Tag: Los Angeles (Page 3 of 3)

The Biggest Loser: down to three, almost

December 2, 2009 /

Last night on NBC’s “The Biggest Loser,” there was one more weigh-in before the live finale this coming Tuesday night. The final four would have one more opportunity to reach that finale and have a shot at the title, while two of them would be subject to a vote by all of us to determine if they deserve to be or should be in the running for it all.

The episode began with each contestant going home for 60 days after being on the ranch for a few months, and after showing a bunch of fluff with families and once again seeing Danny as a “rock star” from when he was like 17, seeing Curtis Stone cook for Danny and his family, and having the trainers visit each contestant at home and coach them a bit (we know there is more than coaching going on between Bob and Amanda)–it was time for the big jolt. That they would each be going back to Los Angeles to run a full marathon before weighing in one more time. Yikes. They did this last season and my legs wanted to buckle while sitting on my couch. But if Big Ron from last season could walk it, anyone could.

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External TV, Reality TV, The Biggest Loser, TV

Civic redevelopment the hard way, pt. 2

November 14, 2009 /

Another “2012“-inspired clip focusing on the past examples of the gleeful destruction of my birthplace and homeland as practiced by some of L.A.’s wealthiest creatives. And, yes, I realize the new film also destroys most (all?) of the rest of the world, and Roland Emmerich hasn’t exactly been kind to New York, D.C. and elsewhere in past efforts, but yet I still feel oddly singled out.

Anyhow, there really were serious problems in building L.A.’s still majestically insufficient, extraordinarily expensive subway system, but there was a lot more water involved than fire in the first seriously fouled up attempt at the important goal of creating some decent L.A. public transit in the City of Angels. Still, who wants to see a movie about busted water mains and overflowing sewers. So, instead, we got “Volcano” – from the director of “L.A. Story.” Seriously.

External Entertainment, External Movies, Movie Dramas, Movies

The Next Iron Chef: Asian re-creation

October 19, 2009 /

Last night on Food Network’s “The Next Iron Chef,” the contestants were asked to re-create a few different Asian dishes that were the signatures of various hot spots in the Los Angeles area. The chairman hand-picked these restaurants and dishes, and since chef Mullen won the previous challenge, he was allowed to pick his teammate and the other teams, as well as choose which of the four cuisines/dishes they would be re-creating.

He chose chef Appleman as his teammate, and the two of them had to re-invent a Korean hot pot dish, which has all sorts of meat and vegetables over rice. Chefs Trevino and Farmerie were paired up and had to make two kinds of Chinese dumplings–pork, and vegetable. Garces and Crenn were assigned to remake Vietnamese pho soup. And Mehta and Freitag had to make Thai green curry with fish balls (heh heh, I said fish balls).

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External TV, Reality TV, The Next Iron Chef, TV

Wrapping LAFF

June 30, 2009 /

The Los Angeles Film Festival ended Sunday and I’m not sure what I want to say about it. I saw several films and wanted to see more, but circumstances, and trying to blog about most of what I did see, kept me to a one or two movie per day average on the days I attended. Most of the films were as good as their buzz at least, but most of them had already screened at Sundance.

For me, the highlights were “Black Dynamite” — which was by far the most fun screening all around despite happening within hours of Michael Jackson’s death (which happened to be a less than a mile from where I was working on my posts) — and “We Live in Public” which was simply the most interesting film with the most interesting post-screening discussion. “Branson” was a highlight of another sort for the electrifying performer/one-man-drama, Jackson Cash. The film geek/native West Angeleno in me went moderately wild for a film I haven’t written about here, Curtis Harrington’s melange of romance and dark fantasy “Night Tide,” which was shot in late fifties Santa Monica and Venice.

Los Angeles is, of course, an extremely large city with strong neighborhoods but no true urban core (which is not to say that we aren’t trying to grow one) and a place where all kinds of movies screen all the time, if you know where to find them. It’s also, of course, the place on earth with the largest concentration of people involved with actually making movies or doing things related to making them. Getting them to spend a lot of time actually watching new films probably requires enticing them to go elsewhere and break their usual, already way too busy, routine.

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Documentaries, External Entertainment, External Movies, Movie Comedies, Movie Dramas, Movies, News

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