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Apr. 24th, 2004
Iron Chef America seems to have the right mix this time.
When they first tried to bring Iron Chef to the USA three years ago, it was an insane, gaudy affair, taking place in Las Vegas. A producer that puts a show in Vegas for a selling point is going to have a whole slew of bad ideas. In the one battle I saw, the American Iron Chef answered a cell phone in the middle of a battle. The announcers looked and acted like they'd come out of a Sportscaster Clone Factory, and used the word "love juices" to describe fish roe. It was as if they were making fun of the original show.
This show seems more dignified. The lighting and costumes are more subdued than even the Japanese show, and the announcer is a name we trust: Alton Brown. Even the Chairman is sensibly dressed. And the battle I saw had all the things that made a typical Iron Chef Japan battle great: a live theme ingredient trying to escape form chefs, the theme ingredient in an ice cream maker, and flashy kitchen skills. The new Iron Chef Flay split and drained a coconut with one stroke of his knife, while Sakai did his signature apple-peeling move.
The Food Network hype has been promoting three battles, one for each new Iron Chef. But the commercial for the DVD set mentions four battles. I think they're counting on this getting picked up for a series.
While I think it may have the right stuff, it has to find its audience. I get the impression that the novelty of Iron Chef has worn off, so this show has got to be fresh. I think there's a chance for that, since the original Japanese show was full of ingredients we'd never heard of. But in Iron Chef America, Bobby Flay used avocado. This is an ingredient so popular that there were rumors of a black market for it before the Super Bowl this year. And they've never heard of it in Japan, so if Food Network exports the show back, it may become fresh to a Japanese audience as well.
The next challenger will be Japanese Iron Chef Morimoto. If Sakai had one disadvantage, it was unfamiliarity with the American palate. Morimoto won't have that problem, having run two restaurants on the East Coast.
When they first tried to bring Iron Chef to the USA three years ago, it was an insane, gaudy affair, taking place in Las Vegas. A producer that puts a show in Vegas for a selling point is going to have a whole slew of bad ideas. In the one battle I saw, the American Iron Chef answered a cell phone in the middle of a battle. The announcers looked and acted like they'd come out of a Sportscaster Clone Factory, and used the word "love juices" to describe fish roe. It was as if they were making fun of the original show.
This show seems more dignified. The lighting and costumes are more subdued than even the Japanese show, and the announcer is a name we trust: Alton Brown. Even the Chairman is sensibly dressed. And the battle I saw had all the things that made a typical Iron Chef Japan battle great: a live theme ingredient trying to escape form chefs, the theme ingredient in an ice cream maker, and flashy kitchen skills. The new Iron Chef Flay split and drained a coconut with one stroke of his knife, while Sakai did his signature apple-peeling move.
The Food Network hype has been promoting three battles, one for each new Iron Chef. But the commercial for the DVD set mentions four battles. I think they're counting on this getting picked up for a series.
While I think it may have the right stuff, it has to find its audience. I get the impression that the novelty of Iron Chef has worn off, so this show has got to be fresh. I think there's a chance for that, since the original Japanese show was full of ingredients we'd never heard of. But in Iron Chef America, Bobby Flay used avocado. This is an ingredient so popular that there were rumors of a black market for it before the Super Bowl this year. And they've never heard of it in Japan, so if Food Network exports the show back, it may become fresh to a Japanese audience as well.
The next challenger will be Japanese Iron Chef Morimoto. If Sakai had one disadvantage, it was unfamiliarity with the American palate. Morimoto won't have that problem, having run two restaurants on the East Coast.
Pac-Man Vs.
Apr. 24th, 2004 06:08 pmI'm pretty good at Pac-Man, but by no means am I invincible. Especially when my opponents are human.
A Pac-Man fleeing computer ghosts can count on certain behaviors. The most easily-described of these is that they never change direction independently, and when they change direction together, it's at mostly-predictable intervals. Humans, however, can camp the power pellets.
Next time we need to keep on hand a supply of tissues to wipe sweat off the Game Boy.
I'm relieved that I can see the GBA-SP screen quite easily for symbolic simple games like Pac-Man. I wouldn't want to play an RPG on one, though.
A Pac-Man fleeing computer ghosts can count on certain behaviors. The most easily-described of these is that they never change direction independently, and when they change direction together, it's at mostly-predictable intervals. Humans, however, can camp the power pellets.
Next time we need to keep on hand a supply of tissues to wipe sweat off the Game Boy.
I'm relieved that I can see the GBA-SP screen quite easily for symbolic simple games like Pac-Man. I wouldn't want to play an RPG on one, though.