The Silent "I"

The Bachelor Commentary: A Review of the 1/9/12 Episode in Tweets

On Monday nights, my Twitter stream is filled with snarky commentary on ABC's The Bachelor. I probably wouldn't watch the show without these folks.  This is a sample of those tweets, using Storify, in case you missed it.

Disney's World of Color Blue Carpet: Or, In Which I Officially Join the Celebrity Snarkerazzi

Part of the Disney World of Color Premiere night was a chance for the mombloggers to line up with the other papparazzi members of the legitimate media to take pictures and chat with celebrities on the red carpet. Only this carpet was blue, because this is Disney and water is blue. Get it?

Anyway, I've never been to a red or blue or rainbow-colored carpet event before, and it was pretty exciting.  I've seen or met a few celebrities in my day, mostly at airports or stalking them in back alleys after the theatre.  This was more like seeing them in their natural habitat, swimming frantically upstream to spawn or make it into the next issue of Us Magazine, or whatever payoff comes from walking down a blue carpet with people screaming at you and being forced to smile into various digital devices while total strangers gawk at you.

 

Of all the various TV and movie personalities who came sauntering down the field of blue, Teri Hatcher was probably the most accommodating.  She was a total doll and spent quite a bit of time with the moms, taking questions, posing for pictures, and just looking gorgeous in a green dress.  She even took a few arms-length photos of herself and fans, which was probably way beyond what was required of her. She has a new website called Get Hatched on Disney Family that she was promoting, and someone very likely astutely pointed out to her that mombloggers were both her target audience and likely her biggest allies. Well played, Teri, well played.

Who Will be the Next Sanjaya on American Idol?

I confess:  I love American Idol.  I believe I've watched every episode of every show since Kelly Clarkson first warbled her way into America's living rooms, through raw talent and an "aw shucks, I'm-justa-lil-gal-from-Texas" charm that melted the cold, cold heart of Simon Cowell and illicit music downloaders everywhere.  I look forward to the American Idol season the way men in West Virginia look forward to the first day of deer season.  The siren call of FRESH MEAT is just too much for us to ignore.

I don't really care for the early auditions. I do think, however, that all Republican members of Congress should be forced to watch them on a continuous loop with their eyes taped open, like in A Clockwork Orange, until they have no choice but to vote in favor of funding programs for the mentally ill.  Clearly, American Idol does more to expose the need for mental health care in America than any 500 page tome issued by the American Psychiatric Association.  The parade of the the tragically tone-deaf and delusional is hard to watch without wanting to pop an anti-psychotic yourself or at the very least, invest in Eli Lilly stock.

My favorite part of the audition process is Hollywood Week.  In Hollywood, the 200 or so Idol hopefuls culled out of the equivalent to the entire population of Kansas who auditioned, are put through a rigorous program of performing, sleep deprivation, and public humiliation.  It's like The Stanford Prison Experiment: The Musical. The idea is that the 200 or so decent singers will be reduced to 36 who will, through head-to-head competition, be winnowed down to 12 that America votes on.  Those who make it will advance on and be judged by an army of pre-teens and senior citizens with speed dial.  Those who don't move on will likely go back winning karaoke contests and performing in the chorus of the local dinner-theatre's revival of "Annie Get Your Gun."

MOMocrats Kristen & Liz on TV Today

MOMocrats Contributors Liz and Kristen will be appearing on The View From the Bay, a local San Francisco Talk Show at 3 pm Pacific this afternoon or on a live-stream here.  They won't be talking politics this time around, but will be talking about another topic near and dear to all MOMocrats' hearts:  Unique Mother's Day Gifts.  Tune in for tips on cool gifts to shower your MOMocrat with this Mother's Day.

Wonder if they will feature the SnapTotes Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton purses?  Those are sure to be on all our wishlists.

 

Congratulations, Survivor Yul!

Congratulations to Yul Kwon, winner of Survivor:  Cook Islands.  Stefania dubbed our Korean-American team of Yul and fellow contestant Becky Lee "Team Yobo" early on in the season, and I have been rooting for the two of them ever since.  For once, a Survivor finale worth watching.

Yul's victory was one of brains over brawn (though Yul is not lacking in the brawn category either, being named one of People Magazine's "Sexiest Men").  Yul's strategy and game theory skills kept him two or three steps ahead of the other tribe.  The Raro team seem to take their game theory from the junior high school lunch table of "Don't talk to Jonathan because he has cooties" while Yul analyzed motives and odds, employing the Nash Equilibrium Theory to his advantage. 

There was a lot of discussion of Yul being "the Godfather", and if so, Becky was his trusted consigliare.  I didn't think Becky deserved to win, but third is not bad.  I don't think the jury was aware of how much influence she had over the strategy and decision-making.

I started out the season really, really disliking Ozzy, but he grew on me eventually.  I think a lot of the arrogance and sense of entitlement that Jonathan pointed out were really due to Ozzy's youth and lack of social awareness more than a real mean-spiritedness.  I hope that he won enough money to be able to continue his education, or at the very least doesn't have to go back to porn to make a living.  As a mom, I worry.

As for Sundra, I'm not sure I've ever seen a post-Survivor makeover as dramatic as hers.  She was drop-dead gorgeous on the Reunion show.  I hope her acting career takes off and we see more of her.  I thought she played a great game. 

As for most of the Raro tribe, I could live without seeing any of them again, and since I don't watch MTV, it seems unlikely that I will.  I seriously hope never to see Parvati Shallow again in this life, on TV or otherwise.  Since I'm not much for "Model Boxing" (whatever that is), it seems unlikely that I will see her again.  Go in peace, Parvati-whose-last-name-says-it-all.  I wish you no ill-will, but please get off my TV and fade back into obscurity pronto.

I am really proud of Yul, like he was my prodigious younger brother or something.  Congratulations, Yul, on a game well played. 

Survivor, I Wish I Knew How to Quit You

I can't believe that halfway through this craptastic season of Survivor, I'm still watching.  Not only watching, I'm now totally invested in the outcome.  Sure, I strayed for a while and flipped over to the congenial and cute Ugly Betty (to which I shall return as soon as Survivor is finished).  Now, I'm back and I just can't seem to give it up already.

I was just about to throw in my buff, so to speak, until they did this whole "mutineer" thing where members of one tribe were permitted to voluntarily join the other team.  Candice and Jonathon, formerly of "Team Whitey" decided to jump ship and get back in with their original teammates, Adam and Parvati.  I don't think it was so much a racial thing as Candice having a hormonal reaction to Adam, and Jonathan's utter stupidity (or brilliance?) in following Candice. 

They left behind the skeleton crew of Team Yobo (Becky and Yul, admittedly my favorites being both Korean and lawyers), Ozzy, and Shundra.  Team Yobo and crew proceeded to kick ass in every single challenge since then, by bonding together and forming a real team.  This makes me actually want to watch and cheer them on.  Even Ozzy is starting to grow on me, and I've always liked Shundra.  So, come Thursday night, I will be glued to my TV and watching to see if any of my new favorite team will be voted off.  I have vowed to stop watching when the last Aitu team member is voted off, because there isn't anyone left on the Raro team that I would want to win. 

Right...I say that now, but I'm pretty sure I will watch the finale no matter what. 

If you're interested in being on TV, CBS now has applications for Big Brother, Survivor, Amazing Race and a new show called Pirates on their website.  My six year old son is begging to be on a show called Pirates, but shiver me timbers, mateys, I will have to pass on that one.  It will either involve pillaging and plundering or playing baseball for Pittsburgh.  Either way, I can't see that as a good time.

Arghhhhh!

Cross-posted at Kimchi Mamas.

Photo credit:  CBS website

Top Chef Does Korean

On last week's episode of Top Chef, Bravo TV's reality show/cooking competition, the contestants were divided into two teams that had to prepare Korean and Vietnamese dishes.  The funniest part of the whole show was when they announced that they would be doing Korean and Vietnamese, the contestants all had looks on their faces like, "What crawled into the wall and died?  Where is that odor coming from?"  To put it mildly, they were not pleased.

What they came up with on the Korean team (aside from mushy rice and a hockey-puck like gelatin dessert) was a braised pork and kimchi.  You can find the recipe here.  I'm no expert on Korean food by any stretch, but I am curious to know if anyone else thought the chef's recipes were way off base for Korean food.  I mean, the ingredients for Otto's kimchi sounded like the spices my mom uses, but he was cutting up red cabbage. Do other people use that?  And exactly when did panna cotta and gelatin become Korean desserts?

I originally posted these questions over at Kimchi Mamas, and the moms over ranged from mildly amused to completely outraged that our native cuisine was being misrepresented.  Nobody uses red cabbage in kimchi and lychee is more a Chinese thing than Korean.  The pork dish still sounded pretty good to me, and maybe worth trying.  Lien of The Lotus Life chimed in that the Vietnamese dishes were no more authentic than the Korean (and she would know, being Vietnamese and all).  So, Top Chef gets a resounding thumbs down from Moms Who Ought to Know

And, since we're on the subject of Americanized Korean food, I once saw a Korean woman on TV making Kalbi using Coca-cola as the sweetener instead of sugar.  According to the commenters over at Kimchi Mamas, soda or fruit is sometimes used as a meat tenderizer for bulgogi.  You learn something everyday.  I learned that you internet people are totally smart.

Photo from BravoTV website.  Cross-posted in part at Kimchi Mamas.