tkw

( spoilers )

the show starts on nov 2, and starts with 29 chefs. i sure as fuck don't feel like researching all 29, and i doubt anyone else does either. so my plan is to accept ballots between the first episode that ends with fewer than 17 contestants and the subsequent episode. that might be episodes 1 and 2, not sure. we'll find out.

tentative plan is to award 1 point for quickfires, 2 points for elimination challenges, 3 points for survival, and 3 points for winning the season.

let me know by comment, email, IM, text, etc if you're interested.

http://www.nbcuniversal.presscentre.com/Content/Detail.aspx?ReleaseID=6675&NewsAreaID=2&ClientID=5

so, for those of you who might be interested in a pool...i'm going to accept entries from between week 1 and week 2, assuming that they'll pare the 29 down to 16 for episode 2. if i don't get enough entries (5?) by week 2 then i'll cancel action. i know everyone has shit they gots to do and top chef pool isn't exactly a priority. except for me.

shitfuck, the next season of project runway has already started. but i'm willing to try to get a pool going before next week's show (aug 11).

comment or email if interested.

http://redd.it/hq2ba

if it hasn't already this blog is officially jumping the very flamboyant shark...

if you are interested in a pool for 'so you think you can dance' email, pm, or comment here. pretty sure there are at least five of you out there (plus me) who are interested.

i'm going to try to implement a small submission window: you will have to get your ballot in by the second week's performance show. this will give everyone a chance to see (the remaining) contestants in action. you can of course submit a ballot even before the first show.

there will be 20 starting contestants this season so it could be a lot of work filling out a ballot!

someone i know is in the most recent episode of treme, an eskimo brother. or maybe like an eskimo cousin. dude who plays the clarinet with annie was a superstar at my high school, graduated a year before i got there.

http://redd.it/hl954

here

http://www.reddit.com/r/cocktails/comments/h0lxr/my_aviary_trip_report_part_1_of/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT_8BwdJtqA

i went to Next restaurant! (food report to follow soon)

some background:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Next_%28restaurant%29
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/02/16/dining/20110216-next-slideshow.html
http://chicago.grubstreet.com/2011/04/opening_night_at_next.html
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Next-Restaurant/114693845229862
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?fbid=137986069608369&id=133357466737896&aid=28790
http://www.facebook.com/notes/edsel-little/next-menu-paris-1906/212096928816186


diners buy tickets rather than make reservations. basically the same as tickets to a sporting event, or a seat on an airplane, except that unlike sports/shows/airplanes, there are no further costs/opportunities for the seller to gouge ticket holders. once you pay, it is virtually all you can eat and drink. what you drink depends on which beverage program you buy: water only ($0), non-alcoholic (~$20), standard wine pairings (~$50), reserve wine pairings (~$100).

tickets are handled online with a custom web app.

if you were them, how would you manage the pricing and ticketing? let's say you have 20 tables of 2, 4 tables of 4, and one 'chef's table' for 6 (this and only this table gets an extended menu, and there is only one seating per night). for reference, dinner at alinea (not including wine) costs about $200.

possible relevance/spoiler: they started an electronic mailing list about nine months ago, and have been issuing invitations only to people who signed up, in order that they signed up.

a lot of you are more familiar than i with ticketing for, say, shows or sporting events, and/or with price theory, so am curious what your take is on all of this. do they have ticketing down to a science yet?

( some things they have done so far )

note to readers who like food and gambling but don't watch the show: you should enter anyway!

reason #1: i've made it easy to put together a ballot. below is a list of contestants and links to menus of their restaurants. just put the chefs in order of best sounding menus to worst. [EDIT: or best website to worst. JFC] trust me, this is a reasonable metric.

here are the chef bios on the bravo tv website:

http://www.bravotv.com/top-chef-masters

here are the restaurant website links:

sedlar http://playarivera.com/category/cool
zemanick http://www.gautreausrestaurant.com/
tio http://www.juliankc.com/menus/
stratta http://www.wynnlasvegas.com/dining/stratta
saran http://www.devinyc.com/menus.html
pomeroy http://www.beastpdx.com/menus/menu_dinner.htm
milliken http://bordergrill.com/bg_sm/bg_smmen.htm
mendes http://aldearestaurant.com/
des jardins http://www.jardiniere.com/menu.html
currence http://www.citygroceryonline.com/
cardoz http://www.tablany.com/
acheson http://www.hughacheson.com/

reason #2: i'm adding ev to the pool by submitting a second entry based only on the cocktail menus.

reason #3: it's gambling!

( pool rules )

i'm going to start yet another reality show pool, this time for top chef masters. lemme know if you want in. so far the other pools i've been running have a good format and have been pretty fun, i think most participants would agree.

http://eater.com/archives/2011/03/02/top-chef-masters-season-3-announced-premieres-april-6.php#top-chef-masters-season-19

heard this on the college station tonight, sandwiched between a bunch of hipsters talking about which power ranger was their favorite. HOLY FUCKING SHIT:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEufVagdgbc

rules here:

http://undersupervised.livejournal.com/103007.html

this is fairly pathetic to brag about, but: my terrible cocktail blog has gotten press! it's mentioned on page 92 of boozehound, originally from this washington post article.

the one post that dude refers to was one of few in which i actually tried to be scientific or like formally experimental or something. basically, i was playing around with an italian aperitif called punt e mes, and discovered that i really liked it with muddled peach. so i made a large batch of this mixture, and tried mixing it with a variety of spirits. to my delight, i discovered that it worked beautifully with everything.

this will be the last public post about the amazing race season 18 pool.

so far we have five official entrants (undersupervised, chloepear, raabco, mickdog, prock).

below is a draft of the scoring proposal.

( pool rules )

this is a call for entrance into a pool for the upcoming season of amazing race. i think everyone in my top chef all-stars pool would agree that the pool is pretty fun, and that my commentary on top chef has been some of my best posts in the past three months.

comment here if you're interested.

wtf this blog is all earnest all of a sudden, i promise a pic of some poop by the end of today.

"Kid Logic" from This American Life. segments one and two are two of my favorite TAL segments of all time.

She said, "What was his message?"

And I said, "Well, he said that you should treat everyone the same no matter what they look like."

She thought about that for a minute. And she said, "Well, that's what Jesus said!"

And I said, "Yeah, I guess it is. I never thought about it that way, but yeah. I guess that is sort of like 'Do unto others as they would do unto you.'"

And she thought for a minute, then...

article worth reading (all Atul Gawande articles are, but this one more so):

Hospice medical care for dying patients

facebook status of a friend of a friend:

my motto is: if you have plenty of money...why don't you stop working so somebody else can get some...how much can you possibly need....is that a "socialist" value? cuz to me it sounds like common sense for a complex but cooperative society....

graduate of uc berkeley, btw.

there's plenty in there to gag on, but the fact that that is not even close to a motto is really enough to make me want to kill myself.

food and cocktail menus for a nonexistent restaurant. am i the only one who likes to do this? there is a $1m idea in this somewhere. like restaurantville, or something.

this will be the last public top-chef-all-stars-pool post.

so far we have six seven official big-stupid-loser entrants (undersupervised, mickdog, hgfalling, michlan, chloepear, adb_foldem, tiltcity) with one maybe (andrewhime).

below is a draft of the scoring proposal, as mentioned in my other post i've never been part of a real pool, so am not sure what's standard, or if there are standards, or other, superior, scoring systems. input welcome.


( pool rules )