Roboclaw

1025 is my high score so far. Addictive, tricky, challenging. The cursor key controls take some getting used to. It’s also annoying to have to use your mouse or tablet to click the button to go to the next level. I’d rather have ALL controls on the keyboard.

It’s the finest moment of the season. Give it up for Dr. Will and his Veto ceremony speech. There’s none finer.

* The absolute funniest website you’ll see all week. Nay, all month. Possibly, this will make your year. Star Trek Inspirational Posters. Here, have a sample:

“I’m sorry, I can’t hear you over the sound of how awesome I am.”

And that’s not even the best one. Scroll through the page.

* Looking for the home of The Gilmore Girls? Check out The CW’s Affiliate Map.

* Computer case mod: Tux, The Linux Penguin.

* Yawning bunnies. The world has come to this.

* Here’s a neat tip for creating graphics in Excel cells.

* Looking for a deal on a hard drive? Try DealMac. Yes, it specializes in Mac stuff for sale, but the hard drive offers are fantastic, no matter what your platform. There’s a 160 GB hard drive on sale for $20 after rebate, for example, or an external 250 Gig jobber for just under $100.

Due out in November, we now know the shorts included in the fourth volume of DVDs collecting the classic Warner Bros. shorts.

Sadly, there’s a Speedy Gonzalez disc in this collection. I never really cared much for the character, so it’s pretty much a wasted disc on me, but there’s plenty of other stuff to enjoy.

The first disc is “Bugs Bunny Classics,” and includes “Rabbit Hood,” “8 Ball Bunny,” and “Knighty Knight Bugs.”

The second disc contains shorts by director Frank Tashlin, none of whose names jump out at me at the moment.

Disc three is Speedy’s.

Disc four has “Cat” cartoons, like “The Aristo-Cat,” “Dough Ray Me-Ow,” and “Cat Feud.”

It’s not the most exciting lineup of shorts, honestly, but they’ve given us so many of the best already in the first three sets that you can’t expect everything to show up every year.

The list of bonus features on the disc is magnificent, though: plenty of commentary tracks, featurettes on Raymond Scott and “Powerhouse,” music-only tracks, and some Chuck Jones wartime shorts like Private Snafu, amongst other things.

It would seem the judges have jumped off the Benji bandwagon the past couple of weeks and are prepared to hand Travis the title. It’s still America’s vote, so we’ll see if they get their wish, but it’s been interesting to see the judges’ sudden turn against Benji like this. It makes a certain amount of sense: Travis would be a more predictable winner, given the style and training of last year’s winner. They’re practically twins. Although, oddly enough, Benji outspun Travis this week.

That last dance from Benji and Heidi was remarkable last night, and thankfully it’s on YouTube to enjoy today. (We’ll see if it ever gets taken down.)

I think it’s between Travis and Benji for the win this season. Is Travis’ newfound momentum giving him the win? Or did the judges change their minds too little, too late?

Tune in on Wednesday, 16 August 2006.

The show began, roughly, with Gilby doing his Oprah impression: “You get a guitar! You get a guitar! Everyone gets a guitar!” Gibson, you see, sent over guitars for each of the final 10 rockers.

Back at the Mayan, we were treated to such moments of wittiness as Ryan taking pleasure in making Tommy Lee uncomfortable, and Storm saying something along the lines of, “I wouldn’t hump you on stage; I’d break your back.” That caused a brief flash of ugliness on Jill’s face, for whom that comment was clearly pointed. I loved it. I’m funny that way.

After that begins my streak of amazing prognostication. I said that Magni would get the encore. If not him, then Lukas would get it. Guess what? They did two encores this week, which can only mean that the producers really want to save their footage of what’s happening at the mansion for the website.

Lukas went first, looking very creepy in his black fishnet gloves. He is a sexually ambiguous little man, isn’t he?

Magni did his encore with the full band this time. While I preferred the acoustic version, the full-out electric version sounded good.

The rockers who fell to the bottom three over the course of the night were Jill, Josh, Zayra, Ryan, and Patrice. Knowing who the TV audience at home likes to look at and talk about the most, Brooke made sure to tell Zayra, personally, that she was safe. I didn’t think it was possible, but Zayra picked an even tighter pair of pants to wear last night. Yet, they sagged on her. It looked like she had a little itty bitty micro-skirt on, but it was just the way the spandex fell on her body. Bizarre. She was shocked. I was upset that we didn’t get another awful performance out of her last night, but very happy that she’d be back for more pain next week. I hope she plays her new Gibson. Bwah ha ha ha

Jill was the first pulled into the Danger Zone. She screamed “Respect,” but the band loved it. I thought she was oversinging it. I also thought she acted weird during the harmonica solo. She was trying to steal the spotlight during the soloist’s moment. Not cool.

Josh was pulled out next, and sang Bad Company’s “Shooting Star.” After Tommy Lee’s warning about the guitar the previous night, Josh chose to play the guitar and bob his head again. Weird. Does he not remember the Duran Duran moment of earlier this season? The singing was OK, though, but obviously not right for the band.

Patrice turned out to be safe. I was shocked. She doesn’t seem to have too much phone support from the viewers. This week, it was enough.

Ryan was yanked out, instead. I guess I wasn’t alone in not exactly thinking he was great last night. He sang Depeche Mode’s “Enjoy the Silence” and did a really good job of it. He fell into a couple of his bad habits with standing on stage and looking limp, but he’s getting there. The performance was enough to make him safe.

And, sure enough, the band let him sit down first.

Then, Tommy Lee incorrectly said they were going to do a first for the show — a double elimination, as predicted here yesterday. He either thinks of Season Two of ROCK STAR as a completely different show, or he didn’t watch the first season, where INXS did it earlier in the season. And so he kicked off both Josh and Jill. (”Went up a hill, to fetch a pail of water…”)

The End. Discuss below.

* Returning to 24 this season: Milo Pressman. It’s OK; I didn’t remember him either. Click on his name and you’ll remember that face. He was last seen in Season One. (More 24 casting returns at TV Guide.)

* Another chain reaction kind of web Flash game, this time with a puzzle aspect to it. Pretty fun. I haven’t finished level four yet.

* Goggles is a flight simulator on the web using Google Maps. Cute, but quickly dismissed. (Via)

* Apple’s Leopard OS will include Ruby On Rails. Interesting.

* With the right combination of strobe lighting and flourescent drops, you can make water appear to fall in slow motion or even in reverse. It’s tough to wrap your brain around, but the effects are nice.

* Redo your cubicle — completely in cardboard!

* Later today: Rock Star: Supernova results show! And the penultimate So You Think You Can Dance for season two!

Brooke Burke is pregnant, but she wasn’t showing last night. Zayra isn’t pregnant, and she was showing everything. But more on her in a moment.

We didn’t get to see any of the song the contestants had to write lyrics for this week. I imagine we’ll see that in a video package on tonight’s results show. So we didn’t get this year’s version of “Pretty Vegas,” but we did get a megaphone. But more on that in a moment.

Dilana led off the night with The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again.” Gilby joined her on guitar. Oddly enough, nobody else in the mansion wanted to do that song with Gilby. Open pistol, point downwards, shoot foot. Weird. The producers took full advantage of the situation by putting a little camera at the end of the frets, looking down the neck of the guitar. It gave us a pretty cool but slightly dizzying camera angle of the guitar in action.

Dilana’s performance was solid, but the least exciting of her songs so far. This was straight-on rock for her. There was nothing scary or memorable in it. But there was also nothing wrong with it. She’s still better — vocally and performance-wise — than most, if not all, of the rockers up there.

Most importantly, she impressed the band.

Jill needs to go home. She did Tracy Bonham’s “Mother Mother.” I’m not a fan of the song, and she sounded awful on it. The slower opening was weak and trembling. And when she went into her “crazy” mode and pranced around stage, she lost even more control of her voice. It was ugly for me, though the band seemed to like what they heard.

One odd thing: She’s so small that the microphone in her hand looks like a giant redwood tree. It’s HUGE!

Ryan went with the Rolling Stone’s “Paint It Black,” complete with a strange hooded opening, black eye makeup, and an all black wardrobe. At points, it even sounded like he affected a British accent. I didn’t much like it, honestly. The band was blown away, but I thought it was too “rock.” I like the song when it’s played a little softer and then ramps up quickly to a frenetic rock song. You may laugh at me for this, but my favorite cover of it is Vanessa Carlton’s. I just think Ryan lost some of the rhythmic nature of the song in the course of trying to scream and rant through it. Showmanship overtook singing.

I thought Toby made some of the same mistakes at the end of the show, but more on that in a moment.

Storm did Queen’s “We Are The Champions” and showed the rest of the contestants the perfect way to do a soft vocal song while still rocking it: Let the guitars do all the hard rocking; let the singer carry the tune. I loved the arrangement, especially the little a capella bit about 3/4ers of the way through. Storm’s voice sounded clear and beautiful. The House Band did a good job backing her up. It all worked. It won’t be the encore this week, but it was memorable and well done.

And she ended it all by telling Tommy Lee, “I’ll spank the crap out of you again, for sure.”

It’s only slightly out of context.

Zayra. Ah, Zayra. I used to like her for the weekly car crash nature of her performances. Now, I realize what she truly is: Ashton Kutcher’s bitch. She’s punking us all, right? She can’t be taking herself or the show seriously. She’s just up there to see how far she can go and how crazy she can get while still being accepted as a rocker. She’s like the local FM station volunteer who goes to the AMERICAN IDOL tryouts to attempt to make it to TV with the craziest story, to see how far AI will play along with the gag, unwittingly.

Because, you see, Zayra can’t sing. Period. She’s incapable of holding a note or hitting a key.

She warbled to David Bowie’s “All the Young Dudes” this week, with Magni playing acoustic guitar as backup. He was the best part of the performance, and he didn’t really do all that much.

She came out in a top hat, prostitute-level ten inch platform heels, and a gold body suit of some sort. I tried the old Idol trick of just listening and not watching. Some performers work best that way. Their looks will distract you in a negative way. Nope, not Zayra. She sounds even worse when you’re not being blinded by her spandex du jour.

She’s awful, and yet I have to vote for her. I need to watch this wreck again next week. And the next.

At least Gilby called her singing “flat.” There’s hope for the band’s integrity yet.

Ah, heck, it’s a band featuring Tommy Lee. How can I seriously use the word “integrity” in this write-up?

Josh came back with the Stone Temple Pilots’ “Interstate Love Song.” Tommy Lee surprised one and all and played drums on the song. I thought Josh’s performance was uninspired and too karaoke. I was bored. It looked like he missed one lyric, too. But the band loved it and complimented the tone of his voice. Eh.

Oh, and his pit stains showed through his outer shirt, too. Not a good sign.

Magni did Live’s “The Dolphins Cry,” finally saving the show from becoming a slow-churning disaster in its middle portion. It was a powerful performance — just him in the spotlight at the end of the stage with a mic and his acoustic guitar. It was a complete solo and very well done. His voice was clear. He sounded comfortable and loose. This could very well be the encore tonight. The band was impressed.

Patrice went with “Instant Karma” from John Lennon. Like so many others, she sang it with the guitar that she only looked down at a couple of times for hand positioning. The song had a nice arrangement and I thought she sounded good. She’s still too smiley, but she’s growing on me. I thought it was one of her best performances, but she doesn’t seem to have the viewer support to make it very far in this show.

Lukas did “Creep” by Radiohead. He actually sang this week, just like Jason has been asking to do for weeks. It’s by far his best performance. He hit the high notes. He hit the soft notes. He was in control of that stage and not insanely freaky. Even his wink to the camera at the end was charming. If Magni doesn’t get the encore tonight, Lukas will.

Toby finished the night off with The Talking Heads’ “Burning Down The House.” I’m a huge Talking Heads fan, so I was excited by the choice, but his rock version of it left me a little cold. All the subtlety and a lot of the tricky word play of the song is lost when you’re focusing more on finding a way to “rock” the lyrics than to deliver them in an interesting manner. His stage presence was good and I thought it was as good a rock version of that song is ever going to be, but I didn’t think the song survived the translation all that well.

When he pulled out the megaphone, though, the song went straight down the toilet. The band looked confused and disappointed. He’s not J.D. Fortune. This isn’t “Pretty Vegas.” That trick worked last year for a reason. This song is not the good reason to bring out the props.

At the end of the night, the early bottom three had Patrice, Zayra, and Jill. Poor Patrice has no fan backing. This is the second week in a row she’s done well and gotten nothing for it from the voters. Jill deserves to go, as does Zayra. You could dump Josh while you’re at it and not disappoint me.

Maybe THIS is the week we get the long-awaited double eviction! (I’m going to keep saying that until it happens or the season ends. . .)

(Spoilers ahead, obviously, for last night’s show.)

Is there ever an episode of this show that goes by where Will doesn’t do something smart? He single handedly nearly got Marcellas pushed off the show last night. Even when Danielle didn’t go for it, he created enough ill will towards Marcellas that Will’s probably safe for next week. And I think that’s Will’s brilliance in this game — not only does he save himself each and every week, but he lays the groundwork for the week after. He’s not playing too far ahead of himself. He’s agile and focused.

The dumbest move of the game, obviously, was James boasting that he won the Margarita party for the house. He gave up his secret alliance right then and there. He almost had them mostly fooled, but then he completely sacrificed it all in one fell swoop. Idiot.

Anything could happen in the final voting tomorrow night. James has to be careful and tread lightly now, or else he’s a dead man. Either way, the much-feared S6 alliance is down to three members, none of whom completely trust each other anymore, any way.

This house is Will’s for the taking.

(Rock Star: Supernova coverage is coming up this afternoon. Stay tuned. . .)

Welcome to the 8/8 releases. It’s a slow week. This ought to go quickly and mostly painlessly:

America’s Hardest Bounty Hunters Vol 1 – Criminals Meet Your Maker!
America’s Hardest Bounty Hunters Vol 2 – Bail Jumpers Beware

These men enjoy their jobs, but I need to stress something:

This is not a pron. Repeat: Not A Pron.

The Brak Show, Volume 2
Sealab 2021, Season 4

Cartoon Network fans rejoice!

Farscape: Starburst Edition – Volume 11 (4.2)

Every week must include a Dark Shadows release or a Farscape release. It’s a DVD Industry By-Law. I think it’s in the specs for the format.

Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, The The Complete 4th Season

Will you be getting jiggy wid it?

Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County The Complete 2nd Season buy

He’s a jerk; she’s an airhead. They’re perfect for each other. By the end of the season, though, they’re not together and she’s gone for the guy from out of left field. Or something like that. They all have MySpace pages, I’m sure. Track them there.

Prison Break: Season 1

I’ve heard good things about it. I only wish I had the time to watch it.

The Wire: Season 3

I will see this show before I die. This, I swear. This is the one I really really want to watch.

And in the world of Direct To DVD movies:

Bring It On: All or Nothing (2006)
Ultimate Avengers 2 (2006)

I’m not expecting much from either of those.

Next week: Hong Kong Phooey chops his way to DVD! More Simpsons! That awful-looking RV movie hits the disc! And the complete WEIRD AL SHOW! There’s hope for next week, after all!

I linked through TV Tattle to see Joe Quesada’s cover for The Colbert Report. TV Tattle linked to the site Media Bistro which linked through to a sister site, GalleyCat, which found the cover at Newsarama.

That’s the blogosphere — you link to a link to a link to a site with real material. Everyone gets a hit, one person does the work. =)

Belgium’s Queen Paola Breaks Her Arm

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) _ Queen Paola has undergone surgery to repair two fractures in her right arm that she suffered while vacationing with King Albert in her native Italy, the royal palace said.

On behalf of all Belgian-Americans, I wish Queen Paola a speedy recovery.

(Did you know Belgium even had a queen? Yeah, neither did I. I’m a bad Belgian boy.)

* The 23 inch Apple [tag]Cinema Display[/tag] is now only $999. It’s the display I swear by, and now it’s cheaper than ever. . .

* ROCK STAR: SUPERNOVA hostess Brooke Burke is pregnant. Maybe that explains last week’s baggy, long shirt. Can you believe she’s already given birth twice? Say what you will about her hosting abilities, but she bounces back from pregnancies pretty well.

* [tag]CBS[/tag]‘ fall schedule begins on the week of September 17th. Does this give ROCK STAR: SUPERNOVA a chance to finish without a double elimination week? I need to figure out the math on that.

* When MP3.COM went out of business, they had a liquidation auction. Take a look at some of the items that were up for bid. Insanity!

* Web game of the day: Reaction Effect. Click a tile and get the maximum number of reactions. I got up to 567. After you play a few rounds, you’ll notice the tiles are all pointing the same way in rows and columns. You can use some of that to your advantage, but you just might be better off hitting the RESET button at that point.

* [tag]Super Mario[/tag] Striker coming to the Wii? Fun game.

Steve Jobs started his keynote by announcing the new Intel-based Mac Pro that we all saw coming a mile away. Mine is only two years old and looks like a calculator by comparison to this new machine, what with its two dual core processors, etc. It’s a nice new machine, but I don’t need to upgrade to it. My G5 is working just fine, thanks. I’d rather spend that $2500 on a really nice HDTV.

And they’re just starting to talk about the next iteration of OS X, which is exciting. I’ll gladly shell out the money for that whenever it comes out.

But it makes me wonder: If they’re leading with these two items, what will Jobs’ “one more thing” be at the end? What big astonishing fantastic thing will he end the keynote with? Is it really time for the true video iPod? I doubt the cell phone will be showing up. . . Hmmm. . .

Update: Whoops, this post was supposed to go up about an hour ago. In the end, there was no “one more thing,” which seemed almost anti-climactic. Still, there’s a lot of great new features coming up in the next OS X update, due out in the Spring.

If you want to see the new Mac Pro, here it is.

Erika is a thong girl.

And the camera man loved pointing it out.

Also, that James’ hatred for Janelle has turned him into everything he hates in a Big Brother contestant — a vengeful force who looks in the short term instead of the long.

Meanwhile, Will plays his game, gathers allies, and buys himself two weeks at a time. It’s a beautiful thing.