The Amazing Race - Looking at the New Teams, Part 2

Finally, I'm getting to the rest of the teams -- you can find my look at the first five teams right here. The season premiere is this Sunday evening. Of course (it should go without saying, but I'll say it) there will be an episode blog post party going on when the show starts (8:30 PM ET) -- everyone is invited to join in. LifeGuard Laurie is in charge of the blog pool. Who wants to cover the cyber drinks?



Jill and Thomas: A dating couple, I don't know if it's just my mood or what ... but is he really very monotone and did they say "We want to win" a quadrillion times? They sound like they might be Bickering Bickersons, but you can't tell from the monotony of this video. The video left me not caring about this team at all, good or bad. They're just kind of there.



Katie and Rachel: Jersey Girls! Like the one from Cranford on the Princeton team, Katie lives quite nearby me in Rahway. Note that she does NOT talk like Enzo from BB12! I have to give Rachel kudos in the video for not mentioning that Katie's hair kept blowing in her face. They're young, but they might be a strong female team. Once the season starts, I would appreciate name tags so I can tell them apart. SO many young blond women with roughly the same length hair this season!



Michael and Kevin: Now, THIS father is the oldest one in the race at 58 as opposed to Gary at 53. Kevin is the youngest contestant so far at 20 but he seems to be pretty driven for his age. If you can't tell, they're Texans. I found the videos. I think I'm going to enjoy these two, but it would take them a miracle to win the big prize. Here's one of the YouTube videos of Kevin's:





Nat and Kat: They're self-proclaimed nerds, two young women doctors heavily in debt with student loans. So, we know where the money would go if they were to win! I can't imagine the cost of becoming a doctor these days. I like these two based on the video. I particularly liked the "karma" reference. Hopefully they won't namby-pamby out, yet won't be underhanded either.



Nick and Vicki: After Nat and Pat, I want to dub these two Nicky and Vicki. I guess they're down to earth -- she said it enough, as well as the "judging a book by the cover bit." When she first spoke, she reminded me a bit of Rachel "I AM VEGAS!" But as it went on, not so much. I don't know. I'm not overly impressed by the mohawk and the tattoos, but floats his boat. Most men are over that by the time they're 30. However, he is a bartender so perhaps he thinks he's a rock star. Oh, wait ... I'm forming opinions. I'll stop that. I think this team could possibly do well. Maybe.



Ron and Tony: These two might be the closest we have to an alpha male team this season. That is if it's slightly aged (40s) theater circuit alphas. I do like them. I think they're going to be entertaining. I even laughed for a moment in the video. But do they have what it takes to win? I guess we'll see. Like Nick and Vicky, they plan to lay low in the beginning, then sprint to the finish.

So, there are the teams. I think we have some entertainment ahead of us, don't you?

TV Tidbits and Stuff

My season premiere review of The Big Bang Theory is up over on CliqueClack TV. Sheldon had a date with Blossom ... er, Amy (played by Mayim Bialik). After the horrible skit on last night's The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, it's good to see they weren't tainted. I was so happy when Jim Parsons won the Emmy for his role. Although I do think it comes easy -- he seems quite Sheldon-ish himself.


If Tim Curry is going to have nasty funky teeth, he should just be Pennywise the Dancing Clown (from Stephen King's It). Last night's Criminal Minds finished off the storyline we left off with at the beginning of the summer. Curry, although a very twisted "unsub" who became "knownsub," was creepy ... but nowhere near the performance as Pennywise.

I loved the flashbacks in time with the mother and son (Curry) as a child, all playing Leonard Cohen tunes. The music just so fit into it all. Cohen's poetry and songs have intrigued me for decades. The best video for "Dance Me to the End of Love" (one of the songs featured in Criminal Minds) is this one. Trust me, it's very beautiful and touching.

In other show talk, I fear the new show The Defenders didn't keep my attention. I was looking forward to it as I've always liked Jerry O'Connell. But it just didn't do it for me. Sigh. Perhaps if they brought back the original The Defenders from the early 1960s with the Brady Bunch father Robert Reed and E.G. Marshall, I might watch.

Tomorrow night, besides getting the rest of The Amazing Race teams up, I plan on watching CSI:NY and Blue Bloods. I'll admit being a bit partial to NYC-based shows as it's cool to see places I've actually seen! I'm a cop show buff, so I do have high hopes for Blue Bloods. We'll see.

Don't forget ... only two nights left of dancing animals on The Late Show with David Letterman!

We all float down here ...

Survivor: Nicaragua - Sept. 22 Episode Blog Party Post

Survivors Ready?

Welcome one, welcome all! It's the second episode and the blog party is ready to start! Everyone is welcome to join in with comments as the show airs here on the East Coast or even later in West Coast time.

I may or may not be here tonight as a huge line of storms is coming this way. If I'm here, I'll be posting commentary and major happenings right here in this post as the show airs. If I'm not here, then I'm sitting in the dark watching the lightning outside. If that's the case, carry on!

Wait ... I know y'all like to carry on anyway!

Woohoo! The older tribe won reward and immunity! They chose fishing gear over a tarp for their reward.

The weather is wicked here. I may still be lost.

Shannon, the big-mouthed good-looking schemer, was voted out.

TV Tidbits and Stuff

I'll most likely be recording the show (above) as I'm not too good at staying up until almost 2 AM, then getting up at 6 AM to get ready for work. I'm a huge The Big Bang Theory fan, so I do need to see this! Tomorrow evening, I'll be writing up my review of the season premiere for CliqueClack TV. I'll post that link once the review is done and up.

I had planned to get the second batch of The Amazing Race teams up today, but you know what they say about the best-laid plans of mice and men. I'm neither a mouse, nor a man ... yet it applies. I had an unexplained inexplicable power outage here which sort of set me awry. The power company sent someone who didn't bother to tell me what happened, but my power returned after he did something down in the basement.

Then I got looking through my gazillion photo files to decide on which ones I'm submitting to the Plainfield Library Photo Contest and get them on a disk so I can drop them off for printing tomorrow. I don't trust my printer so much with photos. The deadline is next week, so I needed to get it done.

As a result of my day, I'll be posting the remaining five TAR teams on Friday evening after work. My apologies to those who have been waiting with bated breath for them today!

I hope you'll stop back a bit later for the Survivor blog party. I'm actually going to get the post set and scheduled to post as soon as I finish this as extreme weather is due here right smack at the start of the show. So, if I'm really quiet after the initial post, you'll know the storm hit hard. Hopefully, that won't be the case. At least with the scheduling thingee, the post will pop up right when I schedule it. Cool.


The local radar from WCBS2 at 7:23 PM. I live where you see that red dot. Argh ... it's going to hit right when Survivor starts!

A Closer Look at the TAR Teams - Part 1

The teams for The Amazing Race seem a bit different from past seasons. I'd say they're still trying to get away from the alpha male teams who seem to take over the wins. That's good and it's bad, too. While I never liked an alpha male advantage, I often enjoyed teams like the cowboys and the hippies. Now, in a way, it's more fair for all ages and physical abilities, but I found the challenges a bit less challenging. Oh, well ... it's still guaranteed to be a whirlwind trip.

The CBS videos of the first five teams and a brief commentary from me follows. I'll do the second five teams tomorrow. LifeGuard Laurie is still taking names for the blog pool, but get your name in soon!



Andie and Jenna: I'm not quite sure the show is really the place to make such an important relationship introduction -- often teams who have a fantastic relationship have rocky times on the show. I hope they do well as it's all noble on each of their parts. I guess we'll see.



Brook and Claire: Hmmm. They definitely have spunk. I think they might be entertaining and do fairly well. I don't ever watch any home shopping networks (my idea of home shopping is going to amazon.com), so I have no clue who these two are even if they think they're celebrities. I was a bit turned off in the bio section for Brooke (the blond) when she said "I already earn a six figure salary and I'm in my twenties." Now, don't get me wrong -- I'm never a fan of the "needy" people on reality shows. But the bragging about how much one earns is a bit a bit rude in my eyes.



Chad and Stephanie: Oh my. They've known each other for eight months, been together for five months and have already bought a house. Impulsive much? I'm getting the feeling this might be a team you love to hate -- he's a yeller and she's emotional. Maybe we'll hate him and be irked by her, I don't know.



Connor and Jonathan: I guess this is my local team, the Princeton Boys. I don't think they quite qualify as an alpha male team in the sense of others in the past. But Connor was the student body president of his class and both must have some brights. I think they're going to be very entertaining if they hang in there. I want to see them burst into song! Jonathan (with the glasses) is from nearby Cranford, NJ. I guess he's going to burst the Jersey Shore Jersey stereotype. Sheesh, and we were trying to keep that a secret than NJ is mostly not the stereotype!



Gary and Mallory: The father and daughter team -- he's the "old guy" of the race at 53 (yet more physically involved in stuff than many twenty-somethings) and she's Miss Kentucky and came in 4th in the Miss USA pageant. They seem quite likable. Perhaps she's the girl for Lane from BB12, shooting an 8-point buck as a small child! What do you think? I do believe they might have a better shot at the win than some of the father/daughter teams in the past.

Part two tomorrow!