I despise reality television. While I have seen an episode or two  of “The Bachelor” under protest,  I believe it is a blight on society and responsible in part for the dumbing down of our collective intelligence.  Some have said,  what about your brother’s reality show, “The Benefactor”.  I plead hypocrisy on that.  He is my brother and I support anything he does.  That being said, and despite my public prostrations that I would never watch Most Eligible Dallas, there I was glued to my set at 9pm(CT).  I even watched a bit of Millionaire Matchmaker before hand.

I have been on the same Dallas scene that the “Most Eligible” crew are cavorting through.  I therefore feel very qualified to critique.  The show stunk and the “players” never had a chance.  No one beyond the people that know Matt Nordgren and crew and a few “Jersey Shore” curiosity seekers looking for a train wreck, will give a shit what these particular individuals are doing on the Dallas dating and club scene. The Dallas scene is not interesting nor diverse enough to make that happen. I base that opinion on my 10+ years on the same scene doing the same shit they are.  Does anyone outside of the participants and their friends really care that Tara Harper is(was) dating Dallas Fort Worth radio personality Jody Dean?(you just got some scoop).  Of course they don’t. That’s not a knock on Tara or Jody. That is  cold, hard truth.  How does that have any national appeal?   If she’s dating Dirk Nowitzski, Shawn Marion or local movie celeb with national appeal like Owen Wilson(who, like Dirk, is spoken for) than maybe there is some national interest to sustain the show for a bit.

What were people besides myself saying about the show?  I view Twitter as a pretty good gauge of who’s watching and what general opinions are.  Last night during the course of the show, there was woefully scarce tweeting about it. What was being said was primarily coming out of the Dallas-Forth Worth area.  It was tweeted under the hashtag #dallasmosteligible if you want to check out the 140 commentary.  It tells me that for the most part, no one was watching.  As far as what people were saying, I disregarded any disgust with the concept or the participants because that is actually what Bravo counts on.  If there were Ten Thousand people tweeting that they hated Matt and everyone else, that is a victory for Bravo.  Hatred and disgust is what drives reality television. What I saw for the most part in the tweeting however,  was that the show was unimaginative and boring.  That is a killer.  You can’t blame the participants for that. They are not actors.  They are who they are and  I doubt they had Pulitzer writers working on the scripts. These were simply not the right choices for a reality singles show in Dallas.  For that concept to work in this city, you are going to have to put Shawn Marion, Dirk, or someone else of national prominence in it. Do you really give a shit about Matt or Courtney’s dating life?  I don’t.  I can walk into any Dallas night club any day of the week seeing the same people doing the exact same thing night in and night out. Only the names change.

I had never heard of Drew Ginsburg before this but found him slightly interesting only because of his weight struggles and the steps he took to deal with them. I have gone through similar struggles so that briefly held my interest. Beyond that, what I saw was Bravo trying to pull out the token Gay, combine it with the pretty heterosexual and stereotype it to the max.  I’ve already seen Sex And The City.

I have nothing but respect for Tara Harper and her work for Paws In The City.  It is  an organization that I have donated to and for whom I put my own fears aside and participated in a local “Dancing With The Stars” benefit.  The benefit has become a yearly high profile event in Dallas. Good for her.  Good for the animals that she works tirelessly to save.   For that reason, it made me uncomfortable to see her in this type of douchey show.  Tara says she went on the show to increase awareness for Paws In The City.  From that standpoint I hope she is right.  I am also wondering however,  if that outweighs the possible brand devaluation to her personally and Paws In The City through her participation.  Only time will tell.  I can think of plenty of ways to raise money without taking that risk. Despite what you may hear, not all publicity is good publicity.

I am a die-hard Steelers fan but never heard of NFL punter Glenn Pakulak.  That’s not a real knock. The only way Steelers kickers get in the news is if they get drunk and beat up paper towel dispensers. Glenn want’s to be a model. So does every other semi-attractive guy in Dallas.  Shaven head, tattoo, v-neck t-shirt.  All that was missing was the Affliction cut-off.  I could not fight off the feeling this guy was the “gym-douche” that we all love to make fun of.   Maybe he’s a MENSA member and the nicest guy in the world but I can not think of a bigger and more lame Dallas cliche than that.  No one is going to tune into to watch a cliche that exists in every city in America.

I had  no idea who Courtney Kerr is. I still don’t. I will get around to Googling her.   There were nothing even remotely interesting about her story or views on the Dallas night life.  She doesn’t like meeting guys at clubs and doesn’t like when Matt’s nightclub harem disses her. Her parents have money.(which seems to be the only bonding factor of any of the participants)   I don’t know if that is what her real life is like, but what I saw was that she has no scripted identity of her own.  Any Dallas girl who’s parents have money could have played that part.  Why is that interesting?  Someone remind me.

Finally, Matt Nordgren.  Matt is a Dallas night life veteran and is used to having shitty things written about him. He probably set a record for appearances on the douchebag intensive web site, The Dirty before he got them to remove the ugly posts about him.  It’s hard to  defend or offend Matt.  He eats it up good and bad.  I met Matt years ago and consider us friends.   How did I meet him?  Doing the exact same thing he is doing on the show.  That of course says as much about the life I led at that time as it does about Matt. I am also much older than him so far be it for me to hammer him for being the kind of mack-daddy douchebag  as I was when I was his age.  That however is not unique.  While Matt may think himself unique and reality show worthy, there are a thousand “Matt’s” on the Dallas scene. Its nothing unique or compelling or “train wreckish”  ITS JUST BORING.   Frankly, as far as being a local lightening rod on the local scene appeal as someone people love to hate, Matt was probably the only good choice for the show.

There it is. Most Eligible Dallas has no chance.  All the better for Tara, Jody and everyone else to put it behind them as an experience and move on.

What are you afraid of? Most of us can rattle off things we dream about doing or would simply like to do if only we were not afraid of failure, embarrassment, etc. I am not talking about Fear Factor stuff like eating cockroaches. I am talking about fun things that we know in our gut we would enjoy but the risk of trying versus the risk of perceived consequences if we don’t succeed acts like a brick wall. Things that require us to step outside our “comfort zone”. I am afraid of speaking in public, talking to girls in bars, high places, open water, roller coasters etc. The list is long and distinguished. In any event I attended you could pretty much find me standing with a coke in the corner of the room if I could even muscle up the basic courage just to go. I didn’t even go to my high school prom because I was to shy to ask anyone.

How do we get over these fears? There are really only a few choices. You can spend thousands of dollars on therapy, self help books and seminars. You can also simply get drunk enough before you do it so that “beer bravery” takes over. I know a lot of people who do it that way. They never confront the real life fear but they live on with the comfort that they can manage somehow. They will do it “one day”. The other option is to get off the pot. Take deep breath. Step forward and jump into it. That is exactly what I decided to do when I was approached several months ago to take part in a local charity event that would benefit the cause nearest and dearest to my heart, animal abuse.

Paws In The City an all volunteer 501(c)3 non-profit organization, is committed to ending the abuse, neglect, homelessness and overpopulation of dogs and cats through rescue, adoption, awareness, and spay/neuter. Because over 28,000 animals in Dallas were euthanized in 2007, rescue and adoption are only a part of the solution to overpopulation. Educating people of the importance of spaying/neutering their pets is critical to their mission.

What did they ask me to do? They asked me to learn how to dance and perform a dance routine with an instructor from Aurther Murray Dance Studios. They asked me to choose and perform that dance routine in front of 700-1000 people competing against 7 other local celebrity couples in a “Dancing With The Stars” format. YIKES!

I never think of myself as a local celebrity. If “fame by name” qualifies me so be it. When I was initially asked, I wondered how many people they asked before they got to me. I am not even on the “z” list. I am on the waiting list to get on the list to get on the list.

Everyone worked hard to learn their routines. It helped me that I had a great partner in Arthur Murray instructor Nikki Holland. Nikki and I chose the “Lindy Hop” for our routine. We decided to perform to the music of the Brian Setzer Orchestra doing “Put Your Cat Clothes On”.  When the time came to actually perform I was terrified. It is one thing to work hard in a studio in front of a few people. When I entered the empty ball room for my pre-contest walk through, it hit me right there that my comfort zone was breached.

I didn’t win but had a great time as did the other contestants. I received scores of 8, 7.5 and a 6 from the celebrity judges. The 6 having come from Hall of Fame running back turned celebrity dancing judge Tony Dorsett. I must have offended him in some past life. I refuse to accept that it might have been my dancing that was offensive.

I received the expected loaded question from emcee Scott Murray. Did I think I was a better dance than my brother Mark Cuban? I will only say that I was the best “Cuban” on the floor that night!

In the end the end a great time was had by all. Would I do it or something like it again? In a heartbeat! I didn’t win the contest but won the battle with myself in facing on of my greatest fears. We can all “dance with the stars” in so many different areas of life if we are willing to step outside of our comfort zone and know the fear of failure is transient and actually a positive in personal growth if faced head on.