American Idol: 10 Ladies Left

Once again I miss the beginning of American Idol, but this time I only miss the intro of the first singer, Katharine. I was able to watch most of the performance though. I should also point out that my reviews (all except for Katharine) are written right before, while and immediately after each performance.

Anyways on to the ladies:

Katharine - Below Average. Almost bad. The judges had it right. I'm giving her credit for last week's better performance though.

Kinnik - Average. One thing mediocre idol contestants do is pick an upbeat but vocally simple song. You get people dancing and it makes your performance look good. Well, that's what Kinnik did this week. (Maybe to make up for the tough song she picked last week) She wasn't bad, but Simon said it perfectly when he said it just didn't stand out.

Lisa - Good. I have to agree with Randy... she was good but she didn't shine. I think it was better than her performance last week. Oh and I think, Lisa sounds like Paula Abdul when she talks

Melissa - Above average. Started out average but finished off better. Definitely better than last week. Another time I agree with Randy... and in the process disagree with Simon.

Heather - Below average. Picked a song because it had never been sung on AI... that's just not a good idea. (I wrote this before she started singing) Yet another girl who did better than last week, but remember i rated her at "Bad" last week. Plus she picked a song someone has already done better.... and Paula just pointed that out.

Brenna - Bad. She is this years Mikalah, someone who got through because of her personality (makes for "good tv"). But, Mikalah had some humility about herself... Brenna probably did her best, and that's why she thinks she did well. Too bad her best is bad.

Paris - Below average. Picked a bad song. Has a potentially good voice but not for pop and not for this song. I just don't seem to agree with the judges on her.

Ayla - Above average. Started off pitchy but finished strong. I entirely agree that she comes off a bit "mechanical" like Simon said.

Kellie - Below average. There is something weird about Kellie... as Cindy put's it "She's definitely haming it up." Is that "innocence" for real? Anyways she again did that weird squat thing I talked about last week and this time the judges told her to stop. (good for them) Oh and there was a part during her performance, I think she tripped up band a bit. Anyways I don't agree with Randy about it being a "hot one." In fact I totally agree with Simon: rough vocally, but the "Calamari" bit will get her votes.

Mandisa - Very good. A tough beginning and she started off roughly, but hit it well when she started belting it. (I promise I wrote that before Randy said anything) Doesn't transition well from the soft to loud. I still like her voice the best and I'm probably grading her based on that.

Oh and so things make more sense here are the rankings of my grades (from best to worst): Excellent, Great, Very Good, Good, Above average, Slightly above average, Average, Slightly below average, below average, not good, bad, very bad, terrible. The "average", "slightly above average" and "slightly below average" rankings are all close and are simply meant to differentiate between average performances.

Finally, I have to disagree with Simon when he said that you have to stand out. I think that, at this point of the competition, there are still enough contestants that you can "coast." In essence, you don't need to stand out, you just need to not suck. Of course the danger is, if no one else sucks, you're in danger of leaving.

My rankings for this weeks (this time best to worst): Mandisa, Lisa, Ayla, Melissa, Kinnik, Paris, Kellie, Heather, Katharine, and Brenna.

But I'm not kicking off the bottom two because I think Katharine should get credit for her better performance from last week (plus she has a better voice). So in my world Heather and Brenna would be going home. Like last week, Melissa and Kinnik should still be in danger.

Bravo and Project Runway

In the past few years I have grown a liking for the Bravo network. Maybe it's because I'm getting old... anyhoo.

I've alway stopped to catch at least a few minutes of "Inside the Actor's Studio" because, although he's strange, James Lipton does his homework when interviewing people. More recently though, I've liked watching Celebrity Poker Showdown, Celebrity Autobiography: In Their Own Words and Being Bobby Brown. What I never saw coming was me being so into Project Runway.

I got into it midway through this, the second, season. The first episode I remember watching was the end of the Sasha Cohen outfit episode in which Emmett was eliminated and Zulema won. But the beginning of the next episode totally hooked me. Zulema, as the winner of the previous challenge, had her pick of the models (ie. she could switch her model for any of the other models). So, straight out of Zoolander, she decides to have "walk-off." The models walk and she ends up stealing Nick's model, which of course doesn't sit well with... well, pretty much everyone. In the end karma does it's job because Zulema ends up being eliminated in that challenge.

Anyways, the season finale is coming up on March 8th and Bravo is having a "Project Runway Marathon." So, I'll probably tape the first few episodes I missed. But for now here are my thoughts about the remaining three designers.

Chloe. Nothing special. I don't particularly like her stuff because it's bland. The challenge I saw her win was a win by default. Everyone tried for something daring (except for Nick... not sure what he was doing) and she played it safe. She complained about not having experience in designing men's clothes and then makes an uninspired generic pinstripe pant and vest combo. As far as I have seen her, she (like Kara who left last week) has coasted by not being interesting but not being hideous either. She just waits for someone else to make something horrible and she's safe for another week.

Santino. Hit or miss... but I like him and when he makes a good piece, I like it alot. Santino might have been helped by his abrasive personality (since it makes for good tv) but at least he tries to be different when it comes to design.

Daniel. One of my favorites (along with Santino and Andrae) who has a good mix of daring and traditional. Should win and would make a much nicer winner then last season's Jay... who I already hate.

American Idol: 24 down to 20

Okay, so I was so confused. I thought they were getting rid of 2 girls and 2 guys and then Idol weirdly went through the ladies and told Becky she was leaving. Then they did the same thing with Bobby. I started thinking they were only getting rid of 2 contestants in all. But then Ryan Seacrest says they're coming back to eliminate another girl... just strange!

It's pretty cruel to at first tell Stevie and Patrick that they are safe and then eliminate them a few minutes later.

But anyways, I'll pat myself on the back for correctly picking the girls who got eliminated.

About the guys, I don't feel so bad about picking the two kids to leave considering I didn't watch their entire songs. But I should have known that the young guys will get votes for being young and cute (the girls don't seem to get that benefit).

I did point out that Patrick was forgettable and that is killer when you have very little else going for you. When it comes to Bobby, I'm guessing the combination of an awkward (but not horrible) performance and not being young or good looking got him eliminated.

Now I'm hoping to actually be able to see the entire guy's night next week to get a better feel of their strengths.

BTW, I still think it's weird to see the just eliminated singer giving their final audition to the world...

American Idol Top 24: The Gentlemen

I got home late tonight, so I missed most of the show. So, I'll only make full comments on the guys I saw:

Elliot Yamin - Great. The first guy I've seen and he is awesome... and the judges think so too. As Randy used to say, this guy can blow.

Bobby Bennett - Slightly below average. Picked a song befitting his name. He sung it too throaty for me though. He tries hard, but comes off awkwardly. A big guy shouldn't move around so spastically. Slow and smooth is the way... Scott Savol knew this, and someone should tell Bobby.

Ace Young - Slightly above average. I don't like how he sings like a hissing cat like John Mayer... so that makes me biased against him. Carries the tune well though and as Simon stated, picked the perfect song for himself. Sorta reminds me Constantine Maroulis but less animated and not as creepy... oh and by far a much better singer.

Taylor Hicks - Above average. I'll be honest, I'm biased toward this guy because I love the Joe Cocker/Van Morrison voice. But he really needs to stay away from the "blue eyed" jazz sound because he can definitely stray into the bland Michael McDonald-land.

Well, I only got to see the rest of the guys from the snippets, so here are my quick thoughts on them:

Although he changed his tune tonight, Randy was right in saying that the men were better than the ladies.

The Bo Bice/Rocker sound (I refuse to call Constantine a rocker because he was a low rent lounge singer with a awful "broadway" sound) has allowed for a few more "rockers" like Ace, Taylor, Bucky Covington and Chris Daughtry.

The guys who should get booted? Probably the two 16 year olds: Kevin Covais and Will Makar. And I thought Will was supposed to be good... Their age, however, might get them enough of a following to save them this week. So I'm thinking the following guys are also in danger: Joe "Sway" Penala was scary with his falsetto; Patrick Hall was forgettable; and David Radford was just weird.

America Idol Top 24: The Ladies

I missed American Idol during "Hollywood week" so this is the first I have seen these women since the auditions. And here is what I think in the order they sang:

Mandisa - Very good. She sang the Heart song about as well as one could expect, especially being first. Deserves to make it into the top 12.

Kellie Pickler - Below average, but nowhere near bad. It's hard to say anything bad about a nice girl with a hard life background. She did a weird squat thing during her song though... she needs performance coaching.

Becky O'Donohue - Very Bad. She has made it this far because of her looks and strong personality. She'll probably make it past this round because of those things.

Ayla Brown - Average. Voice-wise she's all over the place but that's probably because of the song she picked. She didn't transition all that well between the different parts of the song. She has a good voice otherwise. Needs to work on her "like-ability."

Paris Bennett - Average. Picked a tough song, but the judges seemed to like it. Much more of a performer than Ayla Brown. I don't agree with the judges though, because vocally she was only a bit better than Ayla.

Stevie Scott - Very Bad. She should have stuck to opera. In the great American Idol term: Pitchy. She's also very shy so we'll see if that makes it harder to get votes over another similarly bad singer, Becky.

Brenna Gethers - Bad. Picked a song by an artist (Stevie Wonder) NO ONE should try to re do. (and I wrote that before she started singing) Her singing was breathy and uninspiring. We'll see if the bravado helps her or not.

Heather Cox - Bad. Very stiff when she sings. Reminds me of a beauty pageant contestant. Unfortunately those people are supposed to look like plastic dolls... American Idol's are supposed to be bubbly and full of life. She probably made it through "Hollywood week" on her looks, because her voice was as unispiring as Brenna Gethers, but even worse.

Melissa McGhee - Slightly below average. Picked a song for the wrong reason. ("I absolutely love this song.") She should pick a song that features her voice well. Her voice is too raspy when she's not bolting it. Had some problems, but did better when she relaxed midway through the song.

Lisa Tucker - Average. With all the hype, I thought she would be better. Another pitchy song. Good for a 16 year old, but this isn't "16 and under American Idol." Can definitely be very good in time though. For once, I don't agree with Simon though. The judges seem to be influenced by the yelling and cheering in the audience.

Kinnik Sky - Average. Picked a tough song (one that depends too much on her voice at first) but pulled it off well. Maybe I'm looking too much for something to like because I didn't think Lisa Tucker or Paris Bennett were all that much better.

Katharine McPhee - Good. Another tough song that depends too much on her voice but she pulled it even better then Kinnik. As Randy said "maybe a couple of little spots" but that is nitpicking.

So here are my rankings from worst to best: Becky O'Donohue, Stevie Scott, Heather Cox, Brenna Gethers, Kellie Pickler, Melissa McGhee, Kinnik Sky, Ayla Brown, Lisa Tucker, Paris Bennett, Katharine McPhee, Mandisa.

Which would kick off Becky and Stevie in my world. But I get the feeling Becky's personality and looks might get her votes. In fact looks and personality might also help Heather and Brenna so that makes them plus Kellie, Melissa and Kinnik vulnerable in my view. We'll see how I do.

Oh and finally: does Ryan Seacrest not say "Seacrest Out!" anymore?

Curling and Florida

I like curling. It's an interesting game... but it's not a sport and aren't the olympics supposed to be about sporting events?

Well, let me clear that up. Curling should be called a sport when games like bowling, bocce, shuffleboard and billiards appear in the olympics. The thing is none of those games are olympic games. Even golf isn't an olympic game (according to this site it was part of the 1900 and 1904 games, but even then some competitors didn't even know it was part of the Olympic games).

I wouldn't make such a big issue about it if it weren't for the fact that NBC has featured curling every day. While in Florida last week, everytime I flipped the channels in the morning, the only Olympic coverage I could find was of curling.

And I'm not buying all the "curling is catching on" talk. It's "popular" because NBC is covering it like it's poker. But I can see why: There isn't much else to cover in the morning. The more popular sports and the ones the US excels in (hockey, ice skating, speed skating, alpine skiing, etc.) are shown in primetime. That leaves the sliding events, biathlon, nordic skiing, ski jumping, snowboarding... and curling. Except for maybe snowboarding, no one is gonna watch the rest of those events. All the other ones get pretty repetitive, pretty fast. And unless you know what goes into controlling a sled down a big sheet of ice or shooting at a target after skiing a bunch of miles, you probably won't be able to connect to it. But most of us have been on an ice rink, and most of use have bowled or played shuffleboard.

So NBC is stuck showing the amazingly exciting game of curling to fill all those hours of olympic coverage they planned. And then I get reminded daily that curling isn't a real sport and then you end up reading my rant.

Anyways, here are the pics of the Florida trip over on Flickr.

"It is nowhere written that the American Empire goes on forever."

I highly recommend the documentary film Why We Fight to everyone. I'm not sure I want, or am even able, to say how it affected me. But I can say this: If you see it, and it doesn't in the least make you think twice about the United States and where it is headed... well, congratulations: most people pay good money for treatment and drugs to put them in such a state of aloofness.

I had never heard of Eugene Jarecki, and now I am waiting for Blockbuster to deliver his previous movie The Trials of Henry Kissinger.

off the florida keys...

So we take an extended weekend in Florida and when we get back Dick Cheney is shooting people, not reporting it. Do people still not reconize this as a symptom of what is wrong with this administration?

Anywho, Florida was awesome even though it was uncommonly cold. We planned a snorkeling trip in Biscayne National Park and an overnight canoe trip in the Everglades but it ended up being too cold and too windy, so we ended up doing the touristy things in the Everglades and Biscayne and also drove down to Key West.

Not what we expected but still pretty nice. We saw a bobcat in the Everglades and had delicious crepes in Key West (who woulda thunk). Definitely want to get back to Key West though... They like to call themselves "America's Carribean Island" even though they're not in the Carribean and the name ignores the U.S. Virgin Islands. I name implying a cross between New Orleans and the Carribean would be a better term.

We also found an different fast food place down there called Pollo Tropical. They have an awesome curry mustard sauce and a guava BBQ sauce. Definitely digging their stuff.

Well, I'll have pictures up, although the day in key west went without pictures because I forgot to charge my camera...

The new Monday Night Football lineup

The quick verdict on the new Monday Night Football announcing team of Mike Tirico, Joe Theismann and Tony Kornheiser seems to be lukewarm at best. I think it certainly sounds interesting. Tirico is an average and pretty straight forward play-by-play man, a good safe, if not exciting, choice. Theismann adds good insight, but will often lapse into cliched statements like "The team that is going to win is the team that successfully makes the most plays."(I must admit: I'm somewhat biased towards Theismann, since I grew up having him as my ideal quarterback... in fact I used to think all quarterbacks wore number 7.)

What makes me think it should be interesting is Kornheiser. (I think he's done a few Redskins preseason games, but I might be imagining that.) I love PTI and think he certainly deserves a chance. I would actually like to hear Kornheiser with his PTI parter, Michael Wilbon, do color commentary for a few football games games. Anyways, Kornheiser should bring a good comedic angle to the games, without being pretentiously verbose like Dennis Miller.

Either way, I think it's a great idea to not bring over the Sunday night crew, because Mike Patrick, Paul Maguire and Theismann were just not cutting it. Patrick was overtop and the Maguire/Theismann animosity got old and uncomfortable quick. Anyways, I'm looking forward to the new crew.

Super Bowl XL: a win is a win... right?

What a dreadful suckfest that Super Bowl was. The play was terrible, the officiating was worse and the Rolling Stones looked like they were going through the motions. Even the commercials were boring.

I kept hearing about how Pittsburgh was going to play a "smash mouth" style of football. Their offense was going to run Jerome Bettis 15 times for countless yards and their defense would shut down the potent Seahawk defense. Well, Bettis ran 14 times but for a mere 43 yards and the Seahawks defense was stopped by their own ineptness and the officials. When you score 2 of 3 touchdowns on a fortunate call and a trick play, that can't possibly be called "smash mouth."

Beyond that though, the officiating reared its ugly head once again this playoff season. But this time instead of almost losing a game for the Steelers, it gave them the Super Bowl title. Bill Leavey's officiating crew spotted the Steelers a 10 (if not 14) point edge with the questionable offensive pass interference call and the Ben Roethlisberger "touchdown".

First, the pass interference call is a call 9 out of 10 officials don't make. Both players were jostling each other, so as an official you keep that flag in you're back pocket.

The Roethlisberger touchdown, however, was the most egregious. I agree with the Bill Leavey if he claims that there wasn't enough visual evidence to overturn the TD call... my problem was with the official who originally called it a TD. There is NO WAY he could have determined that the football crossed the goal line before Roethlisberger was down. In fact, that official didn't make the call until long after Roethlisberger had been down and had then moved the ball across the goal line. That official should have never called it a TD in the first place.

But, although Mike Holmgren and Seahawk fans have every right to be mad about the officiating, Seattle undoubtedly played horribly. Those missed field goals were long, but they were certainly makeable. And Jerramy Stevens dropped way too many perfectly thrown balls. Even their time management at the end of each half showed their overall ineptness. But in spite of all that, they still out-gained the Steelers in overall yards (396-339) and passing yards (259-158). They even tied them in yards per rush (5.5), and might have out-gained them in rushing yards if they weren't playing from behind most of the game. So I won't unsoundly claim, as Pittsburgh newspapers and fans have, that the Seahawks didn't play well enough to win. The Seahawks did play well enough to win because Pittsburgh didn't exactly play better. They just got the calls which kept the Seahawks from scoring, and which gave them 7 instead of 3 points.

The Steelers were undoubtedly helped to that win. But you really can't blame Pittsburgh and their fans for it. I would be unabashedly celebrating the win if it were the Redskins, just like Steeler fans are celebrating today. Although, deep down I would be questioning why the officials favored us over them... and maybe that win would ring a little hollow if I had some sense of conscious in me.