I think that this was one of those cases where the parameters of the challenge and what the judges were looking for were different.

Agreed. And I feel like this has happened a lot this season. Why give the contestants a design brief at all if the judges are going to be free to ignore it and just choose whatever they hell catches their fancy?

What's the Russian guy's name? Anyway, his dress was incomprehensible to me -- for one, it did look an awful lot like the sci-fi dress he made, but it also looked totally like an ice skating costume to me. And they (and Christina!) really liked it.

Nicholas. See, in general, I hate Nicholas, and I hated his ice princiess movie costume look. But I loved Nicholas' dress for this challenge. It totally looked like something Christina would wear. I could see her rocking that dress hardcore singing "Ain't No Other Man". And the dress was reminiscent of what she wore for the "Ain't No Other Man" video without being a copy. And as X-tina herself pointed out, it was the only dress that had any movement quality. Those feathers would be great for hip shaking. And what self respecting diva doesn't hip shake? Good grief. It was so clear to me that Nicholas was the only one of them who knew anything about Christina Aguilera, or apparently had ever seen an X-tina show . . . or Beyonce . . . or Britney. Y'all know, any of the three divas of the apocalypse.

It was so clear to me that Nicholas was the only one of them who knew anything about Christina Aguilera, or apparently had ever seen an X-tina show

As much as I dislike him, I have to admit this is true. Which is a shame, because apparently his only talent as a designer is sewing sparkly white feathers onto things, and he's gotten lucky with 2 challenges so far.

Yeah, the winning dress was more Bob Mackie for the red carpet than a stage costume.

I never understand when they have a guest judge and the challenge is to make something the guest judge would wear how the one that is clearly the guest judges favorite doesn't win. Regardless of what I like best.

It was so clear to me that Nicholas was the only one of them who knew anything about Christina Aguilera, or apparently had ever seen an X-tina show . . . or Beyonce . . . or Britney.

I liked the one that they called a knockoff. The garment completely fit the challenge, it was just unoriginal.

I liked the Cyndi Lauper portion of Christopher's outfit, but the Lady Marmalade portion was painfully bad. First of all, the outfit was horribly made. The elastic on those hot pants looked shot already. And the bustier looked like it had been bedazzled by a five year old. So, so bad. But even worse, it wasn't trashy enough. Seriously, the hot pants were so high waisted. I was just shaking my head. They looked like granny panties. And the bustier wasn't tight enough or shiny enough or . . . enough enough. I agreed with Mr. Mackie that it wasn't even fit for a Pussycat Doll.

Watching the top 20 announcements on SYTYCD and realizing there are not a lot of women tap dancers, huh?

So, since it's Restaurant Wars on Top Chef tonight, all RWs of all previous seasons are on my TiVo. A few thoughts:

1) Season 1- omg, Tom Collicchio is practically baby faced!

2) I forgot about Fabio's "monkey ass in empty clam shells" line. Also, Carla's sending out her crap desserts "with love."

I never watch Season 2 repeats EVER EVER. Screw alla them.

I liked the gown wit the train. I think she could have justified it by saying it wasn't a gown for moving around, it was a dress for a time when Xtina is going to do a ballad, standing there in the spotlight. With her coming up from below the stage, with the spotlight on her and the train around her feet.