American Idol

Ugh. I am just not sure I can do this show anymore. It has gotten beyond pathetic. Maybe this is because I've gotten older. Maybe it's because the novelty of it wore off years ago. Maybe it's because Ryan keeps saying, "It's the most talented group of 24 ever!" and I want to slap the snot out of him for blatantly lying to all of us. (Ok, I realize Ryan is a puppet, but that doesn't change the urge to slap something violently.) Maybe it's because they have really tried to use the contestants' celebrity (e.g. former record contract and commercial acting) to make us vote for contestants.

In a season where the guys are pathetic, it's depressing when the girls are even MORE pathetic. Where did they find these people? I think they casted them because of qualities of which being able to carry a tune was pretty much optional -- a convenience in a few cases. JP was covering his head and begging for it to be over last night and, although I didn't cover my head, I was witnessing far too many cringe-worthy moments for my taste.

These are the people I think could/would/should/dontreallycareiftheydoornot make it to the final four. The thing is, I can't imagine buying any albums by any of these people.

Carly
I guess she can sing. I can't really tell through all the hype they have loaded on her each and every week. She can carry a tune. But I am not sure I have bought her being sick every single week up till now, and I am not feeling sorry for her in any way, even though the show producers would reallyreallyREALLY like me to. Also, her album would probably be a Heart rip off and there is no way I would purchase it.

David H
This guy can sing. The problem is, it skeeves me out to watch him. He makes hand gestures, squinty eyes, and constipated faces that rival the best of them. I can imagine him fronting a boy band or maybe making an album that is Enrique Iglesias-esque. I think I just threw up in my mouth a little.


David A

Ok, considering pure vocal talent, this kid is definitely a front runner. He can throw out a ten-note run like he was blinking an eye. He definitely has the tween/mom/grandma vote. He may be cute and have some talent, but the problem is the only way I would ever buy his album is FOR my grandma.




Chikezie

Oh, I'm supposed to pick a final four. Um... yeah. How about Chikezie? His name alone could sell a million records. Plus, who doesn't like a guy who can pull off an orange suit and never once stop grinning?




Yeah, like I said, I am not sure how many more hours of my life I am willing to waste on this freak show.

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Charlie Wilson's War

Hi. I have been slacking off in the blogging department, but that should be remedied soon enough. My mind has been jumping all over the place lately with things I want to do. There is a lack of clarity and focus in my mind. I really need to sit down and map out some plans and get them in place. My jumpy thoughts make blogging neigh impossible. I am going to post up my goals for the year in the next couple of days.

Today we went to see Charlie Wilson's War. I did not like it at all. The screenplay was written by Aaron Sorkin (of West Wing fame), so there was way too much unwarranted dialog about next to nothing. And honestly, the story didn't really need to be told. The movie could have reasonably been 30 minutes long, but who wants to pay $9 for a 30 minute movie? So we all have to suffer. Also, there were too many curse words flying around. I am all for free speech, but when a movie is rated R, it seems like they throw in as many gratuitous f-words and naked boobs that they can fit into the movie, and it becomes distracting to the central plot.

So, yeah, don't waste your money/time on Charlie Wilson's War.

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TiVo

Today I was able to delete about twenty shows off the TiVo, making the deleted items folder contain about 54 shows. What would really make me happy is to have at least twice that many deleted shows like I did at the end of the summer. Assuming the writer's strike goes on for a while, I may have a chance to catch up, at least a little bit.

Yes, deleting shows from the TiVo makes me feel good, and yes, I am a little bit of an obsessive freak. I must say, though, TiVo is an amazing product and I love being able to watch any show whenever I want with NO COMMERCIALS. The no commercial watching saves a lot of unnecessarily wasted time.

(Just four more days of posting and NaBloPoMo is history!)

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Bee Movie

JP and I went to see Bee Movie this evening. I have to say, it was the most visually stunning and funniest movie I have seen in a long time. It may come across as a kid's movie, but it really had a lot of humor in it for adults, too. I think a lot of movies, while the animation may be amazing, miss the mark on the story side. This one, though, had a great story that anyone could enjoy.



The animation is most impressive.


It looks so real that I found myself wishing I could pause the movie to drink in everything going on in each scene.



The animated movies today completely blow away movies from even five years ago, not to mention from when I was young and Who Framed Roger Rabbit was all the rage.

So yes, it is an animated movie, and animated movies are mostly tailored for kids, but this one is great for any age. Go see it and you won't be sorry. And if you can, see it in digital format -- the picture is so crisp!

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Soaps

Today was spent writing and writing. Actually, typing and typing would be more accurate. I wrote a nine page paper and an eight page paper and posted lots of interesting things to my (online) classes. I actually spent all weekend doing school work, not venturing out of the house till nine o'clock tonight.

Part of the time was spent watching soap operas for the paper I have yet to write. I watched General Hospital and then Days of Our Lives. Now, I am not a soap opera connoisseur, but I do enjoy two soap operas from time to time -- The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful. The comparison between these soap operas and really any other soap operas out there is like night and day. Y&R and B&B are so polished, well lit, and based on, at worst, semi-watchable storylines -- storylines that MOVE, might I add.

General Hospital was the first one that I watched for my paper, and I thought that the storyline was fairly terrible. There was a lot of depressing Soprano-wannabe action going on and there was no humor whatsoever. The only saving grace was the crazy character Zacchara who babbles on about gardening, yells a lot and throws huge glass vases at people's heads. There was much bad lighting and scenery to be had in GH. The lighting was so poor that it made Jax (remember when he was the GH hottie back in the 90s? you don't? oh.) look like a walking deadman with gray skin.

That said, from my soap opera watching I have discerned that Days of Our Lives is possibly the worst soap opera on television. Nothing happens in it, the storylines require a complete suspension of reality, and the film quality and lighting is so poor that I often found myself squinting to discern what they were wearing. If I had to watch this soap opera regularly, I think I might go insane. Also, nothing actually happens -- they just talk in pretty much the same location for the entire episode. They must not have much of a budget for sets, or writers for that matter.

Anyway, I am glad my soap watching is over and I really don't think I could watch a soap if it wasn't for Y&R or B&B.

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Movies

I am fairly discriminating when it comes to movies. The stupid comedies of late really don't do it for me -- it takes something more clever to make me laugh -- and I haven't seen very many interesting dramas lately either. So earlier this year, I was thrilled when not one, but TWO movies came out that are just amazing.

The first is Once, a heartfelt story about an Irish busker and a flower seller. There are songs (that they sing -- the actors are musicians) scattered throughout the movie. I listen to the songs from the movie all the time. It is very different and won me over. The DVD release date is 12/18, just in time for Christmas.

The second is Paris, Je T'Aime. It is just under two hours of 18 short films set in the city of lights. If you dream of Paris, if you have been there, if you enjoyed Amelie, or if you just want to see shorts directed by a slew of talented directors, then you will most likely enjoy this movie. I love, love, love it -- it completely captivated me. Even if there is a short you aren't particularly fond of, it will be over in six minutes or so! Not many movies can claim that. It was just released the other day, so go rent it or pick it up (you will want to watch it again) and tell me how much you want to wander the streets of Paris.

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Decorating

Did you see Oprah today? Nate Berkus, interior designer extraordinaire, was on and went to visit the three winners of Knock, Knock, It's Nate. The only requirement was that the homeowners decorated their homes without the help of an outside decorator. (All images © Oprah.com)

The first one, a Beverly Hills condo, was just dreamy. The living room and blue tv room were especially cozy and relaxing looking. The images don't do it justice, probably on purpose so you have to buy O at Home magazine.





The second house, themed to look like a spa, was pretty nice, but my least favorite. If I wanted to live in a spa, I'd make it different than this. I did like the custom built staircase and little touches like the stone accents on the floor.





And the third house had a European flavor to it. The family had lived in Switzerland, so they had a lot of interesting pieces. The neatest thing was the curtain behind the bed in the master bedroom. It was a small room and only had one window, so she hung the window treatment up for two windows and pulled back the one side of the drapery to complete the illusion. It really works.





Obviously I would live in any of the three homes, but if I had to choose I would live in the first or third house. The first house was so clean and rich looking, and the last was beautifully different -- it made me want to pack up and move to Europe!

I now have visions of doing wonderful things to this house. Though I have done some things, with my mom's help, we don't have much else besides furniture, paint on the walls, and too much random clutter. I am not sure I will ever have a house that is fit for a magazine publication, but a girl can dream, right?

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Last night JP got us free tickets to go see Game Show Spectacular at the Las Vegas Hilton, hosted today by Jamie Farr of M*A*S*H fame. JP had been wanting to go to this for some time, and the timing just happened to work out this time.

I felt fairly uncomfortable because I did not really want to be called up on stage for a game, especially after the first game where they called four women up on stage, asked them their WEIGHT (they had to guess it ALOUD), proceeded to ask the audience whether we thought it was higher or lower, and then proceeded to have them get on a scale. The woman who was closest got the money. I guess the host didn't actually say their real weight aloud, but it was pretty uncomfortable and demeaning nonetheless. I think that some man thought that that would be a funny game (or maybe a woman -- we can be pretty cruel to each other), but I just didn't get it. Especially since one of the women was completely embarrassed when she found out what the game was, even though she had been completely excited moments before in the audience.

The other games they did -- a play on Card Sharks, Name That Tune, The Newly Wed Game, and The Gong Show -- were pretty entertaining, and people were winning hundreds of dollars each game. Fortunately, one of our ticket numbers was called during the last game and JP ran up on stage along with nine other people to guess whether the card the lady assistant lifted would be red or green. He was out in the first round of guesses, but he got a $50 gift card to a store in the Hilton anyway. Just seeing him get called was worth any hesitation I felt.

We went and spent his gift card on a big box of Ethel's Chocolate. Yum!

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The Great Russian Nutcracker

Tonight, JP and I went to see the Moscow ballet perform the Great Russian Nutcracker at the Henderson Pavilion. Henderson, while officially a separate town, is in the southeast section of the Las Vegas Valley. The Pavilion is by far one of the most awesome performance venues I have ever been in. The seats are wide and comfy, and there is actually enough room for people to get by. The tent structure itself is really neat looking, and for most shows, if you miss getting a seat or don't want to pay for it, you can lounge in the nice cushy grass at the top.

Anyway, I digress. I had never seen the Nutcracker before -- or any live ballet for that matter -- so this was a first for me. The first act was really strange and there was way too much going on for me to focus on what the dancers were actually doing. The second act, however, was a complete turnaround. I actually recognized most of the music, and there were far fewer dancers on stage during most of the songs. Even when there were more, they at least were all doing mostly the same sort of things. There also weren't countless kids running around the stage to distract me as there was during the first act. Did I mention that I get distracted easily?

I would have preferred to skip the first act and go straight to the second. The dancers did some really amazing moves that were really similar to ice skating. I was even getting used to seeing the guys/boys in tights. Can you tell I know nothing about ballet? After seeing the Nutcracker I am still not too keen on ballet, but I still think the performance was pretty excellent as far as ballet goes. Overall, I would give it a 9 out of 10. I doubt I will see it again anytime soon, but for $30 it wasn't a bad deal.

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Oprah's Great American Haircut

If you know me at all, you know that I love me some Oprah. I am not sure what it is about the show that I enjoy so much. Maybe it takes me back to my mom watching it after school while making dinner. Maybe I enjoy the randomness of it all. I really can't stand how ditzy and goofy she acts sometimes, and I have sworn off all murder-themed episodes from this season on, but I just can't help myself. Sometimes I need a good dose of Oprah randomness to take me away from my life.

Today's show was Oprah's Great American Haircut. 99 women and 1 man got their hair cut by a fabulous team of stylists. Though I can't say I personally would go for an in-your-face orange or red hair color treatment, I thought all the colors and cuts they showed looked pretty nice except for one.

This has really gotten me thinking about my hair. I know what a profound effect a good haircut and color can have, but I have been putting it off because frankly, I haven't felt like making the decision. Sure, I go to the salon and get it trimmed every few months. I am not turning into woman - who - grows - her -hair - out - for - 30 - years - and - has - to - go - on - Oprah - before - she - cuts - it. No, that will never be me. But I have been putting off coloring my hair. It is a very in between color right now. It's not exactly blonde, but it's not exactly brown either. I have some blonde hair coloring in the closet, but I have been holding off on using it because I am dreading the maintenance it requires.

I colored my hair from the time I was 16 till I was 22. The last time I got it colored, I though, Oh, I will make it easy on myself and have a trained person do my highlights. Unfortunately, my laziness turned into a three hour ordeal involving two colorings because the stylist didn't use enough chemical the first time. After that, I let my hair go back to its natural color -- the indescribable blonde/brown mixture.

So anyway, I am still a bit torn about going back to the bottle. I know that when I do, it will probably be for a good part of the rest of my life. Sitting on the idea for a few more months won't hurt anyone. ;]

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