Wednesday, February 01, 2006

New 'Amazing Race 9' Cast: A Closer Look at BJ Averell & Tyler MacNiven

These two are being labeled as BEST FRIENDS. It's BJ Averell and Tyler MacNiven, ages 26 and 25 respectively. BJ is an online tutor whose hometown is Los Angeles. Tyler is a filmaker out of San Francisco.

Their official CBS 'Amazing Race' bio says "BJ & Tyler are bohemian best buds who first met four years ago during the Semester at Sea program, where they shared the experience of sailing around the world."

Yep, they're bohemian buds... or something. Right now I'm not sure exactly what. I'd say clowns, but that was done already with Jon and Al. They were the best at it, for sure! Okay, let me poke around their bio a bit more...

BJ is a Harvard grad. I'm suitably impressed. Tyler is a graduate of UC Santa Cruz. I don't know about the school there, but I'm partial to the rollercoaster at the Santa Cruz boardwalk, so he passes muster with me. They're both well-traveled and fluent in several languages. That's a big plus for a team on 'The Amazing Race.' They both love adventure, travel and good times (and hamming for the camera?). In a way, I want to dismiss these two due to just the promo photo, but they sound like they have a real chance in the race. BJ moved to CA for surfing, karate and frisbee -- he should be in decent physical shape. Tyler fell in love with a girl from Japan and decided to walk the 2000 mile length of the country to impress her. Lucky girl and quite an undertaking.

These article(s)/websites were found about BJ Averell and Tyler MacNiven out and about the web (beware, some may archive in due time or need registration to view):
People: Woodside native treks across Japan (August 24, 2005)
Kintaro Walks Japan
Stanford says no to Tyler MacNiven, but he's upbeat, may reapply later (December 23, 1998)
Stanford Magazine: March/April 1999: They'll Try Anything
The Stanford Daily Online Edition
Kintaro Walks Japan - Google Video
Buck's of Woodside Kintaro Walks Japan ... and dozens more on his trek, but this is his own writing of the journey
HTDb v2.0 - BJ Averell -- BJ's Harvard theater work
Fictumentary.com - Camera Noise Production Notes
The Harvard Crimson :: News :: Election Profile: B.J. Averell & Amias Gerety
Harvard University: Gallery ... and many, many more.

All of my 'The Amazing Race' blog entries can be found linked in chronological order here.

2 comments:

dawn said...

jackie,
i just started a blog on blogspot but excuse me for being naive but how would people find it
thanks for your help

Jackie S. said...

People can find it by clicking on your profile link when you leave a comment on a blog. You can also put the link in post signatures if you use message boards. Folks also may find it by searching for a particular term -- say, you're discussing a rock band and they Google the band name. If you keep at it, folks will come. I favorite placed it on my AOL account. :-)