There's Always TV!

TV talk today!

Have you seen "The Marriage Ref" yet?  The celebrity panel offers a lot of humor and from their opinions you get a glimpse into their mindsets, often surprising.  The most fun comes from the married couples themselves and they don't mean to be funny, they just are.  The things they argue about makes you go, "Gee, we're so normal compared to them, yeh?"  Hmmm, oh really?

For instance, one couple needed mediation because the husband's beloved dog died and he got it stuffed.  He intended to construct a "shrine" in their upstairs hallway (visible also from the ground floor) to display his stuffed doggie.  Happily the panel and the Marriage Ref sided with the wife and the dog will be "buried" in the attic for her husband's enjoyment only.  Check out "Fonzie" the dog and the Ridolfi's.  I think they're a funny couple!

One decision that the Marriage Ref made that is still bugging me involved five tortoises.  They're the husband's pets and yet the wife has to do most of the work caring for them.  As they live longer than human beings, she's not happy with the prospect of doing this for the rest of her life.  The Ref's decision was that she must.  She wasn't even asking her husband to get rid of them all, just a couple of them!  I'm thinking she made a tactical error by not asking to get rid of them all.  We're not talking about little turtles in a terranium.  We're talking about 70 lb. land tortoises!  [I should clarify that this couple didn't appear on the Marriage Ref show itself, but on Oprah's show when she had Jerry Seinfeld and Tom Papa on as guests.]  The Ref and Oprah agreed that it would be bad to break up the family pets, while Jerry said they're not pets because they show no expressions.  I think the wife should scoop up their poop and put it in hubby's car so he'll have a part of them with him when he goes to work.

Other arguments included a wife insisting that their "formal diningroom" be used only for Thanksgiving.  I thought that was a bit too anal and I couldn't believe the Ref ruled in her favor, although he did concede that her husband shouldn't be required to set up an "instant patio" that she ordered.  Another wife refused to let her hub install a stripper pole in their bedroom and the Ref ruled in her favor--thank goodness because a grouchy, reluctant pole dancer is a turn-off!  One husband complained about his wife who insists on flossing her teeth in bed.  This was an easy unanimous decision for the panel and the Ref, and now this stupid wife has millions of people thinking of her as "that gross teeth flosser lady").   Of course all couples got a free Caribbean cruise at the end, so maybe she thought it was worth being exposed?

We audience members sit at home and laugh at these couples as though they're from Planet Crazy but I'm sure you could all come up with arguments you've had with your spouse that are just as funny as theirs.  Not me, of course,  I'm a very reasonable, intelligent spouse who basically just gives in to my husband's ideas which are always brilliant, and vice versa. 

Other TV programs I'm watching:

American Idol (Tuesdays/Wednesdays on FOX):  No favorite yet although I do like Crystal Bowersox whom the oddsmakers are already favoring.  I also like Andrew Garcia.  Unfortunately there isn't an Adam Lambert-type contestant who makes me look forward to the show every week.  I have one wish about this show and that is I wish AI would choose the songs for the contestants. I'm sick of hearing "Wrong song, dog," and confused about the conflicting criticism of "you didn't make it your own" and "why did you change a perfectly good song." 

The Good Wife (Tuesdays on CBS):  Not only are three of the main characters among my favorite actors (Julianna Margulies, Chris Noth, and Christine Baransky), but we get a bonus in Archie Panjabi's character, Kalinda.  She's my new favorite character of all the shows I'm watching this season.  She's an intelligent, uber cool lady investigator who is often the Superwoman who saves the day.  She's also sexy without dressing constantly to show cleavage like those CSI ladies. Where so many TV series have the stereotypical Indian character who is funny/nerdy or serious/nerdy, she's one Indian who is the antithesis of those characters except that they kept in the intelligent part.  (Not that I don't love those comical characters such as Raj on "The Big Bang").

Dancing With the Stars (Mondays/Tuesdays on ABC):  They haven't started yet, but I'm 99% sure Evan Lysacek will win or at least come in second. This man lives for training and from an interview he did after winning his ice-skating gold medal, it's obvious he is very goal-oriented.  Not to mention the fact that three Olympians have already won DWTS (Kristi Yamaguchi, Apolo Ohno, and Shawn Johnson). Assuming he's as good as I think he'll be, the only reason he may not win is if the voters have an issue with him, if you know what I mean.  I think Nicole Scherzinger of the Pussycat Dolls will also be in the finals.  Every year when they announce the celebrity line-up I hope that there won't be anyone I care to watch so there'd be one less show for me to follow, and there have been years that I don't watch (such as last year), but I admit I have a lady-crush on Nicole S. and I love ice skaters soooo looks like I'll be doing the AI/DTWS juggle on Tuesday nights. 

Anthony Bourdain/No Reservations and Andrew Zimmerman/Bizarre Foods (Mondays on the Travel Channel):  I used to want to travel, but was too lazy to go anywhere except Honolulu and Las Vegas.  I'm still lazy, but I no longer feel the urge to travel because of these two guys.  I can pretty much live vicariously through them because they fill my "exotic food" need.  Even if I went to the same countries they visit I wouldn't be able to eat what they do because they have inside info and connections I don't.  Well anyway, that's how I'm justifying sitting on my behind watching TV instead of traveling to the food bazaars of Istanbul.  That and saving $5000.

 Dr. Oz (10:00 a.m. daily on ABC):  Even if you don't watch daytime TV, you should try to watch this (record it) because you'd benefit from information you'll hear.  What's great about Dr. Oz is he embraces both allopathic and naturopathic medicine.

The Middle (Wednesdays on ABC):  I like this new sitcom and haven't been able to watch it because of the Olympics and AI.  I had stopped watching family sitcoms because they started to annoy me with their usual hot wife, un-hot husband, and bratty kids.  I didn't intend to watch The Middle, but somehow saw an episode and was hooked by that cute little (literally little) son, dopey insecure daughter, and also dopey older son.  I love atypical, especially because these odd kids are quite appealing in their own ways.  Patricia Heaton's mom character in "The Middle" is not half as capable and self-assured a mom as Debra Romano was, and thank goodness that Scrub's crazed maintenance man (actor Neil Flynn) is now a pretty average, though typically clueless dad.  I like that according to what I've seen so far, this show is funny without the husband and wife constantly battling each other.

I'm also still into Law and Order, CSI, Ugly Betty (cancelled!), Desperate Housewives, Glee, and Lost.  I'm trying not to watch anything new because I'm trying to watch less television.  If you think I'm watching a lot now, you should've seen me a few years ago when I would be watching one show and recording two others!  I rarely have to record anything these days and still wonder why a TVholic like myself can find too much to watch on "Budget Basic" cable ($13/month, approx. two dozen channels) and yet most people have more than double the choice and seem to watch less TV than we do.  Well, as Bruce Springsteen sings: "57 Channels and Nothing On" !

Look At Your Man, Now Back to Me....

Oh my goodness, I had to be sure you are not missing out on this funny commercial that seems to be the latest sensation.  When I was a teen one of the careers I was interested in was advertising so I always appreciate clever ads. Yes, they did have TV in those days.

Although we first saw this while watching American Idol this week, I understand that it was first shown during the Superbowl. That "look at your man, now back to me, now back to your man, now back to me!" is genius funny and I mentally congratulated the writers.  And come on, I did what he told me to do (looked pointedly at my man) and Leonard laughed--although maybe he was crying inside.  *LOOOOOL*

While on Twitter yesterday,I saw someone tweet about it and I thought, "Gee, so we're not the only ones to appreciate that commercial!" Well I found people talking about it all over the internet and there was even an LA Times online interview of Isaiah Mustafa, the actor in the commercial. The Tech Guy, Leo Laporte, who has a syndicated radio and internet show, interviewed the creative team, Craig Allen and Eric Kallman,about how the commercial was filmed. In this day and age of digital graphics, I think you'll be surprised.

Today Ellen showed the commercial in her "Funny Commercial" segment and after screening it, said she'd like to have Isaiah on her show. [At the end of her show she announced that they called him and he'll be on the show next week---cool!]

And as Ellen says:  "You're welcome!"

Two Most Talented People of the Planet?

Simon Cowell called Terry Fator "one of the two most talented people on the planet" and although it's not clear who Simon meant was the other one, it's clear to me, anyway. (Hint: look left for both!)

Being slot machine addicts, when we go to Las Vegas, we almost never go to see shows. I've been to Vegas probably 30 times and I've seen 4 shows total. [Okay, so I went to see Smokey 3 times at the Desert Inn, but that counts as one show.] In fact, until this last trip, I'd seen only 2 shows in 30 years: Siegfried & Roy and Smokey!

My mom and I love watching "American Idol" and "America's Got Talent". It cracked me up when she once confessed that she voted TWENTY TIMES for someone. Meanwhile I think I voted 200-300 times for Justin Guarini---uhhhh, that's two hours of my life I'll never get back. I now limit myself to an occasional 10-20 minutes of voting tops, figuring my efforts did nothing for poor Justin so what's the sense? I mean Terry Fator got himself a $100 million contract and what do we get? I'm thinking there should be some kind of voting incentive....like the chance to win cash for dialing. Throw us poor voters a bone! *LOL*

I digress....anyway, like mother like daughter, my mom has seen just a couple of shows in her almost 40 years of Las Vegas trips, but she requested that we go to see Terry Fator at the Mirage. Having already spent $400 on Mariah Carey tickets for Jordan and myself, we decided to wait til the Terry Fator tickets went to 25% off. It was somewhat stressing to wait because I had to check daily to make sure the show wasn't selling out, but it was well worth the wait because we were able to get nice seats for the discounted price.

Terry's show is very popular--it was a full house--because it's highly entertaining and I recommend it even at full price. It's amazing enough that he's a good ventriloquist and funny, but he can sing like dozens of celebrities while not moving his lips. Whaaaat!? It's mind-boggling to say the least. My favorite is his Michael Jackson/Cowboy Walter Airedale routine where he's dressed like a Weird Al version of Michael and confesses that he's "different".... because he likes country music and wants Cowboy Walter to listen to him yodel. Walter, meanwhile, hopes Michael doesn't have a crotch-grabbing moment.

I was happy that Terry decided to keep this routine in his act after Michael's death. As a fan of Michael Jackson, I wasn't at all offended and loved every moment of it. Even if you're unable to go to Las Vegas or don't care to drop $100 for a ticket to his show, you can still enjoy Terry Fator either on YouTube or better by purchasing his DVD online.

After the show we were able to meet Terry and get an autograph. What we didn't know, however, was that they don't allow you take a photo with Terry with your own camera because they have a professional photographer taking your photo and hope that you're willing to pay $44 to get a copy! I wish I had known this ahead of time or had thought quickly enough to have Leonard surreptitiously click a photo from the sidelines with our new 7x zoom camera! The ushers, however, were nice enough to give us the heads up so we were able to take photos of Terry as he walked to the meet/greet area.

This past weekend the three of us, all MJ fans, went to see "This Is It." Not sure if it'd be crowded with Kauai fans on Sunday (the fifth day of showing), we were there exactly an hour before the 6:45 p.m. showtime and as we purchased our tickets, were asked if we were sure we wanted to buy them so early. *LOL* At least being the first to buy tickets for that showing, we were able to secure a bench to sit on while we waited. We were treated to--or others may say subjected to--impromptu MJ impressions by one of the theater ushers, obviously a devout fan who admonished a group waiting for "Zombieland", "You should see Michael Jackson instead!" An hour later, the theater, although not sold-out, was respectably full, "Zombieland" or not.

Consider this my public service announcement: You have just a week more to see this movie on the big screen and if you have any interest in Michael or music concerts or dancing, do yourself a favor and see it. You won't regret it. I came away feeling very uplifted. The movie truly did his fans a service by showing that he was still on his game despite being away for a decade. After all he'd been through, I admit I had my doubts about his abilities. Watching the movie, however, I was even more in awe of him than ever, not only because of his still-amazing dance moves or hearing his singing, but witnessing his sheer genius as he took part in directing different elements of the concert numbers. This truly would have been a special--if not history-making--concert and although it's tragic that it will never take place, I'm grateful that we are given glimpses of what would have been, and also grateful that our last view of Michael Jackson was such a glorious one.

As I said earlier, it's clear to me who THE most talented person on this planet was.

"On" Kauai SIs

The other night I was watching KGMB News and Malika Dudley, during her weather report, said the dreaded "....in Kauai".

"In Maui" has been one of my pet peeves for the past few years. Because Maui is the most popular island among Mainlanders--especially celebrities--it's often mentioned in the Media. Now I guess it's because many of these people don't realize Maui is a separate ISLAND, they say "...in Maui" rather than "...on Maui". So when I heard Malika utter the dreaded "...in Kauai," I think my ears grew a few millimeters and despite becoming hard-of-hearing, I caught it.

"Oh nooooo it's HAPPENED!!! Now a HAWAII newsperson is starting the 'in' thing!!"
Later when I went back to work on the computer, I of course--nitpicker that I am-- emailed KGMB News to bitch and threaten.

Today I was surprised to receive a very nice reply from Malika, apologizing for her grammatical error. She said it just slipped out as she adlibbed. Perfectly understandable, but maybe an indication that "in Maui" is indeed permeating our subconscious. Yikes!!!

So, attention EVERYONE... beware of the "in"!! Don't let THEM overtake our "on"!! Respect our aina!!! (Ok, I'm laughing now)

And while you're at it, here's another grammar tip (my mom was an elementary school teacher, can you tell?): If you're not sure whether to say "and me" or "and I"... simply take out the other person to check. You would't say "Me went to the store." SO why say "John and me went to the store"? You wouldn't say "Mom gave I a cookie," so why say "Mom gave John and I a cookie"? See? Simple!

Consider this my good deed for the day.

BTW... my favorites for this season's AI: Adam cuz he is so awesomely entertaining and unique, Lil cuz she's a great singer, Megan cuz I love her jazzy cool voice and quirkiness (OMG I was mesmerized by her brown/turquoise dress this week!!), and Anoop cuz it's cool to see a cute Indian guy singing. I also like Matt and Kris and liked Alexis (boohoo, she's gone). Danny and Scott are ok, I wouldn't mind either of them winning. Allison reminds me too much of Kelly Clarkson. I don't like country music much so Michael doesn't interest me.

Back to work!!