Voted Off the Island

Late Night Love

Have I grabbed you with my title? Are you thinking I'm in love?  Well yeah, I am...a little.

I watched two nights of the end of Conan's run on The Tonight Show.  They were, I'm sad to confess, the only episodes of Conan I ever watched. 

Oh Conan.  Love you.  You're great, talented, smart, cute, humble.  How could I have missed you all these years?  My blogging pal Bossy would have me call you Conan O'Boyfriend.

You are now officially the third man in my pantheon of Incredibly Talented & Brilliant People I Was Too Stupid and Preoccupied to Appreciate.  The first two are:

• Jimi Hendrix
• Bruce Springsteen

Now you Conan. And you get a million extra points for being a rocking family man, married to the same person for the long haul.  Like Bruce, come to think of it.

Food Depot Jingle

The commercial for Food Depot and the jingle just kills me.  What the heck is that woman singing?

As a copywriter who's penned her share of jingles, this one belongs in the Hall of Shame for worst production values and worst voice-over. I've watched this cheesy low budget spot thousand times and for the life of me I CANNOT understand the words.

Oh, and where the heck IS Food Depot? Here.

So today I googled "Food Depot jingle" and bingo.  Here's what that nasal voiced singer is singing:

Leave on a happy note.
Watching your savings grow
At Food Depot

Now I can sleep at night.

Food Porn, Bourdain Style

I love Anthony Bourdain. Huge fan. I've read all his books and I always try to catch his brilliant TV show "No Reservations" on the Travel Channel.  Last night exceeded all.  Riffing on food porn, Bourdain's show managed to capture all the cheesy sleaze of the genre, with Tony holding court in the confines of a dimly lit movie theatre.  It was brill.  It was hilarious.  It was pure evil Bourdain.  As he puts it:

"FOOD PORN is a revenge of sorts -- for everything that ever ended up on the cutting room floor. The filthiest, nastiest hour of television we could get away with. And yet -- utterly wholesome! We ain't doing nothin' that Giada, Rachael and Sandra ain't been doin' for years, officer!"

Read all about it in Tony's blog.

Real Housewives of Atlanta Coming on Bravo

We've arrived.  Bravo's putting its first multi-racial group of socially elite ATL mamas in the spotlight with The Real Housewives of Atlanta. They're from Alpharetta, Duluth, Sugar Loaf and Sandy Springs. No intowners or Buckhead Betty's in the bunch. (It's time to retire that tired term anyway.) The preview premieres on my birthday, July 30th.  Now there's an excuse for a parTAY.

According to TV Week:

The “Real Housewives of Atlanta” are DeShawn Snow, a mother to three boys and wife to the captain of the Cleveland Cavaliers; Kim Zolciak, a single mother of two and aspiring country singer; Lisa Wu Hartwell, wife to NFL player Ed Hartwell and multi-business owner; NeNe Leakes, an outspoken social butterfly and mother of two boys; and Sheree Whitfield, a single mother hoping to open her own clothing line.

Next up in the Bravo stable, Real Housewives of New Jersey.

Love Letter to Atlanta

New York City's Adam Roberts, who blogs as The Amateur Gourmet and who also is the new host of The FN Dish on Food Network, has posted a fantastic love letter extolling the Atlanta food scene.  Adam totally gets why Atlanta has such a vibrant, laid back vibe. His blog is delightful and full of fantastic photos. 

How come he loves Atlanta so much?  Turns out he lived in here for 7 years and has been harboring a major jones for the Flying Biscuit and Scott Peacock's pimiento cheese ever since. He's an Emory law school graduate and a nice Jewish boy from Boca.

Read his wonderful Atlanta foodie post here. 

Rathbun Brothers "Flay" Bobby

Last night was TV clicker madness ... I was busy toggling between the Oscars and Iron Chef America where the beefy Rathbun brothers, Kevin and Kent, sliced diced and flayed Food Network star Bobby Flay last night in "Battle Elk."   ELK!  How fitting of Atlanta's newest Prince of Steak and his Texas-based brother, to choose Flay for their battle.  And finally, what a great moment for the nation to see that when it comes to game, the Rathbun boys have got game. Their inventiveness, their integrity for the ingredients, and their sophistication were in full force last night, in a lineup that included Elk meatballs, elk carpaccio, and gougere's stuffed with elk liver, cheese, and sage. Flay was good, but Kevin and Kent were great. 

Project Runway - Episode 6

After a 4 week break, I was so looking forward to Episode 6 of Project Runway!  The title was "Eye Candy" and the challenge was tackily daunting -- to create fashions inspired by materials found at the Hershey store in Times Square. 

I got about 15 minutes into the episode and fell asleep, so now I'll have to catch the rerun.  However, I've read all the posts and seen the dresses. I know who won and who was "auf'd."  I will tell you that one dress used actual Twizzlers and another used thousands of brown Reese's Peanutbutter Cup papers.  But I won't spoil it for you.

I'll only say that this dress by Chris March, was my favorite, and it didn't win. And that lots of bloggers felt the commercial placement for Hershey products was an unseemly sellout for a reality show that has generally put talent ahead of shlock and shwag.