MTTT - Wild Bull Saloon

The Wild Bull Saloon is a lot to digest in one visit or even two. The monthly "Thirsty Third Thursday" gang visited one of Kalamazoo's newest restaurant & nightclub yesterday.

Show up at 930pm on a Saturday night and one glance around reveals a guy flailing about on a mechanical bull, people country line dancing, images flickering on flat-screen TV's, waitresses carrying out steaks on platters, and people all around downing beers and martinis.

The emphasis is certainly the nightclub aspect of the place, but when you focus on the food, I discovered the fare can stand on its own. The MTTT's recent visit to the Wild Bull may not have been perfect, but it did reveal a food quality that would draw me back for more visits with my friends. My "spicy" french dip was delicious. Lindsey also ordered the same sandwich and thought it was very good. Cheryl's pork chops were tender and juicy. Liz didn't care too much for her potato skins. John's sampler platter of ribs and and sandwich were gone before we knew it. The only thing left was four rib bones.

Of course, our eyes were pinned on the mechanical bull. Since we were there shortly after work, there were a lot of families since kids can ride free. The guy running the bull ride was nice and showed the kids how to ride. None of us were brave enough to ride the bull, but it was fun to watch everyone else. Liz participated in the line dancing lessons that were offered.

The Wild Bull is huge, with five eating areas and three bars, making it easy to get drinks no matter where you sit. Whether or not I would go back depends. I would go back for dinner and eat in the Cantina area where it seemed a little bit more relaxed. Unfortunately, the place is extremely loud and we were all horse from hollering at each other to carry on a conversation. I certainly have no desire to go later in the evening on weekends since I don't care for country & western music, plus it is filled with college-age kids.

Next MTTT is our 2nd Anniversary Celebration at Bell's Brewery.

Lost: Through The Looking Glass

If there's one thing that's consistent about Lost, it's the ability to deliver spectacular season finales. This episode was no exception to this trend, delivering 2 hours of intense action that will for sure have fans scratching their heads and scrambling to decipher until the fourth season kicks off in January.

I wonder if, according to this flash forward, Jack never finds out that Claire is his sister. You'd think that if they knew, she could give him a little moral support.

I'm betting that nobody showed up for Ben's funeral and that Kate is with Sawyer now. Then again, there really could be a number of different inputs to this mysterious combination.

So Naomi turned out to be working for the wrong team - I totally called this! Just saying.

I know Charlie had to die, and I saw it coming, but I still found it to be pretty heart wrenching. I'm just glad he got to be a hero and went down in a blaze of glory.

I'm still not sure what to make of the visions of Walt. Especially now that Walt has gone through puberty in the off season.

Jack and Juliet share one of the worst kisses in TV history, not to mention it made almost no sense. And then he nonchalantly tells Kate he loves her? Since when is Jack so carefree with his emotions?

So is Mikhail undead or what? This is the second time he's been killed, only to come back virtually unscathed.

Gotta love the little snippet of pregnancy scare they throw in there for Kate and Sawyer, just to keep it soap opera-y.

Even though I'm not sure about Juliet yet, I have to admit that her banter with Sawyer is pretty entertaining.

Now that so many of the Others are dead, what are the Losties going to do with the rest of them?

It's interesting that there were 2 scenes of almost attempted suicide in this episode, and they mirror each other. Jack finally gets off the island, doesn't know what to do with himself, considers suicide. Locke loves living on the island, but in desperate moment, doesn't know what to do with himself and considers suicide.

Jack's "man of science" versus Locke's "man of faith" is showcased throughout this entire episode. The interesting thing is that Ben seems to be somewhere in the middle of these two.

I feel the need to give Hurley a huge shout out for proving himself and saving the day, even if it was quickly overshadowed by Sayid channeling the spirit of Jack Bauer and breaking some guy's neck using only his legs.

At the end of the day, Ben just wants to protect the island. He and Locke have a lot more in common than they think; I'm wondering if they are going to team up against the Losties in coming seasons.

The Riches: Anything Hugh Can Do, I Can Do Better

I'm covering some familiar ground here. The Riches continues to be about a group of people who aren't sure "who they are anymore." However, not much is really happening. The show has begun running in place, and has removed much of the jeopardy that was setup early on in the season. It's still well acted, well produced and for the most part well written - but it's hard to argue that it's appointment television.

A few plot threads seem to have come to a crawl in this episode. Hugh is supposedly on a drug bender, but I find him in a spa, getting facials and wraps. Dale is hanging out at the neighbor's house, repeatedly scoping out the Malloy/Riches house, without ever actually doing anything. There's only so long you can be a "creeping menace" before you just start to seem foolish and as not much of a threat. Both guys are excellent actors giving good performances, but they've been asked to spin their wheels for far too long on this series. Hugh is always about to do something crazy, and Dale is always about to do something threatening - but they never really get around to it. It looked as though Hugh was headed there after falling off the wagon, but there's been little screen time for him since.

Once again Wayne's facing the dilemmas of being Doug Rich. The beat of "I don't want to be this man" has been hit many times. Starting with firing the man whose job he took, Wayne has repeatedly been faced with having to do things required of Doug Rich that he hates. And yet - he keeps doing them and I keep finding him having a similar dilemma. Even stranger, within this episode, Dahlia goes from wanting to keep their "buffer life" to wanting to scrap it - without any real catalyst for the switch. This just felt like lazy writing - as if something got left over between drafts.

Finally, the episode took an awkward turn into dealing with "issues." When Wayne finds out he has to go to court simply to keep a gay couple from moving onto Panco property, he has a crisis of conscience. Dahlia yells at him that it isn't right and "what if this were your son?!" She never acknowledges the reality of the situation, which is that if Wayne were to lose the case, it could bring the company down. This entire aspect of the story felt awkward and wedged into the episode. This could have been much more interesting, especially considering the possibility that Sam could be gay. Instead it's just another reason that Wayne feels guilt over being Doug.

With only a few episodes left, hopefully The Riches will pick up some steam and deliver a great finale. So much of the original promise of the series has been lost in uneven episodes and slow progression of the story over the season. Wayne has mostly found it too easy to pretend to be a high priced lawyer. While it's interesting that most of their conflicts have become internal, and about their feelings of lost identity - but it's not believable that this would be their primary issue.

How the next few episodes resolve these issues will largely determine whether or not I'll be interested in another season of The Riches.

Dinner & A DVD: The Good Thief

Chicken, ham and a wild rice mix make this comforting dish quick to assemble.

Chicken Ham Casserole

1 pkg (6 oz) long grain and wild rice mix

2 cups cubed cooked chicken

1 cup cubed fully cooked ham

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk

1 cup shredded Colby cheese

Pepper

Parmesan cheese

Cook rice mix according to package directions. Transfer to a greased baking dish. Top with chicken and ham. In a bowl, combine the soup, milk, cheese and pepper; pour over chicken mixture. Sprinkle with the Parmesan. Bake, uncovered, at 350 for 25-30 minutes or until bubbly.

Featured Attraction: The Good Thief

This was a very enjoyable film right up until the climax. Then it was suddenly over and I was left wondering what had just happened, and that's not usually the sign of a good movie.

Nick Nolte is very good in the role of an aging thief in the south of France. He's turned sour over the years and has just hit rock bottom when the opportunity of a big casino heist turns up. He kicks his heroin habit and prepares to steal some paintings the casino owners are holding in a vault.

Nick and his gang have a plan: They're gonna leak the news to the police that they're planning on breaking into the casino vault, but the real robbery involves stealing the paintings held across the street in a secure room. The police will fall for the ruse while they make off with the real goods.

On the big night, everyone's in place except Paulo, who had to flee after killing the snitch who was screwing his girlfriend. Nick and Anne go into the casino and gamble while the boys are across the street tunneling into the room where the paintings are. But the police are on to the switch and are waiting for the thieves to break in.

Now, here's where the ending confuses me. The heist goes wrong because a gas line breaks and the thieves abandon their plan. But Nick is in the casino and he's on an amazing winning streak. I couldn't follow how much he was ahead, but it looked like tens of millions of francs - maybe the equivalent of ten or twenty million dollars.

Nick cashes all his chips in finally and the casino discovers that their vault has been emptied when they go to pay him. The twins working inside the casino have pulled off the caper they'd been planning and which Nick was aware of. In fact, Paulo must have helped them because he's seen in the end climbing out of the car with all the casino's money in it.

So, my question is, was Nick involved in the other heist, the one that really worked, or was his take just the winnings he made at cards? The way he won was so off the charts that I was expecting them to reveal he'd had some inside help, but that apparently wasn't the case.

Is Nick just incredibly lucky or was he really a very clever thief? I couldn't tell what the ending meant, and that was unsatisfying after having enjoyed the buildup.

Good characters and the scenery along the Riviera was terrific. Nick Nolte looking significantly better and more "together" at his character's lowest point in the film than he did in his real life mug shot. With a gravely voice that sounds like his throat has dealt with one too many cigars and one too many shots of booze, Nolte did mumble a lot, but I could understand him for the most part. Tchéky Karyo (Roger) was good as the detective shadowing Nolte throughout the film - they had a friendly relationship and Tchéky seemed on the verge of laughing at the other actor's jokes a few times. The rest of the cast is also very good.

Entertaining, but that ending still confuses me.

CSI: Living Doll

"You were the one thing I thought I done right." -Ernie Dell

That's it, huh? It's weird, but I suppose it is possible to enjoy something that you don't like. It's too bad that this is what I waited all season for, but the resolution of the Miniature Killer story was far less imaginative than I hoped it would be. The identity of the killer ended up being just about as standard as it could get and nothing creative even seemed to be attempted. Very un-CSI like if you ask me.

Natalie Davis, i.e. The Miniature Killer, was indeed one of Ernie Dell's foster kids who just happened to be out of her mind. The "great" twist? She blamed Grissom for her foster father's suicide. Foolish I know, but there wasn't much else to go on I guess. I hate to say it, but I have to complain.

First on my list? Is it just me, or was it ridiculously easy to figure out who the killer was? All season, it's been this huge mystery. If I've learned one thing about Grissom, he's incredibly smart. Always a step ahead. Now he's been making his own model for what? Maybe a month or two now? So he's probably made half a dozen trips to that hobby shop. He was even on a first name basis with the owner. This episode was the first time he thought to bring in some parts of previous miniatures to see if the owner recognized any of the work! You're kidding me, right? You know he had discussed the case with the owner because they were on the same page. That's just sloppy right there. The identity of Natalie could have been achieved a while ago! If you're going to stretch a case over multiple episodes, don't make the answers so easy to find.

Next up? Natalie's motives for her past killings. Ernie tried to feed his foster child some legit reasons for her killings should she get busted, but that was all bogus. Am I supposed to believe that she crossed paths with the three previous victims (as a temp cleaning lady) and took them all out simply because they were in possession of bleach? I think I am. That's too bad if Hodge's discovery was indeed the only thing that tied the cases together. At least we got an explanation as to why she hates bleach so much. Her father used it to clean up the blood of her first kill - her sister. I was hoping for something far more in depth and maybe we'll get that in the season eight premiere, but I doubt it.

Finally? Man... I'm not a Jorja Fox fan at all. I get the impression that the ending was supposed to be far more exciting and her refusal to show up and film her death scene messed it all up. Now I'm left with the wiggling hand (of some stunt double probably) allowing the summer for contract negotiations. Will she die or won't she die? I guess it depends on how much money CBS is willing to pay Fox. Frankly... I don't care.

As I mentioned earlier, I still liked the episode... sort of. Despite the fact that I was hugely disappointed with the story and the cliffhanger ending, I was still glued to the TV screen because I did want answers. I do think we'll get some in the fall premiere... just not good ones. Hopefully if Sara does die, we can move past it quickly and maybe the show can re-invent itself a little with some new cast members.

Soup of the Week & Lost: Greatest Hits

This is so simple and good.

Beer Cheese Soup

Chopped onion
Butter
2 cans Cream of Celery Soup
1 cup beer
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Dried parsley flakes
Paprika
3/4 lb Velveeta cheese, cubed

In a large saucepan, saute onion in butter. Stir in soup, beer, milk, Worcestershire sauce, parsley and paprika. Reduce heat; stir in cheese until melted. Heat through (do not boil).

Lost: Greatest Hits

This episode, which is centered on Charlie facing his imminent death while another showdown between the Losties and the Others approaches, is high on the sap factor and low in action. That being said, it's still a great lead-in to the finale, and it managed to hit home a bit with the softy inside me.

Whenever Lost starts off with a running-through-the-jungle action sequence, you know a good episode is probably in the works.

"Why does everything have to be such a secret? How about some openness for a change?"- Thanks Charlie, I couldn't possibly agree more.

Even though Rousseau has cooperated with the Losties in the past, it usually took some convincing. I'm wondering why she's suddenly so willing to go along with with their latest plan of attack on the Others. Maybe it's because some of the Losties have helped Alex and Carl?

I might be one of the few people who actually really enjoys Charlie.

Something about the way Naomi has been blended into the island dynamic doesn't seem right. Shouldn't they be pumping her for more information of the outside world?

I'm intrigued by "The Looking Glass" which is a pretty obvious reference to "Alice In Wonderland." I have a feeling there is going to be a lot of revelation in the next episode.

Charlie's flashbacks weren't particularly revealing, but I have to admit that they made me feel kinda warm and fuzzy inside. As did his moments with Claire - they may not be the most interesting couple, but they're a lot less whiny than Jake and Kate, that's for sure.

So Rose and Bernard are back and Bernard is already an important part of the latest plan. Personally, I thought they were somewhat interesting last season but now I'm alright with them being MIA.

So Jack says he's been the leader for the past 90 days, but Naomi said that Charlie has become this revered rock star and that DriveShaft's greatest hits CD has become huge. In 3 months? This seems like either a very subtle hint at the possibility of time being slower on the island, or a mistake of the writers.

Is it just me, or does it seem like sometimes Jin understands perfect English, and at other times, nothing?

The whole DS ring thing was pretty cheesy, but again, the girlie girl inside of me kinda loved it. However, the geek inside me couldn't help but to think about the "The Lord of The Rings."

Charlie randomly saves Sayid's girlfriend, Nadia, in London. Gotta love the tangled web of connections between all the characters.

I'm glad Sayid stood up to Jack. It's about time someone put him in his place.

The Losties have endless amounts of time to kill on the island, but they never once tried to follow that cable to the middle of the ocean?

Knocking Desmond out was very heroic of Charlie, if not incredibly dumb. Pretty sure he's going to regret that decision.

I think I held my breath almost as long as Charlie did, but I was happy to see him survive, even though there was a gun pointed in his face at the end of the episode. Needless to say, I'm on the edge of my seat for the season finale.

The Riches: This Is Your Brain On Drugs

The fallout from the dinner party in "Cinderella" hit this week, and it made for one crazy ride. This is also the episode that switched my thinking from "Eddie Izzard, the comic, is doing a great job as Wayne" to, "Eddie Izzard is an actor." The writers heaped a heavy load on his back this week and he answered with what was an amazing performance.

Things got off to a great start with Wayne and Dahlia's fight over the drugs that Chunky left behind. It's interesting that he walked in on her before she could decide which way she was going. I think that she would have flushed the stuff eventually, but I'll never know for sure. The chaotic argument after Wayne snorted a handful of the crank was fantastic. Dahlia's reaction, "Of all the assholic things you have done, this is the most assholic." summed it up nicely. That was such a crazy thing to do that it warranted brand new words to describe it.

While it was probably the worst intervention ever, you can see where Wayne is coming from. Clearly he places Dahlia on a pedestal, and the idea of her being an addict is a personal failure to him. They hit on it again later in the episode when Dahlia tells him that everybody knew she was taking the pills, he just wouldn't see it. It's part of the force driving him to make their life as the Riches work. If he can just make it perfect for her, she won't have these problems.

And from there, things really took off. Watching a manic Wayne panic over the realization of just how expensive this new life is was a treat. The fact that the dinner party left his status with Panco up in the air just added to the pressure on his clouded mind. His sudden desperate job search was funny, while also bringing out just how uncomfortable Wayne still is in Doug's skin. The scene with the receptionist at Hayden-Javitz & Associates was particularly good as Doug prattled on and on, making little sense. She was so annoyed with it. It paid off nicely when the managing partner turned out to be Stewart Peel. Wayne was suddenly so elated that he thought he had an answer, and then so crushed as Stewart dropped the hammer.

Meanwhile, with Wayne off on his crank induced adventure, Dahlia was left to hold down the fort at Panco. One thing I was a little disappointed in was the decision to not have Hugh hovering around the office. It would have raised the pressure just a little more as he questioned Doug's whereabouts. I could have even gone for a Doug/Hugh phone call. Despite that missing bit, Dahlia did well covering for Wayne. She showed how much the two of them have in common as she strung them along until she got her opening.

The situation with Cherien's mother came out of the blue and it makes me wonder where they are going with that. As the Malloy's become more and more a buffer family, the money becomes more and more of an issue. Would it be worth the $4300 a month to take in "Grandma" and have her live with them? Dahlia and Di Di both seemed to warm up to her rather quickly. That story also brought up the line of the night as a frustrated Wayne told Marvin O'Keefe that he is causing the supply of Doug Rich to greatly exceed the demand for Doug Rich.

As all of that was going down, lurking in the shadows was Dale. I think I have known since day one that Dale would eventually find his way to Eden Falls. The big question is what is he going to do now that he knows all about Doug and Panco? He couldn't have been luckier than to stumble across Hartley Underwood. Their scenes together were very good, as each of them felt the other out, trying to gauge whether they were on the same page. It also provided one of the creepiest flirting scenes I have ever seen as Dale admired and caressed Hartley's prosthetic arm.

Not much to do for the kids this week, but they did reinforce the differing paths of Di Di and Cael. As the family worried over Wayne's gig with Panco, Di Di made it perfectly clear that she didn't want to leave this life and go back to the motor home. It's understandable. She's a smart girl, and she is flourishing in this new environment. She recognizes that she has an opportunity here.

In the end, while it probably wasn't the road anyone would have advised for Wayne and Dahlia, this whole adventure was ultimately good for them. It forced them to work out some of their issues, and I think it was the final push that Dahlia needed to actually get straight. They'll be just fine, and their relationship is once again as strong as it ever was. Which is good, because more tough times are on the way.