Bloggy Stuff! - Sunday, Sept. 30

It's New Jersey, what can I say? I encountered this rat on my walk to the train station Friday morning. I'll probably encounter him again tomorrow. I should carry a big stick, eh? (It's actually some kind of union protest at a construction site.)

I'd like to wish a belated happy birthday to blog readers Sharon and Gayle (as well as the other September birthdays in the crowd). I always kind of wonder about the plethora of September birthdays. Hmmm... was it really cold nine months before or what?

But the weather is gorgeous here this weekend! I heard the local weatherman say it's like San Diego. He has a point. I've spent some time there and it's the cool evenings, highs in the mid-seventies in the daytime. Perfect!

In the television-watching department, I just haven't been too thrilled over the weekend. I watched the hour-long COPS 20th anniversary show last night. (It's a guilty pleasure, remember.) I tried to watch the repeat of Cane, a show I missed when it premiered earlier this week. Nuh-uh, just didn't do anything for me. Sorry, Jimmy Smits or not, it's not my thing. I watched the 48 Hours Mystery after Cane and found that interesting as it's a local crime case. No one in my social circles, mind you.

Today I ran through my recorded The Wire (third season from BET) which I hadn't really watched the past few weeks as I was writing my Survivor review while it aired. Omar and Brother Mouzone killed Stringer Bell?!?! Yikes! That's the final straw, ya Baltimore and imported NYC thugs! I went and ordered seasons two and three to go with my season one boxed set. And I pre-ordered season four (release date early December). I just can't get enough of the show and BET's commercials go beyond the point of annoying. I'm glad they aired the series so far and got me hooked, but it's the DVD sets for me on this show, much like I did for Homicide: Life on the Street.

And, as I ramble on here, I should mention that I've met and chatted with the series creator of both Homicide and The Wire -- I have the books The Corner and Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets signed by him. I found David Simon to be a very personable fellow who, if you didn't know who he was, you would never guess he could ever portray the gritty tales of Baltimore so well.

But that leads me to another tangent -- where I met Simon, and where I even got to talk one-on-one for a while with Stephen King (my all-time favorite novelist) no longer exists. For over twenty years I faithfully attended the New York is Book Country street fair in Manhattan. It was there I got meet authors whose works have been such a part of my life. It was there I bought signed first editions and even antiquarian books. It was there I collected the festival's yearly posters.

They stopped having the book fair. I don't know why -- it was certainly a well-attended and enjoyable event. It was usually mid-September and ended up being downtown and first weekend of October the last time they had it two years back. Then it vanished from the city. The end of a literary event although I see they still have their literary tea. But paying over $100 to attend a tea isn't the same as spending $100 on books while being able to actually talk to the authors.

Sigh.

I'm biding my time until Cold Case. How was your weekend?

'Survivor 15: China' - Spoilers Post Link!

I have a post up on TV Squad with major show spoilers for Survivor 15: China. ONLY go there if you want to know

I also ask that the spoilers aren't brought up in the comments on any of the show posts I may make here because I realize a lot of people don't want to know!

'Survivor 15 China' - Ashley Hits the Interview Rounds

The most recent Survivor castaway hit the interview circuit ... well, online, anyway. They're no longer on Letterman, not even standing over in the Hello Deli. Of course, if you've ever seen the Hello Deli, you might not want to stand inside there, either!

Reality News Online (RNO) has an interview titled They Were Scared Sheep Out There - An Interview with Survivor: China's Ashley Massaro.

In that one, i thought it most interesting how much she talked about how the tribe made a mistake in eliminating Chicken. She seems to take her own ouster as the logical decision for the tribe while Chicken's she can't rationalize at all.

In the Buddy TV Exclusive Interview with Ashley Massaro, I picked up a few more intriguing bits. Hmmm ... she thought Jonny Fairplay was a "funny character." If memory serves, wasn't he a wrestler, too? She once again went on about how Chicken shouldn't have flown the coop -- er, got booted from the coop, that is.

The Reality TV World interview with her finally asked a few different questions. They asked how she got cast on the show and got a rather roundabout answer -- "It was basically a joint decision because I work for WWE. I needed to do some arm-wrenching to go because that meant I was going to be off the air with them for a long time. But it all worked out great and they let me go." Huh? Joint decision between whom? Was she recruited? Did she apply? That's certainly confusing, isn't it? It didn't answer the question "how did you end up being casted on the show" for me.

When asked if she thought she was on the weaker tribe, she defended Zhan Hu saying that she liked the tribe. But she also would have liked to have James on it (probably instead of Dave, I bet). She also said that Jaime told her and Sherea about the clue (existing, not the clue itself) for the hidden Immunity Idol. She says she has a feeling that Fei Long's Todd Herzog is going to do well on the show.

Tonight's 'Survivor 15: China' Review Up!

My review of the show tonight is up and running over at TV Squad! I hope you enjoy it!

'Survivor 15: China' - East Coast Update Post - 9/27

Keep returning here - I'll update this post as important events happen.

Reward challenge -- for fishing gear and a trip on a fishing boat. Fei Long wins.

Twist -- Fei Long kidnaps one member of the Zhan Hu tribe, they go for Jaime. Jaime received a note to read in private once she's at their camp.

The note contained a clue to the location of the hidden immunity idol -- Jaime isn't privy to its contents, but gets to choose who on Fei Long she wants to give it to. She chose Leslie because Leslie didn't seem to be in with the others on the tribe and might be more secretive (and appreciative).

Fei Long wins Immunity! At one point Zhan Hu was leading, but the puzzle threw them off.

Asley is voted out. Dave received one vote from Ashley, all the rest voted for her to leave.