While self-respecting TV watcher has a mental note to set the TiFaux to tape Project Runway tomorrow evening (or watch it live while sober — something that is hard for me to pull of since Wednesday is bar trivia night), there is another Bravo original show on that night. As you probably realize, Shear Genius airs right alongside Project Runway and concludes its season on Wednesday.It’s hard for me to tell whether the two shows would synergize together or are simply too gay to be watched in succession (we all have our limits).

Depending on your level of will power/tolerance for reality TV, you may or may not have tuned in.  In any case, in these long summer months you can do worse than Shear Genius.

The content of the show isn’t nearly as interesting as Project Runway. Despite the enthusiasm the contestants muster for their craft, there are really only so many things you can do with a head of hair. Meanwhile, the possibilities are endless for the varieties of crazy-ass garments the designers on Project Runway can make. However, to make up for that fact — the contestants on Shear Genius are probably twice as bitchy as the average PR contestant.

Which brings us to our final three contestants who will show down on Wednesday:

• Charlie (right): Charlie is the most objectionable character of the season — an instigator of conflict. He’s what makes shows like this tic in that he combines his egocentric swagger with enough cattiness to rile up the rest of the contestants. He often sparred with departed contestant Nekisa who was both extraordinarily beautiful and out of her depth on the show.
• Dee (second from left): Dee has been my favorite from the start because she’s a cute little spitfire of a lesbian. The Miami resident often flirted with Nekisa (”Can somebody rub my back?”) and most famously won a competition where you had to match a dog’s haircut with its owner’s.
• Nicole (second from right): Young and brash, but also sensitive and defensive. Nicole hates Dee for some reason (and Dee hates Charlie and Charlie hates everyone). She’s been the dark horse for a while now.

We’ll see how it all turns out tomorrow night. The season has been pretty watchable, especially because of recently-booted Daniel’s legitimately ha-ha funny sense of humor and because the challenges were consistently surprising and inventive.

Jaclyn Smith is much like Heidi Klum in her role as host. First and foremost, her job is to look fabulous and exude an air of untouchability. Only after that does she really need to try to cobble together some words telling the contestants what the challenges are. She can occasionally pipe up with some opinions during the judging, but the professionals (namely animatronic stylist Kim Vo) usually overhwhelm her. Shear Genius’ Tim Gunn is Rene Fris, a famous Danish hairstylist. Despite the fact that his is extremely handsome at first glance, once he opens his mouth, the result is rather jarring — like the body of a dapper, trim dreamboat has been possessed by a gay European Muppet.

• Lost: Michelle Rodriguez coming back from the dead?
• Hey college kids! Watch Fringe and Terminator online while they are airing
• Fringe already has a series finale ready if they get cancelled at episode 13
• NBC’s Heroes to become fugitives
• Not dead: Wayne Brady to release album
• Swingtown might move to cable
• Snoop from The Wire was arrested for drugs
• Barack Obama tries to corner the reality TV villain vote by hanging with Johnny Fairplay
• It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia is going on tour, giving away Dumpster Baby Award
• Survivor delayed in order to give it a 2 hour premiere
• This day in lists: 7 reasons to watch Reaper

Not necessarily explicitly TV-related, but I wanted to share this video with you. It’s the latest music video for Sigur Ros — an Icelandic band that a lot of people have been talking about forever, but I’m just getting into now.

They’re all weird and Bjorky — like you can imagine them performing in a hollowed out tree playing the saw as a musical instrument. Also, sometimes they sound like whales.

In any case, here’s the video for “Inní Mér Syngur Vitleysingur.” Don’t ask me how to pronounce it. But it’s very uplifting, so if your Monday has been shitty so far, maybe this will make it better.
‘Inní mér syngur vitleysingur’ - Official Video

I won’t be back til 2012. Welcome back to your real life.

It seems like we wait so long for the Olympics to start (and by “we” I mean me, and NBC, and about ten thousand impossibly ripped and dedicated Americans who didn’t avoid going to the gym tonight by whingeing about missing headphones) and now, in a blur of 27-hour days, about a million lengths of the Water Cube, endless vitriolic arguments about the Code of Points (SHE LANDED ON HER KNEES), and 30 minutes of nail-biting overtime, the end is here.

Now all the gold medals have been handed out, most of them to the Chinese. Michael Phelps has achieved a feat many (including myself) thought no human being could achieve, with Natalie Coughlin quietly pulling off a similar, yet unheralded, accomplishment, and the American softball dynasty has come to an end. Three young women swept the sabre medals, and one of them went directly from the podium to freshman orientation (and if that isn’t the best way to introduce yourself during the Name Game, I don’t know what is. “Hi, I’m Becca, and I’m the third best in the world with this big old sword.”). Soccer goalie Hope Solo has been redeemed, Misty and Kerri are ready to go get knocked up, and a flock of freakishly talented people born in 1987 blazed to unexpected medals and records (seriously, look at that marathon finish!).

I was listening to “Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me” a couple of days ago, as I do, and my dearest love Peter Sagal called the Olympics an entirely irony-free zone, a temporary cure for our increasing feelings of national impotence. I think that’s why I like watching the Olympics so much, even though I’ve been moaning to everyone who will listen how sleepy I am and how I wish MSNBC wouldn’t show, like, handball all day, and why the hell is rhythmic gymnastics a sport? It’s just stretching with props. Consuming as much media as I do means I also take in more snark, studied nonchalance, and thinly veiled—largely unmotivated—rage than any person really needs. The Olympics, despite the IOC’s propensity toward corruption and spinelessness (okay, if the gymnastics inquiry turns out to validate what we’ve all been saying for the past three weeks, I take it all back), are an oasis from all that. NBC’s coverage has been literally flag-waving (who is handing those flags to the runners to wrap themselves in? Their moms? The camera operators?) and jingoistic, but it’s also been refreshingly old-fashioned.

Where else can you find people so well-intentioned, clear-eyed, and optimistic? Obviously the pursuit of Olympic-level greatness is usually a solitary pursuit, one most often motivated by a yearning for personal glory, financial reward (why else would Shawn Johnson’s parents have mortgaged their house twice?), and the satisfaction of being the World’s Greatest, at least at this one obscure, inapplicable-to-real-life thing. Of course, most athletes, even most Olympians, won’t be the best and won’t get rich, but I have to assume no ten-year-old picks up an épée and says “I’m going to do this for America.” Nationalistic pride isn’t something we, as Americans, trade in so loudly anymore except at this one time, and while I think most of the competitors are motivated by those three things, most of them have mentioned how honored and pleased they feel to represent the United States, and honestly that’s kind of a difficult thing to say these days, even if you are wearing a uniform.

So these two weeks have been a glorious mental vacation of sorts. It’s been nice to ignore the presidential race, the tanking economy, the wars, and, frankly, everything else I find unpleasant: The Hills, the Yankees, the aftermath of the writers’ strike, doing dishes. I was palpably angry when Obama’s VP announcement broke into Friday night’s decathlon coverage, because it was not time to worry about that yet. I have thoroughly enjoyed losing myself in endless hours of volleyball, diving, and soccer; you just try and concentrate on off-shore drilling when Kerri Walsh hurls that impossibly long body of hers up in the air and shoves a spike down some poor Chinese girl’s throat.

And now that we’ve seen Coach K transform, at least temporarily, a pack of marginally cooperative millionaires into a free throw–shooting, teammate-supporting gang of stars and stripes–clad solid citizens, and seen Zhang Yimou blow our minds all over again, with a little assist from David Beckham at the closing ceremony, it is all over. The inflatable Fuwa are packed away (or hopefully mass-produced; I want a stuffed Jingjing), the women’s gymnastics teams returned to third-period geometry, and the London organizing committee sweating bullets. NBC will secure Bob Costas in his cryogenic chamber until Vancouver; a professional mediation team will forcibly separate Tiki and Jenna before there can be any more bloodshed; and my new favorite anchor, Jim Lampley, will hopefully get some sleep. And we’ll all be back to crass, callous media where there isn’t a pair of gawky young men from Baltimore or Jamaica moving faster than anyone has before, where no impeccable pommel horse routine can snatch a bronze medal for a team of backups and also-rans, where the closest thing to BMX is watching delivery guys try not to get sideswiped by the M23.

In other words, we’ll have to watch the DNC. Ugh. I can’t wait for football season.

• Why don’t TV stars like to watch television?
• Is Jon Stewart the most trusted man in America?
• The Watcher isn’t liking The Cho Show
• An interview with CCH Pounder from The Shield
• Travel Channel to rerun Amazing Race seasons 12, 13, and possibly 14
• Download the first episode of Architecture School for free from iTunes
• Bachelorette reject becomes the next Bachelor
• Meet SNL’s newest featured player
• Jemaine from Flight of the Conchords got married
• Take the Dexter inkblot test
• This day in lists: The six best and five worst failed TV pilots

Buzz got a great interview out of the young actor Tristan Wilds on moving from The Wire’s Baltimore to 90210’s, well, 90210. (BuzzSugar)

This week, Sandie took at first look at NBC’s new show, My Own Worst Enemy. (Daemon’s TV)

My favorite comedy, The Office will be returning in just a few short long weeks. I’m passing the time by watching season 4 on DVD. You can too. GMMR is giving away a copy of Season 4 of The Office on DVD. (Give Me My Remote)

Usain Bolt: the next Flavor Flav and even more thoughts from the Beijing Olympics. (Scooter McGavin’s 9th Green)

Vance checks out the new contestants on The Amazing Race (Season 13) and makes gloriously uneducated preconceptions about all the teams. (Tapeworthy)

This week, Jace reviewed Season One of the adorable, charming, and wickedly funny British comedy Gavin & Stacey, which launches on Tuesday evening on BBC America. (Televisionary)

Is Dan overreacting? He was a bit put-off by the teaser for CBS’s The Mentalist which employs some gay stereotypes. (TiFaux)

Raoul gave you his honest take on America’s Greatest Dog…and so did Beth Joy. (TV Filter)

Happy Friday everyone. You made it.

What are you doing?  I’m probably going to go out and get my burrito on — and then play it by ear.  I went out last night too, to a big gay party at a bar.  None of the boys seemed to be interested, but several lesbians complimented me on my tie.  True story.

Oh right.  TV blog.

So there’s this show coming to CBS this fall called The Mentalist. It stars Simon Baker who you’ll probably recognize, but not realize where he’s from (the only thing I remember is that white-guy-falls-in-love-with-black-woman-and-causes-a-hubbub movie — whatever that was called).  Anyway, he’s all handsome and whatnot.  And then there’s Robin Tunney, who you might recognize as the suicidey, bald girl from Empire Records or the main girl from The Craft.

Anyway, the show is a procedural where the private investigator isn’t exactly psychic, but just has supa-acute powers of observation. It looks tolerable and forgettable, just like all of these types of shows.

There is this one crazy part in the preview, though, that I can’t believe made it through the entire way to the trailer.  And was never cut at any point. During one of the PI’s astonishing revelations, he deduces that one of the corpses on the slab at the morgue is a gay man by noticing that he was wearing clear toenail polish. It’s an astonishingly brazen and casual remark made by, presumably, a resoundingly heterosexual character.

Is anyone else a little off-put by this?  Not offended really.  But if “seriously, CBS?” were an emotion, that’s what I’d be feeling.

• No shit: John Edwards mistress was on my favorite GSN show, Lingo
• If you’re watching the Olympics you’re probably a 48 year old white female
• USA Today interviews Margaret Cho
• Julia-Louis Dryfus and Wanda Sykes tie the knot
• The Project Runway couple move in together and get matching rings
• The Naked Cowboy will host a reality competition for street performers
• LA Times is not liking Tabitha’s Salon Takeover
• Zoila’s painting from Flipping Out sold for $10,000
• RIP: Stargate Atlantis has been cancelled
• Biggest Loser is also a shitty trainer, gets sued
• This day in lists: Top 10 Olsen twin jokes from Bob Saget’s roast

I’ve spent the last half hour trying to figure out how to grab five minutes from Monday night’s broadcast from my DVR and put it here on the website (a Tifaux-to-Tifaux transfer, if you will) but, well, I can’t. And it seems no one has done it for me. So this will have to do.

Did anyone else see Bob Costas’ and Cris Collinsworth’s sassy little up-yours to an exhausted American viewing audience the other night? A little before midnight, Bob finished talking about pole vaulting (how much of a dick was the silver medalist’s coach?!) to turn earnestly to us and proclaim that he, Bob, felt our pain at staying up half the damn night for a week and half, and proceeded to offer some helpful suggestions, such as staying hydrated, wearing sunglasses, and skipping work. Thanks, guys. I actually found this kind of funny last night, but having found out what happened in the beam final from no fewer than four sources Tuesday morning, I’m kind of pissed at NBC. I wouldn’t mind the sleep deprivation quite so much if they’d shown just a few of the gymnastics event finals live in primetime so I wouldn’t have found out who won every single one by the time I finished my breakfast.

Further proof that Bob is as tired as we are: During Tuesday’s broadcast he introduced a puff piece on sprinter Sanya Richards and her fiancé, football player Aaron Ross, by crediting Ross as the “Super Bowl–winning quarterback of the New York Giants.” Bob? Honey?

Eli Manning, as your channel has been reminding us every two minutes (remember him, brother of Peyton, recent first-time toucher of a naked lady?) is the Giants’ quarterback. Ross is a defensive back. Maybe you should pop some No-Doz, Bobby; it’s only Day 12.