A Note From Rich (FourFour) Juzwiak!

Rich asked if I had seen this "Time Out Chicago" story. When I admitted that I hadn't, he graciously transcribed it for us. I think there's a great point made here that the on-line "fandom" has created a stronger and more satisfying interest in Project Runway. We also try to make things more fun!

Hey Laura,

Here's the article. It's in the weekly "Geek out" column in the Time In section, which covers TV and DVDs:

Project Runway has been positively unstoppable this season. The heroes! The villains! The way-too-much charmeuse! Truly the watercooler show of our time has arrived. So it's no shock that the adoring fandom has compiled some of the most impressive recaps and additional materials around. There's more to recaps than Television Without Pity, friends.

As any fashionphile knows, Tim Gunn is the wisest and most fabulous mentor in all reality-TV land, and when we want additional wisdom, we go right to the source. His blog, Tim's Take, offers his trademark dry humor as well as candid and insightful criticism, but it's his podcasts that really make us swoon. Lots of wacky high jinks don't make it into the show, and we'd never know about the 90-minute runway fight between Santino and Nina, or the time Tim tricked the contestants into thinking they were performing a matinee at a prison had we not listened in. Tim's blog and podcast can be found at www.bravotv.com/Project_Runway. Be warned, though: The horrendous Bravo site has a tendency to crash our browser.

The aptly titled Blogging Project Runway (www.bloggingprojectrunway.blogspot.com) offers thorough recaps but earns extra points for being a clearinghouse for all things Runway. If you like lots of links, especially to the contestants' own sites (Santino's and Diana's are particularly fun), BPR is right up your alley.

When we want the snark and the sass, there is but one source: fourfour (www.fourfour.typepad.com). Editor Rich Juzwiak posts dozens of screengrabs from each episode and adds hilarious captions and terrible Photoshopping ( e.g., a photo of Facts of Life's Tootie on Emmett's model's, uh, "Tootie") to make the experience funnier and more vulgar for everyone. "I'm in it for the drama," Juzwiak admits. The show is particularly bloggable because of "good editing and fantastically dramatic personalities," he says. If one of the contestants says something outrageous ("What's Stevie Nick?" or "It was International Male gone g-g-g-g-gay!"), you can count on Juzwiak to post an MP3. Funny expressions yield animated GIFs, and shout-outs to the makeup guy make the long wait between episodes almost bearable.

- Margaret Lyons (from the Feb. 2-9 issue of Time Out Chicago, p. 116)
Cool, right?

Rich