Various things about "Big Brother" finale, "America's Got Talent" finale and "Project Runway"
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Dir fjkfa f;lk ;lj f;lkajkrkljlkqj;lkj First, and most importantly, I am totally jazzed about Jordan winning "Big Brother". She won by a vote of 5-2. Kevin, of all people, voted for Natalie. True to her, although he was going to stab her in the back and take Jordan to the final two had he managed to win the final HOH challenge. Jordan and Jeff were my two favorite players this season. When Jeff was evicted a couple of weeks ago, I think everyone assumed Jordan would just fall by the wayside. Her winning two of the three contests for final HOH -- and the power to choose who stood beside her in the final two -- was a great testament to the strength and intelligence of this waitress from Matthews NC. Jordan is young, a bit naive, and more than a bit "drifty" in the way she expresses herself. But her actions speak loudest that she is smart and knows how to survive. The other vote for Natalie came from Russell, who made stupid move after stupid move all season.
And it was great seeing Jeff -- to whom America accorded the coup d'etat power a month ago (and he used it VERY WELL, INDEED) -- win the America vote for a $25,000 prize as America's favorite player. Jeff was the SOLE voice of reason in the house from start to finish. His one mistake was believing the lie Natalie concocted for Kevin to deliver to him. That lie led to a bad move and a betrayal that was Jeff's undoing.
On "America's Got Talent", I have to say I could only bring myself to watch one or two shows all season until this week. I detest everything about David Hasselhoff, and he has a way of making everything about "himself." I have been following the results of various weeks and was intrigued by this female opera singer, who survived cancer and the threat of never-being-able-to-sing-again-and yet-overcame-it, and the very odd survival of a true country guy singing soulful songs each week. Barbara Padilla has a nice voice. She may have done a great job a week ago with "Ave Maria" but her "O Mio Babbino Caro" was a bit on the left-me-wanting-Dame-Kiri-side. The controlled sustained notes are NOT her strength at all and she was a bit wobbly. On the other hand, Kevin Skinner was an enigma to me. All season he has defied the odds by being advanced. Both Piers and Sharon Osbourne referred to him as a "dark horse". His voice isn't anything like what we hear from Country singers nowadays. It's more like what I was exposed to in the 1950s and 60s. In that regard, it's purer and less "crossover-driven". There is a sweet and touching naivete about Skinner when he's playing and singing. His eyes are soulful, his voice is strong. His backstory is the kind that America takes to its heart. An out-of-work chicken catcher is how he describes himself. He's a representative of a lost segment of American society -- the utterly poor who manage to survive against all odds. And yes, they dream. And in Skinner's case...that dream comes true. I was very moved when he was named winner of "America's Got Talent"...and it appeared that all the other acts in the final 10 felt that way about him, too.
And as the judges continued to say all during the final night, each of the acts has a bright future. I did not think Padilla would, or should, win. It would have been the second consecutive win by a singer whose focus is opera. Last year's winner had a great story, but he was civic-opera-in-middle-America at best. Padilla is still learning. Can't see her in a Vegas act at all, though.
"Project Runway" out of Los Angeles for the first time isn't much different from the "Project Runway" out of NYC. The designers are all bright, funny, bitchy and two-faced about each other. Tim Gunn is Tim Gunn. And Heidi is Heidi. We've seen Michael Kors once. Last night we had Tommy Hilfiger, though, and he was just fine. In addition, the guest judge was Eva Longoria. The right person left AGAIN...this time, the woeful reformed-drug-addict who let everyone know his crack habit kept him from being selected for the show each of the past three or four seasons. I'm not quite sure how he qualified for the show, however, because his designs -- and the effort/imagination he put into them -- have been dreadful. Last night's challenge was to use newspaper (along with magic marker colors and glue and tape) to create fashion of the designers' choice.
There were some very interesting fashions, but none were better IMO than Christopher's. Christopher is the one designer in the competition who is self-taught without benefit of any school training in design. What's interesting about him is that he absorbs much of what he sees and hears the other designers discussing/doing. He's learning about techniques and what they are called. He is also doing some AMAZING designing of his own. Last night, the judges chose Irina who designed a "trenchcoat" that didn't look like a trenchcoat, but that did have a great deal of style and charm. Each week, I get the sense that Heidi is "spreading around" the wealth when it comes to naming winners. The top two or three are always very good, but I don't think they always select the "best" for the winner, especially if the best was done by a previous winner. This egalitarian approach is fine up to a point, but the herd is thinning and the judges will have to be a bit more judicious in the coming weeks about what they deem "best" (I keep remembering Michael Knight from a couple of seasons back....he won week after week, it seemed...at least four weeks in all...and in the finals, his runway collection seemed to have been designed for crack whores on the streets of Atlanta). Oh, well....
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