What feels like months ago, we found out about Netflix’s The Final Table through one of our favorite chefs. Monique Fiso is a Kiwi chef focusing on reviving Māori cuisine. We have followed her on social media for quite some time; when she announced that she would be on a cooking competition we were thrilled to see her in action. We were thrilled to see her bring attention to the cultures and cuisines within New Zealand.
We’re one more down in our incredible Top 10 Movies of All Time list with our superstar cast! This list may not be full of the most critically acclaimed movies, but it’s definitely full of loved movies. We all have different takes on what we like and that’s what keeps it interesting. Check out #9 and #10 if you missed them the previous weeks. Sit down and watch what we have in store for you this week!
Kai – “The Social Network”
Here we are–with #10 of our Top 10 Movies of All Time countdown! If you missed last week’s braintrust introduction and honorable mentions, here they are. We come with different tastes in movies and I’m sure it’ll show to some degree. We’re very excited to kick off this countdown. We love collaborative projects where people can showcase what they love and reveal what it means to them. Enough talking…now introducing, the #10 picks!
Kai – “500 Days of Summer”
Keeping up my credentials
Food Network was and still is the most-viewed network in our household. Over the course of 20 years, that hasn’t changed but the personalities and themes certainly have. While it’s not fair to say whether it’s for better or for worse because that would be so subjective, we can definitely say what we enjoy more or less. Everyone has strong feelings for Bobby Flay, Guy Fieri, and all the baking contests, but there are just some shows that give you a little bit of everything. Cutthroat Kitchen is one of them.
For the longest time, we watched a lot of Chopped and we still do. It has its practical application. While the focus of most competition cooking shows isn’t being healthy, there are two major components that will make the life easier of the everyday chef, or the home chef. Those two factors are time and convenience. In most of these competitions, the chefs are only given 20-30 minutes to prepare a meal. That’s right, on Chopped they’re not making a single dish. They have to prepare four portions, which could be exactly how many you need to make for your family! Most of us don’t have hours every day to make fresh meals, so we often resort to opting for some not-so-fresh meals but that often sacrifices the health factor. Frozen food and fast food are time-friendly and have large portions, but typically are filled with unnatural ingredients, excess calories, tons of sodium, and a lack of nutrients. On these shows, top chefs show you how to save time.
The Greyjoys.
Recently, as I was driving through LA, I saw this apple TV banner. While I haven’t watched Game of Thrones since the end of the first season came out live, I’ve heard a lot about it from others. Since we read the books before the TV series was out, we were shocked to find out they were making a series in the first place. No one else knew what A Song of Ice and Fire was since it came out in the early 90s. I can’t imagine there were too many people out there that were more excited about this show than us.
With all great sporting events, come great commercials. The World Cup is certainly not excluded in this. True, not all Americans will “get” them because Americans aren’t super into soccer. But still, I think anyone can appreciate these commercials. It was tough to choose between the many that different companies have put out, but we have narrowed it down to a Top 3 with a few honorable mentions.
3. The Last Game (Nike). This commercial is long, so you will mostly likely not see the entire thing aired. However, it is awesome. It’s set in the future where they’ve replaced the “Greats” with clones who can do no wrong. Ronaldo goes around to recruit the Greats back from where they’ve slunk off to (Neymar turns into a barber). They train together and face the Clones to bring back true football. Who will win?!
2. House Match (Adidas). This is just hilarious because you get two all-time “retired” greats–Zidanne and Beckham. You also get two current players, Bale and Moura. The younger players are playing themselves in a video game and Beckham proposes they play actually football. The hilarity ensues as they play two on two, wrecking Beckham’s house. Pure classic.
1. #BecauseFutbol (Hyundai). Although it’s the shortest commercial of the bunch, I think it’s the best. It has the most genuine, puts-a-grin-on-my-face feeling. A pregnant couple walk into the hospital, only to be surrounded by other expecting parents. Nurses are struggling to find places to put newborns and wonder what happened 9 months ago. And what of course was 9 months ago in this commercial? The Spain winning the World Cup. It shows a flashback and shows the genuine joy you feel as your team wins. I love it. It always leaves a huge smile on my face.
Honorable Mentions: You can see for yourself…it was tough not to put these in the top 3.
1. Adriana Lima Transforms a Man Cave (Kia). Simply classic making fun of Americans.
2. “Avoidance” (#BecauseFutbol) (Hyundai). Literally me at work.
I hope you enjoyed our selection of favorite World Cup commercials. I could watch them over and over. I hope you are enjoying the World Cup itself, as well! Cheer on! As always, stay hungry and fit!
*Question of the Day: What’s YOUR favorite World Cup commercial?
We do not watch very much television and we certainly do not follow series. The only non-Food Network, Animal Planet, or anime based television series that I have ever really followed have been Spartacus Blood and Sand/Gods of the Arena and Burn Notice, which I stopped watching due to college.
Firefly is one of my favorite television series of all time but it only lasted a season before it cut short well before it deserved to be. Nathan Fillion was the rock on-screen that made that show what it was and he has never had the opportunity he truly deserved, until now.
Even though Castle has been out since 2009 and we have known about it for years, it was only recently that we started watching it. Within the past two weeks we have watched all of Season 3, most of 2, some of 1, and just began 4. The 6th season begins today and there are many loose ends that will need to be tied up but we need to catch up first.
The show is about an author who begins working with the NYPD in order to research the character for his new book series. He develops feelings for the detective and decides to stay even though she never returns his feelings. She has a wall that cannot come down until her mother’s murder is solved. Unfortunately, she needs to take down “The Dragon” in order to solve the case and he is very dangerous. At the same time Castle deals with his feelings for her, his daughter’s growth, and a serial killer who is determined to ruin Castle’s life.
It may sound like another NCIS, CSI, Bones, etc but for us the addition of Nathan Fillion is all we need to watch it. We think the stories are well-written and humorous, the cast is perfection, and the romantic struggle keeps us curious what will happen.
Part of the reason that we have not been posting so much is because we have been watching so much Castle but we will catch up soon and then just watch the new episodes as they come out. We’re excited so let us know what your favorite television series of all time or right now is! Couch potatoes are not so hungry and fit but a little bit of relaxation helps!
BONUS KITTY PIC
Nymeria looking ridiculously sleepy
It’s Saturday morning and we are thinking about how little we have gone to the movies this year. Luckily, Disney provided us with a new option, Oz The Great and Powerful starring James Franco and a trio of Hollywood’s finest and classiest ladies. We took advantage of a morning showing in 3D at 10:55 a.m.
So, I start all my posts with so. What a bad habit, but not as bad a habit as buying ridiculous things, which ended up with us having a 39″ television in our little apartment. When I was in college, I can’t remember what year, I decided to buy a nice television for my bedroom at home. (I think it was when I graduated actually.) Why? Because I love playing video games and watching movies/anime. Plain and simple.
Now, my room at home wasn’t the biggest, and my vision wasn’t the best, but bigger doesn’t always mean better. As a result, I bought the most environmentally friendly television at the time (or one of them). It was a cute little 22″ Philips LED 720p TV and it got the job done. When we decided to move, I couldn’t let this little guy, which I spent a whole $159.99 on just stay behind. So we took him/her, despite the sea of other things we got rid of over the months. Somehow, it made it all the way across the country despite the ridiculous heat and bumpy roads. But here in Boulder, in our apartment, the Philips just wasn’t working out and I decided to make a move.
An exciting bundle of packages that may or may not have our TV inside
After debating for weeks, with a little financial aid and TV input from my brother, I finally ordered a 39″ TCL 1080p 60HZ LED TV. It was nearly $350 on Amazon, but had free shipping. It made it in two days with Prime, and seemed to be in perfect shape, as we watched “The Avengers” the first night we got it. We haven’t used it since but I can’t wait for tomorrow. Why? Because I ordered this television for one reason. Resident Evil 6. And I might as well use it for Dishonored. And every other good game coming out soon but really I can’t wait to put it to good use. It doesn’t have an off-axis glare like the Philips had because of its size. It fits almost perfectly and I think that movie nights and video games will be so much better with it. Now Alana can use the Philips as a PC screen so she can play Skyrim in super mode. And now I can play Skyrim in super-mode too. Can’t wait for Resident Evil 6. PSN username KINGTUCCI for anyone that wants to play online multiplayer.
There it is, in all its glory
Thanks for reading the short post, I’ll let you know how the TV performs in my soon to come review of Resident Evil 6.
Bonus Pic: Misty being pissy
