dewelar

It isn't just DVR -- Sling's on-demand feature cut it off too, and I had to go back to the program guide and watch the beginning of the next show. That's actively evil. Anyway, I think this episode was the best of the season. Kind of glad it's over, though, as Mrs. Dewelar and I are done with Halloween already. Looking forward to all the holiday shows (Holiday Baking Championship, Christmas Cookie Challenge, the new Ultimate Hanukkah Challenge -- after last season not so much the Thanksgiving one, though we'll probably still watch it)!

The single once more rules the day, and thus does everything old eventually become new again.

I know Mayan Pyramids, and you, sir, did not create a Mayan Pyramid!!!! No, not in the least. Native American burial mound, maybe, but the grey not-really-marbling wouldn't have fit that, either. This has been a very pedestrian season overall. Nothing particularly bad, but nothing that's wowed me either, so I suppose it has served its purpose as perfectly cromulent time filler for me.

I don't think too many folks doubt that Damiano was snotty on this show. I definitely didn't care for him, to the point that I almost didn't watch the Christmas Cookie Challenge after seeing he was going to be on it. He was light years better there, and I would gladly take new-and-improved Damiano over Katie Lee. I actually don't mind not having Lorraine Pascal this season, as she's already on the Spring and Holiday versions and I kind of like having different sets of judges on the different series. That said, I really, really, really wish we could have Sherry Yard back instead of Katie. Re: the episode...I also think that Brittany should have gone home over Jess. Overall, it was kind of an underwhelming start. Too bad we can't get Goth Helena from GBBO over for this show 😄 !

This is my first season watching it, and have enjoyed it so far, although I definitely agree that it needs less Tom Allen. He's the kind of character best enjoyed in small doses. I like Jo Brand more here than I have in other shows, but she does seem a bit bored by the whole thing. Otherwise, I'd say it's fine for what it is.

As mentioned above, this was a problem with the challenges this season -- he made chocolate cake four times because there were five cake challenges. This might not have been such a glaring issue if we'd had a couple of cookie challenges thrown in for variety. They kept saying this was the best bunch they've had, but really, how would they know? Glad Trevin won, as he was my favorite, but also would have been fine with Sophie (who was Mrs. Dewelar's favorite). I appreciated the thought Trevin put into his planet -- it really did look like the pictures of Jupiter we got back from our spacecraft. I do wonder how much of Tarek's awkwardness comes from his family's lifestyle -- he seems to have lived in a lot of different places, so presumably they move around often which could have led to a lack of socialization for him. Although he annoyed me, I could empathize -- or I could just be projecting :) .

If I'm remembering correctly, the Post is probably closer to the British Daily Mail. The Telegraph is more center-right, but still traditionally Conservative.

Yeah, I suppose 5 out of 10 might qualify as dominating in this era of country music :( .

Today's new CD to us is 2001's Pretty Together by Sloan. Overall, this was a perfectly fine pop-rock album, but I can't say there were many standout tracks. Well, one track did stand out, but not in the right way: track 9, "In Your Eyes", had the potential to be a very good song, but was ruined by poor production. Once again, the bass guitar was the problem -- much too loud compared to the rest of the instrumentation. Strange in that the rest of the album did not have this issue. "If It Feels Good Do It" was a good opening track, but I don't feel like we got anything really good again until "Who You Talkin' To?" at track 10, just a fair bit of nondescript but perfectly cromulent music. Tough call on my favorite track between that one and the one following, but I think I'll go with the latter, "I Love a Long Goodbye": Still, if you're in the mood for solid Canadian pop-rock, you can do a lot worse than Sloan.

Sometimes, this happens. Sometimes, there's an album that just doesn't do anything for me, and sometimes it's by an artist that I have otherwise enjoyed. Today, that album is 1993's Mexican Moon by Concrete Blonde. I think Johnette Napolitano has a great, unique voice, and the other two albums of theirs I own are decent, if uneven. Unfortunately, this album has nothing that I'd care to hear again. I am not a fan of songs that drone, and this album has too many of those. I am also not generally a fan of songs with a lot of distortion effects, and this album also has too many of those. It also has a weird Spanish-but-not-proper-Spanish version of the title track that closes the album. If I had to pick a favorite track, it might be track 5, "Rain", as one of the 3-4 I could listen to straight through without wincing: If anyone else enjoys this album, good on you. It's just not my thing.

*raises hand* The first few times I heard it, that was definitely what I thought it was. I figured it might have something to do with Lawrence of Arabia -- hey, I was in grade school, and I didn't know what those clothes were made of!

Skipped another day yesterday -- needed some more familiar music while fretting over Dorian -- but we're back in business today! This time, it's 2001's Yola by Eleanor McEvoy. I generally have to be in the right frame of mind to listen to McEvoy, and this album is no exception. I first discovered her via the song "Please Heart, You're Killing Me" from the album before this one, Snapshots. That's still my favorite song of hers, but this album had some good tracks, including the opener "I Got You to See Me Through", "Easy in Love" and "Leaves Me Wondering". My issue with the album is in the mixing -- when present, the bass is way too loud compared to the other instruments, to the point that I skipped some tracks rather than allow my desk to be vibrated into splinters. The worst offender was track 2 "Isn't It a Little Late?", which was downright offensive to the ear. I'm not skilled at manipulating audio files, but this album makes me want to learn more. Anyway, unlike most of what I listen to, I think my favorite track here was track 4, "Seasoned Love". It's an absolutely beautiful acoustic piece, with lovely piano work by co-producer Brian Connor:

Love this song. Absolutely LOVE this song. My friends and I played the hell out of my 45 of it during my senior year of high school.

No new CD yesterday, but today we listened to 1992's Family Groove by The Neville Brothers. I was a latecomer to the Neville family, being introduced to them through Aaron's son Ivan, whose music I was a big fan of in the late 80s/early 90s. I've never been a fan of Aaron himself -- actually, I kind of hate his voice, but obviously that's subjective -- and this album suffers from a bit too much of his presence, as well as jams that go on a bit too long at the end of some songs. That said, I thought their funky cover of "Fly Like an Eagle" was a good start, and "Let My People Go" was a good funky song (even if it's a bit heavy on the message -- it reminded me a lot of the "Sun City" charity single from a few years earlier). "On the Other Side of Paradise" was also an interesting Caribbean turn, but my favorite track was probably "Line of Fire". The Nevilles seemed to be at their best on funky songs -- when they slow down, I find myself letting the music slip into the background instead of listening to it. Fortunately, between this song, the aforementioned "Let My People Go", "It Takes More", and a couple others, this album definitely has its share :) .

OK, one more, then if nobody responds I'll leave you all alone :) . Today's selection was Moving Mountains by Justin Hayward, from 1985. I've been a huge Moody Blues fan since the first time I heard the Days of Future Passed album straight through, and own their entire discography (barring perhaps some of their early more blues-oriented stuff) -- unlike some, I enjoy their music no matter the era. I've never been as big on Hayward's solo material, but still generally find it worth a listen or ten. The first track on this one is "Take Your Chances" (well, the first track on the 1989 CD release, since the running order is different than the original), which reminds me a lot of "Sitting at the Wheel" from The Present, the Moodies album that preceded this one. And that, to me anyway, is a good thing :D . The rest of the album is a bit less interesting to me, but still good music.

Today's new CD was 1987's Raindancing by Alison Moyet. For me, the album was a minor convocation of mid-80s nostalgia. The first track, "Weak in the Presence of Beauty", was one I discovered through, not its original incarnation by Floy Joy, but via Eddie and the Tide. It was part of some kind of competition on MTV to name some kind of Next Big Thing -- the 30-plus-year-old details are fuzzy, but IIRC you voted by phone, and I think the winner got some kind of record deal after [x] weeks. Another track, "Sleep Like Breathing" was written by The Lover Speaks, whose self-titled album was in heavy rotation during my freshman year of college, and featured the duo's vocalist, David Freeman, as the co-lead singer. Lots of other good tracks on this one, too, but for me the best song was "When I Stay (No Giveaway)". What can I say? I'm a sucker for the more upbeat stuff. Hope folks are enjoying these posts, even nobody's responding :D !

:( No Tanita Tikaram fans here, eh? A shame, as I think she's one of the more underrated vocalists of the past 30 years, and this was an album I actually bought at full-price. It was a very good album, though I wasn't as much of a fan of the bonus acoustic disc. Anyway, today's choice was from 2003, Being Somebody by Liberty X. While I do not generally enjoy this style of music, there were a few listenable tracks, including the second single "Jumpin'", "Story of My Life", and my personal favorite, "Let Go":

I still buy CD's, mainly used ones from the 90s-00s since I can get them in bunches from SecondSpin for cheap. Thus, Mrs. Dewelar and I listen to 5-6 new CDs a week. If folks are interested, I can post a sample of each one after we listen. Today's choice was Tanita Tikaram's Can't Go Back from 2012. My favorite track is the first one, "All Things to You":

Yep, definitely the best group of kid bakers top-to-bottom, with no real obvious cannon fodder (now that Dharma's out) like there has been in the past. On the other hand, it's also the most even group, with no clear frontrunner(s) other than maybe Trevin, so like @mlp I have no idea who's going to be in the finale. It's great! It also means the production crew has to work extra-hard to try and create drama -- "Oh, Brady's batter might be turning into scrambled eggs! ... never mind, he saved it somehow, it's fine"; "Oh, Sophie's pastry cream doesn't look right! ... never mind, plenty of time to throw it out and start over"; "Oh, Tarek's buttercream and ganache are clashing and look sloppy! ... never mind, not even bad enough to be in the bottom two". I got a chuckle over all these mini-"disasters" that came to nothing. After not liking Tarek in episode 1, he's grown on me. He's awkward, but in an endearing way. And finally, another big thumbs up to the KBC team for not playing up Tori's illness. It may make me a bad person, but whenever one of these shows starts dwelling on someone's sob story, I immediately switch to rooting against that person. Thank goodness they didn't make me root against Tori, because she seemed nice and level-headed while she was there.

From this episode, I agree that this seems like the best bunch of young bakers they've had to date. The only one who rubbed me the wrong way was Tarek, who seemed a little too full of himself and a little too "on" (the whole "so you're just decent, you're not doing well, etc" bit would have annoyed the crap out of me if he said it to me). Hopefully they treat Tori (I think?) and her cystic fibrosis like they did Paige and her arthritis last year (i.e., not make an issue of it), because I really give them kudos for doing so. Oh, and Mrs. Dewelar and I both love Brady. He was awesome with Sophia, and had the brightest smile in his intro pictures. Hope he stays around a while.

I don't care for the song, but I'll give it this: I like it better than the other songs that set this record in the past 40+ years, dating back to the gawdawful "You Light Up My Life" in 1977. [FTR: Percy Faith's "Theme from A Summer Place" had the record before that (eventually tied by "Hey Jude", which is...fine?, but since it didn't set the record it doesn't count), and although I know I've heard it, it's left no impression on me, so no comment on that one.]

Also Tragedy - John Hunter and Tragedy - ArcAngel ...can't remember how many times I saw these on MTV in the mid-80s.

Did not even know this topic was here... I started playing D&D just before the original AD&D came out (nearly 40 years now...crazy), and currently run a weekly group for the blind and visually impaired (although we do have a couple of fully-sighted members now) on Discord. The group has been active for nearly 20 years now -- we started out with Basic, then moved on to 2E after our first few adventures. We tried to switch to 3E, but it never stuck, so we still use 2nd, albeit with tons of house rules.

I wasn't really into this season. The challenges were a bit off, the judging was odd, and while I like Jason his shtick seemed much more forced this season. His sayings seemed to flow much more naturally in the past, but now it really seems like he's doing them because the producers want him to do them. It's been kind of sad to watch, and if I'm right, I hope the producers let Jason be what Jason wants to be going forward. Oh, who am I kidding? FN wants their personalities in their boxes, and if you stray too far they WILL cut you. *sigh* That said, this finale was worth the missteps of the rest of the season. All the cakes looked great, and even if Joshua and Jeffrey (got it right that time :D) had outshone him to a degree over the course of the season, Eric deserved that win. I knew it was coming when they only thing they brought up during the final review was that it wasn't big enough, and when it did I pumped my fist a little. Has anyone heard what's going to fill this slot over the summer? Last year I know they did another cycle of the Kids' Baking Championship, but I don't remember seeing any promos for anything this time around.

Sorry, not sure why I've got a mental block about that. I'll try and remember that if/when I comment again. Well, sure. But then, neither would I think that, if I were told that my dessert should be about 1 inch around, that I should make it (at minimum) twice that size. Also, again, they weren't told to make a twelve-layer cake -- remember that Marcela told Marian after her cakes failed to rise that she could call them a cookie, so it apparently didn't even have to be a cake, it just had to be a dessert with at least twelve layers. Thus, Marian fulfilled the instructions as (we were shown they were) given, and Jeffrey (arguably) did not. Marian was dinged, and Jeffrey was not. Side-eye still in effect. And FWIW, I'm also rooting for Joshua.