Salad Is Slaughter

I tuned in to Last Comic Standing last night; most everything on network TV is in reruns, and this looked interesting. I know that Last Comic Standing is in its fourth season, but last night was the first time I saw it. I hate most reality shows, but this one wasn’t bad.

I was a little shocked to see Gabriel Iglesias in the first set of auditions. I saw him live at the San Jose Improv in 2003 and he was pretty good. He’s also been on Comedy Central a number of times doing standup. I guess his career has stalled because he stood in line like everyone else for a chance to go in front of a live audience. Not surprising to me, he made the cut.

Last Comic Standing is basically American Idol, but with comedians. They have a couple of guys watch the auditions, then pass on the best to perform in front of a live audience later in the evening. The format doesn’t quite work for me. Watching a no-talent never-was with no act audition is dull. Listening to a no-talent never-was sing in front of Simon is entertaining. If it were me, I’d cut out the auditions.

The standup in front of the live audience was overall pretty good, but they didn’t really show enough of the performances to let you get a good feel for the comedians’ talent level. I’d like to see them increase the amount of time allocated to each performer.

Overall Last Comic Standing is pretty watchable, so I’ll probably tune in again next week.

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We had two movies left to watch this weekend, and we finished them by Saturday night.

The Producers  B  This is a remake of the 1968 movie of the same name, and it’s the story of a Broadway producer and his accountant who realize that they can make more money by producing a flop that closes in one day than with a hit that runs for years.  Overall the remake is better than the original; the sets, the direction, and the additional songs give the impression that you’re watching a stage play.  Nathan Lane was much better than the original Zero Mostel, although Lane just doesn’t come across as straight no matter how hard he tries.  Matthew Brokerick isn’t nearly as good as Gene Wilder in the original film.  Will Ferrell and Jon Lovitz are also good in the remake.

Shop Girl  F  Steve Martin must really need money badly to have agreed to appear in this dreck.  Shop Girl is a formulaic chick flick with a transparent plot and generic characters.

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We missed last year’s Boulder Creek Art and Wine Festival, but we had gone several times previously. We headed up there yesterday to see if there were any knick-knacks we wanted to add to the house. Normally we don’t sample any of the wines at these things, because the wineries tend to only bring their low end, nearly undrinkable stuff.

The Boulder Creek Art and Wine Festival has really gone down hill. In previous years there were at least a few booths with some pretty good carvings, and others with decent paintings. Yesterday nearly all of the booths were staffed by aging hippies selling crystals, crappy home made jewelry, and tie dyed clothing. I was not impressed, and it will take some convincing to get me back there next year.

After spending an hour wondering where the art was, we headed over to the Bonny Doon winery.  In past years they’ve had decent, inexpensive wines. This year we were not impressed with their offerings, with the exception of the dessert wines. They also seem to be expanding their imports, so a lot of what you get is made in Europe, and not locally.  If I wanted that, I’d go to Costco.

After the winery we drove up the coast to Duarte’s in Pescadero.  The place was really crowded so we couldn’t get a seat. That means no bloody marys or raw oysters on this trip. We got a takeout order of artichoke soup and some sandwiches and headed over to the beach. We sat in the back of the truck so we’d be protected from the wind (it was really cold and windy at the beach), ate our lunch, and watched people climb on the rocks, wondering if their stupidity was going to prove Darwin right and they would plunge to their deaths. No one took themselves out of the gene pool while we were there.

We decided to call it a day, stopped off to pick up some strawberries, then headed home.

Janet’s been off all week and rented a bunch of movies. She’s watching the ones she knows I won’t like when I’m at work, and we’ve been watching the others at night. So far I’ve seen two of the movies she’s rented and I’ve sampled parts of a third.

Cheaper by the Dozen 2  B-  This is a sequel to the remake of the 60’s classic, staring nearly everyone who was in the original remake. Cheaper by the Dozen 2 is harmless, predictable family entertainment. Steve Martin wants to have one last family vacation at the lake before his kids scatter to New York, Houston, and who knows where else. He runs in to his childhood nemesis at the lake and proceeds to get in to childish competitions with him while the kids end up getting along great.

Last Holiday   A   Queen Latifah shows once again that she is a major talent. She plays Georgia Byrd, a woman who keeps a scrap book of possibilities, but never really does anything to make her dreams come true. She’s the kind of person who will cook gourmet meals for the neighbor kid, and while he’s dining she’ll eat a Lean Cuisine. When Georgia is told that she has only a couple of weeks to live, she cashes out and flies to Europe where she starts living for the first time in her life. She embraces the philosophy of living life like you’re going to die tomorrow, because she believes that she will. I especially liked the scenes in the restaurant and her interactions with Chef Didier (played by Gérard Depardieu). This is a movie I could see over and over.

Brokeback Mountain  Incomplete  I only saw about 10 or 15 minutes of this movie spread out over several scenes as I walked through the room, so Brokeback Mountain gets an incomplete. However, from what I saw, I can safely say that I would not like this movie, and not because of the subject matter. Based upon the dialog that I heard and the scenes I saw, all they did was take a generic chick flick, replaced the Female Love Interest Number 1 with the Male Love Interest Number 2, tweaked the dialog, and saved the script.

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