sammi says

Here is my resume for anyone who is interested...Feel free to give me a job!



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"The Project Runway All-Star Challenge," "Project Runway Season 6," and the brand new "Models of the Runway" aired on their new network, Lifetime, last night. Needless to say I was sucked in for all 3 1/2 hours. You probably shouldn't continue reading if you haven't watched the show yet or if you have never watched the show and don't give a crap what happened for that matter. Should you wish to review the designs with me go to Project Runway and click on the designer for their piece. Anywho, Let's start with the All-Star Challenge...

I was pretty pleased with the people they chose to bring back. I loved Chris, Mychael, Uli, Jeffrey and Sweet P during their individual seasons. Notice that all of these people were from Season 3 and 4, which happen to be the only seasons of the show I've watched religiously. Everyone else I really didn't care too much about. Santino annoyed me by his cockiness, but I gave him a pass because I figured he was an amazing designer but it turns out his pieces were awful.
I love, love, loved Uli in this challenge. During her season I did like a lot of her designs but the wild print maxi dress design got completely stale. During this challenge she went a different direction and I would wear any one of her pieces. Not to mention the fact that her models flaked and she had to fit her clothes on herself.

The final four came down to Chris, Korto, Sweet P and Daniel. I really can't believe Sweet P and Chris's pieces made it. I was shocked by how much the judges loved Chris's outfits. I thought they all looked so similar and absolutely drab. His red-carpet dress was probably one of my least favorite designs of the whole show. I may have liked it better had he chosen to use some color. Sweet P's dresses were ok, certainly not my style but eh, whatever. I loved Korto's designs minus the stomach-showing vest/pantsuit outfit. When it came down to the final two between her and Daniel I knew Daniel had won because a. His designs were more innovative and cohesive as a collection and b. the editors made too much of a point about the fact that Korto came in second during her season and how she needed to win as validation, blah blah blah. And let me tell you, Korto was pissed when she lost!!! The judges went crazy over Daniel's red carpet dress and I agree with them...It was gorgeous and fit perfectly into the rest of his collection.

Ok, now on to the season 6 premiere. We got to meet all the new designers and wow, it sure felt like there was a lot of them. I hate when there's so many people and I don't who everyone is and so little time is spent on each designer. Here are some of my highlights...Johnny, the former meth addict, can you say baby?! Ok, I'm being totally insensitive but was his mental breakdown really necessary for his first design? Thank God Tim Gunn was there to talk him off the ledge. Speaking of his design, I thought the finished product was hideous. It looked like what Denise Richards would wear on "Dancing with the Stars." Malvin, the androgynous Asian with crazy hair, made me miss Christian Siriano! Ra'mon, former neuro-surgeon student, his parents must be pissed!!

On to the judging...The challenge was design a dress for any red-carpet ie. Oscars, Emmy's, Grammy's, VMA's etc...Dresses I loved- Althea, Carol Hannah, Gordana, Irina, Ra'mon, and I totally agreed with Chris's win. The worst dresses- Ari, Johnny, Mitchell, Qristal and Louise. When it came down to Ari and Mitchell's designs being the worst I felt like the judging went a little awry. While I think that Ari is a total space cadet who bears a striking resemblence to guest judge, Lindsay Lohan's, girlfriend Samantha Ronson who designed a horrible garment, I think that it was wrong for her to get eliminated when she had a finished garment. Mitchell draped some shear fabric over his model and sent her down the runway. As for Lindsay's judging, I actually thought she seemed pretty well spoken, well, by Lindsay Lohan standards anyway.

And finally, "Models of the Runway." Maybe it's because it's a new show and it was the first episode, but as of right now, this show is completely useless. I do appreciate the insight of the models that get picked but I feel like they could squeeze it into the existing show. After an hour of "Project Runway," I don't know that I want to sit around for another 30 minutes watching Heidi pull buttons out of a bag and the designers picking their models.

This weekend marks the one year anniversary of my relationship with TiVo. I can honestly say TiVo has brought so much joy to my life and has made this past year quite enjoyable.

Here's how we first met...My aunt has had TiVo for several years now and every summer while I would be staying at her house dog-sitting while she was on vacation I would love the feeling of being able to hit pause on TV, watching two things at once, and being able to tape my shows and watch them when I got home from work. TiVo was always an "out of the question" type item for me because besides buying the box you have to pay a subscription fee and being a poor college student it seemed like a luxury simply out of my reach....

Flash forward to August 2008...I had just turned 21 and took my second trip to the casino, one of my family's favorite activities. My grandpa gave me the "white envelope" he gives out for special trips to the casino (i.e. someone's birthday, he had a good gambling trip the prior week etc...) that was full of money. Not to be outshone, as soon as we got inside and separated to our favorite machines, my grandma pulled me aside and gave me a $20 from her own stash and took me to one of her favorite machines. Jackpot!!! I got 2x, 3x, 4x on a quarter slot and won $1,000. What does a 21 year old do with a $1,000? Make all her wildest dreams come true, of course!

I bought TiVo and still had a nice chunk of change left over and haven't looked back since. Now I can't imagine my life without TiVo. Sure, we've had our ups and downs, like that time it cut off the end of a very pivotal episode of "Heroes," or when the little channel changing sensors connected to my cable box malfunctioned and it recorded the wrong TV channel. These were all minor speed bumps in our relationship. I like to remember the fonder times like when I was able to access my account online while I was stuck at my internship and was able to season pass a show that I had forgotten was premiering that evening....and there was my show waiting for me when I got home.

Here's to you TiVo. I hope we have many more happy years together. I love you!

Ummm....Wow! That's pretty much what comes to mind when summing up the first season of "Nurse Jackie" on Showtime. I watched the final episode of the season last night On Demand. If there's one thing Charter Cable's good for it's On Demand, which let me watch the season finale a week early. I couldn't wait after I saw the cliffhanger of episode 11!

If you're not familiar with the show it takes place in New York City and tells the story of Jackie, played wonderfully by Edie Falco of "The Soprano's" fame, and her life as a hardass nurse, wife and mother. Did I mention that she's also addicted to pain killers and is cheating on her husband with the hopsital pharmacist? It sounds a little crazy but you really do end up pulling for Jackie despite her morally gray behavior. She does what is right for her patients whether it's ethical or not, keeps her family hidden from the entire hospital and comes home at the end of the day as a woman who loves her husband and kids.

The show features a hilarious and intriguing supporting cast of characters played mostly by people I've never heard of before. Zoey, a nurse-in-training, kitten lover and all around too-upbeat-for-her-own good is played Merrit Wever. In the final episode of the season she decides to punish herself for giving a patient a wrong dose of medicine by wearing dark gray scrubs instead of her normals bright pink, bunny scrubs. It's so much fun to watch her character and Falco's interact because they are polar opposites.

A familiar cast member is Peter Facinelli (aka Carlisle Cullen for all you "Twilight" lovers) who plays the newest doctor, Fitch Cooper, a wannabe guy's guy and ladies man. Although should he get nervous, say when he's being yelled at by Jackie, he has what he calls "sexual tourrette's" which makes him grab people's breasts uncontrollably. This could perhaps be a result of growing up with lesbian mothers played fabulously in one episode by Swoosie Kurtz and Blythe Danner.

Showtime has really been quickly becoming my favorite television network. Between "Nurse Jackie," "Weeds," and "United States of Tara," I don't know that I've ever seen such comical, dramatic, smart and realistic writing and acting in shows starring women. But don't get me wrong, these shows aren't only meant for women viewers. My recommendation to you is to hurry up and watch all 12 episodes for free while they're still available On Demand or else you'll have to wait a couple of months when it comes out on DVD. If you don't have Showtime you should make friends with someone who does and take a couple hours and watch this show!

Last night I saw the new film, "Julie & Julia" directed by Nora Ephron based on the true story of blogger Julie Powell (Amy Adams) and her channeling of cooking hero, Julia Child (Meryl Streep). I really enjoyed it. I think it's great to see a movie starring women that isn't just for old ladies and isn't a Katherine Heigl-esque, rated-R, romantic comedy disaster. The movie intertwines the two stories seamlessly from 2002 with Powell blogging about her challenge to go through the 524 recipes in Julia Child's cookbook in a year to the 1950's telling Child's story of her start in cooking and creating the book.

Meryl Streep is of course fantastic as Julia Child lighting up the screen and putting a smile on my face in every scene. She portrays her in a such a strong yet charming way that you can really understand Julie Powell's worship of the woman. Amy Adams makes Julie Powell a likable, relatable character despite her hideous hairstyle. Powell's story takes place in 2002 and I was sitting in the theatre racking my brain trying to remember if people in 2002 actually had that hair cut. Upon reviewing the real Julie Powell's current blog (http://juliepowell.blogspot.com) it seems that these days she is anything but frumpy.

I was shocked and delighted to find out mid-movie that Jane Lynch plays Julia's sister Dorothy. If you're wondering who the heck Jane Lynch is, she's appeared in basically every funny movie and television show since the early 2000's, most notably, "Role Models." On another note, be prepared to be a little grossed out hearing the sounds of people eating and chewing. I know this should be expected in a movie all about food but mind you I watch TV while eating dinner to drown out the sound of my own chewing. I got over it, but for the first five minutes or so I was cursing the foley artists that thought that was a good idea.

There is one disappointing aspect to the film which you shouldn't read if you don't want a slight spoiler...

In the last five minutes of the movie we find out that Julia Child doesn't really care for Julie Powell's blog and it's actually portrayed that this perfect woman we grow to love and admire throughout the film hates Julie Powell. Powell gets over it but it left me wondering if Julia Child really hated Julie Powell or if she was just a 90 year old woman who didn't give a crap. I guess I'm not the only one who felt it was a little odd to put it in the movie and actually Julie Powell herself addresses the issue in the most current post on her blog. Either way, it didn't ruin the overall feel-goodness of this film.

So far the movie is kicking butt at the box office and holding its own against "G.I. Joe." I hope that this proves that female driven movies like this one can make money and are worth making!

Anyone who knows me knows that I am obsessed with John Mayer. I love him more than I love Paul Rudd, which you know is a lot. Therefore, it takes a lot for me to criticize the guy even when he occasionally go a little overboard on twitter. I usually think every word he types from his iphone is hilarious or full of wisdom. So when he announced on Monday that he was going to live-tweet during that evening's episode of "Chelsea Lately" on E! (a favorite show of mine) I got really excited.

Chelsea is always ragging on John Mayer every since things went sour between him and Jennifer Aniston, but she's awful to most celebrities so I let it slide. Apparently John can't take Chelsea's teasing and wanted to make fun of her a little bit. I was fully on board for this because John is usually pretty witty. Watching Chelsea's show while simultaneously following JM's tweets seemed like a great way to spend my Monday evening. Instead, I was a little horrified to read John's tweets (www.twitter.com/johncmayer). Here are some of the gems he cranked out in 30 minutes.

"What color is her hair? It's not dirty blond. Filthy blond?"

"Rule #46389: if you say something and hold your face slightly tilted as if to say "I did just say that" then it's magically funny."

"So far this show has come through with its promise of lots of exclamation points but zero E."

"I think I just heard Chelsea's chair yawn."

His response when it was all over...

"That was fun. Chelsea bashes me all the time, can't I bash her one night on my Twitter? Yes. (The answer is yes.)"

John, the answer would be yes if you had been funny and didn't resort to childish digs. It really hurts me to say this but it kind of disappoints me to know that Chelsea Handler really got the best of John Mayer.