Feast or famine, aka whining

I routinely have my television on, but really can not tell you what I am watching. Three of the programs I do follow with regularity, Eureka, Project Runway, and Dancing with the Stars, are time-slot annoyances for me this week.

Hence the whining ...

This evening is the mid-season finale of Eureka and the second night of the Dancing premiere. Sure, I can flip back and forth between the two shows or even simply tape (yes, tape and I have a love/hate relationship with my VCR) one of the two. But why is it that the shows I like are always on at the same time?

Tomorrow I work the last of my two reference evening shifts and I will get home in time to see the second half of both Project Runway and the Dancing results show (which has to be on at 9 instead of 8). Not as big of an issue because I usually boycott the annoying results show until the final fifteen minutes, but still. I will be watching for the red light to go out over one of the couples and anticipating Heidi saying "Auf wiedersehen" to one of the designers at the same time.

No power, no post

My first clue should have been the garage door opener not working; I smacked the button with bit of relish, tried again (twice) and gave fleeting thought to going to the nearest store for a new battery. Instead I parked the car and went in through my front door, an actual first for me as I usually use the garage and back door, to open the garage from the inside. It was then I noticed my phone and answering machine were dark, as were the vcr, microwave, stove clock, and my refridgerator was suspiciously silent.

Several phone calls and estimated time repairs later, it was midnight and I still had no power. I rummaged through drawers and located a battery operated alarm clock, opened the windows (praise be it was a wonderfully cool evening), and finished reading a book by candle light and flash light. What a shame I could not do laundry or run the sweeper (tee-hee).

Unfortunately, it meant I could not watch Project Runway or Shear Genius either. In retrospect, I am glad it was Wednesday evening and not Tuesday evening, I would have missed a new Eureka - Episode: I Do Over.

Guilty TV pleasure

Now that Dancing with the Stars is over, my guilty television pleasure is, Project Runway on Bravo. I admit when the first run episodes are on Wednesday evenings I generally fall asleep before the runway show and elimination. Luckily, Bravo shows the episodes two or three times during the week and I get the opportunity to see what I missed. Tonight, for instance, last nights episode repeated 8:00 pm and I got to see Tiki Barber judge the runway show (and laughed out loud when he mentioned not liking a contestants project because everyone would be looking at his butt).

This episode was the first time I have seen male models and a menswear design challenge. It was a unique twist and really caused quite a bit of angst among the contestants. Some of the designs were, to my plebeian taste, quite horrible; a serious case of what were they thinking. Through the whole thing Tim Gunn (now at Liz Claiborne!) remains, providing a constant touch of class.

• Project Runway: Season 4
• TV Guide.com - Project Runway Spoilers
• Wikipedia: Project Runway
• Blogging Project Runway

We are well into another season of "making it work!"

Tags: Project Runway, Bravo TV

A television commercial break ...

This post falls under that category of "if it interests me, I'll blog" option. I just checked my bloglines feeds and briefly perused a new post from Blogging Project Runway titled, Congratualtions Tim! Laura K. posts Tim Gunn will be getting his own TV show on Bravo (cool) called Tim Gunn's Guide to Style. The Bravo press release says:

"Gunn will use his style expertise to help ordinary people maximize their true fashion potential. Having spent countless years as chair of the Department of Fashion Design mentoring students and budding fashion designers, Gunn will put those same skills to work as he rescues people struggling with everything from a disastrous everyday wardrobe, to a special occasion that demands a revamped look. Gunn has an unmatched skill at helping people deal with any kind of predicament and gets the job done when the state of affairs seems grim." (MBCUMV, 1/12/07)

One of my new summer favorites, Eureka on SciFi, was picked up for thirteen new episodes. I spent some time during lunch looking at their webisodes (a hoot). It kind of helps lessen the pain of Stargate SG-1's imminent demise, so wrong, but bound to increase viewership for the remaining episodes this season. Gateworld has new information on the second half of the season for SG-1, slated to begin in April, because the season has already begun in the UK. Right now I am just glad SciFi has resumed showing old SG-1 episodes each evening.

Last night's episode, Chain Reaction .... "Have you heard of IKEA?"

The Save Stargate SG-1 web site posted in December, from the Gateworld site, that MGM was going to do SG-1 movie franchise straight to DVD.

"The producers announced in October that two SG-1 movies, likely direct-to-DVD, had been greenlit. The first will serve as the climax of the Ori story line, according to executive producer Brad Wright. It will be written by executive producer Robert C. Cooper. The second film will be written by Wright, and is said to deal with time travel." (Gateworld, 12/20/06)

Guess it's better than no SG-1 at all ...

And now I return to my regularly scheduled activities. The new term starts on Monday and I have to finish preparing for a WebCT course I am taking over as an adjunct for the college of education. I also need to finish up an update for my students on Tuesday and begin planning the final phase of the new resource center web page (re: getting it done).

Tags: Project Runway, Tim Gunn, Eureka, SciFi Channel, Stargate SG-1, Web pages