Tonight's final episode of season four gave us a moment of TV serendipity. In one hour, on the same show, we saw both Kenny G. and David Hasselhoff. (Conan O'Brien must be happy today.) As a bit of icing-on-the-top, Hall and Oates were in the audience as well. The show itself was fantastic. It had more of a "showcase" feel to it than past seasons' final shows. I hope that they stick with this format in subsequent seasons. Tonight's highlights: Dirk ...
The recent "hot topic" out there seems to be Paris Hilton's Carl's Jr. commercial. In the commercial, Paris washes a car while wearing a swimsuit and eating a big hamburger. Here is a link that I found. I don't know if they'll play the commercial in this market. In Minnesota we have Hardees instead of Carl's Jr. (what the difference is: I do not know.) There seems to be some sort of uproar over the sexuality of the ad. I didn't find it to be all that racy, b...
Click here for my latest article. From the auditions, through the Hollywood Round, to the Twelve Finalists, and finally the last two: Bo and Carrie. Bo and Carrie sang three songs each (the choice of which was somehow undefined this year.) My favorite part of tonight's show were the cameos in the audience. The best cameos of the evening were Camile Velasco from last season (cute), and Anwar's new hairstyle (looks like Eagle Eye Cherry.) All in all, tonight's finals ...
For a while it seemed that regardless of how we dressed our little baby boy, people would always assume that he was a girl. He can wear his baseball shirt, jeans, and a cap, but his long hair made everyone think "girl." Two weeks ago I ordered a Flowbee, and it arrived at my office on Thursday. This morning, I gave it a whirl on the baby. I cut his hair off in the back. Baby didn't enjoy his haircut, but mommy didn't like doing it either. I think that i...
Click here for my latest article Tonight's show featured the returns home of the three contestants. Vonzell went to Florida, Bo to Alabama, and Carrie to Oklahoma. After one song apiece, the results were read. Bo Bice and Carrie Underwood will appear in the finals, while Vonzell Solomon was eliminated. Vonzell's elimination wasn't exactly surprising, but it was sad to see her go. She was one of my favorites from the audition round. (In fact, I was high...
Click here for my latest article. On tonight's show (the last one before the finals), each contestant sang three songs. The first song was chosen by Idol record producer Clive Davis, the second was the contestant's choice, and the third song was chosen by a judge. Once we know tomorrow's results, we will only be six days away from the grand finale where the next American Idol is named. Each of tonight's three contestants did really well with their songs. It is safe to say that Bo Bice...
Recently our son Kenny has started with imaginary play. He gallops his plastic horses around the table, and has them "eat grass" when he's playing outside. The other day, he was putting broccoli into a toy lion's mouth. It is really cute. Last night my wife put a baseball cap on him (to see if it would fit.) As soon as she put it on him he bent over, pretended to pick up a ball, and then pretended to throw it. He must be paying a lot of attention when he watches ...
Click here for my latest article. Tonight we found who the final three contestants on American Idol are. Vonzell Solomon , Bo Bice , and Carrie Underwood made it through, while Anthony Federov was eliminated. (So much for my prediction of an upset!) It is kind of sad that Anthony left now. He had actually begun to improve. His performances over the past three weeks or so have been really good. It wouldn't have been an outrage if he ended up in the fina...
Click here for my latest article. Tonight's show featured first country songs, and then songs written by the songwriting team of Gamble and Huff. I like the G&H songs; but since I didn't recognize any of the country songs (except the Faith Hill song), I wasn't all that much into those. As I was watching, I realized that this year (more than others), the top four finalists are the four best-looking contestants from the top-twelve. Pop music being so image-driven, I think t...
I wrote an earlier article about the Corey Clark interview. The crux of my article was that although the interview was entertaining, the claims really didn't amount to much. Just now I was reading some critical analysis of the interview. In the article, " Idol special offered a lot of nothing" (from MSNBC.com), I found the following quote: Asked to describe the most salacious part of his claims, his physical relationship with Abdul, Clark said, gIt was dope,...
Here are a few pictures that I have been keeping in my camera, as well as some I took today. The other day (May 5th) was Children's Day. (A Japanese holiday.) When I came home from work, my wife had perpared a nice dinner for us. We were supposed to eat it outside, but unfortunately it was raining. It was fun in spite of the weather. Kenny was ready to eat. -He isn't far from his plastic elephant. He loves his plastic animals! Kenny eating c...
Last night as I was driving home from work, I was thinking about dinner. I thought about a restaurant that I used to visit in Japan named "Bronco Billy's". Bronco Billy's is a chain of reasonably low-priced steak restaurants in Japan. At Billy's, one can order a steak with potatoes and a salad bar. (Just like a Sizzler, a Ponderosa, or a Bonanza in the USA.) The biggest difference between the steak house there and here is that the quality of the meat and salad is a lot...
For May Sweeps ABC News "Primetime Live" aired an interview with former "American Idol" top-twelve contestant, Corey Clark. Clark (who is shopping a book), claims in the interview that he was approached by competition judge Paula Abdul with an offer to help him succeed in the competition. Clark claims that Abdul gave him advice with song choice and wardrobe, as well as supplying money for clothing and haircuts. Amidst the advice sessions, a sexual relationship developed. Appare...
Click here for my latest article. Tonight's episode saw the final shuffling off to greener pastures of Scott Savol . It had been a long time coming, and it is kind of a relief to see him go. At this stage of the competition, he was in a bit over his head. Joining Scott in tonight's bottom-two was the gradually-improving Anthony Federov . (I think that he'll be the next to go by the way.) The final-three is shaking out to be Bo Bice , Carrie Underwood , and ...
Click here for my latest article. Tonight's American Idol featured the first two-song performances by the contestants. The first song was supposed to be one written by a certain famous song writing duo, and the second song was supposed to come from the current Billboard charts. What bugged me about the second set of songs on tonight's show was that they weren't introduced by title. I wish that they would do that. I wasn't able to identify any of the set of second...