Shane Life

The survivors of Oceanic 815 have captured our hearts and minds for the past 6 years. The day after, it’s difficult to assess just how the show’s end will fall into the annals of television history. Some people hated the finale. Others, like me, thought it was fitting and touching.

Cuse and Lindelof created a world that sparked controversy and debate. Was it purgatory? Who were Jacob and the Man in Black, really? OMGWTFPOLARBEAR? They should be commended for such a huge accomplishment. I predict multiple Emmys in the show’s future (too little too late?).

There are people who are indignant about the way the show ended and to them, I say, please remember that it was still just a TV show. It was a special one, but just a TV show. It entertained, made us think, theorize and discuss in a medium where people typically just sit back and enjoy their half-hour nuggets and then go about their lives.

Monday morning, I woke up and I was still thinking about the show and its end. I feel like it paid respect to us as viewers that we have the ability to fill in the blanks. We don’t need everything explicitly spelled out and explained because what’s the fun in that? If Cuselof would have laid out exactly what everything meant, wouldn’t that have been a disservice to the show that meant so many different things to so many different people?

At the heart of the show, it was always about people. It was about relationships and how we are all flawed and how those flaws are really what makes us interesting and beautiful. The mystery of the island provided this fascinating backdrop that made us ask questions and stay engaged. But ultimately, through a combination of flash-forwards, flash-backs, flash-sideways and excellent storytelling and top-notch acting, the characters of the show became real and tangible to us.

The people on the island were all flawed in one way or another. The show lasted as long as it did and succeeded because we saw ourselves in the survivors of Oceanic 815 and their very evident flaws. That’s why I loved the show and the finale.

The fact that I’m still thinking about it more than 24 hours later means one of two things: A) it went way over my head and I’m still trying to sort it out, or B) it was completely awesome.

I’m going with Option B.

The bromance is a stalwart tradition of the sitcom world. Some of the greatest relationships of television were not the Ross & Rachels of history or the Sam & Dianes, but rather the Chandler & Joeys and the Norm & Cliffs. The hilarity of comedy usually hinges upon the hijinks of two or more dudes.

This probably could spiral into a discussion about how there are not nearly enough good girl-girl relationships on primetime TV, but let’s avoid it for now, okay?

These are some of my favorites from recent years, in no particular order:

Chandler and Joey — Friends

Roommates. Best Buds. Hilarious.

J.D. and Turk — Scrubs

The only ones who have a song together. I give you…”Guy Love.”

Andy and Bobby — Cougar Town

A newer bromance…not a shocking one, though, considering Bill Lawrence created both Scrubs and Cougar Town. I’m guessing there’s some sort of bromance in Lawrence’s past.

Michael and Ryan — The Office

This may be a little more one-sided, but it’s pretty funny.

A.C. and Zach — Saved by the Bell

I originally thought this one should be Zach and Screech, but after watching this hilarious fan video, this was more accurate.

Hurley and Sawyer — LOST

And another fan video, and also in honor of the series finale tonight.

Mac and Dennis — It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia

These guys would redefine bromance if they weren’t both so narcissistic.

Vince/Turtle/Eric/Drama/Ari — Entourage

Can’t wait for the new season! June!

Bert and Ernie — Sesame Street

Bromance? Or more…you decide.

Kermit and Fozzie — The Muppet Show

The whole bit in The Great Muppet Caper where Kermit and Fozzie are identical twins…so funny.

Troy and Abed — Community

Honestly, this bromance was the one that inspired me to make the list. Community is one of my favorite new shows and the Troy and Abed vignettes at the end of every episode are freaking awesome.

I know that I’m forgetting a lot of bro-love. Can you help me out?

Sometimes, my life is just far too awesome for words.

Sunday night, I was invited by a friend to attend an amazing event at The National Golf Club in Parkville — a 6-course dinner prepared by season six Top Chef contestants Eli Kirshstein and Kevin “Beardy” Gillespie and The National’s Executive Chef, Eric Barkley.

You may remember a few weeks back when I talked about the Top Chef Tour coming to Kansas City. In that post, I said:

[My friend] Eric [who is the Director of Food & Beverage for The National] is actually bringing back Eli and one of my personal favorites, Kevin “BEARDY” Gillespie for a special 6-course event (two by each Top Chef and 2 by Chef Barkley from The National) at their clubhouse in May.

Well, I was lucky enough to be invited as a guest to this amazing event. Alli and I were seated next to the pastry chef and executive chef (and 4-time James Beard Award nominee) of bluestem in Westport, which was really a treat. Not only were we treated to an amazing meal, but we had some great company and got some insight into the cooking side of things from Colby and Megan.

And now, the food…

The first course was prepared by Chef Barkley. It was a walleye served on a bed of sweet corn topped with ramps (wild leeks), morels, black truffles with a white wine foam. There were a lot of things that I just typed that I had never eaten before Sunday night, particularly ramps, which are apparently a very difficult to acquire vegetable (unlike normal leeks). As a lead-off dish, this was bright and interesting, but kind of large. The sweetness of the corn counteracted the acidity of the pickled ramps and the richness of the walleye and black truffles. I liked it a lot.

The second course was prepared by Chef Kirshtein, a scallop served on top of black garlic with Enoki mushrooms. I was really looking forward to having some scallops, but was a little disappointed in this dish. The scallop itself was nicely cooked and the black garlic was delicious, but I couldn’t get into the mushrooms. I want to be adventurous in my eating, but these were a little out there.

This next dish surprised the crap out of me. I did not expect that Chef Kirshtein’s chicken with broccoli gremolata and lily bulb puree would be my favorite course of the night. I have never tasted a chicken that was cooked better. The skin was crispy and the meat of the chicken was rich and tender and in stark contrast to the vinegar-y broccoli gremolata. Another wonderful surprise about this dish was the lily bulb puree. This was a point in the meal where it was extremely helpful to have chefs Garrelts at our table. I learned that lily bulb was actually a fancy name for onion. So basically, it was like a potato puree, only with onions. And it tasted awesome.

The fourth course was our first from Chef Beardy Gillespie, and it was actually a Top Chef challenge winner from last season’s Pigs and Pinot challenge. What was it? It’s difficult to tell from the picture, so let me help: it was a pork terrine with a pickled cherry and a mushroom salad (not like a green salad, but like a chicken salad…it’s that gray stuff on top of the pork terrine slice). I really liked this dish. It wasn’t amazingly appetizing to look at (although it was extremely cleanly plated), but it tasted salty and sweet and balanced. Yum.

Our next dish, from Chef Eric Barkley, had my favorite side item of the night. Served with a wagyu Kansas City (they called it New York…I refuse to do so) strip loin topped with a vidalia onion compote was a completely EPIC gorgonzola bread pudding with bacon. (Okay, so the dish was technically centered around the strip loin, but not for me.) So much awesomeness here. If I described it more, you might become insanely jealous and hunt me down.

The final savory dish was from Chef Beardy and was quite an experience. Now, I’ve had lamb loin before at Perilla in New York. I have not, however, had lamb loin with sweetbread (most mis-named food EVER) fricassee, lemony greens and potato cream. I wasn’t too hip on eating the thymus and pancreas of an animal, but I figured I had to give it a shot. Really weird. The lamb was pretty good too and the pomegranate brown butter that it was served with was quite tasty.

I didn’t actually photograph the 7th bonus course, which was prepared by the Herndon Career Center from Raytown. The dessert plate was a myriad of deliciousness — a Meyer lemon verbena sponge cake, chocolate two ways, homemade orange “pop rocks” and some nitro ice cream in a macadamia nut cone. The cone was the best part, but considering that it was concepted and prepared by high schoolers, I was really impressed.

After the meal, the chefs came out and answered some questions and told stories of their culinary background and their experiences on the show. I’d heard some of Eli’s stories from the Top Chef event from last month, but it was really fun to hear some of Beardy’s stories, since he was my favorite from last season.

I can’t thank my friend Eric enough for inviting me and Alli to attend this event. It was such a great experience to each such delicious food. I know that The National is working on another Top Chef-inspired event in September. Be sure to follow me on Twitter and I’ll be sure that you know about the event if you’re interested. If you love food and you love Top Chef, you really shouldn’t miss these special events.

I know that I’m glad I didn’t miss this one.

I got to check out the Kansas City stop of the Top Chef Tour last Friday.

Eli Kirshtein from Season 6 and Nikki Cascone from Season 4 came into KC and showed off their culinary chops and answered some questions in four sessions outside Cosentino’s Market. The first 15-20 minutes were spent making a quick Scimeca’s Sausage meatball with sauerkraut, aioli and topped with some gala apples.

By themselves, I like very few of the components in this dish. Sauerkraut? EW. Mustard? No thanks. But as a dish, it totally worked. The flavors worked together to create something really simple and tasty.

My favorite part of the event was the Q&A, though. As someone who’s been watching Top Chef since season one (and I’ve talked about it plenty), I was interested in hearing about the show and their experiences. One of the things that cracked me up was Eli and Nikki talking trash on some of the more well-known chefs of the world, particularly Bobby Flay (“Just throw it on the grill with some chipotle in adobo and some cilantro.”).

I was actually really surprised at how open and honest they were, pulling no punches about the contestants they competed with (Eli still hates Robin, it seems) and the challenges they competed in.

It was a really nice event and I have to say thanks to my friend Eric from The National, who got me the tickets. Eric is actually bringing back Eli and one of my personal favorites, Kevin “BEARDY” Gillespie for a special 6-course event (two by each Top Chef and 2 by Chef Barkley from The National) at their clubhouse in May. As amazing as the event sounds, the price tag might be a little out of my range.

For the rest of my pictures, check out my Flickr photoset.

Some possible spoilers…

The season finale of Big Love was this past Sunday.

Alli and I were a little slow to the game for this show. We didn’t get on board initially, really getting into the show at the beginning of the second season. Once we got about three shows in, we were drawn into the madness that is Bill Hendrickson (Bill Paxton) and his three wives — Barb (Jean Tripplehorne), Nikki (Chloe Sevigny) and Margene (Ginnifer Goodwin).

The now-completed fourth season was the best by a mile, although the season finale certainly left a lot of fans hanging, considering that up to that point, more had occurred over the course of a season than at any other time. Particularly intriguing was Bill Hendrickson’s unabashed pursuit of power as he attempted to fill a recently vacated Utah State Senate seat. That story line, combined with Margene’s emboldened, more confident attitude (not to mention her minor crush on Bill’s oldest son by Barb, Ben) and Nikki’s constant searching for purpose and identity in her crazy world led to some serious polygamist hijinks, including trips to Washington and Mexico.

For a long while, one of the only reasons that we had HBO was Entourage, but now, we have another reason to keep our subscription. If you’ve got HBO and are wondering what Big Love is all about, give it a few episodes. It’s a lot of fun.

Zach Galifianakis is hosting Saturday Night Live this week with musical guest Vampire Weekend.

I’m hesitantly excited, mostly because SNL has been pretty lousy of late. But Galifianakis is funny just standing there, so I’m anxious to see what he does on the show. Hopefully Seth Meyers and the writers don’t screw it up.

Like many people, I watched the Golden Globes last night. Awards season is a favorite for Alli and me and we picked up some Original Pizza, some Throwback soda and settled in for a night of glamour, movies and TV…all from the comfort of sweats on the couch.

First things first: Ricky Gervais was really disappointing. For as much smack as he talked prior to the show about how he was going to be brutal to the stars, all he really did was self-promote (not unheard of) and get in maybe one good dig at Mel Gibson. The rest of his jokes were just really MEH.

Some other thoughts:

• I really felt that Jane Lynch got robbed for supporting actress in a TV series. I’ve never understood why they lumped all the supporting actors and actresses into one all-encompassing category, including comedies, dramas and mini-series. She should have won. Don’t get me wrong, I adore Big Love, but Sevigny didn’t deserve it. Sue Sylvester is the heart and soul of Glee.
• Speaking of Glee, I’m so glad that it won. I love that show.
• I still have very little desire to see Grey Gardens.
• Toni Collette won a shocker for TV actress in a comedy. I won’t say she’s not deserving…I was just really surprised.
• Alec Baldwin is the new Tony Shalhoub.
• I think that Julianna Margulies winning Best Actress in a Drama series was a shock to everyone except Julianna Margulies.
• T-Bone Burnett does not look like he should. He should at least have a beard.
• I really like how the Oscars splits the screenplays into adapted and original. Like Just Cara said, when you are blessed with great source material, it’s hard to mess it up. Unless, of course, if you’re Rob Marshall.
• I love Robert Downey, Jr., but I was really hoping for Joseph Gordon-Levitt to pull out the Best Actor Comedy win. He was awesome in (500) Days of Summer, one of my favorites of the last year.
• The room was amazingly cold toward James Cameron during both of his acceptance speeches. And I was thinking, it’s gotta suck to be a filmmaker during the year that James Cameron comes out with a movie. It’s once every 10 years, but still. It’s gotta suck.

Overall, it was a decent show…not a ton of huge surprises. Would have liked to see Gervais push it a little more. It will be interesting to see Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin host the Oscars. I doubt they will go after any of the actors in attendance, but you never know.

Another thing to note, if you’re a Twitter user and you watch the Twitter stream during shows like this, I highly recommend following Doug Benson. He hosts a podcast called “I Love Movies” and is totally hilarious.

Today, Conan O’Brien said what everyone hoped he would say to NBC: take a hike.

And rightfully so. Leno indicated he wanted to quit, so NBC (wisely) locked up Conan to replace him. Then, Leno decided he wasn’t so sure about quitting. So NBC, in their infinite wisdom, changed their schedule to give Jay the hour lead-in to The Tonight Show, effectively taking the wind out of Conan’s sails…I mean who really wants to watch Leno do the pre-Tonight Show and then another hour of the regular Tonight Show? It’s just excessive.

But Leno couldn’t go quietly into the night. No one watched his show (because it was terrible and unfunny), so NBC once again decided to do something stupid (I’m still mad they cancelled Inside Schwartz) by throwing a complete wrench in their late night lineup, which still is uncertain.

So Conan, the real loser in all of this, decided enough was enough. His letter, addressed to “People of Earth” is funny, yet firm enough to let NBC know that he will not allow them to destroy the storied Tonight Show on his watch. Whether they actually listen to him is anyone’s guess. My assumption is that Jeff Zucker (who I am amazed still has a job through all this and their many other blunders, one of which includes almost cancelling The Office after the first season) will likely just let Conan go like he did David Letterman and re-hire Jay Leno to helm The Tonight Show. Which would be a mistake, if you consider Twitter to be the pulse of the nation. Four of the top 10 trending topics are about O’Brien, NBC or “Team Conan”.

But since when has NBC had any sense about what people care about. They are far too fragmented and their programming is 30% made up of Law & Order episodes. There’s a reason that they’re in 4th place. They’ve got a bunch of morons running the network.

It’s sad, too, because there is some good talent on NBC and some entertaining shows. But they don’t have the slightest clue how to market those shows or nurture their growth. Instead, they are reactionary and impatient.

And that just doesn’t work.

This is not a post about my desire for a college football playoff.

It’s me asking you to support my wife, sister and their dance team, the Gardner Edgerton Blazerettes as they will be featured performers at halftime of the Orange Bowl tonight.

The game will be shown on Fox WDAFat 7:30 p.m. and the halftime show features Kool & the Gang. The routine is choreographed by the ex-Mr. J-Lo, Cris Judd.

The Blazerettes will start in the front row on the 50-yard-line facing the press box all the way down to the right end zone. Keep an eye out for the girls. They have worked extremely hard to get to this point and they appreciate your support!

This is a really cool opportunity for this Kansas City school. Be sure to watch out for them.