Recently in Television Category

I've been watching American Idol... Or listening, at least. For instance, last night I turned on my TV and listened to the perfomances while I made lunch, etc. It was ok, but not thrilling. Last season, I happened to hear Kelly Clarkson and I was hooked. This season no performance has grabbed me the same way.

Speaking of Miss Clarkson, in case you missed it she sang her new single tonight. Thanks to Dave I found out today that Christina helped write the song. After listening to it, that fact was obvious.

Kelly started off a little shaky, but when she got into the heavy stuff, her voice took over and she sounded like she did at the end of last season's competition. When she was done, I realized I had that same stupid smile on my face, the one I never noticed until she had finished. She still sounds great, and I'm looking forward to hearing what else they did with her on her new CD. So far, they taught her to dance, taught her to wear tight fitting clothes that lift her boobs and make them jiggle. I guess that's what it takes to make an American Idol these days. Ah well... In any case, I'm looking forward to hearing her new disc.

[: VaxCave :] - Won't You Be My Neighbor?
Dave has an audio clip up at his site of Mr. Rogers at a Senate hearing.

In 1969 the US Senate had a hearing on funding the newly developed Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The proposed endowment was $20 million, but President Nixon wanted it cut in half because of the spending going on in the Vietnam War. This is an audio clip of the exchange between Mr. Rogers and Senator Pastore, head of the hearing. Senator Pastore starts out very abrasive and by the time Mr. Rogers is done talking, Senator Pastore's inner child has heard Mr. Rogers and agreed with him. I also have this in video format, but due to bandwidth worries, I'll only show it to you if you are willing to mirror it. Enjoy.

I listened to the feed and it's definitely striking. The soft-spoken, polite Mr. Rogers facing off against the real world, nasty old senators and coming away victorious. I wonder what Mr. Rogers thought about the world before he passed away?

Rest in peace Mr. Rogers, cause if there's a better neighborhood out there, you're there.

TV Guide Online - [Cheers & Jeers]

According to TV Guide, the prank caller that gave Dan Rather a hard time during the Columbia coverage was a member of the Howard Stern cast. I never liked Stern to begin with; now I actually have contempt for the bastard. What a bunch of asses, him and his staff.

Great gadzooks was that ever awful!

1) I don't like the parents on the couch. 2) I don't like the cheerleader crap going on with all the contestants. 3) I can't stand Seacrest. 4) Simon needs a new writer, his comments aren't witty, funny, or mean. 5) I don't like the parents on the couch. 6) Where were all the good singers? 7) I don't like the parents on the couch.

This episode sucked. The singing was ok, but not good, no one inspiring or amazing. The judges sucked, no humor, no excitedness, they all seemed very "ho-hum, been here, done this". The parents sucked, and the guy who went out to talk to Simon? What are we, two? Your kid couldn't handle that on his own? Seriously. Finally, what's up with everyone running to the door to hug each? Don't they understand they're all trying to win? That not everyone wins, only one person? Don't they understand that Simon hasn't said anything wrong yet?

If this keeps up, I won't even be able to force myself to watch the rest of this. Oy...

So once again, last night, American Idol sucked. It's a little known secret that I didn't watch any of the first episodes last year, becoming addicted only after they had narrowed the field to nine people and were looking for the judge chosen tenth. Now I know why.

Highlights of last night's episode? The kid who called Simon "the caucasian one" and Randy "the brown one". Also, the guy (Andy?) in the green sweater who sang Like a Virgin and I Want to Dance with Sombody. His lively performance involved groping himself and gyrating, leading to a spirited discussion in my house about his sanity and mental health. My aunt assured me he had to be mentally ill and that people like him shoud have been screened out in order to avoid public humiliation. I, on the other hand, felt that although he was weird, he probably didn't qualify as mentally ill. Feel free to leave your opinion in the comments section.

Last night's episode also came off rather tame compared to other shows. Paula's absence was felt during the first half, as without her Simon had no one to bitch at. It also seemed that he and Randy agreed on everything, meaning no spirited arguments about who should and shouldn't move on. This meant that Seacrest came across as even more annoying than usual without anything else to distract my attention. Man he sucks.

I'm looking forward to tonight's show, as hopefully I won't have a headache after it's over caused by off key shrieking for an hour. No matter what, though, it has to be better than last night.

Hey Kirk, here's a shoutout. Sorry I haven't written back yet... I'm trying...

Last night's American Idol "was the most-watched night ever for the Fox network". Gross.

I don't understand how you can setup a show where you want people to stick around to listen to skilled singers by having seven million horrible people sing. I mean, most of that wasn't even tolerable, it was just gross. My post last night came out halfway through. Today, after watching the second half, and thinking about it, I'm even more disgusted. They could have at east thrown us a bone and shown one or two people who were incredible to keep us coming back for more. In my opinion, we got nothing.

I'll probably watch next week. And the week after. I don't watch much television, but I feel myself starting to get hooked. I mean, if I didn't watch, what would I talk about for the next seven trillion weeks?

Ok. So I had originally promised myself I wouldn't watch the new American Idol... I said I was sick of reality television. And I am. And the first two episodes of AI have been crap.

All this horrendous noise coming from my television. There were very few glimpses of people who looked like they were worth watching for in the future. So many horrible people, though. There were times I actually found myself saying "please, please, stop them... make them stop..." I'd be reaching for the remote, but not quick enough, as they'd finally stop and my ears would rejoice.

So far the only thing that has impressed me about the new AI is the fact that once again, many many people are coming here looking for pictures of Kelly Clarkson nude, naked, or in porn. For the seven hundred and fifty-seventh time. I don't have those pictures!

American Idol was over and I was looking for a new show to watch. Flipping channels, I stumbled across Push, Nevada. "That show is so stupid," my mother said.

Now as anyone knows, when your mother says something is stupid it means 1) you have to see/do it and 2) you'll probably like it. I watched Push, and I dug it.

So now I'm hooked, but according to the ABC website, the series finale is this Thursday. Bastards. I mean, I know it's up against CSI, and I admit, I tape Push and watch CSI, but cancelled? Already? That sucks. It never even had a chance to get off the ground.

In any case, Push, Nevada is the story of an IRS agent who recieves a fax from an unknown indivudal containing information hinting at some illegal financial activity. Our agent, Jim Prufrock, investigates only to fall into the middle of something that seems like it exists in the same universe as Pulp Fiction. The camera work is wild and edgy, the story line twisted and perverse, the action strange and captivating. For some background, you can check out enochonline.com (which doesn't work in mozilla).

As an aside, there's a contest involved, where if you can guess the amount of the money stolen in the show based on hints given in each episode, you can win it. Enochonline has a lot of extras that are supposed to help you figure out the right amount. I never really paid attention to all of that, but I did think the show itself was worth watching.

As if Kelly Clarkson would find my site someday and then have the patience to read through it looking for references to herself. I mean, I'm sitting here waiting in eager anticipation, but please.

PS: I'm posting in relation to the comments. I don't have anchors in my comments yet, so I can't link to any one in particular. There aren't many though, so feel free to scroll down and check them out. You'll find the one I mean.

I read this article by Eric Olsen ver at Salon the other night. The contracts the AI contestants had to sign were pretty insane, with one lawyer recommending one potential contestant not even sign it. It makes you wonder whether someone as talented as Kelly Clarkson needed to sign away her life and all details, "factual or fictional", in order to become a successful singer. I'd have to say that with what I know about the music industry she might have ended up being a cocktail waitress for the end of her life had it not been for that show, but come on: through the universe and in perpetuality? Geesh...

So I'm sitting in the chair, and this girl is shaving the sides of my head, and... oh yeah before I go any further and you get the wrong idea, I was getting my hair cut.

I'm sitting there, she's shaving away, there's buzzing in my ears, but I hear this faint familiar melody on the radio. I listen closer, and... Could it be? Yes, they have already released Kelly Clarkson's single for rotation at the radio stations. Now, what does this mean? It means, somewhere in hell, in the same place where they keep the seven trillion lame ass Rams 2002 Super Bowl Champion hats and sweatshirts there are 246 million cd's that contain a single track: Justin Guarini singing the newest addition to the Wedding Singer's Repertoire: Moment Like This. Sucker!

So I've listened to some other people, I read what Dawn had to say, and overall I'm happy with the way things turned out. I'm glad Kelly won, glad Justin lost (he took it so well because he knew she was better than him and in what I hope doesn't become a trend, dealt with the fact that women are better than men at some things [like having babies and baking pie kidding]), and glad I watched. I don't know what sucked me in. The only other reality TV I watched regularly was the Osbournes, and that's cause Ozzie rocks. "Mrurrurrurrrrfuckinbastardrrrrmmr," says the Oz Man.

It's hard to make it in the music industry. I did college radio for a while and I saw the trash that came in, and I helped throw it out by the dumpster full. I admit some of it never even got listened too, but who can listen to all that music anyway? The point is that Kelly Clarkson and a bunch of other kids who never would have seen the inside of the Kodak Theater if not for this show got a chance. It's the American Way. You may not like the show, you may not think the talent was that good, you might have hated the writing and the songs, but in the end it was a painless way to spend your Tuesday and Wednesday nights without having to think about all the messed up shit going on in the world. We were taken to a place where we could argue about who dressed better, who was hotter, and which contestant should have their vocal chords ripped out and replaced with a tape recorder playing nothing but the Hansen’s on repeat until they had to slit their own throat for relief. Well, maybe not that last one, but you know what I mean. We got to watch as some run of the mill average Americans made their mark on the world. The terrorists may hate us for our cultural hegemony, the kitsch we spread throughout the world, but hey, give me a break. This one came from England; we just made it better. And at least we didn't kill anyone.

Oh well. In the end, it's all subjective. I enjoyed it, you may not have. All I have to say is: Kelly Clarkson, email me!

Dawn still has nothing good to say about American Idol. Ah well.

I had some mixed feelings this week. Justin performed well. Kelly out performed him. Her rendition of Respect was great: lots of crowd interaction, moved around the stage a lot, lots of hand movements, I mean hey, we almost got into some choreography there. Justin was a little too stiff for me to say he deserves to be America's Idol. I also think his voice lends itself to boyband-ish music, which I don't like. Kelly, however, can do a much wider variety of genres: jazz, blues, etc.

The biggest disappointment from my vantage point was the shit-ass songs that were written for them. They sucked. I mean seriously, couldn't we have something a little more upbeat and a little less melodramatic? A little more like what's popular today? Or, oh my God, maybe even have the live backup bands for the BIGGEST show of the series? Can we all say anticlimactic in unison?

The performances were good, Kelly still rocked, but this was a pathetic way to end the series (I know there's tomorrow's show, but it's for the losers, not the Idol). I would have loved to see some real musiciancs backing them up, some Idol like dance moves, and better music.

What did you think?

I'm happy with they way things went tonight on American Idol. Nikki went home, which was the right thing to do. Justin hung around, which is ok, I guess, but I'd much rather have seen Tamyra up there.

I'm looking forward to next week. Should be some good performances. Maybe they'll even be as good as the ones tonight (which were way better than even the ones they did yesterday).

As a side note, Dave posted this link to the Kelly Clarkson fan club. I guess since there's a real fan club, I'll never get an email from her now... Unless, of course, she searches for Kelly Clarkson porn, in which case she'll definitely show up here. Ah well... Them's the breaks.

1) According to CNN, the American public thinks Kelly is the *clear* winner.

2) I hope this can be a friendly disagreement: Dawn's got her head up her ass on this one. Justin and Nikki, yeah they're not so stellar. Kelly, though? Come on. She's definitely a skilled singer, she comes off as personable and charming. Come on Dawn, can't you rethink this?

3) Google is confused: there is no Kelly Clarkson porn here. I can't even get an email from her, nevermind porn. And even if I did get some, I don't think I'd share. So there.

4) Dave posted a link to Tamyra's record deal in the comments. Wonder when she'll get released? Wonder if Dawn will do a review of it at blogcritics? ; )

MTV is running an ad for the VMA's in which Jimmy Fallon impersonates Simon Cowell performing as a contestant. MTV then uses clips of COwell spliced together so that it looks like he's judging himself. He declares himself the one true winner of the contest. It's an excellent little ad.

Ok. Now I know most of America is following AI, but CNN? Isn't there other stuff that's more news-worthy? I'm watching Ryan Seacrest being interviewed right now live on CNN. Amazing.

AH! He just said that Tamyra got a record deal! Sweet.

Ah... Another episode of American Idol... I thought Kelly did really well on her first song. Other people who I spoke with didn't. I thought they needed their hearing checked. Then the judges spoke. I think they heard sounds from another dimension while I heard Kelly actually singing... Or maybe it was the other way around. In either case, her second song rocked.

I'm worried though. The American public is not rational, nor is it easy to guess the results of a "vote for the best" voting scheme. Nikki, again, did better than her usual (since her usual hasn't been very far above average for much of the competition). I don't think that should make her win, especially compared to Kelly. Justin gets my vote over Nikki, but I don't think he deserves to win either.

The key phrase there is "I don't think". You may think otherwise. I thought Kelly was hot as hell, sang her heart out (and did it extremely well), and came the closest to what I think the idol should be. I'd buy her cd. I wouldn't buy a cd by the others, though (unless Tamyra gets a recording deal).

And by the way, if one of you googlers who stops by happens to be Kelly Clarkson, feel free to send me an email. I'm a big fan and I'm not a stalker, I promise.

God I have to stop doing this... I sound like a twelve year old girl. Got to love kitsch culture, eh?

I'd like to throw a quick hello out to all the googlers who are coming here looking for American Idol info.

Now that that's done, let's see... Oh yeah, tomorrow there's another episode. Last week, before the show, I told my sister that either Kelly or Tamyra would be voted off. I didn't post it here, but it came true, so this week I figured I'd make my prediction a little more permanent and let google throw it in the ol' cache-eroo.

This week I think Justin will be the one leaving. I hate to see Nikki stay, and I think she knows she's not very good, but we have lots of male pop singers and few punk girl singers (Pink, Avril, who else?) That's my call. We'll find out on Wednesday, and who knows... Maybe I'll change my mind after tomorrow's performances.

So I ranted and raved about American Idol last night. Of all the things I've written here, that one got me the most feedback. So, since it's popular, let me continue.

I got an email from Kirk E. and we went back and forth about the show and what happened. Personally, I think Nikki is a talentless hack. It's said best here: "Nikki is like some third rate talent show hooker". And that about sums it up for me. Was she better than the average American? Maybe. Should she have lasted aother week over Tamyra? No way in hell. I mean seriously. However, Kirk says Tamyra doesn't deserve to be the idol either. I disagreed, until I saw the aformentioned post where Leslie, the author, said "[Tamyra is] not a different kind of talent than we already have." I can agree with that,a dn that alone might make me thing she shouldn't be *the* Idol.

However, why does Kelly deserve to win? (and, yes I think she does) She has more raw talent, more personality, and I think, reminds all of us more of ourselves. She looks out at the cheering crowd like "WTF? why the hell are they cheering for me? I mean hey, I'm from Texas! The same Texas the laughable Cowboys are from!" She rolls her eyes like we do, is goofy and funny like we and our friends are, and is an all around American girl. And hey, for all I know, maybe it's all a facade; she does it really well, though.

Finally, Kirk reminded me that "it is subjective, ... isn't that what the WHOLE point of this...?" I agree, that is the point, and so I say the top two should have been Kelly and Tamyra, in that order.

And Justin? He can take his M.J. impersonating, skinny as all hell, ugly clothes wearing, floppy haired ass back to doing weddings.

So. Umm, yeah. Feel free to comment!

American Idol sucks my ass. I can't believe Tamyra ended up having to leave! I mean seriously. No offense Nikki, but compared to the other contestants, your skills are a little under par. You deserved to go home, and based on the amount of crying you did, you know it, too.

My sister and I were discussing the show and she said that she thinks it would be completely different if instead of voting for your favorite, you voted for the person who you thought should leave. I have to agree. All of a sudden, Nikki has a performance where she doesn't suck. A few people vote for her that have never voted, and a bunch of people who had been voting for other contestants vote for her as well. The hackers join in and vote for her, and the next thing you know, an incredible singer has to leave the show. Tamyra has an incredible voice, in the same league as Alicia Keyes. She deserved to stay.

This friggen show must be rigged, I swear it!

Anyone watching American Idol? I've been paying attention, seeing who does well and who doesn't. There are a few really talented people there, but there are a few really awful ones too. And that right there sums up life.