The new season started on Monday. This is the second year I've watched the show (I missed the first season). Last year I was rooting for our Boston contestant, Jujubee. She came in third, which isn't too bad, but I still think she should have won.
I'm looking for a new show to blog. For the past three years at this time, I've blogged enthusiastically about "American Idol", a show I've watched since its first season. Last spring, after the wrong person won for the second year in a row, I decided not to blog the show when it started up again this season. The problem is that you're allowed to vote multiple times for each person. The singers who won were more acceptable to the conservative audience, who were patient enough (or crazy enough) to vote over and over long after my patience faded. Anyway, I'm a little sick of competitions where "America" controls the voting. Want to know how good "America" is at picking the best people for the job? Just look at the clowns we elect to represent us.
So I thought, why not blog about RuPaul's Drag Race? I love the show, and there isn't as much online chatter about it as there is about American Idol. And there's plenty to say.
This year there are 13 contestants. Drag queen names can be really funny, although most of these are pretty mundane. I'm listing them alphabetically by first name:
- Alexis Mateo
- Carmen Carrera
- Delta Work (she's one of my favorites)
- India Ferrah
- Manila Luzon (where do you think her ancestors are from? Her boyfriend is last year's contestant Sahara Davenport.)
- Mariah
- Mimi Imfurst (pronounced "Me! Me! I'm First!")
- Phoenix (who is from Atlanta, GA, not Phoenix...)
- Raja
- Shangela Laquifa Wadley (she was eliminated first in Season 2, and has been given a second chance)
- Stacy Layne Matthews (she's from Back Swamp, NC)
- Venus D'Lite (which sounds kind of like a diet dessert to me)
- Yara Sofia
The theme of the first show is Christmas (Xmas? Does it make a difference?) The first - what? challenge? event? - is a photo session in which they are asked to jump on a trampoline while snowflakes are sprayed at them; their photos are snapped while they are up in the air. They were all dressed in drag at this point, so some of them were jumping with long gowns or boots (I think anyone wearing stilettos removed them first!).
Then, they visited a thrift shop to buy clothing (or whatever they could find) to create the perfect Christmas outfit. Shangela bought a large white bulbous lampshade, with the intent of creating a kind of a snowman look. Mimi whined that thrift shops didn't carry her size. (Delta and Stacy Layne just went about finding what they needed, without a single whine. I admired them more for that.) Carmen bought a gold mesh belt, which she said she was going to use as a skirt. I didn't believe her. I should have.
Back at the workshop, the area had been bedecked with Christmas decorations. The queens dismantled them in seconds, scavenging treasures to make their outfits all the more fabulous. Shangela took the snowman, which was almost as big as she was. Raja grabbed a small Christmas tree skirt (you know, the kind that goes under the Christmas tree, where you put the presents...). Both Venus and Phoenix smashed up ornaments and glued them to the lapels of red garments (a vest for Venus, a jacket for Phoenix). Venus was pissed off that Phoenix was copying her idea, even though that wasn't even true. Mimi decided to dress up as the Virgin Mary, and later had a major meltdown about how terrible her costume was. Just another night at the Drag Race.
The next night, the costumes were judged. Bruce Vilanch was a guest judge, and he dressed up like Santa Claus. Vanessa Williams was the other guest judge. Carmen was the first one to strut down the runway. She was wearing that gold mesh belt and very little else. The rear view consisted of a sprig of mistletoe right over her butt crack. The front view looked like a thong. You could not even see a telltale bulge of her, um, manly parts. Manila was dressed in a red minidress trimmed in white fur, and she carried a fur muff. Yara Sofia came in wearing a Rudolph nose; her wig was styled so that it came up in a large antler-like roll on top. She was wearing a gold dress, which she took off to reveal red undergarments. Phoenix came out in her silver ornament trimmed jacket, which included huge clusters of ornaments on each shoulder, and a disc covered in peppermint stripes worn as a hat. She also wore a very short skirt. RuPaul said "O Holy Night, that skirt is short. I can see her figgy pudding!"
Stacy Layne was wearing a bright shiny red dress, knee-length, cut low in the bodice. She strutted her stuff proudly. I wish I could believe in myself the way she does. They played a voice-over of her saying "I think it's time for a plus-size queen." I agree with her. Venus was beautiful from the neck up; she wore a brightly decorated ponytail that the judges later said was the best part of her outfit. Her crushed-ornament-bedecked vest looked overdone, and she wore a gold skirt with gold garland sewn (or glued?) around the hem. I thought she still looked good, but the judges didn't agree.
India was wearing a red-and-gold dress cut down to her navel. Not sure where the impressive cleavage came from. One of the women judges said "Look at those two treats." Delta came out dressed for Kwanzaa, the judges said, with a gold headdress on and a black dress with huge flowing green sleeves. She looked very elegant. Alexis wore a ruffly red dress with large silver snowflakes attached.
Mimi came out in her blue-and-white sparkly dress, clutching a bundle that looked like a baby. She had a red heart pinned in her cleavage. She was followed by Mariah, who was dressed in a silvery gray pantsuit, kind of, although the pants came to the knees. There's probably some correct term for that kind of outfit. I'm fashionably challenged...
Raja was right at home on the runway. She was wearing that tree skirt, which looked perfect on her, and the layers of Christmas-wrapping-like shirts and vests, black boots trimmed with white fur, and a large bow around her neck. Her wig was white and frothy. As she left the runway, she lay down and did a snow angel. (Not that there was any snow, but everybody got the point.)
Shangela brought the snowman (which she named "Frostula") in with her. They were dressed alike, in red garland-trimmed green bodices and rounded white below - the (fake) snowball on the snowman, and the lampshade on Shangela. The lampshade was kind of falling apart at the back by then, though.
RuPaul selected Mariah, Delta, Yara, India, Phoenix, Stacy Layne, and Alexis. "The seven of you all stood out...for not standing out from the crowd." They were all safe, though, and were sent to the lounge.
The other six represented the best and the worst, and I wasn't 100% sure which was which. They liked Carmen's very sexy (as in practically naked) look, and they liked Manila's outfit, but they didn't like Shangela's get-up; they suggested she was upstaged by the plastic snowman. Santino said Venus looked like "a sad Christmas elf."
RuPaul said to Mimi, "You've got such a big heart," meaning the one glued to her front. "I've got a big everything, girl," Mimi laughed. She seemed to be in the top 3, if I can figure out what the judges meant.
Raja won the photo challenge earlier, and the judges had only praise for her costume.
After the contestants were sent to the lounge, the judges conferred. Vanessa said about Carmen: "I'm still mesmerized how she tucked all that stuff. I don't know where the heck it went, but it was an amazing tuck."
"Condragulations, you're safe." RuPaul said these words to Mimi and Manila. Raja got, "Condragulations, you are the winner of this challenge." making her a two-time winner. She got a gift certificate from sequinqueen.com. Venus ended up in the bottom 2 with Shangela. Carmen was safe, but I have no idea if she was in the top or bottom three.
Venus and Shangela had to lip-sync for their lives; the song choice was "The Right Stuff" by Vanessa Williams. Shangela did a great job, and Venus basically went on the attack, shoving Shangela around on the stage. When Shangela's lampshade skirt fell off, Venus grabbed it and pulled it back over Shangela's head. It was clear to me who should be eliminated - the very pretty, but not very nice or original, Venus D'Lite. And she was told to "sashay away."
Next week, I think they're doing some kind of sci-fi drag. I can't wait!
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