* Lots of Apple announcements due out later this afternoon. Stay tuned for all the buzz, blogging, and hysteria. You can choose a news outlet to follow it all live at 1:00 this afternoon, East Coast time.
* The tag line for the next iteration of Mac OS X? “Welcome to Vista 2.0″ I love it. It would be even funnier if Vista 1.0 ever shipped. (It’s also possible that this is a Photoshop job, but we’ll see soon…) UPDATE:More pics. “Hasta La Vista, Vista.” And don’t miss: “Apple has a cat, too. A copycat.” BWAH HA HA
Mark Evanier pointed this one out at his blog this week, and it’s absolutely worth sharing. This is Chris Elliot parodying William Shatner’s much-beloved “Rocket Man” performance. It’s so meta is hurts.
Click on the “Gear Taker” option at the top of the convoluted menu and play. It’s a simple point-and-click game, but it requires patiences, a good eye, and timing. There’s no bonus for being quick, so don’t be afraid to take your time. Also, note that the little guy jumping gears jumps only in a straight line. Don’t try jumping in an arc or anything like that.
* This is the kind of web Flash game that only the Japanese could create. Control the flying creature with your mouse. Eat up flying fruit. Avoid missiles. Don’t let the cute creatures distract you. Good luck. High score so far: 10,009
If you haven’t seen the veto competition this week on Big Brother, skip this entry entirely.
But since the eviction ceremony is tonight, I’ll assume you have seen it and we’ll go from there.
Tuesday night’s show is the true turning point of the season. The alliances are in crumbles. New bitter enemies have been made. And Will created it ALL.
Will is the greatest player in the history of this game. Just look at the circles he’s danced around everyone on the show this year and manipulated them into doing everything he’s wanted. He knew which people to target, which arguments to use on them, and how to present them. It’s a thing of beauty for this social game.
This week was the culmination of his efforts. He broke the Season 6 alliance by breaking Janelle. Janelle did nothing to help herself, of course. At the point when her house of cards was crumbling — at James’ urging — she needed to admit to it all. “I brokered a deal with the Chilltown Alliance to save the Season 6 Alliance next week. Together, we go after the floaters. After that, the four of us can beat the two of them.”
Instead, she went with, “I did what I had to do for me.”
Whoops.
Sadly, Will’s Parachute Theory might have prevented that from being a winning strategy. Too many of the S6 people are busy working alternate alliances with floaters to protect their own interests. However, it’s only Janelle who has admitted to this. James is doing the same thing as she is, but he hasn’t been caught yet. And now he’s a house on fire.
I don’t understand what the floaters have been thinking. They’re starting to coalesce into the dominant front in the house, no doubt partly due to Will’s maneuvering. They now officially have the numbers advantage, but they’re more worried about Will and Boogie than they are about James/Kaysar/Janelle/Howie. From a numbers standpoint, that makes no sense.
But with the S6 alliance breaking down, new alliances will form. I don’t think the monolithic floaters alliance will last too much longer. They’ll start breaking apart themselves. At least one of them will realize that it would be smart to join up with the Chilltown/Janelle alliance to play the numbers game. I doubt James will formally invite Danielle into the S6 alliance, just because he likes having what he sees as a card up his sleeve, even though everyone sees it.
Will this all be enough to wake Kaysar up from his long summer sleep?
The quote of the show came from Magni, speaking in the mansion after the performance show. Forgive a slight paraphrase here: “I don’t know how we’re going to top that this show. Lukas MAY remember the lyrics next week…”
Cracked me up.
Dana got her tattoo. It’s a treble clef on her right hip. Poor child. She tries so hard to fit in, but I don’t see it working.
The names of those in the bottom three over the course of the night: Jill, Toby, Dana, Zayra, and Patrice. Lukas, despite admitting to problems with the lyrics and never facing the crowd, didn’t get put up there. Even he expected to be there.
Predictably and happily, Ryan got the encore for R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion.” I loved it just as much the next day.
Jill was the first to sing for her life, choosing Heart’s “Alone.” Didn’t Gilby say in a recent show that he toured with Heart? Interesting. Her performance was good, though. She sounded like she was shouting just a touch in a couple of spots, but it was likely her best performance on the show in weeks.
Dana sang next, going with “House Of The Rising Sun” from The Animals. (Oddly enough, I just listened to a mashup of that song with “Amazing Grace” on the Coverville podcast this very morning.) She looks bored on stage while she’s trying to look crazed. I just can’t buy her as a rock star.
She also admitted to skipping practice with the house band to go to the spa. Dave Navarro wanted to hand her the competition right there for Performance Becoming of a Rock Star.
Her voice is good, though.
All throughout the show, there are cuts to the rockers sitting on the side. Am I the only one who thinks that Zayra and Lukas both think they’re the center of the universe?
It’s time to talk miracle now: Zayra did not fall into the bottom three. It would seem that America enjoys her antics just as much as I’ve grown to enjoy them. (Either that, or it’s the same people voting who made Jesse a VJ on MTV back in the day.) I can’t wait to see what she pulls off next week.
Patrice, instead, hit the bottom three. Singing with Tommy Lee just isn’t enough sometimes. She won’t last long now. She’s been in the bottom three too often, and just has no fan support. If this week’s performance doesn’t get her any votes, then she’s toast. In fact, everyone in the bottom three is Cannon Fodder. None of them are going to win. They’re just there to fill the hours of TV time the show is scheduled for.
Tommy Lee made me laugh when he commented to Patrice, “I thought we were awesome. What happened?”
She sang Jeff Buckley’s “Eternal Life.” (Ironic song choice.) She’s got the pipes, but the overall presentation doesn’t connect with me at all.
In the end, T.L. got out his newly christened “Tommy-hawk” (referring to his arm, not his– oh, nevermind) and cut Dana loose. I give Dana credit for never saying the word “journey” in discussing her time on the show.
I was a little uncomfortable when she referred to her time on the show as “a lot of firsts,” and then says to the band, “thankyou for having me.”
Last night we saw the first stage of the Coronation of King Benji.
The judges want Ivan and Natalie gone. I can almost see Ivan getting more popular support than Travis, though. The young cute hip hop kid versus the slightly not-as-young contemporary dancer? Hip hop drives the votes every time.
I think Heidi is safe, but it’s a toss-up between Natalie and Donyelle at this point. Donyelle would clearly be the preference of the judges, but America doesn’t always listen to them.
In the end, Benji will be your winner. The rest are just cannon fodder.
Speaking of which — I’ll be back with a full writeup on last night’s ROCK STAR eliminations in a little bit. Stay tuned.
I have to think that Benji is poised to run away with this thing at this point. But you know how it is whenever America does the voting – anything goes. If Benji miraculously gets paired up with Heidi again, he’s coasting to the finals. He’s got both the skills and the personality to get the votes he needs.
I don’t think I need to attend the SYTYCD tour that they’re slowly plotting out, but the series has been fun again this season.
We’re down to 11 rockers, which means this write-up might actually fall under the 1,000 word limit of my patience for it.
Or maybe not. There’s a lot to talk about in these 11 performances.
Patrice began the night with the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ version of “Higher Ground,” accompanied by Tommy Lee on drums. How cute – their tattoos practically match! Even with all the black on and the mohawk, I still don’t buy her as a rocker. She’s still playing dress up to me. She’s got a good voice and decent stage presence, but this isn’t the show for her. I also thought she treated the song too much like a duet between herself and Tommy. It’s nice to spotlight him, but stop ignoring the rest of the band, and start remembering that YOU are the star of this show right now.
Josh did “Santeria” by Sublime. Appropriately, the House Band’s drummer had a Bob Marley-esque knit cap on for the show. It was a nice performance and showed even more range for the singer who would be a rocker. (I think he’s the first on this series to do a human beat box bit.) Is it right for the band, though? I don’t know, but I would listen to him if he recorded something of his own.
He apologized for missing the opening, but I didn’t hear that. I guess he’s better than he thinks.
Dilana is still the star of the show, this time with “Can’t Get Enough” by Bad Company. You know she has to smoke A LOT to get a voice that gravelly. The band picked up on her blatant attempt to “front” the band, by singing a chunk of the song over on the dais in front of them. And then she “crowd-surfed” on someone’s shoulders back to the stage. (No doubt he’s with security.) She’s always fun to watch each week. She switches things up. She’s got a great voice. If the band wants to have a chick fronting them, then she’s their chick.
Toby sang Yet Another Nirvana song, “Pennyroyal Theater.” Does ROCKSTAR get a bulk discount for licensing Nirvana songs? As usual with Nirvana songs, it does nothing for me. His performance seems solid enough, though, and the band liked it. That’s all that counts, isn’t it?
I’m just not sure I completely bought the look this week — like a scrawny emo goth teenage punk thing. Weird.
Zayra gave the laugh-out-loud funniest performance ever to be seen on reality TV. I laughed all the way through it and then all the way through the judges’ comments. The band needed a commercial break to figure it out. In fact, Dave Navarro’s exact words were, “I’m going to need to a minute to process what I just saw.”
It started with an odd song, Tommy Tutone’s “867-5309/Jenny.” Zayra came out dressed up like some weird superhero, complete with boots, gloves, cape, leotard, and fishnets. She pranced around on stage like a thing possessed. Her voice was as awful as usual. The arrangement was weird.
She took the song too seriously, I think. When given a song like this, you have to have FUN with it. She tried to make it into a serious rock song with a slightly campy flair. That didn’t work. When Marty Casey drew “Hit Me Baby One More Time” last year, he nailed it by committing to a dark version of it that fit his personality and that turned out to be a lot of fun. Zayra failed to do that.
After the commercial break, the band explained exactly why she’s lasted as long as she has: She sucks, but she’s entertaining. You have to read between the lines, but that’s about what they said. I’m with them, though — I hope they keep her around. She’s so awful she gives me something to write about.
Thank goodness for YouTube. I can show you how bad it was, complete with judges’ commentary:
CLASSIC! I hope YouTube doesn’t pull the video down anytime soon. I don’t want to have to buy a new cell phone to watch the VCast of it in the future.
Magni did ColdPlay’s “Clocks,” which I thought was too karaoke. The band loved it, loved him, and are flying in his family.
I thought his biggest failing was in the middle of the mellow song when he screamed, “MAKE SOME NOISE!” Classic IDOL problem — if you want the crowd to make some noise or sing along or sway their arms, give them a performance that inspires them to do so. Don’t give them instructions.
Jill did Simple Minds’ “Don’t You Forget About Me” and completely crashed and burned. I think the band will kick her out this week for that travesty of justice. She screamed her way through it, and showed no musicality along the way. There was a lot of posturing and hands pumping in the air, but that was it. For the second week in a row, Gilby brought down the hammer: “You’re better than that.”
I’m not so sure she is, anymore.
Ryan stole the show, though, with a solo piano performance of R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion.” I think there was a guitar off stage in the background somewhere, but it was very soft. The overall effect was electric (ironic). It was a GREAT choice of music, arrangement, and performance. He showed all the musicality that Jill lacked.
I’m a sucker for piano stuff, but the band was quickly on its feet for him, and I have to think this will be the encore tonight. Lukas looked pained and jealous when Tommy Lee said he could imagine Ryan singing one of the band’s songs based on that performance.
Lukas then turned his back to the crowd and did Hole’s “Celebrity Skin.” Again, it’s a song I don’t care for. But his performance was below par. It was painful. He literally spent half of the song — including the ending — with his back to the audience, singing to the drummer. He said it was because he had troubles with the lyrics. It was a very bad night for him.
I noticed this week, too, that his face looks like a cartoon character’s. It’s very exaggerated and limber. His voice is still throttled, though, but I notice the band has given up pointing that out to him.
Storm did David Bowie’s “Changes,” which will be a close runner up for the encore tonight. Maybe they’ll do two. She gave a strong performance, particularly in the opening and closing, when it’s mostly her alone in the spotlight doing the song. It looked a little Broadway in those segments, but she kept it dialed back. He voice was clear and strong. The audience really liked the number. The band liked her a lot, too.
Dana is the perfect bookend for the show. Like Patrice, she doesn’t seem like a natural rocker. She should be doing something else, but she dresses up and tries to do the rock star bit for this show. She even gleefully announced last night that she’s going for her first tattoo today. Whoo!
She sang The Who’s “Baba O’Riley,” which is probably best known today for being the theme song for one of those CSI shows. (Hey, we haven’t added to the CSI franchise in a couple of years. What’s going on, CBS?) I think she’s overcompensating now, trying to look mean and angry and all “rawk.” But I don’t buy it. She also is starting to look like Lisa Marie Presley. Bizarre.
The early bottom three is Toby, Zayra, and Jill. I’m surprised to see Toby in there, but I think that’ll level off overnight. I think the band has had it with Jill and she’ll be out tonight. Zayra will definitely join her in the bottom three. I think Lukas might me down there also tonight. It’ll be good to give the little punk a scare!
We still have some dead wood to cut out of the show, but we’re starting to get more stronger performances each week, and very memorable ones, at that.
This isn’t the politics blog and I don’t want to get into all of that here. I’m not condoning any of Mel Gibson’s recent actions.
But I did want to bring one thing up:
Hollywood celebrities always growl and grimace in their mug shots. Maybe it’s the police department instructing them not to smile, but they always look so grim and ticked off in their mug shots. I’ve long wondered how long it would be before one of them cracked a smile and treated the mug shot — which they had to know would be seen around the world the next day — like a publicity still.
Mel Gibson is finally the one to do it. He was smart enough to pull off the Mona Lisa grin. His mug shot looks like a celebrity’s image, not Nick Nolte’s.
America’s Funniest Home Videos : Athletic Supporters
That about sums up the draw of AFHV, doesn’t it? Kicks to the crotch, rakes to the crotch, baseball bats to the crotch. . .
Comeback, The: The Complete Series
Done in one! Another FRIENDS failure. Give Lisa Kudrow credit for trying something different, though. From the reviews I’ve read and the people I talked with who did watch the show, it was the kind of thing you either “got” and loved, or you hated. I guess it was too much of the latter, and not enough of the former.
Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Complete 5th Season
I still haven’t worked my way through the second season on DVD, but I do enjoy the show greatly.
I’m holding out for the uncensored WHOSE LINE IS IT ANYWAY? DVD release. . .
Bratz: Livin It Up with the Bratz
This is just another sign that The Apocalypse is coming. Someone find me the redeeming quality of this trash.
Dracula, Prisoner of Frankenstein (1972)
I just like the title.
A Fish Called Wanda: Deluxe Edition (2-disc set) (1988)
This is, what, the third release for this movie on DVD? I haven’t seen it, but I hear it’s very very good.
UPDATE: This release has been held up. See TheDigitalBits.com for details.
How Art Made the World: BBC (2-disc set)
…in case you missed the eighteen airings PBS did of it in the last month or so.
I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer (2006)
So it’s come to this. Sarah Michele Gellar must be spinning in her career’s grave right now.
V for Vendetta: Special Edition (2-disc set) (2006)
I missed it in the theaters. While the graphic novel disappoints me in the final third, it’s still a fairly interesting comic, and I do still want to see the movie.
There’s also a single disc edition, if you don’t want to learn more about the comic or Guy Fawkes.
VeggieTales: Larryboy and the Bad Apple
This is just a little something to cleanse your palate after the Vendetta movie.
Next week: The Wire, Prison Break, Yet Another Release of Farscape, and Ultimate Avengers 2. Awe-inspiring, ain’t it?
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* Lots of Apple announcements due out later this afternoon. Stay tuned for all the buzz, blogging, and hysteria. You can choose a news outlet to follow it all live at 1:00 this afternoon, East Coast time. 
Will is the greatest player in the history of this game. Just look at the circles he’s danced around everyone on the show this year and manipulated them into doing everything he’s wanted. He knew which people to target, which arguments to use on them, and how to present them. It’s a thing of beauty for this social game.
Dana sang next, going with “House Of The Rising Sun” from The Animals. (Oddly enough, I just listened to a mashup of that song with “Amazing Grace” on 
We’re in the home stretch now.
We’re down to 11 rockers, which means this write-up might actually fall under the 1,000 word limit of my patience for it.
* Map time: 
This isn’t the politics blog and I don’t want to get into all of that here. I’m not condoning any of Mel Gibson’s recent actions.
