Sunday, June 01, 2008
The New TV LinksTV Links had to reorganize into a new site, Here it is.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Windows 7 Revealed
Yes, they have a replacement for Vista already in the works. Say goodbye to the keyboard as it is being phased out except for typing documents.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
WINNER: David Cook!
Congratulations to David Cook for winning American Idol. You deserved it. It’s great to see the judges proved wrong.
Cook won by 12 million votes. He slaughtered little David A. So much for pimping the golden boy.
The reason he won is fairly simple. While David A is a great singer, he is just a bland kid. Whereas Cook is someone people can relate to. He sings like a real rock star, comes from a blue collar job and he is totally surprised he got this far. He didn’t even want to try out for Idol He was talked into it when an Idol camera man talked him into it at the auditions.
I wasn’t that sold on him originally but he won me over. Good for him!
Here’s his winner’s song, which I think is the best one yet, I actually might download this one.
As for the show itself, I thought it was excellent. I compare it to season 5’s wonderful closer. This had lots of great singing and guests. I will be saving this one and watching it a coupe more times, It was truly a magic night.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
American Idol: Archuleta vs CookThe finale is here and everyone knew David Archuleta would be one of the final two. He’s been treated like the Golden Child from the beginning. And as a result, this season has lacked a sense of immediacy or competition.
The show started off as a parody of professional boxing, and it was done fairly well, even if we knew what the end result would be. If you ask me, David Cook is a better entertainer. Better singer? Maybe not. But if I was to pay to see a concert and only had those two to chose from, Cook would get my money.
They billed this show as a competition, but it’s really more of a clash of styles. You have a rock singer in Cook and a Pop Singer, of the show boat variety in Mr A. It’s like putting Bruce Springsteen against Celine Dion. Not really a valid contest.
Cook started off the night well with U2’s “Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”. A very solid performance that showed he’s ready to record,
Archuleta followed with “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down on Me”. A very nice performance that the judges ate up.
Then came the original tunes meant to be “winning songs”. Both were bland, but I liked Cook’s better. The judges threw it to Archueta in an obsequious manner. It’s obvious they were handing victory to little David. So the final songs were almost unimportant.
Cook did a soulful version of Collective Soul’s “The World I Know”. It was not a show stopper kind of song. Instead it was personal and introspective. I really liked what he did, but I knew Simon would trash his choice and he did. But Cook must have known it was futile to worry about who was going to win. So he went his own personal way.
Archuleta decided to reprise his version of John Lennon’s trite paean to world Communism “Imagine”. I have to confess, I was bored and my mind was wandering during his performance. But, of course, the judges said Archuleta won by a knockout. Somewhere Homer Simpson was yelling: “Boooorrrring”
Ruben Studdard closed out the show with a performance of celebrate me home to scenes from this season of Idol. all those images of people who never had a chance, even though many were good.
We all know who gets the beauty crown tomorrow. I’ll watch the season’s finale because they are usually good shows, but this season has not really been that much of a thrill. Teh most entertaining thing will probably be seeing the hopeless contestants remind us again why they were more interesting in their own way than the hand picked winner.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
American Idol Top 3We’re down to the penultimate episode before the finale. Three singers, singing three songs. Here’s how I saw it.
David Cook was the best of the three by far. He gave two of his songs a signature stamp. I think his version of “The First Time Ever I saw Your Face” was excellent. His closing song was also superb.
Syesha was second best in my opinion, but she will probably not be back next week. I liked what she did better than David A. But she could have done better.
David A has the teen vote sown up so he will be back next week. He sang each of his songs well, but there was nothing surprising or amazing about it. It was more or less what we expect from him except the Chris Brown song “My Boo” which I felt was kind of lame. But the song is pretty weak anyway.
As most of us have surmised, next week will probably be the two Davids duking it out. As far as I’m concerned Cook should win. But we’ll have to see how both of them do next week. I just hope the winners song isn’t as bad as some of them have been in past years.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Bill O’Reilly Behind the Scenes
His legendary temper on display. It’s funny to see him turn it on and off.
UPDATE: FIxed link
Friday, May 09, 2008
European Television
Just a typical Euro-TV show
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
American Idol: Top 4Wow. It’s a no brainer who should go this week. I’ve never seen someone flame out as badly as Jason Castro on this show. His incoherent version of “I Shot the Sherrif” (which was about growing pot and having the cops on your case--I wonder why he picked that one. 
) was so freaking bad I couldn’t wait to hear Randy and Simon tear into him. And his version of Mr Tambourine man was equally a mess. If he wasn’t high, he should have been. That was a disaster.
David Cook started off with Duran Duran’s “Hungry Like the Wolf” and I knew the what the judges were going to say when he finished because I felt it too. It was kind of phoned in. But his version of the Who’s Baba O’Riley was decent and won him praise,.
Syesha Mercado did a great “Proud Mary” cover, but I knew Simon would compare her to Tina Turner. I think Tina would have approved, even if Simon didn’t. She was good. Her belted out version of “A Change is Gonna Come” appealed to the Audience and Paula (Simon, too), but I agree with Randy. That song was not made for shouting. It’s a smooth, soulful tune.
Finally David A, the teacher’s pet, won the day. Though I have to confess he is boring me now. I almost know how he’s going to interpret each song and while he sings well, it’s too aimed at what the judges want rather than being a unique personal performance. He reminds me of those kids in school who always did it the way the teacher wanted. As if to get their approval. With his dad in the audience each show, it seems he has been groomed for this contest and it does not feel organic at all. He wil probably win, but I don’t really care.
At this point I would rather see David Cook win. Syesha isn’t quite there, but she has shown the determination to win. Jason is a lot cause. If he stays it will only be because he has more fans than Syesha.
UPDATE: Jason got the axe. No surprise. TMZ claims he is saying “Don’t Vote” in this clip. It sure did seem like he didn’t want to kep going. Maybe the process and media attention intimidated him.
I turned off my TV when he started to play his exit song. Once was enough.
Thursday, May 01, 2008
American Idol Top 5 - Part 2It was Neil Diamond week. The 70s star was the coach and I finally got a copy to watch, as well as the results show.
Diamond is a great song writer, even if some of his stuff seems cornball to some people today. Even though his stuff was popular when I was still in school,. I was never a huge fan. But I have grown to appreciate his work over time. His new song is pretty good and listening to many of his tunes on the show reminded me what a good writer He came from son writing as a career. He once penned hits for the Monkees like “I’m a Believer”.
Once again Brooke and Syesha were in the bottom. Syesha doesn’t seem to get a break even though she’s getting better all the time. At this stage, it’s a popularity contest and the guys have it. I wasn’t surprised to see Brooke go. She should have left last week. Unless Jason screws up badly, Syesha will go next. Followed by Jason. I think the two Davids will close out the season.
It’s a toss up who will win, but its probably David Archuleta, which is why this season hasn’t had the ratings as previous ones. The contest is missing this time. People kind of see the writing on the way. When Natasha Benningfield ran over to hug David A last night, you can see he’s pretty much favored to win. He’s got the teenybopper vote sown up. And that’s probably Idol’s biggest voting block.
Next week is Rock and Roll hall of fame week, whatever that means. They’re probably promoting that museum in Cleveland It sounds like David Cook will ace that
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
The Dark Knight 1966
