To my mind, stripped down warehouse is still an aesthetic that’s associatively fixed in time and place with at least a few of those, even if it was borne of necessity and circumstance, more than choice. Even your own preferences speak closer to a matter of choice; one of non-decor, and a primacy of music over other…

Also, Manila is denied a win for this week’s challenge because she was too overbearing and kept grabbing the spotlight to be funny... but isn’t that kind of the point of this whole show?

For me, mashing the beauty pageant queen into the Barbie doll concepts kind of diluted both ideas. The latter definitely speaks to the challenge, and papers over even the slightest hint of coming for Trixie’s gig. I just wish Valentina had gone full-tilt for the styling, beyond the crotch into something like Diesel’s…

I’m hopeful that last week and tonight are the turnover in that arc. Prior to her elimination, I’d be in full agreement - only to reframe Latrice’s arc as one of complacency, at its worst.

This episode coming right on top of the telecast feels like conspicuously coincidental timing. It only extends my conspiratorial thinking that Producer Fuckery extends to time-travel wizardry.

She’s got the persona. One hopes that’s not a paper-over job for janky, baby-queen bustedness, because she seems genuinely sweet and entertainting.

I just think the critique just didn’t complete the thought. For me, the beakers and dry ice gave me more Mad Scientist Laboratory; in execution, the Black Hole felt like someone without Deep Nerd bona fides trying to project a bunch of mish-mashed sci-fi ideas, without specificity, from a place of unawareness instead…

Inviting Susanne Bartsch, I find - lampshades the implication that the brief is really more specific than a generic club scene. The Limelight Club Kids are the clear go-to inspiration, of course. But there are plenty of club scenes in other metropolises worthy of meeting that spirit. The Tranimals of LA. The…

Slipping past the velvet rope with some Random ‘pinions:

As supportive of a drag king season as I’d be - I’m reminded of an aphorism I’ve been spouting for years:

In no one’s defense, I encountered “gooped” in advance of Monique. So it’s coming from somewhere other than Gretchen Wieners.

I’m in agreement that ‘Kitty Girl’ is probably the weakest selection for tonight’s lipsync parade. But I would’ve expected that Farrah could’ve found an adorkable connection to the spastically dorky energy of the song. I’m thinking of her performance in the ep2 main challenge - the Henny supergroup.

I’ve gotten the sense since AS2, that moreso than the hangry audience, a significant demand for the rapid-fire All Stars seasons has come from the queens. To get the opportunity to expand an audience, reignite booking demand, get a humanizing redemption arc, and showcase talents previous appearances may not have shown…

Oh, Derek.

Random ‘pinions for your nerves:

I can definitely grant that there’s still a sense, even from my position that the All Stars format still seems to be searching for a solution to that problem.

The mix of weirdness, camp and everything goes in Monique is so addictive. The preacher today was one thing then the other then another following a very thin theme of the singing “praise the Lord!” voice and I was so into it.

For the last 10+ years, she’s been repeatedly pounding it into the fandom’s collective heads that “the final decision is hers to make,” so the unsteady and often seemingly ‘rigged’ formats of the All~Stars seasons have always been rather ​objectionable.

The duets with Collins (“I’ll Cover You”), I recall being more sung than sprechgesang. And demanding some pretty tight harmonization, too.