Raul Vergara Every smart search engine optimizer starts his or her career by looking at web pages with the eye of a search engine spider. Once the optimizer is able to do that, he or she is halfway to mastering the task. |
Natalie Davis Lots of folks, hoping to enjoy the benefits of higher-quality, higher-nutrition foods, make the choice to go organic. More than 60 percent of Americans - nearly twice the number in 2004 - purchased organic food products last year, and organic foods are among the fastest-growing segments of the food industry. |
Dave Nalle Inspired by a series of articles by Sadi Ranson-Polizotti, a healthy dose of ego and the realization that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, it occurred to me to share my thoughts about some of the fun and eclectic music on my iPod. |
American Idol 2006-The Girls Down to Ten
We begin this missive on America’s most beloved reality show with some handy information.
First, From software for American Idol? Indeed “TalentVoter” allows the user to track their choices, is available in Spanish and most important, programs the computer modem to continually vote in an automatic fashion.
NIWOT, CO -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 02/21/2006 -- With the world's best known Reality TV show, "American Idol," opening their voting lines to the public there are now more choices to start casting votes for America's next great singing idol. In January the guys over at Niwot Data LLC released their first product called TalentVoterTM. This is a computer program that lets the user rate contestants in reality shows in six programmable categories. Additionally, if the show allows dial-in voting and the user's computer is equipped with a dial-up modem, the votes can be automatically dialed. Now the company has expanded their offering with two additional products. TalentVoter is now available in Spanish, and there is a new version, called TalentVoter LE. TalentVoter LE is an entry-level version that only requires three things from users; a telephone number, the number of times they want to call the show, and a mouse click of a Dial button. This no-frills compact version is available for immediate downloading. As explained by one of the company's managing partners, Sam Northington, "We wanted to give our users the option of having a simple way of voting, if they just wanted to go with their gut feeling about a performer, and really just wanted something to help them push the redial button."
Next, moving on to the first “scandal” of the 2006 competition. Okay, so it’s not much of a scandal but there was all sorts of potential. For a set of sexy twins that posed for an online men’s magazine was titillating. Except the twins were nowhere near nude and only one twin was an actual contestant in this year’s contest. She is Becky O’Donohue and she was one of the first females eliminated. I saw Becky on Fox and Friends already, right after her elimination, such fame!
From News.com:
The steamy, belly-baring photographs of "American Idol" contestant Becky O'Donohue, which have ignited a miniscandal, have also hobbled MaximOnline.com.
The Web home of men's magazine Maxim was overwhelmed at times Thursday after several news sources ballyhooed the existence of the photos, in which O'Donohue poses with twin sister Jessie, according to a marketing executive with the magazine's publisher.
The executive added that engineers were working to correct the problem. The site never crashed, but pages were slow to load. Sometimes a note would appear for would-be visitors, saying the site was overloaded.
Moving on here’s some helpful links to all things American Idol, right here on Blogcritics:
Allow me now to lament my total lack of enthusiasm for this year’s crop of American Idol female contenders.Try as I might I can find no glimmer of a Kelly Clarkson or Carrie Underwood in the top ten female singers who displayed their talents this past Tuesday, 2/28/06. For sure there is singing talent in the feminine mix this year but not one has yet tweaked a button in my brain that flashes “super star”.
Katharine McPhee sang a Stevie Wonder song I never heard of. I thought she reached a bit too far for the high notes. I also did not care for her outfit and gosh, she even looked pregnant for a minute there. The judges considered she made a bad song choice.
Indeed bad song choices were the norm this night and those that chose well become my top three choices. As best I could I came up with the one female that I think has a choice of the top two, in this case second place. Because the girls are not going to take this year’s contest as there are plenty of American Idol 2006 guys that push the magic button.
While Kinnik Sky could win prizes for her stylish fashion sense and her great performance style, unfortunately she seems to be lacking the most important element of all: a spectacular voice. The judges agreed, Kinnik is just okay.
And “okay” is not good enough.
The youngest female contender for the prize this year is Lisa Tucker. She is pretty, sweet, stylish with great hair. I didn’t recognize the song she chose but consider her a pretty good singer. Simon said she would “sail through” to the next round.
Melissa McGhee sang a song my daughter regularly sings at Karaoke bars, something about “when am I going to hear from you”. McGhee did, ahem, sing much better than my daughter who sings a bit through her nose. Melissa sure has a great body and indeed, the judges pronounced her “hot”. I thought her voice was, well again I must use the “okay” word. And again, “okay” is not good enough.
Heather Cox too chose a bad song, by the judges and my own wise self. She sang “Hero” by Mariah Carey, a song Heather alleges has never been done before on AI. There’s probably a reason for this. The judges lamented that to choose a Mariah Carey song is to be compared to Mariah Carey. I don’t know why this is so with Mariah as it would be with any other singer. All of the songs chosen have been sung by somebody. Whatever the case, Heather does not have a great voice and indeed in my last post I predicted Heather would be booted. She was not but is in danger this coming elimination round.
My prediction to be booted this coming elimination round is Brenna Gethers. Brenna needs some more experience working the camera. I saw her eyes following the lens in a most distracting matter. Gethers sang Donna Sommers’ “Last Dance” and Simon said it was likely her “last chance”. To sing on the AI stage that is.
I was full of praise for little Paris Bennett in my last review but her song choice “Wind Beneath My Wings” baffles. For her last song Paris sang “Midnight Train to Georgia” and wowed the crowd. “Wind Beneath My Wings” is regularly included in any song compilation of the “Worst”, be it ten, of the decade, of the century or ever. In fact Paris sang the tune better than Bette Midler. The judges said this song choice was “too old” for Paris and I agree. I’ll not rule out Paris for this small bundle of talent will be around through several elimination rounds.
My choice for the female contender most likely to be in the top three of this year’s American Idol is Ayla Brown.
Ayla could win the thing if the male competition wasn’t so intense. Brown song a Celine Dion song. I thought I heard a few rocky notes in Ayla’s rendition but the judges deemed it a good song choice and overall I was impressed by the richness of her voice.As an aside, I was amused by Brown’s reminisce in the pre-song vignette when she remarked about the strangeness of “putting on foundation”. Something she says she’s never done before. Goodness this child has never put foundation upon her skin? She better get used to it.
Next up was the country bumpkin of the bunch, Ms. Kellie Pickler. As might be expected, Kellie too had an intriguing reminisce on her AI experience. For Kellie ate, for the first time in her life, a spinach salad. I would think that spinach would be a farm staple but there you have it.
Kellie sang “Something to Talk About”, which the judges deemed a good song choice. I’d have to agree. Simon remarked on Kellie’s “likeability” factor, and indeed Kellie is a likeable gal.
Finally Mandisa with the one word name sang a Faith Hill song with spectacular vocals. I’m with Mandisa for now. She’s got talent and should sail through the next elimination round.
Below, my choices of the top three females in this year’s contest. I reserve the right to change my mind on a whim.
TV Review: 24-A Newbie Tries to Join In
It was my daughter who first clued me in. Although it was Rush Limbaugh who really pushed me over the edge. The reasons were many and varied.
Daughter had been waxing on about Fox’s hit TV series 24 for over two years before Rush got on the bandwagon. Planned visits were always accompanied by a warning that we’d all have to watch 24 or I would simply have to leave early. Fortunately planned visits were arranged around nights that 24 was featured because from what I had seen of this hit drama there was entirely too much fire, bullets and mayhem in this show for my middle-aged sensibilities.
Not that I’ve ever been any anti-violence zealot. It’s more that I was a Dancing With the Stars sort more than such as high drama. Besides, too often my brain cells get crossed when I try to follow a complicated plot but that could be middle-aged crossed-synapses as well.
This year, Rush Limbaugh went on and on about the series and I began to listen. At the risk of reader chuckle, I’ll admit that conspiracy theories began to waft through my mind.
The last time Limbaugh used his radio show to rave over a dramatic product it was for the movie Passion of the Christ. In that case, and in the case of 24 as well, Rush readily admitted that the product had been pitched to him passionately by the producers or others involved with making the products.
“Ah ha,” my mind reeled. Rush Limbaugh is a conservative of the highest order. Passion of the Christ was a movie aimed directly to Rush’s audience. To get Rush Limbaugh on the side of promotion was to hit exactly at the demographic core the movie hoped to hit.
Of course when Rush went on this year about 24 after admitting to having been given DVD’s of the entire season by the promo folks for the series, my mind began its reeling anew. Someone thinks 24 is a dramatic television series that would appeal to conservatives across the land.
Even with that I wasn’t overwhelmingly lured. Never mind my idealology, I want to be entertained by television as opposed to being preached at. I’d rather leave the preaching to Rush and the entertainment to show vehicles intent on doing only that.
So with the resolve of one who would not be “dittoheaded” into watching a show not anywhere up, or even near, my alley, I continued on, ignoring all the hype. Such was my self-importance over the matter that I smirked at the whole notion of a guy dying in one season only to return alive and well the following.
The mind began to reel again and I wondered how this series would appeal to Rush Limbaugh’s audience. The West Wing and Commander-In-Chief were shows that I often enjoyed but the death knells were tolling in the distance. Though both of the aforementioned shows are of the political type, they were both considered very liberal and a bit disgusting to Rush’s audience. Although, tween you and I, I suspect that more dittoheads watched those shows than cared to admit. Political junkees not watching a political show?
As a result of the conservative complaints about liberal political shows being the only offerings I often lambasted that conservatives should finance and broadcast their own shows.
Thus the alleys and rocky roads that caused me to finally tune into 24 are delineated. 1)The Rush Limbaugh connection made me think the show was slanted conservative (Come on-a gazillion seasons of The West Wing populated by Democrats was getting old), and 2)my daughter and her husband’s raves about the show convinced me there was some dramatic appeal.
And so I tuned in.
I was hooked, lined and sinkered the very first show.
For the first time since memory allows, I saw a show packed with entertainment and drama. The characters were imperfect but very real. There were several sub-plots going on all over the place and just to keep track of them all was an intriguing challenge. The women in the series didn’t wear low-cut clothes everywhere, even when frying dangerous popping bacon. There were bullets, sure, and sudden firebombs. But the show is about a counter-terrorism unit going up against terrorists for God’s sakes. The violence wasn’t gratuitous is what I’m saying here and frankly other than the exciting sight effects, viewers weren’t treated to constant gore and dismembered limbs.There was one problem.
While I understood the individual show’s plot lines, I had no idea just who was who, how Jack Bauer came back from the dead, what the hell all those government agencies were, why the terrorists were never Arab or what on earth a first lady was doing getting all involved in affairs she should be kept from.
In a desperate bid to put it all together I began to research. First from the show’s own web site. Which was a help in that I might learn, for example, who Audrey is in terms of her government position and the actress who plays her. None of this helped me understand the interplay of all the characters, their history and still there’s that bit about Jack Bauer dying and coming back to life.
I turned to Blogcritics.org as surely, my mind reeled, other Blogcritics have watched the show and wrote about it. This was how I ended up in the Twilight Zone of 24 and the Blogosphere. A really weird place by the way.
Two Blogcritics were out and about and regularly writing about the show. Mary K. Williams , authoress of 24 - Hour Ten: CTU - You're Fired! and Jeff Kouba, author of 24 Day 5: 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM crossed my radar and so I tuned in.
What I read was hilarious and spellbinding. Both of these Blogcritics had a take on 24 that, well you have to read them to believe it.
Only problem, as I read Williams’ and Kouba’s missives on the show of my research I began to get more confused. I could follow the plots of the two individual shows I’d watched easily enough but these Blogcritics know their stuff and, hey, I didn’t.
The humor and satire wasn’t lost on me, however, but when Williams called the Russian President and his wife the “Subarus” well, maybe you hadda be there.
None of this helped me learn the background of the characters but I’m hanging in there.
I made notes on the episode aired Monday, 2/27/06 and I’ll risk looking dumb. Because I love the show, love the characters, love the action.
I understand the President is Logan. Who another Blogcritic compared to Richard Nixon, heh. Separated At Birth: 24's President Logan and the USA's President Nixon I don’t know who Mike Novak is except the guy Logan asked to pray with him when his wife went off in a motorcade due to be ambushed. Which leads me to Logan’s wife, Martha, and why is she such an idiot.
As for the Counter Terrorism Unit that Jack Bauer works for (at least I think he works for CTU, could be that was his employer before he died, I’m not sure)-I don’t know how all this works except they always seem to be monitoring something called “chatter”. To my amazement, the head of CTU commands more monitoring of chatter even when news of a planned ambush of the Russian motorcade is in process.
Then in steps a Curtis Manning who takes over though I still don’t know who Curtis Manning is and why he even hangs around the CTU. Heck I don’t even understand that clock thing except it evidently ticks constantly on.
On Monday, 3/6/06 at 8 pm, 24 will present a 2 hour show. I’m going to watch it with the fervor I’ve acquired.
Maybe someday I’ll understand how Jack Bauer died and came back to life. For now I will continue to work on sorting it all out.
With a little help from my friends on Blogcritics, heh.
More TV Reviews HERE
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