start your engines

three years ago, the reason reality tv was invented finally became clear. if you add up the cattiness of america's next top models to the showbiz drama meltdowns of american idols, with a dash of the deadline crunch of project runway and then shook it all up in a big jar of sequins, you would have the brainchild that is rupaul's drag race. or as i call it, the most wonderful thing in the world of television EVER.

season 3 debuted this week with a dozen new queens (and one former reject from season 2) and was as catty and sparkly as expected. no one is yet screaming for that special place in my heart where i cradle their ambition and really want them to win, but there are still a couple of standouts among the pack.


filling the spot previously held by nina flowers (season 1) and raven (season 2), who both went on to be runners-up, is raja, an avant garde beauty and quite the star of the celebrity make up world.


delta work - this picture doesn't do her justice. she has this soft, matronly, yet sexy thing going on, reminiscent of a young kathy bates or delta burke (who is presumably her namesake).


yara sofia is one of the puerto rican girls, and while she's a bit too catty for my taste, she is a bombshell and a half. meow.


even meowier is carmen carrera, who is already creating a mild shitstorm by walking around naked backstage. her body is freaking STUNNING, though. i would walk around naked everywhere too if i looked remotely that good, but even so, she smells a bit like a one trick pony.


i don't think phoenix got enough credit for her badass sewing skills in the first episode, though in the picture she kinda looks like a $5 hooker on the vegas strip. she has a frankness about her personality that should create some interesting situations, i.e. catfights.


though rockin the cyndi lauper look, this crazy violent lip-synching psycho, venus de lite, was the first eliminated.


there's always got to be a trainwreck plus size girl, and stacy lynne matthews is this season's. though she does look remarkably female outside of drag and can't help if she's from backswamp, north carolina. srsly. backswamp. considering that, she looks pretty good.


mimi imfurst had a total meltdown over her xmas outfit, which turned out to be a judge's favorite. she is a sweetheart, but needs to pull it together and turn on the confidence!


i found mariah rather uninteresting, except for the way she rushed to the aide of mimi when she had her freakout. she really tried to lend a hard, which is pretty unusual on this show. it's more snarky attitude or pretend invisibility than help out your fellow ladyboy.


the rest of the bunch, were just kinda meh. but the competition has only just begun.

manila luzon

india ferrah

alexis mateo

the new crop of queens is beautiful, no doubt. but the truth is that none of them even hold a candle to rupaul, who is possibly the most beautiful human on the planet. other than jensen ackles.

seduced by superman

god help me, the rumors are true, i've started watching smallville. just finished season 1 actually, and though i feel no small amount of shame because of this, i am totally enthralled and completely enjoying it.

i've never been particularly interested in superman. sure, i watched "lois and clark" in my youth and i saw the bryan singer film when it came out, but i always found the man of steel to be a bit on the boring, goody-two-shoes side of super heroics. i tend to prefer darker heroes a la batman or the crow. but it seems that clark kent's farm boy aw-shucks-iness is quite a bit more charming when he actually IS a farm boy and still coltish enough to be believable as a small town teen hero.

to be honest, though, it wasn't the allure of the origins of superman that drew me to the show. like most things recently, the real reason was because of "supernatural." "smallville" airs right before spn on friday nights and being the diligent fangirl that i am, i turn the tv to the right channel well beforehand to make sure i don't miss a minute of winchestery goodness. as such, i've caught the back end of all of season 10 of "smallville," therein realizing that tom welling is SUPER hot. (heh. get it? super.)

anyway, the jist is, i'm boy crazy. always have been, always will be. so i'll suffer through some ridiculous writing and cliched scenarios (not a few of which are clearly stolen from buffy episodes), for the chance to see a big sexy man fight crime. i'm just shallow like that.

here follows the pros and cons of the smallville universe, or at least my first impressions...


pros:

1. strong, capable badass women. i like a show where women are shown driving tractors and running businesses while still in high school. the cw network isn't exactly known for it's portrayals of independent women (at least after buffy went off the air) so it's nice to see a show where the women are consistently badass, even more so in a show that's pretty darned masculine on the surface. in fact, if it weren't for clark's biological advantages, the women would be outshining the men!
martha kent manages to help her somewhat cantankerous husband run the farm, keep the peace between the men in her life AND raise a son who's not only the sweetest boy next door there ever was, but also ends up saving the lives of half the town. she also snakes drains, feeds the elderly and plows fields in her spare time.
and then there's chloe. who i freaking ADORE. she may be a little on the naive side when it comes to her relationship with clark, but other than that tiny flaw, the girl is badass. she (single-handedly?) runs the school paper, scooping the big city news desks with her "wall of weird" exposes. she is consistently upbeat and refuses to take any shit from pete or clark, admonishing them several times for not treating her as well as they should. being in high school and standing up for yourself like that against the guy you're into? not easy, but chloe pulls it off with panache. and she drives a 1961 ford falcon. nuff said.

2. the charm of mid-western america. god, i really really really want to live on a farm in kansas with jonathan and martha kent, which brings me to...

3. possibly the best television parents EVER. i love them and wish they were mine. except for i'd have a gigantic oedipal complex due to the overwhelming sexiness of john schneider. i mean, bo duke was no slouch, but the man is infinitely better looking now.

4. rad vancouver guest stars. like the chief, callie and tory from "battlestar galactica." also non-vancouverites like amy adams, shawn ashmore and adam brody. (*squee* seth cohen!! *squee*)

5. the slashiness. at one point, lex gifts clark with a sword as a going away present. a SWORD. and i always give bonus points for homo-erotic phallic imagery.



cons:

1. worst theme song ever to assail my ears. somebody saaaaaaave meeeeee from the sappy lameness of remy zero, not to mention the other assorted bad pop songs that crop up during the show. "supernatural" has really ruined me with all it's classic rock awesome.

2. pete's token-ness. srsly, what is the point of his character? to highlight the chemistry in clark's only other male friendship? other than bringing some cultural diversity to the white bread mid-west, pete seems completely useless.

3. the romantic obliviousness of, well, everyone. i suppose i should cut them some slack, smallville being a show populated by teenagers, but oh-my-chuck is this shit ridiculous. everyone is in love with clark and he is just too much of a puppy-eyed sweetheart to hurt anyone's feelings, though he clearly only loves lana. (or lex, depending on your preference.) and lana is rockin too much guilt to leave her quarterback boyfriend, even though they don't ever spend any time together and he's kind of a douchebag. so clark ends up asking chloe to prom and i just know he's gonna end up breaking her heart. then i'm gonna cry big crocodile tears even though i know it's coming and i just don't want so much angst with my cheese. smallville should leave the angsting to the winchesters, who are better at it anyway.


4. the cheesiness. although sometimes it's just so much fun.

5. the too-slow build up. someone freaking say the word kryptonite already! "meteor rocks" for the loss. and when the hell does clark discover that he can fly?!? running really fast is cool, but it does not compete with flying! or leaping tall buildings in a single bound, for that matter. i demand more awesome kryptonian abilities!

kansass

1. introduction to the prairie. i like it. it's pretty and open.



2. we avoided all interstates and took smaller 2 lane state highways for the majority of the trip. i was so into it. i felt at peace.



3. and 4. at some truck stop in texas. it was incredibly windy and i really struggled with that map for a minute. thankfully, i avoided DANGER!!



5. at our first food pit stop, the cracker barrel. i was kinda horrified, but it didn't turn out so bad. also our first interaction with completely bemused and incompetent waitstaff who were flummoxed by our paying together.



6. an awesomely awesome license plate spotted in norman, ok.

7. - 11. the diner in norman, ok. this place was incredible. the waitresses were rad, the food was super yummy and the decor was pitch perfect.

12. sailors. yum. double yum.



13. aquarium covered in splattered blood stickers, courtesy of a thai restaurant in norman.



14. hot chicks in glasses.



15. sisters caught off-guard


16. goddamn right.


17. main street, u.s.a.


18. doc faces off with a strange creature in front of the lawrence public library.



19. famous people from lawrence mural



20. hard to tell, but the flier says "death becomes hair"



21. and 22. i did not know that ford made a car called the maverick, but i am so into it.



23. - 25. we found this cute little eastern themed park in the middle of downtown. when i live in lawrence, i will go there when i miss doc.



26. and 27. there are three independent bookstores in downtown lawrence. so clearly we had to take pictures in front of at least one of them.



28. and 29. the main drag in lawrence is massachusetts avenue, where the buildings are old and beautiful. (except sometimes they get turned into urban outfitters. sad.)



30. and 31. lawrence is home of the marvelous free state brewery. doc was especially fond of the ad astra ale, though all the beers we tried were delicious.



32. suspicious bar texting...



33. and 34. the famous stull cemetery just outside of lawrence. it is said to be one of the 7 gates to hell in the u.s. the foundation in the background is from an old church (possibly subversively satanic) that mysteriously burned down a few years ago. and yes, it was featured in the season 5 finale of supernatural.



35. and 36. we saw this SWEET camaro driving through topeka. meow.



37. also spotted: this rad vintage dr. pepper mural.



38. - 40. the beautiful, rainy road home

have you seen this car?!?

about a year ago, i became obsessed with a certain 1967 chevrolet impala. sure, i had admired the contours of the classics when i saw them on the road, but never before had i truly understood the inherent beauty of detroit's finest exports.

today, classic cars occupy a rather large portion of my brainspace. i watch for them when i'm driving, on the road, parked on the side, inside garages, hoods popped, waiting for examination. i want one so badly i practically taste the cold steel.

part of the attraction is the overwhelming dudeliness of possessing a muscle car; when the awakening of my masculinity happened, so did my awakening to the hotness of american heavy metal. there is an obvious sexuality in almost every classic car. they come from a time when miles per gallon wasn't even a thought, the engineering focusing on speed and horsepower. if she roared like a lion when her engine was revved, who gave a frak about gas mileage? the classics are machines of power and beauty, not economy and ecology.

but more than the aesthetics and the raw power, classic cars give me a chance to reconnect with a past i never experienced, to bring my idea of a perfect existence in the past a little bit closer to the reality of the present. in the same way that wearing vintage polyester, watching a steve mcqueen flick or listening to ludicrous amounts of bad company makes me nostalgic for a time i never lived in, the thought of cruising around in a late '60s chevy makes my heart melt a little.

which is how i became a classic car stalker. haven't seen the dreamboat on the road yet, but there are beauties all over town. following here, my first victims...

1976 ford mustang
(at the auto shoppe, burnet rd.)

1975 mercury monarch/1976 ford mustang
(at the auto shoppe, burnet rd.)

1970 mercury cougar

(at the auto shoppe, burnet rd.)

1970 chevy el camino
(justin lane at airport)

1975 chevelle malibu
(justin lane at lamar, behind a garage)

if i were the king of the forest...

i would have 4 homes in melbourne, paris, edinburgh and new york. and every year i would travel in a loop between them, hitting each tennis grand slam along the way.

ah, dreamlife, you sustain me.

letters for thought...

so i was watching the us open tonight, a match between james blake and novak djokovic. after staring at their names for two hours, i thought, "damn, djoker (as i affectionately call him), your name would be kick ass in scrabble! it's so full of interesting letters!"

which led me to ask, what makes a letter interesting? is it simply it's rarity of use? i don't feel like k is a particularly underused letter, especially in internet speak, and yet i find it rather appealing. perhaps it's the multitude of angles. maybe it's having angles at all, because v, w, z and x are certainly all interesting. though of course, they are pretty rarely used.

q of course is at the top of the list, simply because it requires the presence of u. expect for qatar! and probably some physics words.

y isn't particularly interesting, but when found in the middle of a word, often seems intriguing. see: scythe, stylus, psyche, etc.

so i dunno. perhaps it's just the foreign-ness of djokovic's name, the silent d, the double v's. all i know for sure is that his name is worth at least 37 points in scrabble, which is nothing to scoff at.