Saturday, July 19, 2008

Ghost Hunters International - New Zealand & England

We start out at the Wellington City, New Zealand Opera house where the architect, Albert Liddy, committed suicide and apparently is still hanging around. Why kill yourself if you're going to keep coming back? I don't think the benefits are any better.
Andy, Brian & Dustin go into the catwalk to do EVP work. While Brian is provoking the spirit of Albert to make an appearance, takes a picture of a black mass. In the balcony, Donna talks to the spirits and sees flashes of light. Donna is so sweet, she even asks the spirits if they have are comfortable in their seats before she continues.
After all of their work, all the team gets is a woman's voice whispering "no" in response to the question, did you just make that noise. Rob says there is paranormal activity but not haunted.
Next is Gloucestershire, England and the Woodchester Mansion. We find out that Donna has to leave Europe due to having Crohn's disease. The story of the mansion is that while it was being built, the workers were spooked by something so badly that they dropped their tools, left the job and never came back. Sightings include full body apparitions, voices, blue lights, black clouds and the spirit of a dog in the basement. Sounds like a lot!
The team sets up and Rob goes to the basement, puts down an EMF detector and asks the spirits to show themselves and the EMF goes off. Rob then asks is the spirit wants to talk and the EMF goes off again. Rob brings Barry down who asks the spirit to show itself and they hear a loud bang.
Brian and Andy see the blue lights in different parts of the mansion. During the review, they here what sounds like a dog growling from the tape taken in the basement. Another tape yields a tin whistle sound and on video they catch one of the blue lights. Even Andy got excited on this one. Rob seems more conservative this season and does not declare a haunting, only paranormal activity. Hope you are feeling better soon Donna! Double D

Friday, July 18, 2008

Big Brother - Honey Bears

It's the Jesse and Renny show! They are trash talking each other to no end. Jesse says Renny didn't apologize for waking him up but the editors are standing by and flash the tape where Renny does indeed apologize (see previous blog posting). All that muscle has gone to his head!
Dan and Brian start setting up everyone to vote to evict Renny by promising each one that they will not be put up themselves. Oh what a tangled web we weave! I just hope they remember the promises they are making. Everyone was going for it except Memphis. Brian starts shooting his mouth off to Ollie and Dan saying that he is calling all the shots. Careful Brian, he who shoots off mouth usually shoots self in foot!
The veto competition is to retrieve stuffed bears from feather filled pillows piled on a giant bed. The catch is getting to the bed the house guests have to crawl through a pool of honey, find the bears by tearing open the pillows, crawl back through the honey and deposit the bear in a jar. The first to get 5 bears wins. No need to tell you what happened when the feathers started to fly! I guess that what getting tarred and feathered looks like on a more comfortable scale. Jesse and Michelle are neck and neck and poor Renny couldn't get through that honey for nothing. At one point she just rolled over and I thought is she going to try the back stroke? In true muscle head fashion, Jesse tears his shirt off after winning the veto. Everyone is covered in honey and feathers. I wonder if someone hoses these people down before they go back into the house.
After seeing Jesse win the veto Brian has to do some scrambling and tells Jerry that Memphis has to go. Again Jerry says Memphis will go bananas, does Jerry have a thing for bananas? But says he will do it. Meanwhile downstairs, Ollie is telling April, Keesha and Libra that they are safe because Brian is telling Jerry to put up Memphis. Brian walks in and confirms this which gets Libra thinking. April & Libra confront Ollie who caves then tells the girls to flip it on Brian.
The whole group decends on poor unsuspecting Jerry and beg him to put up Brian. Jerry isn't believing them. Come on dude, all these people coming to you telling the same story? You have to see something is up! Jerry did listen and put Brian on the block.
Ollie and April are getting all cuddly and Brian is still trying to keep what is left of is grip on controlling the game by saying that the girls need to be split up. At the same time, April tells the girls she is sure Brian will try to get them against each other. Stephen tells Brian he will help him any way he can (maybe a little crush?). Brian decides to go the "I'm too entertaining to get rid of" route and puts on a sock puppet show. Ollie plays himself with a black sock and April's sock has boobs. It was hysterical! So much so, it looked like Brian had swayed enough votes to keep him in the game.
The next head butt session begins. This time between April and Keesha. Keesha hears April saying she thinks Keesha has flipped and that's all it took. The claws started to come out but the guys turned referees and broke them up.
Brian gets evicted 9-1. I guess his puppet show didn't work as well as he thought. Jesse wins the HOH and April wastes no time throwing herself into his arms to congradulate him. Maybe she is going to pit Jesse against Ollie. Double D
Ok, I've been gone for a week and came home to watch all three episodes online and I always think, maybe this season I will be bored with the trials and tribulations of 12 people stuck in a house for several months. Not! Not only am I an addict, I don't think there is any treatments out there to wean myself off the capricious viewing of other people's outrages behaviors, how dull is my life? How quickly they suck you in! I need to join BB anonymous. At first it's like, I don't know or care about any of these bimbos with bosoms and muscle heads. But then, in the first episode, you're swallowed up like quicksand. Of course all the young people look the same to me, but it's the older guy, what is he 73? Jerry and the quirky redhead salon owner, Renny that piqued my interest. And as usual, I always root for the older ones on these things (go figure!). In an unusual beginning, they have to vote someone as HOH cold turkey. Who else to vote in, someone that is more like your grandfather than the bitch next door, good move. After watching episodes 2 & 3, I took an immediate dislike to Brian. Anyone who has the arrogance to think that he is the Godfather of the house granting immunity and suggesting that he will call on them for a favor in the future needs to be put out of his misery. His immediate pact making and side dealings eventually did him in and as he said, he tried to play three weeks of strategy into one week, like duh? Didn't he know it was going to come back to bite him in the tush? Glad he's gone! Looks like we're in for a wild season-someone check me in!-Single D

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Prime Time Emmy Nominations

Well kids it seems our faves are everyone's faves! Nominees for the prime time outstanding reality competition shows are Project Runway, Top Chef, American Idol, Amazing Race and Dancing With the Stars. I was so excited when I saw Project Runway and Top Chef nominated! All that was missing was Survivor. At least our favorite cutie pie Jeff Probst was nominated for outstanding host of a reality series along with Heidi Klum, Tom Bergeron and Ryan Seacrest (sorry Howie, we don't blog your show but good luck anyway). Good luck to all!!!!!!! Double D

Monday, July 14, 2008

Big Brother 10

As we see the house guests come in and hear their taped comments, I can already see potential head butting. So many people who think they are all that in one house and you can be sure the fireworks won't be far behind.
Before they enter the house or even speak to each other, the house guests have to elect an HOH. What a twist! As we find out later, they end up electing Jerry, a 75 year old great-grandfather. Yeah, that's a safe bet. During the introductions, Michelle says she is 28 but looks more like 38. Renny, from New Orleans in a total nut case and will be annoying. I think someone must have accused April of having a boob job but she was very proud of them even letting everyone feel them. I thought sure Jerry was going to have to have mouth to mouth after that.
The first challenge is a food challenge. House guests split into two teams and have to pile into upside down VWs which are suspended on a track, pull the VW down the "road", pick up gas cans and deposit them on the other end. One house guest gets kicked out of the VW for each circuit. The last one left in the VW wins a classic car. Sweet! It comes down to Memphis doing rock, paper, scissors with Stephen. They tie and when it was evident that Memphis wouldn't give up, Stephen jumps out leaving Memphis the winner of a '69 Camaro.
Muscle head Jesse goes to bed early and gets awakened by Renny who apparently can't get her door opened. She keeps screeching, "it's locked, it won't open!" and running around laughing, at least I think it was laughter, who knows with that one. Jesse gets up all mad 'cause he isn't getting his beauty sleep, he needs it! Jesse is all wanting to trash talk Renny to her face but she keeps saying she's sorry but he isn't having any of it to which Renny offers to give him her cotton balls since he doesn't have any. It's instant hate between these two.
Having made an early alliance between himself, Dan and Ollie (sounds like an old kid's show), Brian goes to Jerry and tells him he should put up Jesse & Renny. Jerry says he likes Jesse and that he would go bananas if he is put up but does it anyway. Ummm. Double D

Ghost Hunters International - New Zealand

They're back! GHI heads to Dunedin, New Zealand and Larnach Castle. New Zealand's only castle was built in 1871 by Aussie William Larnach who committed suicide after finding out his second wife was cheating on him. Dude she wasn't worth it! Reports include an apparition in the ballroom, feelings of dread, objects moving and the manager of the castle was shoved down the front steps. Another worker also received a shove in the back and at the same time saw a door open that he had just closed.
The team sets up and Rob & Andy go to the first floor landing which is a hot spot and start EVP work. They hear someone say hello and the thermal camera gets some strange color changes.
Donna & Dustin go in the ballroom to do EVP and right away they see a shadow in one corner and a flash of light in another corner. Dustin tries to reassure the spirits that no one is going to hurt them and they hear plates rattle. They leave a camera in the galley part of the ballroom and leave.
Andy & Dustin debunk the cigar smoke smell by heating a table and chairs with a hair dryer which released the smells. Just like a scratch and sniff! Barry, in the ballroom with Donna (reminds me of a song), wants to try the Singapore theory which is to recreate the period of the house to prompt paranormal activity. They play 1800's classical music and immediately hear noises.
Barry & Brian go into the ballroom and also hear plates rattle and the EMF detector goes crazy. Andy finds wiring under the floor which explains the EMF readings. Andy is really good at debunking but doesn't seem real happy when something can't be explained.
Reviewing the tapes, the team finds the camera that was left in the galley didn't catch the plates moving but did catch audio of bottles rattling when no one was in the room. Barry had been using a new wide spectrum camera and gets a good shot of a man looking at the camera in the ballroom. Either they got a new investigator they didn't know about or they caught a ghost on camera!
Rob is pretty comfortable saying the castle is haunted. He even turned the manager into a believer. I did notice the subtitles disappeared at the end. I guess the editors finally realized Kiwis speak English too. Double D