Reality Bonanza Hits Town
1. “Humboldt Park resident Kanani Andaluz, 19, is one of 16 finalists on the new cycle of America’s Next Top Model, returning on the CW network at 7 p.m. Friday (WGN-Channel 9),” Bill Zwecker reports for the Sun-Times.
“The Orr Academy High School alum spoke to me this week, explaining how she became intrigued with life as a model, participating in a nationally televised reality show to pursue that dream – and getting to know the show’s creator, former supermodel Tyra Banks.”
You can click through to find out what she said, but unfortunately Zwecker’s interview ignores her Humboldt Park roots and focuses on Banks and modeling.
We’d like to fill you in because while modeling isn’t our kind of thing, Humboldt Park is, but there’s not much out there. Paging Chicago’s newsrooms!
Here’s what we did find:
*
Video:
*
Photos here and here.
*
“Andaluz is a multi-racial beauty who represents today’s changing face of multiculturalism,” the Lawndale News reports.
“Born to a Puerto Rican and French father and a Cuban and African American mother, Andaluz is extremely proud to represent her city of big shoulders.
“Andaluz, a single mother of one year old daughter Samarrii, started her pageantry interest in 2006 and placed runner up in the Miss Teen Illinois Puerto Rico pageant in 2008.”
Sounds like a story!
*
And that’s it.
2. House Hunters featured a Chicago couple on Tuesday night in an episode (not available online) officially described thusly:
“An interior designer and her husband search for their first place in Chicago, but they can’t agree on the type of home they want to buy and they have a wish list that might exceed their modest budget.”
We’ve lost the provenance, but we picked up this comment somewhere in our internet travels this week:
“on house hunters tonight… in the Ukrainian neighborhood..in Chicago….this cute boy’s asshole wife wants to PAINT all this beautiful wood on the ceiling WHITE!!!!! ugh.”
*
See also: The Truth About House Hunters.
3. “Daymon Patterson, the star of the Travel Channel’s Best Daym Takeout [premiered Wednesday], is a 35-year-old Connecticut man who made a series of YouTube videos of himself sitting and eating at the wheel of his car while extolling the pleasures of fast food,” the Washington Post reports.
“In Best Daym Takeout, Daym now travels to other cities to seek out new ways to rock an electrocardiogram. The double-episode opener begins in the Chicago area, where he visits Pequod’s, a deep-dish pizza joint, has a hot dog at Superdawg and then loses his mind over a drippy sandwich at Mr. Beef.”
Yup, the usual suspects. Daym! You coulda done better, my friend, with a little imagination and some local knowledge.
*
Photos from the Chicago episode (video apparently unavailable).
*
What got him the show (4 million views):
–
4. “Chicago businessman Marcus Lemonis is a believer in the power of a handshake,” the Sun-Times reports. “The 39-year-old entrepreneur has a fondness for making deals the old-fashioned way, but will shake things up when his new series premieres [which it did on Tuesday] on CNBC Prime.”
Or, as the New York Times reports:
“What Gordon Ramsay is to floundering restaurants, what Tabatha Coffey is to hair salons on the fritz – that’s what Marcus Lemonis aspires to be for any number of small businesses.”
We would add what Jon Taffer is to bars and what Joey Germinario is to tattoo shops – it’s a formula that’s all the rage.
Anyway:
“Mr. Lemonis is the chairman and chief executive of Camping World, but also a jack-of-all-enterprises, spotting and stomping out inefficiencies in pursuit of profit.”
*
FYI:
“Camping World Inc. is America’s largest direct marketer and specialty retailer of RV and outdoor camping accessories and services. Over 8,000 quality products are available through nationwide SuperCenters, a well-established catalog call center and an award-winning website. The company has grown from a single store in Bowling Green, Kentucky in the mid-1960s to more than 75 SuperCenters nationwide today, offering more than 500 service bays equipped to repair and maintain all types of RVs.”
5. I Used To Be Fat Transforms Northwest Sider from Obese to Buff.
Well, he was 275 when he submitted his audition tape, which is certainly overweight but not obese in the sense of the term we’re used to seeing on TV these days. But still, yes, okay.
–
Comments welcome.
Posted on August 2, 2013