Food on TV
My office is near the Food Network HQ. I don’t really watch the Food Network apart from a random late night Iron Chef episode maybe once a year. Last night, via the magic of the DVR-robot, we watched last week’s episode of Bravo’s Top Chef that featured Frank Bruni as a judge. After the DVR-robot presented the show, I lazily stayed on the couch with the remote in my hand and watched two minutes of the first Terminator movie and then stumbled upon Chopped. This is the Food Network’s version of Top Chef. For giggles and snips, I decided to watch. Oh my.
The guy Ted hosts it from Queer Eye (or QE4DASG as the fans call it). The set looks like a smaller and darker version of Top Chef with a very similar elimination process - except instead of “being eliminated” or “being sent home” or “pack your knives” or “you’re out - Auf Wiedersehen” they are.... wait for it...
Chopped!
You’ve been chopped!
Oh, don’t get me started on:
- their guest judges
- their production qualities
Ironical
Just like MapQuest has one of the worst map applications, how does the Food Network have some of the worst food shows? I don’t watch a lot of TV, but I do watch the Anthony Bourdain show (Travel Channel), Top Chef (Bravo), Last Restaurant Standing (BBC-America), and the Rick Bayless One Plate at a Time show (PBS).
I guess Food Network's thing is the standard cooking show. Those are cheap to produce I suppose and they appeal to a certain suburb home cook. Maybe.
(speaking of Rick Bayless - I saw this photo on his website. Who thought that was a good idea? Why are those young people hiding in the dark?)
Charlie’s Angels
FYI: Mrs. Robot is becoming an expert on Charlie’s Angels. Hopefully I will get her to do a guest post one day.
Bike Shorts
I’ve been buying a lot of bike shorts. Not Lycra ones (although I do have them) but somewhat baggy/somewhat hipster-y shorts. Reviews to come! Hold your breath!
Back in the mid-1980’s when I was just a teen I was lucky enough to have a older cousin who was not only nice but also cool (she worked on the business side with Dischord Records after college (that’s not only what made her cool, though)). For Christmas one year, Older Cousin was given a swell little mini-stereo (her father was very tech savvy (I was jealous)) that featured the most awesome and hottest feature of any stereo for that particular year: tape to tape recording with high-speed dubbing.
My god. That was major. You kids just don’t understand.
After Christmas dinner, we sat on the living room floor at Grandma’s house and went through her tapes and I made copies of stuff (aka “pirated” or “ripped”). She advised me on a lot of stuff that she thought I’d like such as the Athens GA Inside Out soundtrack (awesomes) and that Violent Femmes album that we all eventually had. Both were so awesome and I am pretty sure I played those tapes until they just disintegrated.
Months later (or maybe years) I was in our town’s used record shoppe. I was probably buying buttons to put on my jacket (Ultravox, U2, The Specials) when I came across a used copy of the Violent Femme’s Hallowed Ground. On cassette. Used.
This was their second album and compared to the fairly poppy first one, the second one was a bit scary in parts. I mean, there’s the song about the father throwing his daughter in the well. Creepers.
There are a few poppy songs on the album (‘Black Girls’ for one) but a lot of it is dark. And there’s a lot of Jesus stuff. It spooked me out a bit - I mean, look at the cover. The cover itself is kind of spooky.
It’s like the band was Frankenstein - he was nice and sweet to the little girl, but there’s this dark side and sometimes he throws the little girl into the lake and she drowns (I believe this was covered in another song on that album).
Summary: I’ve been thinking about that album a lot.
Months later (or maybe years) I was in our town’s used record shoppe. I was probably buying buttons to put on my jacket (Ultravox, U2, The Specials) when I came across a used copy of the Violent Femme’s Hallowed Ground. On cassette. Used.
