retrograde

Interesting: There is going to be a dessert-focused spin-off this year with Melissa and Amaury Guichon this year. It will be professionals though, not amateurs. I guess that's good because I don't think they can sustain a whole season of only spheres, gels and soils. Also this article is a bit old, but Jock says the 2023 regular season will have fewer contestants, no returning contestants and none of the preliminary rounds before the actual contest begins. These are all positive changes, in my mind.

I have been watching. Thoughts so far: I am enjoying Harry, Amy and Meghan as judges, and Kyle is... not as bad as he could be and has been. I am glad they are all willing to be blunt when a performance sucks (a quality not found on American Idol anymore or The Voice ever) and also offer genuinely constructive criticism. All that said: Bring back Marcia! Jasey and Maya were far from the worst, but I also understand that their appeal was probably a little niche. Jasey was very Broadway and the judges were 100% right that dance pop just never works on these singing shows (though they might have let Maya know that a little earlier? I suppose she did The Voice previously and should know how these games play out). The number of very young teens is tiresome, even though some have genuinely very good voices. There was all this concern about them not being able to connect emotionally to the songs but yeah, no shit. Don't recruit kids if you want life experience. Favourite currently: Roysten Least favourite: Ben Who I think will win: One of the children because Australia votes like that

The post-credits scene was apparently improvised, so it's possible the actor just said the wedding thing and they left it in without any great meaning behind it.

Apparently the actual actor, Leon Lamar, is 104 years old?!

Madisynn was so funny to me. "Drunk party girl" could be such a lazy cliche but the acting and the writing were so on point. Would 100% be delighted for a cameo in any other Marvel franchise. There were loads of other more under-the-radar things that made me laugh in this episode too - Johnny Blaze's never-explained elderly hype man (who casually knows "Jake" the demon), the lawyer pulling scarves out of his shirt, the who-pays-for-drinks stare down, the snarky interaction with the process server...

Yes, although looking at the full lineup now, it was overall a little more eclectic than it seemed. For instance, between Kid Rock and Limp Bizkit was Counting Crows, Dave Matthews Band and Alanis Morissette -- it's just that all the night-time acts seem to have been pretty samey.

I thought last year's HBO documentary on the same topic was better -- I think it did a better job examining the culture and music of the times and how that played into what went down. It also felt like it gave a better sense of how widespread the rape/SA was, and bothered to mention the people who died (which seemed like a weird omission from this new one). But I still thought this series was a worth watching, and perhaps did a more comprehensive job of laying out each step in the buildup and of covering the riot itself. I was a teen during the period and even at the time was resentful we got stuck with such douchebro music as the defining genre of the times. While of course the bands themselves weren't at all responsible for what happened at Woodstock 99, the film really reminded me how bad nu metal was.

Yeah I don't love most of the new changes, I think they've messed with the simplicity that made the first season so fun. I imagine the exit passes are to encourage everyone to take different routes, but it basically forces people to take fairly set paths, so you don't get the creativity and cooperation of the first season. And while it doesn't really effect the game play, I miss the very silly element of treating someone who had gone into the lava as if they'd died. Seeing everyone again after their run, and having them watch the other teams, ruins the (again, deeply silly) illusion a bit. That said, I actually like the idea of the head-to-head at the end in theory, but I agree with people upthread that the level is a bit boring.

Every. Time. someone makes a cake, Andy declares that he doesn't like cake but he likes this cake. After four seasons of liking every cake he has tried, I think it's time for Andy to just admit that he likes cake.

"Favourites" was generous for some of the returnees (Aldo? John?!), but the show definitely scored a win by convincing Billie, Sashi and Julie to return. Of the new crop, so far I'm interested in Harry and Jenn, but they hardly showed us most of them. I guess Daniel is this season's Blokey McBlokeface. When did Andy learn to articulate what food tastes like? Remember his first season where he only said things were "delicious" and "full of flavour"? Now I think he's actually the best judge at describing how the dishes taste, and why they do or don't work. Based on the preview, I guess Shannon Bennett is forgiven for stiffing his workers and back in the fold. Massive eyeroll at Marco Pierre White's return -- if we have to have a yell-y British celebrity chef, can we not have Gordon?

I also wondered about the timeline. I don't think it can be the next day, because she has had time to reject the Tony Bennett gig and for him to have asked around about why she rejected it -- and he also refers to the hook up as "that night," which would be a weird thing to say the very next day. But it has to have been less than a week later, because he said he was only staying at the hotel for four days. February would have made more sense for the weather, but I agree this all seems to be happening around election day, and they are just messing with the real timeline of the Carnegie Hall show.

I feel like they already kind of brought back most of the actual favourites in the 2020 season? (I'll still watch)

This episode was fantastic, but oof, it was a slog to get here. Nothing happened this season! I know the show had to change location plans because of covid and stick to NYC, but that shouldn't have held back the story arcs. Every character except maybe Joel (who I don't care about) just spun their wheels and ended up basically where they started. Had all the episodes dropped at once like past seasons, this might have been less evident, but getting two at a time really hammered home how little forward momentum there was. Episode 8 should have been episode 5 or 6.

Today must have been the review embargo for season 4, as quite a few were published. None are super enthusiastic, although it seems critics were only given the first two episodes. Here are some: Hollywood Reporter, AV Club, Decider, Paste, Oregonian, Slash Film, The Wrap.

A thing I find with extreme bullshitters is that they tend to believe their own BS, so he probably does "remember" it all this way, but the publisher must be kicking themselves for not doing more fact-checking. I mean, the publisher says it's standing by him, but at the end of the day, I'll be surprised if they pursue the threatened legal action. Clearly there are more than enough people willing to come forward to say he's full of shit (and evidently a looot of people in the industry in Adelaide who don't remember him fondly). Honestly, though, the self-mythologizing is mostly just amusing to me, but the stuff about him setting a worker on fire and then never paying the damages is really messed up and doesn't make me like him much. Please don't let Melissa go Milkshake Duck or something, I couldn't handle Andy being the "good" judge.

We need to talk about this.

The lack of staff in general, but especially editing staff, at this magazine is insane. Jane has been a writer, what, a few years? There should be a whole slew of editors between Jacqueline and Jane, not to mention that Jacqueline would at least have a deputy. See how many editors Vogue has! I actually paused on the list of "pitches" Jane apparently spent like four hours working on, and this is all she had written down: Modern androgyny - gen z fashion Female priests - excommunicated by vatican, sexism that dates back centuries Marjorie Taylor Greene Hype house - boys club? Stay-at-home mom-trepreneurs The quiet sexism of self help books No wonder Addison didn't want MTG, that's not a pitch, it's just a name! (That said, Addison sucks for just declaring that she "gave up" and wrote a completely different story. That's not a thing you can do!) Addison should have taken the offer, Jane should get like 20 years more experience, the end.

I work in the media and tbh had never heard the term before (maybe it comes from magazines?), but I've been thinking of it like how New York magazine has Vulture, The Cut, Strategist, Grub Street etc -- they're all part of NY mag (especially if you buy a print version), but have their own specific topics, identities, specific staff and *ahem* dot coms. That said, given Kat's vertical has few staff and seems to publish like one story a month, it seems in reality more like a blog to me. (Scarlet also seems to publish one story a week based on their meetings, where only a handful of staff attend and just throw out these half-formed ideas and then -- at least in Jane's case -- spend weeks working on a single article.)

Uggggh I hate service challenges, and do not wish to watch a whole week of them. MC is a competition for home cooks, why would any of them be good at running a commercial kitchen, which is a very different and specific skill set? I don't care if these people can cook food at a large scale and manage the timing of several courses. I don't even really care if they're good at team work. It's not what I tune in for.

Things that annoyed me, in order: Blokey McBlokeface loves Curtis because he's a bloke Curtis' chain-link belt looked both uncomfortable and impractical Curtis is in LA but claims to be cutting up meat from Coles. Hmm. "Schnitty" That I still couldn't tell you a single thing about Jess or Scott Why are they all still bumping elbows? If someone in that room has COVID, everyone in that room has COVID Those "tacos" did not look good, but I'll take their word for it I can't believe Conor made olive ice cream twice

Ugh, as soon as they said "cool as a cucumber" I knew there would be 10,000 cucumber granitas. And clearly the producers knew too, so why go there? Conor is fast becoming the Ben Ungermann of this season (minus the alleged creepy stuff) -- not the strongest cook, defaults to making wacky ice creams, is inexplicably praised by the judges for it. I'm starting to really like Pete -- he is very much doing his own thing away from a lot of the MC AU cliches, seems to care a lot about mastering classic techniques and is obviously not playing it safe. But I feel like the latter element could be his downfall -- you don't need to wow the judges in eliminations, you just need to not be the worst. For someone who fancies himself a "native food expert", why does Jock feel so emasculated by the thought of cooking with ancient grains?

Alternate cliche ending I can see: They ultimately decide to start their own magazine.

After watching the trailer, I'm convinced Jane will become the new Scarlet editor, and I will punch a wall.

I admit I was thrown off the scent, because the voice over at the end of the previous episode said "one of the best cooks in the competition will go home." I actually didn't remember Trent from the audition episodes, but I went back and watched. He wasn't on for long, but cooked a plated cheesecake thing that Melissa liked. We got our first "me on a plate" of the season this episode, courtesy of Amir. Favorites from this episode: Eric and Depinder -- and Linda's egg noodle thing looked really good.

The tongue-lashing they gave Trent was some of the harshest feedback I can recall on this show in a while! I actually wonder if there was more we didn't see on screen, because they all seemed almost annoyed with him? Like he was really messing around the whole time, or something. Andy is definitely better, but a lot of his feedback was still along the lines of "This tasted great!" Everyone who said "I love silverbeet" is a liar. Tommy is my favorite so far. The elbow bumping is ridiculous when no one there is wearing a mask. Give up the charade, guys.