Project Runway 4 - Meet the Cast

I am not sure how about feel about these people. Just for the eye-candy, I am very interested in Kevin and Rami (see below). There hasn't been any eye candy on Project Runway -- well, for me anyways -- since PR1's Robert.

Everyone seems to be okay, not sure if there will be any drama, but we will get to know them all better when the season premieres November 14th, 2007 on Bravo. Mark you calendars.

I will be doing weekly posts regarding the episodes. They won't be full recaps of the show, but just my thoughts of the episodes. Take a look here of my past work.

I can't tell you how much I've missed this show. Project Catwalk couldn't fill Project Runway's Christian Louboutins.

Project Runway 4 Bios via Bravo

Nightmare: The Head-less Body of Novak Djokovic

Last night, I'd experienced one of the worst nightmares in recent memory.

The beginning started off pretty harmless. Mariska Hargitay was a teacher at a school who was having an affair with student. This is harmless in comparison to the rest of the dream. At the end of the day, she and the boy went back to her place where they had dinner in front of a fireplace

And this is where it started to get weird.

Mariska began tending to the fire with an iron rod. Embers were popping out of the fireplace and then, all of a sudden, she picked up a glowing red-hot wood log with her bare hands and began stroking it. I can't remember what was said but it was done in a "evil" manner.

Then, BAM!

She turns in Linda Hamilton circa Terminator 2, and she is on top of a platform above a pot of molten steel. She jumps from the platform to a line and is now dangling the above the molten steel before falling in. A molten steel version of Linda appears in front of the fireplace, and this was said to the boy:

"If you see this, then the poison is working."

Mariska is now watching the boy, who is now Novak Djokovic, vomit while having seizures before he eventually dies. Apparently Novak (and I) was seeing the hallucinogenic side-effects of the poison.

Cut to the now head-less Novak in a body bag, which is oddly in laying on a bed. I am now in the dream and I am getting dressed with the dead body right next me. I put on a pair of size 36-waist shorts that I made from a pair of warm-up pants belonging to the deceased. I head downstairs to the kitchen, and I realize I am in the townhouse I grew up in between 1986 and 1990.

While in the kitchen, I started to hear these noises from upstairs. It was Novak's head-less body coming back to life, which I saw in a quick flash. I hear the body coming down the stairs while I feverishly trying to put on a pair of shoes to leave the house. I was shirtless but it was too late to find a shirt to put on. I fumbled with the lock on the door, unable to open it, and I see the shadow of the head-less body. There was a close up of my terrified face ...

... then I wake up. My heart racing and it took me a couple of minutes to calm down before I was able to get back to sleep. Which led to another disturbing dream, but was totally boring compared to this one.

I thinking my nightmare was caused by eating WAY too much ice cream, reading a blog post about Novak Djovokic, reading this article about a man coming back to life during an autopsy, and lusting after Mariska Hargitay's husband Peter Hermann all before bedtime.

I often wonder what I look like when I sleep because my dreams are so vivid that my body reacts. A couple of nights ago, I had a tennis dream and felt my right arm move while dreaming of one-handed backhands.

How vivid are your dreams?

Milestone: 100,000 Vistors

Sometime in between my last post and me packing up my apartment like a mad person for my move on Saturday, I passed milestone: there has been over 100,000 visits to my little blog. I am completely shocked that I have had over 5,000 visits considering that I mostly talk about my life. I sort of purposefully decided not to make this a "celebrity" gossip blog, primarily because there are so many other sites that do a much better job. Such as: Dlisted.com, Oh.No.They.Didn't, Pink is the New Blog, etc ...

Thank you to those that have visited my blog, and hopefully more people will come to my tiny section of the Internet.

Movies: Eastern Promises

I saw this movie this past Saturday, and I must say that I was quite impressed. The only David Cronenberg I saw was "The Fly" with Jeff Goldblum. I've been meaning to see "A History of Violence" for while now, but I have since added it to my Netflix movie queue because of this movie.

Plot Summary via imdb.com:

The film follows the mysterious and ruthless Nikolai (Viggo Mortensen), who is tied to one of London's most notorious organized crime families. His carefully maintained existence is jarred when he crosses paths with Anna (Naomi Watts), an innocent midwife trying to right a wrong, who accidentally uncovers potential evidence against the family. Now Nikolai must put into motion a harrowing chain of murder, deceit, and retribution.

I went with some people who felt that the pace was a bit slow, but I don't feel that way. The film's pace is perfect because it allows the audience to get pulled into the story. The film is, at times, very brutal with its depictions of volience. Oddly, what I like most about Easter Promises is the brutality with the absence of guns. There are a couple of very gruesome scenes, but in the film, it seemed to be necessary in order to give the audience a bit more insight of the characters.

Nikolai's (Viggo Mortensen) fight scene near the end of the film is done completely nude with full frontal nudity. In context, the nudity seems incidental and it barely took me out of the film. The nudity seemed necessary.

The end of the film didn't feel like an ending ... if anything, I felt the movie was too short. I think there was a love triangle between Nikolai, Anna (Naomi Watts) and Kirill (Vincent Cassell). There were a lot of homo-erotic undertones with Nikolai and Kirill. When Anna seemed to get the attention of Nokolai, Kirill got weirdly possessive. I was very intrigued by relationship between all of the characters.

If you aren't terribly squeamish, you should see this movie.

Phobia: HBO Bumper From 80s/90s

I don't know why but when I was a kid I was completely terrified of the HBO Special Feature bumper from the 80s/90s. When this came on I had to advert my eyes. The thing that scared me the most during this is when the "O" in HBO started flashing those multi-color rays.

I just found this online yesterday and I think it is technically beautiful considering that it was down before CGI.

I had a lot of phobias when I was younger, and I still have some now. But more on those in later posts.

US Open 2007: Wrap Up

Well, we have our champions.

(Roger Federer, winner of 4-straight US Open titles)
I can't believe Roger pulled the win in straight sets considering Novak Djokovic had 7 set points during the first and second set. Novak really should have won but couldn't close it out. As a result, Roger has his 12th Grand Slam title and is 2 away from tying Pete Sampras for the most slam titles.

(Justine Henin, 2nd US Open title)
I was hoping that Venus Williams would have won, but Henin played great throughout the tournament and deserved to win. I still don't like her because of her shady behavior, but she played well.

Videos:

Here a couple of moments I found interesting during the tournament. The first was during the women's final, after Justine won she ran up into the stands to hug her coach. Take a look at what happened to the security guard.


Oops.

The next is just a fun moment during the men's final.


Great catch, huh?

So Today Was My Birthday

I originally planned to nothing for my birthday but watch Footballers' Wives - Series 3 and tennis all day. That all changed yesterday.


I got invited to play tennis on this morning on a USTA colored court. I never played on those type of courts, and they were beautiful. The people I played with didn't know it was birthday until I told them during lunch. Once they heard, they started to plan something for me. The reason I usually don't tell people about my birthday is because I don't want to be made a fuss over. But once the wheels started churning, there was no stopping them.


I also received another invite to watch the US Open 2007 Women's Final. I thought Venus Williams would be there, but, unfortunately, she was beat by Justine Henin (BOO!). We ate, we laughed, and watched Henin win another Grand Slam title this year. It didn't make my special day any much better. Until the birthday cake time, that is.

I am now home, on my third piece of cake, watching the first episode of the third season of Footballers' Wives.

It was a good day. Thanks to all that sent me birthday wishes!

US Open 2007: Venus' Third and Fourth Outfits

Venus Williams third outfit was this all black which was worn last week during her night match against Alona Bondarenko. This has been my favorite outfit she has debuted during the US Open. The has been a lot of black being worn during night matches. Andy Roddick, Roger Federer, and Serena Williams were the other players to wear black during their night matches.


The fourth outfit was similar to her second, but in a different color combination. The second was white/pewter and the fourth is white/teal which was worn during her quarter-final match against Jelena Jankovic. I like this ensemble but I am starting to think the shorts are a bit too short. I think I there was almost a wardrobe malfunction in the nether region. But I like the look overall.

Venus plays her semi-final match tonight against Justin Henin (BOO! HISS!!), and I am hoping she will be debuting a new outfit. Maybe an all white version of the third outfit?

Tune into CBS tonight to find out.

photo sources: AP Images, Getting Images, TSF

Moving On Up

I finally made the decision to move to a new area of Dallas. The posh area of Highland Park is deteriorating with the recent rash of burglaries and break-ins. These events helped make my decision to move a bit easier. Now I will be living in the sketchy Oak Lawn section of town, where hookers are easily accessible -- which I am willing to ignore due the full-size washer/dryer that comes with the new apartment. But within the next year, the area will be cleaned up with all the new construction that's happening.

My new loft
After I returned from my Road Trip, I decided to look at some new places to live. I have been doing research on one particular place for a couple of months, and I ultimately decided to rent there. I originally wanted a one-bedroom, but there wasn't any available to tour so I decided to take a look the brand new lofts. I walked in, and I loved it. I will be moving in two weeks, and I am really excited. I am going to my loft today to take a few measurements, so i will snap a few pictures while I am there. [edited: pictures of my loft via camera phone]


I like where I currently live, but it is an older place -- so old that there aren't any outlets in the bathroom. Also, having two floors becomes tiring when you have to running up and down them at least 5 times every morning before work. My new loft is very modern with stainless steel appliances and marble surfaces.

With the move, I am finally out of Charter Cable's evil clutches. I will be back in the loving arms of Time Warner.

Also, I have decide to go "green" for my electricity needs. All my power will be generated by wind energy through Reliant Energy. I am taking steps to use more renewable energy sources. My next car will be a hybrid, but that won't be until 2009.

The Greek will be back from Australia and staying with me for a week or two. I was going to use him to help me move because I had to help him move .... twice, but I decided just to hire people to move everything because it will be less time consuming and I don't have to get a U-Haul truck. It would be approx. $30 more than doing it myself. And I am lazy, so it win-win for everyone involved.

15 more day before the move.