It's time to play find Roofus the Cat! If you don't see him, click on the image and it will enlarge. I'd say he's coming from one of the apartments in the building, but all of the windows are closed. He must have been sleeping on the bay window roof or one of the fire escapes. I can't help but wonder what happened to the cat who used to curl up with him late last winter on the bay window roof. Alas, the life of a feral cat, especially one between roof and a busy city street, isn't long.
I know an elderly man who runs a car lot nearby puts out food for the strays, but unless they're spayed and neutered, the cycle will go on. That said, I don't think Roofus is "catchable" as he's several stories off the ground and doesn't seem to interact with humans at all.
In today's TV Newsy Bits:
- I apologize for not posting yesterday. I was having Blogger and gmail issues. I'm still not getting any notifications when comments are made, but at least I seem to be able to post an entry.
- I'll be watching Heroes tonight and posting a review later on -- stop back and comment if you watch the show!
- I told you how Court TV is changing its name to truTV (gak). Now they have a new tagline for the brand name change -- "Not reality. Actuality." I like the tagline better than the new name for the channel.
- A possible TV writers strike may come this Thursday. Since the shows I review for TV Squad are reality shows, my paid blogging efforts won't be affected. According to this AOL TV News article, some shows pushed their production schedules ahead to get more episodes finished, but some didn't. I guess we'll know more as time goes on. Although I'm not too keen on unions on the whole, I agree with the actions in this case. Often the writer is the poor stepchild in a television show. And, as a writer myself, I know that freelancers and contractors need some sort of organization to protect them as we're all individuals out here.
- In poking around AOL Television, I also noticed their Halloween page. Cool. I think the television show whose Halloween episodes I always enjoyed the most was Rosanne. I caught one late last night and wouldn't mind a marathon solely of the Halloween eps for Halloween itself.
Today's music non-sequitur:
St. Peter, don't you call me
Because I can't go ...
I owe my soul to the company store.
-- "16 Tons" written by Merle Travis, popularized by Tennessee Ernie Ford
A goose enjoying calm waters in Westfield, New Jersey. When I was young, you didn't see many geese around. Nowadays, they're considered a nuisance around here. Yes, they're messy. But I still enjoy seeing them. Some months back a couple of geese set up housekeeping on the lawn of a church near my apartment. Whenever services were held, they'd chase any parishioners who didn't feed them. The geese mysteriously vanished after a month of Sundays.
I have Stephen King's It on in the background as I write this. I really should have written about Pennywise the Clown (as played by Tim Curry) for that TV Squad article. But, if it seems like this is very disjointed, blame the clown.
Last night's Bon Jovi concert in the new stadium in Newark wreaked havoc on commuting and I got home from work almost two hours later than planned. Grr. As a result, I ended up watching The Next Great American Band (for two hours), writing it up for TV Squad because I filled in for the regular writer, then I conked out.
Oh ... and I had to turn word verification back on -- I spent almost an hour yesterday removing comments left by a spambot. I don't think we need Viagra or suffer from erectile dysfunction. I'm sorry, but I had to do it.
In TV Newsy Bits:
- That review of The Next Great American Band is here.
- Buddy TV has a slew of interviews up -- Ebony Morgan from America's Next Top Model, Lacey Conner from Rock of Love and of more interest to me -- Sherea Lloyd from Survivor China.
Argh, It is drawing me in. I must watch.
"I'm the killer of worlds, the eater of children. We all float down here. Don't you want to float, too?" - Pennywise the Clown
The show has started here on the East Coast. As important events occur, I'll update this post. My full show review will be posted on TV Squad later tonight. Please feel free to leave comments -- I love to get your impressions as the show airs!
UPDATE -- Reward: Fei Long won and kidnapped James. They get to go to an island for a tea room visit.
UPDATE: James gave Todd the hidden Immunity Idol clue (after Todd approached him and offered to save him with it). It is in the bat etching on that frame which they keep showing. Amanda (who knows about it) and Todd were working to get it when Frosti jumped in to help. Now they have to trust Frosti. Todd gave James the idol and said they (ZH) must lose immunity and save himself. The plan is for him to vote off Jaime and get the second idol, too.
UPDATE: Immunity - gross food week - despite plans, Zhan Hu won Immunity.
UPDATE: Sherea is voted out (spoilers had it right).
My review of this episode should be published on TV Squad before midnight (ET).
Similar to how I've been doing Survivor this season, my actual show reviews of The Amazing Race 12 will be over on TV Squad. I asked to review the show a while ago not expecting it to air until January. But, thanks to the demise of Viva Laughlin, we have TAR12 heading our way in about a week and a half. The premiere date is Sunday, November 4, at 8 PM ET/PT. While I'll be writing the reviews for TVS, I'll have East Coast updates and other miscellaneous show-related posts here on this blog.
Let's start with the teams!
Oh, my! Why, they're a Goth couple! I believe this is indeed a first for TAR. Kynt and Vyxsin are what they call themselves although I sincerely doubt those were the names given to them at birth.
They're best friends (and possible doppelgangers) who have been dating on and off for three years and they're determined to keep Louisville (KY) weird. Hmm ... maybe they should move to Austin? Or they could go all the way and move to New Jersey. In Louisville they might be bucking up against the status quo.
They enjoy shopping, dancing, and doing each other's hair. Um, okay. Both are worried that their make-up routine might be impacted while on the race. They're both MySpace addicts, not a surprise to me at all. They follow SciFi conventions and have an "us against the world" stance. If nothing else, these two are going to differ a lot from any previous teams we've seen on the show. Kynt is the guy, Vyxsin the gal.
Jennifer and Nathan are a bit less unusual when it comes to dating couples. They're both athletic, couldn't stand each other when they first met (always a good start to a relationship, right?), and tend to break up a lot. I guess this will be our token bickering couple of the season? They both claim to have dominant personalities and both claim to be stubborn.
I may have nightmares of Jonathan and Victoria. Ew. Hopefully these two are a bit better as a couple. Physically, it looks like they could have it made in the shade in comparison to some of the other teams.
But, the big question is ... will they work together well as a team? Nathan describes himself as "one cool dude." I'll be the judge of that, thank you very much. Uh-oh. I might already not be liking him.
Ronald and Christina are a father/daughter team. You know, I'd like to see one of these teams win it all someday. It's something I would have loved to have done with my own father.
He's amongst the older racers this season, but at 58 he's nowhere near the oldest. I'm liking the age span for the teams -- I just wish a show like Big Brother would vary the ages in the same manner!
He's a self-proclaimed workaholic while his daughter wants him to stop and smell the roses. But I notice she has degrees from both Princeton and Duke, so she might do well to heed her own advice. I think I'm going to like this team.
I'll be adding installments to the team listing in the upcoming days prior to the season premiere. I also have an introductory post to the teams up over on TV Squad.
Are you ready for The Amazing Race?
[All TAR 12 images ©CBS and used here solely for review purposes.]
You can click on the image for a larger version. I hope it explains a bit more about Roofus the cat.
