Tuesday, April 22, 2008
American Idol Top Six
Andrew Lloyd Webber was the coach this week and his music was what they all had to sing. It pretty much separated the wheat from the chaff.
As much as I like Brooke, I think she and Jason are in the bottom 2. And Brooke is the likely loser this week. She did something I’ve never seen anyone do on Idol. She stopped and restarted. When she restarted, I think she did a impassioned performance but it was still flawed. The song was “You must Love Me” from the movie version of Evita. Kind of a downer of a song. Bad to do songs like that on Idol. It tends to lose votes.
Jason made the mistake of taking on Memories. A song best known as a Barbra Streisand standard. He actually made me listen closely, but he cracked up in places. His fans may save him this week, but he’s one of the weaker links at this stage. I think he’s an original folk artist, but on a show like this, it’s only going to get tougher for him.
Everyone else did good to great, Syesha started off the show with a stunning performance of “One Rock & Roll Too Many” from Starlight Express. It was like watching the show without those lame costumes.
Carly Smithson totally rocked “Jesus Christ Superstar”. She seemed to be having a ball up there.
David Cook did a very powerful rendition of “Music of the Night”
David Archuleta did a decent version of “Think of Me” from Phantom of the Opera. I agree with Simon that it wasn’t huis best. It was kind of by the numbers for him. But good.
I think Brooke is out this week, unless Jason has less fans. Oh well. No more room for slip ups. She’s had a couple bad weeks in a row. I don’t think she’ll have another.
UPDATE: I can’t believe Carly lost this week. Her performance was great. I actually download the studio song from iTunes. JCS is a favorite of mine anyway. It’s a rocking tune. Did you now the guy who sang the hit radio version of that in the early 70s had a hit in the early 80s called “One Night in Bangkok”? His name is Murray Head. Anyway, I’ll miss Carly. Maybe she’ll be seen at the Field again, but I hope she gets some recording deals.
The Stooges PSA
Monday, April 21, 2008
Global Warming with Pride
Finally, Pennsylvania
I don’t know about you, but this whole primary has been one long drag, with the occasional amusement of watching the Dems tear into each other and the Clintons reveal their true colors to the once faithful. That part has been amusing. But tomorrow is the final big contest and Hillary may or may not win. If she wins, she will keep fighting till the end even though she is out of cash. If she loses big, she will probably keep fighting, only this time for a VP slot.
As it is, I doubt either Dem can win now. They have been badly tarred and McCain is a lot savvier and experienced than many give him credit for. He can certainly show up Obama in a debate. An Obama/Clinton ticket is a loser. It would turn off too many Dems who hate the other person and everyone else is likely to stay home or vote McCain.
Obama is no longer the golden boy after Rev. Wright and his “bitter” comments. I’m sure there will be more missteps as they get closer to the finishing line. He is still green. And Clinton has left too much a bad taste in many people’s mouths. People are also getting really tired of Bill. The days of Bll Clinton adulation are definitely on the wane.
All in all, it ill be nice to see the primary season wind down. We’ll get the tired spectacle of conventions propping up candidates most people aren’t enthused about. I’m not personally excited about teh prospects of any of these candidates winning, but I’ll vote for McCain when it comes down to it. Especially if teh election looks close. All of them are state loving control freaks. At least McCain has a record of being a real cost cutter.
The Full Jason Beghe Interview
YouTube canceled XenuTV’s account when they tries to post this. Now you can see the whole thing here. The actor has left CO$ and is now spilling his guts on the subject.
The whole eight parts are found here.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
The Spirit Teaser
Frank Miller’s Sprint movie teaser is shown here. It looks more like Miller than Will Eisner. But we’ll see how well he pulls it off. Next year.
Disneyland 1956
A family filmed their trip to Disneyland in 1956 and the father edited it together in 1995 and narrated it.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
REVIEW: The Bank Job
I really loved the latest Jason Staham film. It’s a heist film set in the early 1970s, based on real events. The story is so fantastic, it’s surprising it wasn’t made into a film before. When a retired thief’s ex-girlfriend convinces him to break into the vaults of a London bank, no one except the girlfriend knew what they were getting into. One of the safety deposit boxes happens to have some damaging photos of a member of the Royal Family. Then things go south in a big way.
While Staham has been known as a martial artist from his Transporter films, this is more of as straight crime thriller. It’s very well done.
Also recommended is the new Pacino film, 88 Minutes. A man is told he has 88 minutes to live and the story unfolds in real time.
Friday, April 18, 2008
End Bio Fuels Now
Using food as fuel is insane, as the global food crisis brutally demonstrated. There are plenty of not food alternatives, but really, when the price of oil is entirely driven by market speculation based on media hysteria and not on actual shortages this sort of thing is downright insane.
Global food prices have risen because food grains are in short supply. Another strong reason given for this is the shift to biofuel, which are promoted as a green alternative to conventional fuels, like petrol and diesel.
The use of food for fuel started when the energy crisis forced the world to look for alternatives. Scientists turned to biofuel for energy solutions. The biofuel are made from food grains like corn.
But using food for fuel started the debate - Does the biofuel boom mean bust for food grains?
The European Union has said that at least five per cent of oil used in automobiles must be biofuel by 2010. But that directive is now being looked at again in the wake of global food crisis.
Most of the countries in Europe are now cutting down on generous subsidies for biofuel crops.
Vertical Farming
I first heard of vertical farming a few years ago, when I learned that they use them in the Netherlands where space is limited. The idea is, you stack one farm on top of the other like a parking garage. On one level you have animals, the waste is used to fertilize the other layers. Something like that is great because it’s self contained and efficient. The following article shows how they could be done inside cities which think is a great idea. If you want to buy local growers farmer’s market food, this is one way to do it. Not only that, it adds more green spaces to a city environment.
Of course, city space is at a premium in most cities and the land is expensive, so I don’t know how practical it is. It certainly, it’s worth a try.
Copyright © 2008 James D. Hudnall. All Rights Reserved
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