Oscar Thoughts

Thoughts on the 2009 Oscars...
1) What the hell was Jessica Biel wearing? It looked like they sewed a sack to the bodice of her dress so that she had a place to stash her drivers' license, a spare lipstick, and another pair of shoes. Really, does she need to carry a purse, too? It seems a bit superfluous.
2) Ditto the WTF to Tilda Swinton. Great actress. And I know she doesn't have the most feminine silhouette. However, that doesn't excuse her Horrible taste in clothing.
3) I'm completely sick of the Forrest Gump/Benjamin Button comparisons. What's the difference between the two movies? I had absolutely no emotional reaction to Forrest Gump. On the other hand, I could barely watch the last half hour of Benjamin Button because I was a complete wreck.
4) My sweetie just made me a white knot. He even went to Michaels' and bought the white ribbon for it.
5) I was slightly confused when they didn't honor Heath Ledger "in memoriam." Then I remembered that they did it last year. However, I'm still mystified that they didn't give a posthumous shout-out to George Carlin. I mean, his performance in "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" may not have been Oscar-worthy (nor his performances in some of Kevin Smith's films), but the man left an indelible mark on the entertainment industry.
6) Now that I'm off my soapbox... Let me add that I'm absolutely thrilled that "Slumdog Millionaire" dominated the awards. It was truly a stunning film. And it made me think of one of my favorite songs-- Daler Mehndi's "Tanuk Tanuk Tun."

Enjoy!

There's actually a great story behind this video. If I get a chance, I may share it.

Happy New Year!

Cory and I spent New Year's Eve "downtown," waiting for the ball to drop. As one of my former co-workers said, the Downtown Countdown ball looks kind of like a third-grade paper mache project with some leftover Christmas lights strung across it. Sounds fantastic, huh?

I'd hoped to get there in time to see our friend Sergio's band, Cadence Wednesday, play, but by the time Cory got off work, their set was over. We ran into Serge later in the evening, and he had some pretty choice words about our former employer. Actually, it was just two words. The first one started with an "F." I'll let you figure out the rest.

Anyway, I had a surprisingly good time. Got to hang with some of my former co-workers, and some of Cory's co-workers, too. Drank cheap beer. Dyed my hair pink for the night.

Oh- and we had a celebrity sighting. Bronson Arroyo was wandering the streets with the rest of the drunken masses. I would have taken a picture, but I spotted him too late and didn't feel like trying to catch up with him in the crowd.

Anyway, I'm really hoping that 2008 will be a little kinder to me than 2007. Hopefully, the new year will be just as kind to you!

Happy New Year!

How Cool is this?

So you're addicted to YouTube. Or you're addicted to karaoke (like my husband). Or maybe... just maybe... you think you're the second coming of Elvis himself.

Do You Want To Be Famous & Win $10,000?Then check this shiznit out: Impersonated.com. All you need is a decent voice (or as they say on their website, "all it takes is a little bit of talent") and a webcam, and you can become an instant internet celebrity.

Oh, you'd better believe I've already perused the site ad nauseum. My favorite? The 8-year-old girl singing "Needle and the Damage Done." by Neil Young-- with absolutely no idea what she's singing about. My second favorite? The Japanese woman (Complete with kimono) singing "Mamma Mia" by ABBA. Really. I *heart* ABBA in the first place... she make it just that much more... um... something.

By the way, if you don't win the ten grand, there's plenty more where that came from. Apparently, they've scoured the web for the most exciting range of goodies they could lay their greasy little hands on... like MP3 players, camcorders, and cold, hard cash. Good times.

I just might put on the ol' Cher wig and sing my heart out. In my soon-to-be unemployed state, I don't have anything to lose, right?

The Lucky Ones

I know, the suspense has been killing you all weekend. Yes, Cory and I made it to Coconut Festival in time to see most of the Loverboy concert. The concert started around 9:15 and we probably arrived around 9:45-- I think the only hit we missed was "The Lucky Ones"-- a good song-- but it's no "Working for the Weekend," "Lovin' Every Minute of It," or (try not to laugh) "Hot Girls in Love."

Ok, so they're old-- and Mike Reno got fat. No surprise there. But they were a good band, and they rocked the house (well, actually, they rocked the waterpark. But you get the picture.) You can tell they still love playing live. I just feel bad for them-- and so many other 80s bands-- that they were an early part of the music video revolution.

I love music videos to this day, though it's not easy to find them on TV anymore. But long before music videos became a "legitimate" film form, they sure had their awkward stage. It's kind of like when a pre-teen girl first puts on makeup. Yeah, she'll get the hang of it eventually-- but it isn't gonna be pretty watching her get there.

More on the Loverboy concert later. Until then, I'll leave you with this thought:

Seperated at birth?
Mike Reno (80s Rock Star)
and
Mike Modano (Dallas Stars)

One is Canadian-- the other plays hockey. Sure, Reno's about 20 years older than Modano, but I definitely see a resemblance.

Thursday Thirteen

Today's Thursday Thirteen:

Thirteen Albums I Own (and when I say "Album," I mean "Album." as in a 12" round vinyl disk with a hole in it.)

By the way, I'm not including Soundtracks or Greatest Hits collections. As Bruce McCullough once said on Kids in the Hall, "Greatest Hits are for housewives and little girls!"

1. Olivia Newton-John's Greatest Hits, Vol. 2. Don't mock. I didn't say "Thirteen albums I'm proud to own. did I?"
2. Friend Or Foe (Adam Ant) My friend Anne and I sent a really bizarre fan letter to Adam Ant once. I'm surprised he didn't hire police protection and get restraining orders against both of us. I also have the album "Strip," which was by far his worst album.
3. Living in Oz (Rick Springfield) Hello? Dr. Noah Drake? Need I say more?
4. Pyromania (Def Leppard) I also have "On Through the Night," "High and Dry" and "Hysteria" on vinyl.
5. Forever (Bittersweet Alley) Probably the second-most popular 1980s Detroit rock band, behind The Romantics. The lead singer ended up marrying the older sister of a girl I went to high school with. I also have their second album, "Some Like it Hot."
6. Pictures for Pleasure (Charlie Sexton). Charlie Sexton was a teen guitar prodigy. And he was cute. Enough said.
7. Rebel Yell (Billy Idol) As we all know by now, I was obsessed with Billy Idol. I also had his self-titled debut album, along with "Whiplash Smile" (which sucked) and the EP "Don't Stop," which I bought on a school field trip. Oh, and I have two albums from his first band, Generation X.
8. Slippery When Wet (Bon Jovi) After all these years, Jon Bon Jovi is still cute-- and still putting out hit albums. Who would have guessed that of all the hair-bands I liked in the 80s, they'd be the one to survive?
9. License To Ill (The Beastie Boys) My friend Kristi won us concert tickets to see the Beastie Boys in downtown Detroit when I was a senior in high school. I bought a T-shirt, unaware that on the back it said "Get off My Dick."
10. Slide it In (Whitesnake). With Tawny Kitaen on the cover, of course.
11. Out of the Cellar (Ratt) Actually, now that I think of it, Tawny Kitaen is on the cover of that one, too. And just think, years later, she was married to a major league baseball player who she beat up-- and dated Jerry Seinfeld, too. Girl gets around.
12. Days of Innocence (Moving Pictures). The ultimate one-hit-wonder, at least as far as their US albums go. They had exactly one hit song, "What about me?" Last year, a guy at the karaoke bar sang it-- and I had to talk to him about it. Turns out he was Australian.
13. Seven and the Ragged Tiger (Duran Duran). I never really liked this album that much, Their earlier stuff was much better.

Feel free to discuss my awesome taste in music. You know you want to.
Check out the Thursday Thirteen Blogroll!

My Inner 14-year-old Speaks Out

Yesterday, I got to interview Pat Cash. Remember him? Cute Australian tennis player, circa 1984-ish? The guy with the checkerboard headband?

Anyway, like (almost) all of the tennis players I've interviewed, he's very nice... down-to-earth... and easy to talk to.

So I asked him a question I've wondered about since I was fourteen. Nope, it had nothing to do with Tennis. Not even close. I asked if he's the same "Pat Cash" that's thanked on the liner notes to a couple of Iron Maiden albums.

You better believe he is. He smiled and laughed when I asked him, and we ended up talking about Maiden for a few minutes.

How cool is that?

Super Bowl Royalty

Thursday I was supposed to do a live-via-satellite segment from the Super Bowl-- just talking about the vibe in Miami that day and introducing one of the stories that I did. More on that later...

I also needed to visit the media center... partially because our satellite truck operator needed to pick up his credentials... and partially because of something I saw on the lengthy list of events and news conferences:

2:00 p.m. National Anthem Press Conference with Billy Joel
2:30 p.m. Halftime Show Press Conference with Prince

I've seen Billy Joel in concert four times (he played at the Palace of Auburn Hills when I worked there in the late 80s and early 90s). But I've never, ever seen Prince. Let's face it... the guy is kind of an enigma. Very unpredictable. And from what I understand, he really doesn't talk.

So the potential for something interesting/bizarre/hilarious/cool to happen was definitely there. Definitely worth stopping by.

Around 2:20, I moseyed into the Billy Joel news conference. He was charming and funny, and he had all of the reporters eating out of his hand. There were probably about 40 or 50 TV news cameras there, about the same number of newspaper photographers, and a couple hundred reporters. When he finished, they announced that the Prince press conference would be starting in about ten minutes. I noticed that a keyboard had mysteriously appeared on the stage.

This is gonna be good, I thought.

I had a few errands to run in the Media Center-- visiting all the booths where they were passing out the free stuff. I got a free leather briefcase, a commemorative Super Bowl pin, and one of these, along with some food, a candy bar, and a little mini office supply kit.

I also wandered down Radio Row, looking to see who was there doing their radio shows and if I could spot any celebritites. I saw a bunch of retired football players who looked vaguely familiar, but none whose names I could place with the faces. I also briefly pondered throwing something at Jim Rome's head (there are few people on this planet that annoy me more), but then I saw something much, much, more interesting.

Some radio show was interviewing The King.

No, not Elvis. The Burger King mascot. By the way, mascots don't talk. It was one of the most surreal things I've ever seen. I snapped a picture with the little el-cheapo camera, but it really doesn't do the situation justice.

I think the guys sitting next to the King are is spokesmen. I'm not quite sure. There was a small crowd gathered around the spectacle... all trying to figure out exactly what was going on. I had to hold the camera up in the air, point it down, and hope that the picture turned out-- which is why it's off-center.

At this point, my 10 minutes was over, and I wandered back to the conference room to check out the Prince press conference. As I walked in, one of the Super Bowl committee members was waxing poetic about Prince and how excited they were that he would be performing the Halftime show. Then he introduced his magesty.

Prince's band walked out. Prince's dancers walked out. Then Prince walked out.

He walked up to the microphone, then said "Contrary to any rumors you may have heard, I'd like to take a few questions."

Stunned silence for about five seconds.

Then some guy shouted out, "Prince, how do you..." at which point, Prince turned around, pumped his fist, and his band broke into "Johnny Be Goode."

That's right... I showed up at a press conference... and a concert broke out.

It was great... all in all, there were maybe 500 people there, and Prince and his band did a three-song set. We had to take off during the third song, but not before I shot a bunch of video for the news and took a few shitty little pictures with my shitty little camera.


I know... you can't even tell it's Prince. He's the one in orange holding what looks like a guitar.

I'm very glad I got to see Prince do his little impromptu concert, because the rest of the day went to hell in a handbasket. The satellite booking company double-booked our satellite channel, so I never got my live-via-satellite shot. So essentially, I drove to Miami for nothing. Except I got some cool free stuff and I saw Prince in a private concert.

On a side note... isn't the Super Bowl halftime show all about "good clean fun" ever since the famed "wardrobe malfunction?" That's what I thought, too. But isn't Prince the same guy who did the songs "Erotic City," "Horny Pony," and "Gett Off?" And isn't he the same guy who once wore a pair of lacy ass-less pants on national television while performing one of the above songs?

Or is my memory failing me? Nope. I didn't think so.

Sure, Prince has mellowed out in the last 15 years or so... But I'm still a little suprised that he was chosen to do halftime. Not complaining... just surprised.

Mamma Mia!

To the developers of the proposed ABBA museum in Stockholm: What took you so long?

Cher-tacular

Well, it's been a week since Halloween, and I still haven't shared the saga of Halloween night with you. As I mentioned, I was going to dress as Cher... in part because I already had the black wig.

Ok, there was another reason for a costume change between Saturday and Tuesday. See, I had a bad experience on Saturday night in my Barbie doll costume. We went to the local newsie hangout, an Italian restaurant/karaoke bar, where they were having a karaoke/costume contest (the grand prize was $400, which made getting on stage somewhat enticing). Not only did I completely humiliate myself on the karaoke stage by attempting to sing that god-awful "I'm a Barbie Girl" song, I also nearly got in a fist-fight with some skank as the bar was closing. It's a long story, which I won't get into. Suffice to say, though, that if I was going back to that bar in costume, I wasn't planning to make myself recognizible in any way.

This picture, by the way, were taken late at night, after much of my makeup had worn off. I looked much more Cher-riffic earlier in the evening.

So, when Cory got out of work, we headed over to a friend's house for a brief Halloween soiree. We didn't get there until about 11pm, so we only stayed for about an hour before the party started to break up. From there, we went back to the bar where I'd humiliated myself just a few nights earlier.

Of course, I sang a Cher song, "If I Could Turn Back Time." The grand prize was $100, which wasn't quite as enticing... but I told Cory that if he entered the contest, I would humiliate myself again.

This time, I actually knew the song (ok... I kind of knew the song... and I managed to fake my way through the rest of it). And I kind of sound like Cher when I sing, thanks in part to a long-running joke between myself and my late friend Mike. And I had a large cheering section of tipsy co-workers to support me. And it didn't hurt that the people sitting closest to the stage were hammered, and they thought I was the funniest thing they'd ever seen in their lives.

The result? A nice check for $100.00 was in my hot little hands at the end of the night! Not too shabby, right? I should note that Cory won a $25 gift certificate for his 4th place finish.

I think maybe I should dress like Cher every Halloween.

Rockin' and Rollin'

Last week, while watching the first episode of "Rock Star: Supernova," I voted the band "Supernova" (The so-called supergroup of Tommy Lee, Gilby Clarke and Jason Newsted) as "band most likely to blow up before ever playing a single gig." Interestingly enough, it just dawned on me that the word "Supernova" itself describes an explosion of galactic proportions.

Hmmmmm...

Despite my better judgement, I've been sucked in by another season of "Rock Star." One "rocker" has already been eliminated by the band... trust me, it wasn't a great loss. He had an o.k. voice, but started out singing "Yellow" by Coldplay. Not the best choice to audition for a band comprised of former members of Motley Crue, Metallica, and Guns 'N' Roses. So, they told him that he really needed to pick a song that "rocked" a little more. He came back with Duran Duran.

Now, I like Duran Duran as much as any other girl who was a teenager in the 80s. But seriously... did this guy really think that they rock? I mean, he didn't even play a late-80s D2 song... when they got a little grittier. Nope. He played something from their first, and most poppy album.

Ok, so there are 14 "Rockers" left. My thoughts? First of all, the women, as a whole, are much, much more talented than the men. Here's my summary, from best to worst:

Storm- By far, the best of the women on the show. She can sing, she can scream, she has the rock-star swagger. She even has a cool name, which she claims is her real name. I find her phenomenally annoying to watch, but she could start today as a lead singer for an ass-kicking rock band.
Lukas- As far as the men go, he's the best. The first night on the show, he sang Billy Idol's "Rebel Yell," and he brought the house down. He has a great gritty voice, amazing stage presence, and unique style. But his eyebrows are going to drive me crazy.
Dilana- Whoa. A little bipolar. Crazy, gritty, dirty voice, but she can sing. I worry about the metal stud she has in her chin. It makes me nervous.
Magni- He's apparently a big star in Iceland. Seriously. That isn't a joke. He's the lead singer of some rock band in Iceland, and they have two gold albums. The first episode, I was pretty uninspired by him, but then he sang "My Generation" tonight, and was great. My take? He won't get the "Supernova" gig, but his band will have a couple hits in the US as a result of his appearance on the show.
Patrice- Her voice is a little too good to be a rock singer. But she can play guitar and has a lot of tattoos, so I'll give her the benefit of the doubt. And she's old like me, so I'm rooting for her.
Toby- Cute. Talented. Australian. A nice voice, and he can rock, too. But sometimes looks a little confused on stage.
Jill- The first night, she was a little too pretty. She looked like Pamela Anderson trying to be a rock star (Which might work for Tommy Lee... but what about the rest of the band). Tonight, she overcompensated and tried to do some kind of Courtney Love impression. Except, unlike Courtney Love, she can sing.
Jenny- She's good... but a little blah. The fact that I can't remember what she sang on the show an hour ago says something.
Dana- A really nice voice. Too nice. She sounds like Kelly Clarkson. And though Kelly Clarkson is a talented pop star, she's not a rock singer.
Ryan- Kind of the male version of Jenny. He's an o.k. singer, but I've already forgotten what song he did tonight. Maybe a Franz Ferdinand song? I really can't remember.
Chris- Ruined "Roxanne" by The Police on the first show. One of the Supernova guys (Gilby maybe?) Actually said "that sucked" to Chris after the performance. And while he redeemed himself on the elimination show, he just doesn't impress me very much.
Josh- Thinks he's on "American Idol." He looks like it, acts like it, and in particular, sings like it. He should have auditioned there instead. Oh, and his mom is a karaoke DJ, so that's where he learned to sing. You can't make this sh*t up.
Phil- Couldn't carry a tune if you gave him a bucket. He's almost always in the wrong key for at least the first verse of every song.
Zayra- A nightmare. Horrible voice, can't find the right key to save her life. Weirdo stage presence. Oh, and she offended each and every member of the band, so I guess she's going out with a blaze of glory.

Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia Awareness Day

Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia: The fear of the number 666.

Seems like everybody's in a tizzy over the ol' 06-06-06. I like to think of it as a biblical version of Y2K. Some people belive the sh*t's going to hit the fan. Some people think it's a bunch of hooey. But subconciously, I think most people are keeping their eyes peeled for the Anti-Christ... just in case. Fortunately, the seven heads and ten horns should make him easy to spot.

I've planned out an immersion-therapy course for sufferers of Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia.
First, a road trip to (where else?) Hell, just for... well, the hell of it. Hell, Michigan doesn't have much to offer, aside from a souvenir shop, a smoky lounge, and a gas station where you can mail letters postmarked from Hell. I've certainly been worse places... though spending eternity there might get a little boring.

Step two of our immersion therapy course requires a little music for your road trip. I strongly recommend listening to Iron Maiden's 1982 metal hit, "The Number of the Beast," which, contrary to popular opinion, isn't an homage to Satan, but instead a song about a poor schlep who stumbled across a satanic ritual in the woods in the middle of the night:
Torches blazed and sacred chants were praised
As they start to cry hands held to the sky
In the night the fires burning bright
The ritual has begun Satan's work is done
666 the number of the beast
Sacrifice is going on tonight
This can't go on I must inform the law
Can this still be real or just some crazy dream

Of course, the Sportslady's Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia immersion plan isn't complete without some sports. Unfortunately, the New Jersey Devils aren't in the hunt for the Stanley Cup Playoffs, so you can't watch them. Instead, perhaps you could watch the Tampa Bay Devil Rays (who are considering changing their nickname to a more Jesus-friendly "Rays"-- or "Tarpon." Really.) If you're a baseball fan, then watching the Devil Rays play a full nine innings on the diamond is just about the closest experience to hell on earth that you can probably reach.

So, that's my three-pronged plan for curing your Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia. Of course, if you're not up for laughing in the face of evil, you and your Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia can just spend the day in bed with the covers pulled over your head. That's perfectly ok, too. And when that guy with the seven heads and ten horns shows up, you can feel free to tell me "I told you so."

Oh Canada, eh!

If you ever look at the "recently visited" section of my blog (left column, about halfway down), you've probably noticed that I've had several visitors from north of the border lately.

At first, I thought they were seeking out my hockey wisdom. Or maybe they valued my thoughts on Rush (the band, not the fat conservative loudmouth). Or maybe they'd heard about my legendary fondness for Tim Horton's doughnuts.

Nope. Actually, Canadians (especially ones from Alberta) are apparently very concerned about INXS lead singer J.D. Fortune and a mysterious leg injury. As it turns out, INXS played shows in Calgary and Edmonton last week, and their reality-show-selection lead singer was wearing a leg brace and carrying a cane.

Anyway, I don't want to leave my new Canadian friends hanging. I don't have much nice to say about Fortune... but I will say nice things about your hockey team. Despite the fact that the Oilers eliminated my Red Wings from the Stanley Cup playoffs, I'm still throwing my support behind Edmonton in the Stanley Cup Finals. After all, if a #8 seed can make it all the way to the championship series, who am I to root against them? (Plus, I've met Ryan Smyth's brother a few times, and he was a nice enough kid.)

And I'm not the only one rooting for the Oilers. Maggie the Monkey agrees with my selection. And if that isn't a ringing endorsement, I don't know what is!

VCR... err... TiVo Alert!

The new season of "Last Comic Standing" starts tonight! The great thing about Last Comic Standing is that (if you're a fan of stand-up comedy), most of the contestants are people you've already heard of, and who already have a modicum of success in the comedy world. John Heffron, Kathleen Madigan, Alonzo Bodden, Ant, and Garry Gulman were already familiar names to me before I ever saw them on LCS. I guess, when it comes right down to it, Last Comic Standing is "American Idol" for people who don't like bad music.

Along those same lines, CBS has started promoting the new season of "Rock Star," my favorite show from last season. I knew they were going to do another season, but I didn't know exactly how they would do it. See, INXS was a perfect fit: Popular band, dead lead singer. Too bad they picked crappy JD Fortune to be their lead singer... but that's neither here nor there.

Of course, there aren't a lot of popular bands out there with dead lead singers. I don't see The Doors or Queen getting together and trying to find a new lead singer on a reality show. (Though it would be awesome if they did!)

Last week, the network released the details. Turns out, CBS is attempting to form a so-called "supergroup," though you can't call a band with two guys you've probably never heard of (plus Tommy Lee) a "supergroup."

I don't know if I'm really looking forward to this summer's Rock Star: Supernova experience. The appeal of last season was that I liked INXS, enjoyed their music, and wanted to see them find a new singer get back together. When it comes right down to it, I don't know if I really care if Tommy Lee, Jason Newsted and Gilby Clarke can find someone to sing with them. I'm sure they can visit the Betty Ford Clinic and find a washed-up lead singer to join their band of merry men. Or they could just get that bald guy that didn't win American Idol.

Reason #4,192 Why I Love XM Radio

While I was driving home from work at about 1:40 a.m., in a sleepy stupor, I heard "Little Guitars" by Van Halen, a song that I don't think I've heard since I was in college. Of course, I immediately switched into Karaoke mode, and surprised myself by actually remembering about half the lyrics. Not bad for a song I haven't heard since about 1991.

Trapped in the Apartment

As I was writing that last post, scanning the latest rejection letter, and uploading it to my blog, my neighbor fired up the stereo.

Now, I can't be 100% positive, because I don't know the song that well... but I'm pretty damn sure that s/he was listening to the Gawd-Awful "Trapped in the Closet" By R.Kelly. The worst part? S/he listened to it more than once.

I should probably mention that I'm talking about the vibrator neighbors.

What other atrocities will these people unleash upon me?

Rockin' and Rollin'

At this very moment, while I'm slaving away at work, our TiVo is recording the finale of Rock Star: INXS. Marty, MiG, and J.D. are singing for their suppers.

Since the very first episode of the show, I've had a sneaking suspicion that J.D. would win. And that really bums me out, because the guy's a tool.

Honestly, I'm hoping that Marty will win. A month ago, I would never have thought that, but he's really grown on me over the last few weeks. He's a little creepy, but in kind of a cool way. And that damn "Trees" song that he wrote is infectuous. Plus, I love the fact that he lists his occupation as "Musician/Real Estate Appraiser." Huh?

I'm also pretty fond of MiG... though he's a little too nice to be a rock star.

Cory's prediction, made last week when Suzie was eliminated last week: J.D. will win, but Marty will become much more successful in the long run.

My prediction? If J.D. wins, I predict I'll never buy another INXS album.

A Distraction

Much like Kaos, I may need to go on a self-imposed Katrina moratorium. I just can't watch it any more. I can't even imagine what it's like for people like him, who call New Orleans and/or the Gulf Coast their home.

Instead, I'll share my sheer disappointment with the Rockstar: INXS viewers and the band INXS, for giving Ty the boot tonight. Every week, Ty churned out the most amazing performances, and yet the voters continued to stick him in the elimination pool every week. Hey... don't blame me... I voted for him 30 times last night. (ok, ok, I have no life. I admit it. I voted in an online poll 30 times. Sad but true.)

After he was eliminated, Ty said he knew exactly why people didn't vote for him. And while sometimes I roll my eyes when people make accusations of racism, I think this time, he was absolutely right. Cory and I had talked about it last week. People don't want to see a black guy fronting a rock-and-roll band. Especially a white rock-and-roll band. Vocally, he's probably the strongest male performer on the show. And he's a hell of a stage performer, too. Unfortunately, he turned out a mediocre performance of "The One Thing" (my favorite INXS song), and got kicked off the show.

Bummer.

So now I'll have to focus my positive vibes on Suzie (who sang the hell out of "Bohemian Rhapsody" last night), and MiG (who wasn't so great this week, but did a great version of "Baby I Love Your Way" a couple of weeks back).

I'd even be ok with Marty winning. Even though he's vocally the worst on the show, his uber-creepy version of "Hit Me Baby One More Time" proved he's got something. Jordis has a great voice, I just can't get used to the idea of a 22-year-old girl fronting a band of 40-somethings. Plus, she really ganked up Aerosmith's "Dream On" last week. She screwed it up so much, that you can't even link to the performance on the MSN Video website... they have every performance from Week 7 listed except that one.

(To view video of all the performances from the show, click here.)

OK. Let's face it. The only reason I'll actually continue watching the show is in the hopes that JD gets his dreams crushed. He's a tool. Sure, he's talented... but not nearly talented enough to be as cocky as he is. How can I describe him? For those of you who are fans of "The Apprentice," he's Omarossa with leather pants, a Canadian accent and a penis. And all the little teenyboppers that watch the show love him.

He must be stopped.

UPDATE-- Rock Star: INXS

(How much do I hate that I'm hooked on a reality show?)

This week, America came to it's senses and put Heather in the elimination group. I don't care if she's performed with Elton John and Ryan Adams... she's awful. I was glad to see her go.

I was a little torn up by Daphna's elimination, though... Yeah, she murdered "Rock the Casbah," and for that, she sucks. But she had a great voice.

For some ridiculous reason, Brandon still hasn't been voted off. He totally ruined a Squeeze song this week. I think all the creepy guys in the world must be rallying around his cause and voting for him every week.

My favorites this week: Mig and Tara. They rocked. And seriously, how can you not love a guy who was once in a band called "Randy Badass and the Slickmaster Five?"

Getting a Facelift

No, not me. I look damn good for 35, thank you very much. I'm talking about the 'ol blog. I was all inspired last night to change some things around. Unfortunately, after about half an hour of fussing and tweaking, the best I got was changing my blog name.

By the way, if you don't recognize the tagline to my blog, it's from a song by the Presidents of the United States of America.

Goodbye and Godspeed

It's been a while since I blogged about Mike... not because I haven't been thinking of him... because not a day goes by when I don't think of him dozens of times.

This morning, I found out that The Boondogs (a favorite band of Mike's) wrote a song about him that they've put on their new album. Go ahead and check it out.

Thanks to the Lady Crumpet for the link.