My first prediction for last night’s episode was proven wrong in the first 30 seconds. Ryan didn’t wear the t-shirt and jeans. In fact, he was back in another collared shirt and jacket — with no sign of a t-shirt underneath. This was in remarkable contract to contestant Bobby’s wardrobe, whose all black suit and shirt was matched with a white t-shirt that made him look like a priest from certain angles.

Opening credits. Look, it’s all the previous Idols. Is Rueben still alive?

First video montage’s theme: “The girls didn’t disappoint us last night.” The heck they didn’t. This is AI trying to be nice, going so far as to edit in the one kind thing the three judges said about a person in a desperate attempt to make Tuesday night’s show sound more exciting than it was. They even found a clip of Randy saying something nice about Becky past “you’re pretty.”

In the opening interview with the judges, Paula continues to confuse having a “unique” voice with one that stands out. It’s something we saw plenty of awful contestants confuse in the try-outs for the past two months.

That leads us to the montage of “How the Guys Got Here,” which leads us to a montage of commercials.

The first is for the Ford Fusion that starts off like an iPod ad. Weird.

Did you notice the “Coca-Cola” moments were more subdued than ever this week? The Coke logo appears in the bottom of the screen and, if you look hard enough, you’ll notice the coke bottle pattern on the couch Randy is talking to the contestants on. I like it - it’s subtle enough to not be obnoxious, and I’ve trained myself not to see corporate logos on the bottom of my television screen at this point.

All 12 performances critiqued after the break.

(more…)

* Flash game of the day: Blueprint. Move some items around to allow a ball to travel to its target.

* Second game of the day: Copter. (Via)

* Can Richard Dean Anderson make it to the Hollywood Walk of Fame? One group of fans is giving it a shot.

* How to name your new computer start-up company.

* 10 classic ID10T stories from computer help desks in Australia.

* Screenshots from Windows Vista. Everyone is going to compare it to Mac, but it looks more like GNOME to me.

* UPDATE: American Idol recap coming later this morning. . .

Very quietly, I’ve been watching this season of DANCING WITH THE STARS. After last year’s laughable conclusion giving the pretty girl the trophy she clearly didn’t deserve, fans of the show hoped the second season would iron out the kinks. Yet, the clueless wonder, Master P. Miller, survived on the show through something like three or four eliminations. I could dance better than the man if I had no training and a blindfold on. The judges sank his scores so low that the Titanic — laying at the bottom of the ocean and split in two — was higher than his scores. Yet it still took a couple extra weeks of hard work to get him voted off.

After that, everything got back on track. The finale was destined to be a Drew/Stacy stunner for all the marbles from the get-go, but there’s a certain order the rest of the field needed to be eliminated in to maintain some level of credibility. George couldn’t dance, but he was entertaining. Dropping out in fifth was the right place for him to go. Next, Lisa should have triumphed over Jerry Rice to join the Drew/Stacey tandem for the finale.

Except Lisa got voted out. Jerry remains for the finale. The man tries his best, I’ll grant him that. But he’s not at all light on his feet, and you can visibly see the man thinking the moves in his head as he goes.

It doesn’t matter, in the end. He’s cannon fodder. Will it be Drew or Stacy?

I’ll be betting on Stacey, though I’ll feel sorry for Drew when he loses.

And, hey, isn’t it tough to believe that Stacy’s first score on the show was a lowly 22?

One other side note: Perhaps the most surprising dance of the season, though, came from the wonderfully comedic Tom Bergeron on last Friday’s show. Impressive.

Part one of the finale is on tomorrow night. The grand finale is Sunday.

The Red Room this year is elevated slightly and looks funkier and desperately more hip. There’s also a glass coffee table in the middle of the room with a tire in it.

Ryan is wearing a picnic table cloth with a sport coat type thing. Silly me — he wears the t-shirt with his jeans to look more butch on the nights the boys perform. Look for the t-shirt with obscure band name on it tomorrow night.

Paula’s hair do makes her look like a runner-up at the New York Kennel Club’s Dog Show.

And it took less than five minutes for the first unnecessary montage of clips from the series thus far. This time, we see how all the girls got to this point in their “journey” thus far. I notice for the first time that they all run away using very very short strides. Those high heels can be tough on 16 year olds, I suppose.

This brings us to our first contestant:

Mandisa (29 years old) is the one best known for being called fat by Simon. She sings “Never” by Heart and does it well. She’s a little breathy in a couple of spots and I thought she oversang it in a couple of spots, but the crowd reacted well, so the little nits aren’t much to pick. It was nice to see the show start off on something other than a ballad.

Usually, in shows this early, the common mistake is to go for the slow ballad to start.

Kelly (19) is everyone’s favorite Grandpa-loving farm girl. She picks “How Far” by Martina McBride and instantly dooms herself. Carrie Underwood won last year. Two country girls are not going to win this contest back to back. She looks more comfortable on stage than she really was, but is slighty pitchy, particularly on the highest notes.

Becky (25) is the twin looker. Really, you can’t not stare at this girl with your jaw dropped to the ground. She choose “Because the Night” from Natalie Merchant. It’s our first patented Crash And Burn of the night, but it won’t be the last. She’s all attitude in her performance, but it sounds like she’s affecting an accent throughout the song, singing lower than perhaps she should. As Simons said, “Quite good is not good enough anymore.” She might get past this week, but she’s not likely to make the Top 12.

She has two things going for her: (A) The judges raked her over the coals. The sympathy phone votes will work wonders for her. (B) She’s drop dead gorgeous. That’ll carry her through with many other voters.

Ayla (17) is next, with Christina Aguilera’s “Reflections” from MULAN. It was one of her favorites growing up, reminding me of just how old I am. Ayla, by the way, is the basketball playing high school kid from the North East, and the latest in a long line of contestants who make Ryan Seacrest look like a Smurf. They’re all so tall this year.

In any case, the judges like her, but I thought her hand motions were too reminiscent of XTinas, and even parts of her delivery came off sounding karaoke. She’s good enough to be safe, though.

And is it just me, or were the judges expecting very little tonight? They keep telling every contestant how badly they thought they’d do, but then compliment them on being better. It’s weird.

Much much much more after the break. This writeup is 1600 words long, and we still have two more Crash And Burns to come!

(more…)

I originally had intended to LiveBlog tonight’s episode of American Idol. Unfortunately for this site, ever-changing schedules prevented that from happening. However, I thought I’d provide you with an early peek at tonight’s episode and how my LiveBlog would no doubt have looked, had I been posting to it as I watched the show.

8:01: Ryan Seacrest is a tool.
8:02: I’m so used to watching this on TiVo, I can’t remember the last time I actually watched the opening credits.
8:03: Ah, our old friend the Red Room.
8:05: Goody, a video diary of the journey so far.
8:10: Hey, the first singer might actually be performing shortly.
8:10:10: “After the break.”
8:13: Oh, it’s her. She’s only here because she’s pretty. She can’t sing. But she’ll make the final twelve. Just look at her.
8:30: I was wondering how they’d stretch twelve songs into two hours, but that’s only because I forgot about these pre-packaged video clip presentations before each song. Every contestant loves Mom, God, and apple pie. Please vote for them.
8:33: Simon is mean, but he’s so right. Paula tries to be nice, but even she can’t hide the disgust on her face.
8:45: Yes! Our first Crash and Burn!
9:00: Halfway there, and Ryan’s t-shirt is really starting to fade under all the lights. Man, those vintage shirts don’t hold up well on camera, do they?
9:02: I didn’t think I’d hear anyone sing THAT song this year. She sounded OK, but will she be able to pull off the country themed night?
9:10: I thought Whitney Houston songs were banned from competition now? I can only hope we don’t hear more Mariah Carey or Alicia Keyes songs nexxt.
9:20: Didn’t recognize that song at all. I’m so out of touch.
9:28: I don’t care what she tells Ryan here, she knows she’s toast this week. And stop sucking up to the home audience!
9:30: Dear god, why did she wear that?!? She doesn’t have the body to pull that off. And to top it all off with Ugg boots? UGH
9:40: Is it almost over yet? 24 hours ago, Jack Bauer had killed a half dozen people, knocked out his friend, stolen a car, and shot down a helicopter. On AI5, they can’t get through 10 singers in an hour and a half.
9:50: Almost there.
9:54: So many phone numbers to remember, so little time. I’m not going to vote for any of them. None of them pulled a LaToya London enough to be memorable.
9:55: And there are the boys we’ll be seeing tomorrow. Like anyone has a doubt that Ace will make it to the Top 12 already. He doesn’t need to sing.
10:00: Finally, I can stop typing. Whew, that was tiring. I never want to watch commercials again for the rest of my life.

Full list.

I would suggest consulting the podcast this week for a more complete list and detailed notes. I had more time to play with that than I do with this post. Still, here’s a decent rundown:

Action: The Complete Series (2-disc set)

The release of the week. Great sit-com. Very adult, for a network prime time sit-com. Some inside jokes at Hollywood’s expense, but if you’ve ever griped that movies today suck and wonder why — this might help explain a thing or two.

All the President’s Men: Special Edition (2-disc set) (1976)
Midnight Cowboy: Collector’s Edition (2-disc set) (1969)

This week’s special editions. At least they are for “influential” or “important” movies. This isn’t the “Say It Ain’t So” Special Edition to last year’s Blink-And-You-Missed-It Teen Sex Romp.

Monty Python and The Holy Grail: Extraordinarily Deluxe Edition (2-disc set + CD)

Then there’s this thing, which I detailed in the podcast. It’s the same 2-disc edition from last year, plus the original soundtrack CD for the movie. I think.

A Father, a Son: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2005)

HBO documentary with those Douglas boys.

North Country (widescreen) (2005)
North Country (pan-and-scan) (2005)

Two Oscar nominations for acting performances by women - one in a leading role, the other in a supporting role. Then, Charlize Theron appeared in AEON FLUX. I suppose she might possibly win Best Actress at both the Razzies and the Oscars this year for that duo.

Rent (widescreen) (2-disc set) (2005)
Rent (pan-and-scan) (2-disc set) (2005)

A rental for me, but I would like to see it. Still, it was weird to see the guy from LAW & ORDER singing in the commercials.

Ultimate Avengers: The Movie (2006)

Comic book fans, unite! Or, you know, don’t. This is the comics world — nobody ever agrees quietly on anything on the internet.

The Weather Man (widescreen) (2005)
The Weather Man (pan-and-scan) (2005)

You forgot the movie existed, didn’t you?

Next week: WALK THE LINE, C.O.P.S. THE ANIMATED SERIES, THE DREW CAREY SHOW, LADY AND THE TRAMP, and some more.

Due to another last minute change of plans, I won’t be able to do the liveblogging tonight. I will, however, be taking copious notes and posting full thoughts on the show before I head off to sleep tonight.

In the meantime, I might come up with a suitable replacement for the liveblogging between 8:00 and 9:00 anyway.

Stay tuned.

bit-tech.net | Ricky Gervais takes podcasting paid-for

The Ricky Gervais Show is to become the first paid-for Podcast.

The show features British comedy personalities Ricky Gervais, Steven Merchant and Karl Pilkington. Their irreverant brand of monkey-based comedy has seen the weekly half-hour podcast storm to the top of the iTunes charts and stay there.

The first run of 12 episodes was sponsored by UK newspaper the Guardian and were free to download via iTunes. Following on from the success of the show, the second run of episodes will be hosted on Audible.com and will be accessible only to those who’ve paid a subscription fee. […]

An Audible subscription to the show will cost $7 a month in the US and 4.50 (pounds) a month in the UK. For the money, you’ll get four half hour shows.

The show is popular enough that this will be a worthy experiment. The thing’s getting something like 400,000 downloads an episode, so they have a good chance at monetizing it.

This isn’t a boon to all podcasters, though. This is the kind of model that’s only going to work for the most popular of all podcasts.

I’ve only listened to the first show of the Gervais podcast. It was cute, but I’m not a devotee of it just yet. I’ve downloaded them all so far, though, just in case. . .

This is the 59th DVD podcast:
Listen directly to the MP3 file. (Roughly 10 minutes long, 6 MB in size.)

• Action
• The Dick Cavett Show: Comic Legends
• Goof Troops
• Quak Pack
• A Father, A Son: Once Upon A Time In Hollywood
• Monty Python and The Holy Grail: Extraordinarily Deluxe Edition
• North Country
• Rent
• Ultimate Avengers
• The Weather Man

Subscribe via iTunes, or use this XML file for your other podcatching client of choice.

Vote for this podcast at PodcastAlley.com.

Read about this podcast in PODCASTING HACKS.

Where to find release lists:
DVDJournal’s release list
TVShowsonDVD.com - monthly release list

Where to find more information on these movies:
Internet Movie Database

E-mail me or send voice comments to AUGIEDB *at* GMAIL *dot* COM. Or leave your comments in the comments section of this message.

* Did you know that TiVo has a blog?

* Over in Dubai, they’re building a rough map of the world using small man made islands. The good news is that they’re looking to develop it, too! That’s right — you can get in on the ground floor of this amazing deal. (Thanks, Dana!)

* While I still prefer KDE, I think the GNOME desktop for Linux is pretty.

* John Dvorak thinks Apple is looking at Windows, while Robert Cringely is thinking Apple should look at Blockbuster.

* Seven Seasons of Buffy condensed into one three minute video.

I just looked at the DVDs I’ve picked up this year and noticed something very odd:

• MOONLIGHTING Season Three
• MI-5 Season Three
• THE FAMILY GUY Volume Three

And the next item I plan on buying is TITUS Season Three.

Three must be the magical number this year. . .

Wow.

Because I’m just crazy enough and because I suddenly have the time free, I’m going to try something new here at VariousandSundry.com this Tuesday night: LiveBlogging.

Watch the girls compete on AMERICAN IDOL Tuesday night and read along with me. I’ll be starting a post and updating it continuously as the show progresses.

That’s this Tuesday, the 21st. It ought to be fun. Or, nobody will want to watch with me, I’ll talk to myself for two hours, you’ll all read it the next day, and I’ll never do it again.

Either/or.

John C. Dvorak has an interesting theory. It’s wild. It’s way out there. It’s partially nutty and more than a little insane.

But it’s just crazy enough to come true.

For the record: I doubt it. But it makes for interesting grist for the proverbial mill.

Column from PC Magazine: Will Apple Adopt Windows?

Apple has always said it was a hardware company, not a software company. Now with the cash cow iPod line, it can afford to drop expensive OS development and just make jazzy, high-margin Windows computers to finally get beyond that five-percent market share and compete directly with Dell, HP, and the stodgy Chinese makers.

To preserve the Mac’s slick cachet, there is no reason an executive software layer couldn’t be fitted onto Windows to keep the Mac look and feel. Various tweaks could even improve the OS itself. From the Mac to the iPod, it’s the GUI that makes Apple software distinctive. Apple popularized the modern GUI. Why not specialize in it and leave the grunt work to Microsoft? It would help the bottom line and put Apple on the fast track to real growth.

From TVShowsonDVD.com:

I’ve been informed that the Season Two Volume One Gargoyles DVD has not sold as many units as the Season One Gargoyles DVD did. That’s not particularly surprising, since it has a higher price point. But let’s be honest, the lower sales are putting the release of Season Two Volume Two at risk.

Easy solution: Go buy the first volume now. Please? I want to own the rest of these shows. . .

HD Olympics

NBC’s facilities are massive. The entire IBC building will become a convention center after the Olympics. NBC had to build out their own studios.. walls, doors, power, lighting etc. Then it all get’s torn down after the show!

Lots of interesting info behind the scenes at the Olympics, including how the HD feed is handled redundantly with up-conversion and down-conversion possibilities. Includes pics of the studios, the editing rooms, the control centers, the facility’s floor plan, and more.

Fascinating stuff, even if you’re not an Olympics viewer.