Wednesday, March 05, 2008
American Idol: 3/4Last night was Men’s night, and once again they proved this season of American Idol has on of the best line ups ever. This week they were supposed to sing songs from the 80s. Apparently, that’s a lose category as we will discover.
The night started off somewhat weakly with Luke Menard doing a stumbling version of George Michael’s Wake Me up Before you Go Go. It was so so. Menard stumbled around and muttered the words. Luke obviously didn’t use the force. He’s probably going to be voted off.
David Archuleta was next, starting on the piano and singing Phil Collin’s anthem to the homeless. Another day in Paradise. It was a very solid performance,. and once again he made it his own. But as Simon pointed out, it was kind of a downer song. David needs to show some bounce. Which is kind of funny since Simon was picking on Brooke a week ago about being too positive. In this case, it was Archuleta acting like a beauty contestant talking about world peace. (He did that last week with Imagine, one of the most trite songs ever written). First David tries singing about world peace (and socialism!) now he’s singing about the homeless. What’s next, global warming?
It’s sassy Danny Noriega to the rescue next. He’s not he type to get all political. Girls just want to have fun. So his tune of the night is Tainted Love, which was made famous by Soft Cell in the 80s, but they were doing a cover of a 60s song at the time. It was originally recorded in 1964 by Gloria Jones, but it’s been covered by a lot of artists since, including Marylin Manson and the Pussycat Dolls. I suspect the later was Danny’s influence here. Especially the way he flounced around. Frankly, when they said 80s, I was expecting him to busy out a Pete Burns tune. While Noriega did a decent job, it wasn’t his best. But he should be safe.
As if they were trying to make a statement about controversy because a video of Danny being all emo has surfaced on the internet along with stories about David Hernandez working for three years a a stripper in a gay bar. So when they asked David what the most embarrassing thing he can remember was--oh, snap--he was talking about a booger that appeared in some photos of him. He then goes on to do one of the best performances of the night, covering “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” which was a hit for Celine Dion in the 90s, not te 80s. Though the somg was written for Meatloaf who eventually did it in this decade on Bat Out of Hell 3. Anyway, Hernandez did a solid performance. One of the best so far. He’s safe unless the voters punish him for his past.
Michael Johns followed with “Don’t You Forget About Me”, as if channeling Michael Hutchence from INXS. It was kind of more muted than I was expecting. I kept thinking he should have done an INXS song instead. But it was solid and the judges liked it. Safe.
David Cook decided to take on a Lionel Ritchie song. And for that you’d expect him to be voted off. But he surprisingly made it from a pop song into a Rock Ballad, while bringing a guitar with him. It was surprisingly effective and he garnered high praise for it. Safe.
Jason Castro is next, once again bucking the 80s theme by singing a Leonard Cohen song from the 70s, “Hallelujah. Well, it was covered by Jeff Buckley in the 80s. Anyway, he does a solid version of it. It’s kind of quiet, so I wonder if the fans will vote for him. The judges, however, praised him up and down, so I say he’s probably safe.
Chikezie finished the show with a cover of a song Whitney Houston made famous called “All The Man That I Need”. He changed it to All the Woman that I need. Doesn’t matter if he did a great job singing it, which I feel he did. It may have been a big mistake because Simon ripped into him for it. He tried to defend himself by saying it was done by different artists, etc. No matter. He may not be safe. Which is a shame, because I think he’s a really good singer and could have gone far (but not to the end, I think). He’s been in the bottom a few times, so I suspect he will be again.
So that’s for my review of the Men’s Idol show. Hopefully I will get to see the women tonight. I missed them last week and no one uploaded it to the web.
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Thursday, February 28, 2008
American IdolI finally caught up on the episodes I missed except for the ladies last night. I have to say, this is the best looking group of contestants I can remember. A lot of really stunning women. But the guys are the best in terms of talent this year by far. This season is like the opposite of last season where the women ruled.
Leading up the guys is 17 year old David Archuleta who blew everyone away with this rendition of Imagine (A song I am sick of, but he made it sound brand new).
He’s very modest, but I hope the fame doesn’t get to him. He’s already got the girls in the audience screaming for him.
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Monday, February 18, 2008
Chef ImpossibleI like watching the Food Network on occasion and I enjoy the show Dinner Impossible with Chef Robert Irvine. It seems, however, that Irvine’s claims of having cooked for the Royal Family and a bunch of other things (like being a knight) aren’t true. Too bad, because I like his show. But after reading this article he sounds like the Vanilla Ice of chefs. Vanilla Ice claimed to be a professional race car driver and a host of other things when he started out. This was pre-internet, but the media investigated his claims and found them wanting. These days it’s crazy to make claims you can’t prove. Anyone with an internet connection can research you from where they’re sitting.
Irvine seems to be a great cook on his show, but I doubt the Food Network will let him get away with this.
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Thursday, February 14, 2008
Andy Kaufman Loses It on TV
From a early 80s show called Fridays. A young Michael Richards is also in it.
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7 Dharma Installations on Lost Island
Yes, I am a Lost fan. And this site gives a run down of 7 Dharma installations revealed on the island.
I have a feling those four rescuers in the new season were sent in by the Dharma to get Ben in retribution for the killing of the Dharma colonists. We’ll see.
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Saturday, January 26, 2008
117 Reasons Bruce Banner Hulked OutA list of the reasons Bruce Banner turned into the Hulk on the 70s TV show.
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Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Lost Trailer
In case you missed it
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Friday, December 07, 2007
The Wire PrequelsFor all you fans of the wire, there are three short prequel films on Amazon about events in the early life of some of the characters. Very good stuff. Though I made Prop Joe out to be younger than they make him here.
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Original Astroboy Credits
When I was 7 years old I was exposed top this show and I was utterly crazy about it, like kids today are crazy about Spongebob. It was my first taste of anime and I had no idea that I would later become a big fan of Japanese animation. One of the things that got me so into this series were the unusual stories and the heart. Unlike most cartoons of the day, this show had a lot of heart. It wasn’t all about laughs or fighting. The stories were really compelling to my 7 year old mind. The enduring popularity of the Astroboy character is a testament to its greatness. It helped make its creator Osamu Tezuka one of the greatest comics artists of all time. I really can’t recommend his work enough. Especially his graphics novels,. My favorites of those are Adolph, Buddha, Phoenix and Black Jack.
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The Original Speed Racer Credits
These are the Japanese credits for Mach Go Go Go, which is the original title of the show. Same theme song, but different credits. I like this one better than the American credits.
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