9:59 – Previously on Top Chef, Wedding Wars, baby! Dale is angry & bitter & tragically competent. Spike is a lazy, absurd jerk. And Nikki is finally, FINALLY eliminated. Only about 5 weeks later than she probably should have been.

10:00 – Apartment open. Everyone is still all tired from the cooking marathon. Spike interviews that Dale’s a-hole-dom will follow him through his career. Dude, no one is more of an a-hole than you, Spike. Andrew interviews that he’s got fire inside of him or something, I didn’t really pay attention because the next thing he says is that he feels like he’s either going to stab someone or cook something really good. OMG. I hope he stabs someone. That would make this show SO MUCH MORE AWESOME.

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9:59 – Scrambling to get the live-blog set up…putting the DVR on pause, but am skipping the previously. Basically, Antonia exploits her unfair advantage of being a single mother on the way to winning the elimination challenge. Also, Crazy Mark the Crazy Australian is sent home.

10:00 – You know, usually I’m typing furiously during Padma’s little introduction before the title sequence. Wow, did not realize just how many product placements they pack into like a minute. Pretty impressive.

10:03 – The chefs head into the kitchen for the Quickfire, but instead of a guest judge, there’s Tom C standing there, looking smug. Padma tells them in a grave tone that the Quickfire winner will no longer receive immunity, which would be a lot more shocking if that didn’t eventually happen in every season of every reality show since the beginning of time. (more…)

10:00 – Previously on Lost, the season happened & I didn’t live-blog cause b/c once again, that whole having-school-and-a-job thing got in the way of what’s really important. But yeah, previously on Lost, Daniel lied about the chopper coming back & then admitted to Jack that the Freighter were never going to take them off the island. Touche, rescue.

10:02 – Old school eye-close-up open. It’s Jack. Juliet is trying to wake him up, but it takes a few minutes. When he does wake up, he hears yelling outside the tent. It’s Bernard & the beach Lost-a-ways, yelling at Daniel & Charlotte because the phone has suddenly lost signal. Bernard rightly points out that Dan has lied before. Jack comes up & says that when the Freighter people come back for Dan & Charlotte, they will be ready for them. Meanwhile, as Jack walks away, he’s not looking so hot. And then he collapses. Touche, Jack.

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9:59 – Previously on Top Chef, Amy had to pass grad school so the live-blog took a back seat to the Project From Hell. Also, Jennifer went home. And hopefully, the absurdly uninteresting doing-it-for-Zoi subplot is mercifully put to bed.

10:00 – You know what’s awesome about watching the title sequence again after not really paying attention to it for a few weeks & learning about the chefs? You really start to see that they did somehow inject their personality into the three seconds they’re on the screen. For instance, Spike looks like an a-hole.

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Friend of American Shelf Life & my colleague at SA, Charlotte Cavaretta, is walking the AIDS Walk Boston. Give a little to a good cause here:

http://charlotte.chipin.com/aids-walk-boston-2008

I know it’s only the first round, but it’s NOT only the first round, you know? Not for this organization, not in this market, not for this group of guys & not for this coach. This was a must-win series if there ever was one, & you know what? They did it.

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9:59 – Previously, on Top Chef, Lisa & Dale hate each other. Also, the boring lesbian subplot of lameness is finally extinguished as the judges can’t justify keeping Zoi around for the fifth week in a row despite being a terrible chef.

10:00 – We open in the apartment again, as Spike tells us he “heard through the grapevine” that a lot of the chefs thought he should have gone home.  Um.  Actually, I think that they said that to your face, Spike.  Also, get ready for tonight’s catch phrase: Jennifer is doing it for Zoi.  Just in case you thought the boring lesbian subplot was over, don’t worry, it isn’t.

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9:59 – Previously on Top Chef, Richard continues to rock it.  Also, Manuel & his utter lack of personality goes home.

10:00 – We open in the apartment.  I don’t think we’ve ever learned anything interesting in the apartment shots.  It would have been more interesting if they were actually living with Rocco DiSpirito.  Is there some way we can still arrange this?

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Today, a few of my colleagues & classmates (Amanda Mooney, Maria Garcia, Melissa Eddy, Will Wheeler, Sarah Hutton) & I started an exciting new project on the Web. It’s called Our American Shelf Life. Amanda Mooney wrote a great post explaining why we began the project.

Our generation grew up online. Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, these sites that are now items on marketing plan checklists, they mean more to us than a channel whose target features an unusually high number of a highly desirable demographic with disposable incomes. They’re where we met some of our very best friends, where we kept memories of events we never wanted to forget & where we posted our most honest feelings about the most important times of our lives.

Because we are all going into an industry that is now looking to leverage these platforms, we have the unique perspective of seeing both sides. We were & are the target these marketers are looking for, but we work for those marketers. We understand better than anyone else what it’s like to live in this space…& we want to share our stories, experiences & insights.

Hopefully you find them interesting.

NBA :30 Spot
Agency: Goodby Silverstein & Partners

A great spot in so many ways. The choice to use the famous adversaries Kobe & Shaq, the strings-backed soundtrack, even the subject. Fear. A bad word amongst athletes. Admitting fear is a sign of weakness, a death wish in the playoffs. So talking about fear in a spot like this, I think, is brave.

Besides the content, I thought the theme of this campaign was wonderful. The split screen, the perfectly simultaneous monotones & the tagline, “there can only be one.” It is an excellent capture of the calm before the storm.

As AdWeek reports, the spot is part of a series, also including ads featuring Steve Nash & Jason Kidd and KG & Lebron. Looking forward to seeing the whole series.