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27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Who doesn't need a little "tszujing" in his life?, March 25, 2004
Every woman who has wished that she could get a gay man to take her guy shopping--and every hetero man who would like to figure out how to unstick himself from the tarpit of cultural ignorance--has managed to make "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" a major hit. Absorbing all that information in a fast-paced TV show, however, can become challenging. The Fab 5's book retains the same breezy, frank, gay-joking tone of the show while providing an easy-to-use reference that guys can come back to--or gals can use to drop a subtle hint to their favorite caveman.Sure, guys could probably get the same information by reading cooking and decorating magazines, subscribing to GQ, calling the local Mary Kay rep, and (gasp) listening to women, but the Fab 5's guide does a great job putting together key information on food, grooming, decorating, fashion and culture in a fun and focused way. "Right now, in cities and towns across this great land, there are men eating pork-n-beans out of the can, grooming like Neanderthals, and dressing themselves in the darkness of utter couture-ignorance. (The tragedy!) You needed us, and we were there." The chatty format and clean layout makes the information accessible and quick to find. Each section contains helpful 5-point lists. Short straight-guy FAQs, Q&As and "hiptips" sprinkle the chapters with easily digested ideas. The writing style is a crack-up, filled with the gay-straight double entendres that make the show fun to watch. The guide is divided into the same five areas that the Fab 5 address in their make-over show: * Food & wine, by Ted Allen of Esquire, contains enough cocktail recipes to get you through all seasons, suggests a few easy ways to prepare bar snacks, reviews some basic wine information, provides recipes for several simple but elegant meals, and (perhaps most helpful of all) tells guys how to "fake it" with no-cook dinners. The chapter concludes with five tips for dressing a dinner plate--something few guys know unless they've worked in restaurants.
* Grooming, by stylist Kyan Douglas, covers hair styling products, nose-hair trimmers ("Dude, it's power tools for your nostrils!"), skin care and shaving. I found the skin-care section particularly helpful since I've been trying to get my boyfriend to pay attention to this topic, but haven't been able to explain to him why he needed to do certain things. Kyan does a good job explaining why guys should pay attention to these topics, and manages to do it in amusing "guy talk."
* Decorating, written by interior designer Thom Filicia. While key points about grooming can be covered well in brief, an overview of decorating in the same amount of space is bound to leave a lot out. Fortunately, Thom doesn't attempt to be all-encompassing. He emphasizes thinking about how you use your space, and points you in directions for learning more about styles you find appealing. Creating architectural details, particularly in bland apartments, has been a strength of Thom's designs on "Queer Eye," and he does a good job in the guide explaining how to do this. His "5 Quick Cleanup Tasks Before Company Comes Over" hilariously ends with a reminder that "porn, of any sort, no matter how soft, should be hard to bump into."
* Fashion, by stylist Carson Kressley (easily the most outrageous of the five), could be subtitled "how to look good without looking like your mommy dressed you." He covers wardrobe basics, ways to dress up and dress down shirts, 5 ways to wear blazers, what tie knots go best with different collar styles (but not how to tie them), and cuts of jeans. His suit-buying information is fabulous. I especially loved his "evolution of the suited man," featuring a pyramid of swatches, starting at the top with the basic navy blue for the guy who only wears a suit when pressed into service as a pallbearer, and extending, eventually, to "sponsoring your tailor's green card" (a dozen swatches for the extreme dandy). * Culture, by actor/singer/dancer Jai Rodriguez, contains a lot of great "5 thing" lists: public speaking, straight-guy faux pas, hosting tips, working a cocktail party, alternatives to dinner-and-a-movie dates, places to pick up women (more classily titled "look for love"), birthday gifts, and tszujing a date. Cell phone and e-mail do's and don'ts are tips that almost everyone, male and female, could use. While Jai's cultural tips on the show tend to be very specific to the guy/couple involved--and that's one of his points, *make it personal*--his cultural guide contains some more general ways that guys can become more cultured, like websites for finding good books and movies. The Fab 5's approach works because they affirm who the individual is and make over wardrobes and homes based on what the guy likes, not on some one-size-fits-all approach. "Our goal isn't to turn you into someone else," they note in their introduction. They also stress, in very funny ways, that adopting their ideas is not going to turn heterosexual men into effete things who will attract gays. And what's "tszujing," you want to know? The guide ends with a glossary that explains this "Queer Eye" term, and contains other amusing definitions. My favorites: "Mise-en-place: Culinary term, from the French for having your **** together." "Empathy: Listening your way to getting lucky."
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DVD ~ Ted Allen
by Alan Flusser
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