And why is his hat blazing other than the fact that Sandra threw it in the fire? Well, he's peeved...and he should be.
While watching tonight's
Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains finale I sketched this image of the infamous Russell, who in my opinion is one of the more entertaining for tv contestants they've put on the show. Every Survivor finale tribal council sore losers are in full force, taking their moment on the stand often to berate those who outsmarted them with lots of overly dramatic and patronizing statements (ex. Sue "dying of thirst" monologue, Marcus's "winning at life, that is" laugher, Corinne's "crying over dead pops" speech, etc.) I like to think that the producers purposely direct them to be more confrontational then they might normally be to make for good tv, but Russell had some great moments this season that genuinely must've eaten away at the ego of beaten contestants.
Is Sandra the "best ever" as she proclaimed? Not by a long shot. Going two for two certainly seems like a statistical argument, but let's be real here there's so many styles of play and unpredictable factors in Survivor it is impossible to call one out as the best. It's like saying one guy is the BEST ever at blackjack.
Russell is justified in being peeved by the format of the show...but the show is also designed so weasels like Russell don't win, and that's a good thing too. This is just another instance where a coattail rider rode to the end and then was voted winner basically for being the one who didn't outsmart the jury and make them look like fools on national television. CBS knowing that Sandra was the winner would've edited more Sandra footage to justify her being a winning player, but the fact that they didn't include much must indicate that they didn't have any to work with to begin with. I guess the whole laying low thing is considered a "strategy" too technically, but that's a pretty loose term in this case and an insult to players like Parvati, Boston Rob, JT, and Russell who take the term "strategy" to different levels. If anyone of these final three, Parv was the most deserving to win.
It was a slightly anti-climactic ending to otherwise probably the most entertaining season of Survivor ever!
Currently on display in the MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) system in Taipei, Taiwan is my "Subway Phone Courtesy" poster (see a few posts below for the poster image.) It is on display with the other winners of the 2010 poster contest at the underground Zhongxiao Fuxing station on the blue line near the center of the city. I like to think it is doing it's part to remind everyone about train etiquette, for my goal was to do an image that could be universally understood by anyone of any age and nationality without relying on Chinese text to get the message across.
