TV: Amazing Race 9 - Ep 9

And then there were four.

The oldsters did a great job of staying in the race for a long time, but elimination always seemed inevitable. And I suspect that it was not the strenuous challenges this week that did them in. I think Ray and Yolanda even admitted Fran and Barry had "dusted them" on the bike ride to a lighthouse. I think their downfall was caused by taking too long to find the final clue in the caves. Having a taxi driver flake out on them didn't help either. At least they won the best prize given out to the winners so far this season with a trip to Rome.

There are usually 12-hour breaks at each Pit Stop, but it seemed like the teams were arriving later and later at night last week but leaving in the late afternoon this week (almost a 24-hour break). BJ was burning in the midday sun and the drive to Jabreen Castle was just 150 miles. Maybe the speed limit was low and they ended up eating the underground stove cooked dinner on the road. Unfortunately I deleted the episodes before confirming any of the times.

I would not have left any money for the Hippies this late in the race. It certainly didn't bring any good karma as the teams finished in order of stinginess with the Frat boys leaving an IOU of $100 to be paid after the race (which would be small change if they end up winning this thing). The Hippies gave a ride to a hitchhiking Bedouin who paid them back in kind. Then they had no problems getting money from plane passengers (who could afford a flight from Oman to Perth) and ended up a few hundred dollars ahead. I wonder how long the flight was held up so those two guys could get on board. It looked like a pretty empty flight.

It will be interesting to see who can get to the next Yield on this Race first as the Hippies and Mojo definitely have a rivalry going. Not sure how the Hippies can threaten to use the Yield if they stay in third place.

The long trips left the teams pretty bunched up all the way to Rottnest Island. I guess Perth / Fremantle is the hometown of one of at least one of my regular readers. I've only had the pleasure of hanging out in Melbourne, but I'll revisit Australia someday.

The race borrowed a page from my other favorite show, Prison Break, this week. It may work out for Mojo to have lost time on the bike ride and detour so that the Frat Boys arrived at the prison an hour earlier. All the effort the Frat boys put out trying to find things inside the prison and running to the pit stop instead of taking a taxi could leave them a little worn down the rest of the way. Jeremy had no search algorithm at all.

Mojo keeps edging closer and closer to first, but hopefully they will not get too disheartened by that and realize the only leg of the race that really matters is the last one. The Frat boys still look like the favorites in this thing.

Best scene this week: Fran and Barry entering a backpackers' hotel room called "The Pleasure Dome" and commenting about their sex life (or recent lack thereof).

Hopefully the excitement and emotional fireworks will continue to escalate next week.

TV: Amazing Race 9 - Ep 8

The desert heat must have affected the Race contestants this week. They all acted out of character and finished in almost reverse order. The usually happy Ray and Yolanda started to show strain in their relationship, the Oldies had no problems seeing clue boxes, and the Frat Boys displayed hints of self-doubt.

BJ did a dead-on impression of Lake and then mocked the behavior of the Nerds and the Pinks. It was funny, but little did he know this would earn some bad karma resulting in spending over an hour digging under a hot sun for a buried supper while all the other teams passed his team.

The Hippies only luck was that it was a non-elimination leg which felt overdue. Even though they will be left with no money, they may not have too much trouble getting cash from people living in a country that Monica described as "Crazy Rich" and where even a McDonald's looks like a temple.

Monica is a quote machine (either that or the poor editors may have to mine hours of her chatter for the few diamonds in the rough). Last week it was Greece where "thinking began," and this week she commented on the opulence of Oman and little man that she wanted to take home in her pocket. Her partner Joseph came in second by calling Jabreen Castle, Jamboree Castle. Then Ray came third with his comment about the Arabic language being all squiggly.

Hopefully no camels were harmed in the making of this episode. It was kind of cute seeing them get loaded into the bedded bed of a pickup truck and I chuckled at the camels heckling the racers at the Detour.

Driving through the water looked fun, but the one time I drove my car through a relatively deep puddle, it ended up with a busted water pump later that day. I know nothing about cars, so I'm unsure if the puddle was a cause or mere coincidence. I don't remember if the cars in the show had snorkels or anything.

I thought my quote for last week's Photo Finish was funnier than someone else's quote that mentioned plastic surgery. I couldn't think of anything "clean" to submit for this week's photo.

Next week we get rowing through dark, narrow, underground tunnels in Australia. That would have been a tough challenge for me. One of my recurring nightmares involves getting stuck in a cave / tunnel / vent.

Web: Belated Happy Easter

Work and other commitments have kept me busy this week. Posted my Friday movie reviews on Monday and may not get around to my Amazing Race reviews until Saturday. So I'll continue the trend of being 3 days late by pointing you to a (cartoonishly violent but) funny video.

Also, here's a photo of two recently hatched Canada gosling and parents lounging at the Oracle pond.

Movies: Weekly Recaps

Over the years, it's almost become a ritual for me to visit the movie theater with some friends on a Friday or Saturday night (even though I already subscribe to just about every cable channel available). Last year was an odd exception as I knew it might be hard to enjoy regular movies after watching the Lord of the Rings. Time to play some catch up (though I'll forego the hyperlinks and just recommend going to imdb directly).

King Kong - It would be unfair to expect Peter Jackson to top Lord of the Rings, so I went to the theater trying to keep my expectations low. In a way, Jackson squeezed a trilogy into a single movie. One part portrait of depression era New York City, another part rollicking Jurassic Park sequel, and finale a touching love story of an odd sort. So it was 3 movies for the price of one. Except for a few nitpicks and some weak special effects, it was quite enjoyable. It's possible that some weaknesses were left as is so that the director could keep his childhood visions and passions of how he'd remake this movie intact. His love for this subject did come through the screen for me, plus it was the best excuse to stare at Naomi Watt's angelic face for 3 hours. Evan Parke's performance as Hayes also stood out. B+

Good Night and Good Luck - The events portrayed in the movie happened long before I was born, but I ended up reading much about this era as a side effect of doing research on President Nixon for an elementary school history assignment. David Strathairn seemed to be channeling Edward R Murrow. Other than reminding viewers that those in power could throw around "labels" to distort truth and create an atmosphere in fear, I wasn't sure this movie would be Oscar nominated in most years. However, it was still fascinating to watch. B

Match Point - I've always been a big fan of Woody Allen's earlier movies. His more recent movies have been good at best. This movie falls into the same category as Mystic River for me. Great acting and interesting characters (though nobody I'd actually cheer for) undone by a dull, predictable story . I haven't had a chance to ask any Brits about how accurate some of the portrayals are in this film. C+

Munich - This may be the best movie I saw which was nominated for 2005 (somehow I missed Crash and Brokeback Mountain). I liked Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can a little bit more, but in general, it's difficult to rank all the classic films that have been directed by this one person. From AI onwards, it appears Steven Spielberg has permanently inherited a touch of darkness from Stanley Kubrick (who seems to have done a number on Tom Cruise as well since Eyes Wide Shut). But I won't complain much about that. I was still a very young child when the tragedies of the 1972 Olympics occurred, but many of my memories and feelings of confusion resurfaced as the ABC Sports coverage was shown. The movie was fascinating to watch from beginning to end with some surprising "in your face" violence that seems unavoidable given the subject matter. It raised more questions than it answered about terrorism and vengeance, but again it felt like everything fit and fell into place. I know I'm enjoying a movie when my brain does not struggle to rewrite things on the screen. A

Inside Man - While this movie portrays a very interesting bank heist (somehow the Oceans Eleven remake spawned several copycats recently), I suspect New Yorkers would have the most appreciation of the other things going on inside this movie. I've seen Denzel Washington do better work in other movies but he's still better than most actors even when he's not in his top game (though it may be that he was straddled with a detective character that looked like ones I've seen before like Woody Harrelson's character in Before the Sunset). Chiwetel Ejiofor who did a great job in Serenity shines again as Denzel's partner. Jodie Foster moves around and cat complete with a Cheshire smile, so befitting of her character - amazing. A-

Thank You for Smoking - One commercial claimed this movie was laugh out loud funny and compared it to the Wedding Crashers. I sort of beg to differ but only so people don't watch this with the wrong expectations. I only laughed out loud a couple of times but I think I had a grin or smirk on my face for most of the movie. It was a great tongue in cheek exaggerated commentary on attempts to use "spin" vs. facts to try to influence public opinion. B

V for Vendetta (redux) - I decided to give this movie a rare second viewing last Friday because I had a feeling there was more to the movie than met the eye. This time I sat in a regular theater (not IMAX) and sat further back. Tom Kyte beat me to the punch in commenting on the considerable symbolism and recurring themes in this movie. I also caught some things I missed the first time around (which again I can't say much about without giving away plot) which better plugged some of the holes that I thought were there before. I also forgot to mention Hugo Weaving's achievement of being able to display emotion despite being hidden behind a mask. He couldn't even leverage his lips like Peter Weller in Robocop or Michael Keaton in Batman. All Hugo Weaving could do was tilt his head or position his shoulders and basically let his voice do most of the work.
The Wachowski brothers adapted this screenplay before they wrote the Matrix so it was also fun to analyze how they influenced each other. One of the scenes near the end reminded me of one of Clint Eastwood's early westerns, but its title still escapes my memory. B

Most of the movies I've watched recently have had some common undercurrents. I guess it's true that popular movies and books sometimes say as much or more about the time they were created as the subjects that they were supposed to be about.

TV: Amazing Race 9 - Ep 7

The theme this week was shards -- ancient ruins, plate shards, glass shards, pottery shards, and the shards of a broken spirit.

Apparently, many of my friends were unaware of the time slot change for the Amazing Race resulting in low ratings. Hopefully we'll hear better news this week. But if CBS decides to cancel the series because the production costs were higher than the ad revenue, I'll blame Fran and Barry for damaging their car.
I must admit that was good editing by the Amazing Race producers though. When they showed the car parked next to the trees, my immediate thought was howa team may be easily distracted and smack into one of them, and then it was "BAM!" a short time later. Nice way to make me feel psychic.

And that rear ender bender was a slow point in what felt like a hectic episode. For the first time in what feels like many legs, the racers were bunched together again to fly from Sicily to Rome for literally just a caffe espresso before heading off to Greece. At least they got to see the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps - to that I can just say, "Bella! Bella!"

It was a tough decision to take a cab or the metro to that area. I have not been to Rome - yet, but street traffic in any large city can always be unpredictable. In the end, the ones who chose the cab were faster. It may not have mattered much anyway as I think all the racers ended up on the same plane to Greece.

The DaVinci clue was pretty lame, and I say that not just because even the frat boys figured it out even though they acted as if they'd never seen that picture before. The tie-in for the upcoming movie was too obvious, but if it keeps the production in the black so the Amazing Race can live on a few more seasons, then I'll live with it. [And can I get my nickle for including the link to the site in my blog?]

Breaking dishes looked like fun (though it was like smashing stunt bottles in Germany). At first I thought the frat boys biggest challenge was to avoid being distracted by women. Now they need to add dangerous horseplay to that list. First falling backward in a wheelchair, and then jumping onto a pile of breakable plates and then getting a small cut from one of the shards. Then again maybe I'm showing signs of being raised by overly protective parents. Hopefully burning the fast forward in this leg will not be waste, but it probably will be.

In Greece, the Olympics challenge was just hilarious. Those Greek wrestlers actual put up a serious effort despite having to take on both team members at once. Strong man Ray shockingly did not have the coordination to throw a javelin as Mojo breezed past them.

I don't know how it happened once again, but the Oldsters were the slowest to a clue box yet keep staying alive due to huge mistakes by others. This time it was the hippies and the Lakers who broke the cardinal rule of carefully reading maps. I think Fran and Barry must be carrying a four-leaf clover with them or voodoo dolls of the other teams. They forgot to hit Ray and Yolanda with the hex this week as they managed to read their map and finish a more than decent second.

And so we bid "adio" to Lake, who despite scattered rain, completely dried up in exasperation and required his wife to calm him down. His "dang" quotes will be missed. It would have been fun to see his reaction to being in the Middle East next week. Maybe if he had packed doses of N2O, his team could have stayed in the race to the end.

M2C: Who'll Stop the Rain

- I was supposed to be attending my first SF Giants game of the season tonight, but that pesky rain has postponed the game by a couple of days. Only 31 rainouts over about 50 years is a decent record.

- If California does slide into the ocean it will be due to mud slides rather than earthquakes.

- Most of the times I've dislocated my shoulder, some form of rain was implicated.

- Traffic always worsens on a rainy day. But it's not because Californians don't know how to drive in this weather. The problem is they aren't even driving or paying attention to the road even when conditions are perfect. I've witnessed people driving while dialing numbers on their cell phones, putting on makeup, reading the newspaper, and watching (porn?) movies on their in-dash DVD players. Of course looking for this kind of violation means I'm distracted too... oops.

Exhibit A - Britney letting her baby drive.














Exhibit B - Owner letting poodle drive - (courtesy my cell phone camera)














Exhibit C - Me trying to use my cell phone to take a picture of a family of deer while driving (okay, in reality, I pulled over and rolled down my window and fumbled for my cell, which let them get much further away from my car, but this sounded funny)

TV: Amazing Race 9 - Ep 6

Kind of an interesting mish-mash of stuff happening this week. However, in the end it was a predictable finishing order as the teams spent more time touring the beautiful island of Sicily.

The hippies continued to have fun while staying at or near the head of the race. They played with a dog and put up a bogus "Official sign in sheet" at one of the challenges that the Frat Boys almost took seriously. The two teams talked as if they were turning into rivals (pixie dust... vs. dumb luck...), but there are some compromising photos floating around MySpace that may indicate they were all partying together a little too hard in Florida recently.

Nice editing by the producers by having Monica talk about how strong she is only to have her break down in tears at a later challenge. This time she got filthy, but wasn't loving it. Hauling a dead fish isn't my idea of fun either, and overall she's been a trooper. Joseph made a wise decision to listen to the woman and trust her counting abilities.

I also agree with Joseph's observation about how more open and trusting Europeans are with strangers compared to Americans. That still throws me for a loop sometimes. Ray and Yolanda escaped last place as they once again relied on the kindness of strangers to get directions everywhere (though some people found Ray intimidating later). Their relationship future looks like its getting brighter future, but I fear their chances of winning seem to be dimming just as quickly.

And leave it to Lake and Michelle to display no trust the locals at all as they had their money clips tightly secured onto their bodies. If they've had those things tied on like that during the whole race, then it might explain many of their mistakes -- blood circulation being cut off from their brains.

Kayak polo looks fun. But were those guys even trying to play defense against the contestants? Not sure why Ray thought he had to shoot from 3-point range. I expect to see Sicilian Kayak Polo matches on ESPN8 "The Ocho" someday.

Fran and Barry somehow keep plugging along and I'm not sure what the secret to their success is. I'd hesitate to buy fish from a sweaty, old guy with such hairy triceps (but I'm one to talk...). They win the quote of the week with "There's a fabulous statue ahead -- with no head!" [Cutaway to shot of a fabulous statue with no head.]

Funny scene - the hippies grabbing bear hugs from Monica as Joseph looks on with a "WTF?" expression. I guess the hippies learned a trick from the frat boys who did not get distracted by women this week (perhaps still mourning the loss of the Double-Ds).

Quick update - I just noticed my caption was chosen on the CBS TAR website (yes I sometimes go by Eric but that's another story). I thought I had an even better caption for last week's episode referencing "shrinkage" but maybe it was too risque for CBS (or they never watched Seinfeld).

M2C: Blame it on the Rain

My two cents on all the rain in California:

From the Simpsons:
Lisa (concerned upon seeing Homer who had moved out of the house for some reason): Dad, where have you been staying?
Homer: Have you heard of the Four Seasons?
Lisa (relieved): Yes!
Homer: Good. Because that's what I've been living through while sleeping in the park.

Usually there are four seasons in the Bay Area: Rainy, Sunny (except for fog in SF and Daly City), Really Hot (right when school starts in September), and Chapped Lips. This year rainy season has decided to stick around for 5 or 6 months starting with tropical storms around October followed by the usual winter pattern. Now when it rains in Florida, it is like a 10 minute shower that just passes through town, and you can feel the humidity disappear just before and after the downpour, so it is almost a pleasant break. However, rain in SF is like that guest who doesn't have a clue when to leave. He just sticks around for days at a time, tells you depressing stories, and keeps you up all night with loud snoring.

It's been raining so much I forgot baseball spring training had come and gone because the rain usually stops by then. The Giants already have had one game rained out - in San Diego of all places. It almost never rains down there.

This is the first time I've gone on road trips and dreaded coming back home each time. Once this rain stops, I might have to spend a month or so hiding out from the mold and pollen (or whatever it is I am allergic to). Hmm... maybe Hawaii will be nice. I haven't sneezed in that state yet.

A few weeks ago, when the wind and rain was particularly nasty, I saw one of those overnight shipping guys struggling to tie down a cart full of boxes he was delivering. Then despite all that one strong gust knocked over most of the boxes and had them rolling like tumbleweeds in different directions. The guy was really quick in wrangling the boxes back together even before I could think of helping (I was way at the other end of the parking lot) with the wind and rain making me want to head for the warmth and safety of my car.

Anyway, if someone in my apartment complex recently received a brand new, but defective desktop computer, don't blame the vendor. Blame it on the rain, yeah yeah.

Weather and commentary to be continued...