So I was watching TV with my mom one day last week. She was telling me that there was this show that she would love to watch but she could never remember what channel to find it on.
Mom: "You know, that 'Ted and Jane' show?"
Me: "Who and Who?"
Mom: "That couple with like nine kids or something."
Me: "You mean 'Jon and Kate Plus 8'?"
So I'm sitting in the living room on a Saturday morning, chillin' with a little Spectacular Spiderman on the tube, when this Sketchers commercial comes on.
Now, as a preschool teacher, I appreciate the parents who send their little tykes to school in velcro shoes. It definitely makes my days easier to not be bent down tying a shoe every time I turn around. But it seems to me that these commercials are targeted toward children who are old enough to tie their own shoelaces. What do you think?
I caught the premier episode of this new reality show on NBC last Wednesday night. From the previews, I had decided that this show could go one of two ways: it could be absolutely brilliant or it could suck like a Hoover. After watching, I'm leaning more toward brilliant.
It's not a competition - there are no eliminations or prizes. It's a "social experiment." They've taken 5 teen couples (aged 18-20) and thrown them into adult life in the fast lane. Each couple was taken to a quiet cul-de-sac in Idaho and given their own house to live in for the duration of the experiment. At dawn of day two, each girl is given a pregnancy belly to wear. The couples attend a child care class at the hospital. And each couple spends the rest of their first full day as adults putting together their nursery.
The next morning, things get really interesting. Each couple gets their own real live baby (ages ranging from 6-11 months) for 3 days. The babies' actual parents are able to watch from next-door via monitor, and can step in as they deem necessary (and believe me, they do). Each couple is also shadowed by a professional nanny in the house to ensure the immediate safety of the babies. The nannies are not allowed to intervene except in the event of an emergency, and the couples are not allowed to use the nanny as a babysitter.
After 3 days with the babies, the couples will upgrade to toddlers. Followed by 3 days with a pre-teen (complete with pet), 3 days as the parents of a teenager, and 3 days as the caregivers to an elderly person.
"It's not television...it's birth control." Truer words were never spoken.
The most talented season of American Idol ever? I don't know that I'd go that far. Sure, there are some pretty awesome performers this season, but they've also delivered some fairly lackluster performances already.
My favorite contestants, and the ones that I would like to see in the top 10, are:
David Archuleta
David Cook
Jason Castro
Michael Johns
Danny Noriega
Brook White
Carly Smithson
Ramiele Malubay
Syesha Mercado
Amanda Overmyer
Yes, I am aware that a couple of my picks have had some rather horrific performances. I still want to see them in the top 10. I think their diverse personalities will make for a much more interesting season.
Speaking of American Idol, does anyone else get the impression that Simon Cowell is tiring of his persona on the show? I mean, for 6 seasons now he's been the "mean one" - the guy who wasn't afraid to say exactly what he thought of the performances. But this season I'm getting the vibe that he's getting tired of being the guy everyone loves to hate. Can't say as I blame him, either.
And Paula. Oh, Paula. She sure can throw some nut-job comments out there. Just this past week, she told David Archuleta after his incredible rendition of John Lennon's Imagine "I want to just squish you, squeeze your head off, and dangle you from my rear-view mirror." No, that's not scary at all.
...is that nobody cares what they are famous for anymore. It's enough just to be famous, even if it's for being an idiot.
Congratulations, Terry Fator. You are an amazing entertainer and I absolutely adore you.
Last week, the first 10 of the top 20 performed and America voted through their 5 favorites. Last night those 5 were announced. I'm pretty happy with 4 out of the 5.
Butterscotch - she sings and beatboxes and is just awesome
The Glamazons - a plus-sized singing group
Robert Hatcher - singer, mainly R&B, not all that stand-out talented in my opinion
Sideswipe - a martial arts / dance group that so totally rocks my face off
Julienne Irwin - 14 year old singer (the requisite America's sweetheart of the show)
Now, here are my picks from last night's performances (the links are not necessarily to the performances from this round):
The Second Story Guys - a dance group...on STILTS!
Popovich Comedy Pet Theater - the judges didn't care for the performance last night, but I thought it was great
Terry Fator - ventriloquist/impersonator/entertainer extraordinare
Cas Haley - very talented musician
The Duttons - the requisite huge musical family of the season...I don't know why, but I really like them
These are a few of my favorite sets from this season's auditions.
Enjoy. Or don't. Whatever.
Have you seen this Red Bull commercial? I caught it last night during the Heroes season finale (which was awesome, by the way). Have they taken their little gimmick a bit too far?
If you haven't been watching Heroes on NBC Monday nights, you are missing out on an amazing show! Seriously, people! Take the next 20 hours or so to download the episodes you've missed and catch up - yes, it's that good. There have been a few episodes that Hubby and I predicted the plotline for because "if I were writing it, that's what I would have happen." But last night's episode was NOT one of them. My mind is blown! I totally did not see that coming.
This was one of the best parts of American Idol's charity event this past week. Simon auditions for AI with the Simpsons as judges - Homer=Simon, Lisa=Paula, and Marge=Randy. To quote Montgomery Burns, "Excellent!"
This celebrity music video for Stayin' Alive was good for some laughs, too. My favorite part is the Blue Man Group's "ha ha ha ha".
And this lovely bit of staged comedy - Jack Black just happens to win some time on the stage.
Seriously, these were the high points of the 2 hour long show. Yes, a 2 hour long Idol results show in which the "shocker" elimination that they kept promising...was that no one was eliminated. "How could we send someone home on a week all about charity?"
Evidently there is a website encouraging people to celebrate tomorrow, March 24, as Shutdown Day. As in, stay off the computer for the full 24-hour period. Not entirely a bad idea, actually. Especially as nice as the weather is right now. But could I actually go an entire 24-hour period with access to a computer and simply choose not to indulge? I doubt my abilities in this regard very much. So as much as I would love to say I'm going to do this, I probably won't.
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American Idol update: Sanjaya made the top 10 - what is wrong with you people? Granted, this week was not his worst perfomance, and he was at least interesting (I'm not sure "entertaining" is the right word for that perfomance, but it was in no way boring). But COME ON! We bid farewell to Stephanie Edwards, the Beyonce-esque diva whose main flaw was her inability to differentiate herself from the pack. She just couldn't pull enough votes from the other divas.
In other Idol news, apparently Ashley, the majorly unhinged tweenager in the audience who was brought to our attention during Sanjaya's performance, was planted. She and her mother had tickets to the dress rehearsal, and evidently she was just as emotional then. When the powers that be noticed, they offered her and her mother primo seats for the live show. The lesson for you kids at home? Act like morons at a dress rehearsal, and you just may get your 15 minutes of fame on national television for...acting like a moron.
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Today was pajama day at the preschool, and my little darlings were adorable in their little Cookie monster houseshoes and dinasaur jammies. I was just glad for the break from my scrubs - I got to dress for the occassion, too! I did make one tiny error in planning for the day - I forgot to pack shoes to walk home in, so now I have blisters from wearing my flip-flops for that little mile-long jaunt. Ouch.
I've been playing with the effects in Picasa and editing some of my digital pics lately. What do you think?
Let's start off with a little American Idol, shall we? This week's results show was not incredibly surprising for me. I was rather shocked that Sabrina was sent home before Haley whatshername, but since I don't vote I guess I shouldn't get too worked up about it, huh? I do want to ask one major question though. WHO IS VOTING FOR SANJAYA??? Sure, he's a sweet kid, but are you people actually paying attention when people are singing? He's not exactly horrible, but the kid is seriously lacking in personality on stage.
An old friend I hadn't heard from since high school found me on myspace this weekend. He said he had just been talking about me with his girlfriend. Seems they had been watching A Walk to Remember and he told her he had gone to school with a girl just like Mandy Moore's character. Wow. I think I need to find that movie and watch it again. It's been a while. The one person I was sure would be leaving American Idol this week somehow managed to rack up enough votes to stay another week. Sanjaya seemed as genuinely shocked as I did, and I can't help but think he was trying to fight the urge to rip the card out of Ryan's hands to verify that the right name had been read. Poor AJ got screwed.
I think Nick's downfall was whoever was doing the camera work on Tuesday night's show. They kept cutting to the cheesy drummer during his performance of "Fever." It made it really difficult to pay attention to Nick, who was singing the song beautifully.
Alaina's rendition of "Not Ready to Make Nice," dedicated to her mother (which seems a strange choice of song for a mother she seems to get along with) just didn't do it for the voting populace. And it looks like the nudie photo scandal put Antonella Barba through for another week, to Leslie Hunt's detriment.
Kellie Pickler was the guest performer for this week's results show. Being able to fast-forward through that performance is reason #947* why I love TiVo.
Can I tell you my absolute favorite part of last night's show? Of course I can, this is my blog. Ok, it's fairly obvious that Kellie Pickler has had some...remodeling done on the upper levels. Well, before her performance, Ryan asks her if she's spent her money on anything since leaving American Idol, and she says "shoes." Then, as he stares at her...huge tracts of land**, Ryan asks, "just shoes?" OH NO HE DIDN'T! Hubby said, "I LOVE Ryan Seacrest! ... in a not gay way."
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* 947 is a random number. I do not actually have a list of reasons I love TiVo, and if I did it probably would not be quite that long.
** Monty Python reference
4 people will go home.
What? You expected me to be specific? Ok, 2 guys and 2 girls will go home.
Alright, alright. I'll stop being a smart aleck and give my real prediction. I have yet to watch all of Wednesday night's show, but I'll fire up the TiVo when I get the energy to stay awake long enough for it. I did watch the guys on Tuesday night's show. As sorry as I am to say it, I really think this is the end of the road for Sanjaya Malakar. He's such a sweet soul, and he does have an amazing voice. The problem is that he doesn't realize how good he is, so he doesn't know how to take advantage of the talent he has.
I'm not going to venture a guess as to the other guy that will be nixed or the ladies we'll be saying adieu to. It just wouldn't be feasible for me to make that prediction, as I haven't seen their performances yet. I tried last night, but I died on the couch before the first singer took the stage.
I will leave you with my dream top 12:
Phil Stacey
Chris Sligh
Blake Lewis
Jared Cotter
Nicholas Pedro
Sundance Head
__________________
Lakisha Jones
Stephanie Edwards
Sabrina Sloan
Melinda Doolittle
Jordin Sparks
Gina Glocksen
Criticize my taste if you will, but those are my picks for top 12. For what it's worth. Considering I'm too lazy to actually vote.
I enjoy watching the Game Show Network (GSN). I like playing the games from the comfort of my own couch and often amuse myself by heckling the contestants. I mean, some of these people give some pretty dumb answers.
For example, take the show Chain Reaction. Ever seen it? The premise is to come up with the 5 words that have been chosen to connect the 2 words given at the beginning of the round. Say, the round starts with the challenge to connect "ant" to "kisses" (I'll use the example from the commercial). They give you one letter at a time and you can choose which word you want to build from (either down from "ant" or up from "kisses").
ant
hill
billy
club
scene
stealing
kisses
Every 2 word set is an actual phrase ("ant hill," "hill billy," etc).
Anyway, yesterday I was watching Chain Reaction and we got to this point in a round:
street
L______
So, we're looking for a word that starts with L and that makes sense following the word "street." The contestant's guess? "Lady." Wow.
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* The title of this post was the answer to one of the speed chains, in case you were wondering. I pondered for quite some time over whether that would be rubber breast implants for chickens or breast implants for rubber chickens.
