BJ and Tyler all the way!

Tuesday nights mean Amazing Race; CBS is pretty ballsy putting it on at 10p this year. As I previously fluffed, Tyler Averell and BJ MacNiven are the clear favorites and on tonight's episode they proved me right by dominating their way to a first place finish. With their joyful resourceful noncombative ways, Tyler and BJ embody the true spirit of the Amazing Race.

The hippie skills came in to play as they were driving a VW bug with no reverse gear around Brazil (hippies are born with superior Volkswagen driving skills that the common man can not comprehend; similar to the Kenyans and long distance running). Clearly students of the game, the hippies read the clues and digested them in their entirety before running off, unlike the 4 teams to use the first stairwell who had to wait at the top to rappel down- no line at stairwell #3 bitches. It's interesting that they chose BJ for the stair climbing since it was Tyler who walked the 2000 mile length of Japan not long ago.

Regarding Tyler walking Japan- this week I had a chance to view his documentary Kintaro Walks Japan via google video here. The documentary is set against the backdrop of Tyler (Kintaro- after a Japanese legend) attempting to woo the daughter of a man who walked the entire length of North America while searching for his own father's birthplace based only upon an old family sketch of a shoreline rock formation and fulfilling the destiny of the legend he was named after. Along the way he meets many great characters and learns about Japanese culture firsthand.
Overall it was pretty good, I was entertained enough to watch the whole thing streaming with only a few breaks. However, I wish Tyler's voiceover narrative tone was a bit less goofy, it sounded almost dumbed down at times or as if it were made for kids. The scenery and stories were both excellent. Kintaro Walks Japan is very lighthearted and feel-good, at times uplifting. A true voyage of discovery. On the J$ scale it gets a $$$$$$$ (7/10).

For those without 67 minutes to spare or steel eyeballs to watch the whole streaming video, check out Tyler's slightly more palatable music video which looks like the Devo video meets Come On Eileen meets William Hung. Tyler wanders convenience stores and villages prancing around while wielding a huge ax dressed like backyard wrestler in a red woman's backless shirt and tight red 1992 shorts, dancing like he's a mentally retarded chimpanzee on top of bales of hay set to music that sounds like Yoko on crack. In other words, totally awesome.
category: tv_