Category Archives: a taste for tv

The #1 Reason to Take Public Transportation

Posted by katie ett on June 12, 2012 – 12:00 pm
Filed under a taste for tv, fun times on the subway
Tagged as ,

In NYC, when you want car service, you usually stand at a streetcorner with your arm in the air and engage in physical warfare with anyone who attempts to steal your yellow cab. It’s certainly convenient to be able to step out the door and into a cab, but try to find one when your flight is actually on time or when you have fifteen minutes to make it to your dinner reservation and suddenly every cab in the city is off duty.

There are two main companies providing call-ahead car service: Dial 7 and Carmel. Dial 7 came out with this commercial featuring a way-too-friendly driver years ago:

And Carmel thought, “My, what a classy ad. Let’s strike back with this really creepy one in which these pathetic women replace male companionship with a car”:

People talked about it. People balked at it. But we all eventually moved on. And so they released this one next:

I tend to fast-forward through commercials on my DVR, so I hadn’t really seen this one when my boyfriend made me stop on it one day. “Watch the guy in the black tie,” he said. “Did they purposely hire the worst lip-syncers in the world for this?”

Read the exciting conclusion here!, and then tell me about your awful local commercials.

No “Game of Thrones” Spoilers Contained Within

Posted by katie ett on April 2, 2012 – 12:00 pm
Filed under a taste for tv, living in new york is neat, super furry animals
Tagged as , , ,

On Saturday morning, I took a cue from Han + Diana and invited Kamran and our friends Nik and Marco to The Dutch for herbed cocktails, fried chicken, and pie so tall you could use it for a baby’s highchair:

lemon meringue pie at The Dutch, NYC

Marko is the thoughtful brother, and Nik is the outrageous brother, and together, they’re a very good time. We spent most of the meal signing each other up for the Draw Something app on our various Apple products, and then I tried Kamran’s tripe and almost threw up in my mouth because it’s cow stomach lining, but then I stopped myself because it’s delicious. And it should be, because it’s made by the same chef who owns Locanda Verde with Robert De Niro. I tell you that so you’ll be dazzled by my brushes with celebrity.

Afterward, I went back to my own apartment and spent the next ten hours marathoning the entire first season of “Game of Thrones” with my friend/roommate/landlord/co-worker, Jack, and my friend Kim, whom I will always refer to as “Kim of Good Hair, Kim Luck”, even though her website has been defunct for almost a year now. As soon as I arrived, Jack handed me a save-the-date postcard for Beth‘s wedding, and Kim acted as if it’s weird that I actually want to attend the nuptials of a person I only know from the Internet, even though there was a time when I only knew Kim from the Internet, and now we’re NYCBFFs.

Game of Thrones Direwolf Collage

We ate direwolf cupcakes with grey sprinkles, looked at The Khaleesi’s boobs, and picked and re-picked our favourite characters from 6 p.m. to 4 a.m. and then had a sleepover for all of five hours before I had to get to Kamran’s and Kim had to get to the gym or something ridiculous, and then neither of us watched the premiere of season two. So don’t spoil it for us. A-holes.

Amar’e Stoudemire’s Battle of the Bulge

Posted by katie ett on March 27, 2012 – 10:00 am
Filed under a taste for tv
Tagged as , , ,

My friend Nik* caught this little gaff live last night during the Knicks/Bucks game:

What commentator Al Trautwig meant to say:

It’s much more complicated for Amar’e Stoudemire. He did not finish Saturday’s game against Detroit. An MRI reveals a bulging disc in his lower back, and it will be treated non-surgically.

What commentator Al Trautwig actually said:

It’s much more complicated for Amar’e Stoudemire. He did not finish Saturday’s game against Detroit. An MRI reveals a bulging dick in his lower back, and it will be treated non-surgically.

The comments on the video are unstoppable:

“Hate it when my dick bulges after a long day of hooping.”

“Dunno about you guys but I’d hate to wake up with a bulging dick in my lower back.”

Thank you, sweet Internet, for the bountiful gifts you so selflessly provide.

*Nik can also be thanked for the brilliant title of this post.

“Survivor: One World”: Colton Goes Home with an Apendicitis and the World Rejoices

Posted by katie ett on March 21, 2012 – 10:50 pm
Filed under a taste for tv
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Am I right in thinking that tonight’s “Survivor” ended in the only way it could in a perfect and just world? Colton Cumbie, the biggest jerk in “Survivor” history in my mind, went home with a suspected appendicitis after ensuring Christina all episode long that she was the next to go, that she had no friends, that she could wait out her sentence on the island or “jump in the fire” and end it for herself.


photo by CBS

I know that Russell Hantz is largely regarded as “Survivor”‘s most evil mastermind, but Colton was an even worse kind of awful: the kind who cried like the kid picked last on the playground when he was the only gay guy on a team full of macho men he assumed wouldn’t accept him and then became a snotty, snobby diva spewing hate the moment he didn’t have to fear being voted off every single week. At least Russell had the decency to be terrible all of the time. Watching Colton fall from grace—from a country club brat who laughed when he said the one black person he knows was the family’s servant to a wretch coiled up on the bare ground, hilariously thinking his stomach pain was constipation—felt so, so sweet.

And then he took the hidden immunity idol home with him to boot instead of passing it along to his closest ally (Alicia), the only person who took pity on him during his sickness (Christina, who is a princess among women), or one of his teammates for a future Tribal Council. I was amused by him for the first episode, I felt sorry for him for the second episode, and I wanted him full of gangrene by the third episode. If we see a future “Survivor: All Stars” with Colton in the cast, I’m out.

The Voice, Erin Martin, and Why I Should Be the Judge of All Things

Posted by katie ett on March 9, 2012 – 12:00 pm
Filed under a taste for tv, music is my boyfriend, my uber-confrontational personality, stuff i hate
Tagged as , , , , , , ,

Did anyone else see this singer on “The Voice” and feel really, really betrayed by the judges?

They claim that this is a completely new sound, but if you heard (and were annoyed by) Macy Gray in 1999, Erin Martin’s voice shouldn’t seem the least bit exciting to you. And they, the music professionals, should recognize that. Instead, they pressed their buttons in awe, they stood up in their seats, they said things like, “THAT is cool!” She has foot-high hair, a foot-long skirt, and a headband on her forehead. Not. Impressed.

Now, I actually like “different” voices. I love being able to recognize a vocalist. Jack White, Chris Cornell, Andrew Bird, Thom Yorke, Rufus Wainwright, Neil Young, Beck, David Bowie, and of course Adam Levine—these are voices you know in an instant no matter what they’re singing, and I love them all.

Last season on “The Voice”, Dia Frampton was a huge hit with her whispery vocals, and I thought she should’ve won:

The difference is that Dia’s voice sounds genuine. I get really tired of voices that sound “put on”. Like, I can sound exactly like Macy Gray and Erin Martin if I try. By forcing myself to sing with a baby voice while purposely mispronouncing letters.

It’s the same thing with Duffy, Eddie Vedder (although I think I like Pearl Jam because they got to me at an age when I was still an innocent non-hater), and basically every single person who auditioned for “American Idol” this year after of the success of vocal-weirdos Haley Reinhart and Megan Joy Corkrey.

I know different people have different tastes and that Erin Martin will probably do well on “The Voice”, but I wish the judges would just call a baby-voiced spade a spade.

Secret-wish-to-be-a-rockstar-fueled rant complete.