First Wives Club

I don't expect I can offer much fresh in terms of the content of the debate - y'all are already blogging your fingers off. Suffice to say that I hereby volunteer to be the prospective First and Second Wives fashion coordinator. Never again will The Wives end up on stage together in matching white silk suits. Maybe they've lost their color wheels? I think I'm just amazed that there isn't someone coordinating this - it's not in anyone's best interests for them to match.

It's the least you can do and still call it an interview

Have I told you lately that I love Jon Stewart? When Bill O'Reilly interviews Bush and hails his bravery for not requiring that the questions be submitted in advance, SOMEONE needs to remind us that that used to be the way things were done. (Anyone remember Clinton? Anyone?) Good news, less smirking. Bad news, Bush turns it on, comes across as reasonable AND gets an hour of Dr. Phil. Really, between Schwarzenegger on Leno and Oprah and Bush on Dr. Phil, whatever happened to the "liberal Hollywood elite"?

Sadly, we also got a preview of a Diane Sawyer interview with Kerry in which he continued to be unable to give a straight answer to a direct question about whether or not the US should have invaded Iraq.

John, seriously. Take a moment to reflect on this. People want to vote for you and be able to hold their heads high - or at least not pull their hoodies over their heads as they exit the polling station. People HATE this president, and they WANT to be able to be proud of you as the alternative. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE pull it together!
If nothing else, stop dragging down John Edwards sunshine-y demeanor and political career.

And look, no links. 100% Fabulous Girl - are you man enough?

There goes the bandwagon

I'm not usually the last one at the party, but finally got to see Garden State this weekend, and took a luxurious, too- short soak in that rare movie experience - my expectations were exceeded. A post-film coffee klatch revealed numerous comparisons to excellent angst-of-youth films the group could recall, especially Say Anything (excellent music, slacker friends, use of rain), although comapring Natalie Portman to Ione Sky (who? Exactly) is hardly fair. Zach Braff, not a traditionally handsome guy, really grows on one, and he and Portman have chemistry that leaps off the screen and into your stomach where the butterflies hang out, waiting for inspiration.

"I would vote for Howdy Doody ..."

... if I thought it would keep my boys home and safe." Beverly, Republican

GREAT note at Daily Kos about Republican parents with draft-age sons voting Democratic because Kerry's plan for Iraq involves working with the UN to diversify the troops and share the burden of reconstruction ...

while I'm sympathetic and would be sending any draft-age kids I had to a university in Canada, I also think that this is really an American mess, and it's hardly fair to replace Americans, half of whom voted for the current Commander-in-Chief, with Bangladeshi, Indonesian, Uruguayan and Ghanian troops ... I'm assuming they wouldn't send Indian or Pakistani troops into this one, but what do I know ... just seems like people need to take responsibility for and clean-up their own damn mistakes.

Thoughts?

Can I just get the closet?

Microsoft has designed a new home, and I'm wondering if it's available feature by feature:

A closet mirror that illuminates from behind to provide information such as the outside temperature, upcoming events and details about the individual pieces of clothing in the closet, by using radio-frequency tags that retailers or others would embed in the clothes.
The mirror also recognizes gestures as commands. A person can hold a blouse near the mirror, for example, and wave a hand to see images of matching skirts in the closet. If a particular skirt is at the dry cleaner, it appears with a line through it.

Clearly there are women working at Microsoft.

Earthquakes, Hurricanes, Flooding,

volcanoes shaking, shrinking glaciers, typhoons and the all-time highest cost of gas, the US slowly but surely coloring their money ... I'm starting to think they're trying to tell us something. At least it's not all landing in Florida's burnished lap.

Icons we mourn: Geoffrey Beene

So sad to lose another icon.

Coals to Newcastle

is more like it, Wonkette (see Sept 28 entry). Canada has survived far more dangerous incursions from the dumb-asses attached to our nether regions (War of 1812 anyone? Right, they don't teach you about that 'cause we burned down your White House), and as for Bill O'Reilly we've been listening to Don Cherry's outrageous opinions for years. We can tell the difference between ranters and (brace yourself, he's a person of color) news anchors. We also have a history of partisanship in the national press, so it's unlikely to cause heart attacks among our intellectual lefties. "The Playboy channel to a nunnery"?? Suddenly Canadians are prudes? Sex-in-a-canoeing, polar-bear dipping, no-sodomy-laws-since-the-1960's-celebrating, Olympic-athletes-weed-smoking CANADIANS ARE PRUDES?

Get over yourselves. Unless all the evangelicals just drowned in the most recent sign-from-God-hurricane, you've got the tight-ass category all stuffed up. But the market on rants is WIDE open.

Fun, fashion and the right to be fabulous ...

It's about time that two of my fav things in the world got together. Yes, it's true, Carrie Bradshaw's running for office:

At least someone's keeping their sense of humor.
Additionally, this is hands down the best flag-as-clothing example I've ever seen, but that's probably about who's in it.

Richard Clarke asked a good question

this week on the Daily Show.
Why is it, exactly, that US armed forces are killing the people of Fallujah and Basra and Kirkuk? Aren't they the people Bush claims we were "liberating" from the tyranny of Saddam Hussein? What are they doing? Anyone?

The Daily Show gets it right

a partial transcript from a recent broadcast:

JON STEWART: Well Stephen, what do you think is going to happen now at CBS News?
STEPHEN COLBERT, Daily Show Senior Media Correspondent: Jon, there's got to be some accountability. Dan Rather is the head, the commander in chief if you will of his organization. He's someone in the ultimate position of power who made a harmful decision based upon questionable evidence. Then, to make things worse, he stubbornly refused to admit his mistake, choosing instead to stay the course and essentially occupy this story for too long. This man has got to go!
STEWART: Uh ... we're talking about Dan Rather...?
COLBERT: Yes Jon, Dan Rather. CBS is in chaos, it's unsafe, riven by internal rivalries. If you ask me, respected, reputable outsiders need to be brought into help the rebuilding effort.
STEWART: ... at CBS News?
COLBERT: Yeah, at CBS news! What possible other unrelated situation could my words be equally applicable to?! Now people need to be held accountable. The commander in chief, the vice president, the secretary of defense, the national security adviser -- everyone at CBS News needs to go! Jon, I can tell you,Walter Cronkite is rolling over in his grave.
STEWART: Walter Cronkite is still alive.
COLBERT: Not according to my sources ... at CBS News.

Green and finding a good dress for the Emmy's

So green is fine if it looks like this:



or this:



But nothing looks good if it doesn't fit:



Alison Janney is six feet tall, and when you're tall, flaunt your legs, not the endless expanse between your and your cleavage, if you have any. See Joely Richardson:

Men of Style: Part One of many

Clive Owen is an amazing, edgy actor - please see Croupier - and now apparently, has been recognized for his sense of style by the NYT. For those of you who've been feeling that the style remarks have been gender-biased (apparently you don't remember the "John Kerry as condom" entry.).

Orange is not my color

Kudos to the New Yorker for combining Fashion Week and the DHS Threat Advisory Level.

Go, go, go see this movie

Hero is excellent, the use of color alone is extrordinary. And it will give you an excuse to rent The Emperor and the Assassin again, with the incomparable Gong Li:

sidebar

how exactly is it that MTV continues to be able to find open homophobes who are willing to be that guy/girl on national TV? I don't care what the CW is on the scripting of reality TV shows. So tired and sad.

slightly delayed, but I know you've been waiting

So the New Yorker does it again with a fabulous article about Errol Morris's new commercials for Kerry, showing disaffected Republicans talking about why they switched to Kerry. Their disappointment is palpable.

“We’re not making any claims about how many might switch,” Morris’s producer Eric Korsh told me. “We’re just saying, Here are some stories of people who have. We hope there are some people who think just like that, and that one of the spots will speak to them.” If Michael Moore’s anti-Bush “Fahrenheit 9/11” is generally seen as “preaching to the choir,” Korsh said, “Errol would like these spots to be a significant part of a change.” Morris was more cautious. “How can people like us possibly know how people in swing states will view this material?” he said. Anything was possible. “But these lives, these voices—I really like them. It almost makes you want to be a Republican.”

Xenophobia anyone?

Interesting, and initially misleading Slate article on what it is, exactly, that bothers some Americans about Teresa Heinz Kerry.

In front of a luncheon sponsored by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, Heinz Kerry said that some critics—she called them "my husband's critics"—have challenged her for talking about her experience as an immigrant who came to America from Africa "via Europe, where I studied." Critics say "my immigrant experience isn't representative," Heinz Kerry said. "That is such a revealing comment, because what it suggests is that they should get to decide who shares in the American dream and who doesn't. What it suggests is that the American dream doesn't belong to all of us, but only to some of us."
Heinz Kerry ought to repeat that message everywhere she goes. She's one-fourth of what may be the most heavily accented ticket in American history (though Kennedy-Johnson could give them a run for their money), and fair or not, accents matter, especially in the mass-media age.

The irony, of course, is that those who are troubled by her accent would also identify her, an educated, European doctor's daughter, as a "desirable" immigrant in comparison with those they usually consider undesirable (but without whom this country would come to a grinding halt). The article goes on to say that she should acknowledge ... I guess her privileged background? As thought that's not already obvious to anyone with half a brain - presidential candidates and their partners are seldom impoverished, or if they were born so, clawed their way out of it soon enough. I think she's done enough to recognize that she's wealthy, and is certainly working to give much of that money to the hungry here in this country. You may not think she represents the average immigrant, but there are a lot of people who left their homes to seek education or for love who can identify with her immigrant experience quite well, and who prefer her accent to a fake Texan one from a boy who was raised by East Coast parents and attended Yale.
And that's ... one to grow on.

You wear what you eat?

An Op-ed (no less) in today's NYT has me concerned. The "X is the new black" syndrome is an industry formula designed to reassure the fashion intimidated out there and guide them towards whatever trend they're flogging this year. But fruit salad?

Last spring, pink was the new black. Seriously. Along with lime green, banana yellow and pumpkin orange. Brightly colored clothing sold so well last season that market analysts are crediting sartorial fruit salad with reviving the fashion industry after a three-year slump. Next spring, according to the Fashion Week shows of the last few days, "flame" will replace bright pink, while white will contend for "new black" honors.

Sorry, I'm not wearing "flame", whatever that is. Orange red is not my color, never will be. White is ridiculous unless you're competing for the largest drycleaning bill awards (see Heather Locklear in LAX). And while I may have over-indulged in the pinkalicious trend, it suits my complexion, and I'll continue to wear it for the forseeable future. Along with black. Although, knowing two men who wear virtually nothing but black and a few women who could use a squidge more contrast in their wardrobe, I promise not to overdo it. Moderation in all things, as Ms. Siegal is clearly aware:

Like Ms. Karan, many designers wear black in their Fashion Week bows even while sending out orange dresses - surely a secret message to New Yorkers and fellow travelers to stay strong: so buy the kelp-green bag, coral-reef scarf and turquoise shoes. Mix and match. The rest stays black.

Swing designer?

From today's NYT:

Two weeks ago, at the Republican National Convention, Laura Bush wore a blue Oscar de la Renta suit, and the designer himself had a coveted seat in the Bush family box. "It was like an American experience," said Mr. de la Renta, a native of the Dominican Republic, who is what pollsters would probably identify as a swing designer. He makes clothes for Teresa Heinz Kerry, too.

The fabulous girl doesn't believe in designers swinging - it's like being a gay Republican - but I guess you can't control who buys your goods ... would that you could.

Um, could we raise the bar a little, Gwyn?

On Jessica Simpson:

"I’m just glad that there’s one super-popular girl in America who’s not drunk, sleeping with tons of people, and wearing incredibly revealing, inappropriate outfits,” (Gwyneth) Paltrow told Entertainment Weekly. “She’s a postmodern Donna Reed.”

Everyone should spend some time

on this page, taking a moment to honor those who gave their lives for ... well, fill in the blank.

Back, and in mourning

Well, everything you need to know about the crass-tastic RNC doings last week can be found at Jon Stewart's homebase. I'm just saddened that there have been 1,000 US deaths (the only ones we're counting, right?) so far and no end in sight.

"I wouldn't be happy if I were occupied either." - POTUS

If he doesn't have enough to do, maybe he could go help prepare bodies to be returned to their loved ones.

Also today, the ban on assault weapons lapsed, a third hurricane tore up the Caribbean, the VP basically said that if Bush isn't re-elected, Americans should prepare for another terrorist attack (didn't they just finish telling us, again, that another attack is guaranteed anyway?), and Fashion Week began, giving New Yorkers much better clothes to view than those they suffered through last week.