The Point Game

I have many thoughts this Friday afternoon but none whole enough for its own column. So once again it’s time for the Point Game where I assign positive and negative points to the who’s, what’s, and where’s that are on my mind.

+2: The Hills- My favorite guilty pleasure hit a new high this week when Laguna Beach bad boy Jason returned to the fold. The way this guy gets women to fall all over him is absolutely amazing and his return holds great promise for some serious drama in the weeks to come though likely at Lauren’s expense.

-2: Big Brother 7- Have you heard? This year’s installment of Big Brother is an All Star edition where America chooses the house guests…or so they want you to believe. If you caught the Chenbot on Wednesday night’s special, she subtlety slipped in the fact that America is only choosing half the housemates so CBS clearly will find a way to get their people in.

+4: Timberland- I think I’m getting to the point where I’ll listen to any track this guy produces. From Missy to Nelly Furtado, Timberland can turn any artist platinum. Just look at what happened to Bubba Sparxx when he ventured out on his own. Miss New Booty? Please.

-6: Bunim/Murray Productions- Usually I’ve got nothing but love for the fine folks that have brought us The Real World and Road Rules but this season’s Key West Real World has given me a moment of pause. This season, they’ve sunk to a new casting low by showcasing a young woman, Paula, whose laundry list of issues include, but are not limited to, eating disorders, abused partner syndrome, chemical dependency, and depression. When the producers cast Pedro Zamora back in the San Francisco season I really think they thought showing a man living with AIDS would make for good television AND raise awareness. Furthermore, Pedro was already an AIDS activist who welcomed the opportunity. Here I think they cast a super dysfunctional person just for the sake of good TV. Instead it’s really just sad, because unlike Pedro poor Paula is not self aware of all her issues and while we’ve watched her make some progress she’s so very far from being healthy.

+3: Bunim/Murray Productions- Oh B/M I can’t stay mad at you not when you’ve taken lemons and made tequila infused lemonade. Due to MTV’s questionable decision not to renew Road Rules a few years back, the Real World/Road Rules Challenges have had a smaller pool of players to choose from. As a result, the same 16-20 people seem to show up every challenge. To try and remedy this, the producers brought in a group of newbies to compete on the latest Fresh Meat Challenge. I was skeptical at first but by pairing the new kids with the veterans in teams of two they’ve allowed the game not to come off as a one sided affair…unless your from the Austin RW cast.

-30,000: US Soccer- I don’t think I’m going to let this go anytime soon. What a bunch of lazy lackadaisical sons of bitches! Sure I’ll still watch the Cup and pull for Brazil, Ghana, and England but this was the first time where the US really got me excited about their chances only to lay an ostrich size egg. See ya Bruce Arena it’s been grand.

+2: Trader Joe’s- Two things I need to state off the bat. First, I haven’t tried a lot of food from Joe’s groceries and two, I care about how organic my food is about as much as I care about which type of fat McDonald’s is cooking my fries in. That being said, I must say I’m impressed by this store with its upscale selection and downscale prices. As much as I like cooking as a single male age 18-35, I often slip into easy cooking mode and the selection of frozen and prepped foods at Joe’s made me salivate.