The Amazing Race All Stars Edition - Spoilers Ahead

UPDATE: Here's a newer spoiler that is even more precise.

So thanks to Glowy Box for the tip, here's what I could muster from the message boards about The Amazing Race All Stars edition. Now remember, I'm not sure if any of these people are actually correct but this is what I could get so far:

The list of "confirmed" people so far seems to be:

TAR1 - Guidos, Frats
TAR2 - Chas
TAR3 - JVJ, Teri/Ian
TAR4 - Tian/Jaree
TAR5 - Charla/Mirna
TAR7 - Romber, Uchenna/Joyce
TAR9 - Danielle/Eric (made up of two former teams)
TAR 10 - BQ's, David/Mary

Kris and Jon are rumoured to be on.

I have to say, I would have liked Blake and Paige (confirmed to be NOT on the race) or Emily and Nancy on the race but I'm very happy the Cha Cha Cha's (Oswald and Danny), JVJ (John Vito and Jill), Charla and Mirna and Frat Boys Kevin and Drew are all in. Beauty Queen Barbies seem to be getting a second chance, and of coures, our most beloved Bumpkins David and Mary! Plus some nice evilness in the Guidos Joe and Bill and Romber.

If you want further spoilers, (Highlight after this and down below for confirmation of names to the photos) Sorry, I would put it after the jump but I still haven't figured out how to do it.


Here are "apparently" 4 of the final 5 teams racing. (Even though the date stamp wouldn't make sense on one of them).


Danny and Oswald
Beauty Queen Barbies
Danielle and Eric


Charla and Mirna

Woo. 2 out of the final 5 then are all female teams! None of the Romber! (Well, let's hope the 5th team isn't but rumour is that it is Uchenna and Joyce)

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Volver - Movie Review

This is going to be short for now ( I may extend this at a later time). Pedro Almodovar movies. Next to Ang Lee, Pedro has had the most movies at the top of my movies list. Though while Volver is not his best work, it is still something to be seen.

It's a luscious tribute to working women, following Raimunda (Penelope Cruz in an Oscar worthy performance) and her family in Madrid after her husband is killed by her daughter, and her sister sees the ghost of her mother. To explain more would be to ruin it. Or confuse you.

The combined female cast won Best Actress at Cannes this year and as normal, Almodovar's movies are vibrant in colour and soap opera antics. As with his recent films, Volver has a maturity that help make a more realistic emotional connection to the stories.


While Volver (meaning "to return") finally doesn't quite build enough steam before it's conclusion is quickly spilled out (which I had kind of guessed early on anyways), there's a joy in watching Penelope Cruz ACT again as the camera essentially makes love to her.

8.5/10 or B+

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Brothers and Sisters - Home for the Holidays

Light the Lights

Paige doesn't get her prayers answered (to cure her diabetes) so goes all Jewish since Nora is technically Jewish. Nora who went secular long time ago embraces Hanukkah to teach grandchild Paige but scares her off with her newly found fervent behaviour.

Kevin helps fight Justin's case in court against the Military and loses the case but still manages to gain 6 more months before Justin must show up for duty.

Kitty is offered her own show after bribing the senator, then confessing about it on television.

Sarah, Saul and Tommy find out that Holly owns 1/3rd the share of that land they discovered on the last episode, the one that conveniently would be worth 30 million dollars if sold to the military. Sarah tries to lie to Holly about it's worth which of course backfires, finally settling on giving her shares of Ojai and half the land's worth so that Ojai doesn't go bankrupt.

Okay. Love Patricia Wettig but I'm still not sure I like this Holly character or how she plays it. Something irks me about it though maybe she's supposed to? At least now she has a legitimate reason to stay within the storylines (and with hopefully the appearance of Rebecca soon (with hopefully Everwood alum Emily VanCamp in the role)). Oh yeah, and Sarah's husband (played by John Pyper-Ferguson) Joe Whedon actually gets a whole bunch of speaking lines this week! Plus still totally blown away by Dave Annable's acting as he keeps up with his esteemed peers!

Love how they somehow stuck in celebrating both Hanukkah and Christmas in the same episode without being Chrismukkah. Way to cover the demographics.

So everything continues to conveniently fall into place after much drama but man, still loving this show and what a perfect show to end off the weekend on Sunday nights!

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Please Awaken the Box Office at Spring Awakening

The reviews are out and I knew they would love it. People, go get tickets NOW. (Cause sadly I think it needs all the help it can get right now, but if there's any justice, you will all be clamouring for tickets very soon enough).

Here was my review (uh. I LOVED it), and here's a clip of one of the songs.

NOTE: Here are some additional reviews that have come out today.

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The Movie Race is On

So, the onslaught of critics awards are starting to spill out, and some clear leaders are emerging in this years Oscar race, and thank heavens, nothing I can really object to so far (must I remind people again of my disappointment of Crash winning this past year?).

So The Queen, The Departed, Letters From Iwo Jima and United 93 seem to be emerging as leaders. Haven't seen Letters yet but United 93 is definitely my pick of the best movie I've seen so far this year, with The Queen and The Departed as worthy close runners. I'm glad to see Ryan Gosling being noted for Half Nelson, though I found both indies Little Miss Sunshine and Thank for for Smoking as a little overated. Good films but not the best movies I've seen this year, nor the best independent movies I've seen before.

Funny how Boston critics chose Boston-set The Departed, and Washington Critics chose Washington based United 93 though. Just a note. (Last year Toronto Critics chose Toronto filmed A History of Violence so hey, who am I to say?)

Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards
BEST PICTURE Letters from Iwo Jima Runner Up: The Queen
DIRECTOR Paul Greengrass, United 93 Runner-up: Clint Eastwood, Flags of our Fathers, Letters from Iwo Jima
ACTRESS Helen Mirren, The Queen Runner-up: Penelope Cruz, Volver
ACTOR Tie - Sacha Baron Cohen, Borat and Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland
SCREENPLAY The Queen by Peter Morgan Runner-up: Little Miss Sunshine by Michael Arndt
SUPPORTING ACTRESS Luminita Gheorghiu, The Death of Mr. Lazarescu Runner-up: Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls
SUPPORTING ACTOR Michael Sheen, The Queen Runner-up: Sergi Lopez, Pan's Labyrinth
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM The Lives of Others directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck Runner-up: Volver directed by Pedro Almodovar
DOCUMENTARY/NON-FICTION FILM An Inconvenient Truth directed by Davis Guggenheim Runner-up: Darwin's Nightmare directed by Hubert Sauper
PRODUCTION DESIGN Eugenio Caballero, Pan's Labyrinth Runner-up: Jim Clay, Veronica Falzon, Geoffrey Kirkland, Children of Men
ANIMATION Happy Feet (George Miller)Runner-up: Cars (John Lasseter, Joe Ranft)

Boston Society Of Film Critics
Best Picture The Departed United 93, runner-up
Best Director Martin Scorsese, The Departed Paul Greengrass, United 93, runner-up
Best Actor Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson, runner-up
Best Actress Helen Mirren, The Queen Judi Dench, Notes on a Scandal, runner-up
Best Supporting Actor Mark Wahlberg, The Departed TIE: Michael Sheen, The Queen; Alec Baldwin, The Departed/Running with Scissors/The Good Shepherd, runners-up
Best Supporting Actress Shareeka Epps, Half Nelson Meryl Streep, The Devil Wore Prada, runner-up
Best Ensemble Cast United 93 The Departed, runner-up
Best Screenplay William Monahan, The Departed Peter Morgan, The Queen, runner-up
Best Foreign Language Film Pan's Labyrinth Volver, runner-up
Best DocumentaryTIE: Deliver Us From Evil/Shut Up & Sing 51 Birch Street, runner-up
Best New Filmmaker Ryan Fleck, Half Nelson Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris, Little Miss Sunshine, runners-up
Best Cinematography Guillermo Navarro. Pan's Labyrinth TIE: Stuart Dryburgh, The Painted Veil; Xiaoding Zhao, Curse of the Golden Flower, runners-up

Washington DC AreaFilm Critics Awards
Best Film United 93
Best Actor Forrest Whitaker, Last King of Scotland
Best Actress Helen Mirren, The Queen
Best Supporting Actor Djimon Hounsou, Blood Diamond
Best Supporting Actress Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls
Best Director Martin Scorsese, The Departed
Best Original Screenplay Michael Arndt, Little Miss Sunshine
Best Adapted Screenplay Jason Reitman, Thank You For Smoking
Best Foreign Film Pan's Labrynth
Best Animated Feature Happy Feet
Best Documentary An Inconvenient Truth
Best Ensemble Little Miss Sunshine
Best Art Direction Marie Antoinette

New York Film Critics Online
Picture The Queen
Director Stephen Frears, The Queen
Actor Forrest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland
Actress Helen Mirren, The Queen
Supporting Actor Michael Sheen, The Queen
Supporting Actress(Tie) Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls and Catherine O'Hara, For Your Consideration
Screenplay Peter Morgan, The Queen
Ensemble CastL ittle Miss Sunshine
Debut as Director Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris - Little Miss Sunshine
Breakthrough Performer Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls
Cinematography Dick Pope, The Illusionist
Film Score Philip Glass, The Illusionist
Documentary Feature An Inconvenient Truth
Animated Feature Happy Feet
Foreign Language Picture Pan's Labrynth
Humanitarian Award DEEPA MEHTA (Water) for taking risks to create films aboutthe difficulties of social change in India especially as it affectswomen.
Ten Best Pictures (Alphabetical)BABEL (Paramount Vantage) THE FOUNTAIN (Warner Bros.) INLAND EMPIRE (Absurda) LITTLE CHILDREN (New Line) LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE (Fox Searchlight) PAN'S LABYRINTH (Picturehouse) THE QUEEN (Miramax) THANK YOU FOR SMOKING (Fox Searchlight) VOLVER (Sony Pictures Classics) WATER (Fox Searchlight)

AFI AWARDS 2006
(in alphabetical order)

BABEL
BORAT: CULTURAL LEARNINGS OF AMERICA FOR MAKE BENEFIT GLORIOUS NATION OF KAZAKHSTAN
THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA
DREAMGIRLS
HALF NELSON
HAPPY FEET
INSIDE MAN
LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA
LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE
UNITED 93

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The Amazing Race - Standby's and EZ Passes

- Oh baby, we can finally declare our love for each other and ourselves. Let's go get high now...

We Just Won't Die, Like Roaches
Dude, I'm Such a Hot Giant Chick Right Now!
Say Your Deepest Prayers Ever

"We won in life and now the Amazing Race"? I think I'm going to throw up a little now.

Nice to see at least one all female team make it to the finals. While I still didn't completely love the Barbie's, it's too bad they were eliminated in Barcelona since they did have the best chance against Druggie Models and Rob and Kimberly (whose fight in the tomatoes was both hilarious and irritating). Loved the walking giants. Still makes me laugh. Tyler and James. Yes they were models, but that whole part where they sounded so knowingly about fashion either made them sound a bit high on themselves, or a little gay (even for me).

Eh, the finale was still fun to watch but was I really surprised by the winner? One Million will sure buy a lot of crack/cocaine! (Oh please, you know they'll relapse. They're models. Oh god I'm so evil). As I've said before, I'm not sure how much I like models winning the loot, let alone former drug addicts, plus I've had enough with the all young guys teams winning (what is this? like the 5th or 6th time now? Rob and Brennan, Boston Boys, Chip and Reichen, Hippies, if you sort of count the 3 boys and one sister family team) but okay, so I didn't completely hate Tyler and James and at least them over Rob and Kim, and I did think 'Bama was a little too bitchy at times, but oh well. Onto the All Stars Race!

Notice to all Taxi Drivers though, get an EZ Pass, how can you NOT have one? Plus to all my friends who think I'm so lucky. See, Standby not always so good.

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Survivor: Cook Islands - Oh Great, THAT Episode

I could finally watch Survivor a bit last night (though I watched My Name is Earl, again, very funny, particularly a drugged Joy calmly but finally telling off the intrusive neighbours) since The Office and Ugly Betty weren't running new episodes, but Survivor HAD to be the family reunion episode. Oh god. Boring.

Anyways, is it wrong for me, an Asian, to be rooting for Becky and Yul? Finally after all the big kerfuffle of the race thing, we are left with... oh. right. the Pretty People. How's that for segregation. Anyways, I was rooting for Yul up to last night, and while I hated Jonathan, I knew that he was a good person to have in Yul's pocket that could help take him and Becky to the end (granted, on the other hand, have I not learned anything from Richard Hatch and Will Kirby). Sadly, they decided to kick Jonathan off leaving the young pretty people (I'm not even sure if I'm complaining or not anymore) as the final six survivors including Yul and Adam. Of course it could still be fun watching them all implode now, backstabbing each other 'til no end. Personally, I'm just waiting for the reunion episode to find out what Brad meant about JP.

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Shameless Plug - Toronto Fringe Theatre

I love that something that came from the Toronto Fringe is now doing well enough to be talking about profits in the MILLIONS of dollars. The Drowsy Chaperone (which I thought was not the best musical I've seen but still very fun and entertaining) recouped its $8 Million initial investment. I loved this statement from Playbill.com "The milestone should give creators and producers of fresh musicals some hope: The Drowsy Chaperone is an original, out-of-the-blue show penned by Broadway neophytes and featuring performers who, for the most part, don't have a high profile outside of the theatre community. It also boasts that unusual title and is not based on an already-existing property, like a novel or film."

Hell ya! Enough of these Jukebox musicals (Ring of Fire = TANKED, Lennon = TANKED, The Times Are A Changin' = TANKED etc. etc. etc... okay. so Jersey Boys is like the biggest hit on Broadway right now but apparently it actually pulls together a story together though I'm still wary of seeing it, and Mamma Mia was awesome but mainly because of the Abba cornyness of it all), and now that they are making musicals out of movies including LOTR (which was not as terrible as people said and has potential but still not great), Legally Blonde, Batman and Dirty Dancing, and with High Fidelity seemingly like its going to be a big loser, let's go and applaud something fresh and new: like Spring Awakening (I know, I'm now obsessed and going to be really pushy about it until you all see it and it becomes a big hit!). (On the other hand, The Full Monty and Billy Elliot The Musical were really quite good).

So as I've mentioned before, The Toronto Fringe seems to be doing pretty well in NY, with The Drowsy Chaperone and now Evil Dead The Musical (okay, it's based on movies but it's a spoof of horror flicks in musical format, how can you NOT love it?)! Plus recent shows like Boygroove, Top Gun the Musical and AutoShow seem like shows that can move beyond the fringe for an afterlife (Boygroove already made a return to Toronto in a permanent theatre).

Of course, apparently one of the co-writers on The Drowsy Chaperone is now miserable at his success... ah... the artsy brooding types, and to think I'm trying to be one of them.

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Scrubs - Baby Back Ribs

My Mirror Image
My Best Friend's Baby's Baby and My Baby's Baby

I'm not sure if Elizabeth Banks is ever going to be really famous. For such a beautiful girl, she can balance between natural acting to comedic slapstick without feeling like she is ever mugging for the camera. In essence, she's too good to be famous. She has the face to be an A-lister but her actual talents will drag her down. How sad.

That being said, I'm so glad that she's on Scrubs as Kim and that Kim and J.D. finally decided to keep the baby after the wonderful occasion of Isabelle Turk's appearance coming after a froughtful birth (how great was Turk's frozen hand able to soothe hot and bothered Carla after he finally got unstuck from the ice machine?) (and will someone please hand Judy Reyes an Emmy already? and bring along another for John C. McGinley?)

So not much to say about 2 more wonderfully funny and heartfelt episodes from a show that is extremely consistent at bringing heartful but wackily funny episodes week in and week out (whenever NBC actually plays them). I love that every characters gets to have comedic moments to shine in every episode, including Keith who is funnier than the pretty boy lets on.

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PS22 Shamelessly Plugs Degrassi!

This kinda made me teary eyed actually...

Kudos to Mr. B. and the Chorus kids of PS22 of Staten Island, NY and a bravo to the Deon kid. So cute!

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