The Celebrity Apprentice finale last night was the most disgusting thing I’ve seen on TV in a long long time. In fact it was so annoying, that I could not bring myself to watch more then five minutes, so I don’t even know who won, and I really don’t care. The one thing I am happy about, is that it was the season finale, and next week, instead of trying to avoid Trump and his stupid wannabe never gonna be kids, we are getting our Thursday back with My Name Is Earl, The Office and back. What a relief!!!
30 Rock will take a bit longer, but it’s a start.
The Justice Department just approved a merger between former satellite radio arch-nemeses, Sirius and XM radio. In short, Sirius bought XM out for $5 billion. Maybe it’s just me, but I kinda miss the whole healthy, clean days of competition a la Battle of the Network Stars. Then again, with Howard Stern and Martha Stewart doing the Sirius circuit, I’m not sure even Oprah (& “Her Friends”) stood much of a chance…
I’m actually looking forward to this season of Dancing with the Stars. There I said it.
There seems to be some decent female competitors to match, if not, exceed the skill and potential of their male counterparts. And while this doesn’t usually happen, the buzz around this season’s most toted female dancers (Kristi Yamaguchi, Marlee Matlin, and Priscilla Presley) is pretty accurate and worthy of the praise.
As for the other female dancers…
Maybe I’m just tired of seeing Shannon Elizabeth in every conceivable American Pie sequel and Celebrity Poker challenge, but I’m not that excited to watch her onscreen strutting her stuff. I know I’m most likely in the minority here. I could just be guilty of old refrain, “She reminds me of every overly perky and arrogant popular girl I ever went to school with,” (only I never went to school with a girl quite like that)
By her own admission, Marissa Winokur doesn’t have the typical lithe dancer frame, but she is “flexible” with her movements (per my husband) and she stands a good chance of going somewhere, possibly losing some weight, but ultimately being eliminated before the finals.
Whatever skills Monica Seles may have had as a tennis player, she unfortunately lacks as a dancer. Let’s put it this way: She makes Penn Gillette look agile and Billie Ray Cyrus as something more than just his daughter’s oozing appendage.
I’ll cover the guys in another post. No new updates other than middle-aged white dudes can’t and shouldn’t dance, but older peeps (including dudes) usually garner enough sympathy to last for a couple more rounds.
Boston Dynamics unleashed its 235 lbs of sheer canine engineering wonder and force on YouTube today and its video is already ranked as the Most Watched of the day with 523,896 views. The quadruped robot known as “Big Dog” is the product of $10 Million in DARPA funding and measures 1 meter tall and 2 meters wide. Founded in 1992, Boston Dynamics was tasked with developing a robot that could ” run, maneuver and jump to avoid obstacles.”
It would seem that the company accomplished this and then some with the impressive attributes of this robot. Given its agility and freakishly human-like reactions to sustaining kicks (high point of the video, by the way), this particular breed of robot can handle whatever comes its way (rough terrain, snow, mean humans).
So, she finally made it, she shook the tree, and got her $48.6M from Sir Paul. “I’m so, so happy with this,” Heather Mills told the many reporters following the closed hearing. “I’m so glad it’s over, It was an incredible result in the end to secure mine and my daughter’s future and that of all the charities that I obviously plan on helping and making a difference with — because you know it has been my life for 20 years” she said. Oh…..so noble…. What she forgot to mention, was that she was offered this amount from McCartney in the past, but the greedy dancer wannabe refused to settle, and sought almost $250 million.
I just hope that we can now have a break from Heather Mills’ circus, and concentrate on what’s really important… American Idol…..
Rarely do I read a magazine article these days that really intrigues me unless it’s a movie, book, or TV review and those don’t entirely count. Those aren’t the “real” pieces of journalism - the ones that launch TV shows, spin exposes, and get the same degree of exposure as one episode of “Law & Order.”
A few years ago everyone was up in arms about James Frey and his fictionalized memoir. Oprah banned him from her studios and banished her support of his thriving business - the one she practically built overnight. A public backlash ensued. Frey’s account was built, after all, on a foundation of lies and if nothing else, America likes its truth. Even when it’s spoon-fed with every known artificial sugar substitute on Earth. About the time that everyone was roasting Frey (sorry couldn’t help the pun), I came out in defense of him. Read More…
Before his death, Heath Ledger was working on a new movie called “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,” a modern-day fantasy adventure involving a traveling theater company and a magical mirror. We now learn that three major actors have agreed to complete Ledger’s part in the movie. Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law will help the director, the great Terry Gilliam to finish the movie. “Since the format of the story allows for the preservation of his entire performance, at no point will Heath’s work be modified or altered through the use of digital technology, Each of the parts played by Johnny, Colin and Jude is representative of the many aspects of the character that Heath was playing.” said the film’s producers in a statement (Yahoo).
Now that’s a really nice thing to do, that’s how you honor someone, not by digging in their trash, or interviewing their masseuse.
One of my favorite preoccupations and possibly a career of mine in a former life is discovering really great music acts before they make it big. Given this disclaimer, it’s only fitting that I introduce to you an Israeli singer-songwriter that’s sure to gain some serious kudos and notoreity. His name is Oren Lavie and he’s one of a wave of Israeli singers whose music is getting airtime on big-time commercial broadcasts these days. (Yael Naim’s MacBook Air ads are also pretty catchy). So if you haven’t yet heard Oren’s hit single, Her Morning Elegance, on ads for Chevy Malibu, it’s only a matter of time. And if you’d like to hear a more crisp version of the track, click here.
Oren’s brand of music (think brooding Nick Drake meets orchestral overtures of Damien Rice with a little Beatle mania thrown in) is indicative of the type of music that is most likely going to be featured on a Morning Becomes Eclectic playlist and so not surprisingly, not only has his music been featured on KCRW, but it’s gained critical acclaim from the station, being honored as one of the Top 10 albums of 2007.
While it may be rare for someone who is just 31 to have already lived two professionally unrelated lives, it is even rarer to find someone who happens to be re really good at both and acknowledged as such by the public. Lavie, who grew up in Israel and gained early buzz as a playwright winning awards at the Acco Festival in Israel, moved from Israel to New York (with a stop in London) before realizing that music was more his calling. He started his own label, produced his own music, and even began to write his own music.
Lavie, who counts Jacques Brel, Leonard Cohen, and Tom Waits among his influences has a funny, self-deprecating tone to his demeanor. Perhaps evocative of his Israeli upbringing and attempting to create some sort of linear connection between the many different acts of his young life, Lavie likens the cities he’s lived in to the “green-ness” of the cucumbers. For those of you cucumber purists, don’t be betting on Berlin or London. They will only bring you tristesse, which for Oren Lavie might just suit him after all.
For more on Oren, click here.
While browsing for apts today and most likely crashing Craigslist’s server with the amount of times I hit the pages, I came across a most fabulous website for those of you (like my husband and I) who can’t quite off the city bug and like to live in close proximity to a Dunkin Donuts, a Store24 (or some neighborhood equivalent), and at least one cool coffee shop that isn’t either DD or Starbucks (for neighborhood character). Anyways, the search still continues but with the help of Walk Score, we’re that much closer to finding an area we might actually want to live in and that suits our cultural needs to some extent.
The site is super easy to use and utilizes Google Maps technology to map out the nearest destination points of interest. It tabulates a patent pending Walk Score* based on a scale of 1-100 that rates how desirable an area is for walking in terms of grocery stores, movie theaters, schools, libraries, bookstores, drug stores, music stores, etc. It’s particularly useful when you’re trying to sort of the cultural landscape of an area and if like my husband and I, you happen to be true aficionados of walks within a cityscape.
To test the site, I entered one of the apartments we happened to look at today to see what was within walking distance and our apt of choice at the moment rated an 86. Our other apt. contender scored an overall rating of 68. As you might have guessed, there will be more apartment searching, but with Walk Score I feel a little more giddy about the process of sorting through Craigslist ads. The fact that realtors have started to embrace this site by posting links from their ads is a good indicator of just how sticky and “viral” this sight is.
I thought that the whole thing about Eli Stone was that George Michael appears in all of his visions/ hallucinations.
Now I’m curious to know where George is. We he is not so good in hiding. A permanent role for the singer, will improve the show greatly.
Just to think of the long way Sick Boy had to go, from a drug addict to Eli Stone….
Choose Life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television, choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol, and dental insurance. Choose fixed interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisurewear and matching luggage. Choose a three-piece suite on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who the fuck you are on Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pissing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked up brats you spawned to replace yourselves. Choose your future. Choose life… But why would I want to do a thing like that?
It has been so long since Heroes was on, that I almost forgot what it was about. In TV like in nature there is no such thing as vacuum, and since the writer’s strike brought the production of our favorite shows to a complete stop, we simply got used to watch other things on TV. It’s a given, that there is nothing out there that can replace The Office, especially not TBS’ 10 Items Or Less. But the question we’ve been asking ourselves lately is: Is Allison Dubois is the new Hiro Nakamura? Is Medium the new Heroes? Or is it just a generic pain killer?
The Celebrity Apprentice finale last night was the most disgusting thing I’ve seen on TV in a long long time. In fact it was so annoying, that I could not bring myself to watch more then five minutes, so I don’t even know who won, and I really don’t care. The one thing I am happy about, is that it was the season finale, and next week, instead of trying to avoid Trump and his stupid wannabe never gonna be kids, we are getting our Thursday back with My Name Is Earl, The Office and back. What a relief!!!
I’m actually looking forward to this season of Dancing with the Stars. There I said it.
Before his death, 
