TWoP Forums > 4-9: "One Hit Blunder" 2005.11.17

Full Version: 4-9: "One Hit Blunder" 2005.11.17

TWoP Forums > Current TWoP Shows > The Apprentice > The Apprentice General Gabbery

Pages: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

CurryMasala

Nov 18, 2005 @ 7:07 pm

Does DT plan the rewards? I read somewhere that the rewards are planned by sponsors in each tasks. Maybe DT comes in when the sponsors do not wish to give a reward. Honestly, DT did not have to go with the candidates. They would have enjoyed it more had he not been around.
I do not think Alla is ice-cold. I would like to think of her as more focused. As Carolyn has written in her book, 'There is no room for emotion in business,' I think Alla is right about keeping her wits about her. I admire her ability to stay focused each time, and Felisha too proved herself in this task.
By the way, in each of the previous seasons, the team that won concrete materialistic rewards such as clothes and diamonds had the winner. I don't remember such a reward in S1, but in S2 it was Kelly's team, S3 Kendra and Tana were in the same team when they won a trip to Bergdorf, and now in S4 Randal's team got to go to Michael Kors. Does that mean Randal is the clear winner, despite Alla's proving to be better than him? Honestly, Rebecca seems most cut out for TA, given that she is good at doing nothing and just smiling mystically at TD. What more could he want? She is like a dream come true for him. Randal, please please quit. You are so much better than this, and you will get much better offers.

Oh and by the way I would not be surprised if Rebecca hypnotized the crew into editing her well. Any minute I imagine her opening her mouth and showing 3-4 broken teeth in the front, and turning into a witch.

[Don't double post.]

mala sladka

Nov 18, 2005 @ 7:18 pm

Dumbpants, my guess was Detroit. But we could both be right.

As I posted on the Rebecca thread, she infuriated me with her white liberal shit. I hate people who are all, "Oooooh, he's from NIGERIA! How INTERESTING! He has such a fascinating CULTURE! He expresses his HERITAGE so beautifully!"

Fuck that. The song wasn't right for XM and no amount of EXOTIC NIGERIAN-NESS was going to make it better.

And what is so wrong with her teeth that she always has that toothless smile? I want to smack her taut litte, sanctimonious mouth.

Yech!

And also - I'm on the Alla love train. Not only is she tough, focused and pragmatic, she's Russian, and that's like being Nigerian. Ya got culture, ya don't need anything else. Right Rebecca?

SeaBreeze341

Nov 18, 2005 @ 7:26 pm

Oh and by the way I would not be surprised if Rebecca hypnotized the crew into editing her well. Any minute I imagine her opening her mouth and showing 3-4 broken teeth in the front, and turning into a witch.[/quote]

Come to think of it, the disclosing of the top headline of the Wicked Witch coming back as Rebecca could actually cause her to crack in the Boardroom. Hopefully she'll pull it together next week (considering she'll have to be PM one final time, or get fired, whichever comes first), because no candidate to make it to the interview round has ever been winless as PM (Ivana was very close though).

BetteRubble

Nov 18, 2005 @ 7:30 pm

Word, KerleyQ, word!

And thank you! I've been trying to place who Clay reminded me of while hoping that Trump would "place" him right out the door.

Clay so deserved the boot here, but I think he deserved it earlier. When he pulled the door open while Rebecca was doing what she thinks of as a presentation, the act itself said it all. You didn't even have to see his face.

I believe Randal will go far, but I also think he may be too good for Trump. He was totally taken off-guard by Rebecca's quick stab of him. As my granny used to say: "I thought he was gonna bust a vessel."

I'm totally not aboard Trump's love train for Rebecca. She's very smug, quick, and confident in the board room, but outside the boardroom, well, her record says it all. Maybe she holds some incriminating photos of him and that is causing all this misguided adoration on his part.

Funnyuntil

Nov 18, 2005 @ 7:35 pm

He's the young Beverly Leslie (Karen's short nemesis who recurs on W&G). It was especially obvious in one of Clay's confessionals last night. There's just something about the way they both speak, the facial expressions, etc. [/quote]

KerleyQ! Yes! Yes! Yes! Beverly Leslie and Clay! The southern lilt in the voice, tinged with sarcasm combined with an overly developed sense of self-importance makes Clay the living embodiment of Beverly Leslie! Too bad Clay is not as entertaining as the character.

lyric

Nov 18, 2005 @ 7:40 pm

Was Jeff Cohen really on this episode? I missed much of the first half hour. I was his RA in college.
[/quote]

It was "don't blink or you'll miss it" where his (or a guy's who looks a lot like him, and also happens to know his way around maybe co-writing a song or laying down tracks in a NYC recording studio) screentime was concerned, but I really thought it was him.

bpd

Nov 18, 2005 @ 8:01 pm

I mean, he was a good singer and all but I think for a task like that you should try to just make the catchiest song you can find, and a guy who specializes in, well I don't know what that genre's name is, you know, men who sing slow songs, isn't going to cut it.[/quote]

They called it alternative rock, and that's what it is, insofar as it's an alternative to rock. (rant) Singer-songwriters in the mold of the XM Café blurb tends to fall, in my apartment anyway, under the banner of "wuss music" or in extreme cases, "date-rape music". You know, an Abercrombie guy fills a girl with Mike's Hard lemonade in an attempt to get her to *GO WILD*. Then he raises the stakes by putting on some John Mayer. Your body is an amusement park. This crap is the "Chevy Van" of the aughts.(/rant)

Clay was projecting so hard on that damn song he was his own personal bad PowerPoint presentation.[/quote]

In-DEED! Clay was upset that he was not the center of attention at all times. He clearly is the Poochie in his own life.

Oh, I totally expected Trump to claim ownership of the SoL.[/quote]

Statue of Liberty! Light dawns over Marblehead, I had two conflicting forms of geek arguing about what that stood for. Somewhere it came through between visions of Tom Servo and "Above Average" Mike Sanders.

Trump owned the land UNDER the Empire State Building? What did he have down there, a wine cellar?[/quote]

Marla. In a box. With her limbs removed.

More importantly, is there a place where a brother can download "Rubble Man"? Ideally, I'd like to hear it mashed-up by DJ Dangermouse with the theme to "The Flintstones".

thuganomics85

Nov 18, 2005 @ 8:32 pm

I was watching the episode again, and I notice something I didn't notice before. It's kind of interesting that while Felisha claimed that she wanted to be PM because she wanted to prove her worth to the team and Trump, Rebecca wanted to be PM because "she loves music."

So, Rebecca is pretty much saying she only wanted to PM because she likes the task. If she didn't, she might actually let Randal or Clay do it. And despite being 0-1 at the time, Rebecca doesn't feel the need to prove herself. She really is very cocky.

catnip

Nov 18, 2005 @ 8:36 pm

Also, though Trump's characterization of Randall's mistake as 'fireable' was way overblown, it was a good test of how Randall handles pressure and criticism. He does seem a bit thin-skinned, perhaps a bit too used to always being the star and golden boy.[/quote]
Absolutely. It was a minor mistake, yet he flinched, and Rebecca made some fairly mild statements about him not doing things right, and his panic was plain on his face every time. He did a great job owning up to the mistake, but he should have gone on to point out that it was not what lost them the task.[/quote]
I think it's possible that the poster did lose them the task. Not because it had the wrong station number, but because the time they spent creating the poster would have been better spent researching the radio station. I think Randal and Rebecca share the blame for that -- it was his idea to do the poster, but it was her job as PM to be sure they got all the fundamentals of the task right before adding on extra features.

anwen

Nov 18, 2005 @ 8:45 pm

As I posted on the Rebecca thread, she infuriated me with her white liberal shit. I hate people who are all, "Oooooh, he's from NIGERIA! How INTERESTING! He has such a fascinating CULTURE! He expresses his HERITAGE so beautifully!"

Fuck that. The song wasn't right for XM and no amount of EXOTIC NIGERIAN-NESS was going to make it better.
[/quote]

Especially since he moved from there when he was three years old. Jeesh, he probably grew up in an apartment in the Bronx.[/quote]

Heh. I'm glad it wasn't just my own undergrad experiences squicking me about Rebecca last night. (Although in fairness to my alma mater, we spent about as much time self-consciously mocking ourselves for being pretentious as actually being pretentious, at least in my circle).

What creeps me out is that since we saw so little of the interview, for all we know Rebecca totally invented this whole "going back to his roots," shtick, which is a whole nother level of ick.

SeaBreeze341

Nov 18, 2005 @ 8:48 pm

I agree, catnip; both Rebecca and Randal shared the blame and were responsible partially. Regardless, there's potential, while there's a complete lack of loyalty in terms of Clay. The bottom line is that I'm in the party of folks that figured that they blew the task only to get rid of Clay.

I'm totally not aboard Trump's love train for Rebecca. She's very smug, quick, and confident in the board room, but outside the boardroom, well, her record says it all. Maybe she holds some incriminating photos of him and that is causing all this misguided adoration on his part.[/quote]

Either that or he didn't want Carolyn or himself to get caught laughing on television at the scene of Becky hopping through the first floor of Trump Tower to her cab, sans any assistance from anyone. That alone could've been damaging.

Insomniac

Nov 18, 2005 @ 9:02 pm

I think that the ultimate goal of the "The Apprentice" process is to test adaptability, leadership, organizational skills and ability to work hard. [/quote]

I think the tasks are designed to entertain the viewing audience. There is no longer any attempt to test any real skills. Maybe there is. I just end up feeling so manipulated by the casting and editing. It's Real World Donald Trump.

Hoola

Nov 18, 2005 @ 10:16 pm

I think it's possible that the poster did lose them the task. Not because it had the wrong station number, but because the time they spent creating the poster would have been better spent researching the radio station.[/quote]

I disagree because the poster was done after they selected an artist and wrote a song that were both entirely wrong for the format. They were sunk well before Randal made the poster.

I think it would be really stupid of Rebecca to sink a task to get rid of Clay due to her abominable record. She's only won two tasks, and has lost twice as PM on top of that. She has no place in a F4 (and in my opinion a F5). But I think Rebecca does keep a running list of whatever other people fail at during tasks to bring up in the boardroom, because she's like an odd Ivana/Jenn M. hybrid of mediocrity and boardroom maneuvering.

She reminds me of some women I graduated with who had considerable presentation and writing skills and because of that never developed other skills that are more important to being a success in the business world. I think about nine months working at an entry level position or waitressing would cure Rebecca of most of what's wrong with her. But I don't think she'd ever stoop to that level.

quaintirene

Nov 18, 2005 @ 10:27 pm

I've finally watched the damn thing! Carolyn was packing some serious heels when they went to meet Miss Pageant. I clocked those at three inches or higher.

Either Clay has the worst poker face in the world, so always forecasts his little sabotage plays with that smug self-satisfied semi-smile. Or he just looks like that in general, but the editors know it, so edit it in at appropriate points along the way, like when he opened the door too early and blew Rebecca's presentation. By the way, although I loathe Clay, that was a good time to bring him in, and was very dramatic. Rebecca's presentation skills obviously owe a lot to sitting somewhere quiet and learning everything word by word, because she was completely thrown when Clay did that, and just fell apart thereafter.

Randall's screw-up just seemed inevitable in the general mess.

Rebecca, you just proved why Alla should be in the Finals and not you. Clay starts to clatter on at you, and you listen to him and allow him to take over the task completely. Clay starts to clatter on at Alla, and she just says 'cut it' and makes a gesture that can only be described as a throat-cut. Clay subsides completely and immediately.

And Alla, Felisha and Adam seem genuinely to like and respect each other.

peterredtail

Nov 18, 2005 @ 11:04 pm

Hmmm...I saw Carolyn and George give each looks after Clay was fired as if they were not comfortable with his firing.

The bottom line is that I'm in the party of folks that figured that they blew the task only to get rid of Clay.[/quote]

Could have a point here. Randal did some shoddy research (wrong station number) and Rebecca's presentation didn't seem all that great. George had a good point about letting the artist speak. Personally I like Jibe's music.

having said that, IMHO, Clay was arrogant and not at all constructive. Seemed to irritate Rebecca rather then work with her.

GuyInGA

Nov 18, 2005 @ 11:27 pm

Anyone notice the look on Carolyn's face when Trump was talking about (the nearly-anoxeric and possibly-freezing to death) Miss Universe? Carolyn smiled....but the eyes said, "Fuck you Donald....I would walk out of here if the camera wasn't on, so help me God."

Also, I found both musicians to be very underwhelming. Levi Strauss is something I imagine brain-dead 'cool' frat guys listening to to impress girls with their 'sensitive' side in between beer pong and shots (nothing wrong with either though) and G'Day I can see 30-40 year-old balding yuppies suggesting to when they're talking to High Fidelity-types in record stores across the country. I would maybe -- just maybe -- download a track of Levi's, but then discarding it soon after. Although I did like his song a lot more than G'Day's. Hell, I would given both teams LCD Soundsystem or Mark E. Smith or John Cale and told them to figure out what to do with them.

lawri

Nov 18, 2005 @ 11:40 pm

Clay deserved to be fired. The loss was a "team effort," but Randal certainly deserved a pass for his mistake, and Rebecca, while vapid, is hardly the obnoxious, self-absorbed ASS that Clay is. I'm surprised Rebecca has made it this far, but at least she's not a perpetual complainer, sabatoger (sp?), and overall SNAKE. Clay deserved to be fired after the sex-at-work class, so this week it was a no-brainer IMHO.

GeorgeOMalley

Nov 19, 2005 @ 12:15 am

Fuck that. The song wasn't right for XM and no amount of EXOTIC NIGERIAN-NESS was going to make it better.[/quote]

Fucking brilliant.

tuneman570

Nov 19, 2005 @ 12:56 am

A. I agree, Rebecca pissed me off. In my fantasy world, the artist looked at her and said "bitch! you don't know me!" She was all super white liberal with her "he's from Nigeria and he's going back to his roots." Harridan. And then, "I can't imagine a young man from Nigera saying What About Me..." Has she ever listened to a Seal song for Christsake?
b. glad to see Clay go. BUT... the Allagang told him to pound sand, then took umbrage when he said he wanted to switch teams. Fuck you Adam! And take Alla's hand out of your ass and think for yourself!
c. XM Cafe isn't alternative rock. Its singer-songwriter in that World Cafe kind of tradition. So what made Rebecca, Randall and Clay think this hip world music dude would sound great wedged in between Duncan Shiek and the Indigo Girls? Idiots. I'm convinced knowing NOTHING about pop culture is a prerequisite for being on this freakin show.

zenner

Nov 19, 2005 @ 1:09 am

I don't believe Rebecca and Randall threw the task to purge Clay: too dangerous. Lots of multiple firings this year and they both might have gone, too.

Rebecca weirds me out. That condescending air? Something. Randall is too nice to idiots: her, Clay.

Alla, Felisha & Adam seemed to have very little difficulty in seizing the day. Once they got rid of Le Bitch.

tjmor

Nov 19, 2005 @ 1:33 am

Fuck you Adam! And take Alla's hand out of your ass and think for yourself![/quote]
I am not so sure Alla is a puppet master. Felisha did great on the last task, and she did it all on her own. Adam was doing pretty good too: as far as I am concerned, he did better than Clay, Rebecca and Randal. Wasn't it Adam who came up with the 'nothing is everything' concept? Whatever this means, they won the task.

KerleyQ

Nov 19, 2005 @ 1:38 am

What bugged me the most wasn't that Clay was fired, as it was inevitable. It was the reason Trump cited for firing him: he's difficult.

In what corporate setting isn't there at least a handful of those "difficult" people. In what office can someone ever, legally, be fired for being considered difficult? They can't fire you outright for something that subjective. Usually they just build up some other case against the employee that can be backed up by a paper trail.
[/quote]

That actually depends on the state (and the company), if the state is an "At Will" employment state, you can fire someone for any reason (as long as it's not a civil rights/EOE issue) you want. Some companies within those at will states may have their own internal policy on how firings are handled, but it's not illegal in those states to fire someone for being "difficult." And since this is actually going through the process of hiring someone, it's totally legal to not hire someone if he comes across as a difficult, agitating, asshole. What employer would hire someone who, during the interview process, proves themselves difficult to work with and acts like an asshole? I've done hiring before, and I remember an interview with a particularly obnoxious guy who answered questions very abruptly, didn't want to answer some questions or would say "why do you want to know that" to basic interview questions, and asked "are we done yet? I really need to get outside for a smoke," among other things. We didn't hire him, despite a pretty good resume. Why would you hire someone who comes across like that in an interview? We went with someone else with a good resume who didn't come across like an ass in the interview. You can't control who you work with when you come into a company, but when you're hiring a new employee, you can certainly choose to not hire someone who presents themselves as difficult, obnoxious, or otherwise unpleasant to work with.

Rosebud1970

Nov 19, 2005 @ 2:03 am

Ah, finally got to see this ep.

Lee Abrams (the burly, gray-haired XM exec) is a programming god! I've actually met him. He has a ferocious radio resume. Capital Edge's song was right for the format and Excel's wasn't. And that's really what this task was all about. I'm in marketing and the first rule of marketing is Know Thy Audience. Rebecca got so caught up in her underwear that she couldn't see that Jide's music was wrong for XM Cafe. It should have been about the sound of the song and its lyrics. Not the artist's backstory. Jide was not bad, more Urban Adult Contemporary than Alt Rock, but still not right for XM Cafe.

I would be very surprised if Lee and the other two XM execs made their decisions based on the callers' opinions. I'm sure it all came down to them--the callers were just for show.

KerleyQ , thanks for the At Will explanation. I was just going to jump in and you did it better than I could have.

gapkid

Nov 19, 2005 @ 3:21 am

When Marcela survived despite a 0-2 PM record on Martha Stewart's Apprentice, I suspected the same thing would happen to Rebecca. The week Martha fired the most number of people she ever had at once, Trump did the same too.

I'm glad that "history" now refers to their personal track record instead of just number of team wins and number of PM losses.

Did anyone notice that blackboard near the kitchen in the suite where someone had kindly recorded everyone's PM win/loss record? I'm surprised no one mentioned it. If they did the same in S3, then Alex should've been well aware of his PM record.

ghettofabman

Nov 19, 2005 @ 5:00 am

Levi's a friend of mine, and an INCREDIBLY talented singer/songwriter. He's the real deal, folks. I saw him perform and was immediately hooked. The funny thing is that his style of music is nowhere near the style that XM 45 would play. He's this Southern Rock, Blue-Eyed Soul, Jerry Lee Lewis piano playing guy. If any of this sounds appealing to you, check his website out - levikreis.com. I tell you this as a fan of his music, not as his friend. [/quote]

I know that this may seem to be out of left field, but did anyone else notice that Levi seemed a bit "smitten" with Adam? Every time he looked at Adam, he just had this permanent smile on his face that he could just not drop. I wonder if Alla or Felisha noticed it as well.

Speaking of which, I wonder why there has been very little mention of Felisha's win. More of the focus seems to be on Rebecca's loss as opposed to Felisha's win. I actually think that in this episode, Felisha and Adam carried Alla as a return favor to her.

I was SO scared for Randal in the boardroom last night. Especially since Rebecca stabbed him in the back and still went for his throat. She even subtlely admitted her strategy in her first confessional interview when she said that she was on teams where teammates betrayed each other in order to advance on in the interview process. When I heard her say that, I was all "Hmmm, I take it you are gonna show us that firsthand."

Flootoona

Nov 19, 2005 @ 6:02 am

You know, if the television crew hadn't come along on the chopper ride, Capital Edge and Trumpy wouldn't have had to bunch up on the other seat. Close proximity with the Hair -- does not sound very appealing.[/quote]

I kept thinking you could probably smell the hair's wafty odor and hear its tiny subliminal voice if you had to scrunch that close in the copter.
Hairweasel: <waft><waft>"You pretty, pretty blondes. You adorable little Jewboy dumpling. Come to me, my sweeties, get rich with me, and all this will be yours one day."

lstyd

Nov 19, 2005 @ 7:19 am

How crazy would it have been for Trump to say in the chopper: " Now, here's a song I wrote..." Everyone else in the chopper screams for a change!!!

Keupi

Nov 19, 2005 @ 8:33 am

I thought there would be another double firing this episode with an added shocker (Rebecca and Randal), but that was lost as soon as Trump fired Clay. Could you imagine Clay getting to pick a teammate from the other team to work with for the next task leading up to the interviews? (Note, based on the previews shown after this episode there are two tasks before interviews.)

And there is no way he would fire Rebecca and Clay together. Heck, let alone not helping her with her suitcase, he would probably run ahead so he could tell the cab to leave without her and leave her on those crutches on the sidewalk.

But, I was also happy to see him gone. Trump is seeming to do more firings based on team opinion. While he did it in S2 thanks to the coven, this time he's doing it more for business reasons. If Clay had lost the previous week (Store Wars), he would have been gone because Bill saw his 'leadership.' He may have one of the best PM records but that record is suspect. For example, the lack of having the exemption for his win last week was brought up by Trump. IIRC, it only happened one other time this season (Markus, E1).

I also agree with Randal on not fighting back in the BR with Rebecca's digs. Two BR's in a row, Randal has seen Trump state how impressed he is with Rebecca's honesty. (And to think, that reputation came from the two BR's involving Toral.) In order to call her out, he would have to question Trump's judgment. Plus, unless he can cite specific examples of her dishonesty it would look personal. I don't think she did a lot of damage to Randal. She was asked for her opinion and she stated it. I didn't see Trump ask Randal for an opinion of Rebecca's creativity or on Rebecca's performance as PM. But, if Randal looked back and forth at the people sitting next to him at that table, I think if I were in his shoes I would have brought a pair of handcuffs into the BR and told Trump that if he fired her I'm going with her because there is no way I'm working with Clay again!

FuManchu

Nov 19, 2005 @ 10:09 am

Caldora

Nov 19, 2005 @ 11:30 am

"Pay attention to detail!" That is what my father always used to say. You have to pay attention to the details and when you mess up on that - it makes a very bad impression.

And this is why this task was won and lost. Rebecca did not pay attention to the detail of the task - what it was she was meant to be doing. The task wasn't about marketing the singer's background (personally I found that very condescending and annoying) - it was about finding someone who fit into XM Cafe's market. There was never any discussion about defining (or re-defining) that market. Randal's poster just illustrates the 'attention to detail'. Did the poster make them lose? No, but it is a graphic representation of WHY they lost.

yourfaceisdumb

Nov 19, 2005 @ 11:41 am

If they did the same in S3, then Alex should've been well aware of his PM record.[/quote]

YUCK. Don't even get me started on Alex...

blocked writer

Nov 19, 2005 @ 11:48 am

What's ironic about this task is that the general consensus appears to be that Randal and Rebecca aren't at all creative - yet the task positively discouraged creativity. It wasn't a "create a challenging new popular sound" task, it was a "please a bunch of hidebound execs who don't care for anything outside their remit" task. It shouldn't have been a disadvantage to be pragmatic and realistic, as Randal has always shown himself to be.[/quote]

Thank you for this. This is something that has been bothering me for quite a while. On many of the tasks, the team needs to meet with the executives and try to give them what they want. In some cases, that makes perfect sense. But on a task that is supposed to be about creativity, this definitely seems to stifle it.

I think this is why we don't see that many really great ideas on this show. Most of the time, there are so many constraints on what they can do. At least some of the time, I'd like to see what they'd come up with if they were given carte blanche. It would be great if they were given a creative task where they would NOT be able to ask the executives what they want - they would only be given a basic idea, and then we could see which team was really the most creative.

highlander

Nov 19, 2005 @ 12:13 pm

JessieQ

Nov 19, 2005 @ 12:56 pm

Sorry if this observation's been made before, but Felisha totally reminds me of Heather McAdam (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0563835/) who, among other roles, played Cat on "Sisters." Even their voices are the same!

blocked writer

Nov 19, 2005 @ 1:03 pm

But you can still be creative and give the executives what they want. Advertising agencies do this all the time. Alla gave the executives what they wanted for the Star Wars task and I thought it was creative. I liked it. [/quote]

I also liked Alla's Star Wars display. But IMO, it's a different thing to creative something based on what someone else wants, than to come up with a concept totally on your own. I don't see why they can't have both kinds of tasks.

Overall, I haven't liked too many of the tasks over the years, and this one was no exception. Since this radio network has so many stations, why limit the focus to just one? The narrow focus bothered me.

Ahh Reality

Nov 19, 2005 @ 1:10 pm

I think this week's task was the stupidest yet. What on earth did it have to do with Trump's business or how any of the the apprentices would do in real estate? It seems like the tasks are getting more farfetched as the season goes on. I can't wait to see what they have them do for the finale. Sheesh. I loved the show last year but it seemed to be much more concentrated on sales and marketing tasks and since that's what my degree is in, perhaps I'm prejudiced but songwriting? Huh?

bigbookworm

Nov 19, 2005 @ 1:26 pm

What does it mean when a New Yorker talks about going "uptown". How far in terms of miles? And what kind of music does that radio station play?

Bassari99

Nov 19, 2005 @ 1:36 pm

What's ironic about this task is that the general consensus appears to be that Randal and Rebecca aren't at all creative - yet the task positively discouraged creativity.[/quote]
I think there was room for creativity in this task, even in the context of giving the clients precisely what they asked for. Felisha sort of demonstrated that. When it seemed to her that the session musicians were moving too far afield from the station's approved format, Felisha stepped in and brought them back on track. I thought that was a pretty gutsy thing for a nonmusician to do. The thing is, Felisha approached this project with a passion and drive that was missing in either Rebecca or Randal. A lot of times, that's the source of creativity.

I appreciate that Randal and Rebecca are trying to play a measured game with the least amount of missteps possible. That was fine in the early going, but at this stage they're both going to have to loosen up and start thinking bigger. If either makes it to the final 2 with Alla (I can't believe she's not going to be in there somewhere), she's going to wipe the floor with them because, so far, she seems to possess the right balance of smarts and moxie.

Listen Lady

Nov 19, 2005 @ 1:39 pm

Sniff. I'll miss Clay. He was a good villain. Purdy too. I laughed when he opened the door prematurely on Speechy McSpeecherson. She's so affected in the way she speaks. It was just funny to see her syllable chewing and karate chopping thrown off kilter.

I'm beginning to see parallels between Rebecca and Carolyn. I suspect young Carolyn was hired and promoted for the same reasons that Trump thinks Rebecca's a star. They remind me a lot of each other. Except for the spitting contempt. But even that may bloom over time, considering Rebecca's quiet snobbery. You never really see either of them doing anything excellent, yet there is an assumption of excellence. And that's a powerful thing.

If Trump wants an Apprentice, then Rebecca is the one. If he want's an accomplished business person, then it's Alla.[/quote]
I never thought I would say this (because I'm not a fan of Rebecca's), but I agree. I have to admit she would probably be a good fit in the Trump organization. I really could see her being the next Carolyn. Good looking, confident and green. A bit of a lone wolf. Give her her own little fiefdom, heavy on operations, with the stamp of approval from the big boss and she'd probably do okay. She seems to be more of a "cross things off the to do list" type person than a "big idea" person. She could probably run the Southern California golf course that's falling into the ocean, without doing too much damage to the Trump empire.

highlander

Nov 19, 2005 @ 2:01 pm

I read Carolyn's book and she was working the golf course before Trump bought it. He saw that even though the golf course needed to be torn down or renovated Carolyn did a great job with sales and marketing. He hired her after he bought it and she worked herself up to the position she has now. I don't see how Rebecca can be compared to Carolyn. Carolyn had the drive, creativity and work ethic to last in the Trump organization.

Overall, I haven't liked too many of the tasks over the years, and this one was no exception. Since this radio network has so many stations, why limit the focus to just one? The narrow focus bothered me. [/quote]

I honestly think it is because these tasks are supposed to still show the business skills of the candidates and not show only that they can be creative. They are not trying out for who could be the best artist but more who can fit into the Trump organization. Understanding what the client wants, having presentation skills, marketing, selling, presenting themselves well, good grooming are what is needed to win. Bill, Kelly and Kendra had if not all then most of these qualities. The XM task was just another marketing task with some creativity attached.

Chironian

Nov 19, 2005 @ 2:14 pm

What does it mean when a New Yorker talks about going "uptown". How far in terms of miles? And what kind of music does that radio station play?
[/quote]

"Uptown" in NYC terms, to me, has always been code for black-and-Latino, since Harlem is in uptown Manhattan, and there is a large black and Hispanic population there. I would think that an "uptown" radio station would play largely R&B and hip-hop music.

JessieQ

Nov 19, 2005 @ 2:17 pm

Somehow I don't picture Uptown Girl Christie Brinkley rockin' out to R&B and hip-hop music!

Listen Lady

Nov 19, 2005 @ 2:19 pm

I don't see how Rebecca can be compared to Carolyn. Carolyn had the drive, creativity and work ethic to last in the Trump organization.[/quote]And apparently Carolyn was so good, that the most noteworthy thing about her in Trump's mind was that she looked like Princess Diana.

highlander

Nov 19, 2005 @ 2:34 pm

Well, if that was true, he would not rely on her as much as he does and only rely on George and keep Carolyn around as his eye candy. As we see, he relies on Carolyn's judgement more than he does George. The only exceptions have been when it comes to his eye candy candidates and even then he eventually comes around.

blocked writer

Nov 19, 2005 @ 2:41 pm

I honestly think it is because these tasks are supposed to still show the business skills of the candidates and not show only that they can be creative. They are not trying out for who could be the best artist but more who can fit into the Trump organization. Understanding what the client wants, having presentation skills, marketing, selling, presenting themselves well, good grooming are what is needed to win. Bill, Kelly and Kendra had if not all then most of these qualities. The XM task was just another marketing task with some creativity attached.[/quote]

Oh, I agree with that. I'm not suggesting that all or most of the tasks should be about creativity, since it's only one aspect of business. A person could be very creative, yet be a terrible business person. But unless I'm remembering worng, wasn't Trump's business lesson about creativity? Even if I'm mistaken about that, I'd just like to see a few tasks where the contestants aren't restricted to what a client wants. They may come up with something great, or they may fall flat on their faces, but it would an interesting change to see what they did on their own.

They have a number of tasks where the goal is to sell the most, and others where they judge who comes closest to the client's vision, and those are fine. But there are other measures of good business sense. I'd like to see more variety, and IMO, this would have been a good task for that.

Chironian

Nov 19, 2005 @ 2:42 pm

Somehow I don't picture Uptown Girl Christie Brinkley rockin' out to R&B and hip-hop music![/quote] Billy Joel, like Brian, is from Long Island - perhaps his understanding of "uptown" is similar to Brian's understanding of "traffic."

highlander

Nov 19, 2005 @ 2:51 pm

Oh, I agree with that. I'm not suggesting that all or most of the tasks should be about creativity, since it's only one aspect of business. A person could be very creative, yet be a terrible business person. But unless I'm remembering worng, wasn't Trump's business lesson about creativity? Even if I'm mistaken about that, I'd just like to see a few tasks where the contestants aren't restricted to what a client wants. They may come up with something great, or they may fall flat on their faces, but it would an interesting change to see what they did on their own. [/quote]

I do see what you mean and referring to Trump's business lesson it was about being creative while at the same time being practical and giving the client what he wants. To demonstrate that point he had his advertising person show him a poster of one of Trump's buildings that was creative yet practical in showing off what Trump wanted shown.

bigbookworm

Nov 19, 2005 @ 3:12 pm

What does it mean when a New Yorker talks about going "uptown". How far in terms of miles? And what kind of music does that radio station play?

"Uptown" in NYC terms, to me, has always been code for black-and-Latino, since Harlem is in uptown Manhattan, and there is a large black and Hispanic population there. I would think that an "uptown" radio station would play largely R&B and hip-hop music. [/quote]

I guess I wasn't clear. Does downtown mean the lower part of Manhattan where the WTC was? And then uptown means north of that? And how long is Manhattan? During the helicopter ride I noticed a long island, it looked like anyway, in the middle of the river. What is that?

JessieQ

Nov 19, 2005 @ 3:19 pm

I'm from Wisconsin, so I understand neither "uptown" nor "traffic." Unless you count that time a milk truck tipped over and stretched my morning commute to 6 minutes. Now, that was hell!

BlakeSpeare

Nov 19, 2005 @ 3:20 pm

If Trump wants an Apprentice, then Rebecca is the one. If he want's an accomplished business person, then it's Alla.[/quote]

This is a great point, although personally I'd guess that Trump would rather have Randal than Alla if he's looking for an accomplished businessperson (and maybe even if he's looking for an apprentice).

A lot of people forget that the show is called The Apprentice, and that Trump isn't necessarily looking for the person with the most accomplishments. Pamela (from season 2) said in an interview that she went out to lunch with George after she completed the show, and he told her that she had no chance to begin with, because Trump is looking for someone he can mold, who will always defer to him, and Pamela is not that person.

I don't think Alla is that person, either. Trump is looking for a yes man or woman. I can't picture Alla deferring to anyone for long.

This is a "lo-fi" version of our main content. To view the full version with more information, formatting and images, please click here.