Top Chef Gene is a Survivor
After reading about Top Chef contestant Gene Villiatora’s self-taught cooking skills, I figured he wouldn’t last long in the fierce competition. To excel in Top Chef, you need skill, creativity, and a solid foundation in cooking. Unlike most of the other competing chefs, Gene has no formal culinary training. Something that will surely hinder this local boy’s quest to become Top Chef.
But what Gene doesn’t have in training, he makes up for with drive, determination, and a survivor’s mentality. Just check out his contribution to Team Cougar in Episode 3. In the Elimination Challenge of making a Thanksgiving meal for the Foo Fighters with a minimal kitchen, Gene makeshifts a Hawaiian style hibachi to smoke his pork.
Even though Gene didn’t get much air time this week, everyone noticed Gene’s hibachi, and Head Judge Tom Colicchio even called Gene’s pork dish one of his favorite dishes of this challenge.
Technorati Tags: television, Top Chef
Black Friday Sale at Apple Online Store Now
Available now. Go see Apple’s Black Friday deals. Hmmm, AppleTV on sale and federal discount has additional savings!… Dang, new Sennheiser MX85 Sport II earphones are $44 ($16 discount).
Technorati Tags: Apple
Starbucks Is Super Social
As SBUX stock continues to plummet, the Starbucks brand is trying new ways to connect to customers. Recently, Starbucks has made a strong push into social networks now with a presence in YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook.
Through these mechanisms, Starbucks has made some announcements like its World AIDS day contributions, (STARBUCKS)RED drink donations, and a few more. Nothing major yet, but who knows what’s to come.
Host, Model, Mother, and Now Dancing Champion
A television show host, a model, a mother, and now a Dancing with the Stars champion. Throughout this entire season of Dancing with the Stars, Brooke Burke was the consistent leader and the one to beat. After a near perfect finals touched with an emotional final performance, Brooke Burke and Derek Hough were crowned DWTS champions of Season 7.
Surprisingly, Warren Sapp and Kym Johnson finished second, beating out the surging Lance Bass and Lacey Schwimmer. While both of these coupes performed well, the DWTS finals was scripted for Brooke’s victory. She was clearly the judges’ choice to win, and they reserved the “10” scoring paddles for her. But Brooke’s final Viennese Waltz was the capstone for her championship leaving the audience, judges, hosts, and even fellow competitors in tears.
Here’s their Viennese Waltz performed for the first time in Week 3.
So the mirrorball trophy goes from Kristi Yamaguchi to Brooke Burke for back-to-back female victories. In a previously male dominated series, the women have now made two strong statements with dominating seasons by both Kristi and Brooke. On the professionals side, the mirrorball returns to the Hough family with Derek finally joining sister Julianne Hough with her two championships.
Congratulations to Brooke Burke and Derek Hough!
Technorati Tags: Dancing with the Stars, television
Norton Anti-Virus for the Mac is Virus Like
Wow, I was trying to uninstall Norton Anti-Virus for the Mac, and it simply wouldn’t uninstall completely. The uninstaller reported success, but Norton would keep popping up to scan downloaded files even though supposedly uninstalled.
Going to Symantec’s Support area, I found that there is a specific tool to completely remove all Symantec programs. That’s pretty scary, with Symantec software showing almost virus-like behavior.
Technorati Tags: Macintosh
Holiday Gift Guide: Club 939 Calendars
How else do you stuff your stocking with none other than the infamous calendars from Club 939? These annual gifts are perfect to warm up even the orneriest. Phil Eightmee, Erik Shun, and Ari Yola all can’t contain their excitement when receiving these beauties.
And even better, you can meet the monthly models at the Calendar Release party tomorrow night! I think Erik Shun likes that idea of having the models sign his stocking stuffer.
Technorati Tags: Club 939, gift guide
Black Friday Deals at Amazon
Technorati Tags: Amazon
Jay-Z and Kanye West Are Badness
Diddy owns and runs Bad Boy Records competing against Jay-Z’s Roc-A-Fella Records. But in this case, Jay-Z and Kanye West own the bad boy title.
Even though Diddy did his own remix so listeners can swagga like Puff, he got out-badded with this explicit instrumental version of Swagga Like Us. An explicit instrumental version!! Now that is a sign of pure badness.
Technorati Tags: Kanye West, music
Hit by the Julianne Hough Bomb
Gosh how I’ll miss Julianne Hough performing on Dancing with the Stars. Besides her great performances and original choreography, the girl is pure link bait. What do I mean by that? For whatever reason, Pulpconnection got hit with a Julianne Hough bomb, skyrocketing today’s visit count to 860 (so far).
Haven’t seen traffic like this since LOST invaded Club 939. Doing a quick look at past posts reveals that I have 49 mentions of “Julianne Hough.” Here’s some memorable Pulpconnection Julianne Hough moments:
- Julianne Hough Went Stay Fut on DWTS?! (this was featured on Truemors which was a lot of fun)
- Adam Is Ousted. Adam Carolla was probably Julianne’s wackiest dancing partner. Who can forget his paso on a unicycle?
- The DWTS Drama Just Doesn’t Stop! Remember that kiss with Helio Castroneves?
- Helio’s Six Second Kiss with Julianne. In case you missed the first kiss, here’s a repeat… a six-second repeat.
- The End of Trauma and Drama on Dancing with the Stars. But Helio and Julianne did win that mirrorball trophy.
- Sassy (and Assy) Start to Dancing with the Stars. Okay, nothing really to do with Julianne but couldn’t miss an opportunity to showcase Mark Cuban’s ass.
- Pulpconnection Passes 20,000 Visits. At 20,000 visits, Julianne Hough was a popular search topic along with Haumea Ho, orgasm, Cindy Paliracio, and Coco Iwamoto.
- Apolo Has Lifted Off! Her first DWTS victory is bringing in a lot of the hits.
- Will the Appeal of Julianne Hough Make Her a DWTS Champion? Does the number of searches tip who the DWTS champion will be?
- Who’s Hot on Dancing with the Stars? For season 3, Kym Johnson and Julianne Hough ruled.
Technorati Tags: Dancing with the Stars, television
A "Little Too Sweet" for Padma
The Top Chef judges sometimes have to punish their palates with the creations of the Top Chef contestants. Season 5, Episode 2 featured just that as Ariane’s dessert was a “little too sweet” for Padma. How sweet is that? Watch and find out!
Amazingly, Ariane was not the one sent home.
Technorati Tags: television, Top Chef
Twilight is a Box Office Beast
In its debut, the Twilight movie brought in $35M, $7M of that coming on Friday midnight showings. The movie itself was made for $37M.
Wonder how fast the movie will show up on Internet sites? So far, only fakes…
Technorati Tags: twilight