OK, Ally went and called me out for being a "Dawg Blog" on Twitter today, so I guess that means it's time for my token football post.
Spring game is Saturday at 1:00, televised by the WWL. Should be a fun event, and tickets are free this year, so hopefully the crowd will be a little larger than in years past. I can't berate you to go, since family committments will keep me from attending, but if you get a chance it's always better to be at Sanford than anywhere else, right?
Here are some things I look forward to seeing on Saturday:
- Glorious High Definition. Sorry, Matt and Buck, but I will definitely be watching the ESPN telecast rather than the JP-level broadcast on CSS.
- All four quarterbacks. Joe C is the obvious starter for '09, but it will be fun to see our first real look at the future with Murray and Mett, as well as seeing how we may use Logan Gray. Should be good weather for once, as well, so maybe we'll throw the ball around a little.
- Caleb King. TONS of pressure on this kid. Nobody expects Joe C to be Matt Stafford, but there are certain expectations of Caleb to at least mostly fill in Knowshon's substantial shoes. He's been less than impressive in limited time so far...let's see what he does as the de facto #1.
- Carlton Thomas. Almost every day, there is another article written about how impressive this little waterbug has been this spring...can't wait to see him in live action.
- The secondary. Defensive end may concern me the most on defense, but the secondary isn't far behind. Since you can't hit the QB's in the spring, we probably won't get a great look at how well the DE's are progressing, but we should be able to get a good idea of how the secondary is coming together. Starters in the secondary are Evans (FS), Jones (SS), Miller (CB), and....Boykin (CB)? I guess? All have been getting good reports this spring, but all four of them are still unproven at best.
- Defense as a whole. See, here is where the dichotomy of the spring game comes into play. I want to see both the offense and the defense do well, but that is, of course, an impossibility. I will settle for the defense swarming to the ball, not missing tackles or assignments, and in general looking like they A) want to be there; and B) know what the heck they are doing.
This will be the last morsel of football until fall practice cranks up in August...I plan on recording it and then watching it whenever I get the football DT's over the next several months.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Idol thoughts - top 8
Time for the annual "Make Scott Feel Old" week, also known as "Songs From the Year You Were Born."
1) Danny Gokey: "Stand By Me" - This was a nice vocal performance, but I hated the arrangement and I was pretty bored by the whole thing.
Danny has reached the point in the competition where all he has to do is not screw up, and he will advance. Now, that mindset is not enough to WIN the competition, but it will keep you around. Danny is good on a pretty consistent basis, but he does not have that one big blow-you-away type performance yet, in my opinion, and he needs to pull one of those out if he wants to derail the Adam Lambert train.
The judges are pretty embarrassing in their overly enthusiastic praise of Danny, other than Simon who was dead on as always. Randybot even broke out the dreaded "It's a SINGING COMPETITION" falsehood that always makes me scream at the TV and throw things.
2) Kris Allen: "All She Wants to Do is Dance" - Again with the guitar you can't hear? I don't get it.
I did not like this song choice, or the arrangement. I guess he felt he needed to go up-tempo? He sang it OK, except that there were several of the high notes in the chorus that he did not quite reach and stayed a little under the pitch.
Randy actually got one right here...the band was distracting. Bad song choice, arranged badly, performed OK. Kris may be in trouble.
3) Lil Rounds: "What's Love Got to Do With It" - I think Lil has totally lost the thread mentally at this point. Like I said last week, I think she has become WAY too caught up in "Winning American Idol" and she is just out-thinking herself every week. Or maybe she's just not that good in the first place.
Anyway, this performance hit all of the low points...pitchy, flat, she was off rhythmically (I think because she was over-enunciating her words on the verses). She sounded pretty good on the glory notes, but the rest was just dull and flat.
And the judges are SOOOO done with her, too.
4) Anoop Desai: "True Colors" - Man, I enjoy him so much more when he is doing stuff like this than when he is bouncing around the stage pretending to be hip-hop. THIS is his wheelhouse...soulful ballads. I don't know that I would buy a whole album of this, but I know I would download this song. I thought it was a great choice, sung beautifully, and he seemed really genuine, unlike last week's Hip-Hop Karaoke.
5) Scott MacIntyre: "The Search is Over": COPY/PASTE:
As a singer, he's not that talented...average at best. Great pianist. Picks the most corny, boring, white-bread song available on a weekly basis. Seems like a great guy.
I will add that this, to me, was his worst vocal performance so far. Just painful to listen to at times. I still really like him, and hope for good things for him, but he is totally out of his league here and it's time to go home.
6) Allison Iraheta: "I Can't Make You Love Me" - Anybody else uncomfortable with a 16 year old (SIXTEEN!!!!!) singing about "turn down the bed" and "lay down with me"? Just me? OK then, moving on....
I absolutely love this song, and I thought it was a really good song choice for her. I think she "needed" to do a ballad to keep from being repetitive, and a Bonnie Raitt song is a good choice for her voice and her style. Her voice was awesome as always, and I think she changed the melody up just enough that it didn't sound copycat. Great job.
7) Matt Giraud: "Part Time Lover" - Dude...when are they going to learn that you don't sing songs that have been made famous by the masters?
I mean, if you know that you aren't going to be able to top the original then why try?
That's right...stay away from Chicken Little, if you don't want to be compared to him!
Seriously...this was a great choice for Matt, I thought, and he sang it pretty well, but man...can he sing just ONE note straight without going off into a series of riffs and runs? I think that's a crutch that a lot of people lean on if they don't have a great voice, and Matt falls into that category. His voice is good, and pretty unique, but not great, and he covers up unnecessarily by going off into riffs and runs all the time that would make Mariah blush.
8) Adam Lambert: "Mad World" - Wow, why are Ryan and the judges talking so fast? Anyway, looks like Adam is going to slow it down again, give us another tender performance, and the lighting is...HEY!!!! WHAT THE %$&!#? WHERE'D THEY GO?
Yeah...they went long last night. WAY long. I had my DVR set to tape 3 minutes past, and I still didn't get the last 3-4 minutes of the show. Luckily, I also record Fringe, which comes on right after that...
This was yet another virtually perfect performance, gorgeous song, perfect choice, blah blah blah. Seriously, isn't it a foregone conclusion at this point? I mean, SIMON gave him a standing ovation...I honestly don't remember that EVER happening before the finale.
Only one little nit to pick...I think he decided at the last minute to jump up to that last note (in the taped rehearsal we see when they are flashing the numbers, he ended on a lower note that I thought sounded better), so he had a MINOR little wobble getting up to it. But that was like Cindy Crawford's mole...it was almost necessary to confirm that we were watching a human.
PREDICTIONS:
Who SHOULD be in the bottom 3: Scott, Lil, and...Matt, I guess?
Who WILL be in the bottom 3: Scott, Matt, and Kris
Who SHOULD go home: Scott
Who WILL go home: Scott
Now, once again I am a little spoiled, having seen the DialIdol predictions. They have Kris pretty solidly at the bottom. I'm hoping that's not true, but if it is then I predict that the judges will save him.
Here's why:
- Kris has had a very consistent run on the show, and was (in my opinion) the best of the week last week. This is the first week that he has not been great, and the judges may decide that one bad week is not enough to have him go home.
- They only have two more weeks after this week to use it (can't use it once we hit the top 5). If they were saving it for Adam or Danny, then it's not going to be used...those guys are going nowhere near the bottom until we are well into the top 5. Only other person I can see them saving it for would be Allison, who has been in the bottom 3 a couple of times (inexplicably), which is the only reason I can see for them NOT using it on Kris (if it comes down to that).
Thoughts?
1) Danny Gokey: "Stand By Me" - This was a nice vocal performance, but I hated the arrangement and I was pretty bored by the whole thing.
Danny has reached the point in the competition where all he has to do is not screw up, and he will advance. Now, that mindset is not enough to WIN the competition, but it will keep you around. Danny is good on a pretty consistent basis, but he does not have that one big blow-you-away type performance yet, in my opinion, and he needs to pull one of those out if he wants to derail the Adam Lambert train.
The judges are pretty embarrassing in their overly enthusiastic praise of Danny, other than Simon who was dead on as always. Randybot even broke out the dreaded "It's a SINGING COMPETITION" falsehood that always makes me scream at the TV and throw things.
2) Kris Allen: "All She Wants to Do is Dance" - Again with the guitar you can't hear? I don't get it.
I did not like this song choice, or the arrangement. I guess he felt he needed to go up-tempo? He sang it OK, except that there were several of the high notes in the chorus that he did not quite reach and stayed a little under the pitch.
Randy actually got one right here...the band was distracting. Bad song choice, arranged badly, performed OK. Kris may be in trouble.
3) Lil Rounds: "What's Love Got to Do With It" - I think Lil has totally lost the thread mentally at this point. Like I said last week, I think she has become WAY too caught up in "Winning American Idol" and she is just out-thinking herself every week. Or maybe she's just not that good in the first place.
Anyway, this performance hit all of the low points...pitchy, flat, she was off rhythmically (I think because she was over-enunciating her words on the verses). She sounded pretty good on the glory notes, but the rest was just dull and flat.
And the judges are SOOOO done with her, too.
4) Anoop Desai: "True Colors" - Man, I enjoy him so much more when he is doing stuff like this than when he is bouncing around the stage pretending to be hip-hop. THIS is his wheelhouse...soulful ballads. I don't know that I would buy a whole album of this, but I know I would download this song. I thought it was a great choice, sung beautifully, and he seemed really genuine, unlike last week's Hip-Hop Karaoke.
5) Scott MacIntyre: "The Search is Over": COPY/PASTE:
As a singer, he's not that talented...average at best. Great pianist. Picks the most corny, boring, white-bread song available on a weekly basis. Seems like a great guy.
I will add that this, to me, was his worst vocal performance so far. Just painful to listen to at times. I still really like him, and hope for good things for him, but he is totally out of his league here and it's time to go home.
6) Allison Iraheta: "I Can't Make You Love Me" - Anybody else uncomfortable with a 16 year old (SIXTEEN!!!!!) singing about "turn down the bed" and "lay down with me"? Just me? OK then, moving on....
I absolutely love this song, and I thought it was a really good song choice for her. I think she "needed" to do a ballad to keep from being repetitive, and a Bonnie Raitt song is a good choice for her voice and her style. Her voice was awesome as always, and I think she changed the melody up just enough that it didn't sound copycat. Great job.
7) Matt Giraud: "Part Time Lover" - Dude...when are they going to learn that you don't sing songs that have been made famous by the masters?
I mean, if you know that you aren't going to be able to top the original then why try?
That's right...stay away from Chicken Little, if you don't want to be compared to him!
Seriously...this was a great choice for Matt, I thought, and he sang it pretty well, but man...can he sing just ONE note straight without going off into a series of riffs and runs? I think that's a crutch that a lot of people lean on if they don't have a great voice, and Matt falls into that category. His voice is good, and pretty unique, but not great, and he covers up unnecessarily by going off into riffs and runs all the time that would make Mariah blush.
8) Adam Lambert: "Mad World" - Wow, why are Ryan and the judges talking so fast? Anyway, looks like Adam is going to slow it down again, give us another tender performance, and the lighting is...HEY!!!! WHAT THE %$&!#? WHERE'D THEY GO?
Yeah...they went long last night. WAY long. I had my DVR set to tape 3 minutes past, and I still didn't get the last 3-4 minutes of the show. Luckily, I also record Fringe, which comes on right after that...
This was yet another virtually perfect performance, gorgeous song, perfect choice, blah blah blah. Seriously, isn't it a foregone conclusion at this point? I mean, SIMON gave him a standing ovation...I honestly don't remember that EVER happening before the finale.
Only one little nit to pick...I think he decided at the last minute to jump up to that last note (in the taped rehearsal we see when they are flashing the numbers, he ended on a lower note that I thought sounded better), so he had a MINOR little wobble getting up to it. But that was like Cindy Crawford's mole...it was almost necessary to confirm that we were watching a human.
PREDICTIONS:
Who SHOULD be in the bottom 3: Scott, Lil, and...Matt, I guess?
Who WILL be in the bottom 3: Scott, Matt, and Kris
Who SHOULD go home: Scott
Who WILL go home: Scott
Now, once again I am a little spoiled, having seen the DialIdol predictions. They have Kris pretty solidly at the bottom. I'm hoping that's not true, but if it is then I predict that the judges will save him.
Here's why:
- Kris has had a very consistent run on the show, and was (in my opinion) the best of the week last week. This is the first week that he has not been great, and the judges may decide that one bad week is not enough to have him go home.
- They only have two more weeks after this week to use it (can't use it once we hit the top 5). If they were saving it for Adam or Danny, then it's not going to be used...those guys are going nowhere near the bottom until we are well into the top 5. Only other person I can see them saving it for would be Allison, who has been in the bottom 3 a couple of times (inexplicably), which is the only reason I can see for them NOT using it on Kris (if it comes down to that).
Thoughts?
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Words fail me...
This may be the greatest thing I have ever seen...my life will never be the same again.
h/t to Felicia Day (of Dr. Horrible fame), a most excellent Tweeter
h/t to Felicia Day (of Dr. Horrible fame), a most excellent Tweeter
Thoughts on Lost - Whatever Happened, Happened
Sorry about the delay on this...combination of a couple of issues, including the fact that Lostpedia has been slow to put up transcripts. I usually rely heavily on the transcripts when putting my recap together, so without those I have had to rewatch a couple more times to make sure I get all of my notes.
Anyway, enough of my whining...Dr. Shephard does more than enough whining for both of us this week!
- First off, the big controversy of the week...in last week's episode, and in the previouslies this week, it's pretty obvious that Ben is shot on the left side of his chest. This week, the wound has magically moved to the right side.
So...what to make of this? Production error? Maybe, but I really hope not...that seems like a pretty big error to make, and would have been easy enough to fix in the previouslies.
Intentional misleading by the producers? They could have had the wound on the left side to build a better cliffhanger, because it increases the chances that Ben is going to die. However, does it really matter what side the wound is on, as far as whether he is going to live or not? The question of Ben's survival lies more with the very title of this episode, right? Either you believe that it's possible for Little Ben to die without honking everything up or you don't. If you don't believe that he can die, than it really doesn't matter whether he was shot in the heart or his pinky finger...whatever happened, happened....right?
Other possibility is that the bullet DID go through his heart...but the Island isn't ready for him to die yet (duh), so it "moved" the wound.
Unfortunately, my gut says it's one of the first two...either a pretty egregious production error, or some pointless misleading by the writers/producers. Because if the Island didn't want him to die, why did the wound have to move in order to accomplish that?
Anyway...enough analysis on the first 5 seconds of the show. Moving on.
- Jack just can't keep his mouth shut. Always has to be the smartest guy in the room..."How could he have set the fire if he was locked up?" "Well, I'll tell you, Mr. I'm-New-Here-Which-Automatically-Makes-Me-Pretty-Much-The-Number-One-Suspect, he had help on the inside. Probably you. Any more questions, Smart Guy?"
OK, so I jazzed up Horace's response a little, but jeez...between Jack popping off at the worst possible time and Kate showing up later in the security station, you really have to feel sorry for Sawyer. He really did have things pretty much under control until all of these wild cards showed up, thinking they were still running this place.
- "Nice to meet you, Roger Linus. Pardon my look of surprise. With Ben being your son, I thought you would look more like....Satan."
- The Roger/Kate vibe in this whole episode was just...EEW. He really seemed to take a liking to Kate, which....duh. But didn't she seem kind of like she was enjoying it? Even encouraging it a little? RUN, Roger....run while you still can!!
- Kate does love her some Patsy Cline, though...that's twice we've heard her playing this song (she was playing it in the barracks when she was living with Claire, too), and there have been other instances of Patsy Cline songs in Kate's episodes before. So I guess she's not ALL bad.
- Speaking of music..."Catch a Falling Star" is also what Christian used to sing to Claire, and it's also the song being played by the mobile over his crib in the Staff station.
- I keep forgetting that not everybody is as obsessed as some of us are...it's been the assumption for months now that what Sawyer was whispering to Kate in the helicopter was related to her taking care of Cassidy and Clementine. So while that was a pretty weak "reveal" to folks like us, I guess it had to be there for the more "casual" fans.
- Cassidy makes me sad. So cynical, so pragmatic...she's TOO good at this now, you know? Sawyer has taught her to always assume the worst about people, and the sad part is that this kind of thinking becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy most of the time. If you EXPECT people to disappoint you, then you start LOOKING for ways to be disappointed. And those, unfortunately, can always be found if you look hard enough.
- Remind me never to play poker with her: "This money is not even his"...."That's not your baby."
- On to what was definitely the highlight of the show....the interaction between Miles and his "prisoners," especially Hurley.
- "You're all free to leave whenever you want...but I'll shoot you in the leg." Would have been the line of the night, if not for...
- "I'm waiting for my hand to disappear."
Hee.
- And Jack slips into his Drago impersonation: "If he dies...he dies." Needs to work on the accent a little, but he certainly got the sentiment right.
I've come around a LITTLE bit on Jack's attitude since I wrote my initial thoughts. Maybe, based on his speech to Kate, as well as his later one to Juliet, he is simply embracing his new role as Man of Faith. But I still think he's being a jerk. Like Sawyer, Kate, and Juliet all realize (and oh, the irony of how it turns out)...he's not Ben yet. He's just a kid who is dying, and Jack has the ability to possibly do something about it and chooses not to. However you want to paint it, that's just selfish.
- Nice job securing your prisoners, Miles. Kate walks right past him, out of the house and Miles' only response is: "Hey...where you going?" Didn't he learn anything about prisoner security from his time under Locke's watchful eye?
Anyway, enough of my whining...Dr. Shephard does more than enough whining for both of us this week!
- First off, the big controversy of the week...in last week's episode, and in the previouslies this week, it's pretty obvious that Ben is shot on the left side of his chest. This week, the wound has magically moved to the right side.
So...what to make of this? Production error? Maybe, but I really hope not...that seems like a pretty big error to make, and would have been easy enough to fix in the previouslies.
Intentional misleading by the producers? They could have had the wound on the left side to build a better cliffhanger, because it increases the chances that Ben is going to die. However, does it really matter what side the wound is on, as far as whether he is going to live or not? The question of Ben's survival lies more with the very title of this episode, right? Either you believe that it's possible for Little Ben to die without honking everything up or you don't. If you don't believe that he can die, than it really doesn't matter whether he was shot in the heart or his pinky finger...whatever happened, happened....right?
Other possibility is that the bullet DID go through his heart...but the Island isn't ready for him to die yet (duh), so it "moved" the wound.
Unfortunately, my gut says it's one of the first two...either a pretty egregious production error, or some pointless misleading by the writers/producers. Because if the Island didn't want him to die, why did the wound have to move in order to accomplish that?
Anyway...enough analysis on the first 5 seconds of the show. Moving on.
- Jack just can't keep his mouth shut. Always has to be the smartest guy in the room..."How could he have set the fire if he was locked up?" "Well, I'll tell you, Mr. I'm-New-Here-Which-Automatically-Makes-Me-Pretty-Much-The-Number-One-Suspect, he had help on the inside. Probably you. Any more questions, Smart Guy?"
OK, so I jazzed up Horace's response a little, but jeez...between Jack popping off at the worst possible time and Kate showing up later in the security station, you really have to feel sorry for Sawyer. He really did have things pretty much under control until all of these wild cards showed up, thinking they were still running this place.
- "Nice to meet you, Roger Linus. Pardon my look of surprise. With Ben being your son, I thought you would look more like....Satan."
- The Roger/Kate vibe in this whole episode was just...EEW. He really seemed to take a liking to Kate, which....duh. But didn't she seem kind of like she was enjoying it? Even encouraging it a little? RUN, Roger....run while you still can!!
- Kate does love her some Patsy Cline, though...that's twice we've heard her playing this song (she was playing it in the barracks when she was living with Claire, too), and there have been other instances of Patsy Cline songs in Kate's episodes before. So I guess she's not ALL bad.
- Speaking of music..."Catch a Falling Star" is also what Christian used to sing to Claire, and it's also the song being played by the mobile over his crib in the Staff station.
- I keep forgetting that not everybody is as obsessed as some of us are...it's been the assumption for months now that what Sawyer was whispering to Kate in the helicopter was related to her taking care of Cassidy and Clementine. So while that was a pretty weak "reveal" to folks like us, I guess it had to be there for the more "casual" fans.
- Cassidy makes me sad. So cynical, so pragmatic...she's TOO good at this now, you know? Sawyer has taught her to always assume the worst about people, and the sad part is that this kind of thinking becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy most of the time. If you EXPECT people to disappoint you, then you start LOOKING for ways to be disappointed. And those, unfortunately, can always be found if you look hard enough.
- Remind me never to play poker with her: "This money is not even his"...."That's not your baby."
- On to what was definitely the highlight of the show....the interaction between Miles and his "prisoners," especially Hurley.
- "You're all free to leave whenever you want...but I'll shoot you in the leg." Would have been the line of the night, if not for...
- "I'm waiting for my hand to disappear."
Hee.
- And Jack slips into his Drago impersonation: "If he dies...he dies." Needs to work on the accent a little, but he certainly got the sentiment right.
I've come around a LITTLE bit on Jack's attitude since I wrote my initial thoughts. Maybe, based on his speech to Kate, as well as his later one to Juliet, he is simply embracing his new role as Man of Faith. But I still think he's being a jerk. Like Sawyer, Kate, and Juliet all realize (and oh, the irony of how it turns out)...he's not Ben yet. He's just a kid who is dying, and Jack has the ability to possibly do something about it and chooses not to. However you want to paint it, that's just selfish.
- Nice job securing your prisoners, Miles. Kate walks right past him, out of the house and Miles' only response is: "Hey...where you going?" Didn't he learn anything about prisoner security from his time under Locke's watchful eye?
- Nice to see Roger gaining at least SOME self awareness...he seems to at least somewhat acknowledge his utter failure as a father. Although, "I guess a boy just needs his mother" isn't quite as accurate as "I guess a boy just doesn't need to be serially abused, and/or accused of murdering his mother every time his birthday rolls around."
Or, I would also have accepted, "I guess a boy needs a role model, not a bitter old drunk who does nothing but drink, complain about his lot in life, and take out his own bitterness and insecurities on his only son."
But, hey...your mileage may vary.
- Interesting exchange between Roger and Kate:
You have any kids?
NO.
Hmmm....
- And on to the next conversation between Miles and Hurley, which is too awesome for me to do justice here.
Couple of points, though...
- How does Miles know that Ben turned a wheel? Is that something Daniel knew and could have told him?
- Miles is 100% right in his theories...it's too complicated to go into here, but if you want to ask me why, feel free to do so in the comments and I will attempt to explain. But I warn you...there are visual aids involved.
- Something interesting I thought of after multiple viewings...Ben has Kate's blood running through him, since she donated (quite a bit, apparently...he had certainly lost a lot). Probably doesn't have any real significance, I just found it interesting.
- EXCELLENT piece of acting by Elizabeth Mitchell (Juliet) in her conversation with Kate. You could see the realization creep into her face of what they had to do, all of the inevitability and enormity of it. She went from distraught, to a little bit sickened, to resolute, all within about 10 seconds and all without saying a word. Kudos.
- The more we see of this little conversation on the dock, the more we realize that this was the moment when the O6 fell completely apart.
- I'll admit...they got me with the scene in the grocery store. First, I thought something had happened in the timeline somewhere that caused Aaron to disappear. Then, I thought for sure that the blond haired lady was Claire. Either that was a really nice job, or I'm extremely gullible.
- Cassidy, FTW: "Well, Jack sounds like a piece of work."
I heart Cassidy.
- Although, I don't totally agree with her assessment of the whole Kate/Claire/Aaron thing. "You took him." Well...kind of? I mean, Claire did disappear and leave him in the woods. They did look for her and couldn't find her. It's not like she conked Claire over the head and took Aaron from her arms (at least, as far as we know). I get that she DID lie about being the mother, and that was probably more out of Kate's need for some sort of familial connection than for the good of Aaron.
- Oh, and more kudos to hand out...Evangeline Lilly knocked it out of the PARK this entire episode. Although I'm not a big fan of Kate, it's certainly not the fault of the actress.
- "Where's Jack?"
" Is he in trouble?"
Hee.
- "I came back to save you." " We didn't NEED SAVING!"
She makes a good point. What WAS all this talk about "You all have to go back...you have to save them...God help us all...etc...etc..." Everybody seemed to be fine and dandy before these guys came back, and in fact everything seems to have gone downhill fairly rapidly ever since they got there. Maybe it's because they DIDN'T bring everybody back? Or maybe Ben wasn't supposed to come with them?
Or maybe...all of these things that seem to be bad are actually necessary for some greater good?
- I love the new Sawyer. That conversation he had with Kate about Cassidy, Clementine, Juliet, and their (Sawyer/Kate) relationship was one of my very favorites of the season. He is absolutely right...he's done a LOT of growing up over the last three years.
- Also glad to see the apparent end of the "Love Quadrangle."
To review:
- Sawyer is happy with Juliet, and has made peace with the fact that he and Kate would have never worked.
- Kate didn't come back to the Island for Jack OR Sawyer...she came back for Aaron, to bring his mother back to him.
- Kate hates Jack.
- Juliet hates Jack, and loves Sawyer (or James, as she always calls him...it's like her pet name for him is his ACTUAL name, since she's the only one who calls him that. At least until Ben and Locke come back.)
- Jack hates everybody, particularly Ben, and up to and including....Jack.
- Am I the only one who still think something weird is going on with Claire's mum? Did she really come all the way to LA just to meet with her lawyer (who also happens to be BEN'S lawyer) about the lawsuit? Maybe, but it just seems sort of contrived.
- And, wait a minute...Claire is ALIVE? Says who? Why is Kate so convinced of that? She disappeared into the Smokey-infested woods three years ago, leaving her bay-bee behind, and nobody has heard from her since as far as Kate knows, except for Kate in her nightmares. I mean, WE saw her hanging out with Christian in Jacob's cabin, but Kate doesn't know that.
- Just to heap more praise on Evangeline Lilly...Kate always looks so HARD, tough, closed off. She has never looked younger or more vulnerable than she did during the conversations with Ms. Littleton, and then in the heart-wrenching scene where she says goodbye to Aaron.
GAH. Got a little dusty in the living room when that scene was going on. Even on my THIRD viewing, when she turns around and says, "Bye-bye, Baby"...SNIFF.
- OK, and on to the real pivotal point of this episode...Sawyer and Kate deliver Ben to Richard. Richard tells them: "He's not ever going to be the same. He'll forget that any of this ever happened. His innocence will be gone. He will ALWAYS be one of us."
Is Richard a member of NAMBLA? Cause that sounded pretty creepy. "His innocence will be gone"? GROSS.
Anyway...this is obviously the turning point in Ben's life. It explains so much about his relationship to the Island, to the Others, to Dharma, and also why he doesn't remember Sayid shooting him or his interactions with the other Losties.
And here is the irony I referred to earlier...this boy was NOT the "Ben" that they all knew and despised. He was just a sad, lonely little kid. Until Sayid showed up and shot him, and then Jack refused to help him, both because they didn't want him to grow up into the monster that they knew. Which he WOULDN'T have, were it not for their own self-serving actions. And THAT, Alannis....is IRONY.
I think it was Erika at LongLiveLocke that brought up something interesting...remember, Ben wasn't originally going to be such a major character. But Michael Emerson was so awesome that they expanded the part just for him. So while some find this "memory wipe" story cheap and a way for the writers to gloss over any paradoxes like Miles and Hurley were discussing, I think maybe it was necessary to tie up any loose ends that may have been caused in the over-arching "big story" by inserting Ben into it. Thoughts?
- OH, and how could I forget Richard's reaction to the names "Ellie" and "Charles?" So, obviously, Hawking and Widmore are still on the Island, and presumably in charge. But like I have mentioned earlier...I think Richard is always the one "in charge" even if he doesn't bear the actual title. Right now, he's allowing Charles and Ellie to run things, but like he says...he doesn't answer to them. Can't WAIT to get resolution on this.
- And we finally see Locke again, after what seems like months.
I don't watch previews, because they give too much away, but I can only assume that next week we will be dealing with Locke/Ben and maybe Sun/Frank as they begin the "long journey" that Christian said was ahead for them.
Still unanswered...what exactly is Daniel up to? What is the "war" that Widmore referred to? When do we get to see Hurley perform Johnny B. Good at the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance?
WHERE THE $%&!%@ is VINCENT???
I feel like we are part of a big stone rolling downhill, picking up speed towards an inevitable collision. These last few episodes have been slower, with just enough reveals and awesomeness to keep the appetite whetted. I think that when it DOES all break loose, our minds are going to be blown.
Namaste.
Friday, April 3, 2009
Quick thoughts on Lost...more to come
Very busy...it may be a couple of days before the full LOST recap is up.
Some quick thoughts on "What Happened, Happened":
- I usually don't like Kate-centric episodes, but this one was probably my favorite of hers. More than anything, I was glad to learn that her reasons for going back to the Island was not for Jack, not for Sawyer...it was for Aaron. The new love of her life. She's going to bring his mother back to him.
- Miles and Hurley were hilarious, and it showed again how well the writers know their audience. Their conversation mirrored what I'm sure are thousands of conversations that LOST fans have had this season, especially during the first few time-travel episodes.
"I'm waiting for my hand to start disappearing."
Hee.
- Jack is a whiny baby. "Wah, Wah, nobody likes me..." Whatever, dude. He needs to come up with better motivation than, "I'm doing this so people will like me."
- Richard said that when Ben comes back he will have "lost his innocence." Do I even WANT to know what that means? Seemed kind of....icky.
The more I think about this episode, the more I like it...at first I thought it was just OK, but as I'm writing this I'm thinking of more and more stuff to get into. Be back in a day or so with the full recap!
Namaste.
Some quick thoughts on "What Happened, Happened":
- I usually don't like Kate-centric episodes, but this one was probably my favorite of hers. More than anything, I was glad to learn that her reasons for going back to the Island was not for Jack, not for Sawyer...it was for Aaron. The new love of her life. She's going to bring his mother back to him.
- Miles and Hurley were hilarious, and it showed again how well the writers know their audience. Their conversation mirrored what I'm sure are thousands of conversations that LOST fans have had this season, especially during the first few time-travel episodes.
"I'm waiting for my hand to start disappearing."
Hee.
- Jack is a whiny baby. "Wah, Wah, nobody likes me..." Whatever, dude. He needs to come up with better motivation than, "I'm doing this so people will like me."
- Richard said that when Ben comes back he will have "lost his innocence." Do I even WANT to know what that means? Seemed kind of....icky.
The more I think about this episode, the more I like it...at first I thought it was just OK, but as I'm writing this I'm thinking of more and more stuff to get into. Be back in a day or so with the full recap!
Namaste.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
In case you were wondering where to shop for me...
You may have missed my birthday, but Father's Day is right around the corner...
CHAIN SAWS!
CHAIN SAWS!
Idol thoughts - top 9
I'm still a little confused as to what the theme was supposed to be this week...Ryan said it was anything that was popular on iTunes this week? How exactly was "popular" defined? Supposedly, this was supposed to help make them more "current" this week, but I think there were only 2 or 3 "current" songs chosen, so I'm at a loss...it was good for me, though, because if it really was "current" songs they would all have been songs I have never heard of.
Anyway, on with the show!
1) Anoop Desai - "Caught Up": Perfect example...I'm guessing this was one of the more current songs on the playlist tonight, and I have never heard it. Nothing about it caused me to re-think my belief that I am not missing anything by staying away from current music.
Maybe it was because I didn't like the song, but I did not like this at all. The vocals were fine, but the performance made me uncomfortable...I was embarrassed for him, because he looked like a big ole dork. He says he wants to be an R&B artist, but I just don't see the R&B audience taking him seriously. The judges were right...this looked like another frat party performance, much like I said when he did "Beat It." He doesn't really put on a great show on stage...it's very "Walk to this side...pose. Walk to the other side....pose. Walk to the front...give the camera my "cool face.""
It reminded me of...me. When I was 9 years old, Thriller was released. I would put that album (yep...ALBUM) on and give a performance in my basement, performing the entire album to an imaginary audience. My performing style at 9 years old was very similar to what Anoop did last night. I can't see how that is a good thing.
For either of us, really.
2) Megan Joy - "Turn Your Lights Down Low":
Q: "Hey, Megan...which necklace do you want to wear tonight?"
A: "Well, I don't know....how about ALL OF THEM?"
OK, here's the thing with Megan. When she actually stays on pitch, I really like the tone of her voice...it's just that those moments are so few and far between. This started out AWFUL, got a little better by the end, but sorry darlin'...it's time to go.
I think a lack of experience is a big part of the problem with her, and I'm hoping the tour helps that because I think with some training and the right songs she could be a good artist. She's just nowhere near there yet.
3) Danny Gokey - "What Hurts the Most": Now THIS was good. Great song choice, sung beautifully, definitely my favorite performance of his so far this season. I do think he could have moved around a little more...I know what he was doing, since I myself said he looked like Taylor Hicks last week. But there is a happy medium.
That's just a nitpick, though...this was a very, very good performance. I loved him until he started talking his usual talk at the end that makes me want to smack him upside the head, but I'm choosing to ignore that. There were too few good performances this week.
4) Allison Iraheta - "Don't Speak": Good Lord, what is she wearing? She looks like a frakking clown. That is the definition of trying too hard.
Anyway...I love this song, it's maybe my favorite No Doubt track, and I can see why she would choose it. But it really doesn't work for her voice, I don't think...she is a better vocalist than Gwen Stefani, is the problem. She should have put this in a different key if she was going to do it, because it started WAY too low, and then it never got high enough to allow her to flex the golden pipes. She sounds fine, and I still love her, I just disagreed with the song choice. Like I have said earlier (and I think Randybot said tonight), just because you LIKE a song, that doesn't mean you need to be singing it on American Idol.
Kara was actually being nice in her commentary, the audience is just too stoopid to realize it. She IS a rocker girl, so there's no need to play dress up.
5) Scott MacIntyre: "Just The Way You Are": Copy-paste:
As a singer, he's not that talented...average at best. Great pianist. Picks the most corny, boring, white-bread song available on a weekly basis. Seems like a great guy.
6) Matt Giraud - "You Found Me": Ugh. This was another one that made me uncomfortable to watch. People want to know what Simon means when he says it was an "affected" performance, this was it...the growling, the phrasing, everything about it was just an imitation of the original.
Again, the judges were pretty much right on, as they were all night for once...he sounds much better when he leans more to the R&B side than when he does the sissy-boy pop rock stuff (like the Coldplay disaster during his top 36 performance).
7) Lil Rounds - "I Surrender": Dumb, dumb song choice. Good grief...how do they all keep screwing this up? They can pick virtually ANY song that Idol can get clearance for, and yet they continue to make stupid choices.
Lil is a good vocalist...not a great vocalist, but a good one. What made Lil a contender (way back in a time that I can barely remember now) was that she was FUN. She made the audience have a good time, and her voice was just good enough that you didn't care if it was perfect, as long as you were having fun. What she is NOT good enough to do is stand there in a prom dress and sing Celine Dion. The vocals were fine, but I don't think they were good enough to win over any fans that she didn't already have.
Here is the thing that I think a lot of them (not just Lil) are missing: Stop trying to win American Idol, and just worry about going out and giving a kick-butt performance every week. If you do that, the votes will take care of themselves. The only ones who worry about stuff like "oh, you did something similar last week, you have to do something different now" are the judges and idiot recappers like me. If you just go out and be awesome, then people will vote for you.
Case in point:
8) Adam Lambert: "Play That Funky Music": Seriously, when you hear that somebody is going to do this on American Idol, do you think "Oh, that is a stellar song choice"? No. But Adam just goes out and performs his butt off, has a blast, the band has a blast, the audience has a blast, the judges have their mind blown and forget to be critical...this is the way you win American Idol. Just be awesome...you don't have to play mind games with the voting audience.
I enjoyed this on TV, but I can't imagine how awesome it must have been seeing it live. It's just such a fun song for the audience, and he is dancing around using the whole stage, the band is going nuts, his voice just keeps going higher and higher and you think that he is going to reach the ceiling, and then he blasts on through that and keeps on going...I would have been going bananas, too.
9) Kris Allen - "Ain't No Sunshine": OK, here is the problem with Kris, and I'm not exaggerating just to make a point (which I have been known to do, believe it or not): After Adam sang, I was looking at my notes, realized that there had only been 8 performers...and I could not for the life of me remember who was left. It's not his fault...he comes out every week, does a great job, makes good decisions with his song choices and arrangements, and I really enjoy his performance...and then 5 minutes later I completely forget that he exists.
Maybe this week will change that, because THIS was my favorite performance of the night. This is one of my all time favorite songs, so he already had that going for him...but then he sang it beautifully, I was pleasantly surprised at seeing and hearing him on the keyboard, and he did just enough with the arrangement that it didn't come off as an impression of the original. Great, great performance...hopefully I will remember it when it comes time for him to sing again next week.
Final thoughts:
If you couldn't tell, I was not overly impressed with the performances this week. I don't know if I was just tired and cranky when I watched it or what, but I was disappointed with almost everybody...I only really liked Danny, Adam, and Kris.
The judges were amazingly coherent tonight...I even thought that Randybot made some great points, which caused me to really question my mental state. I do think, however, that a lot of what Paula said was pre-written (maybe by her, maybe by her assistant)...didn't it sound like she was reading a lot of the time? And using too many multi-syllable words?
Predictions:
Who SHOULD be in the bottom 3: Everybody but Danny, Adam, and Kris.
Who WILL be in the bottom 3: Scott, Megan, and Matt
Who SHOULD go home: Megan
Who WILL go home: Megan
Anyway, on with the show!
1) Anoop Desai - "Caught Up": Perfect example...I'm guessing this was one of the more current songs on the playlist tonight, and I have never heard it. Nothing about it caused me to re-think my belief that I am not missing anything by staying away from current music.
Maybe it was because I didn't like the song, but I did not like this at all. The vocals were fine, but the performance made me uncomfortable...I was embarrassed for him, because he looked like a big ole dork. He says he wants to be an R&B artist, but I just don't see the R&B audience taking him seriously. The judges were right...this looked like another frat party performance, much like I said when he did "Beat It." He doesn't really put on a great show on stage...it's very "Walk to this side...pose. Walk to the other side....pose. Walk to the front...give the camera my "cool face.""
It reminded me of...me. When I was 9 years old, Thriller was released. I would put that album (yep...ALBUM) on and give a performance in my basement, performing the entire album to an imaginary audience. My performing style at 9 years old was very similar to what Anoop did last night. I can't see how that is a good thing.
For either of us, really.
2) Megan Joy - "Turn Your Lights Down Low":
Q: "Hey, Megan...which necklace do you want to wear tonight?"
A: "Well, I don't know....how about ALL OF THEM?"
OK, here's the thing with Megan. When she actually stays on pitch, I really like the tone of her voice...it's just that those moments are so few and far between. This started out AWFUL, got a little better by the end, but sorry darlin'...it's time to go.
I think a lack of experience is a big part of the problem with her, and I'm hoping the tour helps that because I think with some training and the right songs she could be a good artist. She's just nowhere near there yet.
3) Danny Gokey - "What Hurts the Most": Now THIS was good. Great song choice, sung beautifully, definitely my favorite performance of his so far this season. I do think he could have moved around a little more...I know what he was doing, since I myself said he looked like Taylor Hicks last week. But there is a happy medium.
That's just a nitpick, though...this was a very, very good performance. I loved him until he started talking his usual talk at the end that makes me want to smack him upside the head, but I'm choosing to ignore that. There were too few good performances this week.
4) Allison Iraheta - "Don't Speak": Good Lord, what is she wearing? She looks like a frakking clown. That is the definition of trying too hard.
Anyway...I love this song, it's maybe my favorite No Doubt track, and I can see why she would choose it. But it really doesn't work for her voice, I don't think...she is a better vocalist than Gwen Stefani, is the problem. She should have put this in a different key if she was going to do it, because it started WAY too low, and then it never got high enough to allow her to flex the golden pipes. She sounds fine, and I still love her, I just disagreed with the song choice. Like I have said earlier (and I think Randybot said tonight), just because you LIKE a song, that doesn't mean you need to be singing it on American Idol.
Kara was actually being nice in her commentary, the audience is just too stoopid to realize it. She IS a rocker girl, so there's no need to play dress up.
5) Scott MacIntyre: "Just The Way You Are": Copy-paste:
As a singer, he's not that talented...average at best. Great pianist. Picks the most corny, boring, white-bread song available on a weekly basis. Seems like a great guy.
6) Matt Giraud - "You Found Me": Ugh. This was another one that made me uncomfortable to watch. People want to know what Simon means when he says it was an "affected" performance, this was it...the growling, the phrasing, everything about it was just an imitation of the original.
Again, the judges were pretty much right on, as they were all night for once...he sounds much better when he leans more to the R&B side than when he does the sissy-boy pop rock stuff (like the Coldplay disaster during his top 36 performance).
7) Lil Rounds - "I Surrender": Dumb, dumb song choice. Good grief...how do they all keep screwing this up? They can pick virtually ANY song that Idol can get clearance for, and yet they continue to make stupid choices.
Lil is a good vocalist...not a great vocalist, but a good one. What made Lil a contender (way back in a time that I can barely remember now) was that she was FUN. She made the audience have a good time, and her voice was just good enough that you didn't care if it was perfect, as long as you were having fun. What she is NOT good enough to do is stand there in a prom dress and sing Celine Dion. The vocals were fine, but I don't think they were good enough to win over any fans that she didn't already have.
Here is the thing that I think a lot of them (not just Lil) are missing: Stop trying to win American Idol, and just worry about going out and giving a kick-butt performance every week. If you do that, the votes will take care of themselves. The only ones who worry about stuff like "oh, you did something similar last week, you have to do something different now" are the judges and idiot recappers like me. If you just go out and be awesome, then people will vote for you.
Case in point:
8) Adam Lambert: "Play That Funky Music": Seriously, when you hear that somebody is going to do this on American Idol, do you think "Oh, that is a stellar song choice"? No. But Adam just goes out and performs his butt off, has a blast, the band has a blast, the audience has a blast, the judges have their mind blown and forget to be critical...this is the way you win American Idol. Just be awesome...you don't have to play mind games with the voting audience.
I enjoyed this on TV, but I can't imagine how awesome it must have been seeing it live. It's just such a fun song for the audience, and he is dancing around using the whole stage, the band is going nuts, his voice just keeps going higher and higher and you think that he is going to reach the ceiling, and then he blasts on through that and keeps on going...I would have been going bananas, too.
9) Kris Allen - "Ain't No Sunshine": OK, here is the problem with Kris, and I'm not exaggerating just to make a point (which I have been known to do, believe it or not): After Adam sang, I was looking at my notes, realized that there had only been 8 performers...and I could not for the life of me remember who was left. It's not his fault...he comes out every week, does a great job, makes good decisions with his song choices and arrangements, and I really enjoy his performance...and then 5 minutes later I completely forget that he exists.
Maybe this week will change that, because THIS was my favorite performance of the night. This is one of my all time favorite songs, so he already had that going for him...but then he sang it beautifully, I was pleasantly surprised at seeing and hearing him on the keyboard, and he did just enough with the arrangement that it didn't come off as an impression of the original. Great, great performance...hopefully I will remember it when it comes time for him to sing again next week.
Final thoughts:
If you couldn't tell, I was not overly impressed with the performances this week. I don't know if I was just tired and cranky when I watched it or what, but I was disappointed with almost everybody...I only really liked Danny, Adam, and Kris.
The judges were amazingly coherent tonight...I even thought that Randybot made some great points, which caused me to really question my mental state. I do think, however, that a lot of what Paula said was pre-written (maybe by her, maybe by her assistant)...didn't it sound like she was reading a lot of the time? And using too many multi-syllable words?
Predictions:
Who SHOULD be in the bottom 3: Everybody but Danny, Adam, and Kris.
Who WILL be in the bottom 3: Scott, Megan, and Matt
Who SHOULD go home: Megan
Who WILL go home: Megan
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