oiran | stick figures, pointy chins, TV and the highest honor in the land

A couple days late, but I want to talk about it anyway: America's Next Top Model

Oh, how pleased I am that creepy, stalkerish April is gone instead of sweet, bubbly Mercedes. I still think Shandi is totally going to win it, but I hope Mercedes gets something out of this. She's not high-fashion model material IMO, but she's got a great personality and she's someone I think viewers can relate to. But I've already stated my Mercedes thoughts in the past.

Yoanna continues to seem shallow and phony to me. She's got this seething pool of envy and acid just under her skin and she seems to have an unnerving habit of reminding people that they're fuckups while she "empathizes" with them. Still, she's beautiful despite her purported midriff issues. I can't imagine she won't end up with a fashion job of some sort. Based on the bit I've seen, she seems less fixated on being a model and more just wanting to be recognized as beautiful and fashionable while working in the industry. Based on what we've seen of her, there's no reason that won't come true.

Poor Shandi! I was actually horrified at how they showed her, presumably just minutes post coitus, hunched over and howling in fear and self-loathing. Poor little nerdy girl! Certainly, she shouldn't have screwed Mr. Italy, but I'm glad her boyfriend realized the truth: it wasn't the end of the world. It was stupid. It was a mistake. And even though she looked emotionally dead and very drawn and pale, I agreed completely that her "Italian sensuality" outfit was the best. Unlike the others, she doesn't seem to have any trouble taking directions from the various photographers, stylists, designers, etc., and taking them to heart.

This show has convinced me that all the models over all the years whose interviews have included lines about being "geeky" and picked-on in school really aren't lying. They were all Shandis until someone gave them a little style.

Yeah, I do want Shandi to win. It seems inevitable and right, or as "right" as a modeling contest needs to be.

This is only the third ep I'd seen. I'd initially liked April best (!!!!) but it didn't take long to dislike her and her raving zealotry. Post-elimination, when she was going on about her "calling" to be a top model, I cackled with mean-spirited glee. Because I'm more like Yoanna than Mercedes.

I don't think April will be a top model, but I think she'll stay, um, connected to the fashion industry. Because, duh: Nigel Baker and April are so going to hook up. And once they've done it, they'll be really embarrassed and never talk again.

Yami No Matsuei:. So I've been reading the excellent and compelling overview in

bonibaru's LJ and I HAVE TO SEE THIS!!!! I think I can get the manga from the same places I got Love Mode (as below), but YNM on video sounds so wonderful. I went through a confusing-to-Mr. Glove hentai phase a few years back, but I never saw any m/m stuff, and I was disappointed by my inability to locate the grossest possible tentacle porn…I think it would be easier now, since there's probably a spreadsheet listing titles and acts on some otaku site.

I actually read the overview thinking I wasn't at all interested in the fandom. I just wanted to look at some sexy manga art so that I could maybe do something for

nerodi's Clex manga challenge thing. I still might, but now I really want to see the show.

Anyway, YNM sounds like it has the perfect elements: Japanese creepy manneredness, death fixation, and girliemen with big shoulders and soft hearts. Again, I have to see this. Can anyone recommend a place to order it from?

Love Mode: Gay manga which was really intereresting for several things that make me nuts (in an irritated way) in the whole anime/manga genre. This is apparently marketed to girls and centers around the owner of a gay "date service" and his friends. It starts out with a rape that turns into love (though it is perhaps semi-plausible and centers around a mistaken identity). However, all the relationships have a static top and static bottom who act out a very male/female stereotype. There are all kinds of stats for each character, including a roughly 40-lb. weight difference between the top and bottom, as well as height differences. There were a couple of characters fighting their disgusting gay urges, and lots of channish child-chasing by beautiful adult men.

The drawings are the typical pointy-beautiful-girlie men and there is explicit sex…except there's not. There are close-ups of fingers disappearing (in a somehow-wistful dollop of gooey lube) into a smooth plane of presumed flesh, completely nonspecific. There are a few wispily sketched cock heads, but even when a penis should be front and center in the drawing…it simply isn't there. Like, it's just blank. Spread thighs, maybe even a cock in the ass, but no dick whatsoever. I want dick.

Even taking into account that I'm reading a "scanlated" version, I don't think it was a particularly well-written storyline based on things I've watched/read in the past, but I would probably be more forgiving had there been loving attention paid to drawing stylized dicks to go along with the pointy, pretty faces and the long, tapered fingers and the flowing locks and the draped trousers, etc., etc. I'd rather read something where they didn't show anything at all than where they don't show what they're purporting to show, you know?

My complaints don't explain, however, why I was up until 5:00 AM reading this thing, though ;)

Wonderfalls:. Didn't watch it last time, will watch it this time because everyone is telling me to, and surely you've all noticed how tractable and obedient I am by this point.

Nerodi Seal of Approval^TM: I've made her one. I think we all know what it means when

nerodi likes a story. It means dirty!wrong sex that is both dirtier and more wrong than just ordinary slashy sex. She's already honored me by bestowing it on The Prize, and I imagine some of you who write can look forward to getting slapped with the seal. I'll make a couple versions for different backgrounds once I get her design approval.