'...and DON'T *bleep* IT UP!' -- the RuPaul's Drag Race thread

also Willow

oh and Jasmine’s chaps look was … idk…horrifying & confusing … my brain is still reeling

speaking of crying, the end of the latest UK vs the World was.. unsettling

Yeah that was almost unlike ANYTHING I've seen on any iteration of the show. Phew.

On the brighter side, this was a goddamn delight, Adore in perfect hyperAdore mode:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8rinU4vdtY

lady camden’s runway stunt/reveal was great & i loooved her tearaway mustache move in the lipsync so funny

Stellar. What a hero.

VERY THAT!

was missing a dose of kornbread’s realness during daya’s fake apology moment

we watched one episode of UK Vs The World and wow is Baga insufferable

insufferable is the word, **spoiler** didn't rate the snatch game misery sketch in this recent and it wasn't the opus it was set up to be. best bit of this episode: jujubee to Janey 'girl, what would you have done with that dress?' Janey 'gurl, I'd burn it'. Rootin' for Blu, Pangina's tears were edited and amplified, right?, it created the worst atmosphere for an exit. Feel for Pangina but this format is ruthless, she must have realised.

Yeah watching it I thought the sobs were added on top of the end credits in post-production, but people on line say they just left her mic on, which could be right. Whichever way, it seemed unnecessary and cruel. Like are we supposed to enjoy hearing someone be so devastated?

You have to give it to Blu. She even warned Pangina that she was thinking about doing it. But I feel the format doesn't really work if the queens play that way. We're left with the less threatening and underperforming queens, like Jujubee wearing another unforgivable look on the runway.

Last nigth's episode was fun. I always enjoy the singing challenges and I loved the theme. Didn't really understand the outcome of the lipsynch though.

Mm. Honestly I would have laughed if the gold bar turned up in this episode right after the non-elimination last week.

Also...good point!

For the first time in #dragrace herstory two women stand before me#DragRaceClubhaus pic.twitter.com/uIuqpCTDIu

— Everybody's Got One (@EverybodysGotO3) February 26, 2022

the golden bar will turn up when it will create most drama obv

We're left with the less threatening and underperforming queens, like Jujubee wearing another unforgivable look on the runway

otm. getting rid of 2 countries and 2 most interesting queens doesn’t bode well for the show which now became UK vs US +
and i love jujubee but, girl, you should’ve stopped when you almost won

was looking forward to seeing jimbo in a snatch game..

When Camden covers up her eyebrows she looks eerily like Matt Smith.

that lipsync was weird as hell

real talk: i hate that dya won
i hope her momentary high leads to a steep plumetting drop bc i am not into her at all

and that when she goes she takes jasmine with her. those two. ugh.

but i loved the bad boys song, so fucking funny - the other two songs, listening-wise were very hard to sit through. interminably repetitive. loved anjeria’s diana. lovely,

It was really weird to me that the Shangri Las song featured the "Be My Baby" beat but the Ronettes one didn't.

I'm OK with Daya but can see how she can put people off (which is how I felt about Jan).

yeah i wasnt really feeling the jantasy much either

Daya has been bringing some creative runway with little credit, she's deserved some dues now. Mama could stop some of the sour puss moments tho, although it's kinda fun to have some tension too, I think that's why I like jazmine, they both are blind to editing themselves and so hungry for it!

the neediness is off putting for me
gimme a Bosco who handles their shit

watching pitstop yesterday i was reminded about daya forcing willow to change what she was planning to do because she had the same idea
then combine that with similar behaviour when they were choosing songs and a couple of other moments and..
daya is starting to come across as a bully (and i miss kornbread who would’ve called out this shit even more)

Bosco very chill demeanor has an edgy, caustic side too, but yeah, well put, they manage themselves around the competition a lot better, ' "I have a lot of friends but not one 100,000 dollars". Love a girl who deliver a read.

Bosco has a very oldschool vibe that I love.

While kornbread had important stuff to say, I wasn't wholly down with how they went about it. There was a "can give it but can't take it " vibe that I think would have definitely lead to a more conflict this season. Kornbread's return season is gonna be eventful.

i see some similarities between bosco and jinx. must be the seattle thing!

re: kornbread, agreed! didn’t like harping on jasmine after the initial convo
still, missing reality check from somebody who can deliver it in a good manner

funny, I think Daya and jazmine have an old school, earlier season vibe, from the point of view of queens who don't realise how they are coming off on screen and gagged at not being seen as the top bish. I kinda live for the delusion as much as the illusion.

otm, definitely feels like many queens exercise a very measured approach nowadays
and there isn’t as much blissful lack of self awareness a la valentina

i pretty much wrote deja off but she should’ve been declared the winner in the last ep
great lipsync too, helped by an excellent song choice (it’s almost like they planned for these 2 queens to lip sync..)

meanwhile, UK vs the World doesn’t live up to its own name

i’m salty that there was no elimination
better be sending queens home doubletime next week

I'm kinda ready for Jorge to go home already.

Also lol that Daya's quick drag looks just like Maddie's full face.

i’m salty that there was no elimination
better be sending queens home doubletime next week

Right? They've already made up for Kornbread's injury with no bottom/elimination 2 weeks ago. And we still haven't seen the gold chocolate bar. Why not give it to Jorgeous ot Jasmine this week instead of a double shantay ? It's not like it's really going to be left to chance.

PLEASE for the love of GOD eliminate Jasmine jfc she sucks at everything except at dancing in lipsyncs

I'm somehow convinced we get the gold bar after Snatch Game here, and the show turns into Sartre's No Exit.

season 14 is to the death but no one knows & the season runs as-is for another 12 years

They are really killing the drama for this gold bar reveal with all these non elims. There is no gold bar, the chocolate is just rations on the longest season ever

Meantime:

the year is 2455, the mecha rupaul has managed to bring humanity to it's knees and weilds the power of time travel. it uses it to snatch jujubee out of different points in her time line to complete in rupaul's drag race all stars 60049: the all jujubee season pic.twitter.com/rohYI194cG

— 𝑆𝐼𝐴𝑁 𝑇𝐻𝑌𝑀𝐸𝑆 🥂 (@SianThymes) March 5, 2022

In the RPDR cinematic universe, Jujubee is RuPaul's Duncan Idaho. In this essay I will https://t.co/cSmCbAYEe0

— Fsck poutine 🌻🇺🇦 (@jvfriedman) March 7, 2022

LOL

re: chocolate - at least it gave us “oh.. it’s chocolate”
i am wishing for a drag race / school of chocolate crossover episode now

Just ahead of the UK vs The World finale: objectively speaking, Baga has the most C U N & T, and Jujubee the least. However, subjectively, their positions are reversed for me. Mo and Blu are... fine, above average midfielders, but not winners.

I don't find baga delivers the winning c.u.n.t. for me, there's charisma, there's definitely nerve with a capital N but unique? talented? I find those qualities a bit lacking...that snatch game was over rated, the runways are so so, a fierce lipsync is not their forte, a forgettable singer too. I don't think this bunch of queens have set the world alight but certainly not baga.

it says a lot to me about the diversity of human life that there are people out there who haven't given up on UK vs The World because of Baga

Agreed with Ru’s first and third lip sync decisions, disagreed with the second.

they’ve managed to lower the stakes so much i don’t actually care who wins at this point

It really felt like a series where all the queens were in the UK or close by for something else at the same time so they just decided to get them all together for this made-up show. So odd. Although I really enjoyed Jimbo and Pangina's faceoff in the workroom. What a pair of pros. I assume Pangina's horror was all put on for the cameras.

Maybe...and yet.

Drag Race España at the end of the month!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVA3wkWKgOA

this whole UK vs the World seems so.. unnecessary. it felt more like a “let’s pretend play drag race!” than an actual season. with all the talk of “THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL DRAG RACE!!” it felt small and homemade. okay so it’s a 6 ep BBC thing, but couldn’t they do something that would work better for that format?

and on top of that you have all the non UK and non US queens eliminated first (and they were better too), you have queens in the final 4 who don’t deserve to be there (i heart you jujubee, but girl, i ain’t buying your “this was my strategy” talk). and the winner?! mo should’ve been crowned. i like blu, but her lipsync was over the top and not in a good way. there was no subtlety, no connection to the song. i’m baffled.

Anyway next week I'm seeing Trixie and Katya kick off their tour here in SF and based on their latest newsletter they're prepping exactly how I figured they would:

Katya:

So Trixie and I are in the midst of what is known in the theater world as Hell Week—the week leading up to the premiere of a new show. For us, it’s a show that’s been in the works for quite a while, but on account of Trixie’s unmanageable work schedule and my extreme distaste for working, finding adequate time for rehearsal has proved to be the most challenging production element so far.

We are lucky to have gotten Laganja to do the choreography, which is a blessing and a curse. The blessing is that she is incredible and the choreography is fabulous but the curse is that it’s difficult and I am so slow to learn any steps out of my very limited movement vocabulary which consists of walk, hair toss, wiggle, wiggle, handstand.

It’s an ambitious production, and so months ago, I insisted that learning the choreography would take me at least twice the time than it would for any non-dancing performer. And of course, I didn’t get that extra time, which is probably why, after 6 straight days of rehearsals my body feels and looks like an exhumed corpse from the 1800’s.

People love to say I’m a dancer. And while I appreciate the compliment, the truth is that those people have been lied to several times as I am unqualified, and nothing of the sort. Just because a person can point their toes, do a handstand and a split does not mean they can dance. It took me about 3 hours to wrap my head and feet around a “kick, ball, change” and I still dont have it down.

Chassée? Get out of here. Pas de bouret? Shut up. Rond de jambe en l’air? Forget about it. Despite my hideously frustrating inability to pick up steps at a decent pace, and thanks to the invaluable tutelage of Miss Estranja, I finally got the closing number completed with no mistakes. It was absolutely thrilling until I realized that I would need to do the same thing in makeup, corseted, wearing pads, tights, wig, heels and a fucking costume. After sweating through several shirts not in drag in an air conditioned room, I could help but wonder if it was too late to rename the show, as I can only anticipate the amount of sweating I will be doing might be enough to give Waterworld a run for its money. (It famously made very little money at the box office, so it shouldn’t be that hard.)

Anyways, we are going into tech at the moment and I am about to practice a very cool but very top secret little detail of the show that I will not spoil, but will give you a hint: sometimes you gotta sleep your way to the top and let others do the heavy lifting.

We will keep you posted, as the tour kicks off next week in San Francisco.

XX KATYA

--

Trixie:

If this Substack seems shorter than usual, it’s because I have been in the throes of rehearsal for this crazy tour. The good news is I’m on stage with somebody I trust and in an environment where we can try new things all the time to see what’s funniest. The bad news is the costumes, the dancing, and the specific theatrical cues make executing certain sections less playful and more actually important that you get it right.

I’m proud of us so far! I think we had Chipotle like five days in a row so that was nice. And I am obsessed with Jimmy Johns so I’ve had that a bunch of times at the rehearsal space. The only trouble is the vigorous rehearsals have really cut into my available time for drinking. But I went to rehearsal hungover today so I’m obviously still making time.

Tomorrow we going to tech rehearsals which is usually in theater a very long day of stopping and starting to make sure all the light and sound cues are perfect. I plan on going into it hydrated, positive, and most importantly not hung over.