Les Amis!

Oops! I had forgotten due to recent personal drama that Top Chef would not air a new show this past Wednesday. My ears drooped in disappointment. I did, however, get to see the final episode of season two with Ilan and Marcel's last fateful cookoff, and it brought a key element of these shows to light:

There are reality contestants - usually the stubborn asshole, pardon my French, of the group - who say they "are not here to make friends." They are just "here to win."

Current examples include Sweaty Howie, S3 Top Chef, and Robb Asshat, S2 Design Star.

And our dear cotton-candy-coiffed Marcel, also.

However, two of those three examples were cast off before they could win, and Howie looks like he's heading towards that also.

These people, very suffused in themselves and any drama surrounding themselves, don't seem to realize that the competitions are about their work, solely. It's not like Survivor where wheeling and dealing and strategy in big part decides who wins; here, the better you get along with people, the better you look to the judges, and the more seamlessly your group competitive assignments run.

So yes, you ARE here to make friends. But of course, these dear ones think they are so terribly important and the work is so life or death (ceviche! vegas wedding! oh, yes, very life or death!) that this "not here to make friends" is one more solemnly intoned reflection of their utter seriousness as a competitor.

In other words, just a bunch of hot air.

Edge of Moi Seat

If they could get rid of Tre, who now? Who is left that I feel can comfortably wear the poufy toque of TOP CHEF?

I was debating about this last night in a moment of repose and realized I didn't feel strongly about anyone else left. I feel CJ drops the ball (or spatula, as it were) when needed most; Casey flails under pressure; Howie is a sweaty dickhead; and Dale and Brian I am firmly neutral about. The only person at this point - gasp! - that I could see as top chef is the formerly despised Hung. But even he doesn't have the clarity of taste that a top chef should have - instead of trying to appeal to many palates, in his Quickfire challenges he rather tries to overwhelm with fancitude (cauliflower ice cream, my pets??).

Though it just may be Brian who takes the final title. He's won a few challenges here and there, and he seems very articulate and also very talented. He has slid in the background with the restaurant wars because he was Front of House, and not shining in the kitchen. Perhaps he will recoup his loss of visibility tonight.

Notice I haven't mentioned Sara. She may be good at bossing people around, but her food has always been comfortably average, and that's it.

I wonder if the producers and judges have regretted canning Tre. Truly an audience favorite. We shall miss ye, Tre!

Les Femmes

Two of my favorite shows feature women leading a team of mainly men: The Closer and 30 Rock. They have more in common than one thinks. Though Brenda Johnson (Kyra Sedgwick) leads a team of tough LAPD detectives, and Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) leads a bunch of smart ass men as producer of a sketch comedy show, there are liberal dollops of humor as both women do their job with if not total finesse, a high competence and assuredness.

Both do have to deal with some sexism, but Brenda slaps away any doubts to her job by the middle of season one and Liz only encounters it in a very soft fashion in an episode or two (namely the episode magnifique "The C Word"). What they do deal with is being female - Brenda's premature menopause, Liz's biological clock.


As more women are taking managerial positions and working in certain sectors of the corporate world where few had tread in decades past, it is quite nice to see these displays of confident but human showcases of women in leadership. I'm finding many women can relate - not because it focuses on their female-ness as a career obstacle, but because these roles simply filter their jobs through a female perspective. The sexism is dismissed early on and instead the plots - murder, cast histrionics - take center stage and make for a very enjoyable show with a relatable character.

But lest we forget the troubles women have gone through, there is always Mad Men. However, there are a trailblazer or two in the cast. Last week, quiet mousy secretary Peggy is handed a copy writing gig - of course, she's not given a raise or anything, and her supervisor buries her with more work as jealous punishment, but no one said climbing up towards the glass ceiling was easy...

MTV: Mucho Tiresome Viewing

I was reading "the trades" today and was delighted to see that last year's VMA's (Video Music Awards) had a 50% drop since their high from 2002. I am delighted not because I have an evil bone in my body, but because I have been angry. Remember when Eddie Murphy enraged parents with his lustily foul hosting monologues? Or Madonna descending the stairs in a Gaultier three (five!) piece suit blasting into "Express Yourself"?

Cut to just a couple years ago where Puff Daddy is prancing across the stage making no sense whatsoever and R Kelly badly lip syncs a mediocre popera-ette about being "Trapped in the Closet." I swore when the camera cut to the audience I caught people ignoring the stage and sending text messages.

I was worried that this thrilled the youngsters of America who apparently are so coddled by their parents and electronic contraptions that anything with loud music and bright flashy colors is wholly engaging. Luckily, per the ratings, these spring chickens side with this middle-aged rabbit.

Now then, MTV is revamping their awards this year, and one of the ways of doing it is showing award handouts and various musical acts playing in different parts of the Palms Casino where it's being filmed. Is that truly the answer, I ask? When Britney Spears ripped off her tux to reveal almost nothing and shook her moneymaker, wasn't it all the more astonishing a desplay of flash because the whole audience was all together, rapt, sharing the experience?

This time for the first time in years, I'm actually going to watch the premiere. It doesn't rerun this time around, natch. But I won't even tivo it and watch it later. So perhaps MTV has got it right again, especially if I'm not the only one deliberately tuning in?

Quelle Horreur!

We thought Tre was gonna make it on Top Chef, but alas, the hatchet dropped and he was cut off much like a useless sixth toe with a hangnail. But he was so good, calm, and quietly talented.



What about Casey, who offered little imagination to the menu and overcooked her monkfish? Or CJ, the worst sous chef ever? I like them both, but c'mon - Tre is a superstar.

The bump before the commercial break leading to the elimination had Chef Collicio saying something like "It's about what happened TONIGHT - " I bet other judges pled Tre's case because of past performance.

And did Chef Tom notice Sara's total bitchiness in the kitchen? Or did he think, after years in the high-tension atmosphere of a professional kitchen, that it was simply the way things were and she was on target? Who knows.

We will wait for you, Tre. One day you will open a restaurant and serve things with corn and grits, and we will eat them.

Mad Men Makes Me Think...

...and j'adore alliteration. No, seriously. Last night, finally catching up on Mad Men, and there is a scene where Don Draper, Creative Director of a Manhattan Ad Agency, walks in to his bedroom after what his wife thinks was a work emergency. She asks him if it's under control, "crisis averted?" Of course, he wasn't at work, he lied; but that's not the point.

What really grabbed at my wee little heart was Mrs Draper's look, her eyes watching her husband stride importantly into the room as she reads "Good Housekeeping." He is Important; he is Busy, he wins awards and Makes Decisions! Yes, raising children is noble, but she was never expected to do anything else.



And that's how he, and his colleagues, want it. But who is he attracted to? Well, he's carrying on with a single, attractive artist who lives in her own loft in the city. He attempts to seduce a single woman who runs a department store. Because they're allowed to be interesting. His wife, on the other hand, constrained by the daily dullness of keeping house, without any encouragement to do anything else, really has...nothing to say.

And it's not her fault. She doesn't have any choice.

Oh!. How I love this show.

"The game is over...a new one is beginning"

This was a quote from a comment to the LA Land blog on the Hell-Ay Times website, a fount of knowledge for real estate junkies. I must say though I go where the wind takes me, it hurts that 3% of homes sold were affordable to residents making the median income.

Now that easy debt is out of the question, my rabbit sense tells me that the bottom is going to fall out real quick.

My roommates own a condo and plan to rent out, knowing that they bought near the peak two years ago. And all I hear is "saying the market will rebound by 2009 is ridiculous!" Can you see people paying what they are now...then??? Unless incomes skyrocket and interest rates drop, well, that won't happen any time soon.

My two cents, anyhoo.

Perfection in a cup.

Have you ever mixed green tea with earl gray? Try it!

The Day the Sparkle Died

Sparkle Josh is no more.
He seemed the fan favorite but he was a little to spangly for our Design Star judges Vern, Martha and Cynthia.

It seemed there was a little bit of disagreement amongst them, but for now, the flatiron is cool. Dead cold.

Unfortunately Rob's annoying blabbermouth didn't get in the way of his ability to "lead" the crew to a wedding reception installation, as we were all hoping his true evil ways would come further to the forefront. Todd finally crashed into something, leading me to think that he would be accused of doing little (except run off of things and against walls like the village idiot) on a sugar high as opposed to Will. Rob probably thinks that Will is his true best competition, since Todd's style is too "high concept" for actual living.

The competition heated up much faster than last season; it's anyone's crown to wear at this point. Sunday nights cannot come sooner enough!

Summer Television : C'est Magnefique!

I have finally booked a trip a France and am more excited than you know; thus, I will without even thinking start mixing in franglish in my posts.

Besides the point: Once, pre-cable, when summer was a wasteland of reruns, we were forced to listen to cassette tapes, go to the movies, and read books for distraction.

No longer. Even with the outrageous new distractions of DVDs shuttling from a warehouse to our mailbox in a matter of a day, with the internet offering one story or byte of gossip after another, and Ipods permanently hooked up to our ears, there is now summer tv programming that wrests us away from all our glorious gadgets.

In no particular order:

1. USA Shows: Burn Notice and Psych. On the edge of being coy, this story of a hardened CIA spy suddenly fired (a la "burned") and forced to take PI - slash - goombah jobs for good, everyday, normal people has enough real morality and cunning wit to make it perfectly delightful. New find Jeffrey Donavan has risen from the dregs of soap operas and "guest stars" to add humor and dare I say, hunkiness, to the lead role of Michael Westen, and who doesn't always simply love the Chin, Bruce Campbell, here playing Michael's CIA buddy?

My favorite part of the show is learning all the spy tricks. I saw some of same tips used in Bourne Ultimatum recently - this show definitely has street cred.

Psych should be completely groan-worthy with its obvious jokes and puns, but it also mocks its obvious jokes and puns. Which are actually often funny, too. The characters, from our psychic (not) detective Shawn to his best bud Gus to the dorky but cute police detectives they work with make for an oddball family you feel at home with. Even when the mysteries are a little light, this show's comedy factor has way improved from last season.

2. Mad Men. There's plenty of buzz about this show, and it is engrossing from minute one. It tackles the stereotypical inequality between les hommes et les femmes in the early '60s; some of the behavior literally elicits groans from the audience. Some of the characters you abhor, but most you like enough to stick around throughout the sexism. These guys lay it out on the table - and sometimes, they withhold, keep quiet, or carefully study their fellow humans, per the requirements of the still conservative society. (It was right and proper to expect your wife to stay home and cook, but you didn't throw around the affairs you were having right in her face - or anyone else's.)

Whole scenes go by of simply 2 men talking for at least a solid minute - nothing's happening, which we are so used to in the days of MTV editing. And yet you're rapt with every word - because, in this world where so much is said, and yet so much can't be said - there's subtext behind everything. It truly is a rich television show that's about much more than advertising.

3. "The Soup." Nothing at E! ever goes "dark" - the on-the-street reality shows have seasons, but the stuff produced in house goes on, and on, and on...and Joel McHale and his team of producers churn out one of the most hilarious half hours every week. This evolved creature from "Talk Soup" back in the day still collects the best moments of television, that have become more outrageous with the advent of reality tv. They skewer, they mock, they watch it so you don't have to! (Who could watch Tyra Banks' show every day, for heaven's sake?)

4. Top Chef et Design Star. What wonderful competitive reality shows. I usually hate the genre - overdone, boring, who can cut hair the best?? - please - but these are addictive. I think TC truly takes its goal seriously and they have outstanding cooks, not a few amateurs mixed in to make things "exciting" (aka, predictable and meanspirited). Padma Lakshmi looks like she needs a little personality infused in her ceviche, but overall the regular, and guest, judges are enjoyable and knowledgable.



Design Star has one of the best judges on any comp. reality show - Vern Yip. (or, "Verrrn YIP!" as witty and continental host Clive Pearse introduces him.) He's so blessed articulate, and knowledgable - his expertise oozes out of him. Cynthia Rowley and Martha McCully are excellent as well, but it's Vern who can truly make or break a designer's career with just one word ("NASEAOUS!" sp). And the personalities they gather during casting are reality show perfection - true designers and even one "amateur" (Kim, a perky, pragmatic hairdresser) who outshines many of her fellow pros.

In summary: This is all television you watch the calendar for. I anxiously await the bounty of Thursday night (Burn Notice AND Mad Men!), stay in on Friday nights for Psych and "The Soup", and round up the roommates for a live nail biting viewing of Design Star. It's enough to make you forget the networks - almost for good.