Quick Update: Back in Black (Shirts, that is...)

I'll stop babbling about TV long enough this week to let you know that we've added a bunch of great new Black T-shirts to our site, here.

Learning to do this right was really important to me, and it was fascinating to bring working with transparent images into our CafePress store in a whole new way.

Recently added shirts now on display in our Dark Shirts & Tees section include black (and rich assorted dark colors) versions of the following designs:

* Jaded Viper Pilot Seeks Cute CAG

* LoVe Shipper

* Cynicism, Stubble, & Vicodin (I'm so there)

* Tip me well or else

* Line?

* My other car's a hippogriff

* It's Just my Nature

* Burnt Toast Diner

* Betty Henry Shipper

* How do you stop an exploding man?

And more. The shirts look great, and it's nice to add this new dimension of design to our assortment of products. Check 'em out!

Top Dou.... Oh, Never mind.

I was really disappointed in the results of Bravo's Season 2 Top Chef competition, which awarded the title to Ilan Hall despite acknowledgements from almost all of the judges that Vigneron may be the better and more creative chef now (and that he almost certainly will be so in 5 years). Ilan, meanwhile, is a classy guy who not only appeared to crib most of his menus and most successful dishes (Fideos and Clams, Battered Bay Leaf, etc.) directly from Casa Mono (his previous employer), but who spent much of the run of the season hectoring, verbally abusing, slamming, and then actually filming (and egging on) the abuse of his fellow competitor, Marcel Vigneron. His most notable quotes for this season include such gems as "I can't wait to make you cry," and "I would love to have peed on Marcel," etc.

The fabulous Amuse-Biatch summed it up best, with:

So in the end, when Ilan won, it was--how can we put this in terms everyone will understand?--as if Jeffrey had won using Uli's designs.

They also offer an impossibly funny interview with Ilan that's too good not to read IMMEDIATELY. (So go read it! I'll wait...)

OK, hi, welcome back! Back to my less-sparkling observations: I was also disappointed that, in the end, it came down to a popularity contest. The moment the other chefs came out for the final meal creation, Marcel simply had no chance. Although I did wish he'd picked Mia over Michael -- simply because of her willingness to do the work (yet, to be fair, Marcel himself said that Michael was "a workhorse" for the final, and did a great job, so shows what I know). Sam, meanwhile, just didn't seem motivated to be of much support, passive-aggressively whining in his interviews, smirking at the camera while Marcel and Michael worked, or falling into "That Guy" mode with the Judges' Table. As talented as he obviously is (and I do think he is probably the season's real Top Chef), Sam's penchant for figurative as well as literal pot-stirring says to me that he still has some maturing to do. I did love watching the Judges smack down Elia's rather spiteful words about what was lacking in Marcel's food (which she hadn't even tasted) -- nice to see they all rather obviously found it labored and absurd by this point.

Ultimately, I felt like this season of Top Chef was a bust, irredeemably colored with a thoroughly nasty immature, bullying, taunting, Mean Girls mentality that reflected badly on all associated with it. By the time Padma mumbled the name of Ilan as the winner, the show just seemed to kind of limp off into the sunset, vaguely ashamed of itself. (At least Marcel wasn't told to "Pack [his] Knives and Go" this season, as Tiffani had been last season.)

Meanwhile, I have no doubt that Marcel will be a top chef somewhere, one of these days -- if he isn't, I'll eat my xanthan gum hat.

This Week on BSG: Baltar is Bonkers

Well wow, poor Baltar. Thanks to "Taking a Break from All Your Worries," (and just try not to sing the Cheers lyrics to that, by the way), he's back on the Galactica with no one to keep him company but the beautiful if possibly figmentary Chip Six (who, let's face it, is beautiful but kind of a downer). It seems BSG's resident mad scientist is once again thankfully back in residence.

I didn't love the entire episode -- I've found the love quadrangle of Lee/Dee and Kara/Sam kind of tiresome -- but I did think it was a lovely, if difficult and rewarding, piece of television.

I know a lot of people are tired of Baltar's schtick, and see him as too bad or pathetic to be interesting, but I find him endlessly fascinating. First there's the matter of James Callis's extraordinary performance in the role -- he never seems to play less than oh, four or five conflicting emotions at the same time, and I don't know how he does it. In one single expression, he's able to communicate a riot of emotions that should be impossible to put together -- anger, humor, sneakiness, lust and self-hate -- or something equally daunting. It's even better that, to me, Callis manages to communicate the complexity of this guy while always leaving him at least in sight of redemption -- he's squirrely one minute, sober and judicious the next, sneaky and plotting, pathetically eager to please, and desperate to be liked, loved, respected (one thing's certain from watching BSG -- Callis would make a superb Iago). And on top of all of this, the guy's freaking hilarious. I'm pretty sure I'm in the minority on this in some ways -- but I could watch the Baltar Show all day.

With much of its events taking place either deep in Baltar's id, or in the rough 'n' tumble new bar on the flight deck, the latest episode certainly posed some monumental challenges, not least for director Edward James Olmos, but Adama acquitted himself with style. I particularly loved the way Olmos brought a different and very visceral feel to Baltar's scenes (he's being tortured into thinking he's adrift and drowning -- a nice Jungian echo of Baltar's actual state of mind). The scummy-looking liquid has a real visceral feel to it, and it's a direct and potent antithesis to the sunny paradise he normally shares in his mind with the Number Six in his brain (aka Chip Six).

What always moves me in spite of myself where Baltar's concerned is that the guy is a great example of the little, everyday evil. He isn't an innately violent man, and was visibly horrified at the Pegasus's treatment of Gina, their prisoner Number Six model. He doesn't push puppies under buses or steal elections, for that matter (Laura Roslin, I'm lookin' at you). He thinks of himself, in general, as a pretty decent sort.

That was why his freakout over seeing his erstwhile assistant's picture on the memorial wall on Galactica moved me. I believed it completely. I have no trouble seeing Baltar as an absently decent guy on Caprica before the bombs fell -- kind especially to anyone who treated him with respect or flattery, and (probably) hitting on every woman on his staff. But yeah, I think he was someone's godparent, someone's friend, someone's confidante. What he did resulted in the end of mankind, but his goal was a lot simpler -- he wanted to hook up with the hot blonde scientist he thought was working on a similar (and similarly privileged, private) project. Since then, Baltar lives in a nightmare, terrified of being found out, anxious for redemption, dying for someone to tell him that he's still able to be forgiven and redeemed. When, probably... nope.

It's easy to watch TV and empathize with the noble types -- the Adamas of the universe. But BSG shows us effortlessly that even the shiny heroes themselves have moments of doubt and darkness, and that villains like Baltar or those ubervillainous Cylons may also have genuine moments of self-sacrifice or heroism.

When it comes right down to it, I think the world is full of more Baltars than Adamas, actually. What the characters face on BSG is a brutal crucible. How many of us would make it through that fire unscathed?