On Television

I know I can stay up all the way through The Amazing Race tonight and blog about it!

The great state of Connecticut is looking to TV to combat TV. Their Department of Environmental Protect (which is responsbile for state parks from what I gathered) is using an Amazing Race-style contest this summer to lure families into the state parks and off of the couch. The state is placing clues throughout the state’s parks system which can earn families prizes. This is a very cool initiative with a very cool name: Leave No Child Inside.

Some worth additions I think are Scrubs and How I Met Your Mother, my two favourite comedies. They’re both incredible funny but HIMYM is more of a sweet funny with a lot of good one liners. Scrubs is just really silly to me but the characters and storylines are hilarious. That’s so funny!

Again, Stargate isn’t too bad. It’s so bland--though one can amuse oneself by recognizing the Spielberg “homages,” there are plenty from Raiders of the Lost Ark--it just passes the time. Emmerich’s direction is okay. The film is very pretty and his shot composition is fine, uninteresting but fine. While the writing is incredibly stupid, since Devlin and Emmerich hadn’t yet hit the big time, it’s not offensive. I rented it because I’ve been watching Spader so much on “Boston Legal” I was curious and he’s fine.

I don’t watch much network television, but I might have to start making time for Boston Legal:

10. I've got more. The OC, The Office (UK and US), How I Met Your Mother, Amazing Race, Smallville, Pimp My Ride, Punk'd, Mythbusters, Jake in Progress, Charmed, Mind of Mencia, Ghost Whisperer..... oops.. did it ask for 4?

I made the critical error of choosing to record Law & Order: Sport Utility Vehicle because…silly, silly me…I naively thought I could stay awake until 10 p.m. and wouldn’t need the added benefit of recording The Amazing Race. Silly, silly me. I was out like a light at 9:30 p.m. What can I say, I’m up at 5:30 every morning.

I didn’t watch last season’s American Idol because I kept forgetting what nights and times it came on t.v. This time I missed a majority of the auditions but now I am getting back into it and have selected a few of my faves for this season:

Nicole Richie has apparently upset the parents of an 11-year-old boy during filming for The Simple Life 4 in Los Angeles. Nicole was being filmed when she stopped the boy who was playing on his driveway and asked him if he thought she was attractive. Nicole was pushing a baby carriage when she used graphic terms and a profane word when she asked the boy if he thought she was hot. The boy's father refused to sign a release form and instead complained to producers.

I hear that the infamous and controversial Simon Cowell has issued his prediction for the top three finalists of this season's American Idol.

Until politicians see themselves being held accountable by the people, we're going to keep being sick. Now, it may not be acute--it may be more of a dull languor than a sharp pain, but you'll still feel it: the vague fever of uninvolvement, the chills of regret, the queasy feeling that someone else is in charge of your life. We--the voters, the voices, the people--because of new technology, emerging political paradigms and coalitions, and the unaccustomed weirdness of the current political arena, we have the chance, more than ever before in the history of this nation or any other, to demand the kind of government we want, to influence it, to make it. But that doesn't happen by sitting around watching The Amazing Race.

I am still doing pretty good reaching my protein, carb and fat requirements and staying very close to my cal requirements. I feel it is better to be under than over and yesterday I was quite a bit under so I enjoyed two scoops of choc. protein w/1c of skim milk and a banana while I watched the biggest loser. SOOOO Good.....

I love to watch Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. I love to watch the healing of families and communities through the personalized compassion of the show's personalities. I've also observed that a lot of physical touching happens between the family and the TV personalities. They hug. They hold hands. They cry on sholders. The designers hold children in their arms. No matter what you think of the show's excesses, at its core it demonstrates how people and communities should reach out and literally connect with those who are in need.

Finally, Amazing Race was on last night. Excellent show once again for anyone who missed it. I am putting my bets (metaphorical, not $$ bets) on the hippies.

And yeah…I know Barry Corbin is currently part of the cast of One Tree Hill, so all you fanboys lay off. I prefer to think of Barry when he was on a REAL network…not some teen-show on the WB.

The commerci-short is part of the credit card giant’s “My Life, My Card” campaign, which I’ve already admired via its print iterations in Entertainment Weekly. Its print counterparts, while not as captivating, are classy, understated spots that feature interesting black and white photos of celebs (such as Ellen DeGeneres brushing her teeth) and personal comments from them.

This week’s Boston Legal, which I fear I now have admitted to watching as a guilty pleasure, almost like watching a fiasco or a train wreck, had a moment when William Shatner’s character, Denny Craine, is caught at his own wedding in the coat check with a serving woman. The music played to punch this moment is Warren Zevon’s Lawyers, Guns and Money with his evocative music and voice. Wonderful moment that made my day.

“The IT Crowd”? Not a hope. “Shameless”? Better. But the hands down winner has got to be “The Apprentice”. Thank god for Sky+ so I could keep pausing to catch my breath after collapsing in gales of laughter.

Oprah Winfrey has aired that her dreamy Angel Lane is now a reality. Katrina survivors have been given a new start in a Texas town thanks to the highly persuasive Oprah and Habitat for Humanity. That will be a road where everyone who lives knows damn well that you can be close to reaching hell one moment and then walking through heaven the next. Good for them.