yesterday was the first in what i’m sure is going to be a long line of television appearances by yours truly. yep yep yep, i can already see my name in lights (‘im gonna be in pictas’).

my good deal with dave lieberman ‘walk-on’ (apparently that’s what the kids are callin em these days) was a gift from none other than mi madre, in honor of my recent graduation from wesTECH. truthfully, as i expected, it was all business for everyone else there. i was part of a dinner party scene—you know, at the end of the show when they serve something to their friends who proceed to ask really probing questions like ‘what makes this sauce so tangy?’ and use words like ‘zing’. everyone else at ‘the party’ was a mildly-disgruntled food network office worker being ‘dragged’ away from their desk except this one guy who’s friend asked him to do this, and was aint no fan. safe to say i had to curb my enthusiasm. on the other hand, actually being on the food network is like, the best thing ever.

on the bright side, the food was really awesome. avocado salad, braised brisket & mango-ginger granita. i always wondered if that stuff is even food or if they’re totally faking it—fear not, it’s real and it’s fuckin good. what i didnt realize is that they shoot the cooking/eating scenes separately, as in all the cooking for this episode was filmed weeks ago. all i got to see was dave make some fancy snow-cone dessert. everyone was pretty cool, including dave himself. the actual socializing among ‘dinner guests’ is totally ridiculous: you are forced to have incredibly awkward conversation with total strangers who you are pretending are old mates while fifteen people and two cameras are watching your every move. any time somebody says something mildly interesting they make everybody go back and do it again to be sure they got coverage. then they tell lots of (very bad) jokes to try and get shots of everybody having the time of their lives and in the end, somehow it turns out looking like a seamless and mostly-legit evening…ah the magic of tv.

sadly, as the shoot was in a rented apartment and not some food network studio there were no other food network stars for me to fawn over/embarass myself in front of. i didn’t even get to bust out my knowledge of hot off the grill with bobby flay which i am convinced would have made bobby immediately invite me to his restuarant and a taping of iron chef america. to my credit i tried to make some connex to get that iron chef america hook up—i remain hopeful.

dave said he like my watch. burning with envy yet?

low light (ironically) / my own pusiness made my photos less than stellar.
pathetically, this may be the best one:

i’ll holler at you when my dvd drops.