Look with your eyes, not with your hands.


Such a minute fraction of this life do we live: so much is sleep, tooth-brushing, waiting for mail, for metamorphosis, for those sudden moments of incandescence: unexpected, but once one knows them, one can live life in the light of their past and the hope of their future.



A grad student muses on her life, film, friends, politics, reality televizzle, and music.

 
So the Cat is Out of the Brazillian Bag...

I admit that, of my two children, Idol gets more talk time than Survivor on the blog. I don't know why that is exactly, but it seems like Survivor fans are more cultish than the karaoke-types and thus I think it's a more democratic topic in appeal. I am probably way off and both of these are pigeony little pleasures that appeal to very few faces in a crowd, and of my most loyal blog fans, I have some Survivor diehards in there - for them, today's post will talk about the unexpected end to what has amounted to the best Survivor since the early days when the game was new in the South China Sea. First of all, to crib the best line from A Mighty Wind, Wha' Happenned?? For those of you that didn't watch the show - picture it, the final four is a middle-aged school principal from the Midwest, a loner woodsman-type with muscles to boot, a crafty computer guy, and a skinny prissy sorority princess. When push came to shove, I am sure I am not the only one disappointed with the result - bikini model Jenna takes home the victory. Wretch. Perhaps this million will soften the blow of her irreplaceable "Zeta crown" being destroyed in a freak fire last week and other such priceless heirlooms like a "pledge jacket passed down for like, five years." This season kept you guessing and kept you watching, so it is only fitting that the grand finale turned the tables on the audience once again with Jenna coming from behind to beat the odds and win two vital immunity challenges and then the loot. Sorry to see it go, so now I�ll have to clutch to the twilight days of Idol and then have to come up with something else to consume my nights.

I am a little grouchy about my final standing in the Fantasy Survivor contest. I was locked in sixth place for most of the contest and this is where I ended � 6/100 in my group, with a final score of 3046. I think finishing, in the top sixth percentile (as it were) is consistent with my astute Survivor watching, but it wasn�t enough to land me a spot on the national leader board, and thus, I win neither a Saturn Ion (okay, one winner, I didn�t expect this) but I was really shooting for a free baseball cap. Zippo. I don�t look good in hats anyway, yet I would have worn this one with pride.

So what gets you ahead in Survivor?? This time the final four proved that you can walk many different paths to end up close to the throne. I think one of the most shocking comments from the reunion show came when host Jeff Probst (meanwhile, did anyone else see him on celeb jeopardy, he bombed and netted a palsy $1,500) reveals that Heidi, Alex, and Roger scored the best on the IQ test administered before the game began. Whoa. Heidi?? An opposite of well-spoken Missouri gym teacher with giant fake boobs who spells Deena �Denna� and Jeanne �Gene,� and flakes out right and left all the while prancing around and talking up the merits of her intelligence. Meanwhile, her fellow MENSA partner, Alex (a professional triathlete) talks like a seventh-grade poseur who just discovered surfing and uses �cool� lingo to impress the girlies. We are expected to believe that a gym teacher bimbette and a guy that garnishes a living racing dirt bikes are reportedly �smarter� than the crafty Rob, Deena a successful attorney, and All-American golden boy Dave, the rocket scientist. Go figure, in the end however, I think natural ability can only take you so far � and you will end up further ahead if you have a real job rather than supervising kickball in the recess lot. I almost find it offensive (on behalf of the audience and others), for some reason, that Jeff reported Heidi�s IQ scores, I find it the biggest twist of all.

That�s that, and it�s time to wash our hands of Amazon and look forward to the Pearl Island adventure taking us off the coast of Panama this fall. I hope that the series droops to less than excellence because I am vowing not to watch this one and let important things take up more space in my life.

Off to Providence, again, tomorrow. This time I am rocking the mini van and helping my sister pack up her remaining cargo. Thankfully, it�ll be the last time I take that boring drive until I go to the American Idol concert on August 2.

Just looking at Expedia and some bargain fares� in case anyone was up for a late-August vacation and wanted to come to Madison before my semester starts, (or even for a September weekend while school is in session) you can book a ticket for $140 roundtrip from Boston, New York, or LA. That is ridiculous � that is like a weekend�s worth of cocktails and takeout while wearing a new Oxford shirt. Sadly, you need to fly in on Saturdays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays � but for these prices, a Sat � Tues trip might be worth the two vacation days.
posted by lmjasinski at 7:25 AM