Tag Archives: American Chopper

The Celebrity Apprentice: Week Six

25 Mar

March 25, 2012

The Donald fired Tia Carrere last week. Ok, she really fired herself. She took no one into the boardroom and fell on her sword. Dumb move. Now she has to explain to her charity that she gave up without a fight.

THE TASK:  Create a launch party for a new Crystal Light product
MEN’S PROJECT MANAGER: Clay Aiken
WOMEN’S PROJECT MANAGER: Aubrey O’Day (who sucked up to the executives immediately, literally in the same breath in which she said she’d be project manager.)

Sassy. Vibrant. Fun. Is that how you think of Crystal Light? Nah, me either, but that is how they are going to market their new fake-cocktail line. A party in a bottle, they said.

Clay’s theme was “life’s a beach.” Penn is still felling petulant since he was taken to task by Clay last week. Frankly, ten out of ten for honesty, but zero for acting like a baby. He admitted he was bowing out this week.

Paul Senior go to use his building skills. Clay got to use his singing voice. Dee designed the graphics, and Lou… was there too. Lou and Paul got tasked with opening up tiny umbrellas for fancy drinks.

Lisa is having an issue with Patricia over Patricia’s command of the English language, or lack thereof. Lisa used to be an editor with Rolling Stone. Had no idea. Anyway, the women are doing The Garden of Crystal Delights, “Stir your healthy desire,” whatever that is. According to Don Jr, they are missing the fun.

Lisa and Aubrey, separately, have issues with Patricia, and Patricia thinks they are both killing the team by dominating the others. No matter who think is right, Patricia designed the graphics and left off the Crystal Light logo. Could you blame Aubrey for approving them? No, they were never sent for her approval.

Good line from Allen Keyes: Dayana Mendoza came off like a cut-rate Sofia Vergara.

Debbie is going to record an original Crystal Light song, which you can tell annoys Aubrey but at least this time Aubrey is using Debbie to her advantage. Aubrey never misses a chance to put someone lese down and make herself look good, which never ends up making her look good. I’d lover her to get fired this week but honestly, the show would lose a good villain.

Then the party started.

The women’s event looked elegant, not fun. (Aubrey: “I did an amazing job.”)

The men’s event was fun but didn’t look so hot, and when it opened, no one was there. Arsenio went out to beg for people to come in. They had no one there. Some party. Then suddenly they were full and everyone was dressed, somewhat, in beachwear. It was a beach party complete with limbo contests. They called their friends and told them to come in beach attire, and there were some women in bikinis there, so you know Trump will pick them as the winner.

The women gave out free copies of Debbie’s Crystal Light song, and I will bet you anything that not one is ever listened to again. On the other hand, Clay sang “Under the Boardwalk” a cappella and sounded great. Meanwhile in the boardroom, Debbie forgot the lyrics, which Ivanka lost no time in pointing out.

Ever wanted to see Paul Senior in a Hawaiian short and lei? Make sure you see this episode.

10:12. The boardroom.

I am not happy that women feel so good because it reflects well on Aubrey. I sincerely hope she loses.

Teresa, if you lose who should get fired? Dayana.
Dayana, who would you fire? Aubrey.
Lisa, who would  you fire? Dayana (for not being as creative as the others.)

On the men’s side, Trump said the executives loved Clay. He also pointed out that Arsenio was wearing a Donald Trump tie. He never loses a chance to promote. But getting back to Clay, the rest of the team loved him too. I’ve said it before, he is impressive. Even Penn was positive (despite saying he has no way to judge how good a party is. Seriously???)

Clay, if you lose, who will you bring back to the boardroom? Oops, commercial break!

10:26: Clay, who would you bring back to the boardroom? “Everyone did an incredible job…. but…. ” Trump jumped in who will you bring back?” Clay: Dee and Lou or Paul. Is it a good move to bring in Lou after he impressed Trump last week?

Who would Aubrey bring back? Dayana and Patricia, no surprise.

THE WINNER: The Men. YES! AUBREY BETTER BE FIRED!

The men turn on the TV and what is the first thing they see? Aubrey crying in the boardroom. FAKE! FAKE! FAKE! (“I’m her fighting for something I really believe in.” Yeah, her career.)

AND NOW I HAVE TO CALL SHENANIGANS. Because she cried, Trump gave her charity $10,000. What about Tia’s charity? What about George’s charity? I am not begrudging Aubrey’s charity the money, not at all, but what about the other charities which got nothing?

Aubrey: “I am not getting fired. I am in invaluable member of this team.”
Trump: “As project manger don’t you think you should be fired because you lost?”
Aubrey: “No.”

Debbie (whom Allan Keyes called Not -Tiffany, and for her following brainless comments I think I should too) said Aubrey was an integral part of all the tasks, she is the creative force behind the team. Dayana countered with “but we only won two of the last six tasks!” Yes!

GOING TO THE BOARDROOM: Aubrey, Patricia, and Dayana.

Aubrey continued to cry in the boardroom, all fake, and did claimed she loved Dayana but she had to be fired. She is nothing but smarmy and smug and annoying. Team Trump focused on the branding issue, which was all Dayana.

According to Aubrey, every task the women won was due to her concept. And Dayana and Patricia let it go unchallenged! What about the four they lost? Did she stay home those weeks? If Aubrey gets by this week it will be totally due to the other’s inability to fight.

They loved the party, they didn’t love the details, so

Patricia, you’re fired! DAMN.

Next Week: The show starts at 8! The teams get shuffled! Two tasks! Arsenio loses it!

What’s in a name? Plenty.

22 Mar

March 22, 2102

Those of you who read my first Celebrity Apprentice Recap will recall that the challenge was to sell the most sandwiches at a Café Metro location. Café Metro is a place where I take out food fairly regularly. In addition to pretty good sandwiches and entrees they make amazing salads, fresh, right in front of you, with almost any ingredient you can think of. But enough of that, this is not going to be a free ad for Café Metro. In fact, part two of this blog will demonstrate just how little they want my business.

As I said, I am a semi-regular at the Café Metro near the Company I Am employed by. The day after that episode of The Apprentice aired I was standing at the register and looking at a video screen they have mounted in front of the counter and of course it was showing highlights of the show and behind the scenes photos taken during the shoot at Café Metro. So who do I come face to face with, so to speak? Paul Teutul Senior, looking straight at me. Anyone who follows The American Chopper Weekly Rundown will know that being face to face with Paul Senior is not on my list of Top Ten things to do at lunch. But at least the salad was good.

Café Metro is not the only place to eat around where I work. A few blocks away is a slightly seedy place called Metrocafe. Metrocafe is a bit of a dump but it has an A rating from Mayor Bloomberg’s vaunted food regulators so it has to be good, right? Right? Anyway, they sell pizza in the front and upstairs they have a hot food counter. The pizza is passable if a little bland and the hot food is edible. There is a ton of foot traffic where I work so there is more than enough business for this place and the other 20 or 30 restaurants located within a few square blocks.

I was in the Metrocafe eating some bland pizza for lunch one day with Saarah when she asked “Isn’t the salad place named the Metrocafe? I was thinking the same thing. In fact, I was sure they had the same name but looking around at the cramped, old, and honestly dirty pizzeria I was sure there had to be no connection between the two. How could this be a part of the same clean chain we saw on TV and I see in person every day? It could not and the next day when I saw that the name of the salad place was not Metrocafe but Café Metro you can understand the dawn of realization that spread over my brain.

Obviously the Metrocafe is treading on the good name of the Café Metro. The similarities end there, however, as one place is clean and has good food and the other is the Metrocafe.

Now, much as I would like to stop here while the story makes sense I cannot. There is a third contender in the culinary obfuscation race, and sadly it is my own office building. We have a world class cafeteria (which for some reason we tend to ignore in favor of gas station food) in our back pocket and it was not until just this week when I was pondering the Café Metro/Metrocafe nonsense that I noticed that our cafeteria is called The Metro Café.

So we have:
The Metro Café in my building.
The Café Metro across the plaza.
The Metrocafe a couple of blocks away near the other end of the plaza.

I have to assume that I have simply not yet stumbled across the Cafemetro, which is the last combination left unused above.

Clearly, the Café Metro has a good name which they are failing to defend properly. But that is no surprise since they did so little to get my business in the first place and even tried to drive me away.

And all over a discount card.

To Be Continued
(But Not Tomorrow)