Monday Musings- Greek Parties Down

House
The fact that we were back to the same old procedural format this week was doubly bad because House still wasn't back at his old job, so guess who was the center of the show. Dr. Foreman. Yikes. He should really go back to playing basketball players who fall in love with their neighbors because he is awful on this show. Or better yet, instead of wasting all this time trying to fill House's position, he could spend a little more time with his football team! Maybe if he didn't drive back and forth between Princeton Plainsboro and Pittsburgh so much, his squad could be better than 1-2 with a loss to the Bengals!

Greek
So when Evan needed to get a new job so he could stay afloat Cappie suggested this cater-waiter position he saw on the bulletin board. Cap obviously joined him on this venture 'cause there was a cute girl working with the company. When they got the the building it said Party Down Catering on the signage. Are they allowed to do that? Isn't that a show on Starz? I thought maybe it was just a nice quick hitter, but then Cappie and Evan started to put on their pink bowties for the occasion. Okay. I've seen the commercials and promos. Those are their outfits on the show! How is it possible that they can do this?

In other Greek news of the week, they made fun of ABC's medical drama not once nor twice, but three times. I am sure glad I stopped watching that show after one season, or I'd feel embarrassed right now.

Heroes
I know that I'm the type of guy that generally likes villains more than protagonists, but are the Heroes creators intensely trying to glorify its villains? Sure Sylar has been one of the best characters on television for a few years now, and this week's ep didn't stray from the statement, but now this Samuel character is getting me excited all over again. Maybe he isn't going to be a villain in the long run, but right now they're making him seem like one, and a really cool one at that. Peter is lame, Claire is a chick and Hiro is nowhere near the character he was in season one. Don't even get me started on Parkman. This week's highlight...Noah saying, "I'm gonna have to call The Haitian." Hearing the characters on the show call him The Haitian just sounds funny to me, and I enjoy it every time.

One Tree Hill
Another big gripe here. Not only did they bring in new characters that we have no relationship with this season, but they've toyed with our prior relationships with the main characters with all the time jumps they've done. After season four they jumped ahead five years and kept flashing back to the time gap so we could get a fell for what happened while we missed them. This time all we have is the guessing about what might have gone on while we were gone. For example: we haven't enjoyed the journey with Nathan through his first full season in the NBA, so I can't feel for him through his current problems. The only minor storyline that holds any strength is Dan's. This is the only type of thing where the jump helps. He shows up so drastically changed from where we left off with him. Through flashbacks, they give us that back story we need to feel for what he went through to get where he is now. Maybe they want us to like Dan the most (I do right now), but it's sad that I'm losing touch with Nathan, Haley and Brooke because of the jumping around.

Sunday Speculations- Curb Has a Little Chinese

Family Guy
So our good friend Seth MacFarlane decided to rip on Disney in this week's episode. As Stewie and Brian were making their way through all of the different Universes, they fell upon the Universe in which everyone is drawn as a Disney cartoon. As one of the biggest Disney guys out there, I loved it. MacFarlane captured the true essence of Disney animation and it was awesome. He really didn't trash on Disney at all, except for the final dig that Disney hated Jews. Peter was my favorite because reminded me of Gaston's lackey, Lefou, from Beauty and the Beast. All in all it was a good start to the season.

Curb Your Enthusiasm
We got the first "Pretty, pretty, pretty" of the season during this episode, but that wasn't even close to the best part of the episode for me. It's the subtleties to Leon's comedy that drive me crazy. At the end of the episode, when Loretta and the rest of the Black family is driving away from LD with steam coming out of their ears, Leon shows up at the driveway next to Larry. After LD explains to him that there was a huge blow up and Leon's whole family is leaving and never coming back, Leon explains calmly, "That's some sh*t." Larry, wanting to make sure Leon is going to join his fam, prods, "Now you're going tooo...?" And Leon steals the show with "Go upstairs and eat this f*ckin' Chinese food...in my room." Fantastic.

Amazing Race
Two teams have garnered my affection after the two-hour season premier. Zev and Justin are a dude with Asperger's syndrome (Zev) and his friend Justin. Zev has already given me more laughs than anyone from a year ago. His boy Justin is just the straight man at this point. Flight Time and Big Easy, the Harlem Globetrotters seem laid back, but once they found out the poker playing girls lied to everyone the claws started to come out. I hope both these pairings go a long way.

Best comp of the ep, Japanese Game Show. The energy from the fans and the host was fantastic. I hated that this comp was basically luck. Whenever the roulette wheel lands on you, you get to do the challenge? Dumb. That being said, the challenge did look a bit difficult. Eat a wasabi bomb in two minutes. Now I've never even thought about eating wasabi, but if I were in this competition I know who I would want for my partner...Lar. I enjoy hot foods a good amount, but when we got suicide wings from Planet Wings, I was downing milk after one bite. Lar put down six to eight of those things like it was nothing.

Poolies Watch- Dynasty Award

Once a week we're going to take a look at how one of the Quiet Pool TV Awards is stacking up. This week we begin with the Dynasty Award for Best Drama Series. I've done a bit of reshuffling in how I've categorized the shows. Taking Reality and Variety out of the equation, the Big Three have a bunch over overlaps.

The way I've split the series into Comedy, Drama and Action is like this:
--A comedy is a show that is fueled by comedic values and are theoretically a sitcom.
--A drama is a show that is based on the relationships between the characters. Sure they may be comedy involved, but its the people that make up the show.
--An action is a show that begins and ends with the action of the show itself. There can be both dramatic and comedic elements, but its about the events.

Two major changes...
-House has moved from Drama to Action.
-Greek has moved from Comedy to Drama.

Currently holding nomination spots:

90210
Breaking Bad
Brothers and Sisters
Californication
Entourage
Friday Night Lights
Gossip Girl
Greek
Mad Men
One Tree Hill

Outside looking in:

Eastwick
Glee
Grey's Anatomy
Melrose Place

With House switching categories, the Dynasty Award is now much less competitive for Friday Night Lights. Although it won't start until mid-October (this summer on NBC), FNL is looking way behind them at their strongest competitor. Greek steps into the category and is near the top of heap in my opinion. With time we'll see what happens with newbies Melrose, Glee and Eastwick. I see Melrose having the most upside out of those three shows.

Fellow Poolie voters, what show should be nominated that isn't here?

SNL- Megan Fox and U2

What a completely lackluster season premier of Saturday Night Live. I guess when I saw Seth Meyers with his laptop in a private room at the ESPN Zone, he was not working on the show. Instead, he must have been conducting a fantasy football draft, because this premier episode was nothing to write home about. It was something to write on the internet about, but not write home about. As we all know, an SNL ep can only go as far as its host, and Megan Fox isn't funny.

Cold Open- boring.

Peeing Commercial- good idea, not executed that well.

Airplane Scene- this was a good sketch. Funny idea, and of course, Kristen Wiig was at the head of the thing. When she said, "I'm gonna try and sneak you guys some pretzels" I lost it.

Russian Girls- Two good ones in a row...it can only go down from here. Will Forte was great in having a tough time deciding between Megan Fox and Fred Armisen as his wife. It reminded me a lot of the Patrick Swayze/Chris Farley Chip 'n Dales sketch. It is very sad to know that both of the guys from that classic sketch are now gone.

1st Digital Short- What? Not good at all. Pick your game up Akiva.

Burn Up the Bedroom- Blahh.

U2's 1st Song- garbage.

Weekend Update- per the usual, I will make a comment on how Seth Meyers is awful and weekend update is terrible. Now that we got that out of the way, I will now get to the important part of Update, the guests. This week we got two classic recurring characters, Jean K. Jean and Judy Grimes. Both of their shticks are thoroughly enjoyable for me. Kristen Wiig's talent is immeasurable in my opinion. When she just pointed at the chart and said just kidding...unbelievable.

Live Lounge- not good.

U2's 2nd Song- better song, but Bono's intensity is insane. Is he serious with this? Maybe if he softened up a bit, I could believe anything he was singing. A little too out of control.

Biker Chick Chat- This is why you don't give someone the lead of a sketch on their first night. F BOMB. What a joke. It would've been one thing if she was actually funny and slipped up, but she was God awful in her first SNL sketch ever, and threw out the F on top of that. Kristen Wiig (obviously) and Megan Fox both destroyed her at this character. It's only her first night, but I don't think I'm gonna like this new girl.

2nd Digital Short- Now we're talking. Quality digital short here. Anytime you combine Andy Samberg, Transformers and The BAG, I am going to love it.


Talking to Megan Fox- What was it again? Kristin Wiig. Decent sketch. Kristen's face after she made a comment was classic.

Thursday Thoughts

Flash Forward
I know it was only the first episode of the series, but I'm absolutely ready to dash for Flash. This was a great season premier and I definitely recommend it as the show to watch this fall so that you don't have to catch up later on. The premise of the show is just fantastic and unlike anything else on television right now. This epic event (everyone flashing their consciousness forward six months) happens to everyone in the entire world at the same time and now the characters in the show have to A)figure out what exactly happened, B)why it happened, and C)is it going to happen again. Much as the series premiers of Lost and Heroes felt game-changing, so did that of Flash Forward.

Now let's talk about the all-star cast of familiar faces in this crew.

The one who is dead in his flash forward- Harold of Harold and Kumar fame

The wife of the main dude- Penelope Widmore of Lost or Charlie's new wife in Terminator: TSCC

The dude Penny cheats on her husband with in her flash- Yes that is Commodore Norrington of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

The head FBI dude in charge of the main dude and Harold- The one, the only, the RUNAWAY SLAVE, Jim from Adventure of Huck Finn

Soon to be seen is the lost from Lost Dominic Monaghan who played Charlie Pace on the acclaimed show

Edit: I forgot about the Famous Jet Jackson

The Office
After two weeks of Office and one of Curb, I think I have to move the Larry David special ahead in my rankings. Office is still very good, but doesn't have the same kick it did during season 2-3 lure. Dwight teaming up with Toby for this week's ep definitely brightened up last year's Lily Finerty Award winner, and didn't drop Dwight at all. Toby yelling at Daryl's sister from the car with the binocs was awesome. How come Jim isn't ever funny anymore. I remember him being funny on occasion in the past.

Community
It has not taken off yet, but another good episode this week. Joel McHale is great and Chevy Chase was even better than week one. The Indian kid wasn't as good as the premier episode, but still quality. I'm looking for one of the chicks to step up the plate and prove something. I feel it might be Pete Campbell's wife. She showed some promise in this ep. At the end, when Joel and Chevy did their epic Spanish presentation, I laughed hysterically. The only problem was that that was the only time I laughed out loud.

The Mentalist
As most procedural do, The Mentalist got right back in the swing of things with their hum dee dumb format. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely enjoyed. Any format would work with this crew. One major note is that Rigsby lost some serious wait between the first and second seasons. If that doesn't get Van Pelt seriously interested in him, I don't know what will. Patrick Jane was on his game as usual, and the overlying plot line of Red John is still lurking. I'm glad that it will always be on the back burner so that the show has some sort of end game.

Parks and Recreation
Ann's boyfriend is fantastic. He lives in a ditch, eats the fruits and vegetables from Leslie's garden, and spies on his ex-girlfriend. Tom Haverford is the only other dude on the show I can't get behind right now. Ann is quality, although she's just playing Karen Filipelli. Amy Poehler is garbage. The good-looking dude isn't funny. The boss doesn't do it for me. And the young girl is boring. Definitely behind Community at this point.

Wednesday Wisdom

Modern Family
Decent to good series premier. Was that a mocumentary, because I definitely saw some testimonials? Ed O'Neil was great and Ty Burrell might have been better as the trying to be cool dad that can't be mean to his kids. Ed O'Neil's stepson was also very impressive in this first episode. It doesn't seem like there will be that many laugh out loud parts, but it does have a good start for me.

Glee
I wasn't that impressed with this show at first, but it has a pretty good mix of drama and flat out comedy. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of awful parts and terrible characters, but it's growing on me. The best from this week's episode was the football game. The whole team doing Beyonce's 'Single Ladies' dance at the line of scrimmage was unbelievable. I've never actually seen the original Beyonce video, but I have now have two great experiences with the song and dance. This latest Glee moment and the recreation by Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg for SNL last year.

Mike O'Malley as Kurt's dad was fantastic and I truly enjoyed the interaction between the two when Kurt came out to him. Finally, Sue Sylvester was awesome as usual. My favorite line of hers was when she was giving her final news cast and said that sometimes she sees homeless people and yells, "Hey how's that homelessness working out for you? Why don't u give not being homeless a try?" Unbelievable.

Gary Unmarried
I still feel like this is a show that I shouldn't find that funny, but I continuously do. Jay Mohr's obvious comedy just does it for me. After watching this week's season premier I am a bit worried that the son, Tommy, isn't going to be as good this season as he was last. He's older and I don't think age helped his comedy.

Eastwick
I'm still way up in the air on this one. I think I'm leaning towards dropping it, but witches are kind of sweet. It might depend on whether the main dude stays on as a regular or if it just ends up being the three chicks the entire time. If that's the case I am most likely dropping this like a bad habit.

Survivor Samoa- Week 2

Is this guy kidding? Russell decides to just start looking for the hidden immunity idol without a clue, or even knowing if there was one at their camp? Seems fishy to me. But without a doubt he found one! What?!? This dude is killing it so far this season. His best quote of the night..."Whatever I want, happens."

Old man Mike is eliminated from the show because of medical reasons. After the rugby-esque competition Old man Mike was so tired and dizzy that he needed to leave the game. Now when this happened last year, the group did not need to go to tribal council to eliminate anyone because someone had just left. This season they change their tune and Foa Foa has to go to council and eliminate another member immediately after one of theirs left because of medical reasons. Seems like they're stacking the deck against the yellow tribe.

Yasmin showed that she is the worst in this week's episode. She gets the privilege of observing the opposing team's camp and watching them go through tribal council, and she does that?!? She comes to camp and immediately disrespects the entire tribe. She gets all loud mouthed and tells them she wants to help them because she doesn't want her tribe, Galu, to have a cake walk. Right now, she says, it's like taking candy from a baby. To make matters worse, she then calls out Ben for tackling her. Claiming that it's not right to tackle a girl. Hey Lady! It's Survivor. This is for a million dollars, he can tackle whoever he likes.

Fantasy Results

The Technotronics

W. Russell (Foa Foa)-W2 (2), Idol (10)= 12
B. Russell (Galu)- W2 (2), Im (8)= 10
Monica (Galu)- W2 (2)= 2
Liz (Foa Foa)- W2 (2)= 2
Natalie (Foa Foa)- W2 (2)= 2
Week 2= 28
Total=67





Sweet Niblets


Erik (Galu)- W2 (2), Im (8)= 10
Ben (Foa Foa)- W2 (2), Votes (-4)= -2
Ashley (Foa Foa)- W2 (2)= 2
Kelly (Galu)- W2 (2), Im (8)= 10
Shambo (Galu)- W2 (2), Im (8)= 10
Week 2= 30
Total= 47





Freecell Makes Me Wanna

Mick (Foa Foa)- W2 (2)= 2
Brett (Galu)- W2 (2), Im (8)= 10
Marissa (Foa Foa)-
Laura (Galu)- W2 (2), Im (8)= 10
Yasmin (Galu)- W2 (2), Im (8)= 10
Week 2= 32
Total= 46

Canon Controversy

John (Galu)- W2 (2), Im (8)= 10
Jaison (Foa Foa)- W2 (2)= 2
Mike (Foa Foa)- =0
Dave (Galu)- W2 (2), Im (8)= 10
Betsy (Foa Foa)- Votes (-28)= -28
Week 2= -6
Total= 19

Tuesday Tidings

90210
It looks like the Annie Wilson/Shenae Grimes combo has jumped out of the basemented worst character/worst actor combo she held during the first season. In this week's episode I loved her rant at Naomi in which she lied about sleeping with her boyfriend and then continued to rub it in her face, saying that they would lie in bed and make fun of her. Through the entire episode I notice that Grimes' acting was much better than it had been in the past. Maybe she's just more comfortable playing a jerk than a sad sack of garbage. Dixon, on the other hand, is unwatchable. Why they gave the starring role to this kid is beyond me. He's mechanical, he's not funny, he doesn't seem sincere. All in all a great candidate for this year's Marissa Cooper Award.

Melrose Place
As Jerry Seinfeld said, "Oh that Michael, he's so smug." Although I never watched the original Melrose, I feel like I have a relationship with it because of the constant references to it from other shows (mainly Seinfeld and King of Queens). Through two eps I find that it's pretty different than what I expected. I didn't see such a dark, mystery aspect coming. All of the who-done-it stuff with the death of Sydney has kept my interest so far. Meanwhile, Michael Rady's Jonah Miller has me screaming at the television set. This guy is so unlikeable in everything I've seen him in. From his small part in the summer series Swington, to his stint on Greek and now the terribleness that is his Jonah on Melrose. This character is the epitome of lame and Rady keeps playing the same guy, so it is safe to assume that he's just playing himself. And finally, Katie Cassidy has yet to disappoint as publicist Ella Simms. She was great in last year's Harper's Island and may be better here.

Monday Musings

House
I really enjoyed the new format. I really don't like procedurals in general. Other than House and The Mentalist, I haven't gotten into any. This week's two hour premier was pretty much just a solid House movie. It was a nice break from the ordinary dynamic we see of House with his team. He was so good in the Cuckoo's Nest role. It's too bad that next week and every week there after is just going to back to the regular procedural format that we know and like.

The two moments I enjoyed most: The first was when I went from so happy with what House did for the Freedom Master (taking him to the carnival so he could fly), to so sad for what the Freedom Master did (jumping off the parking garage) because of House in a quick minute. The second was when House got the No-Talker and Freedom Master out of their funks. It was so awesome that he didn't just make Run Lola Run tear up, he got the kid to as well.

One Tree Hill
I used to think this show was great because of its dramatic moments and the ability to use music fantastically well. Whether it is because I have been watching a lot of Beverly Hills 90210 lately or something about One Tree Hill has changed, but I have been more and more unimpressed with Schwan's ability to hit me with the intense moment. The problem I realized last night, and JJ realized upon his first and presumably only watch of an episode last year, is that music plays throughout almost the entire episode. And not score mind you, but actual songs that could be used a gut wrenching anthems. When you play songs through the entire episode it takes away from the moments that could use it the most. When I watch an episode of 90210, I'd say 1/3 of it has no sound, 1/3 has score and 1/3 has songs. That is the ideal way to build up the action of an episode and portray certain moments as calm and comical or highly dramatic. One Tree Hill's technique of playing music throughout gives the impression of the entire episode being important, but all this week's ep did for me, was downplay the entire 45 minutes.

Greek
Unlike Gossip Girl, in which Jaydon explained has been lost on him because of the way everyone just trades off boyfriends and girlfriends, I feel Greek portrays the relationships of their characters in a realistic fashion. First let's take what happened earlier in the season with Rusty, Jordan and Andy-licious. After Rusty steals Jordan away from his friend Andy, we never see Andy again. That is definitely what would happen. Then we have Casey who went from Cappie, before the show started, to Evan who she then broke up with for Max. Cappie and Evan have been mad at each other for the entire series because of the Casey triangle. Sure they're slowly becoming friends again, and Casey may end up back with Cappie at some point in the future, but it's a very plausible situation. In Gossip, Nate and Blaire are an item forever, he cheats on her, she gets with Chuck in a strange non-relationship and then all of a sudden gets back with Nate, and then back to Chuck. Besides a semi-arc of a storyline where Nate and Chuck hate each other, they act like the two of them are completely okay with all of this, and that isn't right.

Heroes
It's like they're trying to start over, but it's way too late. They've screwed up the flow of the series enough that a feeling of new beginnings now seems too weird. Hiro used to be so focused on saving the world and thinking about the grand scheme of life, and now he has started 'Dial a Hero'? Interesting. I was so excited to see the Haitian, even if it was only for two seconds. Parkman's dream Syler is absolutely the best character on the show, and might even be better than the real Syler. He might be the only reason I will stick with this show 'til the end.

Sunday Speculations

Mad Men
In this week's episode I experienced my first laugh out loud moment while watching Mad Men. The show-stopping scene is set up early on in the episode when Ken Cosgrove brings a John Deere lawn-mower into the office to show off the new client he just signed. After the British come and invade Sterling Cooper, rearranging personnel and upsetting most, the whole crew has a going away party for dear Joanie. Some dude is bored and decides to break out the tractor to ride through the office. After he has his fun, one of the secretaries gets on top of this thing and obviously can't control it. She drives it right through the center of the office, taking down everything in her path, including the end of the new British guy's foot. He's screaming in ridiculous pain and I can't stop laughing hysterically. Roger caps the situation off with a fantastic joke. All he said was "just when he got it in the door." Classic.

Sally Draper proved once again this week that she has to be in the conversation for best character on the show. Sure there are your front-runners like Draper and Sterling, but little Sally's attitude and demeanor put her in the Big Three in my opinion. Her hatred for her new baby brother/sadness in missing her late Grandpa was absolutely fantastic in this week's episode.

Curb Your Enthusiasm
Everyone should be glad LD is back on tv (unless you don't have the means to watch HBO shows). The way Larry can find the problem with every little thing people do is extraordinary. My two favorite instances from this week's season premier were how warm to keep the house and going into other people's refrigerators.
Temperature-
LD's thought: Larry likes to sleep at a cool temperature, right around 68.
Other Curbers: Loretta Black, his new girlfriend, enjoys it nice and warm, at 75. LD decides to call in her brother, Leon, to help with a compromise. Leon immediately flips out because he likes it at 82 degrees!
Quiet Pool Perspective: I essentially am on the same page with LD, but can go anywhere from 67-70 on a normal basis. The difference is that I feel it depends on the season and the outside temperature. In the summer I prefer the low end, so 67, while in the winter I prefer the high end of the range, about 70. When it is hot outside and you come in the house, I like to get cooled down. During the winter, and I'm freezing outside in New England, I like to come into a warm home. I think it makes perfect sense.
Fridge-
LD's thought: As usual, Larry takes a stand. He feels that no one should go into someone else's refrigerator.
Other Curbers: Dr. Schaffer finds it fine to go into LD's fridge and take a lemonade and Funkhouser agrees with him. Funkhouser's explanation at the dinner party that liquids are okay, but actual food is a no go was classic.
Quiet Pool Perspective: To me it all depends on the relationship between the parties and how the fridge raider goes about his/her business. Let's use the Forcella residence as an example. Early on in the friendship, The Bonz or Jon the bon would either ask if we had anything to drink or simply wait to be offered something. After six years of coming over the house (obvious pop-in territory), there is no problem with taking anything from the fridge, freezer or pantry without saying a peep. Now when someone else that is new to what you may call a friendship never asks, goes into your fridge from day one and takes what they want, then you have a problem. Coming over to the house for 10 minutes, grabbing a piece of pie and stuffing your pockets with Capri-Suns for the road is not okay to do.

Entourage
I've said it before that having an easy to hate character on a show can be a positive attribute, but when you couple that terrible person with an even worse character, you just start getting the viewers angry. Sure I can't stand E, but it used to be all in good fun, because Johnny, Ari, Vinny and Turtle would just make fun of him all the time and the good would outweigh the bad. This season the problem began when they had E go out with Ashley, who is in the running for worst character of the year. The storyline makes me want to throw up and it takes away from the good parts they used to have on this show.

Not Our First Rodéo (Part 13)

Here is the 13th and final installment of Not Our First Rodéo. I hope all three of you that watched most of it, enjoyed it. If there wasn't actual enjoyment then I hope there was simple fascination. I loved every second of planning, filming, editing and acting in Not Our First Rodéo. The DVD version of the movie is in the works and will include a deleted scene, a deleted trailer and a few deleted outtakes that didn't make it online. The original motion picture soundtrack will also be used on the DVD. If anyone would like a copy of the DVD, contact by email at quietpoolperspective@gmail.com

Not Our First Rodéo (Part 12)

Survivor Samoa- Week 1

The previews for this season of Survivor, Survivor Samoa, touted one player as the biggest Survivor villain of all-time. There's only been one episode so far, but white Russell is already living up to the hype. I'm sure I'll be writing about him a lot this season, but after last night's episode, nothing else really stood out.

First off the dude owns an oil company is already rich, so he's not here to win the money. He's here to be the biggest jerk he can be and win the game (sort of a la Evil Dick of Big Bro Season 8). After he helps his newly formed tribe, Foa Foa, win reward, he immediately created four seperate alliances with four girls in his tribe. Three of them he called the dumb girl alliance (the younger girls) and the older lady he was a bit worried about (rightfully so, she has already said she doesn't trust him).

Later that night, while everyone was going to bed in the tent, he told a crazy emotional story about living in New Orleans during Katrina and how his house got flooded and his dog was lost. As a fireman he knew how to deal with the situation. He then procedes to tell the camera that he's not from New Orleans, he's not a fireman, and he's never even owned a dog! This guy is classic!

After he tells the camera that he is the puppet master, he gets up in the middle of the night and drinks/dumps out all of the canteens of his tribe members. He then moves on to a pair of socks and throws them in the fire. He then explains that this is a plan to get everyone mad and it obviously works as the next morning the whole tribe is yelling at each other.

Foa Foa loses the immunity challenge to Galu and soemone from Russell's tribe has to leave that night. Right off the bat everyone, including Russell, want Ashley to leave first because she is the weakest link. Poor Marisa then makes a big mistake. She confronted Russell on why he's been talking to everyone in the tribe individually and she's concerned about their alliance. This is not something you want to say to Russell. He simply goes up to every one in the tribe and tells them that Marisa is the one to send home and sure enough she left camp that night by a vote of 7 to 3.

Fantasy Results

The Technotronics

W. Russell (Foa Foa)-W1 (1), Reward (4)= 5
B. Russell (Galu)- W1 (1), Leader (10), Im (8)= 19
Monica (Galu)- W1 (1), Im (8)= 9
Liz (Foa Foa)- W1 (1), Reward (4)= 5
Natalie (Foa Foa)- W1 (1)= 1
Week 1= 39

Canon Controversy

John (Galu)- W1 (1), Im (8)= 9
Jaison (Foa Foa)- W1 (1), Reward (4)= 5
Mike (Foa Foa)- W1 (1)= 1
Dave (Galu)- W1 (1), Im (8)= 9
Betsy (Foa Foa)- W1 (1)= 1
Week 1= 25

Sweet Niblets

Erik (Galu)- W1 (1), Im (8)= 9
Ben (Foa Foa)- W1 (1)= 1
Ashley (Foa Foa)- W1 (1), Votes (-12)= -11
Kelly (Galu)- W1 (1), Im (8)= 9
Shambo (Galu)- W1 (1), Im (8)= 9
Week 1= 17






Freecell Makes Me Wanna

Mick (Foa Foa)- W1 (1), Leader (10)= 11
Brett (Galu)- W1 (1), Im (8)= 9
Marissa (Foa Foa)- Reward (4), Votes (-28)= -24
Laura (Galu)- W1 (1), Im (8)= 9
Yasmin (Galu)- W1 (1), Im (8)= 9
Week 1= 14

Not Our First Rodéo (Part 11)

America's Not Talent(ed)

I will not be watching America's Got Talent next summer. Once last night's results show cut the field down to five, I said "If this chicken catcher wins I'm not watching next season." Sure enough they knocked people off one by one until this no talent, sob story of a country singer, Kevin Skinner, won a million dollars for being unemployed and having a country twang.

I am sorry, but if this guy tried out for American Idol he wouldn't make it past the first audition. Not only is he not any good, but in this week's final, he was even worse. As Piers said in his judging of the chicken catcher, he was "flat and missed a few notes." He was easily the worst of the five singing acts in the finals. Skinner sang an iconic song, Aerosmith's 'I Don't Want to Miss a Thing', a song done on this show and American Idol and probably every other singing competition out there, and it was the worst version I've heard yet. Even worse than Idol's Joshua Gracin of season two shame.

Don't get me wrong, I didn't like Barbara Padilla either, who finished second to the country bumpkin. But at least she was good at what she did. I may not enjoy her high pitched opera singing, but it was a good talent. Skinner was just plain awful.

That is the difference between Talent and Idol. Although America votes in both, the producers and judges of Idol are promoting the singers that they think will go on to have the best careers to keep the show relevant. In Talent, they are promoting the contestants with a little bit of talent, a heartfelt storyline, and a relateability to the audience. This is because they know that no one (other than the FANTASTIC Terry Fator) from this show is going to go on to have a career, so they need to get the most bang for their buck while they're still on the air.

Case and point:

Three out of the top five acts...

1. Kevin Skinner- unemployed chicken catcher with a family to support.

2. Barbara Padilla- cancer survivor.

5. Voice of Glory- three kids that sing for their mother, who recently came out of a coma.

Of course you had...

3. Recycled Percussion

4. Texas Tenors (right)

...that were just flat out good. Miles better than the top two acts, but didn't have the story for America to grab on to.

If you want to win a million dollars, have a tramatic event happen to you and then try out for America's Got Talent with some minor ability. You're golden. See you in two years Hoff, if the show is still on the air.

Big Brother- Championship

Wow! Jordan, the sweet but dumb waitress from North Carolina, won this season of Big Brother. This is only the third season I've watched in full, but this is still utterly surprising. Don't get me wrong, once it was down to her and Make Me Nauseous Natalie, I would've rather seen the Red Sox win another World Series than this disgusting, annoying girl win Big Brother.

That being said, how did Jordan win? She made no strategic moves during the game. She won no competitions until the very end. She had only one alliance, and it was a shomance with one of the big targets in the game (couples tend to go out early in Big Brother, because no one likes that they're playing together). When it came down to the final questioning from the jury, she didn't make any good points and ended up rambling and repeating herself more often than not. Would I have rather seen Russell, Jeff or Kevin win the game? Yes. But I'm not mad that the nicest player in the game got rewarded for it.

Final week highlights...

Natalie about Michelle- "Every time I hear her voice, I will boil up inside."
---That's how you make everyone in America feel everytime you speak!

Kevin, while in the diary room, explains why if he wins the final HoH he will get rid of Natalie- "My word means nothing in this game. I'm booting her outta here."
---This is what I'm talking about. At least someone understands that your word doesn't mean a thing in this game. One reason I was sad that he didn't win.

After Michelle tells the rest of the jury that Natalie got engaged to her boyfriend-
Jeff- "How's her boyfriend? Is he a tool?"
Lydia- "I love you for that." (goes for the high five)
Jeff- "I don't need a high five for bashing somebody...but reallly is he?"
---Just great comedic timing.

Jordan makes her one and only great move of the game, because she's smart enough to actually think about how the jury might vote. She understood that the jury would most likely vote for Kevin over her because he was a better game player and won more competitions. She thought she had a better shot against Natalie because she won more than her. And in my mind that's why she won the game.

Fantasy results



1st. Pizza Eaters (Mags)
Casey
Jordan- Comp2 (10), HoH (12), W11 (56), W12 (67)= 145
Natalie- Bow Out (-10), W11 (56)= 46
Weeks 11 and 12= 191
Total= 527








2nd. The Babysharks (The Kid)
Russell
Ronnie
Kevin- Comp1 (10), Votes (-3)= 7
Weeks 11 and 12= 7
Total= 308









3rd. Plate Boys (Lar)
Jeff
Lydia
Michelle
Weeks 11 and 12= 0
Total= 294








4th. Gaydon's Misery (Jaydon)
Laura
Braden
Chima
Weeks 11 and 12= 0
Total= -34

Not Our First Rodéo (Part 10)

Not Our First Rodéo (Part 9)

NFL Predictions

The NFL Season begins tonight with Pittsburgh taking on Tennessee. Here are my predictions for the upcoming season.

AFC Regular Season

East
Patriots- 13-3
Bills- 6-10
Dolphins- 4-12
Jets- 3-13

West
Chargers- 14-2
Raiders- 7-9
Chiefs- 2-14
Broncos- 1-15

North
Steelers- 15-1
Ravens- 9-7
Bengals- 7-9
Browns- 4-12

South
Colts- 14-2
Texans- 11-5
Titans- 9-7
Jaguars- 8-8

NFC Regular Season

East
Eagles- 12-4
Giants- 11-5
Cowboys- 10-6
Redskins- 8-8

West
49ers- 9-7
Cardinals- 9-7
Seahawks- 4-12
Rams- 2-14

North
Packers- 11-5
Bears- 10-6
Vikings- 9-7
Lions- 3-13

South
Saints- 11-5
Falcons- 10-6
Panthers- 8-8
Buccaneers- 2-14

AFC Playoffs

(3) Chargers over (6) Titans
(4) Patriots over (5) Texans

(1) Steelers over (4) Patriots
(2) Colts over (3) Chargers

(2) Colts over (1) Steelers

NFC Playoffs

(3) Packers over (6) Bears
(5) Giants over (4) 49ers

(1) Eagles over (5) Giants
(3) Packers over (2) Saints

(3) Packers over (1) Eagles

Super Bowl

Indianapolis Colts over Green Bay Packers

Big Brother- Week 10

Natalie continues to be the worst human being on the face of the Earth. Let's begin with what happened after she saw that there was another pandora's box door in her HoH room. She saw that it was her boyfriend behind the door and decided to give up her opportunity to play in the PoV competition so that she could converse with her boyfriend for five minutes. Is this a joke?!? What is wrong with people on this show?? Why do contestants on this show find it necessary to see their family, receive phone calls, and read letters from them, when they know it will hinder their play in the game? I like my family as much as anybody I know, and if I ever chose to see them (after only being away from them for two months) instead of benefiting my chances in the game, I would be completely embarrassed and disappointed in myself.

Back to Natalie and her terribleness. How does this so called 'boyfriend' like this chick? She is terrible. He makes a truly exciting and some may say romantic gesture by proposing to her on National television, and she acts more dull and robotic as ever! Does she actually like this dude? It didn't seem like, but that might just be because she has the worst personality ever.

After her sit-down with her now fiance, Natalie quickly decides to make up a lie to her fellow houseguests, so that they won't know she benefited from going into pandora's box. She claims that she is such a great liar and is a poker player so this would be easy. She's really good at showing others a hand that she doesn't have. What?!?! This is a complete joke! She is the worst liar (besides maybe Ronnie) that I have ever seen. She comes up with the worst explanation about what she now has to endure because she opened the door. Not only does her lie not make sense, but she sounds so unsure of herself as she tells it. Kevin immediately picks up on it, tells the diary room, and then calls Natalie out on her lie. She's a poker player? She probably plays cards like Topher Grace in Ocean's Eleven...."All redsssss."

After winning the all important PoV, even though Michelle gave him plenty of reasons to keep her in the house, Kevin evicted Michelle on Tuesday night. I thought this was a bad move by Kevin because Michelle isn't liked by anyone in the jury house and therefore he would be able to beat her in the final. If she wins the final HoH, she's more likely to bring Kevin with her, than Natalie (who has friends Jessie and Lydia, and they might think Chima in the jury).

As Michelle leaves she makes a quality point. Maybe Kevin was thinking that if he took Michelle to the final two, or vice versa, the jury would give her the votes because she played a better, tougher game. This is sometimes the case, and this is the type of logic I'd like to see going through a player's head. But NO! Kevin's thought process is "I didn't know if I could trust her to not betray me." Are you joking?!? Betray you?? What is it with contestants thinking everything on this show is about trust and loyalty? Noone can be absolutely trusted, and there are only three people left! Either Kevin wins the final HoH, or Michelle does and there's, at the least, a 50% chance she takes him with her! She might betray you to take Natalie? Not likely. There are other parts, more important parts, to this game people.

Fantasy results



1st. Pizza Eaters (Mags)
Casey
Jordan- W10 (46)= 46
Natalie- W10 (46), HoH (12)= 58
Week 10= 104
Total= 336








2nd. The Babysharks (The Kid)
Russell
Ronnie
Kevin- W10 (46), Nom (-5), PoV (15)= 56
Week 10= 56
Total= 301









3rd. Plate Boys (Lar)
Jeff
Lydia
Michelle- Nom (-5), Votes (-3)= -8
Week 10= -8
Total= 294








4th. Gaydon's Misery (Jaydon)
Laura
Braden
Chima
Week 10= 0
Total= -34