Category: Brooklyn

World’s largest cube fridge

The temperature has taken a dramatic drop. It must be around 55 degrees F! There is that crispness in the air that is distinctive of fall.

In other freezer news, my freezer is defrosting. I’ve got one of those ancient circa 1950’s refrigerator/freezers. It’s so old that the freezer is a box inside the refrigerator, like a giant version of those dorm cube fridges. There ‘s no easy way to do it but to just turn it down low and just let it melt. They apparently hadn’t invented the drain pan yet, so it all ends up at the bottom of the cabinet, mostly in the veggie tray. I used the top of a spray bottle as a makeshift pump to get enough of the liquid out to pull it out without getting it all over the floor. Two half buckets of water and paper towels were deposited down the toilet. There is still about half a gallon of ice still in the box. I guess the advantage is that the stuff in my fridge had enough ice in there to keep it going during the blackout.

Did I mention that it’s getting cold in the living room?

Okay, does anybody notice that the McDonald’s “Chicken Breast Strips” commercials are on the air way too much? Kind of ridiculous – “Ooh, look, real chicken meat!” – as if that makes it healthier (it’s still fried chicken; a McChicken without the bread, lettuce, and mayo). I’ll likely end up eating this latest item, but do I have to see the commercial twice in a row? (okay, not exactly; in between was a car ad or something).

Then, there’s the weird Buick Rainier ad. It’s weird for a lot of reasons. First, odd name for a minivan/SUV hybrid. Second, the ghost character who comes forth to guide the engineers to design this hybrid vehicle – wearing a fedora and nice suit to look like he’s a classic 1950’s Good Olds Guy mascot (umm, yeah, Oldsmobile is a different type of car, I know). Third, the appearance of the head engineer/auto designer, whom I recognize is the actor who plays the lead character for ABC’s “Threat Matrix” (the series about a Dept of Homeland Security special forces unit). By the end of the Buick commercial, the engineer character looks proudly smug, thinking, “Yes, I listened to the ghost, I’ve built it, and they will come!”

Well, I don’t know if people will go for the car or not, or else be confused that this is actually an ad for “Threat Matrix” (which, I could discuss in another blog entry, but suffice it to say that it’s a strange, cheesy show; did anyone hear the joke about it, calling it “Threat Nemo”??? It remains to be seen if the series is more than a joke, but it’s a guilty pleasure right now, just waiting for it to try something really silly, not just be a brazen take on current Homeland Security issues).

For me the interesting television shows seem to be on CBS this season. Survivor 7 a.k.a. Pearl Islands [sirlinksalot links] is far more interesting this season because of the increased role-play. The survivors are really shipwrecked, and they fend for themselves more. That being said, episode two has one skinny guy trying for dear life to stay on, but gets voted off, while another manly man tries really hard to get out, but can’t manage it.

W. 42 St. facing east

In other reality show news, my all time favorite reality/contest show is The Amazing Race, which looks like it will be saved for another season because it won an Emmy. A Korean chica from NY won Big Brother 4 (the only other Asian — and fellow New Yorker — to win a reality show was on ABC’s The Mole 2), but it was not like she and the other final contestant turned the show into a “lesser of two evils” race to the bottom.

Joan of Arcadia‘s pilot is facinating if bizzare. It’s basically God as the guy in Quantum Leap from the perspective of the chick in Dawson’s Creek, if she’s always the one Touched by an Angel and her family was like the one in Family Matters (you know, the one with Erkle in it, where his dad is the police chief). The theme song, Joan Osborne’s “One of Us“, seemed to be the pitch song for the series: they literally had God as a “Just a slob…/… on a bus” during the first 15 minutes.

I watch a lot of Food Network, and I like the wierd, obscure shows. I guess technically every cooking show is a “reality” show. The closest touch between reality and irony was in this past week’s episode of Anthony Bourdain’s A Cook’s Tour in Brazil. The focus was on “Fabio”, a bon vivant “carioca” (Rio de Janero resident) who is a professional beach bum by day, playboy by night. Comments that “life is short” and to the Umberto’s Clam House shootout are prophetic to the note at the end of the credits which say “In memory of our friend Fabio —–“.

This past weekend:Brooklyn Museum’s Pulp Fiction — interesting Anti-asian propaganda sub-exhibit. Kang Suh comes through again for dinner. A deja vou all over again house party on the West Side. Setting up a computer system for a single mom and her son. Not bad compared to the “no good deed goes unpunished” week that was. This week’s events: T—‘s birthday on Wednesday. College alumni event on Thursday. I’m ushering a 600 person Chinese banquet on Saturday. I had thought that it was this past Saturday; because I was such a ditz, I had to pay for dinner for P–. If you’re going to the “dragonboaters’ wedding”, I’ll see you there.