What a great episode, right? It's such a pleasure to watch the workroom fill to overflowing with queens. The first episode of each season is always one of my favorites, in part because it's just fun to watch this many big personalities bounce off one another for the first time, pushing each other and jockeying for HBIC position.
Like her bandmate Willam last year, Detox is the first in the room, in a television-ready graphic yellow and black number. She's joined soon after by Roxxxy, who is a friend from Detox's early days in Orlando, and Jade and Serena, who are both serving up 15-year-old realness. Alyssa comes in--another friend of Roxxxy's--and is followed by Jinkx, darling in her white sunglasses.
Penny, Vivienne, and then in trots Alaska. Sadly, we don't get the big-reveal reaction shot that was clearly intended--by the time the mask came off, somebody had clearly already blurted, "That's Alaska," because nobody looks surprised.
Honey is serving taller-than-the-doorframe Glamazon.
Ivy comes in, dressed to win the Unconventional Materials challenge before anybody else has even started. I'm in love with both Ivy's dress and this exchange:
Ivy: "I used to work as a clown for eight years." Alaska and Detox, simultaneously: "You still do."
Miss Monica Beverly Hillz is giving me latchhook down and lord help me, I kind of love it.
I realized something a while ago about RuPaul's Drag Race: from season to season, the week's themes are different, but the core challenges surface over and over. Every queen going into Season Five (and beyond) should realize this: plan for the Snatch Game. Plan for day drag. Plan for the reading mini-challenge.
So I made a video! Without further ado: The Dilettwat's Drag Race Survival Guide.
Let me know what you think, here or on Twitter. Hope you enjoy!
Today, Logo released the first two minutes of Episode 1, calling it the "Season 5 Supertease." As in past seasons, they showed a quick-flash series of previews for upcoming challenges... the most revealing of which appears to be the Top Eight.
From this, I believe I've determined the first three queens to go home, and the second three queens to go home after that. Follow the jump for spoilers!
Before RuPaul's Drag Race existed, I watched cycle after cycle of America's Next Top Model. I remember this episode from when it broadcast, but recently, I found out that Raven was in it. Time to clip that shit together and put it on YouTube!
I found the episode and started cutting together Raven's moments... and realized that Rhea Litre was it in too! (I love a butch girl, and I've had a crush on Rhea Litre since I first saw her and Willam's "Let's Have a KaiKai" video.)
Enjoy watching Raven and Rhea model the house DOWN!
(And if you're down, friend me on Twitter @Dilettwat and bookmark/RSS this blog. SEASON FIVE RECAPS ARE NIGH, darlings.)
In the four-and-change seasons of RuPaul's Drag Race thusfar, there are a few songs that I can't believe still haven't been lip-synched, so here are Five for Five: songs I hope we see in Season V.
How have we gone so many seasons without this lip synch? Turn around, bright eyes, and wrap those lips around this fusion of overwrought musical production and genuinely heartbreaking lyrics. (Well, mostly heartbreaking. There are also delightfully WTF lines like "We're living in a powder keg and giving off sparks!") Tip: let the repeated phrase "Turn around" be the backing voice that it is, and don't try to lip-synch every iteration of it.
You remember this fantastic song, right? (The chorus kicks in at 1:25 if you're not familiar with it.)
Let the Season V queens go craaaaaazy, crazy, crazy on this song. There are a lot of words to learn, granted, but in the hands of a really talented lip-syncher, the emotional punch of the chorus has the potential to turn out an all-time-best lip synch.
If you were born in the early 80s, you still love this song. And with good reason: "The Sign" is a three-minute PARTY. You can't sing along to the bit after the bridge without grinning. "I saw the sign, and it OH-pened up my mind, and I am happy now living without you, I left you, oh oh oh!" Oh oh yes. (Not to throw shade, but: watch that music video for some delightfully busted lip-synching from Ace of Base themselves.)
I'm surprised we haven't seen an Adele song yet, and this is probably the season when this will change. "Rumor Has It" is officially the Most Fun Adele Song, right? Of course right. Bonus points to queens who nail the timing of the cold "Bless your soul" at 0:38; penalty points to anybody who death-drops at 2:58 when the drums kick back in. (If we have to watch a morose drifting-across-the-stage lip synch to "Someone Like You" instead, I'm going to be bored and bummed at the missed opportunity.)
It's too on-the-nose; I know it pre-dates RuPaul's Drag Race, but it could have been written about America's Next Top Model, from one of the hamsters to Tyra "Two Beautiful Girls Stand Before Me" Banks. Never mind the line about buying all the make-up MAC can make:
My outsides look cool, my insides are blue Every time I think I'm through, it's because of you I've tried different ways, but it's all the same At the end of the day, I have myself to blame I can't believe I'm tripping
It would be a heartlessly wrenching song to force two up-for-elimination queens to sing. Somebody's going to look RuPaul, Michelle, and Santino in the eye and sing "I was told I was beautiful, but what does that mean to you?" Right. We would all have a good cry together, and Ru would have to say "Shante, you BOTH stay," because you can't send a girl home after that, and then we'd have a non-elimination episode. Which would be fine, actually. Hey, producers: use "Unpretty."
What songs would you like to see? Let me know here, and catch me in my natural habitat on Twitter. Keep this blog bookmarked--I'll be bringing you GIF-tastic Season V recaps in holy-shit-just-a-few-weeks!
We love names, and we really love team names. It's the human condition, right? A team name is verbal shorthand: "We are alike. Go us!"
But while many teams suffer from uninspired names--go Bears, go Tigers, yawn, or the #Team____ route for truly phoning in one's loyalties--the drag queens of RuPaul's Drag Race often have awesome names for their fans. Latrice Royale has her Royale Court; Chad Michaels has her Dust Bunnies; Manila, Pandora, and Shangela have their Fanilas, Fandoras, and Fangelas. My favorite team name is from Morgan McMichaels: she has Morgasms.
To make it easy to align yourself with your favorite queens, I've collected the team names for the Season V queens!
I'm still missing a few, and I've asked those queens on Twitter, but haven't heard back from everybody yet. In case they're still looking, I have a few ideas...
Fans of Alaska are Thunderfuckers. Fans of Alyssa Edwards: I haven't heard back yet. My suggestion: the A-Lyst. Fans of Coco Montrese are Marshmallows. Fans of Detox don't have a team name, per Detox on Twitter. Fans of Honey Mahogany are Honeybees. Fans of Ivy Winters: haven't heard back. My suggestion: Ivories. Fans of Jade Jolie are Jolites. Fans of Jinkx Monsoon are Ducks. Fans of Lineysha Sparx are Sparklerx. Fans of Monica Beverly Hillz are Victorias. Fans of Penny Tration aren't fans, according to Penny--they're friends. Fans of Roxxxy Andrews: haven't heard back. My suggestion: Roxxxstars. Fans of Serena ChaCha are ChaCharinas. Fans of Vivienne Pinay are Pinaymates.
Whose team are you on? Let me know here, or on Twitter if you're a Twitter-type like me. Bookmark this blog--I'll be on Team GIF with recaps of RuPaul's Drag Race Season V in just a few weeks!