TV Review-American Idol 2006-Ten Goes to Nine
The music of the evening featured songs of the 21st century on Tuesday, March 28, 2006. Thus my middle-aged ears didn’t know one single song and didn’t like any of them at any rate.
In fact the entire American Idol presentation when ten would be culled down to nine was a big disappointment across the age spectrum it would seem, at least as I judge by my readings across the Blogosphere.Be that as it may, I still watched dutifully and on this night, only one stood out as a winner and even I am amazed at who it was.
First, some Idol tidbits.
We are not sure how true this rumor is and it does seem to pop up every year as a possibility. It’s Paula Abdul and there’s always something going on with her. The publicity rule of thumb is that there is no such thing as bad publicity and following this maxim, I wonder if yet another Paula rumor wasn’t thrown out and about to keep public interest heightened as the competition plows on. This time the allegation is that Paula is high maintenance and subject to medical hysteria involving exhaustion and dehydration.
Imagine that in the United States of America.
This “Paula is nuts” rumor has an added dimension in that there’s the additional tidbit that Jessica Simpson or Britney Spears were possible replacements for Paula.
From SF GATE:
'American Idol' Producers Nearly Fired Abdul
AP / Chris Carlson
"American Idol" producers came close to sacking judge Paul Abdul earlier this month -- and wanted to offer her job to Britney Spears or Jessica Simpson.
Tensions on the set of the hit TV show were running high and producers were considering firing the former singer for her erratic behavior.
A source tells Us Weekly magazine, "Paula was being very difficult. (She was) crying all the time and arriving late for meetings."
The stress from the situation drove Abdul to seek medical attention and she was treated for "exhaustion and dehydration."
According to the source, executives from the show discussed replacing the troubled judge: "(They) liked Jessica (Simpson) a lot. And some were pushing for Britney (Spears)."
Neither star ended up meeting with "Idol" producers and they decided to keep Abdul -- for now.
Abdul's representative denies the allegations: "Paula is always a joy on the set and everyone loves her.”
Kevin Covais on Judges and Being a Sex Symbol
As contestants are eliminated there is always the post-elimination appearances on the morning talk shows. Kevin Covais was a cute little thing but his resemblance to “Chicken Little” precluded his stature as any sort of Idol, much less the vaunted American one. Which doesn’t mean that Covais’ singing career is over by any means. For one thing he has a lot of growing to do and the fellow does have a magnificent voice. There’s a future for Covais and I’m sure he’ll find it.
Below some cute quips from Kevin regarding his relationship to the AI judges and his tongue-in-cheek status as a sex symbol.
From AOL:
As a contestant, do you tend to take what certain judges say more seriously? It seems like Paula always has something nice to say...
Right, like, You sounded horrible, but you looked pretty.
Exactly.
I try not to analyze it and say Simon's opinion is 10 times more important than anyone else's. I take what each of them has to say and I respect what they all say. But I love the feedback I've gotten from Randy best.
A couple of weeks ago you put Simon in his place when he criticized your performance: You snapped back that you weren't expecting anything from him either. That took some serious guts.For me it was four weeks in the making. I'd gotten nothing but negative feedback. He was always like, ''I like you. I like you.'' But he never said anything about my voice. I was fed up and the New Yorker in me came out. I wasn't expecting to say anything to him that night, but I think he respected me for standing up to him.
What was the best advice you got?
I think what Simon said to me, which was, ''You had a lot of courage. You're a really brave guy on the show.'' I'm going to take that with me, because I know if I can stand up to Simon I can stand up to anyone.
Let's talk about the whole sex-symbol thing, Kevin.
The sex-symbol thing... In all honesty, it was like a joke. I was just trying to be funny and lighten the mood. People sometimes can't tell when I'm serious or joking, and that was me joking when I said I was a sex symbol. I consider myself a pretty funny guy.
Now for a quick rundown of the final ten and their performances.
Lisa Tucker sang “Because of You” by none other than former Idol Kelly Clarkson. The judges excoriated Tucker for her song choice but I thought it was clever as all get out. Not to mention an indicator of how far this contest has come when the contenders for one contest sing songs from the winners of earlier competitions.
I thought Lisa’s performance, no mind the clever song choice, was really off. She was screechy as my ageing ears heard it. Simon told Lisa the song was “too big for your voice” and the performance was “painful”.
Kelly Pickler sang a song titled, I am not making this up, “Suds in the Bucket”. I thought she was out of tune and go on, that song was just silly. Simon deemed it “horrible” and “gimmicky”.
On to one of my faves, Ace Young. Ace sang a tune called “Drops of Jupiter” which I’d never heard. Randy said it was not only the wrong song, he stipulated that Ace “didn’t sing it well”. Ace’s performance did nothing for me.
Taylor Hicks sang a tune-“Trouble”- and he displayed good vocals. This week Taylor remained still as he sang rather than do that crazy chicken dance he normally does all over the stage. Paula made the same comment. Simon said Hicks’ performance reminded him of “Clay Aiken”.
Mandisa was a major disappointment with her gospel performance of “Shackles”. Mandisa is probably a singer of the gospel genre and while this is a well-respected musical category it’s just not a winning genre in this contest. Simon pronounced Mandisa’s song and performance as “not for me”.
I thought Chris Daughtry gave one of the better performances of the evening although I did not recognize his song but I did see it as Chris’ genre and I can see Chris winning this thing. It was a rock song, titled “What If”. If nothing else, Chris was different this evening and his performance demonstrated where Chris will probably go in his singing career. Randy said he was “sharp”; Simon said Chris had gone “too far”.
Katharine McPhee gave one of the better performances of the evening with a tune called “The Voice Within”. I loved her outfit, thought she presented a good voice range and considered this a good song choice. Paula said McPhee’s performance was one of her best and Simon dubbed it one of the better performances of the evening.
Up comes country/western rocker, Bucky Covington. Bucky sang a song titled “Real Good Man” and I noticed on occasion his voice completely disappeared! I did like Bucky’s interpretation of a country “line dance”.
Perhaps I missed them but I didn’t hear any judge’s comments on Bucky’s performance.
Ah, Elliott Yamin. Not wanting to be cruel but unable to control myself, let me say that Elliott looked like a homeless fellow with that construction jacket and rather tattered threads. It could be just me but I thought Elliott tried to act “black”. Which Elliott is not so that strange bobbing up and down thing he did looked stranger than strange. There is just no way Elliott Yamin is going to be America’s next Idol. Simon called Elliott’s dancing “hideous” and yeah, that’s the ticket.
Finally the best performance of the evening and know now that I have never seen Beyonce perform, do not know who she is and really don’t care.Paris, with my ears devoid of any preconceived notions, gave a great performance and hey, I enjoyed watching her. What better judgment than that, to give the audience entertainment? Paris Bennett sang “Work It Out” and she looked the part of the song with her hip clothes and sassy rap moves. Randy called it “the bomb” while Simon, who didn’t seem to like anything this evening of the top ten, said Paris looked like a “little girl pretending to be Beyonce”.
The Elimination
All of the above was written before Wednesday’s elimination show. I predict Bucky Covington will be sent on his way home but for now, we await the elimination show now early in the evening of 3/29/06.
=================
The bottom three this week were Lisa Tucker, Ace Young, and Katharine McPhee (this is a surprise).
No Bucky?
Sent on her way on the evening of March 29,2006, was Lisa Tucker.
This is no surprise. It should have been Bucky Covington.
More American Idol Reviews Here
How much are they paid?
Seven occupations make more than $100K a year By G. Scott Thomas bizjournals.com Doctors, pilots and lawyers deliver essential services, often at strange hours and under high stress. And they're paid well for their effort. Doctors earn more than anyone else in the private sector, averaging $145,688 a year, according to a Bizjournals.com analysis of data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Airplane pilots and navigators rank second at $128,406, followed by lawyers at $118,004. The numbers are for 2004, the latest year available. Seven occupations made the six-figure list of salaries. Joining doctor, pilots and lawyers are: optometrists, with an annual average of $116,403; medical-science professors, $115,786; marketing and advertising managers, $103,883; and law professors, $103,283. The bureau estimated wages and hours for hundreds of jobs, based on a survey of employers in the private and public sectors. Bizjournals.com narrowed the focus to full-time workers on the private side and removed statistics for part-time employees and government workers. The Bizjournals.com study shows the connection between salary and education. Seven of the top 10 jobs require postgraduate degrees, while two call for bachelor's degrees. Airlines generally prefer that pilots be college grads, though they don't insist upon it, but they do require the rigorous commercial pilot's license. The typical private-sector worker earned $37,715 in 2004. Waiters and waitresses, the lowest-paying occupation, earned $8,751 per year. That figure does not include tips, which were not covered by the Bureau of Labor Statistics survey. It's no surprise that professional, technical and managerial jobs dominate the upper end of the private-sector rankings. White-collar jobs paid an average of $46,744 in 2004, far ahead of the blue-collar average of $32,618. The top 59 occupations in the salary standings are classified as white collar. The highest-paying blue collar job is oil well drillers, who rank 60th overall and earn $62,409 per year. The study found no link between annual wages and hours. Employees at nine of the 10 lowest-paying jobs averaged more than 1,900 hours at work in 2004. But four of the 10 highest-paying jobs fell below the 1,900-hour threshold, with airline pilots averaging just 1,083. Physicians yield first place in the rankings when salaries and hours are combined. Pilots soar to the top with average earnings of $118.58 per hour. Then come doctors ($66.58) and law professors ($66.55 per hour). |
Food Spoilage Tips
| Finally, a way to know what to throw-out and what to save! EGGS: When something starts pecking its way out of the shell, the egg is probably past its prime. MAYONNAISE: If it makes you violently ill after you eat it, the mayonnaise is spoiled. FROZEN FOODS: Frozen foods that have become an integral part of the defrosting problem in your freezer compartment will probably be spoiled -- (or wrecked anyway) by the time you pry them out with a kitchen knife. EXPIRATION DATES: This is NOT a marketing ploy to encourage you to throw away perfectly good food so that you'll spend more on groceries. Perhaps you'd benefit by having a calendar in your kitchen. MEAT: If opening the refrigerator door causes stray animals from a three-block radius to congregate outside your house, the meat is spoiled. BREAD: Sesame seeds and Poppy seeds are the only officially acceptable "spots" that should be seen on the surface of any loaf of bread. Fuzzy and hairy looking white or green growth areas are a good indication your bread has turned into a pharmaceutical laboratory experiment.  FLOUR: Flour is spoiled when it wiggles. SALT: It never spoils. LETTUCE: Iceberg lettuce is spoiled when you can't get it off the bottom of the vegetable crisper without Comet. Romaine lettuce is spoiled when it turns liquid. CANNED GOODS: Any canned goods that have become the size or shape of a softball should be disposed of. Carefully. Very, very carefully! RAISINS: Raisins should not be harder than your teeth. POTATOES: Fresh potatoes do not have roots, branches, or dense, leafy undergrowth. CHIP DIP: If you can take it out of its container and bounce it on the floor, it has gone bad. EMPTY CONTAINERS: Putting empty containers back into the refrigerator is an old trick, but it only works if you live with someone or have a maid. UNMARKED ITEMS: You know it's well beyond prime when you're tempted to discard the Tupperware along with the food. Generally speaking, Tupperware containers should not burp when you open them. GENERAL RULE OF THUMB: Most food cannot be kept longer than the average life span of a goldfish. Keep a goldfish nearby your refrigerator to gauge this. |
| Political Science for Dummies DEMOCRATIC You have two cows. Your neighbor has none. You feel guilty for being successful. Barbara Streisand sings for you. REPUBLICANISM You have two cows. Your neighbor has none. So? SOCIALIST You have two cows. The government takes one and gives it to your neighbor. You form a cooperative to tell him how to manage his cow. COMMUNIST You have two cows. The government seizes both and provides you with milk. You wait in line for hours to get it. It is expensive and sour. CAPITALISM, AMERICAN STYLE You have two cows. You sell one, buy a bull, and build a herd of cows. BUREAUCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE You have two cows. Under the new farm program the government pays you to shoot one, milk the other, and then pours the milk down the drain. AMERICAN CORPORATION You have two cows. You sell one, lease it back to yourself and do an IPO on the 2nd one. You force the two cows to produce the milk of four cows. You are surprised when one cow drops dead. You spin an announcement to the analysts stating you have down sized and are reducing expenses. Your stock goes up. FRENCH CORPORATION You have two cows. You go on strike because you want three cows. You go to lunch and drink wine. Life is good. JAPANESE CORPORATION You have two cows. You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk. They learn to travel on unbelievably crowded trains. Most are at the top of their class at cow school. GERMAN CORPORATION You have two cows. You engineer them so they are all blond, drink lots of beer, give excellent quality milk, and run a hundred miles an hour. Unfortunately they also demand 13 weeks of vacation per year. ITALIAN CORPORATION You have two cows but you don't know where they are. While ambling around, you see a beautiful woman. You break for lunch. Life is good. RUSSIAN CORPORATION You have two cows. You have some vodka. You count them and learn you have five cows. You have some more vodka. You count them again and learn you have 42 cows. The Mafia shows up and takes over however many cows you really have. TALIBAN CORPORATION You have all the cows in Afghanistan, which are two. You don't milk them because you cannot touch any creature's private parts. You get a $40 million grant from the US government to find alternatives to milk production but use the money to buy weapons. IRAQI CORPORATION You have two cows. They go into hiding. They send radio tapes of their mooing. POLISH CORPORATION You have two bulls. Employees are regularly maimed and killed attempting to milk them. BELGIAN CORPORATION You have one cow. The cow is schizophrenic. Sometimes the cow thinks he's French, other times he's Flemish. The Flemish cow won't share with the French cow. The French cow wants control of the Flemish cow's milk. The cow asks permission to be cut in half. The cow dies happy. FLORIDA CORPORATION You have a black cow and a brown cow. Everyone votes for the best looking one. Some of the people who actually like the brown one best accidentally vote for the black one. Some people vote for both. Some people vote for neither. Some people can't figure out how to vote at all. Finally, a bunch of guys from out-of-state tell you which one you think is the best-looking cow. CALIFORNIA CORPORATION You have millions of cows. They make real California cheese. Only five speak English. Most are illegals. Arnold likes the ones with the big udders. |
Quick Housekeeping Tip
 Always keep several get well cards on the mantel... so if unexpected guests arrive, they will think you've been sick and unable to clean. |
The Amish Computer Virus
| Thou hast just received the Amish Virus. As we haveth no technology nor programming experience, this virus worketh on the honor system. Please delete all files from thy hard drive and manually forward this virus to all on thy mailing list. We thank thee for thy cooperation. |
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