RIP Gary Coleman

Gary Coleman died today at age 42 after being hospitalized for a brain hemorrhage.  It is especially sad news for people like us who grew up in the 80s watching him as Arnold on Diff'rent Strokes.

 While we kept up with his misfortunes (his freakout on the Surreal Life, attacking fans, his job as a security guard, his run for governor in CA), it was always more sad than funny.  We were always rooting for him to find success again.

Besides the fame, he seemed to have a pretty rough life and will be missed as one of the iconic pop culture figures of our favorite decade.  First Michael Jackson, then Corey Haim, now Gary Coleman...Corey Feldman needs to be super careful...

Sad news.

The House of the Devil

We watched this a few nights ago, and it totally ruuuuuuled.  "The House of the Devil" is a horror film that has more in common in terms of pacing and tone with late 70s/early 80s pre-slasher movies than the MTV-style, jump-scare barrage of bikini models getting hacked up that is more common today.  Think more Roman Polanski or vintage Dario Argento than Saw or Hostel.

The plot centers around college student Samantha who is looking for an income source to fund her upcoming move from her dorm into a dream apartment.  She spots an ad on campus looking for babysitters and stumbles upon a group of people who live in the titular house and proceed to make things very scary for Sam and the audience.  This movie has a slow-burn suspenseful intensity that builds and builds until the very end.  I haven't read any reviews, but I would imagine some people might find the pacing a bit slow, but it is totally worth it unless you have ADD.

The look and feel of "The House of the Devil" is so early 80s in every detail from the sweet acid washed jeans and feathered hair to the rockin' tunes Sam listens to on her Walkman cassette player.  It really looks like a time capsule gem from the Reagan era, and it would probably be a household name if it had been released then.  Even better is the special edition set that comes with the movie on DVD and a clamshell cased VHS!  How awesome is that?  It actually looks like it came from the horror section of your circa 1983 local mom and pop video store.  That fact is a little sad and ironic considering we picked up this gem at the final sale of one of seven video stores that are closing in our town this month.  Sad.

Project Runway!

We just finished watching the season 7 finale of Project Runway and loved it!  

To be honest, we don't really watch much reality TV except for this show and maybe Top Design.  Oh, and Celebrity Apprentice, America's Next Top Model, Girls Next Door, Jersey Shore (what, it's awesome!), and Big Brother.  Holy moly, do we love Big Brother!  So much that we have started watching the British celebrity BB seasons (Stephen Baldwin and Sisqo becoming friends!) to get our fix until the new American season airs this summer.  I guess we are reality junkies after all.

Anyway, back to Project Runway - I won't say anything about the winner or final three contestants in case you haven't seen it yet so as not to be a spoiler, but there were some surprises and lots of amazing clothes.  Other than Christian Siriano in season 5, I think this was the strongest bunch from the recent seasons. 

There wasn't quite as much juicy drama as there could have been, but we haven't seen the reunion show yet, so you never know lol. Who was your favorite designer this time around other than Ping (since she automatically gets the wtf weird vote)?