Chuck

So, it seems that every year there's a new television show that I really get into. Last year it was Heroes (which, by the way, isn't as bad this year as everyone says it is - it's just not great). This year, it's Chuck. The television show by McG about a computer geek who gets sucked into the world of spies and such. It's a comedy, but it's also got some great story writing. Hopefully the writer's strike won't screw this one up. Check it out if you get the chance: Mondays at 8:00pm, NBC.

NP: Best of You, Foo Fighters

Did Heroes Disappoint?

Don't read this if you haven't watched the show and don't want to know what happens in the end.

Last night I watched the season finale of Heroes (we had it on our DVR since I worked Monday night). All in all, I really enjoyed this series and will be watching for it next year. The end, however, had me a little bummed out and disappointed. I almost feel as though they tried to cram too much into the last episode. Maybe if they made it a 2 hour episode it would have gone over better. A lot of things did get wrapped up, but I felt they happened too quickly. Also, there was no big fight between Sylar and the good guys. Sure they battled it out for like 2 minutes, but I was expecting more. He went down way too fast. Also... if Peter Petrelli can fly, why did his brother need to sacrifice himself to fly him away from NYC. Why didn't Peter just fly away? Who knows?

Here's waiting for next year.

NP: Far Cry, Rush

The Sanjaya Paradox

For those of you who don't watch American Idol, there's this kid, Sanjaya Malakar, who's striking fear into the executives at FOX and the producers of the hit show. Basically, this kid stinks, but he keeps getting enough votes each week to move along in the show. He's not even getting into the "Bottom 3" of vote-getters. He's a rock in this thing. Meanwhile, singers with exponentially better voices are getting the boot. Some feel that his continued success is due to the website votefortheworst.com, while others blame Howard Stern's plea to his viewers to vote for Sanjaya. Whatever the reason, the kid's winning. (Of course, some people out there love him, as witnessed by that little girl who was crying in his presence a couple of weeks ago.)
I guess the big problem is that if this musically challenged kid wins American Idol this year, it basically destroys any credibility the show has developed for being an avenue to find truly talented people in America and turn them into recording artists. However, here's where the paradox lies: If Sanjaya wins, I think it's confirmation that anyone can make it if they try, and this should only encourage more people to audition for American Idol next time around. It would make more people want to be in the show and have a greater interest in the show. This, in turn, could lead to higher ratings and more money for FOX. So... it could very well make the thing more popular while simultaneously destroy all of its credibility (and lose Simon Cowell in the process, who has said if Sanjaya wins he's going to quit). Nice.
The other thing I find interesting about this whole mess is the way the judges (Randy, Simon and Paula) are dealing with it. Every week they have these flabbergasted looks on their faces after he performs and then look dumbfounded when he doesn't get voted off. However, what they never seem to want to remember is that they are the ones who put him in this situation in the first place. They love to remind everyone how it was "America" who voted off Jennifer Hudson and not them. They realized her talent and put her on the show. You don't see any of them taking responsibility for Sanjaya.
(Personally, I can't stand this kid anymore. I used to think he was a nice kid and I wanted him to do well because of that. However, I can't stand listening to him anymore. He's so freakin' bad.)
Go Sanjaya!

NP: The Inch Worm, John Coltrane

Continues To Impress

I love the show Heroes. I think it has proven itself to be one of the most fun, interesting and compelling shows on television this year. Maybe it's because I was a comic-book-geek growing up and I still enjoy sci-fi, but I feel like I haven't seen an episode that hasn't left me excited for next week's. Hopefully the show will continue to grow like this. Although I wonder how long of a story arc they have written in for this show.
Another show I watched this week which kind of blew was American Idol (the Tuesday night show). Here we got to watch the so-called Top 12 Male Contestants. I have to say that I thought most of them were boring and blah. Hopefully the girls will be more exciting or I can see that number 1 rating dropping down a little bit.

The Rock

I don't know why this show isn't doing better than it has been in the ratings. It's nowhere near the crap-fest that Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip is. Alec Baldwin is genius on this show, and everyone else is just plain nuts. I think Tina Fey's writing is great. It's one of the few shows on television that gets us laughing out loud. Sure, the page-boy character gets a little old at times when they feature him too much, but overall, this show is a lot of fun.

NP: All Right Now, Free

Top Chef Finale

So I am/was very into the television show Top Chef. I started watching the first season one of those days when it was really crappy out and they had a marathon on Bravo. This year, we've been watching the show week-by-week as it aired on television (or at least soon afterwards on the DVR). Last night was the season finale to see who was this season's "Top Chef." It was a cook-off between Ilan (a line chef from NYC's (and Mario Batali's) Casa Mono) and Marcel (Master cook at Joel Robuchon at the Mansion). Throughout the season, Marcel has gone from annoying brat with Oompa-Loompa hair to the underdog I wanted to win. Unfortunately, Ilan took the prize last night. At first I thought Marcel was going to lose because he forgot the fish for his third course, however he appeared to recover nicely from that by re-working the dish. I think his biggest downfall was because he served a green salad for his second course. Sure, it looked pretty, but that's something I could have put together in college. Had he actually cooked something or done something with a little more skill for that course, I think he would have pulled it off. I wanted to see him win to put it back into all of the other contestants' faces after making fun of him all season. Ah well... what can you do?

NP: Target, Fugazi

Been A While

Well, it's been a bunch of days since I posted anything on here. It's not that I haven't had anything to say, but I've been really busy. Working like a dog and there have been some family things that have needed attention. Today, I'm off from work, so I've got a second to breathe. It's nice.

One of my Christmas presents this year from my dad was a bottle of wine. It's something that he remembered being very good (from years ago), so he wanted me to try it. It was Chateau La Jorine Lussac Saint-Emilion 2002, France. Yesterday it was really cold in NYC (and from what I hear, the rest of the Northeast), so for dinner I made some boeuf bourguignon. This was the first time I ever made that, and although I changed the recipe a bit, it turned out really good. Anyway, to go along with this meal, we decided to open this bottle of wine. It went really well. The wine is ruby in color and had a really smooth feel and finish. It had some woody taste along with the fruit. I've heard it's a little difficult to find, but it's a good Bordeaux on the less expensive side if you see it.

Another wine I had recently that I wanted to mention was actually a desert wine. We went to our friends' house for dinner a couple of weekends ago and they opened this for us after our meal. It was a bottle of Pirramimma Late Harvest Riesling 2004, Australia. This wine had a really nice taste and no harshness. It is a nice yellow-amber color and has flavors of honey and apricots. We liked it so much, they gave us a bottle to take home with us.
With dinner we had a couple of bottles of Zinfandel from Turley Wines, however I really don't remember which ones we had. I know I liked the first bottle a lot better than the second, but I can't remember which was which.

Now on a completely different note, I downloaded the premiere episode of The Dresden Files onto my iPod free from iTunes the other day. I have to say, I liked the show. It's nice to have something else to add to the DVR so when I'm bored, there's something else to watch.

NP: Flying High Again, Ozzy Osbourne

Catching Up With 24

Ever since our trip to Virginia about a year and a half ago, my wife and I have been trying to catch up with 24. We had never watched it before then, and sitting in a cabin in the mountains of Virginia where there are bear warnings posted everywhere leaves little to do in the dark of night. So, we watched Season 1 of 24. Overall I've loved the show (except for Season 3 - that blew). We're finally almost caught up with the thing, having watched 4 out of the 6 disks of Season 5. With Season 6 starting next week, we'll have either caught up to finally watch them in "real time" or we'll only have to Tivo the first couple of episodes. However, I can't see what is going to happen in the new season because Season 5 is crazy. Great show though...

Your Junk In A Box

The other night Justin Timberlake hosted Saturday Night Live. I actually didn't watch the episode, but I did see this clip online and I wanted to share it. I guess a censored version aired on TV, but this one is the original, uncensored version. Enjoy.

Thanksgiving... Let The Holidays Begin

Yesterday I had a great day spending Thanksgiving with my family. We had good food and crappy wine. It was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, I'm sick as a dog and I think I'm going to cough up a lung at some point. I've been filling myself with every cough medicine and homeopathic remedy I can get my hands on. I really don't want to get my son sick, so it's been a trying couple of days (I hear him crying now). Keep your fingers crossed for me.
Yesterday started the official "Holiday Season" kicked off by the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (or at least that's what they want you to think). Too bad it was so nasty out in NYC yesterday. I felt bad for all the parade-goers.

On a completely different note, we finally got all caught up in Lost. We had never watched it before, and a couple of months ago, we decided to rent Season 1. We were hooked. We DVR'd this season and watched until we caught up. Well... we finally made it. Of course now we have to wait until February for more! Ah well... I'm going to go make some coffee.

Heroes

Far be it from me to not talk about something that I like, and lately I've been pretty excited about this new television show, Heroes, on NBC. If you haven't seen it, it's about a group of people who find out that they have super-powers and what appears to be the inevitable destruction of NYC. So far, in the 2 episodes that have been broadcasted, we've begun to meet the characters and see as they discover their powers and begin to learn how to use them.
I don't know if NBC is doing this for their other shows, but if you go to this link, you can watch this week's episode online. Nice in case you forgot to watch or Tivo it.

NP: Live In Skin, Foo Fighters

More Cheese Please

Ever watch the show Miami Ink? We were watching it last night and this woman was there to get a tatoo of the Grilled Cheese Virgin Mary. This woman was making a grilled cheese sandwich one day, and when she went to bite into it she saw the face of the Virgin Mary staring back up at her. That was 10 years ago - she's kept it ever since. I guess she needed some money, so she recently sold the sandwich to GoldenPalace.com for a cool $28,000. Since she was getting rid of the grilled cheese, she went in to Miami Ink to get it tatooed on her boob so she would always have it with her. She actually said, "Giving up the Grilled Cheese Virgin Mary was the hardest thing I've ever had to do." Now that's a sentence I never thought I would hear uttered.

Just Wrong

I found this on the web today doing a little surfing. It's the Peanuts gang re-enacting a scene from Clerks. It's not really SFW so, be careful if you must...

Life Lessons

A couple of weeks ago, I was at my friend's house and he showed me a commercial that he had taped on his Tivo. It was starring another friend of ours. The commercial was part of a series on TLC called Life Lessons. Now, they've even come out with a collection of collectable figurines for purchase on their website. You can buy the one of Fredo here. Also, if you want to see the video online, you can see it on this page here.