Attention: There are spoilers afoot in this post, so if you don't wanna know who killed Kennedy, the actual location of Jimmy Hoffa's body or what's in the personal photo-diaries of J. Edgar Hoover, stop reading now and go here.
So three great series are, tonight, history. The first is American Idol -- congratulations go out to (yawn) Taylor Hicks, the grey-fopped honky-tonk jazz singer who, with his doofy smile and weird taste in clothing, managed to sing less hum-drum than Katherine "Boom Boom" McPhee. Personally, I prefer Katherine to Taylor, mostly because I'm a male and Katherine is a tasty-looking TV snack. However, while Taylor's music is more my style (ie jazz/rock), and I could very well see him with a solid band opening for a Larry Carlton or a Donald Fagen, I wouldn't pay to see Taylor live. Katherine, eh. If I had front row tickets I'd go; if I was sitting in the nosebleeds at the Garden, nope. The point is, I'd probably rather see Chris Daughtry, the guy who was bounced three weeks ago, than any of this year's participants. What I found, however, was that none of them really did much for me -- maybe that's because I'm very specific when it comes to music; maybe I'm a little too perfectionistic; or maybe because most of these people are catering to an audience (and three judges) that seemingly value fluff over substance. If that's not true, Chris would have won this year's Idol and Katherine would accept an offer to pose for Playboy this time next year. Seriously, I envision Katherine going far because she's pretty and she's got what could be a very good personality; once she gets more confidence and stops mugging for the camera and just lets it all hang out (and no, I'm not referring to her cleavage), it will all work out fine. Chris got an offer from Fuel, Taylor got the Idol, and Katherine got a movie offer from George Clooney (although my guess is that movie is one he intends to shoot on a home video camera and keep locked in a vault).
Next up, Top Chef, the cooking show set in m'lady's hometown of San Fran, wound down tonight. The two finalists were Tiffani and Harold. Harold is a nebishy, crew-cut-sporting mensch. Tiffani is an attitudinal bull-dyke. Guess you know for whom I was rooting.
Some of the Top Chef shows this year were highlighted by Tiffani's obvious, take-no-prisoners ambition, which frequently alienated and even more frequently irritated her fellow candidates. She looks like she can really cook, but as Kaia and I have agreed on many occasions, a restaurant kitchen is a team of people, even though one guy (or girl) is at the top. If everything runs smoothly it's great; if one person is cracking a whip and making everyone else uncomfortable, that environment is not a good one. Tiffani sealed her fate even before the episode got into full swing, and it was fun watching Harold, a humble nice guy, stammer out his appreciation and acknowledgement that he won. It was far from a shock, but it was nice to see him take the first of these competitions.
Finally, the third in the series finales this evening was the Yankees defeating the Boston Red Sox in the third game of their series which began Monday night. The Yankees, by beating Boston tonight, are next playing the Kansas City Royals trailing Boston by a half-game. This weekend they host the Oakland A's, and then from there it should be an interesting, bumpy ride. Tonight's pitcher, the Yankee ace, Randy Johnson, continued his abysmal streak of ineptitude and looks like he's the weak link in the Yankee chain of starting pitchers. On top of that, half the team is injured in some semi-significant way (Johnny Damon - foot, Hideki Matsui - broken wrist, Jorge Posada - leg/tendon issue, Gary Sheffield - shoulder problems, etc.). So this year,
if the Yankees make it to the World Series, I'll be mighty surprised. And mighty happy. But I seriously doubt that will happen.
And even if it does, they won't be winning it this season.
Having said that, GO YANKS!
We now return you to our normally-scheduled blog. Don't touch that dial ;)
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3 comments:
YAY for Taylor and Harold!!
Tiffani scares me. Katherine is darling and will do very well with all the exposure idol has given her...
Hell's Kitchen starts next week baby - LOL - get ready!!
My Mom loves the Food Network so we have been having a healthy dose of that, (in between cookie baking.)
Sounds like some fun viewing at your end!
The interesting thing about all these new-fangled reality shows is that the topic is almost irrelevant, so long as the formula is intact. They always wait until a minute is left in the broadcast to announce who got bounced, they always bring back prior contestants who were bounced to be part of later rounds, and they always switch up every so often to wring every last second of suspense from the proceedings. And if the topic was more central to the theme, I would never have enjoyed -- at all -- watching Project Runway with my other half :)
Hell's Kitchen is a bit different than Top Chef; the former is about an angry, arrogant chef belittling as many people as possible, and the latter is about how nice guys (and girls) can finish last or first, depending on whether they can actually cook.
With the flurry of finales, I haven't watched much of the Food Network lately; but even for people who have no interest in haute cuisine, I still maintain that the two wild cards from the Food Network, namely Alton Brown and Anthony Bordain, are more interesting than Emeril ever will be. Anthony's visit to French Laundry is, for me, one of the best thirty-minute segments in recent television. Then again, each episode of The Sopranos is an hour long, so that's not exactly saying much ;)
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