#i have a lot to say about eureka like goddamn did the later seasons get REALLY REALLY OFFENSIVE

[bananonbinary]

its wild to me when people debate how problematic a show is with this or that odd implication, when im out here watching corny scifi comedy eureka, which is bald-faced eugenics. sometimes a thing can be enjoyable and have loveable characters and fun family friendly plots and also be deeply deeply offensive.

[bottomthedonkey]

My Thoughts on the RPDR Season 9 Queens

OH MY GOD YOU GUYS IT’S COMING BACK IT’S LIKE FUCKING CHRISTMAS OVER HERE I’M SO EXCITED!

Honestly, thank God for All Stars 2. From season 8, to All-Stars 2, and NOW SEASON 9 SO SOON, I feel like I’m getting hit with back-to-back-to-back RPDR seasons, and for an addict like me, I NEED MY FIX AND I NEED IT NOW. The only unfortunate thing is unless RuPaul decides to completely kill me and release All-Stars 3 as soon as this fall, I’m going to go through absolute withdrawal in the off-season, and that’s gonna suck cuz this bitch has SPOILED ME this past year.

But anyway, this year 13 (interesting number…) brand new queens are sashaying their way into the workroom, and I could not be more excited because for the first time in like, 4 seasons…

I HAVE NO FUCKING IDEA WHO ANY OF THESE BITCHES ARE.

Let me explain.

Each year, there are at least one or two queens that I at least know of. Season 8 I had heard of Derrick Barry through America’s Got Talent and I knew Robbie Turner thanks to Capitol Hill (an amazing YouTube series that you should all watch). Season 7 there was Miss Fame, who had an episode of Transformations with James St. James. Season 6 was a clusterfuck, with Adore from American Idol, Courtney from Australian Idol, and Laganja who was Tumblr’s Idol (like seriously, before the show premiered no one on this damn site would shut up about her). And Season 5 of course had Alaska.

This season, I’m going in with no preconceived notions about ANY of these queens. I have only their promo looks and Meet the Queens videos to go off of. I haven’t watched any of their Meet the Queens videos yet, so you’ll be getting my first impressions of them in this blog, no other research included. But as for their promo looks, I am already impressed. I don’t know what the theme was for their promo looks, but whatever it is, THANK GOD for it.

Like seriously, last season’s 1950′s (60′s?) hair salon shoot was TRAGIC. I’m sorry, I fucking hated it. Half the queens were in wigs and dresses that they would not be caught dead in, and it all just looked very unflattering. The whole point of these promos is to get us EXCITED for the season, not set the bar so low that literally whatever you do will exceed our expectations.

SO before we begin, these are just thoughts of a super-huge Drag Race fan, not someone who professionally does drag. And that’s what these opinions should be taken as, observations from the peanut gallery.

ANYWAY - LET’S GET TO THE QUEENS, ALPHABETICALLY.

Aja - Hmm… I could be a bit more impressed.

Don’t get me wrong, she looks STUNNING in this promo look. The hair gives me a weird Naomi Smalls vibe, the color scheme is fantastic, her face is beat for the gods, and I typically cannot stand septum piercings (like I’m sorry, but seriously, for me, it’s just a big bright neon sign for your nostrils, which are like the least attractive facial feature) but she makes it WORK FOR HER.

It’s just nothing I haven’t seen before, but there will be plenty of time for her to push the envelope. Let’s watch her video and make some other first impressions…

Okay, after watching the video, I’ll say that look is much more stunning even with minimal movement, and the Naomi Smalls vibe definitely grew a bit. She did kind of come across… oh how can I say this non-offensively… a bit dim? She definitely knows her fashion at least, but I’m worried she’s going to be a young queen who has absolutely no idea about gay pop culture beyond the late 2000s. Hopefully, she proves me wrong. Again, first impressions are what they are.

Alexis Michelle - I’m not a big fan of this look. I hate to go Michelle Visage here, but the fact that it’s all very yellow-green just reminds me of snot. She definitely needed to combine that chartreuse with a secondary color, instead of just hints of emerald and orange that I’m getting. It’s just not working for me. I see potential though, which is always good.

Okay, after watching the video, I’ll say the photo does the look zero justice. I’ll maintain that the neon yellow is still coming across as chartreuse and it’s just not flattering, BUT the details on the shoulders change with the lighting and it’s so much better in motion than captured still in a photo. Her personality seems like a subdued Thorgy Thor, but I like the idea of a sassy, brassy Broadway queen, we haven’t really had one of those since Jinkx, and that wasn’t really her main focal point. Count me interested, Alexis.

Charlie Hides - I’M SO SORRY I HAVE TO START OFF WITH A READ BUT OH MY GOD.

AND NOW SERVING WILDBERRY POP-TART REALNESS, CHARLIE HIDES!!!

Ah, glad I got that out of my system.

BUT SERIOUSLY, THIS IS A GOT DAMN LOOK. I AM OBSESSED. The bright blue hair, the fascinator that masks her eye, the magenta lip, the simple diamond earring, I’M IN LOVE. UGH. BEAUTIFUL. Not to mention, she looks kind of like the drag version of Renee Zellwegger. Anyone else think so?

Kay, let’s watch the video.

And let’s immediately pause the video, number one, BECAUSE SHE HAS A BRITISH ACCENT WHICH MAKES HER INSTANTANEOUSLY MORE CHARMING. And because she didn’t say her age, prompting me to look it up, and…

She’s 52.

I kinda need to repeat that again, she is… fifty… two. Years old. Years of age. Fifty…. fifty-two. I uhm…

WHAT THE FUCK.

THIS BITCH HAS NO GODDAMN BUSINESS LOOKING THIS DAMN GOOD AT FIFTY-FUCKING-TWO. SHE COMES IN HERE LOOKING LIKE A FUTURISTIC RENEE FUCKING ZELLWEGGER AND MEANWHILE I’M TWENTY FUCKING THREE AND I LOOK LIKE EVERYONE’S HOMELESS GAY UNCLE LIKE SERIOUSLY WHAT THE GODDAMN SHIT THIS IS SO UNFAIR I’M IRRATIONALLY UPSET I NEED A DRINK.

Okay, now that I have a beer, let’s continue…

FAVORITE QUEEN SO FAR.

Made me laugh out loud with the ceiling fan comment, she seems so sweet and nice (I already have her pegged for Miss Congeniality), and I have a gut feeling she’s going to go deep into the competition. She just has to make it past that first round, which for some reason is like a curse among “the oldest competitor of season blah blah blah” (see Porkchop and Tempest for details). But if this look is any indication, I doubt she’ll have a problem. She even said she was a crafty queen! And so was BenDeLaCreme! SO THERE! (Then again, Tempest teaches costume design if I remember correctly, so I could be totally wrong but I’m not going to think about that right now, because this bitch is my new favorite and fuck you if you disagree.)

Eureka - Uhm okay. I like this look, but… she’s kind of makes me think what would have happened if Ginger Minj and Penny Tration kai-kai’d and had a love-child… and that love child happened to inherit Penny’s make-up skills… and hair…

Ugh, like I’m sorry, I really like this look, IT’S INTERESTING, but the last time I saw something similar, it was on Penny, and we all know how that went.

Okay, so after her video, I’m definitely more on board. Her make-up is much more flattering when it’s not heavily edited, and NOW I’m getting more Ginger vibes rather than Penny vibes which is a huge relief. I’m excited to see her dance, because she hyped that up quite a bit, and I’m excited to see what she pulls out in terms of fashion, because I feel like she’s going to push the boundaries quite a bit. I’ll agree with her, a big girl is WAY OVERDUE to win this thing. But is it her? I’m not quite convinced, but we’ll see how that first episode goes…

Farrah Moan - UHM OKAY I MEAN WE ALL JOKED ABOUT HOW COURTNEY ACT WAS FISHY BUT I HAD NO IDEA SHE WAS AN ACTUAL WOMAN!

I MEAN, AT LEAST, SHE MUST BE, BECAUSE I’M STARING AT HER GODDAMN KID.

SERIOUSLY, TELL ME THESE TWO LOOK NOTHING ALIKE I’LL WAIT.

Anyway, the look’s a little plain. (LIKE SERIOUSLY, IT LOOKS LIKE COURTNEY ACT’S PRETTY IN PINK LOOK REIMAGINED FOR TODDLERS IN TIARAS.) BUT, she is VERY PRETTY, and like… goddamn that facial symmetry is just uncalled for. I need another drink, this is just unfair. I already have a drink. I need another. I DON’T CARE.

Okay, so VIDEO. I have no fucking clue how to feel about this queen. She’s now kind of giving me Violet Chachki meets Derrick Barry vibes, which meh, okay, villain potential but whatever. It’s interesting that she says she has a fetishy side to her fashion, because I really don’t think this look showed that besides it being made from latex, but whatever, her name is Farrah Moan, I’m sure there’ll be plenty of time for that later on in the season.

Jaymes Mansfield - I… do… not… like this look. Like… at all.

Seriously, sweetie, did you get lost on your way to the season 8 promo shoot? Cuz that’s where this look belongs. 1950′s hair salon. It all seems very dated. And plain. And did she paint her eyebrows like that? I’m just a little bit thrown off. Whatever, maybe her video will help out.

Well… it didn’t. I don’t know, something about her just kind of annoys me. I feel like she’s putting on a character, and not in a BenDeLaCreme fully-finished this-has-been-in-development-for-a-long-ass-time kind of way, I mean in a Laganja way where she thinks this is how she should act because there are cameras in front of her. It’s very off-putting. I don’t want to make any assumptions on who should be the first to go home because I’m usually wrong… but it wouldn’t surprise me if it was her… #sorryboutit…

Kimora Blac - Holy shit did Pussycat Dolls Present come back for another season? Oh wait, nope, new drag queen. Holy shit, this is a look. It really gives me a strange Pussycat Dolls kind of vibe though. I don’t know why exactly. I especially love the color scheme, the pink and black and gold, it all really comes together quite nicely.

Video thoughts: Oh no, SHE’S going to be the villain of the season. Lots of cocky remarks, she’s going to get on a lot of queens’ nerves very quickly, I can tell. I have no problems with cocky queens, but like, you better have the shit to back that up. I don’t think she’ll end up arguing with anyone, she seems more like Willam, completely unbothered by anyone who tries to come for her. But again, I’ll repeat, if you’re gonna be cocky, you better back that shit up.

Nina Bo’Nina Brown - I AM COMPLETELY OBSESSED WITH THIS LOOK.

Ugh, it’s like Acid Betty meets Phi Phi’s futuristic runway and I am FLOORED AND SHOOK AND FOAMING AT THE MOUTH. THIS IS GORGEOUS. Everything about this from the make up to the hair to he dress to the earrings I JUST CAN’T. SHOOK. FLABBERGASTED. BLESSED.

Video thoughts: Her personality, I feel like, is what would happen if Dax Exclamationpoint and Bob the Drag Queen fused together Crystal Gem-style, like seriously, it’s like the second stage in a Dax evolution. I’m completely obsessed. I’m really hoping she sticks around for a long time, because I think she’s gonna be a lot of fun to watch; interacting with the other queens, giving witty confessionals, I think she’ll be a big hit with the fans.

Peppermint - I feel like I’m overusing the two queens combine to create trope in this write-up, but fuck it, this is my thing, not yours, and she reminds me of Ginger Minj and Chi Chi DeVayne with this look. Specifically Ginger Minj’s look in the finale when she took us to church with that “Pray and Slay” song. Werq. I feel like I’ve already seen this before though, but whatevs, she looks great.

Ooh, I like her. I think she’s going to make it deep. She didn’t EXCITE me per se, but she definitely intrigued me. She comes across to me as very experienced, but also continually evolving with the times. I could see her making the finale for sure. ALSO, I believe she will be the first openly transgender competitor since Monica Beverly Hillz. Yeah, I know there have been queens in later seasons that have come out as trans after their season aired, but we’re talking openly competing on the show as trans women, and if that’s the case, Peppermint would be the second. Count me excited for this one!

Sasha Velour - I’m definitely interested by this look. Love a bald queen, and if that’s her schtick, I’m hoping that she’s a bald queen that can rock a wig. (Love you Ongina, but we only saw one wigged look from you on the show.) The eyebrow detail in the middle is kind of throwing me, like for me, if you’re going to do something weird like a unibrow, fucking go for it and own it, but this just seems at worst, unnecessary and at best, half-assed.

Video thoughts: If I’m being perfectly honest, I felt a bit bored by her personality BUT what she was talking about did intrigue me. I’m thinking she’ll go deep into this competition as well, but I’m worried she won’t stand out from the rest in acting challenges, or some weird “sell your own product” commercial challenge. Hopefully, she proves me wrong.

Shea Coulee - OH MY GOD FUCK ME ALL THE WAY UP WITH THIS AFRICAN GODDESS REALNESS. I haven’t seen an African-inspired look this on point since Bebe Zahara Benet in season fucking ONE. I haven’t seen her video yet, but I’m hoping that this is her aesthetic and she continues to turn out looks like this one because I am FLOORED.

Video thoughts: Got a little bored halfway through, BUT she seems very talented, and it doesn’t come across as cocky or conceited, it comes across as sure of herself, and that’s gonna come in handy when establishing a fanbase. I can see her going deep into the competition, don’t know if she’s finale-worthy, but I didn’t think Naomi was going to the finale either, so we’ll have to wait and see.

Trinity Taylor - Fuck me up with the cobalt realness, I mean YAS. Queens who can pull off strange hair colors and make it look very natural get an A+ in my book. I will say that it seems just a HAIR much. I could have done with a little less jewelry, or maybe the sequined sleeve could have just been plain latex. I don’t know. Otherwise, it’s FANTASTIC.

Hmm… after the video… now that I can see more of the look, it definitely needed to be edited. It’s not just a hair much, it’s a LOT much. Like one or two or five things needed to go. I feel a little concerned for her. I don’t get that same gut feeling that she’ll make it far in the competition as I am with a lot of the other queens this season. But again, first impressions are just that, and time will tell, et cetera et cetera…

Valentina - You know, it’s funny, this one I can’t really compare to another queen. I’m trying to think of someone she could remind me of but I’m drawing a blank. This is very original, from the mint green to the hair, to the unique way her eyebrows are drawn on, the earrings, it’s fabulous! I’m wondering how she’ll come across in the video…

Hmmm… after the video… it’s weird. I love this look, but again, I’m not getting that gut feeling that she’ll make it that far in the competition. Something is just throwing me off here. She’s probably one of the best, if not the best looking Latina queens they’ve cast for the show, but nothing about that video screamed talent in any other area other than fashion. Again, hoping she’ll prove me wrong because she does interest me…

So based on first impressions alone, here’s how I’m ranking these queens:

Charlie Hides

Nina Bo’Nina Brown

Peppermint

Shea Coulee

Eureka

Farrah Moan

Kimora Blac

Alexis Michelle

Sasha Velour

Valentina

Aja

Trinity Taylor

Jaymes Mansfield

This was actually really difficult. The only one I really could not stand was Jaymes, and the rest of the queens, it came down to look + video = ?. And I’m probably going to be dreadfully wrong on these rankings, I’m thinking all of these rankings are all going to be swapped around drastically over the course of the season.

So, I’m hoping to be back with recaps for the season. I know I quit last season after episode 2, but life happens, and depression happens, and therapy happens and blah blah blah whatever.

[crystalracing]

“Undoubtedly there is an infectious disease which afflicts every world champion and team, and it’s been going on for years. It’s not right to say that the guy who’s champion loses his edge, or that the designer relaxes, the mechanics lose interest of whatever. But somewhere along the line, these things occur – I’m talking about decimal points but they add up.”

You may recognise these as the words of Jackie Stewart. Though it’s forgivable if you don’t. He said them back in 1986, just after Alain Prost had clinched the world drivers’ championship against the odds. And there was a reason Stewart said what he said. Prost’s title was his second in a row, and this, at the time, was exceedingly rare. The Formula 1 world championship had existed for 36 years and Prost was only the fourth ever to win a back-to-back drivers’ title, as well as the first to do so since Jack Brabham in 1959-60. Even back-to-back titles for a team were at that point rare by modern standards.

But they emphatically are not rare now. JYS wasn’t to know it, but when he said those words he stood on the cusp of F1’s historical turning point. Since 1986, by stark contrast, only two world championships have not been as part of a multiple run for either the driver or team (or both) – those being Jenson Button and Brawn’s grand outlier triumph in 2009, and Lewis Hamilton’s 2008 title with McLaren. And given what happened in 2007 the latter likely should have formed part of a double.

Looking at a chronological list of champions asserts the point that we live in the age of the F1 dynasty. From 1988 McLaren started four championship doubles on the bounce. From 1992 Williams immediately picked up the baton, taking nine of the next 12 available championships. There then was a brief spell of McLaren success before Ferrari and Michael Schumacher shifted the Overton window further, taking all five title doubles from 2000 to 2004.

Renault and Fernando Alonso then took back-to-back doubles of their own, prior to a brief spell of unusual flux before the new normal reasserted itself. From 2010 Red Bull took four drivers’ and constructors’ doubles uninterrupted, then from 2014 Mercedes immediately did the same…except going one better with five – and counting – clean sweeps on the spin.

It’s tempting to ask also where it will end. It has to end of course, as that is the way not only of F1 but of the world. Right now though there aren’t obvious clues as to what will end it; the team is looking more imperious than ever in claiming five 1-2 finishes from five rounds so far this year. Some even now are beginning to whisper about Merc in 2019 doing what McLaren famously didn’t in 1988…

And a sobering thought is that Mercedes may not even be stopped via the relative micro level of whether Ferrari can, at last, make good on its car. Rather, based on the lessons of the past, it will likely take something big, on the macro level, to stop the juggernaut.

The first thing history tells us is that, at least as often as opponents defeat a dominant team, the dominant team – on some level – in the end, defeats itself.

Sooner or later, key people have to be replaced. Drivers and engineers move on or get old. Sometimes the success even encourages such nomadism – people seek fresh tasks and motivation; they perceive that they’ve done everything they’re likely to do where they are. “After 10 years of doing the same thing, I need a new challenge,” said Ross Brawn about leaving Ferrari at the end of 2006, after a spell of extraordinary dominance.

In some cases, they just get bored or frustrated with the whole goddamned business more widely. Plenty of design geniuses start to find F1 and its ways just too restraining. Gordon Murray thought so; there were elements of it with Adrian Newey partially stepping aside from the F1 frontline at Red Bull to work on other projects. Plenty reckon Colin Chapman got distracted by extra-curricular activities – such as aeroplanes and John DeLorean – towards the end.

And if you’re unlucky lots of people leave at roughly the same time, such as with McLaren in the early-nineties, Benetton in the mid-nineties and the all-conquering Ferrari in the mid-noughties. Succession is never an easy task.

The phenomena could apply to Mercedes in the imminent future. Rumours abound that its boss Toto Wolff, whose contract expires at the end of 2020, is considering his next step. He has been linked with succeeding Chase Carey as F1 Group CEO. Then there is his star driver, Lewis Hamilton. His contract also is thought to extend only to the end of next season; Wolff has helpfully just linked him with Ferrari. We know too that Hamilton has plenty of interests outside of F1.

But then again, Mercedes even during its current run of success has had a senior figure change, with James Allison replacing Paddy Lowe and its technical head. And it scarcely missed a beat. Plus if it retains its competitive edge then surely it won’t have problems attracting drivers.

Maybe even the organisation itself seeks new challenges and loses some sense of what made it successful in the first place. Plenty trace the end of McLaren’s late eighties/early nineties preponderance to its decision to start building road cars, spreading itself too thinly as a result.

When Ferrari sought to rebuild after its mid-noughties exodus mentioned, Ferrari president Luca Montezemolo had an explicit desire to ‘Italianise’ the team, by putting Italians into key senior positions and shifting away from the previous more international line-up. The wisdom of this can be questioned; it may have cost the team the redoubtable Ross Brawn who, as his own next step demonstrated, fancied a team principal role.

And for one such as Mercedes, there’s a tangible threat, repeated throughout history. That racing is not the company’s raison d’etre as it is, say, with Williams, and even arguably with McLaren and Ferrari. The Mercedes board may perceive of the law of diminishing returns from the F1 investment, especially as time goes on, and scratch the F1 effort at the stroke of a pen. Even success on the track doesn’t entirely guard against this.

In the here and now, Mercedes is poised to enter a Formula E works team, with electric mobility appearing the immediate future for manufacturers. All at Merc insist in public though it won’t impact the F1 programme. But they wouldn’t be the first to say such a thing and it to turn out not to be the case.

Another matter that can scupper a dominant team is what the UK Prime Minister of yesteryear Harold Macmillan coined as “events dear boy, events”. In F1, events have been tragic, such as Francois Cevert’s death at Watkins Glen in 1973 undermining Tyrrell’s succession plan for Stewart’s retirement, or dramatic, such as Niki Lauda’s fiery accident at the Nurburgring in 1976, and its associated political fallout at Maranello, deflating the strength of mid-seventies’ Ferrari. And yes, there’s Mercedes, albeit first time around, ending its dominant F1 spell and its motorsport involvement more widely at the end of 1955 because of that year’s Le Mans Disaster.

A eureka moment by another team can leave you floundering too, such as the ground effect in the late 1970s diluting Ferrari and McLaren’s strength, or Williams ending McLaren’s run of titles with its advances in electronic mod cons in the early 1990s. There was Brawn – and others – with the double diffuser in 2009. It’ll provide comfort to Mercedes that, in the modern F1 landscape with its ultra-restrictive rules, such things are rarer than they’ve ever been.

Yet by far, the most common point of departure is a big technical rule change. It forces everyone back to base camp, and others either by good luck or good engineering can get it right more quickly. Most recently the hybrid formula brought in for 2014 well and truly scuppered the previously-imposing Red Bull – or more to the point scuppered its engine supplier Renault. The introduction of the 1.5-litre formula for 1961 sent Cooper from dominance to the midfield at a stroke. The 3-litre formula in 1966 scuppered Lotus briefly; BRM terminally. The technical changes for 2009 put the previously-imperious McLaren and Ferrari onto the back foot overnight, as the previous pretenders recognised and exploited the regs’ potential more quickly.

For Williams and its decline from 1997 a few things came together at the same time, both its genius designer Newey and its engine supplier Renault left in quick order, and just too when there was a big chassis rule change meaning it couldn’t rely on tweaking its existing successful car. Plus Adam Parr for one reckons the new Concorde Agreement signed at that time was unfavourable to the team (or, more to the point, favourable to Ferrari).

And, for Mercedes, a much-lauded technical shift in F1 awaits, for the 2021 season. But then again, this modern imperious Mercedes squad has already passed this kind of test. It faced the grand change in chassis regulations for 2017; its title bagging continued unabated. A flip-side to the above considerations is that the better-resourced teams, of which Mercedes is one, have the higher probability of being able to work out how to get the new regulations right, as they can throw more resource at the problem.

But on that subject, there’s something else that might change for 2021. The teams’ contracts are up and new deals have to be agreed. And as well as changing the cars Liberty clearly is minded to bring in a more even financial playing field, be it through revenue redistribution, a cost cap, or a combination of the two.

Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull currently get massive bonuses just for existing, with Wolff able to sell Mercedes’ F1 involvement to the board on the grounds that it largely pays for itself. Of course, it would be churlish to say Mercedes’ success has been all about money, and it remains to be seen what Liberty can actually bring in. But a more level landscape will give Merc new things to think about.

And currently, it seems the most tangible threat to Mercedes’ dominance. Which is saying something.