spugbrap’s blog

First of all, we were confused as to how it was a “Grand Finale”, when last week they had the top 4 men and 4 women listed as contenders to win the competition. Then, suddenly they’ve narrowed it down to 2 men and 2 women to compete in what was basically just a regular episode (no new events or anything, just more of the same) with lots of extra flash backs to earlier footage, and extra warm and fuzzy stuff like, “This is my family in my small home town. Look how everyone in the town is loving and supporting me! Look how cute my kids are! I want to win for my dead family member or the kids that look up to me as a role model!”. Fluffy.

Anyways, here are my notes from the American Gladiators 2008 Grand Finale episode from February 18. Like last time, this is not a very polished blog entry, just a bunch of notes.
I wish they would stop advertising Knight Rider *constantly*. Lacey and I were looking forward to watching that, but unfortunately didn’t record it. Luckily, they’re showing it again next week, so the Tivo’s set to record it then. We were both surprised to see that it’s a movie, though. When they first advertised it, during one of the early American Gladiators episodes, we thought it was going to be a series.

Women contenders: Monica and Shanay
Shanay should have been disqualified for kneeling down the whole time in Joust. She did that last time as well. Not fair.
Evan vs Titan in Joust: 2 hits and Evan was in the water.
Alex vs Titan in Joust: holy crap, Hulk said there’s a huge size difference up there and he’s not kidding! Seeing them next to each other it’s like a toddler next to his father.
Titan kneeled down both times, and he had some serious pushing power behind his push.
Pyramid: announcer said “Both contenders were completely dominated […] Monica spent more time on her back than on her feet”
Toa: “My volcano, my volcano!”
Mayhem: “Now what, I’m king tut, yeah!”
The Wall:
Monica started out quick, and made it up for 10, despite some resistance from Siren near the top.
Shanay kept up pretty well, and ended up getting 5 points for hanging on up near the top when Venom was pulling on her foot
Evan: This guy is like a spider monkey. Ridiculously fast climber. 10 points, well deserved.
Militia tried to pull Alex down but couldn’t. pulled something off his shoe though.
Alex made it up for 5 points.
Ugh, there’s the Subway Replay. I kept wondering when that was coming. They kept using the words “Fueled up” throughout the episode, so I kept expecting the annoying “Fueled up and powered on by Subway” thing.
Evan has a 19 point lead over Alex going into the Eliminator. 9.5 second head start. Evan had the fastest time in Eliminator all season so far, so that 9.5 seconds might seal the deal for him.
announcer: “Both these contenders have performed beautifully throughout this competition” [hmm. you mean all TWO episodes??]
Evan breaks his previous Eliminator record time.. 1:19ish? Something like that.
Alex backflipped off the platform onto the mats at the end. We were kinda rooting for him because he’s a school teacher setting a good example for students, and trying to earn money for the wrestling team he coaches. Also because he’s kinda goofy, and that’s endearing. :)
Sounded like he said “I’d like to thank everyone for turning me on” but he said “cheering me on”.
After fast forwarding through the commercials, the first sentence I heard sounded like “penis was all hard” but really it said “Venus was all heart” or something.
Monica’s 3.5 second lead going into the Eliminator barely got her up the first wall.
Did Shanay belly flop into the flaming pool? definitely made a long splash and took longer than she should have to
30 foot cargo net climb - Shanay caught up.
Both fell off hand bike right away–good plan.
Monica barely made it to the top of the Travelator, but she did. We were glad–she was our pick for the women in this finale.
Her husband jumped down onto her when she was laying on the mats after the Eliminator. her daughters hopped on too.

So, Evan and Monica each won $100,000, a Toyota Sequoia, and they will join the ranks of the gladiators next season.
Have you seen how HUGE and muscular the existing team of gladiators is? These two had better start seriously hitting the HGH gym if they’re going to be gladiators next season!

Lacey pointed out that they should definitely have Evan do the rock wall, though. The contenders won’t stand a chance!

This is a follow-up to my review of the Danzig concert that I went to on Tuesday, October 23, 2007. I’ve been reading various reviews, news articles, and forum threads about the show, and decided to compile several of them into a list (in no particular order).

• REVIEW: evb: start of the Danzig tour last night in Baltimore
  • Elizabeth (evb) posted the first review that I found about the show. She felt that the girl (apparently Doyle’s wife) pole dancing during Gorgeous Frankenstein’s set was a pitiful attempt to distract from the band not being so great. I agree with that, except I actually liked the distraction. Hers is one of the only reviews I’ve seen that actually said much about the opening bands, which is kinda cool, since my friends and I arrived pretty late.
• REVIEW: RockN Roll Experience - Danzig 10/23/07
  • This is a thorough review of the Danzig show, with some excellent photos, and even a video of Glenn Danzig getting back up on the stage after having fallen off. There was a very detailed description of the events surrounding Glenn’s fall, and the impact it seemed to have on his attitude. They also described some events that happened after the show, including a roadie collecting stuff from the fans that stuck around the longest, and Glenn autographing one thing for each person. I was a bit bummed to read this, because we did stick around for a while, and all we got was a water bottle with a setlist wrapped around it. But, I didn’t really have anything to hand to a roadie to get autographed, anyways, so oh well.
• REVIEW: Clint: All the CONCERTS I’ve ever been to: Danzig. 20071023.
  • My friend Clint maintains this list of all the concerts he’s ever been to, including short write-ups about many of them. His review of the 10/23/2007 Danzig show conveys many of the same sentiments I expressed in my own; primarily, major disappointment about the complete lack of Misfits songs.
• NEWS: Baltimore Citypaper: Glenn Danzig Takes a Spill
  • This is the first item that came up in my Google Alert for “danzig misfits rams head”. Yes, I made a Google Alert, because I was curious to hear what other people had to say about the show. This article is where I found out about the RockN Roll Experience review (linked above), so thanks to Michael Byrne for that!
• NEWS: Washington Post: Danzig Isn’t Up to Playing the Fall Guy
  • While it’s sort of cool seeing this covered in a major newspaper, I think journalist Chris Richards sensationalized it a little bit too much. He spoke of “Watching that killer set climax with Complete. Danzig. Meltdown.” but I think that calling it a complete meltdown is quite a stretch. I was right there, and did not even realize he was being grumpy and yelling at people. I may have seen a little bit of that, but if I did, it was not significant enough to remember. Maybe it was more obvious to people that were closer to the stage (I was about 10 people back, and to the side), but I wouldn’t call it a complete meltdown, because it didn’t cause the whole show to grind to a halt. I’ve been to a good number of concerts, before, and it’s not that unusual for a singer to walk off the stage, and come back within a minute. Glenn may have been in a pissy mood, but he did keep playing, and I thoroughly enjoyed it when he sang songs from my favorite Danzig albums (the first 4 albums). I just wish he could have done at least one Misfits song. No offense intended to Chris Richards, though. I actually really enjoyed reading the article. :)

More to come as I read them. Feel free to post links to other articles you’ve read, in the comments section!