9 posts tagged “entertainment”
I love the Food Network, and its no secret. I love Iron Chef America and when I heard they were going to be airing a reality show to find the "next" Iron Chef I was very excited. Last night was the finale, and let me just say, the show really left me with a bitter taste. *Spoiler Alert!*
For starters, of the 8 contestants, only two of them were women. Only one of the Chefs on Iron Chef is a woman currently, Cat Cora. I realize that for whatever reason there just aren't a lot of women chefs, so I was okay with the fact that they were under-represented and pleased to see them included. What really pissed me off was their instant, back to back elimination in the first two episodes. And not so much their elimination as the complete and total lack of discussion surrounding their elimination. Both episodes showed the judges discussing their issues with other contestants and then out of the blue eliminating the women for what seemed like no reason. I'm sure they had a reason and it was discussed ad nausem by the overly pompous group of people selected to be the judges but they didn't SHOW that on the episode and so it really came off poorly.
I almost didn't get over this, but decided to continue watching. Last night I watched the two epidoes leading up to the finale today. The last three chefs remaining were Chris Cosentino, John Besh, and Michael Symon. The judges eliminated Cosentino because he lacked consistency and couldn't prepare more than one great dish at a time. Then last night was the finale with John Besh and Michael Symon. The judges continued to talk endlessly about how they were both highly qualified chefs and amazing at what they do but just different in their approach. What they never discussed, only vaguely mentioned was how these chefs sell themselves on TV. HELLO? This is a TV show - don't you care what the viewers think of these chefs? When they're that close and so very qualified you need to start talking about whether or not they are interesting and capitvating to watch on TV. Besh is really fun, balls to the wall crazy and amazing to watch. Symon? *yawn* Talented? Definitely. But he's a nervous nelly constantly belly aching about "I almost didn't think I could do it. Then I did."
With five minutes to go in the competition one of the Iron Chefs mentioned how they wanted to see someone do swordfish as dessert. Besh said "I'm on it!" FIVE. MINUTES. He's already got SIX dishes he's trying to get finish (one extra) and he starts a seventh. It was only when Besh did this that the judges started to talk about the "spirit" of an Iron Chef. They judged soley and entirely on the preparation of the dish. No one even thought about the viewers even a little. They were to wrapped up in their "I'm an amazing judge and therefore my palate is the only one that matters and that crouton is too little so they suck."
From the beginning I bet that Cosentino and Besh would be the final two standing and that Besh would win. I was close - Cosentino is very fiery and awesome to watch. In the episode he gets elminated he's yelling fuck this and fuck that and what the fuck and shit and dammit. I was cracking up. He got really pissed because the camera guys were in his way a lot, and at one point he held up his hands to them and said "get out of my face." It made for great TV, but I was shocked that the judges didn't say a single word about this. No one even mentioned that the guy who's trying to get on a TV show told the guy filiming said TV show to get out of his face. Dude - you're trying to be on TV, there needs to be cameras and you need to figure out how to work around them. Don't get me wrong, I loved watching you tell the guy to get the fuck out of the way - but I was shocked that none of the judges seemed to care. They cared about how his cheesesteak didn't have enough cheese. I can't taste the cheese. I don't care that much. I want to watch him make it though..isn't that important too???
I'm so disappointed that what was important to me got completely lost in the ego of the judges. I am hoping Symon becomes interesting to watch. I can only hope Besh comes back and gets his own show or gets to challenge the Iron Chefs again, because I'm totally smitten with him. Anyone else watch this show? What did you think?
Among the many things I love about Scrubs is the music. Come on, the played NEW Glen Phillips last season (former lead singer of Toad the Wet Sprocket). I've been playing this song over and over and over again since I saw the episode that included it, and I love it. As Dave pointed out the best part is the lyrics that go "You are the best one, of all the best ones." Awwww. Anyway, enjoy "Stolen" by Dashboard Confessional:
I just got the best Valentine's email ever. It was from Dave's 13 year old cousin and was comprised of four sentences and seven exclamation points. My favorite exclamation points were the ones that followed her name. I love getting emails from her.
Also in the spirit of Valentine's Day, I'd like to share with some of my favorite romantic songs. Only because I don't know that everyone who hears them thinks they're as romantic as I do - they're definitely not what mainstream media would consider to be romantic music, but I don't care. In no particular order:
"Just The Girl" by The Click Five. Best lyric: "She laughs at my dreams, but I dream about her laughter."
"Evaporated" by Ben Folds Five. Best lyric: "I have faith that there's a soul somewhere thats leading me around, I wonder if she knows which way is down."
"Just The Way You Are" by Billy Joel. Best lyric: "I said I love you, and thats forever, and I promise this from the heart: I could not love you any better, I love you just the way you are."
"A Lifetime" by Better Than Ezra. Best lyric: "And you move like water, yeah I could drown in you."
"Crush" by Gavin DeGraw. Best lyric: "I've got a crush. I suppose that I could hold it in, but you excite my every cell."
"Easier" by Glen Phillips. This whole song is amazing, and its hard to choose just one line, but I tried. Best lyric: "I want to get almost too familiar, but still notice the way that you walk."
"Is This Right" by Toby Lightman. Best lyric: "Just one look at you I know everything's gonna be all right, and so I'm ready this time."
"Amazin' " by Josh Kelley. Best lyric: "Cause I'm dancing around in your world of play. I'm takin my time to make sure you stay. I would give my life to make it okay."
"She's Always A Woman" by Billy Joel. Best lyric: "Oh, and she never gives out and she never gives in , she just changes her mind."
"Kate" by Ben Folds Five. Best lyric: "Everyday she wears the same thing, I think she smokes pot. She's everything I want, she's everything I'm not."
"Crash and Burn" by Savage Garden. Best lyric: "If you need to crash, then crash and burn you're not alone."
Okay, okay I know there's two Billy Joel songs and two Ben Folds Five songs (almost three Ben Folds Five songs. I chose "Kate" over "Magic") but they are probably my top two favorite musicians of all time so you're just going to have to deal with it! Plus, this list is ridiculously short. But its a good sample of my favorites.
Happy Valentine's Day!
Observations about this year's SuperBowl (not including anything actually football related):
- My favorite Phil Simms comment of the night (because he's oh so genius at commentary): "He's had a lot of years in the NFL, and he's got some wisdom." How do I get me some wisdom? I think I'm going to check and see if they sell any at Walmart.
- Wanted: Back-up dancers for Prince. Must have long hair and the ability to whip it around. No actual dancing ability required.
- "The Prince Half-Time Show, including approximately 3 actual Prince songs and about 12 songs by a bunch of other people!"
- God really loves the Colts. Like, really loves the Colts. I think the reason the Bears lost is because they didn't do it the Lord's way like the Colts did. Next year Bears - get your Jesus on and maybe you'll win.
- 5 gold stars go to Tony Dungy for making the Worst Challenge Ever (tm) and LOSING it. God wasn't with you on that challenge because He knows how to count.
- Kudos to Colts owner Jim Irsay for calling Tony Dungy, "Tony Dundee." Dude - he just won you a SuperBowl, all you had to do was pay the bills and say his name right!
- I honestly think its fantastic that Tony Dungy was the first African American coach to win the SuperBowl. Given the number of African American players in the game, it sure as hell took long enough. But enough with the advertising about it! I get it! There are two African American coaches in the SuperBowl for the first time ever and to top it off - its Black History Month! Amazing! You'd think the fates had aligned! Or maybe...maybe it was just the Lord's doing.
I think every music video should include the artist dressing as a pirate to party all night. Just one more reason I love Ben Folds.
What's your favorite heartbreak song?
Submitted by esta86.
"Break Your Heart" by the Barenaked Ladies. The vocals on this song are so powerful, it gets me every time. And its especially good for wallowing if you're in that kind of mood.
This week I went into center city and saw a play at Arden Theatre. Specifically I saw "A Prayer for Owen Meany", a book I am obsessed about and I actually have discussed why I love this book so much before. There was a movie made about this book, called Simon Birch and it sucked ass. At least, compared to the book it sucked ass. I was pleased to see the play version was fantastically done and I have nothing but good things to say about the performance - the acting in particular was outstanding. I can't say it wasn't a little hard to watch some scenes, considering the play deals a lot with death but as I've always felt the book has helped me with the healing process the play did as well.
Whats really neat about this theatre is that the show we saw was actually the final dress rehearsal. They ask people to "Pay What You Can", suggested donation was $15 and the money goes to Greater Philadelphia Cares. What a fantastic idea. The Theatre Company gets to perform in front of a live audience for their last dress rehearsal, a great local charity gets to raise some money every couple of months, and poor people like me can see a fantastic show for a cheap price but know they're still donating to a good cause. I'm looking forward to some of the other upcoming shows and I'm hoping I can go at least a few times a year. I'd recommend it to anyone, and I'm hoping to bring along a few more friends next time!
Recently I've been re-addicted to Glen Phillips.
I have always had a love of literature, so this was a difficult question for me - to pick just one book! So many books have opened my mind to new ways of examining my world, and different views of people, but I would have to say A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving has probably had the biggest impact on my life.
I had the great privledge of taking my required literature course in college from a fantastic professor Dr. Cote, who decided to focus her course on science fiction/fantasy books and chose an amazing list of books I had never read before. I truly fell in love with all but one book we read that semester. Among our assigned reading was A Prayer for Owen Meany. Its a story about a young man searching for meaning in his life and his friend, Owen Meany who somehow, someway just KNOWS his meaning in life. It doesn't sound very prolific but what really impacted me about this novel was the descriptions of the emotions the characters experience, and the unique but believeable circumstances they find themselves in.
In particular John Irvings descriptions of how the main character deals with death really impacted me. He describes how when someone dies you miss them slowly over time like "scent fading from pillows." This is exactly how I respond to death. I am always sad when it happens, however to some outsiders I think I have come across as unemotional. In reality I am grievous at their loss, though over the course of many days - not really all at once. I find myself missing them over the course of many years at Thanksgivings and Graduations and Weddings. I've found many people don't understand my reaction but John Irving captured my emotion perfectly, and I felt a little less alone in this world.
