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Kaputt, originally uploaded by saffysafina.

Past and present winners of the  Diagram Prize for oddest book titles: 
A Pictorial Book of Tongue Coatings
A Colour Atlas of Posterior Chamber Implants
Inflammatory Bowel Diseases: A Personal View
Practical Infectious Diseases 
Six-Legged Sex: The Erotic Lives Of Bugs
Neurosis Induced Cannibalism In Antarctic Pigs
The Potatoes Of Bolivia: Their Breeding Value And Evolutionary Relationships
Waterproofing Your Child
Nasal Maintenance
People Who Don’t Know They’re Dead

Project Runway is a show about people placed in highly stressful situations and forced to produce something beautiful. It’s about talent and ambition and how these hold up under intense pressure. It’s about the fashion industry, but its real subject is the creative process. In the course of the series, the viewers get to know the contestants, their work ethic, their strengths and breaking points, and their relationships with each other—including the bitching, scheming, forming of gangs and all the other wonderful Lord of the Flies scenarios. Even to schlubs like me whose fashion sense hasn’t changed since college, Project Runway is quite addictive.

Project Runway Philippines is the drab distant relative of the original series—the cousin from the province who gets sent to your house for summer vacation, doesn’t utter a word, acts like you’re about to push her down a well, and refuses to get on the escalator because it’s the devil. The show follows the series’ format, but it has all the excitement of homework. It’s no surprise that the production values can’t match those of the original—I assume budgetary constraints (But if the producer wasn’t prepared to spend spend spend, why bother getting the franchise?) and all the other logistical issues that are usually solved through the puede na method. But if there’s one thing we can expect of Filipino contestants, it’s an excess of Personality, and that just doesn’t come through. Are Pinoys less emotional and expressive than Americans? I think not. Everyone in the local series is too buttoned-up and self-conscious, and when they “reveal” their “true” selves it feels like an embarrassed audition for a high school play. I suspect there aren’t enough cameramen to record the real-life theatrics, the sniping, backbiting and nervous breakdowns. The directors don’t seem interested in the contestants as human beings; they’re just going through the motions. The editors and post-production crew are either not interested (trabaho lang ito) or using the best foot forward approach (Wag nating ipakita yan, nakakahiya maraming nanonood).

Perhaps the contestants (and some guest judges) should be encouraged to speak in the language they’re most comfortable in. Face it, it’s hard to bitch if you still have to translate. They all speak English—is this a choice or a requirement?—and it’s serviceable, but strained. They can’t really cut loose if they’re worried about their diction. Let them speak Tagalog, Waray, Pangalatok, their first language. The audience is Pinoy, we’ll get it. As the mentor (Tim Gunn equivalent), Joji Lloren seems to be restraining himself from saying what he really thinks. Judge Rajo Laurel is highly animated, Apples Aberin too sedate, and host Teresa Herrera looks like she’d rather be somewhere else. 

How is it possible that Project Runway Philippines is not gay enough?

From the Boston Globe: The Mossad agents who went to Buenos Aires in 1960 to capture Adolf Eichmann found Josef Mengele, the “Angel of Death”, but decided not to risk their original mission by going after Mengele. After Eichmann’s capture Mengele moved to Brazil. He was never caught. He drowned in 1979, and the body was identified six years later.

“Mengele was one of the most wanted Nazi war criminals, a doctor who conducted cruel experiments on twins and dwarves at the Auschwitz concentration camp and killed children with lethal injections. He selected prisoners who would be subjected to his experiments and sent others straight to their death in gas chambers. . .Mengele was infamous for his sadistic experiments in the death camps. He injected dye into the eyes of twins to change their color and sewed them together to try to create artificially conjoined twins. He ordered twins killed simultaneously and then dissected for examination of their organs. His horrors earned him the title ‘Angel of Death’.

“After the war, Mengele fled Germany under an assumed name and ended up in Argentina, a popular refuge for many senior Nazi officials.”

“Frak” was first used in the original (cheesy) Battlestar Galactica TV show created by Glen A. Larson (Did he also produce The Hardy Boys?) 30 years ago. The expletive substitute was resurrected in the new (good) Battlestar Galactica, and has since seeped into everyday use. There have been no complaints from Standards and Practices or the FCC (which protects American viewers from bad words and wardrobe malfunctions). I prefer the spelling “frack”, but frak is a four-letter word. Thanks to Ricky for making me watch Battlestar Galactica.

McCain: very 70s Battlestar Galactica. Palin: straight out of Twin Peaks.

“…Scientists have begun to see the act of daydreaming very differently. They’ve demonstrated that daydreaming is a fundamental feature of the human mind – so fundamental, in fact, that it’s often referred to as our “default” mode of thought. Many scientists argue that daydreaming is a crucial tool for creativity, a thought process that allows the brain to make new associations and connections. Instead of focusing on our immediate surroundings – such as the message of a church sermon – the daydreaming mind is free to engage in abstract thought and imaginative ramblings. As a result, we’re able to imagine things that don’t actually exist, like sticky yellow bookmarks…”
Daydream achiever in Boston Globe Ideas. A wandering mind can do important work, scientists are learning—and may even be essential. Tell that to your boss.

That’s what the producers of the Showtime  historical soft-porn melodrama The Tudors assured its viewers. “We don’t want to destroy his good looks,” said executive producer Morgan O’Sullivan. “An exact portrayal of Henry is not a factor that we think is important.” 

Towards the end of his life, Henry VIII was so heavy he had to be hoisted onto his horse. You’ve seen the famous portrait by Hans Holbein—look at those calves, each one is about the waist size of pouty Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, who plays Henry VIII. But then we don’t watch The Tudors for the history lesson. Grover and I watch it for Henry Cavill, who plays Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. If the duke wishes to take his clothes off now and then, we shall not protest overmuch. Jeremy Northam is in the series, too, as Sir Thomas More. Naturally he wears too many clothes.

The Tudors takes liberties with historical fact, but it’s still a more credible depiction of the era than The Other Boleyn Girl (not to mention better-acted). Elizabeth, the movie, wasn’t much more accurate. My favorite historical drama series are still Rome and Deadwood.