It occurred to me and my wife last night that the "Ruhlman/Alton/Mario/Bourdain bar-hopping fest" has probably happened at some point.

But they film it so we could show it at Christmas? Did they???

I swear, it's like we don't even matter to them.

I wonder if Bourdain's allowed to appear in shows on the same network as Rachael Ray, or if she's afraid he'll hunt her down.

I wonder if Bourdain's allowed to appear in shows on the same network as Rachael Ray, or if she's afraid he'll hunt her down.

I don't think Bourdain's allowed anywhere near The Food Network anymore except in late-night reruns of "A Cook's Tour." The relationship is acrimonious, to say the least. Also, rumor mill has Mario headed out The Food Network door, too, so I'd say the "Bourdain & Pals Drunken Christmas Special" is probably a lost cause to the Food Network. That being said ... Hellooooo, Bravo!

Bourdain shows up on The Travel Channel, so he and Mario could do a profane tour of Europe. Add Alton on a motorcycle, and you've got cable gold.

I'll be in my bunk.

Poll question on the Survivor page at TWoP:

Sound Off

Going into the finale, whom are you rooting for?

>Earl
>Yau Man
>"Dreamz""
>Cassandra
>Boo

Um. (Not that I mind a flashback to the Best [half-]Season Evah!!1!)

TAR back on November 4th!!!

Shall we all dance on the corpse of Viva Laughlin ?

MTV's SYTYCD marathon was awesome. I was flipping past and I thought they were doing season 3 again and then I saw Benji and Donyelle and was soooo excited. But watching it again just convinced me that this year's top 10 was much better than last year's (even with the Hunchback and Mischa Chan) but last year's top 10 was charm central. They were flat out entertainers, in the old Mickey and Judy, "Hey, kids! Let's put on a show!" mode. Oh and S2 choreographers kicked S3 in the ass. So many good routines that I had forgotten, especially the hip hop choreo . . . so much better than this year's crap.

I came across the marathon this weekend, and left it on for a bit while housecleaning because I've seen you guys raving about it. I'm not sure I see the total reason for the appeal. I mean, I've always been a sucker for dance routines, and always loved musicals. But I don't think anyone on that show danced for longer than 45 seconds. There was no time to build an atmosphere, or get enthralled with any of them. And apparently there are 3 "judges" who don't really vote on anything, they just provide commentary. One man actually sounded as though he knew about dance, they other man sounded equally reasonable, but the woman -- her role seemed to be to scream into the camera. Do the dancers actually choose their own music and costumes? They don't choose their own choreography.

SYTYCD is set up a lot like American Idol, but there are differences. They do have open auditions every where and the 3 judges who all have dance experience. There are 2 premanent judges - Nigel (who is a producer) and was a dancer/choreographer, Mary (the screaming lady), who was a ball room dancer/choreographer and then a "guest" judge pulled from the pool of choreographers.

Up until the Top 10 the judges make the final decision. The dancers dance, America votes, and then the bottom 3 men and bottom 3 women "dance for their lives" and then the judges decide which 2 go home. It goes like that until the Top 10, when America's votes finally count.

Mary, I think, started out sounding normal, but her screams became her thing and now she does it more and more. Grates my nerves and makes me think of her as more like Paula, because Mary has fewer and fewer constructive things to say.

All kinds of dancers audition -- breakers , ballet, modern, ballroom but they randomly draw types of dances each week. So you can have a modern dancer paired with a breaker doing a foxtrot, and that's what draws me in. Seeing dancers dance outside of their speciality and doing well.

Of course then you get them doing their thing and it's cool as well.

I think the dance routines are supposed to be 2 minutes long, and vary in style -- depending on which choreographers they use.

the dances are 1:30, i think. but yeah, what askye said.