Playing Detective

About four years ago, our friend Sandy decided that we all had enough "stuff," so instead of stuff for Christmas and Channukkah, he was going to give us "experiences." By us, I don't just mean my husband, son, and self. No, Sandy extended this to all of the people with whom he exchanged gifts each year.

The first year, we went to Descanso Gardens, to see their famous gardenias. This was followed by a picnic lunch and then a trek to a small bowling alley in nearby Montrose. Quite a full day and everybody had a good time, especially since the weather was very nice (I think it was February when we did this.)

I passed on the second year's event going to a go-cart type place east of Los Angeles, but Len and Michael had a great time.

Last year, the crowd of what looked like 50 or 60 people went to the Pirate Adventure near Disneyland. It was, unfortunately, a little too loud for my taste. But it was a fun show and the children, particularly, had a fabulous time.

On Saturday night, we did the most recently planned event. Sandy appears to be doing this in conjunction with some other folks, which is good. I'd hate to think he's frittering away his retirement money this way. We were treated to "Mysteries en Brochette" a murder-mystery dinner theater production at the Marina del Rey Hotel. No small children for this one.

With a theme of "Hollywood's Fatal Premier," folks did have an opportunity to get dressed up. There were about 40 people in our party plus another 40 or so people in attendance with other groups. The food was uneven, as hotel food can be, and so was the acting. The character who functioned as the emcee, however, more than made up for any other short comings. He was just great. He also wrote the production and he was a whiz at the ad lib.

The way these things go, the story is presented and some one or several ones are murdered. At the end, it is up to the audience to come up with a solution. Prizes were given to the individual who correctly solved the mystery and the one who came up with the funniest solution.

It's a tough room when two famous comic book writers and best selling novelist Larry Niven are working out endings. Len won the funniest solution--with the emcee/writer saying it was such a good solution they should incorporate it into the show--and the wife of the other comic book writer was the first to turn in the actual solution. That writer got an honorable mention for funny.

One of the people not with out party posited that one of the characters was a superhero like an X-man and one of our party ratted out Len to him. So Len got his picture taken with this stranger who was an X-men fan. It always gives me the giggles.

Me, I just sit back and watch. Len loves these kinds of things (he won the solution to the last party like this we went to, which is why we have TWO replicas of the Maltese Falcon in our house), but I know my limitations. I'm happy when I've got the solution to Law & Order.

As for that other famous detective I'm watching these days, I can't figure out why New Amsterdam isn't doing better in the ratings. The stories are very good and it really helps that the show is actually filmed on location in New York. I got a little bent out of shape about a rape victim's name and picture being spread across the Internet in last night's episode, but I did figure it to be a so-called honor killing as soon as I saw the body, beating Len to that one. However, I suspected the unseen brothers, not the father.

Last night also marked the return of Big Bang Theory. I think it's gotten a bit edgier than it was before the strike. We laughed a lot, particularly as the boys did the ape victory dance from 2001 and when Sheldon tried to psychically cause Leonard's head to explode. I was also anxious to see Chuck Lorre's latest end credit card. The one that was up when the strike hit said "United we stand." Last night's was a meditation about going up against Marlee Matlin on Dancing with the Stars. (It's not available on Chuck Lorre's website yet, but he refers to the "deaf chick dancing her ass off.")

The wind was up again yesterday, so my lesson on Ace was a bit cautious. Since the wind wasn't a constant, we decided to go on with it. We had to share the arena with a horse which was jumping (and whose rider couldn't control him in a turn), but we managed. It wasn't as good a ride as Saturday, but tomorrow is bound to be better.

Thoughts on Televsion

So many people are snobs when it comes to watching television. "Oh, I never watch T.V." "It's such a waste of time." "There's never anything good on." Nonsense.

First of all, some of the best writing is on television. Gilmore Girls under Amy Sheridan-Palladino and West Wing under Aaron Sorkin were two of the best shows ever done on television. Crisp, rapid dialog along with great acting and directing made them both "must watch T.V." I've been a fan of the Law & Order franchise since it began and I do tend to watch every episode of each of them. I'll sometimes watch CSI with Len, but I rarely watch CSI: Miami and never CSI: New York.

This season's been a bit of a disappointment, but the third episode of New Amsterdam was as good as the first, with an interesting twist at the very end. I'm looking forward to next Monday. I thought that Canterbury Law has possibility (I like Juliana Margulies and Aidan Quinn), but I'm not sure I'll commit. Next week also marks the return of Big Bang Theory, a show which leaves me in stitches every time I watch it. The other two comedies I watch faithfully are Aliens in America and 30 Rock.

Now even I am a snob when it comes to "reality T.V." First of all, many of those shows are clearly written--maybe not the dialog (which would be a big improvement) but the storylines and structure clearly are. The scum-sucking weasels who are pocketing the big bucks rather than pay their writers decent wages, pension, and health should die horrible deaths and have a special place in hell reserved for them. None the less, I've mentioned before our devotion to The Amazing Race and Beauty and the Geek.

Beauty and the Geek returned last night, but the game has changed again. I'm not sure I like what they've done with it, because I really thought the pairing of the beauties with the geeks went quite well. I will say that last night's turn, where the beauties had to decide which of the geeks to send to the elimination room, worked amazingly well. The beauties decided that the guys to send were the ones who might not need the improvement skills as much as the ones they didn't pick. That was a pretty smart move on their part. I do wonder if there's some plan afoot to change things during the season though, because in the past the show eliminated a pair of contestants each week and this way they only eliminate one a week. That could add up to a 17 week season the way things appear to be structured.

I've taken a bit more of an interest in American Idol this season. I'm not sure why. Maybe I was waiting for the singers to get a chance at Lennon-McCartney tunes or maybe because it looks like they did get rid of the really marginal talents before the top 12 got down to work last night. There are more important things to me than watching the show (I slept through three of the singers on Lennon-McCartney night), but I am curious about how it works out. Although Simon Cowell doesn't need a writer, Randy and, especially, Paula could use one. Can anyone actually understand what either one of them is talking about? Last night, when asked why the songs have lasted, Randy threw in the word "copyright," but in a way that had nothing to do with what copyright means at all or what the question was. Paula couldn't express that the "risks" she was suggesting people take should have "pay-off" or "reward." She needs help with simple sentence structure. What a ditz.

I feel sorry for the girl from Oregon who sold her rodeo horse to go to the audition. She did a dreadfully rushed, country & westernized version of "Eight Days a Week" that really missed the mark. My favorite cutie with the dreds didn't do a particularly good job either. And the 16 year old favorite really fell down. Chikezie was the big surprise. I haven't been particularly impressed but he did a great job with "She's a Woman." Unlike my husband, I'm not taken with either the rocker-biker-nurse or the Irish bar maid. At least we're down to two nights a week for Idol, rather than three, from here on out.

Now for something I doubt I've mentioned before: food shows tend to be the default when nothing specific is on television (and televisions are always on in my house: my husband doesn't like quiet like I do.) Talk about reality! We get BBC America, which hooked me on Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares (and, yes, I'll probably watch Hell's Kitchen this year, which I haven't in the past) and now we're enthralled by Last Restaurant Standing.

Cooking shows are not a new thing for us to watch. We used to lay in bed on Saturday mornings watching cooking shows on PBS like the Frugal Gourmet and Yan Can Cook back before there was a Food Network. Now, my husband records every episode of Rachael Ray and buys all of her books. It's improved his kitchen repertoire beyond belief. He does resent that it takes him about 90 minutes to make one of her 30 Minute Meals, but he's resigned to it. The knife skills class I sent him and my son to last year hasn't improved his speed, just his technique.

We were watching some show one Saturday night on the topic of camenbert cheese, looked at each other, hit the record button and ran out to Trader Joe's and Whole Foods to secure a lovely arrangement of cheese, fruit, bread and crackers for dinner. We came back home and ate while we watched the rest of the show. Talk about the power of suggestion.

We started watching Iron Chef back when it was only available on the Japanese language television channel out here. Its migration to the Food Network was inspired. We really enjoy the American version (much better once they got rid of William Shatner) and I can't wait to try Michael Symon's restaurant the next time I am in Cleveland. I've been begging for dinner out at Mario Batali's Mozza since it opened last year. (Batali's partner in this venture, Nancy Silverton, is my own personal baking goddess. I worked my way through her bread book, beginning with making a sour dough starter from my home-grown grapes and doing all of the extended proofing required for her recipes. I don't have the time for this anymore, unfortunately.)

Although I don't get to watch many shows, I find Alton Brown's Good Eats fascinating. I bought my son both of his books, since Michael is into many things science. I've been trying to catch Jamie Oliver's new series which features food from his cottage garden, but I forget to schedule the recording. There's no Italian cooking show I really like right now. Giada doesn't do it for me. She's no Marcella Hazan, whose books are my Italian cooking bibles. I find Bobby Flay annoying. Ditto Paula Dean (but I enjoyed her sons' eating on the road show.) Emeril is always entertaining, but I know that I've got a two-day tolerance for the heaviness of New Orleans cooking.

I hear Top Chef is back with a new season tonight.

New Amsterdam

New Amsterdam was the original name of the settlement on Manhattan. It is also the name of the drama I was most looking forward to this season. We saw the pilot last spring and loved it. It didn't make it to the fall schedule and, despite filming half a season, there was concern that it wouldn't see the light of day.

Then came the writers' strike.

New Amsterdam, staring Danish actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, finally made it to the air last week. We re-watched the pilot and then saw the second episode this weekend. It definitely is on my must watch list for as long as it lasts.

The conceit is that he received an kind of immortality for saving the life of a native American as the Dutch arrived to colonize Manhattan. He was born in 1607 and now works as a detective in Manhattan. My very favorite part of this story is that he has spent the past 400 years in life-long learning. He's gone to Ivy League schools, he's a doctor, a lawyer, a famous furniture maker, and I'm certain we don't know what all yet. By the second episode we learn that he's been married--but only to one woman at a time--and he appears to keep at least some of his children in on the secret. A daughter was his aging secretary just prior to World War II. His aging son runs the bar where he has a hidden studio, turning out his famous style of now antique furniture when the need for cash arises.

He's Lazarus Long without the incest. He has no superpower except that he can't die--until he finds his one true soul mate, at which point he will age normally and die.

There's something about it that reminds me of Beauty and the Beast. Probably because he knows all of the hidden places in the city because he's seen it change over the course of 350 years. There is also something quite fun about the fact that he doesn't hide things that make people go "You think that's a joke? I can do the math. It means you've been sober since 1959." "I've got a young face," he replies. As a photographer, I love the series of pictures he has taken every year for about 150 of them of Times Square. There was a great special effect building Times Square through the years using still photos taken from the same place.

Coster-Waldau is utterly charming. I'll be there for the next episode, which is tonight at 9 on Fox.