My newest obsession

Wonder why everyone's looking at me?

"Mmmm bhmmm" (May be my cheeks?)
Yes?

Her parents just trimmed her eyelashes to enhance its future growth, so it's a pity you didn't see her eyes in full glory. She has double eyelids!



Oh no the thighs! Haha!

Yawn...

Hmmm? (Shuyin's uncle behind)

Look at the small hand!

Heehee! She smiles!

oooh!! She holds my finger~!

Sooooooooooo cute! It's a pity the photos are so grainy and dim, coz baby pics cannot be taken with flash (supposed to be bad for the eyes I think?), and I had to jack up the contrast. Really, the photos don't do her justice -- it is not reflecting her downy curls, her flushed rosy cheeks and most of all a lack of the 3rd dimension which make all that cuteness more realistic. Ha ha... Lousy camera. I have a mind to smash it.

Oops I forgot to introduce her! Her name is Abigail, Shuyin's cousin's baby (which means it is SY's niece). Very adorable right? Around 4 months old. Shuyin kept haolianing her pictures around until I buay tahan and keep pestering her to let me see Abbie. In the end she had to give in (think it was when I was pulling her hair)! Ha!

p/s: I am really apprehensive about allowing comments. Because no matter what, there would be mean people around.

I don't mind mean comments about me, but I hate it when people are rude to my friends. They are innocent parties, and you don't know them, so please think of their feelings ok? Please don't say mean things about Abbie - she is only a baby and never harmed anyone (except being so cute everyone's addicted to her) - nor Shuyin, nor the baby's parents who were kind enough to let me see her (realise it is pretty awkward to just pop by their place like that). It is not nice if they open this page and see mean stuff about their bundle of joy. You wouldn't like anyone saying anything bad about your baby if you had one, would you?

People tell me I shouldn't delete comments, but I will. I will delete anything that hurts my friends' feelings.

Thank you for your time, sorry for the sermons, and do moan about how cute she is now! Wahahhaha.

"LOST" IN THOUGHT, MUSICALLY

Recently in USA Today, they ran a list of songs that should comprise the soundtrack for the TV show (and my current mania) 'Lost'.

Among the songs chosen were some that appeared in episodes, others that just have the right theme for a particular scene or character.

With the first cut chosen, I've left the description and the sample lyrics. But if you want to read the whole article, (and the reasons for some of the choices) go to:

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2005-02-23-lost-songs_x.htm

Guns N' Roses, Welcome to the Jungle
"Sure, it's a little on the nose. But upon reading the lyrics, it's like Axl wrote it just for packrat Sawyer:

Welcome to the jungle
It gets worse here everyday
You learn to live like an animal
In the jungle where we play
If you got a hunger for what you see
You'll take it eventually
You can have anything you want
But you better not take it from me"

Creedence Clearwater Revival, Run Through the Jungle

John Legend, Burning Down the House (Talking Heads cover)

Talking Heads, Psycho Killer

Biz Markie, Shove This Jay-Oh-Bee

Will Smith, Just the Two of Us

Thompson Twins, Doctor, Doctor

The Police, Message in a Bottle

Peter Murphy, Cuts You Up

Pearl Jam, Leash

Def Leppard, Animal

Driveshaft, You All Everybody

Weezer, Island in the Sun

Lou Reed, Perfect Day

Joe Purdy, Wash Away

Bobby Darrin, Beyond the Sea

Willie Nelson, Are You Sure?

Patsy Cline, Leavin' on Your Mind

As of this past week's episode, we can also add a song called "Delicate" by Damien Rice. Perhaps it should end the CD in the exact same way it ended the episode: cutting off abruptly as if the batteries have died.

After reading the article, this is what I wrote to the editors of USA Today:

'Jayme Deerwester's column about the "Lost" soundtrack could have used a Peter Gabriel number.

Either "In Your Eyes" due to all the episodes that begin with a closeup of a single eyeball, or "Shaking The Tree" which is a nice feel for any of the women and the strength they find within themselves while in the jungle.'

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

NEWS BLIPS

The subway between Grand Central Station and Times Square is going back in time to promote the return of 'Deadwood',' HBO's hit, gritty series about the Old West.

Starting March 1 and running for at least one month, the interior of a three-car S train will be redecorated with fake wood, tiles and even faux cushions to look like western-saloon train cars.

The second season of the popular drama debuts on March 6.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here's some news combining two different aspects of Toobworld - The League of Themselves and multiverse connections:

Part time pain-in-the-neck, full time genius, Larry David ['Curb your Enthusiasm'] might be set for a role in "Spider-Man 3", says a scooper for Aint it Cool.

David told BBC Radio 4 that he had been asked to film a part in the forthcoming - still a good year or so away - second sequel to Sam Raimi's original money spinner.

Hard to think of David playing anyone other than himself, so chances are we'll be seeing just that - a cameo as himself.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NBC has ordered a pilot for a comedy starring 'Saturday Night Live' head writer Tina Fey, while ABC has given the go-ahead to a project featuring former 'SNL' cast member Chris Kattan.

The untitled Fey project will star the Weekend News Update anchor as the head writer of an 'SNL'-like variety show, focusing on her efforts to control a volatile star and executive producer. She also wrote the pilot and will serve as an executive producer.

ABC's untitled Kattan comedy centers on an egocentric consumer reporter (Kattan) who thinks the world revolves around him. Kattan will serve as a producer.

~~~~~~~~~~~
NBC has ordered a pilot for 'Notorious', starring Tori Spelling as a version of herself in the period immediately after 'Beverly Hills, 90210', with her character depicted as an underdog in the un-celebrity world that she desperately tries to be a part of.

If there's going to be references to her old TV show and/or other projects, this show sounds like it's going to be one big Zonk! nightmare.

What celebrity where?!!

*giggles*

Hello everyone! As some of you might have already known, I've recently been appointed (important voice) as LocalBrand's AMBASSADOR! Wah! Zhun boh?

So what's this LocalBrand thingy? LocalBrand is a local brand for t-shirts with some, eh, daringly different messages. =) I like! Its handsome founder, Turodrique Fuad (his forehead here - doesn't look too handsome though.), was apparently around the shop when I was looking at his tees and declared himself a blog reader.

Things got on from there and I am now 3 months pregnant. Ha! Kidding. KIDDING! So anyway, we decided that I'd be the perfect endorsement board, as, according to him, I'm controversial and pretty like his tees. =)

I asked Turodrique (pronounced To-raw-drick) what happens if LocalBrand goes overseas and he said something like it will maintain its name. *shrugs, mumbles, no longer local what ...* Anyway that's not the point! Lookie at the pink wholesome sluts tee on top! That's LocalBrand! If you wanna see more, feel free to look at the site I guess. And if you like them, drop Turodrique an email. He'll squeal in joy! Even better, buy the tees. If you don't like the messages, i.e you have something against all the three teated women or wholesome sluts in the world, YOU CAN ALSO BURN HIS TEES AND DROP HIM A HATEMAIL!! Yay!

Might as well answer some FAQs here:

**************

Is this the first time bloggers are getting paid for endorsement deals ala celebrities?

In Asia at least, I'm pretty sure it is the first. And I am honoured I am part of it. ;)

What do you think this symbolises?

I guess it is interesting to know that it is no longer just the models, actresses, or singers who are actually earning money from their fame. I foresee that more such deals are coming for the bloggers because not only do the bloggers have constant explosure without having to vie for airtime, they also have full editorial control as well as a certain credibility among its readers which the other stars might not have.

Are you gonna become this disgusting money-making bitch who is gonna bombard us with advertisements? Are you not going to be as truthful as you used to be?

No! I've had some other endorsement offers before this which I turned down because the brand is not ME. I'd never endorse anything which is not me. Editorial content will be exactly like before. I wouldn't force you guys to buy anything. If you like it, go ahead. If you don't ... well take it as a normal tee that I'm just wearing!

How much is this Turodrique guy paying you? Who is he anyway? Why is his name like that?

He is paying me 2 peanuts everytime I wear the tees. Ha! Nah... Industrial SECRET. FUCK DO I FEEL HAPPY! I remember the umpteen times I have to ask the stupid stars when I was working for Today how much the companies are paying to endorse them and they give me the smug face and say how sorry they are but they cannot reveal the amount. NOW MY TURN! Ask me again leh!

Ok, how much is he paying you, again?

Eh, I'm sorry but I cannot tell you. I can safely say it is an ambiguous 7 digit figure. Non Sg currency, that is.

And Turodrique ... Well his name is very weird coz he is Indonesian Chinese (*sniggers* their names are all very funny one lar) and all I know is that he quit a high paying design firm (his own, that is) to start the brand. The name is actually Rodrique but his grandpa or dad, cannot remember which, insisted on the Tu in front as that's the surname or something (then what is Fuad? Apparently I wasn't listening). His brother is called Turonny. Like very Tyranny. Heng no brother is called Bao Zi.

Are you exploiting us?!!!

... HOW?

Sheesh, are you gonna keep wearing tee shirts? But I wanna see more boob!

I'd remember to tell Turodrique to cut two holes in the boob area for his next tee.

I suppose you are darn full of yourself right now? *disgusted smirk*

Damn right, it's better than yours. I can teach you, but I have to charge. la la la...

**************

Still too hot! I'd try to blog tmr afternoon. Loads and loads to write about. Love ya all!

Comments about the pics!! =)

FROM HUGHNIVERSE TO BLIPVERSE!

My thoughts on the Super Bowl commercials brought forth another great email from Hugh Davis. And it would be selfish of me if I didn't share it with whoever might be out there reading this. (Besides the two of us!)

Toby:
Your latest take on the Super Bowl ads has me thinking that its time to announce the discovery of a new world: The Blipverse. It's a bridge universe, really, allowing connections between different worlds, although it is a sub-set of the televerse first and foremost. In it, the laws of physics are even less stable than in the televerse; its inhabitants are also more prone to be Serlinguists.

The nature of the world tends to be intense dramatic concerns with generally quick resolutions, a sort of Deus Ex Machina motif. It's a world in which animated characters, talking/dancing/singing/etc. animals, and puppets all interact easily with humans.

The Blipverse has actually existed for many years, and it originally actually was seen intersecting with the televerse, as commercials were built into shows. There are plenty of Cineverse interactions--the Pierce Brosnan James Bond for Diet Coke, for instance, or Alfred from the Batman movies for Diet Coke--and many of these connect to comics and superheroes and science fiction. The Droids from Star Wars advertise SW toys (later followed by a variety of Darth Vader ads, including the Energizer Bunny Spot, and a Taco Bell ad with the Droids, Vader, Chewbacca, and Storm Troopers); Ferengi and Romulans from ST advertise Hallmark ornaments; Jimmy Olsen (Marc McClure) of four Superman movies and Supergirl advertises Super Powers figures. These then are windows allowing universes to merge.

I think the most remarkable Blipverse spots for mergings come from the Batman On*Star ads. Clearly, these connect the Batman movies to the small subset of Televerse that comes from commercials. They are visually tied without a doubt to those movies, plus Michael Gough is in there as Alfred. The actor playing Batman in them then played that role in a flashback sequence on Birds of Prey, so it links Cineverse to Televerse, and, since Mark Hamill gave the Joker's voice in this and the WB animated show, there's a further Toon tie that can all be brought forth thanks to Blipvert spots.

(The Blipverse can also be seen superheroically way back, with Superman and Jimmy shilling for Kellogg's Pep).

I'm brought to this realization from your discussion of how the Marvel heroes in the Check Card ad aren't the TV or Movie versions. That's right--they are the Blipverse versions. Spiderman has appeared in live-action on the Televerse in the 1970s--both the tv-movie specials and as part of The Electric Company (easily one could argue these are the same) and in animated versions in each decade since the 1960s, but his Blipverse incarnation has also been there in live-action form. A theme park ad from the late 1990s had him battling Doc Octupus atop a plane, for example.

The key to show that the Blipverse has live action versions of these superheroes today is another ad, however, from three or four years ago. A milkman pushed a doorbell at a mansion and is dropped through a trapdoor into a hidden room. It turns out he's at Avengers Mansion and is being interviewed for a possible spot on the super-team's roster.

The Milkman, however, has no powers...he just provides milk, which gives you strong bones. Interviewing him were the Hulk (who might be connected to the Cineverse Hulk, seen in Blipverts for Mountain Dew two summers ago), Scarlet Witch, Iron Man, and (key here) Captain America, Spiderman, and Thor. These Blipverse inhabitants then are the ones seen again in the most recent SuperBowl spot.

Oh, and Underdog did appear in a cereal commercial (Frosted Cheerios, which flopped) six or seven years ago which also featured, among others, Reggie Miller of the NBA and James Doohan, who, though not labelled as such, did appear to be playing Scotty, as he made a "can't take anymore" comment.

Hugh

PS
You haven't mentioned the Simpsons SuperBowl episode yet, with the celebrities getting showboat training from Homer. Among others, it included Warren Sapp (who's been in some NFL Network ads this year for "Space Raiders," an SF version of the Oakland team) and Yao Ming (who appeared, albeit with someone else voicing him) on Static Shock!

Toby's Take:
Hugh's got too many good ideas of his own regarding Toobworld that he really should be doing a companion blog of his own! If you agree with me and want to read more of his theories and ideas, help me light the fire under him - write us a comment to this blog entry and let Hugh know you'd like to see more of his ideas on a regular basis!

GUAVA GEORGE GUESTS!

As an "Iddiot" in the Idiot's Delight Digest, I've come across Toobworldian musings from many of my fellow Iddiots. Recently "Guava George" posted this piece about an upcoming show on ABC and its multiverse beginnings.........

Stephen Bochco, creator of NYPD Blue, put out a novel in 2003 called "Death By Hollywood" about a screenwriter who kills his wife’s lover. Lots of in-jokes in the book, including references to NYPDB and the fact that the story in the book is turned into a screenplay by one of the characters. Integral to the plot is a short story called "First Dog," written by Bobby, the screenwriter character.

In the short story, a writer named Ron is working on a script late at night, when his girlfriend’s dog Bob starts talking to him. Bob gives an idea for a screenplay called "First Dog," about a talking dog who becomes President. Ron’s response is lukewarm, so a few days later Bob gives him another idea, which Ron turns into a hit show about a professor who’s really a spy.

After that, Bob says nothing to Ron for a couple of years.

Then one day he gives Ron another idea. Here’s the last paragraph of the short story:

"Well," Bob says," there’s this one idea I’ve been working on, it’s about this tough cop who gets blinded in a gun battle, and he’s too young to retire, he still wants to be a cop, so he gets this guide dog named Bob…"

It would give away a huge plot twist to say what happens next, but I can say that, in the novel, the show Bob describes is eventually created and called "Blind Justice."

"Blind Justice" starts on ABC in a couple of weeks.

Guava George

HEAD'S UP FOR GOD

Recently, former detective Adrian Monk met the rock band Korn while stuck in a mult-car pile-up on Highway 101.

Julie Treeger, daughter of Monk's assistant Natalie, had to go to the bathroom really bad and they were granted the use of the facilities on Korn's tour bus.

That was less than a month ago.

And now, one of the band members, Brian "Head" Welch, has announced his retirement from the band because he has found religion. As such, he couldn't go on playing the type of music Korn was known for, but he wished his mates well as their roads took separate routes.

So....

In Toobworld, what was it that caused the tele-version of "Head" Welch to be reborn? As he and the other members of Korn met Monk and Julie, they are no longer considered to be the same people as those in Korn here in the Real World. And therefore, the reasons for their actions can often be ascribed to fictional events.

Because this life-changing decision was made after another life-altering event like the traffic jam caused by a murder, I think it's possible that Mr. Welch took stock of the situation, reevaluated his purpose in Life, and decided that perhaps he had a higher calling.

And after seeing what Mr. Monk was like, maybe "Head" remembered a basic tenet to live by:

"Cleanliness is next to Godliness."

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

GATES MAKE FADE-IN

After all the hoo-ha over the "art" project erected by Christo in New York's Central Park played out in the news of the Real World, 'The Gates' made its debut in the fictional world of Television.

Ephram and Andy Brown were on a Central Park West rooftop last weekend, overlooking The Gates, which can be seen in the episode.

According to the Daily News, even though the scene on the rooftop was the last good moment for the father and son, it was a fortuitously happy time to be ensconced high above Central Park, just in time to witness the unfurling of more than 7,000 saffron-draped gates in Central Park.

Christo claims they are saffron in color, anyway. I saw them up close and personal. They're orange. Time and again I read or heard somebody describe them as Home Depot and/or a car wash. In fact, I half-expected to see the late Earl Hindman stick his ghostly head partially up over a fence and intone something about Home Depot, like he used do as a voiceover for their commercials.

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

PS:
The subject heading is proof that I'll stoop as low as I can go to get a pun!

Just so you know ...

I just stepped into my room, which has no aircon, from my mum's room, which has aircon.

Immediately, the heat greeted me like a giant punch enveloping every part of my body, its intensity a shocking high.

I tolerated it enough to drag myself into the sweltering room, where I turned on the computer and typed out this much.

I cannot stand it any longer. I am sure I am getting a heat stroke. Dizzyness, visions of leafy mirages, melting necks - aren't all these signs of my condition?

The love for blogging, though reaching a pretty amazing peak these few days due to the rarity of the activity, is not sufficient for me to risk deathhhhh......... *melts*

I am gonna scurry back to the airconditioned room; it is too hot to blog.

CROSSOVER OF THE WEEK (1)

In sports, one expects there to be a certain amount of trash-talking out there, but generally you don't trash the folks on the same team.

Apparently the rules are different in network TV.

Ed Bernero, the executive producer of 'Third Watch' said that this past Friday's crossover between his show and 'Medical Investigations' was "a rarity in network television, in that it's a crossover that actually makes sense."

In comparing his show to 'Medical Investigations' (probably the most boring name for a TV show EVER!), Bernero continued, "We deal with medical stuff. We have paramedics. We don't have Boston detectives going to Las Vegas."

Ouch! 'Crossing Jordan' and 'Las Vegas', you've been served! Snap!

Dr. Stephen Connor and Dr. Natalie Durant of 'Medical Investigatons' were summoned to New York City to help deal with a possible outbreak of a plague - hemmorhagic fever from Africa. One of the first victims was paramedic Carlos Nieto, who had been spattered by the bloody phlegm of a jewelry store robber.

Investigating that crime and trying to help the NIH to track down the accomplice [the main carrier of the disease] was the grunt work for Detective Faith Yokas. It carried over into the following hour on 'Medical Investigations', which also chronicled the treatment for Carlos and other victims of this plague.

For that second hour, fellow paramedic Holly Levine also made the crossover as she stood vigil outside the ICU for her on-again, off-again lover Carlos.

According to the story in the Daily News about the crossover, this was a sign that the Peacock network was investing in both of these series. And like Bernero said, this was a crossover that made sense. Even if the 'Medical Investigations' team did have to travel to another city, at least that's what they do in every episode. (In the past, 'Law & Order' would have to travel to Baltimore to cross over with 'Homicide: Life On The Street'; 'ER' had to come to the Big Apple from the Windy City for their crossover with 'Third Watch'; and then there's always that 'Las Vegas' in Boston team-up with 'Crossing Jordan'.)

So how come after six years on the air, 'Third Watch' has yet to do a crossover with either one of the three 'Law & Order' series? 'Third Watch' has cops, it has firemen, it has paramedics. And all of them already in Manhattan.
What more do they want for shows that deal with the criminal justice system?

'Third Watch' characters should even be showing up in the new member of the 'L&O' team, 'Trial By Jury'. Professionals in all three fields could be called to testify in cases.

Well, there's always next year. As Molly Price, who plays Detective Yokas said in the Daily News, "They've moved us all over the map and no matter what they do to us, we always have this hard core vigilantly loyal audience. We're like a cockroach; they just can't kill us."

Speaking of Ms. Price, our congratulations to her for her portrayal of Faith Yokas in this crossover. She becomes the first member of the 'Third Watch' cast to become eligible for induction into the TV Crossover Hall of Fame, as she was also involved in that earlier storyline with 'ER'.

So we have a tie for the best crossover of the week. And in keeping with an idea lovingly ripped off from 'Futurama', we'll prioritize them by calling one "Crossover Of The Week A" and the other "Crossover Of The Week 1".

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

CROSSOVER OF THE WEEK (A)

It looks like the return of Detective Mike Logan to the 'Law & Order' sector of the TV Universe was welcomed by more than just crossover fans. There was incredible spike in the ratings for last Sunday's episode of 'Law & Order: Criminal Intent'.

Just like another New Yorker who looks exactly like him, Logan is "Mr. Big".

Some might think this crossover would have the taint of "been there, done that" about it; 'L&O' characters are always jumping back and forth between shows. But Mike Logan had been off the flagship since 1995, and as probably the second most popular detective ever on the show, he's always going to draw an audience.

Technically, this isn't a crossover between 'Law & Order' and 'Law & Order: Criminal Intent', however. Mike Logan's life has evolved since he left that parent show; like all characters in Toobworld, just because we couldn't see him anymore, that doesn't mean his life just stopped.

Actually, this would be counted as a crossover between 'Law & Order: Criminal Intent' and 'Exiled', the 'Law & Order' TV movie. That's where we got our last update on Logan's life and career after being banished from the 2-7 to the investigative wasteland of Staten Island.

And this crossover served as a forecast of what's to come, because Detective Logan is joining 'Law & Order: Criminal Intent' next season to give Detective Goren a break. Each of them will be doing eleven episodes each.

We also got a glimpse near the end of the episode how their methods of investigation differ. When they were trapped in the detention center's lockdown by the bad apple correction officers, Mike Logan cowboyed up; he was hot-headed and defiant, promising to take out at least one of them before they could take him down.

And as for the others, "well, that's what the death penalty is for, gentlemen."

But Goren was subtle, incisive. He got into each of their heads, using psychology to play them against their ringleader so that one by one, they each laid down their batons and walked away from the confrontation.

I'm hoping their individual episodes continue with this demarcation between their styles of operating. When Jack Kelly was first brought into 'Maverick' to play Brett's brother Bart, the scripts still seemed to be interchangeable; either actor could have assayed the roles. Only later did Bart's episodes gain their own voice.

But Goren's method of detection isn't for the bull-headed Logan, so I hope they don't try to force Chris Noth to act as though he's a substitute Vincent D'Onofrio.

And I also hope they get him his own partner so that Kathryn Erbe as Detective Eames can catch a break as well.
(As for Jamey Sheridan and Courtney Vance? They're slacking off enough as it is. No break for them!)

Might I suggest Dana Eskelson, the actress who played Logan's partner on Staten Island? She was able to hold her own against Noth and since she's a relatively unknown, she doesn't bring much by way of preconceptions about her as a person to the role of Detective Frankie Silvera.

I think I speak for most in the audience in that what we know of her, we only know from her role in 'Exiled', but as such I found her refreshing.

But failing that, I think Molly Price as Detective Faith Yokas on 'Third Watch' would make an excellent addition to the 'Law & Order' team. It wouldn't be the first time they brought in a character from an outside show. (Helloooo, Munchkin!)

Not that I'm wishing ill on her home show of 'Third Watch'! In fact, if this past week is any indication, she'll probably have a place to continue as a detective for a long time to come.

I'm just saying, is all........ But it does bring me to the other Crossover of the Week.

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

PRICE IS SIGHTED

As a promotional stunt to ensnare more viewers to their entire week's schedule during February sweeps, CBS repeated a stunt from last year. Their 'Early Show' weatherman, Dave Price, popped up in a different show on each of the five weeknights.

The point was to find all of his appearances and hopefully win a prize.

I'm to cynical, callow, and okay, lazy to put in that kind of effort. But I did see him in one of the CBS shows only because I'm a big Danica McKellar fan and she was the guest star that night.

Price showed up in a quick exchange with one of the Navy forensic investigators in an elevator. They were discussing the scientific merits of the groundhog seeing its shadow, but Dave couldn't get the guy to accept the common wisdom. (And don't expect me to repeat it - I can't remember if it's six more weeks of winter if he sees his shadow or not.)

As his character wasn't identified by name, and since it was a weather-related cameo, I've got no problem with considering his appearance to be as himself. Perhaps "Dave Price" was in that high-level Naval office building in order to do prep work for an upcoming report on 'The Early Show'.

I'd be curious where he showed up on the other nights, and whether or not he could have been appearing as himself.

Let me know!

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

DAYNA TV TIME

One of the harbingers of Sweeps Month is the sighting of TV show hosts popping up on other TV shows. And when they appear as members of the League of Themselves, then it can be considered a crossover.

For example, Dayna Devon of 'Extra' does a series of features which she calls 'Dayna TV' in which she makes appearances on a wide variety of programs. (Not all of them turn out to be fictional shows.)

This time around, it was a soap opera that was graced by her presence. Ms. Devon was spotted in Corinth, on an episode of 'All My Children'. Of course, later that night, the actual crossover was busted all to hell on 'Extra', when she showed the behind the scenes activities of what happened while she filmed her part.

But left standing on its own, the 'All My Children' appearance builds up her resume for the League of Themselves.

So it was a nice try; we give her runner-up status as Miss Congeniality.

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

NO SOAP, VIDEO

I endured the chore of watching 'Joey' this week (and that's hardly a ringing endorsement, is it?) in order to see if it could help me in reconciling the view of daytime TV in prime time shows.

For many years, references to soap operas on Toobworld have been to fictional shows - 'As Thus We Are' (from 'Love, Sidney' - my all-time favorite fictional soap opera title), 'All Is Forgiven' (from the sitcom of the same name), 'Those Who Care' (from 'The New Dick Van Dyke Show'), 'The Days Of The Week' ('SCTV'), and 'As The Stomach Turns' ('The Carol Burnett Show').

(Personally, this is the type of show I prefer. I'd rather enrich the TV Universe with fictional materials to keep it distinct from the Real World.)

But lately, more and more shows are referring to real soap operas, mostly as punch lines on sitcoms. I guess they are trying to make it appear that their own shows are real while all the others are fake.

One recent example would be in the medical drama 'House'. Dr. House would rather be watching 'General Hospital' than working the clinic. And it he doesn't just limit it to the daytime soaps: "I don't need to watch the O.C., but it makes me happy."

A fictional character getting a job on an actual soap opera may have started with 'Love, Sidney', when Laurie Morgan was hired for four episodes of 'Another World' after doing a commercial for Amore Soap. After that, she moved on to play a sapphic homewrecker on the fictional 'A Time For Loving' before landing her big break in 'As Thus We Are'.

But it was Joey Tribbiani's stint(s) on 'The Days Of Our Lives' that has proved to have the biggest impact. As Dr. Drake Ramoray, his adventures on that Real World soap opera fueled several plots of 'Friends' and has been referenced several times on his spin-off, 'Joey'.

He has interacted with several actors from the soap who were portraying themselves, (and even the creator/writer for the show, James Reilly). But more often than not, we've met fictional actors who have no counterpart in our own world.

Best example from 'Friends'? Susan Sarandon appearing as Jessica Lockhart, the drama queen who was slated to be written off the show with a death scene. Her character's brain lived on in the body of Joey's character, Dr. Drake Ramoray.

This past week, Joey had one last shot at glory in connection to that gig on 'DOOL', as he sometimes called it. He was up for a Daytime Soap Award for best death scene. While at the awards dinner broadcast, we were introduced not only to other actors on 'Days Of Our Lives', but also to actors who were appearing in 'General Hospital', 'One Life To Live', and 'Passions'.

And all of them were fictional.

And based on the clips shown from their shows, the plotlines were also faked. For example, Dr. Ramoray was stabbed to death in the OR by his nurse who wanted to make sure he couldn't save the life of the patient. Had he really been a character on 'Days Of Our Lives', Reilly would have written him off during that year-long murder storyline in which major characters were bumped off in imaginative ways. As it turned out, the victims were all still alive, and being held prisoner on an island.

Since it was established on 'Friends' that James Reilly was no fan of Joey Tribbiani, it would have been easy to just leave his character of Dr. Drake Ramoray behind on that island.

So that's how we can avoid a Zonk when it comes to the mention of real-life soap operas in other shows. They may share the same title, but there is no real connection between the two versions.

Dr. House still Zonked with that mention of 'The O.C.' though. I would have given him a stern talking-to, but he scares me with that cane of his. Especially if he hasn't been taking his Vicodin......

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

MAKING THE CUT

Except for 'Enterprise', UPN has been , for me, mostly a network out of sight and out of mind. I'm just not the targeted urban audience demographic to whom most of their other shows cater.

But as bruising as it might be for my ego, just because I don't watch the shows, that doesn't mean they aren't popular. And one of them, 'One On One' starring Flex Alexander, has proven to be so popular that it has spawned a spin-off.

'Cuts' is set in a Baltimore barber shop which has Tiffany Warner as the new manager after her hair-care mogul of a dad buys the place. Determined to change the place into a day spa for women, Tiffany goes toe-to-toe with Kevin Washington, the guy who used to run the place, until they make a compromise so that the workplace becomes both a barbershop and a day spa.

Apparently, hilarity will ensue.

I thought this was going to prove to be an easy write-up, but as I'm doing my research, it appears I jumped to conclusions.

According to the two episodes of 'One On One' that launched this series, Kevin is the brother of Mark Washington, a sportscaster in Baltimore. I don't think we had seen Kevin on the show before because he had been a "hairdresser to the stars" out in Hollywood. But now that he'd fallen on hard times, he came back thinking he could run the old family business of the barber shop.

But now with the new show 'Cuts', Kevin's last name is suddenly "Barnes". And Jack Warner, the hair-care mogul, is no longer played by David Garrison, but instead by Corbin Bernsen. That at least was easy to splain away - Apparently a quantum leaper from the future must have leapt into his life long enough to alter Tiffany's life.

That's my splainin and I'm sticking to it.

As for the name change for Marques Houston's character of Kevin? I'll have to do more research on that. (The IMDb.com doesn't even have the show listed yet!)

Was he a half-brother, raised by a different mother? Was "Kevin Barnes" his professional name while out in Hollywood and so he decided to go back to using it?

I guess I really will have to pay more attention to this show after all.

Being a Caretaker for Toobworld ain't easy!

PS:
There's only been one other spin-off of note this year, but as I don't watch the show, I didn't feel it was right for me to bring it up before. That was Bravo's 'Queer Eye For The Straight Gal', the logical successor to 'Queer Eye For The Straight Guy'. I'm not sure if the Fab Five have made an appearance yet on the sequel, but that would certainly cement their induction into the Crossover Hall of Fame as a group.

I will give it props though, for its tag line on the subway posters:
"TWICE AS QUEER.... TWO NIGHTS STRAIGHT!"

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

THAT WAS THE TOOB WEEK THAT WAS

This being February, it's Sweeps month - that quarter of the year when the networks get to adjust the rates they charge for their commercials based on their ratings. And to boost those ratings, they bring out the big boys: specials, special guest stars, spectaculars, the Super Bowl, the Oscars, mini-series, movies, alarming news reports, and of course, crossovers and spin-offs.

This past week was a particular busy one for Toobworld - two official crossovers, at least one unofficial one, and a spin-off. Plus all the little stuff to enhance and enrich the TV Universe, and a few new members in the League of Themselves to boot.So let's take a look-see at what we got this week.......

AN IN-ADVERT-ENT CROSSOVER

Jill Nicolini is the helicopter traffic reporter for WPIX Channel 11 in New York City. But if you flip around the dial, you can see the former Playboy model on other local TV stations in a commercial for Lucille Roberts' health clubs. In this blipvert, Ms. Nicolini is billed as a health club reporter, so in the grand Toobworld scheme of things, she's obviously covering both kinds of "news" for the station.

It just happens that the health club news is being played out on the other stations, doing the work for WPIX.

Anybody who's been around Toobworld for awhile knows that I'm a tele-anarchist; that I believe in TV without borders. But out in the real world, the suits don't like to see that sort of thing happen.

(Look at the stink ABC and FOX made when David E. Kelley wanted to do a crossover between his own shows 'The Practice' and 'Ally McBeal'.)

Ms. Nicolini filmed the ad before she was hired by WPIX, so the station has no problem with a conflict of interest. And they probably find the situation funny.

In fact, according to Richard Huff in the New York Daily News, a Channel 11 spokesman said that "If Channel 7 wants to put Channel 11's traffic reporter on their station, and identify her by name, we're not going to complain."

An article like that will more than likely lead to WABC Channel 7 yanking the ad from airing now. It will be a localized form of revenge after other stations pulled a car ad which featured Dennis Franz back in the day when the soon-to-vanish 'NYPD Blue' was white-hot in popularity.

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

THEN & NOW

The prime times, they are a-changin', and in forty years much of the TV landscape has been altered to reflect the times portrayed.

And yet the framework for certain situations remain constant.....

Here's an episode from 'Leave It To Beaver'.....

149. IN THE SOUP
Wally is throwing a party and is successful in getting Beaver out of the house, who is planning to spend the night at Whitey's. However, on the way to Whitey's house, him and Beaver get into an argument over a billboard that is advertising for soup and this leads to Beaver falling into the giant soup bowl mounted at the top of the billboard.

And this is one of the most recent episodes of 'Malcolm In The Middle'.....

117. BILLBOARD
When Lois catches the boys vandalizing a trashy billboard for a strip club, Malcolm alters the vandalism into a women's rights protest, which sparks a colossal media circus. In no time, feminists, conservative religious groups and national new reporters descend on the scene. After Hal grants a TV interview, a woman from his past turns up at the faux protest; and Reese, inspired by the giant billboard stripper who comes to life in his dreams, gives an impassioned speech about the objectification of women.

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

UNCLE DUCKY

Referring to a recent episode of 'NCIS', Zap2It.com's wonderful "TV Gal" reported:

On 'NCIS', Kate asked Gibbs who Duckie looked like when he was younger. Gibbs answered "Illya Kuryakin," which was, of course, the name of David McCallum's character on 'The Man from U.N.C.L.E.' Thanks to TV Gal readers Mitch and Mary for catching this clever reference. It's true. We live for this stuff.

David Bianculli of the New York Daily News would call this an Extra. That's an in-joke designed to give a little something extra to the loyal fans and television fanatics. (And to give the writers a reason to keep on plodding/plotting away.)

I've sent in plenty over the years to Mr. Bianculli. But in this case, being the Toobworld Caretaker and all, I didn't see it as an in-joke. For me, it's verification that 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.' and 'NCIS' (and by extension 'JAG' and 'First Monday'*) exist in the same TV Universe.

If that scene played out right, Gibbs never mentioned that Illya Kuryakin was only a TV character in a classic 60s spy series. He simply stated that Dr. Mallard looked like Illya Kuryakin. This seems to me to imply that Gibbs knew that Illya Kuryakin was a real person in Toobworld.

And it would make sense that the former Russian agent for the United Network Command for Law Enforcement would be well-known to people outside the shadow realm of espionage. After retiring from the service, Illya wasn't whisked off to some remote "Village" to be questioned. Instead, he became a fashion designer.

And although he must have become famous, he wasn't happy in the profession. And that's why he was more than willing to chuck it aside and return to work for U.N.C.L.E. again, fifteen years after he resigned.

One of Gibbs' ex-wives may have been a slave to fashion, and that's why he knew about Kuryakin.

As to why Dr. Mallard looked almost exactly like the legendary spy? Accelerated cloning is a possibility; it would certainly work for a spy format that had plenty of off-the-wall concepts - like reanimating the corpse of Hitler. Or experimental plastic surgery during Dr. Mallard's medical school training, as part of some dark, secret government sponsored program. It was during the Cold War after all.........

But unlike 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.', 'NCIS' is mostly rooted in reality. So let's keep the splainin simple.......
Ducky and Illya had the same Daddy, who was dipping his wick around the globe.

On second thought, I like the Cold War plastic surgery splainin better. Makes for more interesting fanfic!

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

* 'NCIS' is a spin-off from 'JAG'. And Dean Stockwell's character of the Navy Secretary was carried over from the short-lived 'First Monday', which was about the Supreme Court.

"LAW & ORDER" (A MISSING LINK THEORY)

Tonight, (Wed 2/16 @ 10 pm EST), 'Law & Order' will once again be ripping one off from the headlines with the episode "The Sixth Man". And it's an episode that can be considered one of Toobworld's missing links; those theoretical crossovers with another show that can't exactly be proven.

In the show, a pro basketball player lays down on the scorer's table where he gets hit by a beer tossed by a fan in the stands. The player, Silas Enwood of the Philadelphia Cannons, charges into the stands and fights the riled-up fans. Soon all hell breaks loose and his other team-mates get caught up in the mini-riot.

Sounds just like what happened during the Pistons-Pacers game back in November. Except in that case, the fan didn't sue the player for 20 million bucks, only to end up dead with his neck broken.

And thus we have that 'Law & Order' touch to distinguish it.

I haven't seen the episode in advance, but I can't see how they can pass up this opportunity - a copy of the New York Ledger (THE paper in the 'L&O' corner of the universe) with the blaring headline of "LOOSE CANNON!"

I don't know if the other team gets involved in the fight, but that's where my interest lies: the Philadelphia Cannons are playing the New York Empires.

Already in Toobworld, there has been a team known as the New York Empires. But they're a baseball team, (to be found in the short-lived CBS series of this past year, 'Clubhouse'), not a basketball team.

Still, it's not unheard of for two teams to bear the same name; for example, there are the San Francisco Giants and the New York Giants (who should be required by law to carry the name of the Jersey Giants if they're going to play in the swampland across the River).

The two teams of Giants are owned by different interests, and they don't seem to have any problem with the existence of the other. But as these two Empire teams are in the same town, I would think some kind of trademark infringement problem would have arisen.

Unless, of course, they both had the same owner.

The Empires baseball team was established back in 1904. Had an upstart basketball team come along decades later and tried to use the same brand name, the owner of the baseball team would have raised holy hell to protect his franchise's rights to the name. But if both teams were owned by the same guy, maybe he'd want to extend his empire, so to speak, by making sure both teams bore the same kind of logo, modified just enough to delineate which sport was being represented.

So that's my theory. The New York Empires basketball team ('Law & Order') is owned by the same guy (Tom Bettleheim, as played by Larry King) who owns the New York Empires baseball team ('Clubhouse').

Of course, this all depends on whether or not we meet the owner of the basketball team tonight in the episode. And if we do, I'm already with my alibi for that as well.

They could have both belonged to the same owner years before, but finally the basketball team had to be sold off. And due to poor negotiations, nobody thought to add a clause in which the new owners would have to come up with a new name for the team.

And still I would have the missing link crossover. Ta da!

It wouldn't be the first time 'Law & Order' had such a crossover. Do you remember that episode in which there was a shooting at the piers where a singles cruise was docking? The trail led the detectives to the Sunshine Cab Company, where the Arab driver said that had he wanted to kill Jews in New York, all he had to do was run a red light.

The Sunshine Cab Company was the central location for one of the best ensemble comedies of all time: 'Taxi'.

And then there was an even more trivial missing link crossover when the manager of a comedy club (played by Larry Miller) was suspected of shooting his wife. She ended up in a 'Coma' at Manhattan General Hospital.

Manhattan General is a great standby for a fictional hospital in the TV Universe. It even can serve as a link between the movies and TV since it was used in the movie "The Velvet Touch", which I contend is the precursor to 'Columbo'. (See it!)

But sticking just to TV, Manhattan General was used in 'Naked City' in at least one episode, when Sgt. Frank Arcaro was shot by a crazed Ozark rube in broad daylight.

More importantly, it was the main location for 'Kay O'Brien, Surgeon', a character who was mentioned in an episode of 'St. Elsewhere' as having left St. Eligius to work in NYC. And in one doctor's opinion, she probably wouldn't have lasted thirteen weeks there.

Based on the run for her series, that doc was right!

So with all of those missing links, look what we get: 'Clubhouse' tied to 'Law & Order' (and with all of the shows in its franchise!), and added goodies like 'Kay O'Brien, Surgeon', 'Naked City', and the hub of all crossovers, 'St. Elsewhere'.

And don't forget all the shows that get added to the mix because of the involvement of Detective John Munch on 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit' -
'Homicide: Life On The Street', 'The X-Files', 'The Beat', 'Chicago Hope', 'Homicide: The Movie'......

It's no wonder I feel like shouting out an abandoned catch-phrase for David Letterman: "I'm moist!" This is going to be the capper to the new night of "Must See TV" - 'Lost', 'The West Wing', and 'Law & Order'.

I am one tele-visiologist who'll be happier than Arnold Ziffel in a sty full of bleep!

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

ONCE AGAIN, "LOST" IN THOUGHT

Here's a snippet from a Yahoo! News item:

"Lost, meanwhile, will look to build on its already big season with the upcoming offing of a familiar prime-time face."

I'm not one who likes to get involved with all of the theories flooding the internet about this show. I'm just happy to be along for the ride. And I trust the creators of the show enough to believe that anything the fans come up with, their eventual answers will be better.

But I can't help myself. I find myself playing the guessing game as well.

I'm assuming the above quote means that Robert Patrick of 'The Sopranos' and Tje X-Files' and "Terminator 2" will be killed off in tomorrow night's flashback from Sawyer.

John Terry, the guy who played Jack's father is listed as a guest star for tomorrow night, so that might be the connection between Jack and Sawyer. Did Sawyer have a hand in the death of Jack's Dad?

But the "familiar primetime face" could mean somebody who's now become familiar to America because of 'Lost'. Or somebody on 'Lost' who already was familiar.

To me, that means two people - Matthew Fox (Jack) or Terry O'Quinn (Locke). The producers have said that one of the major characters will die by the end of the first season. And I think it will be one of those two.

For some time, I was thinking it would be Jack. The producers wanted to kill off his character in the pilot episode and even thought of casting a major player like Michael Keaton in the role to give it more of an oomph.

They were talked out of doing it then, but who's to say they don't still harbor thoughts of doing a kevorkian on the good doctor?

However, I vacillate easily. And often. I'm now leaning toward Locke. The secret will be totally revealed to him once he breaches the hatch and off he goes since he knows too much.

And it's usually at this point in any back and forth discussion of 'Lost' theories where I once again toss in the towel and say, "Que sera, sera."

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

How V Day came and went

Blogging at 6.33am. Amazing. Apparently I went to my brother's room to sleep because of the aircon he on in view of the ridiculously hot weather, and I slept on the mattress below his bed. At 6am, when the loud alarm signalling school rang, I felt a dark ominous foreboding, completely with hungry vultures flying overhead.

Expectedly, he jumped off the bed in absurd violence and vigor - one foot landed on my foot, and the other on the same leg's calf bone. I tell you, it almost broke.

My mind kept flashing certain rude vulgarities I'd have loved to shout in his face, so I couldn't sleep again. And therefore, I am blogging.

!@*#&$#*$

Some of you asked me how the V day application went. One word to sum it all: Utter failure. Two words, my bad. Actually, amidst the series of penis shots and horrors of horrors: a boy playing counterstrike or something (he must be 14!) there was a pretty pleasant guy who looked quite promising. Fact that he has a nice car helped of course.

I decided to add him on MSN first before calling or meeting, because MSN is a good way to avoid people if you don't like them - whereas you can't do that in a call or meeting.

I am aware that he is possibly reading this feeling quite horrified, but hey dude - it's anonymous! I'm sorry, but it is too funny to let go, amidst mean.

This was how the conversation went:

Him: Do you even do anything besides blogging?

Me: ....









ROOOOOOOOOARR!

I HATE THAT QUESTION!! If there is one starter that can rub me off the wrong way, it is that question. So many reasons why it is wrong:

1) It is assuming that I don't have a life besides blogging - which is (very) rude.
2) Are you stupid, or stupid? I BLOG ABOUT WHAT I DO. What you do mean "do I do anything besides blogging?" If I don't do anything besides blogging, what can I blog about?
3) I don't like people asking me about my hobbies/interests. I reply to that question rudely even when it is asked by innocent internet websites. I know the query itself is innocuous, but I stated in a recent blog entry that I don't like it nonetheless. This fellow clearly doesn't read my blog - so scoot off if you can't be bothered to find out more about the girl you are going to have a freaking date with.

Back to the conversation.

I said, "Did you, even for a moment, assume that I only blog all day?!"

He said something along the lines of No, and asked what my interests are.

So I replied, "Intellectual banter."

And he said, "So...."


I was frowning at the screen at this point of time. What the hell is he trying to say?

I replied, "'So...' is definitely not considered intellectual banter!"

Him, "Yeah... But I was trying to find out your answer."

Me, "HUH?!"

Him, "You have not answered my question what!"

Me, "I did, I said I like intellectual banter!" And this is clearly not one.

He laughed and said he didn't realised. Eh. I think he didn't know what banter means.

After a few more minutes of antagonising conversation which felt more like teenage mIRC than anything else, I realised a mutual sense of humour was clearly lacking, and blocked him from the recesses of my MSN list forevermore. Bless me.

So anyway, in the end I went out with a male, but platonic, friend of mine, who bought me to a Japanese restaurant because all other places were full. Bah! I don't like Jap food. I don't eat raw things! And I don't like weird unnameable veggies (esp if they are sour/raw), garnishings (inclusive: parsley, onions, ginger, etc) and I don't like innards. Japanese food has them all, although, to it's credit, it is not as bad as Vietnamese food.

Let me go off on a tangent. I have no idea what that cliche means but it does sound cheam, doesn't it? As I was saying, no offence to you disgusting Vietnamese people, but boy does Vietnamese food taste like shit. On top on very NORMAL beef soup, they add lemon grass, which despite arguments that it tastes good with curry, IS A FREAKING GRASS! Its name clearly says it is a grass. We are not cows. Cows eat grass. We are eating cows. It is ironic and rude to the cow that you are eating it, and cooking it with its food. Savvy?

And besides the grass they randomly throw into bland street meals to attempt to turn it into gourmet specialities, they also generously sprinkle GROUNDED parsley into the food. I never knew the world had a severe shortage of parsley; surely most of the world's parsley plantations were in my damned bowl of beef noodles. Ratio of parsley to soup? 7:1

Now, surely not all people like parsley? A good 50% of people I know don't eat it (I insist it is meant for purely decorative/torture purposes).

THEN WHY GROUND IT? Cannot just put on whole big piece in, like Angmohs do, is it? People who like it eat it. People who don't, take it out effortlessly. The last time I paid like $15 for a normal bowl of beef noodles, I had to spend 20 minutes fishing out all the parsley drifting happily inside my food and occasionally suffer a small heart attack when I almost bit into a weird veggie (which is, no doubt, more grass).

Never again.

I HATE Vietnamese food. It reminds me of war and suffering (cheap ingredients that feel like they were plucked off a nearby forest) where people go a bit nutters so they try to poison others. Never again.

Back to the V day meal at the Jap restaurant.

My date convinced me to bite into a clitoris-like beige-coloured suspicious-looking fairly-enormous clam covered in honey mustard (isn't honey mustard angmoh?). I should have known that things that really look like genitals should not taste good, but he gave me a disgusted look that clearly showed he discriminated boring and unadventurous girls like me, so I popped the whole thing into my mouth.

IT WAS RAWWWwwwwwww!!!!!!

I almost died. Killed by a raw clam.

The rest of the set dinner was much better after that horrific start, inclusive of teriyaki duck (nice!), COOKED fish with cream sauce (love cream sauce!), mushroom soup (had ginger inside but threw into date's bowl), tuna sashimi (didn't touch it - date rampaged through it happily) and dessert. I think that's it.

Horror - $216 bucks for two people! And almost killed by that raw clam too! Damn, they should be paying me! Fear factor pays people, right? I ate a raw clam!

After this my friend had to go home to work! *cough nerd cough*

So yup! Photos!!



Every year's chu xi (day before New Year) means helping mommy to pow the Angpows and having a damn good excuse to stay up late! (Because staying up late is supposed to aid your parents live up to a ripe old age.)

I started my spring cleaning at 4pm and ended at 6 freaking AM. You wouldn't believe how dirty my room is. I actually siphoned a baby cockroach into the vacuum cleaner and it made me DAMN HAPPY! Grrr hate cockroaches. Very gleeful when I think of it having to walk through all that dust! It must be sneezing, ha ha... AND ALL MY DROPPED HAIR! Serve him right for being a cockroach.

Speaking of cockroaches, I saw a damn big one the other day, along a road. I was on the pavement beside that road, waiting for a cab. The cockroach was running along quite madly in frentic circles around 1 metre wide.

Presently a cab cruised along, and I was chanting and hoping it will crush the vermin, but thinking the chances are pretty low. To my shock, the tire, while I was still looking, actually rolled on top of the cockroach.

You know what is the most astonishing thing? The "POP" was VERY LOUD! Pop goes the cockroach! Really! I am so surprised that cockroaches can explode with such satisfying results. But it was gross la. The cockroach got rolled over by the second tire, although it was a soft crunching sound this time. POP!

The uncle said hello to me cheerfully! He doesn't know he is a murderer!

Where was I? Spring cleaning room.

Very clean now!



Table ... SO NEAT!



Shelf ... And yes I drew that Jerry Yan thingy when I was 17 I think. Or 18. Can't remember. I didn't finish it so it is rotting there at the corner. Tsk. But ... SO NEAT!



Having all my multitude of earrings all jumbled up in a mess, I came up with an ingenious way of handling them!

Nailed two thumbtacks into the wooden cupboard beside my dressing table and tied satin ribbons! Yay! Very convenient now. The stud earrings can't be put there though, so they are all in some other drawer.



June gave me to me from her Japan trip. It is supposed to be put outside Cloudy's house.

... -_-

Excuse me, but Cloudy is very far from being a meng quan (fierce dog).



Speaking of June, she and Clara are leaving for Australia for studies tomorrow. I am very sad but I shall shut up coz June wants to pretend like she is actually not going and avoid the issue. She doesn't even want us to go send her off coz she said it is very "saddening".

...














BAH! -_-

Don't go leh!

Sheesh. Happier things, happier things.



That's me with the cousins on my daddy's side. I tried to make the currypok-hair thing but failed miserably.



Closer look. My brother forever so chao bin one, dunno is it not enough angpow or what.



Me with grandparents and cousin. I love my gramps! Stayed with them when I was young.
Sheesh. Say only, never do. I shall - new year resolution - visit them more often! Horrible. NO FILIAL PIETY AT ALL.




Birdy and I went to Wanyi's place for visiting! Had pizza. We lost horrifically to her brother in mahjong, although never play money. Gosh. Oh yeah, I tried to blur the background in an attempt to make my camera look professional, but FAILED. Alas.



With Wanyi ... Caught her in mid-bite!



We forced Shuyin to model for the grape-juice-pretending-to-be-champagne, and put two oranges on her shoulders in tribute to their straightness.



Wah. Act chio!



Cheers, Gong xi fa cai!

I'm gonna try to sleep now. RAW CLAMmmms!!!

p/s: No insulting the poor intellectual banter guy. Only I can be mean. He was nice ok! Mean comments will be deleted.

"AND ALL THE REST....."

5]
CEDRIC THE ENTERTAINER
[FOR BUD LIGHT]
The Ced-man cancelled himself out with two Bud Light commercials. The first one about his desert island daydream/nightmare wasn't so much sexist as it was disturbing. In his revised dream, he was relaxing on a desert island with a grill and a tan Labrador retriever.

Considering that his first daydream with the two babes was sexually oriented, I couldn't help but wonder what that poor dog would have to endure before being put out of its misery as hot dogs.

But the second one was better, and made a believable scenario for the sitcom way of life as espoused on UPN. Cedric is using hand signals to tell somebody on the other side of a dance floor that he can't drink Bud Lights that night because he was the designated driver. Pretty soon all of the dancers have picked up on his moves and are busting a groove by doing the Designated Driver Dance.

In my book, anything that makes the Designated Driver cool is A-OK.

6]
MC HAMMER
[FOR LAY'S CHIPS]
Remember what I said about celebrities being so desperate to reclaim their stardom that they would sink to any level of ridicule in these commercials? Didn't Hammer realize the audience would be cheering for him to be thrown back over the fence? He's gone from "Can't Touch This" to "Catch And Release".

And who would have guessed that the scariest thing on TV that night would be Hammer's pants?

7]
RICHARD BRANSON
[FOR VOLVO]
The people who make commercials try their best, but they sometimes just can't equal Nostradamus for predicting the future. At the time this ad was made, it must have seemed like a good idea to hire the Virgin Airways billionaire - and certainly less expensive than luring the Donald.

But 'The Billionaire' went belly-up and all this blipvert accomplished was to add to Branson's Toobworld life (which also included a cameo on 'Friends'.)

I doubt there's any great clamor to find out whether Branson survived his spaceship's re-entry, but it would have made for a great tagline: "Should've Used The Volvo"......

8]
LEBRON JAMES
[FOR BUBBLICIOUS]
Maybe this kid is a phenom on the basketball court; I wouldn't know as I'm not a fan of the game. But it takes more than skill to make it as an advertising spokesman; you need a distinct, telegenic personality.

Michael Jordan had it in spades. Charles Barkley comes close. They keep trying with Shaq, but I think that's a lost cause.

Lebron comes off looking smug and too cool for the room; not exactly a selling point. And even then, his face is covered in gum too quickly - he hasn't been around long enough to be instantly recognizable.

I think this blipvert was only fifteen seconds long, but even that made me feel it was trying to sell Eternity by Calvin Klein.

9]
SHAQUILLE O'NEAL, KID ROCK, CHRISTINA AGUILERA, BILLY BUSH, OTHERS
[FOR VERIZON]
There's another celebrity fad out there besides driving Diet Pepsi trucks - getting shrunk down to six inches in height.

It might have been done to promote Verizon's technology, but it had to be the machinery of the infamous Dr. Shrinker which accomplished the deed.

The ad put me in mind of the long-running 'Celebrity Jeopardy' sketch on 'Saturday Night Live'. No matter which celebrities were being lampooned (and Sean Connery was a constant), the premise remained the same: celebrities are stupid.

And trying to live life at six inches tall is the perfect way to show it. Maybe somebody adapted that 'Twilight Zone' formula to shrink all the evil people so that it worked on stupid celebrities instead.

10]
MIKE DITKA, WILLIAM PERRY, JIM McMAHON, DENNIS RODMAN
[FOR DIANA PEARL]
There had to be some reason the theme of former Chicago footballers proclaiming themselves as Diana Pearl rather than as Da Bears was interrupted by the presence of Dennis Rodman.

Perhaps it was all part of the eventual alien invasion by Rodman's people. It was established on an episode of 'Third Rock From The Sun' that Rodman was an alien that only appeared to be human... and with every new sighting of the former basketball player, it's obvious he's losing that ability.

I'm just hoping Rodman didn't agree to pose nude in that tub o' bubbles just to cement his place in the TV Crossover Hall of Fame. Ugh!

Trust me, you freak, - with 'Third Rock', 'Double Rush', and 'Baywatch' (among others), you're already in!

And I guess we have you to blame for making sure 'Listen Up!' became part of Toobworld......

11]
GLADYS KNIGHT
[FOR MBNA]
I've seen a lot of strange things happen to celebrities in Toobworld. And I'd say Gladys Knight as a rugby player would have topped them all - if it hadn't been for the late Lloyd Bridges as his own cross-dressing, cursing, kleptomaniac Neo-Nazi self on 'Ned & Stacey'.

But nice try, Gladys. Seeing you on the pitch was a pip!

Finally......
Even those celebs whose commercials were banned from the Super Bowl aren't that lucky to escape my perusal......

12]
MICKEY ROONEY
[FOR AIRBORNE]
Rooney's bare bootie. That should be 'nuff said. But do a Google image search for the words "Mickey Rooney Airborne" and check out that lump in the middle of his chest.

That's what people should be concerned about, not his less than Golden Age of Hollywood heinie. It looks like the Alien is about to burst out of his sternum!

13]
JANET JACKSON
[FOR BUD LIGHT]
She didn't have to even show up to have an impact on this year's Super Bowl. And not even the commercial got air time during the game. But, like the Airborne ad mentioned above, the ad still got broadcast during a report on 'Good Morning, America' and so it has been given life on Toobworld.

With this blipvert, History was altered to create yet another difference between Toobworld and the Real World. We went behind the scenes backstage at the 2004 Super Bowl to learn the real splainin as to why Janet had a wardrobe malfunction. Blame it on a techie who used her costume to pop open a bottle of Bud Light!

I would've thought the metallic nipple collar would have worked far better as a church key........

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

KRESSLEY HAS LEFT THE BUILDING

4]
CINDY CRAWFORD & CARSON KRESSLEY
[FOR DIET PEPSI]
Cindy Crawford first made her blipvert presence known with a sexy Diet Pepsi ad in which she was ogled more for her can of soda than for her can of bootie.

Now, many years down the road, she's still got it, but Cindy's the one doing the ogling. And she's not alone - every woman on the street is mesmerized by the young stud who's drinking the Diet Pepsi.

And it isn't only women - another Carson, this time Carson Kressley of 'Queer Eye For The Straight Guy' is also ensnared by the stud.

(I know I'm seeing the guy with a different eye than Kressley, but I just didn't pick up what elevated this Diet Pepsi chugger to be worthy of Lucky Vanous-level veneration. All I kept thinking was - Why the knit cap on such a warm, sunny day? Does he have greasy hair?)

Carson Kressley as the commercial's capper puts him in a tie with his fellow Fab Fiver Tom Filicia for blipverts under their belts. All of the 'Queer Eye' Guys are in an American Express ad and they've also appeared on the sitcom 'Good Morning, Miami' to insure that they are officially over-exposed. But only Filicia really had struck out on his own as a commercial figure, with his work for Pier One.

Maybe Kyan, Ted, and Jai could start hawking Ikea..........

P. DIDDY WAH PEPSI

3]
P. DIDDY with CARSON DALY, XZIBIT, & EVA LONGORIA
[FOR DIET PEPSI]
Let me just say right off the bat that I dislike Pepsi. I don't like the taste. There is a marked difference between Pepsi and Coke; I'm told one has a lemon base, the other an orange-y influence.

But its the advertising for Pepsi that I truly HATE; there's this smug, superior attitude they've taken over the last twenty years.

Remember the ad with the archaeology professor of the future at the split-level ranch dig site? He had no clue what an ancient Coke bottle was.

The guy should have turned in his license to be a teacher. The Coke bottle was, is, and shall always be one of the most - if not THE most! - recognizable bottle shapes ever in world history.

Anyways.......

P. Diddy aka Puff Daddy aka Sean "Puffy" Combs is late for an award ceremony, his limo broken down out in the desert. Along comes a Diet Pepsi truck whose driver is nice enough to give him a lift right up to the red carpet.

(Didn't he have a limo driver? Wouldn't he have been surrounded by his entourage? Since his break-up with JLo years back, has his cachet as a celeb lost some of its worth in bling-bling?)

P. Diddy must still be worth something on the A-List market, because soon after his novel arrival at the event, everybody wants to be seen with a Diet Pepsi truck as their vehicle of choice.

Eva Longoria seduces the parking valet in order to insure that her truck won't get scratched. Xzibit of 'Pimp My Ride' tricks his out to be a portable partai-mobile. And Carson Daly just cements his dorkiness by following suit with a Diet Pepsi truck equipped with monster truck rally wheels.

Mary Richards ('The Mary Tyler Moore Show') once remarked that a person could be influenced by someone with a more assertive personality. Apparently this type of influence leads one to be with-it by picking up the same kind of rig as larger-than-life impresarios. (Diet Pepsi missed a chance to be topical by proclaiming itself "Suge-Free".)

I guess we should be glad P. Diddy didn't get a ride to the event in a truck smuggling aliens into the country.......

KICKING IT UP A CROTCH

2]
BURT REYNOLDS [FOR FEDEX/KINKO'S]
As a future member of the TV Crossover Hall of Fame in the League of Themselves wing (for both dramatic and commercial portrayals of himself), Burt Reynolds is an old hand at the schill game. He's pitched in the League for such products as Kodak Max film, White Diamond perfume, Maaco's auto body repair (a classic!), and most recently for T-Mobile.

And if there's any celeb who's had a healthy sense of his own importance (and a lack of respect in regards to it), it's "Mr. Burt". He knows how to send up his own image without coming across as a washed-up star hoping to rekindle his fame by poking fun at himself. Not many can claim to do that.

That's why the FedEx/Kinko's blipvert about the rudiments of a successful Super Bowl ad campaign works so well. In anyone else's hands, the mishmosh of ingredients (talking, dancing animal, cute kid, classic hit song, pretty girls, and the always dependable groin kick) would have been mishegas.

But Burt pulls it off because you know he's in on the joke and so far above it that he could get a nose-bleed. (Not good for selling a product, by the way; always stick with the groin kick. Or with flammable horse farts.)

So Burt Reynolds gets high marks from me for this commercial and let me tell you, that was no easy thing. Only recently I had a very bad experience with FedEx which ended up costing me 160 dollars on a package that never even reached its destination! 68 bucks of that money went towards me paying a ransom to FedEx just to get the package back out of their incompetent hands.

(The Post Office had no trouble sending the package, by the way.)

And despite all of that, I still enjoyed their commercial. And that was all due to the work of Burt Reynolds.

Would never use that company ever again though, but still........

BOWL FULL OF PITT

1]
BRAD PITT (HEINIKEN)
In a spot directed by his "Fight Club" director, the soon-to-be former Mr. Jennifer Aniston risked the perils of the paparazzi to go out for some brewskis.

The shutterbug swarm of "locusts" gave chase, but apparently they were only after the Heinies.

At least that's what we were told was happening in press releases. The commercial didn't make that clear, since it appeared that they were fanatically interested him before he set off in search of the suds. The ad's payoff should have been better defined.

The Big Question was the identity of the person Pitt phoned to pick him up. Was there going to be a reconciliation with "Rachel"? An assignation with Angelina? Or a sit-down with Soderbergh about another stupid sequel for "Ocean's Eleven"?

The company said that the commercial would only air once. Yeah, right. They said the same thing about the '1984' ad for MacIntosh, but it keeps popping up in yearly retrospectives for commercials.

But that was a visionary classic. This was a guy who hasn't had a hit film of his own for years whoring himself for possible divorce settlement money.

THE LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES @ THE BIG GAME

It wouldn't have been a Super Bowl without an overdose of star power in the commercials. So for the final entries in my Super Bowl Blipvertalooza, I'm going to take a quick look at the spectrum of celebs from A-List to Zzzzz.......

Thou shalt not...

Read any blogs until Friday because EVERYONE IS BLOODY WRITING ABOUT VALENTINE'S DAY! *seethes*

See no evil, see no evil.

Urgh! Very suay to open a site and accidentally see couples smooching all over. Jian gui le!

TOOBWORLD GOES BANANAS!

Among the most popular of the ads shown during the Super Bowl was the CareerBuilder.com trilogy. It had a running storyline about the schlub who worked for a corporation which was otherwise "manned" by chimpanzees.

Three commercials, broadcast on TV.... It should be considered a part of the basic TV Universe then. But even though Toobworld is filled with reality-busting concepts - 'Mr. Ed', 'My Mother The Car', 'The Apprentice' - I don't think there's room for a chimpanzee corporation (with the un-palindromic name of "YEKNOM") on Earth Prime-Time.

But luckily, there is a place for it in an alternate dimension. Earth Prime-Time/Ape has been in existence since at least the first episode of 'Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp'. And it recently came back into vogue with a series of mock movie previews on TNT. Those proved to be so popular that a TV series was spawned called 'The Chimp Channel'.

In all of those instances, we understood what the chimps were saying as they were speaking in English. That's because we, as the audience viewing at home, were seeing everything from their point of view. But for the CareerBuilder.com blipvert, we were allied with the human's P.O.V.

Apparently, he was not a native to that world, or he would have spoken their language. (He may have been gifted with telepathy which would be how he understood what they were conveying in their dialogue.)

By the third commercial, the human was still stranded in his job at YEKNOM. Even though the ad's Voice-over was touting that one should contact the website of CareerBuilder.com, this guy was unable to do so. The internet company was back on Earth Prime-Time... and of course, on Earth Prime.

So how did a lone human end up on Ape-Earth, trapped in a world he never made?

One possibility would be 'Sliders' technology. Another would be a rogue wormhole similar to the type that plagued those 'Twilight Zone' characters who woke up in their own beds but unrecognized by their loved ones.

Or it could be a case of cosmic transference. Remember that episode of 'Star Trek' in which four members of the Enterprise crew ended up in the evil mirror dimension while their savage counterparts ended up in the main TV Universe?

Perhaps there was some similar exchange - that guy ended up on Chimpworld, while his simian doppleganger ended up over on Toobworld.

And whatever happened to that primate? I think we saw him in another commercial. He obviously had lost his mind, and thought that he could re-establish contact with his homeworld by talking into a banana. He'd take a few steps, talk into the banana, and then proclaim the Chimpanese equivalent for the word "Good."

That's right. He was the chimpanzee counterpart to that dork who works for Verizon!

Can you hear me now, Bonzo?

BCnU!
Tele-Toby