Warm Glowing Warming Glow

Don't Rain on My Amanda

Still in deepest mourning about the conclusion of The Paper. I'm especially ripped that MTV decided to dump the final two episodes on Memorial Day, at a different time than usual, I guess so they can go back to airing endless America's Next Top Model repeats. Anyhow, to add insult to injury, I just stumbled across this review of the series, via this story. This is one of the dangers of reviewing a series, based on a small sampling of episodes, I think. Based on just the premiere, I would sort of agree with Troy Patterson, but the difference is that I really relished how monstrous Amanda Lorber appeared to be, whereas Patterson seems offended by her. Then there's the problem where as the season progressed, Amanda emerged as if not the protagonist, certainly not the villain.

902Fug0

This is pretty funny:

http://nymag.com/daily/fashion/2008/05/the_new_90210_commits_the_ulti_1.html

By the way, here's some more from the Fug Girls about 90210 fashion:

http://gofugyourself.typepad.com/go_fug_yourself/2006/06/90210_a_legacy_.html

and here:

http://gofugyourself.typepad.com/go_fug_yourself/2006/06/beverly_fug_902.html

"The World Is a Very Simple Place . . ."

Holy crap. This looks really good:

I don't think I can wait for mid-season.

Amanda's Turn!

Just in time for tonight's sixth episode (of only eight -- that kind of stings) of The Paper, another interview with Amanda Lorber.

You Gotta Live By the Code

It's the new 90210 promo. Check it out:

Donna Martin Graduates . . . and Yet . . .

Meh news all around:

First, according to OK!, there's talk of a Project Runway All-Stars season or special. Because those always work out so well.

Second, Tori Spelling seems to be bullying her way into 90210. I feel bad about this: I like Tori, but I feel like she's become kind of a freak since hooking up with Dean McDermott, and I never cared one way or another about Donna. Plus, most importantly, we know from Degrassi: The Next Generation, that it's boring and sucky when the original cast members return.

More Project Runway Weirdness

This is maybe the strangest thing I've read about Project Runway lately -- and that's saying a lot. Nina Garcia, who was apparently ousted from Elle last month, and may have recently landed a job at Marie-Claire, is apparently back at Elle, but just through Project Runway's fifth season (this summer!).

Today in 90210 Casting

Huh. It makes a certain amount of sense. Actually, wait. I think it makes a little too much sense: Estes was on Melrose Place (after we all stopped watching, but still . . .), which was originally a spin-off of the original Beverly Hills, 90210. I guess Grant Show was busy?

The Bureau of Good and Evil

Night Watch, Sergei Lukyanenko. This seems to me stereotypically Russian: one half fairytale, one half bureaucracy. You see, there are the forces of Good (the Light Ones) and there are the forces of Evil (the Dark Ones) and they're locked in an epic struggle. Exciting, right? Well, kind of. It turns out that there's a centuries-old truce between Light and Dark, and this is really the story of the Night Watch, the Light Ones in charge of enforcing the truce. (There's also a Day Watch consisting of the Night Watch's opposite number among the Dark Ones.)

I go back and forth about this book and its sequel, Day Watch, which I'm reading right now. On the one hand, reading about treaties, it turns out, is pretty unexciting (unless we're talking about the s!@# that went down at Yalta, of course). Plus the books' episodic structure tends to draw suspense away. But what the books have going for them is Lukyanenko's psychological and philosophical insight. The central, seemingly doomed love story between IT guy/magician Anton and Svetlana, the much more powerful witch he loves is worth all the talk about "fifth level infractions" and the rest of it. -- Pete

Do You Want Fries with that F-Bomb?

Dear Jenny,

I think you've been watching Top Chef this entire f!@#ing season, so I hope that you can explain this s!@# to me: when did this g!@d!@# show get so f!@#ing crazy? I saw, here and there, some of that Andrew a!@hole and I can tell that he's a loose f!@#ing cannon, a real s!@#disturber. I had also read that Bravo was a little embarrassed by all the profanity. Even so, I was shocked -- absof!@#inglutely shocked -- by what I saw of last night's episode. The judges' table was f!@#ing bananas. "Those b!@$#es burnt my motherf!@#ing rice!" Are you kidding me?

Is it always like that? How have I missed this? Is it hard to take week after week or does it just get funnier?

Also, settle a bet for me: Lisa and Zoi -- same person?

F1!@# you!

Love,

-- Pete