Currently (no longer) Viewing: Project Runway

I’ve decided to break up with one of the few television shows that I watch on a regular basis.  From the beginning I was a fan of Project Runway.  It seemed like it was the perfect blend of fashion, creativity, fun, and yes, drama.

I’m not going to pretend that the show has just recently started playing up the drama.  From the very beginning, the delicate balance of personalities has played a major role in the program.  But underneath it all, there was the knowledge that the people involved were there because they wanted a career in design.  Sure, there was bad behavior, but it was mostly due to competitiveness, not diva-ness.

This season, the show has up-played the drama to the point that it is now the main focus of the show.  I might as well be watching housewives battle it out, or the guys on World Wrestling Smackdown with their trash talking attitude.  The truth is, I don’t hang out with nasty divas in real life, so why would I be interested in watching them on TV.

The last few episodes, I’ve felt like the passerby looking at the car wreck victims being loaded into the ambulance.  It’s fascinating, for sure, but ultimately it just leaves you with a sense of shame for being so curious about another’s misery.

Besides the insane amount of drama, I sense that the hand of the producer is overly heavy.  The rules and standards are like a moving target.  This garment is too commercial, that garment is not commercial.  This garment is too literal, that garment does not reflect the challenge.  One person will be praised for the very same thing that gets another criticism, and after a while you reach the conclusion that you, like the designers, are being played.  And poor Tim Gunn needs to be replaced with a person who delights in pulling the rug out from under people, instead of Tim standing there uncomfortably relaying yet another pointless (except to the producers) twist in the plot.

So, I’ll not be watching the final episodes; in fact, I didn’t watch all of last evening’s show.  At the point where it became obvious that an energy-sucking drama queen was once again to be rewarded for his bad behavior, I realized I’d had my fill.

Photo copyright MyLifetime.com

Currently Reading: Gunn’s Golden Rules

I’m not quite sure if Tim Gunn planned this book as a loosely organized memoir, or if he got sidetracked while laying  out his rules, or if it was his way of letting the rude and the crude of the world know that if they mess with him, they will be called on it.  Whatever the intent, this is one fun book.  It was so much fun to read that I had to ration it, letting myself read only a few chapters at a time.

Basicly, what Tim is telling us (and it feels so much like a conversation with the man) is that we do not have to be counted among the jerks of the world, and that it is, in fact, to one’s advantage to play nice and to take the high road.  What a refreshing thought!

If you have ever thought that all the rude people must live in your town, or work in your workplace, Tim has examples enough to show that bad manners are everywhere,even among the fashionable and the famous. His stories of Martha Stewart’s daughter sure make the friend who sits at the restaurant table texting her other friends seem like a mild jerk, and not the total ass I had originally thought!

Some reviewers seem to be a bit disturbed by Gunn telling so many tales out of school, that if he is so nice, then why is he calling people out like this.  As he puts it, being nice does not equal being a pushover, and it is time for people to stand up to rudeness.  Interestingly, I’ve been rereading Maya Angelou’s wonderful little Wouldn’t Take Anything for My Journey Now, and she pretty much says the same thing:  ”I am never proud to participate in violence, yet I know that each of us must care enough for ourselves to be ready and able to come to our own self-defense.”  This was in reference to spoken brutality.

Project Runway fans are especially going to love this latest book from Gunn.  He does have a few things to say about some very disagreeable designers!

If I’m ever at the same dinner as Gunn, I’ll sneak around and put my name card next to his.  Can you imagine what fun that would be?