Thursday, April 2, 2009

Celebrity Apprentice-A Rodman Intervention

This week was not about the challenge, this week was an intervention, namely a Rodman intervention. What a pathetic excuse of a man. Sure Dennis, you may have been a great basketball star at one time, you may have cause people's heads to turn, you may have fans that adore you and you may have an "alleged" drinking problem. No Dennis, you do have a drinking problem and the way you handle any problem is to slam a few back and then escape the problem by leaving. Is that what you do in life? Leave? He gets all manic when he's drinking and then afterward he gets all angry.
This weeks challenge is to run a hotel under the name of Loews Regency. Each group will have 5 guest rooms which they will have to run like a real hotel right down to room service and maid service. Of course the women have this one in the bag, they are after all women. Who knows best about clean, pampering and "depubing" than women? The PM's for this are Tionne and Dennis Rodman. Whose Tionne again? It's do or die for Dennis. Question is can he remain sober long enough? The decoys, Stephen Baldwin and Vinnie Pastori are sent in as the emissary's of the demanding guest. Right off the bat Vinnie says in true Italian style, I want cannolis and cd's. All Stephen wanted was a room with a view to which Joan counters, you don't want a view, you want privacy. The ladies most demanding guests were the gay guys in room 720. Oh honey, nothing says demanding than a bunch of diva wannabes.
Dennis starts off good with a lot of good ideas, but the moment someone else voices their opinions, Dennis heads for the bar. In fact when Dennis starts drinking, his mind just goes blank. Dennis takes off with one of the guest and accompanies them to dinner (which I'm sure they didn't mind since I'm guessing Dennis picked up the tab). Let's just put it this way, Dennis is a train wreck.
The ladies give it their all trying to please each guest, with Joan as the accommodating concierge and Brande as every man's fantasy french maid.
Props to Anne for shuttling room service. That's hard work. I think all the women got a true appreciation of what it is like to service demanding guest. I don't think the guys learned anything about running a hotel all their attention was focused on Dennis.
In the end, in the boardroom, Jesse was articulate and smart with his assessment of the whole Rodman fiasco. Rodman, like he said, people idolize him, but when they get up close, they're disappointed by what they see. A troubled, confused, lonely man, but as Donald Trump said, a man with a big heart. Yeah, I can see that. What a pity-you're fired!-Single D

Monday, March 30, 2009

Amazing Race-Ah Phuket!

Racers leave Jaipur India for Phuket, Thailand (say it with me it's Poo Ket). First to leave Tammy and Victor at 10:21 am 10:50 Mike and Mel 11:02 Kisha and Jen 11:03 Margie and Luke 11:04 Cara and Jamie 11:11 Mike and Mark All teams make the same plane to Thailand where they have to find a statue of a gorilla. All racers except Mike and Mel head for the zoo. Mike and Mel's taxi driver tells them that it is at the beach? Huh? A costly and fatal mistake. Teams make it to the zoo and find the statue where the clue bids them to pose with a tiger and get a toe tap from an elephant. Can I just stop right here? Amazing Race shame on you! Shame on you for promoting and supporting caged animals for the sake of entertainment. I have always been against animals for entertainment, animal abusement. To put myself through college in San Diego, I worked in the production department of Sea World. Yes, I shared a dressing room with a crazed chimpanzee who used to throw his feces at me while I changed into my costume inside a volcano in the Dolphin Lagoon Show. From there I would run to my next gig which would be the sound effects for the Shamu show or for the Penguin show. Shamu would do 18 shows back to back in the summer. So on days when he just didn't feel like performing, he would get angry with his trainers and nose dive them to the bottom of the tank. Penguins would stop being cute, get depressed and die. Monkeys would just get crazy. Yes that crazed chimp which shared my dressing room, he was just rebelling because he knew that when he saw me, it meant he would have to don water skis and be pulled around the volcano by dolphins, which I'm sure he hated and I'm not sure he was all that crazy about being in the water either. So ever since that summer job, I always hated animals in cages and even more so for those animals that are just for public entertainment. Sure Sea World does and continues to save aquatic marine animals and educate the public, but at what cost? So I was terribly dismayed to see that beautiful tiger chained at the neck, whose sole purpose is to pose with tourist. No wonder the trainer only had one arm. Good for the tiger I say. The elephants made to squat over the races and pat their butts wasn't any better. I am appalled and totally outraged that the producers supported such a stunt. SHAME ON YOU! Amazing Race shows us the wonders of this world, it should also show respect for the animals that share this planet as well! The next stop was to a herb shop to find their next clue. I had to laugh at Cara and Jaime whose patience with all things human is wearing thin. Cara's like, I'm so glad I'm leaving India, with all the honking and speaking in a foreign language, dud! They were the first ones at the herb shop, but the last ones to leave because every drawer they pointed to, the kind old Thai man kept pointing to the wrong one. I think he purposely did that, hey itchiness gets you no where! Detour: 100 barrels or 2 miles I'd do the barrels, but only Kisha and Jen and Mel and Mike (after they finally made it to the zoo) did the barrels which was definitely the easier one. I know what the heat is like in Asia, humidity and heat not a good combination, so the rickshaw ride was had to be the harder and hotter stunt. Mike and Mark make quick work of it and race to the finish first, but only to find out that the stunt Mike pulled at the rickshaw station where he tampered with all the bike pumps and the fact that they had their taxi driver lead the way cost them a one hour penalty, making them lose out on a Hawaiian vacation and a third place finish. One word-dumb! Margie and Luke placed fourth and mom collapses but not before she says I need water only to fall on deaf (literally) ears, because Phil was too interested in signing to Luke "You are the fourth team to arrive!" and with that Margie faints. Ok Phil, we know you know how to sign that, now will someone get her some water! Mike and Mel's taxi ride to the beach instead of the zoo lead to a last place finish and elimination, go ahead Mel just say it, ah Phuket!-Single D

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Twilight-The DVD Movie Review

With the release of the dvd, Twilight, I told my daughter she could have a sleepover with her best friend and watch Twilight. Of course I wanted to see it too, but I didn't want to horn in tweenie night. The girls were so excited to see it they could hardly wait until dark. I inflated the aerobed, brought down blankets and pillows, baked cookies and popped pop corn and dimmed the lights (I'm such a good mother!). I did sneak a peek every now and then to see how the movie was going and if it was too gory or stuff, which the consensus was no. After the movie my daughter complained that it wasn't as good as the book to that I responded that books are usually better than the movies. The next morning, the girls were watching it again, not quite as good in the daylight. That evening after dinner, I sat down to watch it with my daughter (her third time). Ok, one complaint, why do the dvd's have to be shown on wide screen. The entire movie, I watched people with their heads cutoff, and believe me the entire movie was shot up close and personal on people's faces. Kirsten Stewart looks like a young Debra Winger. What ever happened to her? She just up and disappeared after "The Sheltering Sky". Great book, lousy movie. Kirsten is lovely playing Bella, the displaced teen in love with a vampire. She has a natural look that the camera loves. Robert Pattinson, playing Edward wears a little too much lipstick. Nothing like kissing a guy that wears more makeup than you. Both characters play their roles in a brooding, moody, wooden, somber manner, not a laugh or hysterical outburst from either of them. I think the mannequin fairly sprinkled some fairy dust and gave the department store dummies the night off.
It was interesting to watch the movie with my daughter, we could exchange such things as that's exactly the way I pictured him and stuff. Charlie's house's is really cute, but not exactly what I pictured and Charlie is way too young in the movie. I pictured Charlie older, heavy (he's a cop after all) and white hair. Now why would Bella's mom want to divorce him? I imagined Jacob a Lou Diamond Phillips type, but instead he's more like the lovable puppy next door. I can't imagine him morphing into a werewolf, he's more like a black lab.
The movie ran pretty close to the book and 700 pages makes the movie move with lightening speed. Twilight definitely left the door open for a sequel, but I think if they were smart, they would just head to Breaking Dawn and be done with it. Why bother with New Moon and Eclipse when all the audience wants to see is the relationship between Bella and Edward and tweenies or not, that's all I want to see too.-Single D