aghst

One of my DVRs recorded an episode in San Mateo, Costa Rica, where a young woman from Montreal said she visited and fell in love with the place and decided to move there and work remotely. Her friend was nitpicking all the choices. In any event, I wondered if this was a repeat which one DVR erroneously recorded as new and the other DVR didn't. She chose the most expensive choice with a nice wrap around terrace and she wanted to bake so it also had the biggest kitchen. I don't recall seeing it before.

Sam is trying to stir something herself, deliberately leaving an open chair next to her so that Angelina would have to sit next to her. And participating in that TikTok. But again, this is all engineered. They wanted Angelina to have beef with Sammi. Used to be Angelina vs. Jenni and I guess Jenni wore down. What about the water throwing at Nikki, who hasn't been on the show since? They decided Angelina would be the motor for the drama because Ron flamed out getting into the crazy domestic situation with his ex. Snookie was off the show for a season or most of a season so she probably didn't want the aggravation either and while she still gets drunk, she's not going to do much more than that. They must have decided that Angelina and Sam are the newest cast members so they have to pay their dues.

Filming was suspended about a year ago because of the writer's strike. They are targeting fall or later of this year for season 2 release.

Apparently Bill knows RFK Jr. socially and he's also against covid vaccines so he went soft against RFKJ's BS. He brings up RFKJ promising not to be a spoiler but the polling and the fact that he's only on the ballots of 3 states so far shows he's nothing but a spoiler candidate. But Bill doesn't push it too much. The panel goes in strong against student protests, which really spread all over the country this past week. So Lemon says these college students only learn Israel history from TikTok. Really? Students at these elite universities are so lazy they're only watching some TikTok videos to learn the history of the ME? I can see that's true for many young people in their teens and early 20s but students at the best universities? Not one of them mentions over 30,000 civilians dead. In fact I don't think Bill or any guest has mentioned the casualty estimates in the 6 months of the Israel-Gaza war. Or the fact that Israel has cut off power and most food and health aid efforts into Gaza. Instead, they try to characterize all protesters as anti-semitic, anti-Israel. Bill does note that some of the protesters are Jewish, doesn't try to admit there's more to the protests than pro-Hamas, anti-semitic ideology. In fact, the protesters are asking for cease fires and for universities to divest from investments in anything to do with Israel. Bill says companies make money from wars, because someone is selling those bombs. He never tries to defend a military bombing civilians at all. He briefly denies it's genocide and says there's no apartheid because they can vote. I think that may be true of some Israeli Arabs living within Israel proper. That is NOT true of Palestinians living in the West Bank or Gaza, who currently are being lynched by settler mobs in the WB or being bombed and shot up by the IDF in Gaza. Of course he's not going to reference that there are international organizations citing war crimes and genocide in the current Israeli actions. I believe Scott Galloway called for the National Guard? Does he mean like Kent State? Right now the only ones consistently calling for severe crackdown on student protests are Republicans. Mike Johnson did a photo op at Columbia and said Biden should call in the national guard. Then you had POS people like Tom Cotton and Josh Hawley calling in for the national guard, going harsh against protesters. Cotton said that if protesters block your roads, people should take matters into their own hands. But Bill has been consistently characterizing college students as being ignorant, not knowing better. It goes back to his war on woke, which he attributes in large part to college students, their supposed intolerance of some jokes he and other comedians tried which elicited groans. This week he suggested they're under the influence of bad professors and he quoted a couple of Arab ones. Galloway said professors who protest Israel's war should be fired. Then he went back to, younger generations are not having enough sex and children. If they had good relationships, they would have "guard rails" which would keep them from doing things like protesting.

Why does hostage-taking work? Lords are ready to discard lives and those who serve them are only too eager to take their own lives. A rival takes a lord's wife consort or son? Toranaga can get any number of wives and as pointed out, he has many sons as well.

They sold everything, she gave up her job and he found a new job. So they believe in this adventure, at least for now. She’s trying to learn German and seeing if she can get a work visa. Maybe learning German will change her speech. Otherwise they both seemed cheerful and enthusiastic about their move, wanting to live in the city center, to experience big city life after living in Tucson, going for the liter steins of beer at the Biergarten. But they’ve been together for 9 years starting in college and married for 1.5 years? So probably not a permanent move, especially if she can’t get a work visa and they plan to have children. House they chose is just 1 bedroom, in city center with a work space for him. It will suit their needs for a couple of years.

Season 4 is going to be released on 5/22/24. Will be over 18 months since the last episode of season 3. But it will be set 6 years after the end of season 3 and the kids they adopt will be teens! Teen angst will give a new meaning to "Trying" name of the show? https://www.tvinsider.com/1132652/trying-season-4-trailer-premiere-date-time-jump-apple-tv-plus/

I enjoyed the series but it's a lot different in tone than my admittedly hazy memories of reading the book. This series approaches the story with reverence and respect for Japanese feudal culture. The show creators are being feted for rendering the delicate beauty of the culture, the unquestioning adherence to the code -- ultimate loyalty to the lord -- things like the tea ceremony. They could have had images of beautiful origami and sushi. Instead they showed the swords, the kimonos and the calligraphic documents, always folded perfectly, symmetrically. The book had a lot of humor and irreverence, not always this reverential tone. They would have a section narrated by peasants, who were talking about Golden Pavillions. The Japanese characters in the show seem rigidly bound to the code and chain of command. The only one who showed a lot of personality was Yabushige. The desire between Mariko and Blackthorne was a big part of the book too, all of which went towards making the Japanese seem far more human, not these figures who seemed bound to play their role as servants. They also showed the ugly side of humanity. Yabushige seem to get sadistric pleasure from the screams of the man from Anjin's ship whom he had boiled alive. Toranaga ordered everyone from the village to teach Anjin Japanese under pain of death if they failed. Anjin was ready to kill Toranaga or kill himself, just so he wouldn't have the deaths of the villagers on his conscience. The Toranaga of the show is more of an infallible, brilliant strategist and benevolent god-like figure. It's one interpretation. Maybe there was also a goal of not depicting any of the Japanese characters in a way which might cause offense.

First 3 episodes of season 2 are available now. No reviews. May take me awhile to get through these, between other shows and NBA Playoffs.

Anthony says he will be back. If he appears on another BD show, we know this firing was just the usual BD BS. They struggled to find stews but they just happened to have another chef in their back pocket? I don't watch this show for who is going to be fired, though some do deserve it. But now it makes no difference whether the cast member deserves it. It's predetermined because they have a replacement handy so they just want to find some excuse to turn over the cast several times during the season. It was the lowest tip of the season but still $1350 per person for a couple of days of work. A good tip would have been maybe $300 more per person? They try to make it sound like a disaster. But the tips are fake as well.

Well he didn't give her reasons to stay, like all those stolen glances he and Mariko exchanged. Fuji might have been curious what made Mariko drop her kimono but Blackthorne was too preoccupied with the other one. Toranaga was the chess master. He used Mariko to break up the power Ishido had concentrated and got Ochiba to pull the rug out from under Ishido. He also had the ship destroyed and will destroy the ship that Anjin rebuilds, partly for his amusement, partly to give Anjin purpose and in line. Yabu was remorseful. She wasn't suppose to die. But he owned up to his guilt and to the end he was true to his character, called out Toranaga. But he didn't hesitate to do his duty.

Because I'm not gullible? Because it's obvious that some of the things on the preference sheets are obviously a big surprise to some of the guests?

Preference sheets are completely fictions massaged by producers. Remember the theme parties they want? Completely fake. You can tell in some cases the guests weren't even into the things they supposedly asked for. In this case, they got a bunch of fast food eaters and they asked for vague things and got "5-star" dishes and plating and they didn't really care. Why were such guests cast? To make the crew look bad. Do you really think Bravo and producers leave things to chance? They go for the things they know has worked for them in the past. Do you think any reality show producers just let guests and cast do whatever and hope for the best, hope there's enough drama and potential viral moments? No they rely on what got them the most attention and ratings in the past and try to recreate them over and over. That's why there will always be theme parties, always be staff shortages, always be firings, always be beach picnics, etc.

They featured the teams working together. They even titled the episode, referring to the alliance. Obviously it's not a problem from the POV of the producers.

They stretched out a spicy chicken eating contest over two episodes. Obviously they are struggling to have something interesting happen. They did an abbreviated GTL but they can't keep going to the well on that too much. The guys are all in their mid 30s, most of them with parental duties and all rich so they can afford other types of diversions. It was a nice gimmick in the OG show but they're reaching deep to resurrect pieces of guido lore. So it's not surprising that they are encouraging this "feud." Sammi doesn't seem to have the heart to act like a 20-something guidette, wagging her fingers in another guidette's face, swinging wildly at them. She said a few episodes ago, "stop it, I'm a 36-year old woman" like she can't be acting like a kid any more. Angelina knows that the only kind of personality she can bring to this is the parody of her resentful young self. Producers like it because look at the footage they feature the most on this show now, always Angelina's beef of the moment. Ratings must be good enough for them to keep featuring the same kind of drama over and over again. Also good enough to give all of them except Pauly a very good upper middle class or better lifestyle. But Pauly probably gets more bookings because of the show. Or else he makes so much from his gigs that he wouldn't have to bother to keep doing the show.

Interesting opening segment on Ozempic, now the downsides come to light. Bill thinks it's scandalous that NPR All Things Considered has only Democrats in editorial positions. Why does he single out NPR? Does he think Fox News has any liberal Democrats? And Fox News has a much greater footprint than NPR. He also doesn't like that NPR has different internal groups. So do many other large employers, like they have separate employee groups around gender and ethnicity, because they are looking for people of similar backgrounds, dealing with a similar work culture. At least Meacham tried to bring some reality instead of going along with Bill's war on woke again, there's no equivalence between the far right and the far left. The far right welcomes "Trumpistan." Bills says the Palestinian protesters who tried to block bridges are for terrorists. Jane Ferguson said they are for cease fire. That made Bill put up his sour puss. He won't have that, over 30k civilians killed in Gaza but Israel is defending itself and killing terrorists.🤢 Bill keeps saying Trump is a threat to democracy but he wants to give equal time to highlighting what he considers the excesses of the left as well as MAGA. He really sore that college students groaned at his jokes.

Or she makes her income by selling herself so her Linked In is like people resume's with some inflation of experience and skills. Maybe appearing on HHI helps these people who depend on self-promotion to get clients. She came across strong, more than most house hunters and more than many women of her age. Opinionated people do repel others. But it's not the worst thing in the world for young women to be talkative. Better that than to "know their place" and be lacking in confidence to speak up for themselves. People who talk a lot often end up in politics so who knows where she will end up.

Cam is talking about pumping and then they cut to a shot of her lifting some dumbbells. Then she talked about getting up in the middle of the night to pump. I don't understand, she's pumping breast milk in South Africa but her babies are back home in the US or are they over there with her? Or it's just painful and she has to get it out? Kefla's crack about 4 black men losing in Dominoes, in Africa no less, was funny. They showed a picture of him back from his original season, with the thick black eyebrows. Otherwise I couldn't place his face. He's obviously bulked up a lot since then. Rachel probably gave up some weight but she has more endurance and a better strategy, go low and use her legs almost being horizontal. But in general this favored the bigger competitor, just another form of Hall Brawl, though that big rubber ball in the middle absorbed most of the impact so you didn't have competitors crashing into each other. One of the other recent variations of Hall Brawl also was designed in a way to lessen the impact. Maybe they're worried about liability for people getting hurt. When they used to give competitors football helmets, it was possibly encouraging them to risk head injuries. Football players will use the crown of helmets when given them and they try to go low. Thing is, the longer people wait to try to win a star, the tougher the competition becomes, because you know they're going to winnow out the smaller, less physically imposing players first.

Yeah it's inconsistent. We've seen seasons where there are deckhands constantly in the kitchen, washing dishes if nothing else. Or what about BDSY, Colin was in the kitchen almost the whole season one year, not just washing dishes but doing sous-chef work, like prepping some ingredients or something. So it seems like a choice whether to help the chef or not. As someone pointed out, usually on big yachts, there's a crew of several chefs, not one trying to scramble and please every guest. We all know the preference sheets are massaged by the producers. In this charter, these are fast food people and they just put up generalities like "no seafood" and "no vegetables." A chef might find people who aren't interested in trying new things to be stifling. But on this show, they're expected to come up with dishes with florid descriptions and Bon Appetit plating. So Anthony made fancy ceviches for people who just want a Big Mac. If that's not a setup, what is?

What is Amanda's business? She talked about joining Meet Up groups, meeting other expats. She said she was introverted so forcing herself to meet people helped overcome her shyness. Some Meet Up groups are nothing more than businesses to try to get people to book tours or workshops. But others are people planning get togethers around a common interest. I've done some local hiking groups but never Meet Ups overseas -- never stay long enough to do so. I can understand wanting space to host these events. Otherwise they have to try to take over some restaurant and people may not want to be forced to spend at some place. She chose one that is $1600 or 25% more than her budget. But after the first house she admitted that she set her budget too low. She was inspired by her grandmother to travel. Maybe the grandmother left her money. But I didn't get the sense that she was that well off. She talked about working in LA and leaving because of the high costs of housing there. She could charge some nominal fee to host events, since she may supply food and drinks. Or maybe it could be a potluck situation. But that doesn't seem like a profit-oriented activity. More like she chose to spend more on a bigger place because she wanted to socialize. It may just be easier if she tried to arrange events at restaurants, with everyone spending whatever they wanted to, though the restaurant wouldn't let a group occupy several tables without them spending a good amount of money.

It's fun, not too weighty. Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz must be fans. That one hit must have paid a lot of bills. According to Wikipedia, they're still together, in their early 70s, married in 1977.

All these situations are so manufactured. Barbie is just going to try better to get along with Frasier so problem solved, just attitude adjustment after all this fake drama? Kerry: Doesn't want to let another stew go, it's hard to find replacements and there are only a couple of charters left. Also Kerry: Threatens to fire Anthony the chef because guests with McDonalds and Burger King tastes -- why did Bravo cast them for the show, because they are fame whore who will make a spectacle of themselves on camera -- didn't like the fancy food. Yeah I bet it's much easier to get a chef than a stewardess for just a couple of charters left in the season.🙄 If they really want to state their preferences, why don't they tell the crew to go out and bring back some fast food from shore? There are probably plenty of those places. Or just say burgers, burgers, burgers on the preference sheets. It's funny when I saw those cheap crowns that Kerry gave them, I thought of the cheesy Burger King crowns they give to kids. Biggest fake drama is the whole lead deckhand situation. Kerry doesn't know Ben and Sunny are fucking in the cabins? He's out to lunch. Then they had Dylan go around and complain to everyone else, filming multiple scenes of him talking about how wronged he feels. And you know it was the producers who put him up to it. Then Ben doesn't like that Dylan is talking behind his back about what he's doing as Bosun. So they immediately cut to scenes of Ben trash-talking behind Jared's back when Jared was bosun. See the producers don't mind at all making these cast members look like petty hypocrites, drama queens, etc. That is the point, to make people look bad so there's plenty of drama. Then in the finale it will be a kumbaya moment with each cast member having their exits, about how they grew and so on during the season.

Maybe if Larry is still in good health and feeling restless, there will be a special or two in a few years.

It seems the mission Toranaga gave Mariko was to martyr herself. Force Ishido to let her go or to kill her. Ishido was never going to let her go so he sent in Shinobi. So they must really believe in the after life, to give up life so easily for their lord, like the guards whom Mariko casually sent to their deaths or the first two guards for Ishido, asking for permits knowing they were going to get their throats cut. So the Catholic influence, even though the after life is a big part of their belief system as well, is to disapprove of suicide. Yet the Catholic Regents are willing to kill casually as well and while they are aghast that Mariko is going to going to take her own life. So why has Mariko been anguished all her life about the death of her family or Ochiba holding a grudge about her father? Aren't they suppose to have a more zen view of life and death? Isn't the glorious after life going to make everything better?

I am able to read this WaPo article on the show and the history of US involvement in the war without being a subscriber. https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/tv/2024/04/14/sympathizer-vietnam-war-history-context/