I would say that this is a What We Heart, if these Mad Men Barbies weren’t super creepy. The special collection dolls based on everybody’s favorite morally lax ad men (and their ladies) retails for $74.95 and will be sold at high-end retail stores and amctv.com and barbiecollector.com.

Do you think the come with little Barbie cigarettes too? What about tumblers of whiskey for mini-Roger Sterling (inner left) and mini-Don Draper (inner right)? I love how they gave Joan (left) a set of hips just like her portrayer, most-beautiful-woman-in-the-world Christina Hendricks.

Hey, did you know that Box Brown, who is showing his work at Brave New World this month, did one of the most apt portraits of Hendricks I’ve ever seen?(...)
Read the rest of Is the irony of a Betty Draper Barbie too much to handle? (11 words)

by Molly Eichel for Critical Mass, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Categories: Critical Mass, Mad Men, TV, Watch
Post tags: barbie, christina hendricks

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Scout Niblett plays tonight, Thu., March 13, 9 p.m., $10, with Gildon Works and Walker Lundee, Johnny Brenda’s, 1201 N. Frankford Ave., 215-739-9684, johnnybrendas.com.

by patrick rapa for Critical Mass, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Categories: Kaleidoscopic, Music, Show, Watch
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We like American Idol. Too much.

Tommy Button: When the night starts off with Ellen Degeneres sitting on the lap of Simon Cowell, you know it’s gonna be a rough one. This was the girls last chance at Top 12 dreams and only three of them really sang like it. Besides the physical discomfort of sitting through the performances, the show itself was all over the place. Seacrest and the judges were bouncing off the walls with anxiety because they had to find some way to cram the show within a reasonable amount of time. I’ll try to waste slightly less of your time.

Molly Eichel: Eh, it wasn’t so bad. No surprises but other than Lacey Brown lessening the degree to which I wanted to punch her in the face.

TB: Powersox was far and away the best of the night. She was in fact the polar opposite of Paige Miles. A soulful white girl with a cool streak in her as long as Route 66.

ME: I feel bad always praising Powersox as my favoe, but what are you gonna do? She took Tracy Chapman’s “Give Me One Reason,” a song very much associated with its artist, slapped it upside the head and said, “Look Tracy, you’re super cool and all. You can play the didgeridoo, your arms are jacked and you have a beautifully distinctive voice. But I’m motherfucking Crystal Bowersox, bitch.” Also, she looked so glamorous tonight!

TB: Look at her. Just sitting on her amp like a fucking champ. Mission Blow It Out The Box: Accomplished. Seeing Powersox right before just proved that Lilly Scott has got to step it up a bit otherwise she’s gonna get left in the dust. Sure, Lilly’s consistently good but it’s turning into a bit of the same ol’ same ol’.

ME: Amen, Tom-Tom. I like her arrangements but they’re too small. She needs to come out huge next time or I’m afraid that some lesser boys will take her down. Although, word to Patsy Cline.

TB: Didi Benami gets second billing. She was able to outshine Lilly, who up to this point has been her toughest competition.(...)
Read the rest of IDOL HANDS: American Idol, The Goodbye Girls (612 words)

by Molly Eichel for Critical Mass, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Categories: Idol Hands, Music, TV, Watch
Post tags: crystal bowersox, didi benami, Katelyn Epperly, katie stevens, lacey brown, lilly scott, paige miles, siobhan magnus

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With only 10 designers remaining, Emilio reminds us early in this episode that the kids are half way to Bryant Park. Now it’s just a matter of beating nine other competitors. Good luck with that one.

This week, the designers met TG and Michael Kors at Kors’ SoHo store. Aside from giving his store a little publicity, it isn’t clear why Kors was there. All he did was tell the remaining 10 that they were getting their design supplies from a hardware store rather than Mode, Project Runway’s fabric store of choice. Oh Michael Kors, this challenge just wouldn’t have been the same if you didn’t personally deliver the guidelines on the floor of your fancy pants store.

With not a bolt of fabric in sight, the kids had to collect sand paper, copper sheets, keys, screening, industrial duct tape and plastic garbage bags to fashion some sort of wearable clothing. The sewing room turned crazy. It was like suddenly all the art students were in shop class and they weren’t sure what the hell they were doing. At this point Jesse confesses, “Not in a mean way, but you kind of hope somebody crashes and burns.” No, Jesse, not mean at all. (...)
Read the rest of PROJECT RUNWAY: Episode 7, Hard Wear (468 words)

by juliawest for Critical Mass, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Categories: ProjRun, TV, Watch
Post tags: project runway

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We like American Idol. Too much.

Tommy Button: The irony of the group performance of “I Gotta Feeling” as an Elimination Night opener was almost too much. No big surprises last night. In fact, if you care to review the record you’ll see that I already told you this was gonna happen yesterday.

Molly Eichel: Fish. Barrel. Meet American Idol.

TB: John Park is back to bong rips and N’Sync covers with Purple Haze.

ME: He just didn’t have the star power to make it. I thought Todrick Hall was worse, but at least he got zazz. John Park was zazzless.

TB: Jermaine Sellers is trading in his bow tie for a Windsor knot.

ME: Aw, no more inadvertently making yourself out to be a giant douche on live television. Also to bandleader Michael: You’re welcome.

TB: Haeley Vaughn FINALLY stopped smiling.

ME: We had high hopes, we had high hopes, we had high apple pie, in the sky up in the hiiiiigh hopes … that were dashed when she opened your mouth.

TB: Michelle Delamor had to sing Creed for a second time (which is bad for everybody.)

ME: Tommy, I was impressed that you called this one. I thought she was safe and Didi was going home but Jesus must hate Creed as much as the rest of us. I think the bad half-prom dress and jeans combo she wore on Wednesday had something to do with it. Her outfit looked like something Stephanie Seymour would wear in the “November Rain” video. But, once again, I ask, how is Lacey Brown still on this show?

TB: To break the tension, a coked up Danny Gokey even showed up with a little country ditty that gives the impression he’s over his dead wife and ready to plow through some strippers.

ME: What!? How could you turn on our boy Totes McGokes. Yeah, he looks like he spent more nights wishing he hadn’t done blow off that hooker’s ass than not, but he wasn’t that bad.

TB: I love the guy and all but somewhere in the subsequent year, Danny seems to have fallen in the wrong crowd. It was probably the advice that damn Randy Travis gave him.

by Molly Eichel for Critical Mass, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Categories: Idol Hands, Music, TV, Watch
Post tags: danny gokey, Haeley Vaughn, jermaine sellers, john park, lacey brown, michelle delamor, todrick hall

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We like American Idol. Too much.

Molly Eichel: Wow. Mee-dee-okra. There were only two up-to-snuff performances. Everything else wasn’t even last-call-on-a-Friday-at-Ray’s-worthy. Or worse.

Tommy Button: I really hope Powersox doesn’t die this season because she might just be the only one to save the quickly sinking S.S. Idol. Even though the boys were still on the shitty end of the stick last night, everyone showed improvement. The girls, however, were a bit all over the place, running the gamut from two thumbs up to a pair of severed thumbs flushed down the toilet.

ME: To start off, I think Tommy and I can both agree that we are no longer on Team Haeley.

TB: I know I was all about her in the beginning but I would like to take this moment to retract all my positive statements regarding Haeley Vaughn. I’ve had enough of the fucking Sarlaac. You’ve devoured your last victim.

ME: I don’t think “The Climb” was an awful song choice. She’s young, she should have done a young song. But god, who knew that someone could make Miley Cyrus look like motherfucking Maria Callas? On first viewing, I didn’t think it was that bad but on second listen, it’s horrendous. On a plus side, I now listen to “Party in the U.S.A.” with newfound respect.(...)
Read the rest of IDOL HANDS: American Idol, Girls’ Night Out (437 words)

by Molly Eichel for Critical Mass, 2010. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Categories: Idol Hands, Music, TV, Watch
Post tags: crystal bowersox, Haeley Vaughn, lacey brown, lilly scott, michelle delamor

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We like American Idol. Too much.

Molly Eichel: Like many of you, I sat on my couch with my head cocked confused puppy-style when I saw the boys take the stage last night? Wasn’t it supposed to be the ladies? Yep, apparently Crystal Bowersox was rushed to the hospital for vaguely disclosed reasons and the boys stepped up to take their place. Get well soon Powersox!

Tommy Button: Alright. I’ll give the boys credit where credit is due. Clearly, these men did some soul searching after last week’s clusterfuck and found something inside to make them suck less. Congratulations on sucking less, boys. Next, try not sucking at all

ME: I’ve got to give it up for Michael “Big Mike” Lynche, who sang James Brown’s “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World.” Half of the boys’ problem is their song choice and this is perfect for him. It’s both ballad-y enough so he can show off his range but paced fast enough to show off the personality that makes him so attractive as a contestant in the first place. This was the first performance and I already knew it was going to make my top two of the evening. Also, did you see he was BFFs with Andrew Garcia?

TB: I like his BFF-ship with Andrew Garcia. That’s a duo you want on your side, although Andrew needs to step it up. But Big Mike is getting a little boring for me. Sure, he’s good but he doesn’t do it for me all the way. Kind of like a black Lee Dewyze.

ME: Your opinion may be borderline retarded Tommy, but you lead me to my perfect transition to my second favorite performance of the night: Lee Dewyze’s “Lips of an Angel” by Hinder. Detractors bitch that Idol is glorified karaoke, but I could almost hear Lee singing songs like this on the radio. Like, I would turn on WMMR and could hear Lee Dewyze. He did look awkward as fuck lumbering around the stage though, and I think he’ll split votes with Casey James, who is considerably better.

TB: Plus, Casey James rebuilt his own house?! Wow. He reminds me more and more of that guy in The Notebook everyday.

ME: Casey reminds me of a redneck, Jesus-ier version of David Cook.(...)
Read the rest of IDOL HANDS: American Idol, The Boys Are Back in Town (646 words)

by Molly Eichel for Critical Mass, 2010. | Permalink | 9 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Categories: Idol Hands, Music, TV, Watch
Post tags: aaron kelly, alex lambert, andrew garcia, casey james, crystal bowersox, jermaine sellers, john park, lee dewyze, mike lynche, tim urban, todrick hall

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I also enjoy “a good excuse to grow a mustache.”

Really, it’s all for the 25th Independent Spirit Awards, which airs this Friday on IFC at 11 p.m. EST (thanks a lot, California).

(Oh hey, is that Viola Davis, Philly’s faux mayor in Law Abiding Citizen? Oh hey, is this an awesome excuse to link to Meal Ticket’s post about LAC’s discussion of Del Frisco’s? Yes. Yes, it is.)

Like we told you when the noms came out, Philly has a big stake in them this year with nods for Precious‘ Lee Daniels, (500) Days of Summer writer Scott Neustadter, Maria Bello, Big Fan and, most importantly Tom Quinn’s Mummers’ flick Near Year Parade, which Mark Mauer told you about upon its release. It’s up for the John Cassavettes Award given to a feature made for under $500,000. Give another big “Hell Yeah!” for Quinn, why dontcha?

by Molly Eichel for Critical Mass, 2010. | Permalink | Add the first comment | Add to del.icio.us
Categories: Movies, Night Watch, Watch
Post tags: (500) days of summer, big fan, independent spirit awards, Law Abiding Citizen, lee daniels, maria bello, Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire, scott neustadter, the new year parade, Tom Quinn, viola davis

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Tommy Button: Master of Suspense, Ryan Seacrest guided us through an hour of programming to provide us with 30 seconds of information. Actually, it took an extra 15 for me to realize how drunk Allison Iraheta was. But since we’re all here, we might as well discuss went down.

The Top 24 had their first group performance with “American Boy” which, believe or not, was better than it sounds. I thought Powersox would be all over the place but she held it together nicely while Tim Urban scooted around like a hermit crab. After the formalities, Seacrest got down to business and dropped some knowledge.

Janell Wheeler was the first to get the bad news. Shocker, I know but it’s better this way. It’s early in the game so it’ll only hurt a little, like ripping off a band-aid. And her swan song was pretty good if she was trying to sound like an actual dying bird. Later, white girl.(...)
Read the rest of IDOL HANDS: American Idol, The Eliminator, Round 1 (324 words)

by Molly Eichel for Critical Mass, 2010. | Permalink | Add the first comment | Add to del.icio.us
Categories: Music, TV, Watch
Post tags: alex lambert, ashley rodriguez, crystal bowersox, joe muinoz, lacey brown, michelle delamor, tim urban, tyler grady

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We like American Idol. Too much.

Tommy Button: I didn’t watch last night as much as I rubbernecked. The men were demoted to boys after the first round made them her bitch. Thank God there were a few Alpha Dogs to lead the pack, otherwise this woulda been a complete waste of time. The whole show was all over the place. I didn’t know what the fuck I was watching.

Molly Eichel: This was straight up embarrassing. For all my talk yesterday about how the girls didn’t bring it, I would have kept my mouth shut if I had known they would put the boys to shame. The worst part is, there is no Angela Martin to mourn for; no one I thought who should have made Top 24 but didn’t. I’m worried for Season 9. I truly am.

(...)
Read the rest of IDOL HANDS: American Idol, Gentleman’s Club (1,205 words)

by Molly Eichel for Critical Mass, 2010. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Categories: Idol Hands, Music, TV, Watch
Post tags: aaron kelly, alex lambert, american idol, andrew garcia, casey james, chris golightly, jermaine sellers, joe munoz, john park, kevin covais, lee dewyze, mike lynche, tim urban, todrick hall, tyler grady

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