Thursday, November 18, 2010

It's a conspiracy! (Reality tv week of 11/14)

Let's get right down to the big reality news of the week...the Bristol Palin voting conspiracy.

*Dancing With The Stars: As anyone who has seen even a few minutes of tv this week probably know, the Palins are all over the news. Sarah Palin and her new reality show, Willow Palin and her racial slurs, and Bristol Palin being the bottom scorer yet again on Dancing With The Stars, but, surprise surprise, making it through to the finals. Everyone has been crying that it's some giant political Sarah Palin/Tea Party conspiracy, and that the voting is rigged. But here's how I see it-

1. DWTS tells you to vote for your favorite, not the best dancer.
2. DWTS tells you you get a certain number of votes per phone line or email address, and many people, myself included, have more than one phone number and way too many email addresses. I may not care enough to vote with more than one email address, but if people do, that's their time spent the way they want.
3. DWTS tells you to spread the word to get people you know to vote for your favorite because every vote counts.
4. There is a website out there that tries to get the worst dancers as far as possible. Remember Billy Ray Cyrus? How about Kate Gosselin? Yeah, you have that site to thank for that.

If Sarah Palin is trying to get people to vote for her daughter, it's no big deal to me. I don't really think it's hurting anything. Who can blame a mom for thinking she has the most awesome, talented daughter in the world and wants everyone to vote for her? As far as I'm concerned, if the other contestants aren't pulling their celebrity connections to get votes for themselves, then that's their own loss. I, for one, was glad to see Brandy go home- her dancing looked a little stiff to me and I was sick of the judges' rave reviews, plus Maks' attitude wasn't enjoyable.

Meanwhile, I really hope Kyle Massey wins it all! It's a long shot, but go Kyle and Lacey! YAY TEAM SCHMURGALS! I can't decide if Jennifer Grey will win it (the judges seem to think she can do no wrong) or if Bristol will have a ton of votes again that will push her to the shiny mirrorball trophy.

*The Amazing Race: I wasn't sure if I would like it now that Team Jumba is gone, but it was still plenty entertaining. Royal pain in the hiney and terrible boyfriend material Chad proposed to his girlfriend/teammate Stephanie in this week's location, Oman (is it Oman? I hope I got that right.) I know a lot of people out there weren't too happy when she said yes.  But I really hope Stephanie is happy. This week turned out awesomely for them. They woke up two hours late for their start time, missed the first two flights to their destination, and by sheer luck, caught a flight that was supposed to arrive 10 minutes after the 2nd flight but arrived early. From there, one team member had to repel down a cliffside and look through a bajillion "magic lamps" and find one with a ring inside to get their next clue.

From there, teams could either make a wedding feast (which no one, not even the happy newly engaged couple, decided to do) or fill a water truck and deliver it to a marked house. After that, they headed to a market place, where they had to find Frankencense and deliver it to the "Ali Baba." After that was the pit stop. The other annoying dating couple (not the tattooed team of Nick and Vicky but the others that look almost like Chad and Stephanie) arrived to the pit stop first but incurred a penality for paying a cab driver for directions, and Chad and Stephanie won this leg, gaining themselves a free trip- can we say honeymoon? Alas, the father/daughter team of Gary and Mallory were eliminated. Now that all the nicest contestants have gone home, not sure who I'm going to root for.

*Hell's Kitchen: The final 6 bombed big time this week! First, they did ok in their individual challenge, where they had to make a dish for professional chefs who judged them. Russell got a perfect score and got a nice day out to visit the restaurant than one of them will get to run as the prize. He took Gail since she scored second and he got to pick someone to come with him. The dinner service this week was a disaster and a half! First, Sabrina and Trev on appetizers totally bombed out- the highlight of that being Sabrina not being able to make a simple salad. Gail tanked the fish station for the 2nd week in a row. Russell tried to send up raw meat, and Jillian messed stuff up too. The only one who didn't incur the wrath of Chef Ramsay was Nona, and that was only because she was cooking steaks tableside. The best part of this episode was the end, and finally the moment I've been waiting for for weeks- SABRINA IS GONE! HOORAY!

*America's Next Top Model: The 4 remaining models had a meeting with an acting coach to work on talking comfortably with people, and then got sent to Vogue Italia's head office to meet with the editor. This turned out to be a challenge. Chelsey was most confortable, Kayla did ok but wasn't really what the editor expected, Jane was shy but polite, and Ann was shy but her look really impressed. Chelsey won the challenge and shared her win with Kayla- a trip to see the original "The Last Supper" painting and then a stay in one of the nicest hotels in Milan.

This week's photo shoot was more of a moving picture- not quite a movie, not a commercial, and not a still photo. Honestly, it was one of their weirdest things I've ever seen. The girls rocked it though. They all looked amazing and brought their A game to the photo shoot. However, they were told just prior to the shoot that 2 (!) of them would be eliminated at the next panel. Due to Jane's "lack of personality" and Ann's extreme awkwardness and shyness, I expected Chelsey and Kayla to be te final two. Imagine my surprise when Ann was the first called out! I think her making a good impression on the Vogue Italia editor plus coming alive during the shoot really balanced out her shyness. The other finalist was Chelsey, who I am looking forward to seeing in the finals because she wants this so much. The finale isn't for another two weeks (there is a "Behind the Scenes" episode next week), and while I think Chelsey will probably win, I'm really hoping it's Ann. Who do you think will win?

Do you watch any of these shows? What do you think about this week's episodes? Any other shows that you watch that you think I should give a try?
-duckyone.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Reality tv week of 11/7.

Wow, I'm a wee bit late on this but here is the weekly rundown of some reality tv I watch.

*The Amazing Race- They continued on in Russia this week, with teams having to go on foot to a bridge, up to the top of a tower, still on foot across town to a giant church. From there they had to go to where Peter the Great is buried, and play a Russian style bowling game. Finally was the pit stop. Nat and Kat (the doctors) finished first again. A few teams didn't read the rules properly and either took a cab for some parts where they should have walked, or got a cab to lead them when they were specifically asked to ask a local and NOT a cab driver. The shop and home host ladies realized they took a cab where they shouldn't have, went back and walked that part again, and still finished in plenty of time. Chad and Stephanie (newly dating couple, Chad is rude and a half to Stephanie) and Michael and Kevin (Team Jumba) were both having issues with the challenges, especially the bowling. One team member had to knock down three different bowling patterns and Michael took an hour to get just the first one! But once he was on a roll, it went fast- he knocked down the final two patterns in one try each!

Team Jumba rushed to the pit stop for the end of the leg and were notified that they incurred two penalties- one for taking a cab, one for getting a cab to lead them, and they had to wait out an hour before they could check in. Chad and Stephanie took that as their chance and made up the time to run to the pit stop- only to be told that they had to have their bags with them- they had left their cab driver waiting! They ran back, paid the cab, and rushed back- only to be told that they had taken a cab when they shouldn't and had to wait half an hour to check in. Alas, that wasn't enough to keep Team Jumba in the game, and my favorite team got sent home! :( The worst part for the penalties for Team Jumba (besides being sent home, of course) was that the cab that they had ALL DAY wasn't cheap- it was around $350, and they didn't have enough. They had to argue with the cab driver and give them all that they had to even get their bags back!

*Dancing With the Stars: Final 5! Brandy, Jennifer, Kyle, Bristol, and Kurt all had two dances to do this week- one normal and one called Instant Dance, where they were given their style of dance to practice, but didn't get their dance music until about 20 minutes before they had to perform to it! I was truly expecting a train wreck, but was pleasantly surprised! The regular dances weren't particularly remarkable, and no team scored particularly low (I think the lowest was a 24 out of 30?)

First out on Instant Dance was Kyle, and he looked like he had practiced to that song all week! Jennifer came out, and despite all of her "My leg hurts, I'm 50 and old, wahhhh" whining, the judges think she is the greatest thing since sliced bread and she scored a perfect 30. Kurt did fairly well, even kept on the beat the whole time and was complimented, but didn't score near as well (sheesh, do you think the judge has their favorites *coughcoughBRANDYorJENNIFERcough* much?) Bristol came out and danced a clean dance and was complimented on her footwork, but didn't score near as well either. Brandy came out and took the first 32 beats or so to find the beat and mostly just stood there and bobbed a little before starting to dance, which the judges noticed. Carrie Ann commented on this fact (especially since Brandy had just bragged about her advantage of having musicality), and Maks commented that he accepted the blame for it, to which Carrie Ann answered, "Good. Because you should." This started a nice little argument between the two of them. Still, Brandy got a 9 from Carrie Ann, who was apparently feeling gracious, and 10s from Len and Bruno, which I thought was WAY too high.

Tuesday made me breathe a sigh of relief as Kyle (my favorite!) was announced as safe right away. The bottom two this week were Kurt and Brandy. Bristol was miraculously saved yet again despite the lowest scores of the night. Thanks to Mak's talking back to the judges on Monday, I was hoping that judge's pet Brandy would finally be sent home, but alas, it was Kurt who got sent packing. Next week- semifinals! Should be entertaining!

*Hell's Kitchen: We've waited about a month to find out if Trev gets sent home or not! The answer- no! Amazingly enough. he got sent from the guys team to the girls team earlier in the season, and back to the guys this week. Chef Ramsay was giving him his final chance to get his act together, and boy, did he! At one point this week, every other guy was kicked out of dinner service and Trev finished out the service on his own! First episode had the palate challenge, and Nona was the only one who did well, getting 3 out of 4 mystery foods correct. The second episode had a challenge where they had 30 minutes to make 3 dishes. The catch was that each chef was allowed 5 minutes in the kitchen and only 1 was allowed in there at a time. The guys messed up and forgot to put the lobster in, which was fixed in the last 5 minutes by boiling just the tail quickly instead of the whole lobster. However, the girls suffered a setback when Jillian burned her hand and dropped the fish dish on the floor, leaving one course without its main ingredient. The guys squeaked out a challenge win because of the dropped fish.

Rob got sent home in the first episode because he couldn't keep up,and Vinny got sent home in the second episode because he kept messing up dishes and that wasn't the first dinner service. Now we are down to the final six, who become one team- Sabrina, Jillian, Nona, Gail, Trev, and Russell. I think we might have a girl win again this season, but who knows?


*America's Next Top Model- The final five girls went to go-sees this week, and were told they had to walk or take public transportation. The street signs in Milan are up on the sides of buildings, and the subway trains were too hard to figure out. Chelsey made it to 2 of the 4 go-sees, while Chris, Kayla, Ann, and Jane only got to 1. Ann and one other contestant were late getting back, and Chelsey won the challenge. The photo shoot this week had the girls covered head to toe in white goop to look like statues who had just been brought to life by the love of their sculptor (a male model). Kayla, in spite of having trouble posing with male models, ignored her nervousness and pulled out top photo of the week. Chelsey and Ann did fairly well also. Jane was in the bottom two because she had trouble showing emotion, and Chris was in the bottom two because she had twisted her ankle on go-sees and couldn't hide the pain for her photo shoot. In the end, Chris was sent home. But Tyra told her she thought Chris should go into acting and told her to enroll in theater classes quickly!

Well, that's it for this week! See you next week for more reality fun and nonsense!
-duckyone.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Mullet-tastic answer to my question!

My friend got her hair cut into a mullet last week. She called it a "modern mullet." I am not sure if that's an actual style of mullet, but calling it modern doesn't really make it so. She said she used to have a mullet years ago when they were "in style." Is it just me or were they never really a popular hairstyle?

Dislike of mullets aside, I made a blog entry a few months ago wondering whether people cut their own mullets (I'd imagine it's pretty simple and low maintenance) or went to a hairstylist to get this style. No one answered me then, so I asked my friend. She went to a hairstylist to get her mullet. I'm going to behave and not tell you what I really think about that.

-duckyone.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Reality TV week of 10/31

Here's what happened on what I watched this week!

*The Amazing Race: The contestants went to Russia this week, where they had to do perhaps the silliest and easiest yet hardest tasks ever! They could either pick out 3 pieces on music being played in a room with about a dozen pianos playing all at once. I was thinking it was really dumb that they couldn't get it, but then again, I have a musical ear and can pick out the faintest music playing from across a room. (I'm a freak, I know!) Their other choice was to dig through a mountain of long strips of film to match them to a clip showing on a huge screen. The smart pairs tried to look for the words instead of the images in the clip and found the right piece faster.

From there, they had a challenge where one team member had to wear a babushka dress and plant a row of 50 potatoes. Kevin amused me, because he was so good-natured about wearing a dress and he was surprisingly good at planting potatoes. The real babushka ladies there were so awesome, cheering on people and being all around cute. After that was the pit stop for that leg of the race. Team Jumba (woo!) almost had first, until Kevin wanted to look around the building and his dad, Michael suggested (correctly) they check the field across the street. They still finished in 3rd place, which is respectable. The unfortunate last place team was the biker looking couple, Nick and Vicky. Luckily for them, this was a non-elimination leg! I am glad they are staying- since Vicky had an asthma attack in Ghana, Nick has been so much nicer to her and they have been working really well together. I wouldn't mind seeing the "newly dating" couple go- the boyfriend is so rude and mean that I don't even remember his name because I am so annoyed by him. They need to lose- and then that poor girl needs to dump his sorry butt and find a guy who will treat her right!

*Dancing With The Stars: This week had the 200th episode! That's a lot of sequins and spray tans! Is i any wonder they are scraping the bottom of the barrel for gimmicks? This week, the "stars" had to dance their own twist on a popular routine from seasons past. But first, they broke up into two teams led by former DWTS champions and Olympic medalists Kristi Yamaguchi and Apolo Anton Ohno. Team Kristi was Kyle Massey, Rick Fox, and Bristol Palin. Team Apolo was Kurt Warner, Jennifer Grey, and Brandy. Needless to say, Team Apolo got rave reviews. However, I thought Team Kristi's performance was better put together and more interesting. Guess I would fail as a judge!

On to the individual routines- Brandy scored the highest yet again. I swear, she could just sit in the middle of the floor for a minute and a half and get good scores. I did like her costume though. Jennifer Grey did ok but I think she is starting to unravel. Well, that and I didn't think she was really that great in the first place. I've never been too entertained by Rick Fox but he certainly held his own in his routine and didn't mess up. Kurt Warner bounced back from last week and did better than I expected. Kyle Massey did pretty good in a dance where he was supposed to be serious, but you could see his happiness radiating through his serious face. And Bristol Palin is improving from week to week- she does lack a bit of personality out there but her dance was clean and looked nice. I also like that she doesn't have to go out there in a couple of hankies coated in sequins to look beautiful- she looks classy covered up.

This week's elimination was another upset. Bottom 3 this week were Bristol, Kyle, and Rick. of course, Kyle being my favorite and Bristol growing on me made me hope Rick was going home, but I fully expected Bristol to have run out of time. Imagine my surprise (and hers!) when she was saved before the bottom 2! At that point, I was about ready to yell at the screen because I didn't want Kyle Massey to go home. Luckily, my tv didn't get a talking to, and Rick Fox got eliminated. A lot of people think the voting is rigged or crazy, but I absolutely think they got it right. Of course, I would like to see Brandy go home, followed closely by Jennifer Grey, but I know realistically that this won't be happening.

And remember what I said about crazy gimmicks? Next week they will have their style of dance to practice all week, but won't get the song until just before the show goes live on Monday night. Are you all thinking that this will be a train wreck? I know I am! I think this might be a bit too much for Bristol Palin to handle. I think with this challenge, Kyle will ham it up just enough to make it work, and Kurt might do surprisingly well too. I'm kind of dreading watching it and excited to see what happens at the same time.

*America's Next Top Model: The top 6 went from Venice, CA to Venice, Italy, and then Milan! It looks like a beautiful place! This was a weird episode because they didn't have the normal mini challenge at the beginning of the episode and went right to the photo shoot in Venice. They had to pose in groups of 3 with one male model in a gondola. They were stuck in corsets and hoop skirts in crazy humid summer heat. It cracked me up when one model was wondering why it was so humid there. Does she not realize that Italy and especially Venice is covered in and surrounded by large bodies of water?

From there, they went to Milan and saw their tiny but nice model apartment. They were whining about how tiny it was until Tyra showed up and explained to them that this was nicer than where working models normally live. The ladies then went to pose and walk for Missoni, which was pretty cool, except they looked like they were bundled up for a blizzard and nearly sweating to death. At panel, Liz and Chelsey nearly passed out from the heat- you can tell they aren't used to humidity!

Kayla shocked everyone and got best photo, Jane and Chelsey did well too. Ann did ok but needs to come out of her shell. Chris and Liz were bottom two- Chris because her photo came out weird and Liz because she complained the entire time. Liz ended up getting sent home, and Tyra told her to keep pursuing modeling because she is beautiful. Next week the girls pose as statues, which looks really cool! I hope this is Ann's comeback week! It looks like Jane has a rough week but I hope she hangs in there. I would be happy if Kayla goes home next, because she complains almost as much as Liz. I would rather see a girl win who really has a passion for the job, like Chelsey. Ann's still my favorite, though!


One more week until the new Hell's Kitchen! Woohoo! More junk tv for me to watch. Perhaps I should find a more useful or constructive hobby? :)
-duckyone.

Yummy!

All the interesting things that my daughter does seem to happen when I am at work and she is home with her daddy. On Halloween, she managed to find my black nail polish (she had watched me paint my nails the night before), get it all over her hands, close up the bottle, and put it back before my husband discovered what she had done. Smart kid, trying to paint her own nails. :) But the more interesting thing happened on Saturday. It was lunch time, but she wanders around and went to look out the window. Now when she looks toward the sunlight, she sneezes. She is also either having a bit of a cold or teething, so you may be able to see where this is headed.

My husband heard her sneeze and then put something into your mouth.

"What was that?"
"I ate."
"What did you eat?"
"I ate it."
"WHAT did you eat?"
"Booger."
"No, don't do that!"
"I ate booger."

He was almost too amazed at her starting to use sentences to be grossed out. Almost. Bleurgh.

Since you read through my tale of grossness, I shall try to make it right- here is a picture of Curly Girly trick or treating! Super cute!
-duckyone.