TAR9 Links and Hot Goss!If you enjoyed TAR9 and want to read more about it, I recommend
TARFlies. Its current compartmentalized layout allows you to peruse their
Season 9 archives freely without fear of being spoiled for future seasons.
Some of the biggest questions viewers had about this season were about
Ray and Yolanda’s relationship: Did Ray really like Yolanda? And did they stay together after the Race? Well...not only did they stay together, but
Ray proposed to Yolanda on live TV, on CBS's “Early Show” the day after the TAR9 finale, and now (as far as I know, anyway) they’re living together in Chicago. It’s all discussed in
this interview, as well as Yolanda’s fear of diving, “your mama” jokes, Ausfartung, crickets, what REALLY happened in Denver that knocked them out of the race, and the difference between “generally lost” and “largely lost”. Which team gave them a
compass as a present? Read the interview to find out.
Another great interview is
the one with MoJo, in which the pair discuss what they did on their audition video (it’s disgusting and hilarious), paint-huffing Australians, monkey repellent, the REAL reason Monica was crying over that fish, the Race activity Joseph likens to a “brain fart”, why they couldn’t Yield anyone, and the one racer they got along with least (hint: not BJ or Tyler!). Not mentioned in that interview is the fact that
Monica and Joseph got married on July 28th—as in, three weekends ago. Congrats, MoJo! (Now Monica’s name is “Monica Meadows.” Hee hee.)
If for some strange reason you want to read more about the
“Hippies”, you can also read
their interview here. They talk about the origin of the “hippie” moniker, where they got those crazy hats, running over slippery rocks, and what their friends thought of their TV Personalities, among other things.
Some other hippie-related links: A link to Tyler’s Japanese girlfriend’s blog. Apparently
Tyler is currently making a film in Mongolia. Also, he tried to duplicate his walk across Japan in Iran (while making a documentary about it called ... “I Ran Iran”. No, SERIOUSLY). But
Iran deported him about halfway through. (Ha!)
Apparently, an “immigration lady” also
gave Tyler a hard time as he was trying to enter Great Britain. This guy causes international incidents wherever he goes!
The picture in
this link explains why
BJ has a beard. Not to mention the third picture in
this link. In other BJ-related news, if you were watching the most recent season of
American Idol carefully, you would have seen BJ in the audience with the
Sanjaya fans. Seacrest even talked to him, apparently.
Finally, here’s
a link to pictures of BJ and Tyler at the TAR Casting Call that...you REALLY don’t want to see. Seriously. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Speaking of brain-searing images...I could find nothing interesting on
Eric and Jeremy—other than EVEN MORE pictures of them almost naked, bringing with them endless innuendo about, well, which way the wind REALLY blows with those two. (No, I’m not providing links. You can search for those pictures yourselves, you perverted freaks!) Someone asked them about the infamous pics with the Hippies in a post-race interview. A poster on TWoP wrote: “Eric explained that he'd read all the online speculation about him and Jeremy being gay because they talked about girls excessively. Eric continued by saying that the Hippies joined them for a race-viewing party in FL, where all four posed half-naked for the camera, then deliberately posted them online to get a bunch of speculation going.” (Dunno if I believe that.)
To complete our roundup of TARflies interviews, we have
this lovely interview with
Joni (of “
Lisa and ...”), talking about mad cow disease, sensitive mics, rolling backwards in Volkswagens, how even SHE found herself annoying on TV, which other reality show she’d really like to do, and how an encounter with the Third World changed her mind about plastic surgery. (And
here’s a link to a lovely TAR-related painting her artistic sister Lisa made. Isn’t it cute?)
Finally,
here’s an interview with first-eliminated
John about, among other things, the concept of “buy-in” and his fear of ... well,
everything, apparently.
Other trivia: Lake’s full name is actually Terry Lake Garner. His father’s name is Terrell.
Lori’s partner
Dave lost 40 pounds between the Race and the finale party. Party attendees say he looked “incredible” and “unrecognizable.”
According to TAR8 racer
Tammy Gaghan, one TAR9 racer at the finale party refused to pose for pictures with tiny TAR alum
Carissa Gaghan, who was a fan of the TAR9 racer. Rumor has it that this racer’s name rhymes with “Jan.”
Finally (finally),
which pair of TAR9 racers were invited onto season 11’s All-Stars?
Spoiler!
It’s Eric and ... Danielle. Yeah. Let that sink in for a moment.
Why those two? Well, apparently the TAR producers were very eager to have an All-Stars team composed of two individuals from separate teams who dated after the Race. Rumor has it that they also approached Flo and Drew from TAR3, and Brennan and Emily from TAR1. Both pairs declined, so they ended up getting these two, who dated for some time after TAR9—but, rumor has it, broke up before filming on TAR11 started, though they pretend to be a couple for the show.
So yeah, they got a pair of the dullest racers ever to participate in “All-Stars” with a fake relationship. I take small comfort in the fact that Eric and Jeremy were statistically the most dominant team ever, so at least Eric arguably earned his spot on an All-Stars season (although I would have preferred the funnier Jeremy). Danielle, however, was on the fourth-eliminated TAR9 team, which is a worse record than any other All-Stars racer. And Eric and Danielle’s personalities don’t exactly shine on All-Stars either.
Guess who, along with TAR5’s Chip and Kim, complained the loudest about not being invited onto the All-Stars season almost the instant All-Stars were announced? That’s right: BJ and Tyler. The hippies egotistically complained that they should have been invited because they are the most popular winners ever (um no, I think that would probably be Chip and Kim). TAR Executive Producer Bertram van Munster responded diplomatically: “The Hippies weren't invited because maybe they were a little too ‘one note.’ We had them on for 13 hours and I think that was a loooong time.”
.