As reported by Entertainment Weekly.
I’m going to do everything possible to get a job in this writing room. Everyone pray for me.
As reported by Entertainment Weekly.
I’m going to do everything possible to get a job in this writing room. Everyone pray for me.
Posted in atheism, people, Quickies, television
Tagged atheism, Entertainment Weekly, Ricky Gervais

Miss California knows evolution is true, and thank GOD she won.
Big surprise. 49 out of 51 Miss USA contestants don’t believe evolution should be taught in school, or believe that the choice to teach it should be up to individual localities.
This doesn’t account for how they completely misunderstand evolution (most of them refer to biogenesis, which is different) and how they don’t remember ever learning evolution when they were in high school six months ago. It seems the only thing they took away from school is that high school students get to decide what’s true and tell their teachers to shove it.

Are you really that surprised?
After what might now be the 2nd best season of Top Chef (Season 6 is the best, sorry ya’ll), former choke artist and current self-depricating genius Richard Blais took the title of best reality TV chef on Bravo. As he was a favorite son of this writer’s TV-watching household, I am very glad that the forces of redemption, braised meats, and network expectations came together to give Blais his day in the sun.
Posted in cuisine, people, television
Tagged bravo, Chef, Reality television, Richard Blais, Television, Top Chef

I knew it from the moment Back to the Future, a movie that holds a special place in the hearts of every child of the 80′s, made its way into the long intro to this year’s Academy Awards: they’re aiming this Oscars at me.
Posted in cinema, los angeles, television, Uncategorized
Tagged Aaron Sorkin, Academy Award, Darren Aronofsky, David Fincher, James Franco, Social Network, TRENT REZNOR
I have to send my deep regrets and a fond farewell to CNN’s everyman and resident old-guy-who-knows-the-internet, Rick Sanchez. Watching Rick misread the news, mangle impromptu interviews, and generally make social media seem at once lame and revolutionary was a staple of my unemployed life. It was like discussing current events with the guy at the office who, despite knowing absolutely nothing about the subject at hand, will go on and on about some garbage some stranger sent him on the internet. He’ll eventually pull other people into the conversation awkwardly, and he’ll always draw a strange and contradictory moral from even the most straightforward snippet or event.
For two hours a day Rick made you feel like the smartest guy in the room. That his book is titled Conventional Idiocy is too precious for me to handle. His way of making weird references to gender, race, and religion got him more than one “Woah, ok Rick.” His obsession with being recognized as a legitimate anchor led to his eventual dismissal (also it’s not nice to point out that a secret cult of Jews run certain companies/industries and keep the rest of us down, EVEN IF THEY DO jk) but he was truly on the forefront of guys with real media jobs who took Twitter seriously and saw the promise it has for citizen journalism. If only he didn’t come off as a total doofus.
Where will the big Sanchez land next? After trashing Liebowitz and the Hebrew-industrial complex, I doubt he’ll find a place at MSNBC. And he seems a little lose with the human interest/working man stories to fit in next to Neil Cavuto and the Glennreich. I have a feeling he’ll land a Dr. Phil style talk show where he’ll take the long and mustachioed road once blazed by Geraldo. Some day we’ll see him back on the news, opening the sealed vault of Mark Zuckerberg to find it filled with embarrassing videos of himself being tazed.
Speaking of, of course I’ve linked it here. Thanks Rick. For balloon boy, for the month that Michael Jackson died, for everything.
Posted in internet, people, politics, Quickies, television, video
Tagged CNN, Jews, Jon Stewart, Mark Zuckerberg, Michael Jackson, Neil Cavuto, ricksanchez, Twitter
That’s right. This little guy made his way from radio to TV and won an Emmy for Best On Camera Talent for Commentary. Parentdish has a little interview with him which is funny, especially since he calls out Clash of the Titans as the worst movie of the year.
How does this fit into the critical cosmology of amateur vs. professional, blogger vs. print? I think it’s fairly obvious that if you’re getting your movie-going advice from a 5th grader you’re unlikely to need the experience of an Harold Bloom to guide you to the good stuff. At least with Jackson you know you’re getting an underdeveloped intellect who’s basing his assessment purely on whether he ‘liked’ a film or not (although the kid is pretty damn smart, right?) He’s not pretending to hold the key to some great secret of creative perfection. And he’s a pro, for Christ’s sake.
via:// urlesque
photo:// cbs.com
Posted in cinema, Quickies, television
No disrespect to Abdi, who was one of my faves throughout the entire show. His charcoal drawing in the last regular challenge was magnificent and a couple of his final pieces were really incredible.
But how could Miles Mendenhall possibly lose this competition? Anyone watching this show from the beginning would have put money on his eventual victory, not because he was so much more talented than the others (although he was among the best in every challenge) but because the show seemed made for him. All actual artistic considerations aside, he was easily the most adorable, versatile, confident, and telegenic. Isn’t that how these things work?
My personal expectations aside, I do think Peregrine had the best final showing by far. Even more than Miles, she was the artist who cultivated a unique, charmingly depraved aesthetic that carried well from challenge to challenge and medium to medium. Her wax sculptures were eerie and cheery all at once, her vomiting ladies were so cute, and the twin fawns – what a perfect piece. She knew it, too, she cried whenever someone talked about it. She knocked it out of the park.
So how did Abdi win? Was it something that didn’t register over the TV, or am I really that disconnected from the opinions of the judges? I think the upset comes down to Abdi’s obvious growth throughout the series and the opinion of guest judge David LaChapelle. My embarrassingly vast experience in watching shows like this tells me that the opinion of the guest critic will always push an indecisive panel toward their choice. But if the panel truly wanted to reward growth then Abdi, being the youngest artist in the crowd, would have started with a natural advantage (not including Erik the hack, of course.) Shouldn’t it be about your final work?
Who knows. I am not a critic (see my last post), I am only a lowly Bravo viewer. But this isn’t the first reality show finale I’ve been disappointed by (let’s shed a tear for Kevin Gillespie’s beard) and I doubt it’ll be the last.
Posted in plastics, Quickies, television
Tagged abdi, bravo, miles mendenhall, peregrine, work of art