mt, i tried the options you mentioned but it turned out weird. check out the first pic. i went back to 'flat' and created an isoparm near the mess and rotated several vertices and it untangled. thanks anyway.

i still don't understand why the CV-created surfaces are so limited in their abilities. since you guys have so much experience in 3d, do you guys ever create something from scratch using CV? or start with primitives and go from there?