Pic of the Day
| Quote of the Day Subject: Theodore Roosevelt's ideas on Immigrants and being an AMERICAN in 1907. "In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American,and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all.We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people." Theodore Roosevelt 1907 |
| Tips for Handling Telemarketers Three Little Words That Work !! (1)The three little words are: "Hold On, Please..." Saying this, while putting down your phone and walking off (instead of hanging-up immediately) would make each telemarketing call so much more time-consuming that boiler room sales would grind to a halt. Then when you eventually hear the phone company's "beep-beep-beep" tone, you know it's time to go back and hang up your handset, which has efficiently completed its task. These three little words will help eliminate telephone soliciting. (2) Do you ever get those annoying phone calls with no one on the other end? This is a telemarketing technique where a machine makes phone calls and records the time of day when a person answers the phone. This technique is used to determine the best time of day for a "real" sales person to call back and get someone at home. What you can do after answering, if you notice there is no one there, is to immediately start hitting your # button on the phone, 6 or 7 times, as quickly as possible This confuses the machine that dialed the call and it kicks your number out of their system. Gosh, what a shame not to have your name in their system any longer !!! (3) Junk Mail Help: When you get "ads" enclosed with your phone or utility bill, return these "ads" with your payment. Let the sending companies throw their own junk mail away. When you get those "pre-approved" letters in the mail for everything from credit cards to 2nd mortgages and similar type junk, do not throw away the return envelope. Most of these come with postage-paid return envelopes, right? It costs them more than the regular 37 cents postage "IF" and when they receive them back. It costs them nothing if you throw them away! The postage was around 50 cents before the last increase and it is according to the weight. In that case, why not get rid of some of your other junk mail and put it in these cool little, postage-paid return envelopes. One of Andy Rooney's (60 minutes) ideas. Send an ad for your local chimney cleaner to American Express. Send a pizza coupon to Citibank. If you didn't get anything else that day, then just send them their blank application back! If you want to remain anonymous, just make sure your name isn't on anything you send them. You can even send the envelope back empty if you want to just to keep them guessing! It still costs them 37 cents. The banks and credit card companies are currently getting a lot of their own junk back in the mail, but folks, we need to OVERWHELM them. Let's let them know what it's like to get lots of junk mail, and best of all they're paying for it...Twice! Let's help keep our postal service busy since they are saying that e-mail is cutting into their business profits, and that's why they need to increase postage costs again. You get the idea ! |
The Cream of the Crop Sing Us Some Elvis
It's down to four and as usual, this missive with its thought-provoking commentary is written BEFORE the elimination round on 5/10/06. Thus my thoughts are pure and unfettered by any knowledge of who came in last, first or in-between.
My very first observation about the American Idol final four presentation on the evening of 5/9/06 was how the show has now been drilled down to such a fine pool of talent that by itself, even without the competitive thing, the show was a pleasant watch. The theme of Elvis songs added to the pleasantry, to be sure.
First, some tidbits.
From Variety.com we read how AI is such a money-maker that even Fox crosses its fingers and hopes that publicity overkill does not, well overkill the product.
Idol" is steamrolling every show in its path and generating hundreds of millions of dollars every year in ad sales for Fox. But "Idol" riches are also trickling into many other sectors of the showbiz economy.
TV shows, newspapers and record labels that touch the show have enjoyed a lucrative ride on the "Idol" express. And the show's shadow economy isn't limited to media -- it's also lifted the fortunes of a wide array of "Idol" carpetbaggers, from Cingular to Coca-Cola to a host of licensees.
And for a little background on the final four's visit to Graceland, we have, From Ap.org:
"Elvis, too, had to audition," she said. "He was laughed at. He was basically booed off stage. He had to struggle with the fact that he came from very humble beginnings and didn't have opportunities to have others experience his talent."
Around this household husband is the music expert. Except husband imagines himself at times to be above the riff-raff who would watch American Idol, music of the unwashed masses as he sees it. Now that we're down to the final four and what with the TV tuned in solidly for these past yea many weeks to the American Idol performances and the eliminations on the night following, well the man had to hear something.
Thus some of his input this week, for what it might be worth. Husband's main comment about the Elvis night performances consisted of "I heard someone sing a terrible version of In the Ghetto.
Since we were on the subject, husband then mentioned that the guy, "Tyler" my husband called him, is dopey and dances like a goof.
Now that I had his attention I mentioned that I really thought the winner would be Chris Daughtry. Husband shrugged, the name not registering.
"I don't believe for a minute you didn't hear his great performance of 'Suspicious Minds'," I said. Husband shrugged again. After going on 16 years of marriage I can interpret those shrugs handily. He HAD heard that stellar performance of "Suspicious Minds", as I interpreted his shrug. He DID think it was a fine performance, I continued my shrug interpretation. He was certainly not about to admit it, I concluded from his shrug.
So consider it recorded that this non-musical expert predicts Chris Daughtry will win this year's AI competition and that husband shruggingly agrees.
"Someday," I continued during our post-AI performance critique, "we might have an entire music industry totally elected by the American people."
"It'll never happen," husband responded, "unless they include bands."
Husband once belonged to a band and indeed we have one entire room in this house filled with all sorts of keyboards, amplifiers and such, all ready for the day when husband might once again join a band. Of course I assured him that there is no reason there couldn't be an American Idol for bands.
Could be a whole new concept here now that I think about it.
"Tyler" started off the evening's song fest with a rendition of "Jailhouse Rock". My first thought was how much Taylor looked like Elvis, heh. In fact, even Taylor's goofy "white boy" dancing looked appropriate. Elvis was a southern white boy and while he could shake those legs and pelvis, he really wasn't a great dancer either.
Simon called Taylor's performance a "terrible impersonation" of Elvis. The big shock of the evening is when he told Paula, quite firmly, to "shut up". Heh.
I don't think Simon wants Taylor to win this year's competition. Not that I blame him as I have never liked Taylor one whit. Simon has consistently panned Taylor's performance and I suspect Simon is doing his best to steer the American public away from voting for this guy.Said steering is not working as Taylor continues to hang in there.
It was Taylor who sang what husband thought a terrible performance of Elvis' "In the Ghetto". The judges seemed to like Taylor's rendition of this song but all I heard was talking, screaming and a strange "woo-woo" in the middle of the tune.
I will again predict that Taylor will be voted off in the elimination round. I will probably be wrong yet again.
Chris Daughtry gave the best song performance of the entire contest with his rendition of "Suspicious Minds". Although, what was with those sunglasses. I also though Chris' movements were a bit awkward but how much movement can one do with that particular song?
Simon summed this performance with a two word understatement: "That Worked".
For his next song Chris sang an Elvis song I'd never heard before: "A Little Less Conversation". Still, that great voice. Again, a Simon understatement, it was "okay".
Elliott Yamin was the big surprise of this Elvis songfest. For both performances by Elliott were terrific. For his first song Elliott sang "If I Could Dream". My first thought was that this was the best performance I'd heard from Elliott. To my delight, both Paula and Simon agreed!
For his second performance, Elliott sang "Don't Mess Around With Me". This time Randy declared it Elliott's best performance ever.
Katharine McPhee is the only female left in the final four. Katharine is not destined to win this thing as I see it. She doesn't have the depth of voice and vocal range to carry it off. Consider Kelly Clarkson's voice. Katharine does not even come close.
That said, Katharine is a very pretty woman and a fairly good performer. For her first song, Katharine surprised me by singing Elvis' famous "Hound Dog". Strange choice for the only female. I can only sum it up as an interesting performance with an intriguing ending.
Simon didn't like it but the other judges did.
The show almost ended with my complete disappointment that no one sang not only Elvis' greatest song, but the greatest song of all time.
Katharine came through by performing "I Can't Help Falling in Love". This makes me a bit prejudice for my love of the song but I did note Katharine went a little flat in the middle of the song.
Another thought that crossed my mind as Katharine performed was how intrusive the band and background was during the performance. Although it added to the beauty of the song rendition were this not a singing competition, it seemed inappropriate to compete with the singer in this instance.
Simon declared the whole rendition as being "too much".
There's a possibility that Katharine will be eliminated. I'd like to think that Katharine might make it to the final two just to keep the sexes on an even keel.
For now, I must cross my fingers and hope that Taylor finally gets the boot.
The Elimination
The bottom two were, to my complete surprise, Chris Daughtry and Katharine McPhee.
The Idol sent home was Chris Daughtry.
If Taylor wins this thing I will lose all faith in the American public’s taste.
More American Idol Reviews Here
1 comment:
I can't believe it. Fox's feed in my area was jacked up because of a storm. Thanks for posting the results so quick. Why on earth couldn't it have been the "Warbler" Elliot. God what is america thinking.
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