Music to Groove By

I've been bitten by the Space Age Pop bug. It's a strange subgenre of music that seems to defy explanation (there are those who have made a stab at it). It's probably good I don't own a turntable or I'd be haunting thrift stores for this stuff.

Right now, I'm listening to a zippy rendition of "In the Hall of the Mountain King." Yes, I'm weird.

Crazy or Annoying: which is worse?

So new season of Project Runway is in gear. I think PR is my favorite reality TV show. It's certainly one that has the most social acceptability. This is probably because it's not one where they randomly go out and pick people who've never sewn before. The contestants have actual ability and backgrounds in fashion design. The focus is also usually on the talent and less on the personality.

This week the contestants had to pair up to design a gown for the reigning Miss USA to wear in the Miss Universe pageant. Okay, not so exciting. I must say Miss USA was surprisingly articulate and had pretty good taste. The emphasis this week was unfortunately more on the personality issues. On the one hand, we have Vincent, who seems high-strung and not in a good way. Keeping in mind that this is TV and people can end up looking totally opposite from who they are in real life, something ain't right with the man. Also, so far his aesthetic is not one I'm loving. Then we have Angela. Angela, who was, well...really, really irritating. She apparently knew this was not her forte, which I can respect. But she spends her sketching time campaigning the contestant who designs pageant gowns for a living to pick her if he wins. Then she goes up to pitch her own idea to Miss USA, and hasn't even bothered to make a presentation.

Guess who get paired together?

Vincent, in addition to not being terribly stable, apparently can't play well with others. To an extent never before seen on Project Runway. He won't let the woman do anything at all. Tells her to stand three paces away from him, and then seems surprised when she disses him and his design on the runway.

To my surprise, it's Angela who gets lambasted by the judges. I'm not sure if it was because she was inarticulate (again, that pesky editing) or what, but she's in the bottom two. Go figure...

Interesting little film

I happened on Killer's Kiss this weekend. It's a very early Stanley Kubrick film, very much in the film noir school. I didn't recognize anyone in the cast, but in a way it made it a more interesting film--no screen personae to get in the way. Boxer who's past his prime gets involved with a dance hall "hostess." Unfortunately, her boss (who according to IMDB was African American and who sounds like he had an interesting career) has a thing for her and doesn't take too well to being pushed aside. Can't say I'm the biggest Kubrick fan, but I liked this a lot. Really interesting direction.

Those wacky hypnotists

Thanks to a media store closeout sale, I was able to get a bunch of DVDs on the cheap. I finally had a chance to watch one of these, Otto Preminger's Whirlpool. Gene Tierney plays one of the ladies who lunch. She's ostensibly the happy, contented wife of renowned shrink, Richard Conte. Unbeknowsnt to him, she's on the verge of a breakdown--her illness manifests itself in insomnia and kleptomania. Enter the sinister Jose Ferrer, who plays a charming quack specializing in hypnosis; he starts his "therapy" with her. Next thing Gene Tierney knows, she's accused of murder and she's got the late, great Charles Bickford leading the police investigation against her. The plot is on the improbable side, but the performances are solid.