Back in February, the Bravo TV show Top Chef was in town casting contestants for season six. On the side, we've always had our own predictions on who should or would make it, and as we found out today, one of our picks Robin Leventhal, the former chef/owner of now-defunct Crave made it onto the show. And she won't be the only one representing Seattle, as Ashley Merriman, chef of Branzino, will also fill out the Pacific Northwest cast quota. This season will take place in Vegas, and has already been rumored to be one of the tastiest competitions yet. Guess we will just have to wait and see our local ladies hold their own. Top Chef: Las Vegas will premiere on Bravo Wednesday, August 26 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
Results tagged “tv”
If you've been living under a rock or are a procrastinator, or are a procrastinator living under a rock, you might be surprised that your analog or "regular" TV is broadcasting snow on June 12. That is because broadcast television has now switched to digital or "unleaded" transmission, which among other things will reduce that pinging sound your TV makes going up a hill. Here's a map of the places you can get help and digital converter boxes in Washington. If you already have a converter box, you still need to tell it to rescan for channels, because we understand they've changed in the official switch. You want to make sure you get channel 7.2, KIRO's Retro Television, which is rebroadcasting such classic fare as Sheriff Lobo, Airwolf, and The Incredible Hulk.
If you really care about superfast internet or high definition TV service, don’t bother reading the rest of this post. It’ll only piss you off.
The famed Seattle-based crab fisherman of the Discovery Channel's Deadliest Catch will kick off season five tonight at 9 p.m. with new episodes. Yay!
"Booty is booty!" declares Seattle's very own Sir Mix-A-Lot towards the end of this profoundly hilarious "Baby Got Back"-inspired Burger King commercial advertising a SpongeBob SquarePants kids' meal. Phonebook implants are too cheap not to consider; it's almost enough to make us love this recession. Local rappers trying to be the next Mix, are you sure this is where you want to end up? Peep:
This just off the Teletype...man, does that thing make a racket, but we can't give it up. We're all, No, no, no email--Teletype! People lose their shit, but you know, a lot less spam that way. So Comcast Sportsnet is taking applications for wannabe hosts of a new series that will include hiking, biking, camping, kayaking, fishing, climbing, survival skills, and more. They also say, "Everyone is welcome to apply for the host position regardless of outdoor experience," so we're sure that hilarity, etc. They'll make their decision with a reality-style television series where the candidates will compete....*yawn*...for the...the goal of being named host. Love that Comcast is so behind this new show that they don't want to just show it, they want to make everyone watch this other reality-show first.
Tomorrow could bring Seattle its next reality TV train wreck star, as the Fox show So You Think You Can Dance holds an open casting call in downtown for all styles of dancers and great performers—bring on the jazz hands--to audition for the show's fifth season. We just have a mean version of “I’m a Little Teapot” in our repertoire so we’ll pass, but if you got rhythm, follow the legwarmers Saturday, March 28, to the Moore Theatre. Doors open at 8 a.m. Break a leg, Seattle!
MvB is off to SIFF Cinema for Preston Sturges' Depression-era fable, Sullivan's Travels, and then there's a going-away party for a friend on pilgrimage, held in the medieval pageantry of Canterbury's.
And lo, it came to pass that all that was predicted/leaked about this season of The Bachelor came to be, just as Reality Steve said. That's called prophecy, bitches. It is written. Jason Mesnick proposed to Melissa on the finale, only to dump her ass six weeks later (one hour in TV time) on the "After the Final Rose" special for Molly, the girl he had jilted just an hour earlier. Kinda a dick move, guy.
Tonight's the big final rose ceremony on this season of The Bachelor, featuring Kirkland's own Jason Mesnick--but as always there are rumors on the internets.
KING 5's SkyKING chopper was out over the Puget Sound today, getting footage of about 40 orcas swimming the frigid waters. Whale researchers "believe the L and K pods are cruising through, possibly in search of Chinook or Coho." Guess they finished up with Bo Derek's leg years ago.
Look, we don't actually watch The Bachelor. In fact, all we know about the show is gathered from either The Soup or Videogum. And yet we feel obligated to report that yesterday, the latter had a piece that referred us to this New York Times article about how this season's ratings are up because womenz luv babiez or something.
STRONG, WILY OL'D MAN: My! Oldominion, a legendary and superdope Northwest hiphop collective boasting members who happen to be some of our area's strongest and most creative artists, certainly has aged well. The group turns ten years old this year, and to celebrate, they're throwing a family reunion/party/show combo at Neumos this weekend. On the bill: The Saturday Knights, Grayskul, and assorted extremely important members of the crew. We're just saying, Oldominion knows how to party.
Did any of our readers catch Mars Hill Church's feature on Nightline last night? ABC ran their three page 'summary' of the feature online yesterday with the beautiful headline, "Pastor Dude's Mega-Church Draws Crowds." (It's almost as good as the New York Times' Driscoll headline, "Who Would Jesus Smack Down?") We're wondering when the program will be online so we can catch the visuals. West Seattle Blog tweeted overnight that their site received a "miniblitz" of folks who had, presumably, seen the program and were googling for more info about Driscoll and homosexuality--a subject which didn't figure prominently in ABC's write-up. We love us some generous national media attention, don't we, Mars Hill?
Since at initial glance this latest news reflects in a potentially negative manner upon the good people of Seattle, we'll spin it right round, baby. The Seattle market may have had the lowest inauguration ceremony viewership in the country yesterday, but it's because we were all watching online or gathered in large groups at bars to celebrate Obama's message of unity in practice as well as in spirit. We're very tech-savvy in this part of the world, don't you know, so it was nothing to us to click 'play' on MSNBC's streaming video of the occasion. We also like to drink, and it's been depressingly foggy here lately, which was all the more reason to head to a bar at 8 a.m. The Raleigh-Durham folks are clearly haters of love and fun and fellowship, as they had the highest viewership in the country.
Well, you don't have to watch this season of The Bachelor to find out who Jason Mesnick wants to marry, because some guy (YouTube handle "handsomepete") recently made the above video with an airtight "pinky ring" theory. Looks like he's got some pretty solid TV stills-based evidence, though when you're dealing with reality television you can never tell. The post-production editing is where it's at, and we wouldn't put it past The Bachelor to end the season with some big PSYCHE. We have to agree with Videogum, when they assert that "making all of the women pose while Jason pretends to propose to them is EXACTLY the type of thing they would do on this show."
According to last weekend's Saturday Night Live, this Saturday's episode will be hosted by crazy Republican (in that it's crazy she's a Republican) Rosario Dawson, along with the first SNL appearance by musical guest Fleet Foxes. Claims NME, "The Seattle indie rockers will be just the sixth band from an independent label to snag the coveted spot on the legendary US television show in its more than 30-year history." No word as to whether Robin Pecknold will pull a Taylor Swift and bring his bedazzled guitar.
After last night's season premiere of The Bachelor, audiences of sad, middle-aged women got a sneak peek of what's to come with the above teaser-filled three-minute montage. Looks like upstanding single dad/Kirkland douchebag Jason Mesnick--and yes, it's possible to be both--gives his potential future wives a taste of everything Seattle. They go on a boat! It rains! There's the mountains! They fly a seaplane! They climb the REI rock wall! Let's go hiking! Hey, it's the Market! He makes out with everybody everywhere! Insert obligatory shot of the Space Needle here.
OMG! Dating news from our Eastside bureau! Kirkland Bachelor and babydaddy extraordinaire Jason Mesnick is engaged and the roses aren't even all gone yet. Huh? You'll still have to suffer through lots of bungee-jumping, beach-walking and wine-sipping before the big reveal. Could the lucky lady be DeAnna Pappas, the bachelorette who dumped him last season? For clues, tune to KOMO's exclusive interview, in which a shirtless Mesnick does some pull-ups. You can tell by his biceps that he likes blondes.
- Just in time for the holidays, Delicious Baby blog--sorry, extreme foodies, it's not what you think--has 10 tips for surviving flight delays while traveling with kids.
- Gay Seattle Blogspot dares to say it: the Kathy Griffin show at the Paramount was not as funny as last year's, and also offers suggestions for a gay Thanksgiving.
- Following on that, Out & Equal Washington invite you to their happy hour on December 11 at Purr; they're accepting gifts for the Lambert House.
Seattlest, like many of you, has to be at the office today instead of in the living room in front of the TV, which is where we want to be right now. We're following the election news on KUOW/NPR (94.9 FM) and keeping an eye on CNN.com, MSNBC.com, and King County Votes (which also has a helpful Twitter feed). If you're not watching tv today and you're trying to keep up on the news, what sites are you reading/obsessively refreshing?
Rudolph Valentino. Ray Charles. Jerry Lee Lewis dancing on pianos, for God's sake! Dance in Seattle had anything but a boring 20th century. We were prowling around the internet this morning and discovered that today is the anniversary of the date the city banned a really bizarre but popular 1920s and '30s fad called "dance marathons" within its city limits. That was enough to pique our interest, and we've spent the day researching what was happening in the world of dance during the 20th century. Here are some of the highlights, thanks in large part to our favorite local history website: HistoryLink.org.
Despite a recent rash of violence surrounding America's Next Top Model in Seattle, this Seattlest decided it would be okay to host an ANTM-viewing party tonight. Though there was a fair amount of yelling two cycles ago because our hatred for Natasha and last cycle because our devotion to Heather (the model with Asperger's Syndrome), were not shared by our friends, we figured that since previous parties the wife organized took place without any stabbings or fisticuffs amongst the attendees, tonight's would be safe.
Our friend with whom we were watching this week's installment of How Eight People Slaughter Good Songs noted that Kristy Lee was one of the only people on American Idol who didn't do something to make us angry. In fact, she seriously brought it this week (if you can forgive one or two pitchy moments in a 90-second version of a Martina McBride song). KLC's choice: "Anyway."
It's Idol Gives Back week on American Idol this week, which means tonight's theme is "Songs That Inspire You." We know it's too late for Kristy Lee Cook to choose a song—if she doesn't have a good one in the pocket already, she loses. But, we have a brilliant idea for her, even though we know Randy "The Dawg" Jackson wouldn't be too thrilled with us. Here's our suggestion for what our local cutie can pull off tonight and save herself a place in the Top 7:
Dave Reichert can sell. His image as the "Savior Sheriff" of Green River sold him a ticket to Washington, D.C., a few years back and now, after a lengthy struggle with his conscience, he’s sold the right to have his book adapted into a TV miniseries on Lifetime.
After Seattlest arrived at the office today, saw all of these big white trailers across the street, and had our little "Well, this is unusual" moment of tilted equilibrium, we got curious. Is this another episode of our friendly German invasion of last August?
parody of a musical in the first place, with enough cheesy lines, bawdy humor and exposed flesh to sate more or less any appetite.
Seattle hiphop artist Kublakai (aka Ian Waller) released in early January, and we've happily kept tracks from the record such "Oh Lord" and "Power Food" in our frequent playlist rotation ever since. This week, Kublakai talked to Seattlest in an exclusive about jazz, Snoop Dogg, his mom, a budding film career, and more!
Clinton is up by a smidge in Texas, it's neck and neck in Ohio, and Rush Limbaugh fans are going big for Hillary.

Friendly Folk-Pop for the Kids: Hey Marseilles at Vera This Saturday