Hive. Mrs. Bee insists that none of these rumors are true.

Apparently Mrs. Hummingbird has also left the hive amidst the eHarmony fracas. You can read her farewell post here. Today Mrs. Creampuff also bids us adieu.

I believe this brings the tally of departed Bees up to four: Mrs. Creampuff, Mrs. Hummingbird, Miss Flipflop, Mrs. Gingerbread (and Mrs. Lovebug, although she posted a farewell a while back). Did I miss any?

I still respect every Bee’s decision to leave Weddingbee, whether or not there was a financial tie to Focus on the Family (there was certainly a prior business tie between FotF and the founder of eHarmony), and whatever eHarmony’s opinion on interracial dating is. While eHarmony has every right to refuse to make same-sex matches, the readers and bloggers at Weddingbee have every right to choose not to support such a site.  I fear that Weddingbee may crash and burn (or become a Knot clone) without its more interesting and political bloggers, but so be it.  It’s a good lesson in values.

Sewing and Glowing, with Aussie Accents

I wasn’t aware until recently that Australia has its own version of Project Runway (um, so does Canada, Malaysia, Norway and the Philippines, according to Wikipedia), which aired this summer. Thank God for Youtube, because I doubt it will ever air in the U.S. (Also thank God for Youtube because I don’t have a TV). Aussie PR is a decent franchise, with similar-but-less-memorable counterparts to the U.S. version. There’s blonde super model host Kristy Hinze, who is less shout-y and manages to have even less personality than Ms. Klum; peppy mentor and Greg Proops doppelganger Henry Roth:

Time's up - tools down!

And of course the requisite bitchy fashion industry judges standing in for Kors and Garcia. There is even an echo of Season 4 winner Christian Siriano in Philippines-born, sass-talking Mark Antonio – both in his ludicrous hair and personality, as well as his sharp designs:

Beh-NAH-nahs ah my FEY-vor-it!

While it’s not of the same caliber as the version we know and love, it’s good for those of us who get twitchy mid-week, jonesing for our weekly dose of delicious catty runway drama. Here are some things I love about it:

• More swearing than the U.S. version (witness: Helen: “You fucking stole my block!”  Oren: “Bitch.”)
• Accents, obviously. Mark Antonio has what sounds like a cockney Australian accent (if there is such a thing). It makes everything sound SO much better.
• The $$$ seems to matter more than the prestige: Helen (a Wendy-Pepper-esque figure) keeps repeating during one episode where she’s convinced someone’s been cheating, “a HUNDRED GRAND is at stake.”
• Excellent quotes. See the following:

“If I had breasts I would’ve put one on myself and had the ultimate bikini top.”
“Keep sewing and glowing.”
“There’s no way I’m going to put a dog on that catwalk.”
“I felt like an Asian lady haggling for cheap bananas in Vietnam”

(The last one is especially delicious in Mark Antonio’s accent – you just have to hear it.

Youtube user qiriri can hook you up with Season 1.

The Debate Continues

Not last night’s VP debate, but the discussion of whether eHarmony’s purchase of Weddingbee was a good move, and whether Bees with LGBT ties or sympathy should continue to blog for the site.  Mrs. Creampuff, a popular San Francisco-based Bee, has turned in her resignation.   So has Miss Flip Flop, a newer Bee from Orlando who identifies as bisexual.

Past and present Bees have had a LOT to say on the subject.  Here are some comments of note:

Miss Hot Cocoa:

“I will not cede power to EHarmony to define what a Weddingbee or a wedding should be, and I genuinely fear that if all of us who support the queer community go, that’s precisely what will happen. The moment EHarmony starts to censor our blogs is the moment I will go. But so long as Bee is committed to providing an open forum, I will continue to use this open (and well-attended) forum to express my support of the queer community and to challenge the heteronormativity of the wedding industrial complex.”

Mrs. Cherry Pie:

“I, too, have felt conflicted about WB’s acquisition by eHarmony. I identify as bisexual and polyamorous, and Mr. CP and I are an active part of Seattle’s kink (leather, queer, poly) community. I wonder how eHarmony would feel about THAT? … Long story short, I do not want to support eHarmony’s discriminative policies. But I don’t really want to leave until I’ve had my say. “

Mrs. Lovebug:

“Weddingbee HAS changed today, massively and fundamentally and irrevocably.”

Mrs. Cookie:

“I too will hold Bee to the promise of maintaining an independent voice that is not censored, and I look forward to the day eharmony changes its policies to be inclusive of the GLBT community. I hope by continuing to blog and tell my story, without censorship, that I can be an instrument for change. “

While I respect Mrs. Bee’s decision to sell her site, I also *greatly* respect the integrity of the Bees who made the choice to leave. This is a tough decision to be sure, and I’m not certain what I’d do in their place. Can you make more of a difference by ‘working from within’ and reaching eHarmony’s audience, or by boycotting the site all together? I don’t know…