We all die. The goal isn’t to live forever: Thought Verbs by Chuck Palahniuk

cultureprn:

A friend in my writing group passed this along to me. A bible of sorts for aspiring writers:

In six seconds, you’ll hate me.
But in six months, you’ll be a better writer.

From this point forward—at least for the next half year—you may not use “thought” verbs. These include:…

Food for thought, right there.

Source: cultureprn

RuCap

Took me ages to get to watching this as I was merrily prattling on about Season 5 with friends on Skype…. 

While watching, I was thinking about the last runway challenge. Seemed like Jinkx was channelling La Cicciolina:

And Alaska had a bit of a Kristen McMenamy vibe going on:

I swear, I spent a week trying to remember Kristen McMenamy’s name. This is embarrassing because I adored her, Eve Salvail and Linda Evangelista in the 90’s. Just watching the RuCap and her name pinged into my brain during the “Lost Episode of Untucked” segment…which could happily have stayed lost forever as far as I’m concerned. I think this season gave me shade burn-out feels of a Jersey Shore spray-tan/Coco-orange level of realness. 

I haven’t changed my mind, I’d still like Jinkx to win but I would be fine with it if Alaska pipped her to the post. I get the whole drag power couple thing with Alaska and Sharon would make for great publicity, and I figure Jinkx will have no trouble making bank on her performance this season. Damn but I want to go to NYC to see The Vaudevillians :-(  Hey, there’s this arts festival here in Galway in fall that’s quite the thing - maybe they could tour?

Watching the recap brought home to me how much I still adore Latrice…and probably always will.

Side-note: Roxxxy sweetie, as a big girl myself, I would much rather have Latrice represent me. No Rupaulogies. I live for her dignity, because I so seldom feel it myself, and she makes me believe I can werk it for real.

Roll on the coronation! This protracted public vote nonsense is bad for my health.  

SuperTroopers

First things first, the makeover show always makes me cry. This one did so sooner than on previous seasons. My assessment of looks, expressions etc. may be adversely affected by being viewed through a lachrymose filter.

That said, what an episode. More after the cut for spoiler protection for other folks like me in the EU who need some catching-up time. 

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Drama Queens

Oh…wow…friends in the US told me this was a doozy of an episode, and they did not lie. 

Alaska’s comment “the best revenge is just to do better” foreshadowed the heck out of the rest of the episode. 

So there is drama with Coco and Alyssa (we know, we are bored by it), and in the main ep. it appeared like Alyssa had an outburst that derailed the runway critiques - apropos of seemingly not a lot. Untucked gave that some much needed context, and gave a lot of other things some context too. But I’m getting ahead of myself…

That lipsynch for your life - the bestest ever. Props to both of them, but especially to Coco who knew what she was up against and brought it all to the party. So on point, amazing.  

Alyssa, I am conflicted. She can be as bad as Coco for “taking things personal”, and I do feel that (well hell, she said it) she was relying too much on lipsynching her way out of the trouble her other shortfalls dropped her in. 

Can’t do that forever though.

I’m not sure that I agree with Coco’s assessment that Alyssa just saw it as another competition and didn’t care - but I do think she and Jinkx were right about each of them needing to push and work outside of their comfort zone. Alyssa (even Ru said it) was not bringing her full game to everything, and managed to remain unaware of what she could be, right up til the end. That’s her tragedy, and it is kind of tragic. I felt bad for her.  

She and Coco both saw the lip synch as determining so much more than who got to stay on, it was also “a tiebreaker” for the title Alyssa had to give up. Well, Coco earned both tonight.

HOWEVER - Coco messed up almost all the points she had earned from me (like she’d care, but anyway) by bringing up the idea of Jinkx as “America’s next drag comedy superstar”. Hello? Have you SEEN how Jinkx has progressed? Did you notice the gasp from Ru at the runway look? Did you see the artistry in that make-up?

(I cannot find a high-res face shot for the life of me, and I so wanted to drop one in here - EDIT - I need, Logo provides).

Did Coco just say Jinkx was a threat because the others did? I has a confuse. Also a disappoint. Es no bueno. 

So, Alaska - solid performance all round, great comedic chops, and her personality is growing on me week by week. Only criticism is the “Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii” which is grating and feels like it was a thing that was supposed to be a thing but didn’t quite catch on and now seems sort of sad and so two months ago.

D-Tox, weak week. Meh comedy, meh outfit. I was taken aback by her story about her ex, that was truly horrible and if I could hug via internets I would do so. At this point, competition-wise, polish is not really enough anymore, I hope she can pull out some surprises soon. 

Roxxxy, oh my. Ok. Great in the telenovela, the reduced amount of make-up worked wonders and the kiss curls were clever (and cute), but calling someone else one-note? Um, Roxxxy sweetie, take a look at your wardrobe. Cut-aways, sweeping legs, corsets, bodysuits - BODY BODY BODY. And I understand why, I totally do, but it is also…one-note, and it’s becoming monotonous. I know that she admitted to lashing out at Jinkx before when she felt threatened, so it may be the same thing again, but we do need to see more (less? less is more?) of Roxxxy being different. 

I agree with the assessment of Jinkx as the one to beat, and I am so glad she stuck to her guns on the dia de los muertos look because my Kahlo/mexicana fangirl heart was sent into perma-squee hyperdrive, Divine. She killed in the telenovela too - and what staggers me is that no-one realizes that each time she nails one of those comedy/acting related challenges, she raises the bar on herself that little bit higher. I saw moments in Untucked where vertigo loomed behind those eyes. 

I think she was sincere when she said it scared her, and not just because people will be coming for her, but because she’ll need to dig deeper week on week so as not to have people go “meh, seen it” at her. 

Jinkx, as a former archaeologist, you have my shovel, and my trowel.

Dig, sweetie, dig. 

Scent of a Drag Queen

So, this week Coco took issue with how she is judged. 

I swear, she opens her mouth and I’m all like

And then she picks on Jinkx and I immediately go

You know what would really impress me? If JUST ONCE Coco could accept and OWN a critique.

Because at this stage she’s acting like her weaknesses are everyone else’s fault, and (as Jinkx rightly pointed out), if you don’t learn from your mis-steps then you don’t grow - and the judges are looking for every one of them to evolve over the course of the season. Come in raw, leave with a new layer of polish applied - if you’ve learned the hard lessons. 

Right now, to me at least, Coco, Alyssa and Roxxxy are the only ones left who haven’t shifted their game at all. Ivy didn’t either, and that was her downfall (much as it made me sad to see her go). Arguably Detox hasn’t amped up much either, but then she doesn’t really need to since she’s effectively the Chad Michaels figure of this season - any more polished and she’d turn into a reflective surface, which would cause some problems with the cameras. 

Alaska seems to have gone from frustration to determination, and it paid off this week. Jinkx, for my money, has moved up more notches than anyone since day 1, and is finally seeing recognition for it. 

As long as she doesn’t get complacent, she’s gotta be in line for that tiara - and I’m keeping all digits crossed for her.

Shine on, you crazy diamond. 

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