Last night we played soccer in what can only be described as the wettest of conditions.
For the first 15 minutes, it hailed heavily. Little razor blades of ice fell from the sky punishing any exposed skin. My ears felt like they were being stuck with pins, my hands went completely numb, I was afraid to head the ball because I thought my head would explode like an ice sculpture dropped on the floor upon impact.
The hail finally let up, but the inch of standing water on one side of the field – the side I spent most of my night on – sucked in your foot with every step. I nearly lost my shoe to the mud on several occasions. I took numerous faces full of kicked water. Once, I put my entire foot on a ball kicking it extremely hard only to have it stay in the exact spot that I left it while I went running by.
It was absolutely miserable. Even the game that we played in 9 degree weather in December wasn’t that miserable. By the end of the game everybody on the field looked like a drowned rat. It passed the point of comedy – I actually enjoy playing in adverse weather conditions, it at least can be comical – to being a dangerous slog.
Making it even more miserable was that we didn’t have a referee and we played an overly testosterone fueled team of rugby players. There were numerous collisions, overtly overaggressive plays, a pair of incidental handballs that had people so mad that it easily could’ve escalated past arguing. It was a game that needed a referee.
But the league that we pay good money to play in can’t seem to get referees to do their games. Our captain, a referee himself, said that we’ll be lucky to have a ref for one or two games this season. Great.
The good news to come out of the game is we won, 2-1. Considering they had six guy subs to our one and appeared to be a more skilled team, it was a surprising outcome.
I played OK, I’m still struggling to do some soccer basics, like kicking the ball. I had an opportunity at what should’ve been an easy goal. All I had to do was not kick the ball right at the goalie and I’d have had just my second goal of my short soccer career. Well, I didn’t kick the ball at the goalie, but I also didn’t kick it at the goal. Somehow I barely got a foot on it and it went across the goal and into the corner. What’s funny is that normally I’d agonize over missing that goal for days, but I was so distracted by being so wet and so cold that until typing this paragraph, I hadn’t even thought about it.
So let’s get to the Too Much Information part of this post: My nipples seriously hurt. It is 7:00 AM and we are now going on 12 hours of permanent, painful tittie hard-on. Seriously, they’ve been rock hard since the game and they hurt like a motherfucker. I don’t know what to do to get them not to hurt. I guess I’ll just have to wait it out. I’m sure it’ll go away pretty soon.
Anyway, now that I’ve put that image in your head….enjoy your day! Hopefully my rock hard nipples won’t haunt you too much.
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It’s 6:15 AM, I’m sitting here at work (I know, I should be working) in my unwashed Washington Huskies jersey that I’ve been wearing for every game for the past two weeks – you don’t wash that luck out during a steak – and I am seriously excited, nervous and very restless about tonight’s game, a mere 10 hours away.
The day has already gotten off to a bit of an auspicious beginning. I was about five minutes late for work – missing my morning meeting that starts promptly at 5:59 AM even though our shift starts at 6:00 AM – because I couldn’t find my wallet anywhere. Luckily, it occurred to me that I was laying on the ground in Addie’s room when she went to bed, so I snuck in and there it was, on her floor, and I did it without waking her up. The problem is, the game tips off before I get off at 4:30, so I was hoping to leave early but asking to leave early after being late isn’t the best idea. Oh well, I don’t care, I’m still leaving early to get myself in front of a TV.
I was thinking about telling you about the most depressed I’ve ever been in my life, which is totally Washington Huskies/college basketball related. However, trying to keep it positive today, I’ll tell you about when my real love for Washington Huskies basketball began.
It was 2004 and things looked very bleak and typical for the Huskies, another disappointing season going into the books. But after a big loss to Oregon State that dropped them to 0-5 in Pac-10 play, Nate Robinson, Brandon Roy, Will Conroy, Curtis Allen, Bobby Jones and Mike Jensen went on a tear winning 11-of-13 games leading up to a season finale against undefeated and #1 ranked Stanford. The whole city was abuzz about Huskies basketball and you just got this feeling that the Stanford game was going to be something really special to attend.
I HAD to go to the game, but so did everybody else in the Seattle area. The game was completely sold out and I did not have a ticket but I figured I might be able to get one outside of Hec Edmundson Pavilion before the game. So I headed down to the arena an hour and a half before game time with $40 in my pocket - the most I was able to spend – hoping to score a ticket..
Unfortunately, when I got there, it became clear that I wasn’t the only one without a ticket hoping to get into the game. There were tons of people standing around with one finger in the air unwilling to pay the $150 price that scalpers were trying to get for their tickets. With about 20 minutes left before tip-off, I gave up trying to find a ticket and instead hightailed it back to the car to get myself to a bar to watch the game on TV, but I figured that while I was walking back to the car, I might as well keep that finger in the air and keep pitching for a ticket. About 20 feet from the car, I hear from behind me, “hey man, you need a ticket? My friend decided not to come and I have an extra.” And he gave it to me for face value, though I think I gave him an extra five dollars and I may have bought him a soda at halftime.
And the game WAS something special. The Huskies took it to Stanford the entire game and drilled the Cardinal 75-62. The euphoria in the building was something that I don’t think can ever be replicated. I’ve never been in a building that was that full of positive energy. It was absolutely amazing. It was a celebration of everything that happened during their magical run that season and it was a celebration in anticipation of what was ahead. The team was young, the team was fun, the team was really talented. Everybody in that building knew that the next few years were going to be awesome to watch and I think everybody was reveling in it during that Stanford drubbing.
And things have never been the same. Basketball is now the school’s major sport and with the Supersonics departure for Oklahoma, the Huskies are Seattle’s #1 basketball team. The expectations are Sweet Sixteens or better instead of being euphoric about an 18-10 finish.
That’s why this season was disappointing until they rallied to win the Pac-10 Tournament and then knocked off #6 seed Marquette and #3 New Mexico in the opening weekend of the NCAA tournament. And now that’s why I sit here in a dirty jersey, butterflies in my stomach, trying to pass the time away before today’s 4:27 tip time hoping that my Dawgs can tear up some Mountaineers.
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I have a new favorite radio station, though admittedly, there isn’t much competition because I didn’t really have a favorite to begin with.
While I have always liked the idea of Seattle’s non-commercial indie icon KEXP and former Oxford, Ohio’s terrestrial radio now Cincinnati/Austin’s online only WOXY, neither station really satisfies me. KEXP is just too easy listening. They play way too much really quiet, wussie indie music, boring alt-country and ambient electronic music. Despite its revered hipster status here in the Seattle area, it has become a really sleepy, boring radio station. I can listen for a whole hour and not hear one song that I really enjoy and it will probably make me slip into a deep music induced sleep. WOXY isn’t as boring, but they play a lot of music that is less accessible, less polished – but not in a good way. Don’t ask me to explain, I can’t, it just doesn’t work for me.
While searching around for some good kid’s music – the kindie genre is one that I’ve become really interested in and am thinking about doing a radio show/podcast – I found Minnesota Public Radio’s HD and internet channel Wonderground Radio. It’s a station that has a nice little mix of music that is kid friendly - some good adult indie music mixed with kid’s artists. The only problem is that it’s completely automated and seems to repeat quite often. But Wonderground Radio led me to the station that it is an offshoot of, The Current – my new favorite radio station.
The Current is basically the same format as both KEXP and WOXY but what it does really well is keep things pretty upbeat. In direct comparison to KEXP, The Current plays most of the same artists, but where KEXP plays a lot of the softer, slower songs off of an artist’s album, The Current plays the faster, poppier, more radio friendly songs. Now instead of not liking a single song over an hour I’m bopping along to virtually an entire hour of music by practically the same artists. Sure they play some softer, slower tracks, but it’s usually the exception instead of the rule. It’s just so much more of a satisfying and exciting listening experience for me. It’s almost exactly what I’ve been looking for in a radio station for a really long time.
Anyway, you can find MPR’s The Current at 89.3 FM in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, on the web at thecurrent.org or if you have an iPhone, you can listen on the MPR app.
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A couple weeks ago, my work computer went completely tits up because of a virus and I had to call in our building’s IT professional to unbork my computer. While I admit that I had been surfing the internet a little too much, I wasn’t looking at anything more damning than Deadspin or even (gasp) Slate.com. So when the IT lady gave me kind of a stern warning about “certain” websites and that she’d clean it up this one time, I was a little bit confused but didn’t really think too much about it - in fact, I just shrugged and chuckled about it. I just figured she was warning me about Twitter or Facebook.
So when I needed to track a package for work the following week and found that my internet still wasn’t working – I have taken to using my iPhone for any personal surfing needs – I called the IT lady again. She couldn’t figure out what was wrong so she contacted another IT person that wasn’t in our building. She didn’t have his number, so she sent an email from my account to have him call her at my extension. A little while later, I was looking to see if I had sent an another email and ran across her email that she sent. What follows is that email and the series of mortifying emails that followed…
----------------------------------------
From: Brandon
Sent: Monday, March 08, 2010 11:36 AM
To: Jeff
Subject: hey call me it (IT lady)
Hey im at that porn virus computer. Iv done everything but its still there call 1360xxxxxxx
From: Brandon
Sent: Monday, March 08, 2010 1:12 PM
To: (IT lady)
Subject: FW: hey call me it (IT lady)
(IT lady),
I hope you don’t think I was looking at porn on my computer, that wasn’t the case. Worst website I visited on a regular basis was Twitter or sometimes Deadspin – a sports blog. Mainly it was online radio and newspapers.
-Brandon
From: (IT Lady)
Sent: Monday, March 08, 2010 1:35 PM
To: Brandon
Subject: RE: hey call me it (IT lady)
Well yeah, actually I did. When I first was cleaning up that virus all it kept doing was popping up this one porn site. I had to actually log off because it keep popping up well hummm lets say pictures!!!!!!!!!!!!. That’s why I first asked you was there anyone else that uses your machine? And when I said, there are “certain” sites that give viruses more than others. And when I talked to you the second time. I said “just so we were clear I would clean it up this time. But I cant do it again” what did you think I was talking about? There was quite of few sites in the history that were quite damaging. Like I said I would clean it that time. If your worried about what I said to Jeff in that email. don’t worry about it. we talked about it and decided that was (if you will) that was 1
(IT Lady)
From: Brandon
Sent: Monday, March 08, 2010 2:06 PM
To: (IT lady)
Subject: RE: hey call me it (IT lady)
That’s crazy because I definitely never went to any porn sites, swear to god. I know that might be hard to believe considering that you found damaging sites in history and I probably can’t convince you, but you have to take me at my word. I may have a web surfing problem, but I’m not stupid enough to look at porn at work. I was just thinking that I wasn’t supposed to be using Facebook or Twitter or whatever…serious time wasters that management usually is not fond of people using.
Now you have me wondering if anybody else does use my computer. We do have a night crew. Since I have a strike one on me, I’m telling you now that I’m not using my internet for anything but the intranet, UPS.com, Conway Freight, Yellow Freight and maybe a few other totally work related sites. If porn sites end up in my history or I get another porn related virus, I don’t want to be blamed because it wasn’t me.
Totally mortified,
Brandon
From: (IT lady)
Sent: Monday, March 08, 2010 2:30 PM
To: Brandon
Subject: RE: hey call me it (IT lady)
Do you lock your computer up when you leave? Lock up as in hitting control / alt / delete / lock computer? You remember when I asked you if anyone else uses your computer? Ya know, I thought to my self, WOW he handled him self quite well. I was completely impressed how you just said OK. If fact I was telling some friends of mine, (outside of work) how well you carried your self considering you got caught for watching porn at work.
From: Brandon
Sent: Monday, March 08, 2010 3:32 PM
To: (IT lady)
Subject: RE: hey call me it (IT lady)
GAH! You must’ve thought I was a sociopath or something. That doesn’t make me feel better, it makes me feel like I came off as CRAZY. If I would’ve got caught watching porn, I think I would’ve just walked out of the building and never come back. Just thinking that you think I was watching porn makes me want to walk out the building and never come back.
Anyway, I almost always log off of my profile or even turn off the computer when I leave, so I don’t know what the deal is. I’ll try locking it down from here on out.
Still totally and completely mortified,
Brandon
From: (IT lady)
Sent: Monday, March 08, 2010 3:35 PM
To: Brandon
Subject: RE: hey call me it (IT lady)
No no I didn’t mean to make you feel worse. Gezzz I was just saying you handled your self very professional. That all. Its no biggy really. I didn’t tell anyone. Just jeff and he didn’t tell anyone. Its all good.
----------------------------------------
Well, thank god it’s “all good”. If I would’ve been fired for looking at porn when I wasn’t actually looking at porn, that would’ve been a hard one to swallow. And though it is “all good”, I have a hard time facing the IT lady that found porn all over my computer and now assumes that I am a guy that just sat back here jerking it all day who then shows no remorse or concern when caught red handed.
On a related note: thank god for the iPhone....
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Since we last spoke on this blog, big changes have been afoot in the Down With Pants! world. For one, I'm no longer a stay-at-home dad. I started working at a job that made me think about what I'd like to do next. One of the things I decided to do to improve my lot in the working world is finish my BA at Bowling Green State University. I'm only a few credits away, which is awesome, and I can take some classes that are really interesting. One of them is Intro To Popular Culture - admittedly a bit of a fluff class. We have a discussion board and have to post answers to questions each week. This week's were particularly fun to answer so I bring them to you here as well...
1. What was your first favorite musical group or singer, how old were you at the time and what was impotant to you about the music?
From as long as I can remember, The Beatles have been my favorite band. My parents exposed me to their music, their movies and everything that they did at a young age and their fun and humor originally is what drew me to them. They were also my parent’s favorite band and we kind of bonded over them. One reason that they stayed in my life for so long is that as I aged and matured I was able to move into different parts of their career that matched where I was. As a young child I liked things like “Twist & Shout” and music off of their first few albums like A Hard Day’s Night that was faster and less challenging. As I got older I got more into albums like Revolver and Rubber Soul and as a teenager I was fascinated with Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band and The White Album. Now, in my thirties, two of my favorite albums are Abbey Road and Let It Be (though I prefer the Let It Be…Naked album that they released a few years ago that is stripped of Phil Spector’s overproduction).
2. What is your favorite musical group or singer today and what is important about the music for you today?
The Beatles are still my favorite band but for the purpose of this exercise, let me divert from them. I have a hard time nailing down my favorite band after The Beatles because it changes from situation to situation, but I’d have to say that there is no band that I listen to more and no band can make me happier or cheer me up quicker than The Shins. They have this great mix of music that ranges from poppy and upbeat and cheery to dark and mysterious to ethereal and trippy. I’ve listened to them on two cross-country red-eye flights while dozing and it always puts me in the right mood. In fact, they put me in the right mood whenever I listen to them no matter what kind of mood I’m in or want to be in. Also, I love singing their songs, which is something I do at the top of my lungs in my car all the time.
3. How often do you listen to music in the day?
I listen to music as much as I can. I take a short break to listen to NPR on my way to work but I turn on music as soon as I get to work and have it on almost the whole day after that. And when I’m at home, except for when we are watching TV, music is playing.
4. What formats do you listen to music....the radio...compact disc....ipod...and why?
I listen to many different formats of music. On a daily basis I listen to terrestrial radio, internet broadcasts of terrestrial stations, online only radio stations, compact discs, my iPod, music apps on my iPhone like Pandora, Lastfm or Slacker. It all depends on the mood I’m in, what kind of music I want to hear, whether I want to listen to familiar music or if I want to listen to music I’ve never heard before or don’t know much about. My iPod is for music I know, online stations are for new music and terrestrial radio is usually for music I know that I don’t necessarily have on my iPod like classic rock or country music.
5. What was the last compact disc that you purchased and when?
The last CD I bought was right around Christmas. I was shopping at Best Buy for gifts for other people and found out that Patton Oswalt (a comedian) had a new CD out. So because I was feeling impulsive and I didn’t have it on one of my wish lists, I decided to buy it. I thought about waiting and going home and downloading it on iTunes but it included a DVD of the show so I thought that was worth a few more dollars.
6. Are compact discs too expensive?
I don’t think that CD’s are too expensive, I think that $12 is actually a fair price for them and I have no problem paying that amount when I do purchase a CD. However, now that you can get the music on iTunes or digitally for only $10 (or even less sometimes on Amazon), I rarely purchase CD’s. Also, since I have hundreds of CD’s, I have hundreds of jewel cases so I prefer digital music to reduce the clutter. So even if CD’s were less expensive, I doubt I’d purchase them more often.
7. What was your first music concert that you attended...how old were you and what impact did it have on you?
Though I’m sure that I went to a concert or two with my parents earlier in life, the one that I remember being my first on my own and of my own volition was The Spin Doctors, Soul Asylum and The Screaming Trees at the Gorge in George, Washington during the summer between my sophomore and junior years of high school. The Gorge is in the middle of Washington State, hundreds of miles from where we lived so it was also basically the first road trip that I ever took. It was an opportunity to go to a show, see the state and generally goof around on our own. We had a great time though it was also the first time that I realized that music in a large venue like The Gorge isn’t that great. From the distance that we were from the stage to the hours it took us to get out of the parking lot to the unbelievably bad show The Spin Doctors put on, the concert wasn’t worth the hype.
8. What has been your most recent music concert that you have attended....and did the experience have as much of an impact as your first concert?
The last concert that I attended was Ben Folds with the Seattle Symphony at Benaroya Hall in Seattle. Ben Folds is one of my favorite artists and hearing him backed up by a symphony was really incredible and reminded me how great live music can be. I think the experience had almost as much impact on me as the first concert that I attended but for very different reasons. The first concert I attended was less about the music than it was about the road trip and independence while this one was all about the music and listening to the music was what really impacted me. Despite the size of Benaroya Hall, it was very intimate and it was easy to make a connection with Ben and what he was singing. In fact, he has a song about his daughter that I’ve heard many, many times and never thought too much about but when he did it at the show and I really listened to the lyrics I started tearing up (I’m a relatively new dad to a daughter myself). Now I can barely listen to the song without getting all emotional.
P.S...We respond to other students answers and one of the other students answered that her first favorite band was NSYNC...at six years old! SIX YEARS OLD! NSYNC was popular when I first attended Bowling Green. I don't usually feel old at 32 - 32 isn't old at all - but her response made me feel incredibly ancient.
1. What was your first favorite musical group or singer, how old were you at the time and what was impotant to you about the music?
From as long as I can remember, The Beatles have been my favorite band. My parents exposed me to their music, their movies and everything that they did at a young age and their fun and humor originally is what drew me to them. They were also my parent’s favorite band and we kind of bonded over them. One reason that they stayed in my life for so long is that as I aged and matured I was able to move into different parts of their career that matched where I was. As a young child I liked things like “Twist & Shout” and music off of their first few albums like A Hard Day’s Night that was faster and less challenging. As I got older I got more into albums like Revolver and Rubber Soul and as a teenager I was fascinated with Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band and The White Album. Now, in my thirties, two of my favorite albums are Abbey Road and Let It Be (though I prefer the Let It Be…Naked album that they released a few years ago that is stripped of Phil Spector’s overproduction).
2. What is your favorite musical group or singer today and what is important about the music for you today?
The Beatles are still my favorite band but for the purpose of this exercise, let me divert from them. I have a hard time nailing down my favorite band after The Beatles because it changes from situation to situation, but I’d have to say that there is no band that I listen to more and no band can make me happier or cheer me up quicker than The Shins. They have this great mix of music that ranges from poppy and upbeat and cheery to dark and mysterious to ethereal and trippy. I’ve listened to them on two cross-country red-eye flights while dozing and it always puts me in the right mood. In fact, they put me in the right mood whenever I listen to them no matter what kind of mood I’m in or want to be in. Also, I love singing their songs, which is something I do at the top of my lungs in my car all the time.
3. How often do you listen to music in the day?
I listen to music as much as I can. I take a short break to listen to NPR on my way to work but I turn on music as soon as I get to work and have it on almost the whole day after that. And when I’m at home, except for when we are watching TV, music is playing.
4. What formats do you listen to music....the radio...compact disc....ipod...and why?
I listen to many different formats of music. On a daily basis I listen to terrestrial radio, internet broadcasts of terrestrial stations, online only radio stations, compact discs, my iPod, music apps on my iPhone like Pandora, Lastfm or Slacker. It all depends on the mood I’m in, what kind of music I want to hear, whether I want to listen to familiar music or if I want to listen to music I’ve never heard before or don’t know much about. My iPod is for music I know, online stations are for new music and terrestrial radio is usually for music I know that I don’t necessarily have on my iPod like classic rock or country music.
5. What was the last compact disc that you purchased and when?
The last CD I bought was right around Christmas. I was shopping at Best Buy for gifts for other people and found out that Patton Oswalt (a comedian) had a new CD out. So because I was feeling impulsive and I didn’t have it on one of my wish lists, I decided to buy it. I thought about waiting and going home and downloading it on iTunes but it included a DVD of the show so I thought that was worth a few more dollars.
6. Are compact discs too expensive?
I don’t think that CD’s are too expensive, I think that $12 is actually a fair price for them and I have no problem paying that amount when I do purchase a CD. However, now that you can get the music on iTunes or digitally for only $10 (or even less sometimes on Amazon), I rarely purchase CD’s. Also, since I have hundreds of CD’s, I have hundreds of jewel cases so I prefer digital music to reduce the clutter. So even if CD’s were less expensive, I doubt I’d purchase them more often.
7. What was your first music concert that you attended...how old were you and what impact did it have on you?
Though I’m sure that I went to a concert or two with my parents earlier in life, the one that I remember being my first on my own and of my own volition was The Spin Doctors, Soul Asylum and The Screaming Trees at the Gorge in George, Washington during the summer between my sophomore and junior years of high school. The Gorge is in the middle of Washington State, hundreds of miles from where we lived so it was also basically the first road trip that I ever took. It was an opportunity to go to a show, see the state and generally goof around on our own. We had a great time though it was also the first time that I realized that music in a large venue like The Gorge isn’t that great. From the distance that we were from the stage to the hours it took us to get out of the parking lot to the unbelievably bad show The Spin Doctors put on, the concert wasn’t worth the hype.
8. What has been your most recent music concert that you have attended....and did the experience have as much of an impact as your first concert?
The last concert that I attended was Ben Folds with the Seattle Symphony at Benaroya Hall in Seattle. Ben Folds is one of my favorite artists and hearing him backed up by a symphony was really incredible and reminded me how great live music can be. I think the experience had almost as much impact on me as the first concert that I attended but for very different reasons. The first concert I attended was less about the music than it was about the road trip and independence while this one was all about the music and listening to the music was what really impacted me. Despite the size of Benaroya Hall, it was very intimate and it was easy to make a connection with Ben and what he was singing. In fact, he has a song about his daughter that I’ve heard many, many times and never thought too much about but when he did it at the show and I really listened to the lyrics I started tearing up (I’m a relatively new dad to a daughter myself). Now I can barely listen to the song without getting all emotional.
P.S...We respond to other students answers and one of the other students answered that her first favorite band was NSYNC...at six years old! SIX YEARS OLD! NSYNC was popular when I first attended Bowling Green. I don't usually feel old at 32 - 32 isn't old at all - but her response made me feel incredibly ancient.
Two years ago today the greatest thing ever happened to us....Addie May was born at 3:59 AM, February 1st, 2008. In that time we've lived in three different cities in three different houses and held five different jobs. We even elected the first African American president, believe it or not. But the one constant is the unbelievable cuteness and the incredible amount of fun we've had with Adelaide. So here's a slideshow for her birthday, one picture for each of the past 24 months...
Created with flickr slideshow.
Happy birthday Addie! We love you SO much!
Happy birthday Addie! We love you SO much!
I feel like every season of Top Chef starts off with a sacrificial lamb. Someone that isn't who they say they are. Someone that is there so that a real chef doesn't end up looking bad by being the first one kicked off. Last season, that sacrificial lamb overachieved and lasted quite a few show (bad bangs Melissa).
But tonight, the neck tattoo and the gross stretched out ears of Jennifer Zavala made her make the most disgusting chile relleno I've ever seen with the worst choice of fillings and it was obvious that she made the right choice to not unpack. She probably made that choice because she was just some random cooking student they pulled in to take one for the team, and like a good trooper, she did just that. Good, because I couldn't take her ears and her neck tat for more than one episode.
As for the rest of the cast, nobody really jumped out at me as a favorite and I don't think I can make an early choice for winner. But I'll go ahead and make a choice right now and see what happens, so here goes. The winner of Top Chef Season 6 will be....Kevin Gillespie - the guy that won tonight.
As of episode 1, here are how my allegiances break out...
Like/Rooting For
Ron Duprat - Didn't like that he used his story so soon though
Robin Leventhal - She's a Seattle chef, always root for the local
Kevin Gillespie - I like his beard
Hector Santiago - I like the line "I cook with heart and cojones"
Ashley Merriman - Another local. Two Seattle cooks and only one New Yorker this season
Dislikes/Rooting Against
Preeti Mistry - That can't be her real name, right?
Michael Isabella - No surprise he's from Jersey.
Jesse Sandlin - Something about her flighty confessionals and she's a crier.
Eli Kirshtein - Came off as a young, pompous tool.
I had to pause the show for a second and it came at just the right time. Please to enjoy Padma Lakshmi's tongue...
You're welcome!
As for Top Chef Masters, I really enjoyed it. Sure it lacked the drama that makes Top Chef so good, but watching these amazing, seasoned professionals do their thing was fantastic. Hubert Keller, Michael Chiarello and Rick Bayless are my new heroes. Rick Bayless picked up a much deserved win and picked up a big fan as well. I really want to eat at Frontera Grill when I make it back to Chicago now and I've even started buying his salsa at the store (which have all been quite good so far).
The worst part of Top Chef? The rest of the programming on Bravo. I can't take these stupid, awful bitches on any of the Real Housewives shows. We both now turn away from the TV and plug our ears when they come on. And then to have them pop up and take over half the screen in the middle of a show is ridiculous. I want to watch Top Chef live, but these bitches might make me start waiting until the day after so I can speed through their skankiness.
As if Top Chef wasn't enough...PROJECT RUNWAY TOMORROW!!!
But tonight, the neck tattoo and the gross stretched out ears of Jennifer Zavala made her make the most disgusting chile relleno I've ever seen with the worst choice of fillings and it was obvious that she made the right choice to not unpack. She probably made that choice because she was just some random cooking student they pulled in to take one for the team, and like a good trooper, she did just that. Good, because I couldn't take her ears and her neck tat for more than one episode.
As for the rest of the cast, nobody really jumped out at me as a favorite and I don't think I can make an early choice for winner. But I'll go ahead and make a choice right now and see what happens, so here goes. The winner of Top Chef Season 6 will be....Kevin Gillespie - the guy that won tonight.
As of episode 1, here are how my allegiances break out...
Like/Rooting For
Ron Duprat - Didn't like that he used his story so soon though
Robin Leventhal - She's a Seattle chef, always root for the local
Kevin Gillespie - I like his beard
Hector Santiago - I like the line "I cook with heart and cojones"
Ashley Merriman - Another local. Two Seattle cooks and only one New Yorker this season
Dislikes/Rooting Against
Preeti Mistry - That can't be her real name, right?
Michael Isabella - No surprise he's from Jersey.
Jesse Sandlin - Something about her flighty confessionals and she's a crier.
Eli Kirshtein - Came off as a young, pompous tool.
I had to pause the show for a second and it came at just the right time. Please to enjoy Padma Lakshmi's tongue...
You're welcome!
As for Top Chef Masters, I really enjoyed it. Sure it lacked the drama that makes Top Chef so good, but watching these amazing, seasoned professionals do their thing was fantastic. Hubert Keller, Michael Chiarello and Rick Bayless are my new heroes. Rick Bayless picked up a much deserved win and picked up a big fan as well. I really want to eat at Frontera Grill when I make it back to Chicago now and I've even started buying his salsa at the store (which have all been quite good so far).
The worst part of Top Chef? The rest of the programming on Bravo. I can't take these stupid, awful bitches on any of the Real Housewives shows. We both now turn away from the TV and plug our ears when they come on. And then to have them pop up and take over half the screen in the middle of a show is ridiculous. I want to watch Top Chef live, but these bitches might make me start waiting until the day after so I can speed through their skankiness.
As if Top Chef wasn't enough...PROJECT RUNWAY TOMORROW!!!
Hi everybody! I'm back....at least for one quick post. My online life is only a shell of what it used to be, for better or for worse, but this was so cool that I had to share.
The wife was on my favorite radio show, Too Beautiful To Live, on Thursday night and I think she did a great job. She said she was super nervous, but it doesn't sound much like it. Listen for yourself....enjoy!
Part 1
Part 2
I'm not so sure about Sean propositioning my wife like that, though. I don't want to have to start a Scrappin' With Sean DeTore segment on my own. Though, if I did, perhaps I'd be as famous as Death?
The wife was on my favorite radio show, Too Beautiful To Live, on Thursday night and I think she did a great job. She said she was super nervous, but it doesn't sound much like it. Listen for yourself....enjoy!
Part 1
I'm not so sure about Sean propositioning my wife like that, though. I don't want to have to start a Scrappin' With Sean DeTore segment on my own. Though, if I did, perhaps I'd be as famous as Death?
The Stranger, Seattle's alternative weekly, ran a photo on their cover this week of two security guards working on an open ATM at REI and wrote a story about Shane Becker, the self described vegan, straightedge, anarchist (sounds like a big ball of fun!) that took the picture, and how he was arrested by the Seattle Police Department after he refused to show his ID to the security guards when they confronted him about the picture.The point of the article and the running it on the cover, I suppose, is about photographers rights and the arrest of someone that didn't do anything particularly wrong, and I get that. But does it deserve the front cover treatment? Does it even really merit a mention in even The Stranger? Is this really one of the most important stories of the week? Are there no other false imprisonment/police harrassment stories that merit our attention?
This story only exists and has only been given any merit because it happened to a white kid with an iPhone and a blog. A white kid with an iPhone and a blog that could've avoided all of this. But since he's a straightedge vegan anarchist, he just had to play his role and be uncooperative.
In the same way that the "fake cops" had their role to play, so did Becker. Both roles are wrong, both groups are at fault, neither should be praised. But by picking up this story and running with it in the way that they have, The Stranger has made Becker into the harmless photographer, the one who's rights were stepped on, the victim. When really the only victims in this case are people that are subject to police harassment or worse whose stories fall through the cracks while Becker and this ATM make the cover.
But that's Seattle and that's The Stranger. It's to be expected.
On a related note - Becker sells t-shirts with atheist and vegan slogans on them that I don't want to link to, but I do want to see if anybody can help me out with one of the designs. What in the world is this supposed to mean...
...because I'm completely stumped. I guess it's just a really stupid shot at athletes and sports? This coming from someone that was at REI purchasing a fancy bike rack for his car. Riding a bike is an athletic endeavor, FYI.
I would also like to take this opportunity to remind you that I am a flaming liberal even though this post comes off making me sound pretty conservative, I'll admit. I'm just sick of people that have a lot of power and influence in this life playing the oppressed. Being a white male in America sure is hard these days, isn't it? Makes it hard to enjoy our iPhones and blogs and our fancy bike racks.
I've been thinking a bit about Special Agent Oso ever since it debuted on Playhouse Disney recently. If you haven't seen it yet, well you probably don't have a toddler, so don't worry about it, you aren't missing much. Basically it's about a stuffed panda bear named Oso that helps kids with tasks like brushing their teeth or checking out a book from the library or finding their shoe in their dirty room. It's very colorful, it's got a catchy song, it's got pretty good intentions and it catches my daughter's attention, but there are still some things that bother me about it.
For one, I feel like it was developed by focus groups and committees. It liberally takes ideas from other successful kids shows and puts it all together into one package. A little bit of Spanish? Check. Talk to the audience? Check. Bad catch phrase? Check ("all part of the plan, more or less"). Merchandising friendly characters? They're supposed to be stuffed animals so, yeah, big time check - not to mention the merchandising potential for Paw Pilot, Oso's electronic helper thing or Numero Dos, the voice that comes out of his watch that seems to be his boss. Put all these elements together and it feels a little disingenuous to me.
One of the things that I was joking about today is how there are these little ladybug looking cameras that catch the kids having trouble with some task and send a signal to Special Agent Oso and how they seem very big brother-y. Sure, in the show they are being used for good, but what if they fell into the wrong hands? I mean, Special Agent Oso is about as "special" as it gets, it doesn't seem like it would be hard. But what actually kind of bothers me about them is that it portrays constant, secret surveillance as something positive to kids. I'm half joking about this and I'm sure that it wasn't their intention, but it does seem a little insidious.
But overall, I think Special Agent Oso has a good enough message that it trumps the committee feel and weird big brother issues. It teaches kids how to work through problems in a logical manner - three special steps is all it takes, apparently - and that isn't bad. But adults won't get much out of it if you have to watch it as well. It's not cloying or insulting like Barney or the Wiggles, but there isn't much for you here, though I'm surprised Disney's research didn't figure out a way to shoehorn something under the radar for adults in there.
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Hey, it's Brandon!
