Smeagol lovess the Curtissesss.

Posted by: annika at 06:37 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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dilemma: noun. A situation that requires a choice between options that are or seem equally unfavorable or mutually exclusive. Late latin, from greek, di- meaning two, and lemma meaning proposition or assumption. Example: Starting tonight, NBC will run The Apprentice opposite Fox's 24. Normally, this would not be a dilemma for people with foresight enough to pay the extra four bucks to get DVR with their cable service. But what if you said to the cable guy, "Hey why do I need to spend four more bucks when I already have a VCR, and I know how to program it?" And then the cable guy shrugs because he knows how wrong you are, and also that he will be back, at a price, and with a lot more inconvenience to you. And then on a night like this, when you need the VCR, you suddenly realize that the damn thing won't work with a cable box unless you tape the thing you are watching. In other words, you can't tape one show and watch another. It would make sense for you to be able to do that, but I'm now informed that you cannot. Which is a real pisser. So the only solution, until the cable guy can be recalled, is to watch 24, and then tape the CNBC re-run of The Apprentice on Wednesday. Synonyms: bind, catch-22, difficulty, fix, impasse, jam, mess, perplexity, pickle, plight, predicament, problem, quandary.

Posted by: annika at 06:34 PM | Comments (20) | Add Comment
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1 Are you fucking kidding me? The (very lame) Apprentice in the same sentence as 24? I'm waiting for the punch line............. And the fact that you are going to have to watch the network employing Keith O. is a whole another story.....man is that guy a jackass. I apologize for the tangent......glad you are going with 24. Good choice!

Posted by: Blu at February 27, 2006 06:49 PM (QExPp)

2 Olberman is the biggest a-hole on two wheels. How are you holding up in the rain Blu? It's nasty out there.

Posted by: annika at February 27, 2006 06:52 PM (fxTDF)

3 Ah, rain, I can hear it tapping on the roof. We've only had an inch and a half this year. As for not being able to reconcile one's cable box with the remainder of your onboard technoshit, it's just another indicator that the BF is long gone.

Posted by: Casca at February 27, 2006 10:15 PM (2gORp)

4 Ever hear of TiVo? You can watch one and tape another, or tape both. This is not brain surgery. I'm spending today and tomorrow in Sacto; bringing water wings.

Posted by: shelly at February 28, 2006 03:25 AM (BJYNn)

5 My monday night delima is that last night was the final episodes of one of my favorite shows. Monster House. (the only reality show I ever liked, except Iron Chef) I was real bummed out, The list of shows I watch has shrunk to about four. If it were not for News shows, occasional history or discovery channel shows and football, I could just throw out my TV and not iss it. The sitcoms all suck, reality bites, I got tired of LOST leading me around to nowhere. I do watch the scifi network shows on friday night.

Posted by: Kyle N at February 28, 2006 03:32 AM (vhHoW)

6 Annika, Shelly is right, god that wasn't too hard to say, TIVO is the bomb. I have the 3 banger satellite dish and hi-def box with 150 hour capacity. Record two shows whilst watching a third that has been recorded. IT is a life expanding device. NO commericials, what a concept. It takes 38 min to watch 24, it made the olympics only hellish and boring not unwatchable. And you don't have to sit down at any particular time. The Shield, 24, slings and arrows, my name is earl, (no reality TV for me), L word, Huff, Dead like me, entourage, Deadwood are all possible without any stress about missing an episode. Annika, spend the money!

Posted by: Strawman at February 28, 2006 08:59 AM (0ZdtC)

7 I think you'll enjoy this year's the Apprentice. That Russian guy is something else!!

Posted by: Amy Bo Bamy at February 28, 2006 09:02 AM (Wz2Gp)

8 Err, "this season of the Apprentice."

Posted by: Amy Bo Bamy at February 28, 2006 09:02 AM (Wz2Gp)

9 oh I love The Shield, Strawman, but I always miss it. FX is always screwing with the schedule. When's it on now? 2:45 am every other Thursday night?

Posted by: annika at February 28, 2006 09:45 AM (Ck8DD)

10 Man, Annie, it was pretty ugly last night...and now I'm hearing about tornado warnings! And, of course, my heat went out. Try finding a fucking HVAC guy today! Fuck me. Stay dry and safe!!!

Posted by: Blu at February 28, 2006 10:07 AM (QExPp)

11 ANnika, I think the premier night is Sunday at 10pm repeats Tue at 10pm & 11pm, Friday at 11pm, It is a great show and with Forrest WHitaker this year even better.

Posted by: Strawman at February 28, 2006 10:48 AM (0ZdtC)

12 Well, if it's a cable-ready vcr (and most are these days) you can swap the vcr and the cable box so you CAN tape one show and watch another. The cable runs into the VCR "in" or "ant" jack, then from the VCR "out" or "tv" jack to the cable box, then to the tv. Your vcr is a "pass-thru" device. Set it to record the channel and time you want, but select "tv" on the "tv/vcr" button, and the entire cable signal (not just one channel) passes on to the cable box. When I was in the Navy, we chained DOZENS of vcrs off of a single cable this way, to make tapes to send out to the troops during Desert Storm (the 1st Iraqi War for you youngsters).

Posted by: OldSalt at February 28, 2006 04:34 PM (MbBI/)

13 Hey thanks Old Salt!

Posted by: annika at February 28, 2006 05:09 PM (fxTDF)

14 Actually, there ARE other solutions. Reading a classic, doing something creative, getting together with a friend, etc.

Posted by: will at March 01, 2006 04:28 AM (GzvlQ)

15 "The list of shows I watch has shrunk to about four. If it were not for News shows, occasional history or discovery channel shows and football, I could just throw out my TV and not iss it. The sitcoms all suck, reality bites, I got tired of LOST leading me around to nowhere. I do watch the scifi network shows on friday night." Sounds like you are on the right track, Kyle.

Posted by: will at March 01, 2006 04:31 AM (GzvlQ)

16 "Actually, there ARE other solutions. Reading a classic, doing something creative, getting together with a friend, etc." Bite your tongue. ; )

Posted by: annika at March 01, 2006 07:13 AM (fxTDF)

17 Here's your solution: Don't watch crappy "reality" shows like Apprentice. Problem solved.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at March 03, 2006 08:04 AM (1Vbso)

18 1st Gulf War? Ha! We used to watch 16mm movies projected on the side of the mess hall during the Viet-Nam War. BTW, Our favorite reality show is The Amazing Race and my wife is in like shock at how boring the 1st (2) episodes were the other night.

Posted by: Drake Steel at March 04, 2006 01:00 AM (MIaSv)

19 Oh, there is absolutely no contest here. 24 rules! Oh, and so does DVR...it is SOOO worth the $4/mo. Then you can tape whatever you want, watch it whenever you want, easily fast forward through those silly ads and pause it, staring at Kiefer's nice face whenever you wish. Heheheheheh

Posted by: Merri at March 08, 2006 04:43 AM (f289O)

20 Or his bum... lol

Posted by: annika at March 08, 2006 07:07 AM (fxTDF)

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Patrick: Not bad looking in a Tom Greene sort of way. His neck is as long as a giraffe's. He picked an Etheridge song??? Slow start, but he picked it up. A solid journeyman performance. Not spectacular.

Looks like Seacrest traded the gingham Maryann shirt for an Alexander Julian knock-off. I wonder if he shops at Marshall's. You know you can get some really cheap designer looking clothes at Marshall's. Not that I'd ever shop there.

David the crooner: Funny, the first guy sings Etheridge, the second guy sings Freddy Mercury. Is there a pattern forming? WTF? OMG! he sucks! It will be hard for anyone to drop a performance worse than that one. He's like the drunk guy on karaoke night. I agree with Randy totally. That was seriously horrible.

Bucky: He's a good looking kid. Let's see what he can do. He's been off key for most of the song. Crap. So far this night has been amateur hour. Did I just hear this guy stutter?

Simon is being nicer tonight than usual.

Will: Reminds me of Bobby Brady or Seth from the OC. When he was in the final two, I thought Sid should have made it instead of him. Ha ha. Nice moves, kid. His voice is not up to this Jackson 5 song, but I like his energy. I see some potential. The most memorable performance so far. Lol, Paula agrees, definitely Bobby Brady.

Sway: He's going to sing "Reasons." Another one of my favorite songs ever, so i'm nervous for him. The song is to high for him. That velvet jacket must have cost him a pretty penny. He's butchering the song. Too bad, because Sway had a good voice in the auditions.

Interesting side note (or not): Did you ever notice that the Cingular Wireless commercials always show five bars? Yet I've never seen an actual phone with more than four bars.

That guy who does the CareerBuilder.com commercials with all the chimps is one brave dude. Those fuckers will eat your face off. Chimps are not nice animals.

Chris the bald guy: He's one of my early favorites from the auditions. He's going to sing Bon Jovi. Cool performance. Excellent rocker voice. Best so far. Simon was wrong, he does have charisma.

Kevin from historic Levittown: What will his D&D buddies say if Kevin makes the big time? "*sniff* hnn hey Kevin. Can I run your character hnn while you're in Hollywood, *sniff* hnn?" When Simon said his performance was vocally excruciating, Kevin's mom looked upset, but dad's expression was like "You know, he has a point there."

You know what? I really like the fact that Becky is so supportive of every guy who gets up there. Did you see her gettin' totally into Kevin's performance? Good for her.

Gideon: This dude talks like a preacher, it's funny. He's singing "Shout?" lol. "Can we dance with your dates?" haha! There were no flashes of greatness in that performance. But he's got potential, given the right song. Don't let Simon get in your head, dude. You have a nice smile.

Eliot Yao Ming: He don't look Chinese. His performance was A'ight. One of the best tonight sure, but that's not saying much. He'll do okay until they get down to twelve. But he's got to bring it up a notch to make it all the way. Simon is whacked. This guy is not the best male vocalist they've ever had, that's just plain off.

Bobby: "Copacabana?" That was fun. He has a real Nathan Lane meets John Goodman appeal to him. I agree with Paula, it looks like he totally commits to whatever he does.

Did you notice they got two singers left and 25 minutes to fill? When I was doing plays, I always sang faster on opening night.

Ace: He is stunning. And Ace Young is such a great rock and roll name. Average vocals, which seem stellar compared to tonight's competition. But I'll predict right now that he will be a finalist. Easy. My suggestion for Ace is to make sure the word "naked" appears in every song he sings this season.

Taylor: This guy is the biggest character in a cast full of characters. "Levon" is about family values?! I think he needs to pay more attention to the lyrics. I'm pulling for Taylor. I became a big fan when he took the long walk playing a harmonica. However, I fear his look is too old for the average AI voter.

If I was going to vote for anybody tonight, it would be Chris though.

Posted by: annika at 10:08 PM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
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Mandisa from Sacramento. This girl can bring it. She's 29 too. Let's hear it for the older girls. The Heart song shows versatility; no one expected her to go Rock right out of the gate. Simon is absolutely right, she has thrown down the gauntlet to the rest of the girls. Mandisa will be a factor.

Kelly from, Abermarle North Carolina. Cute, small town girl, yada yada yada. I sense that she does not have the emotional toughness to dig down and fight when it comes to the later rounds. But then, did Carrie? Maybe not, but this girl does not have Carrie's voice.

Becky. Too glamour girlish. Guys will love her, girls will hate her. She's frickin annoying too. She relies on too many vocal gimmicks, and she's not that good a singer. Springseen is not for her, either. Bad choice of songs.

Ayla, the athletic chick. She's so tall, I think she could hurt Ryan. I actually like her voice, despite her overuse of the vibrato. I also liked her black outfit. I just don't see her making it into the top two or three. Plus, she thinks she can divide her attention between basketball and AI. I wouldn't be surprised if she were forced to make a choice sometime in the next few weeks. Smiling more would definitely help her chances.

Paris. This girl can also bring it on. Oh and one of my favorite songs in the entire world too, "Midnight Train To Georgia." She has a little trouble with the lower register. But she's having a hell of a good time up there. The judges gush over her. I like her too.

Stevie, Sacramento representin' again. Opera training, multilingual. Where's her breath control? Nervous I guess. I'm such an armchair singer, like I wouldn't sound like shit up there. But as Randy might say, dude that was not good. Why would she pick such a crappy song?

Brenna. I predict this girl is going to bug the shit out of America. And she picks "You Are the Sunshine of My Life?!" Let's see how she does. Okay. Predictably, a bad song choice, and her attitude is all wrong. It's a ballad, what is she doing? I don't know what she's doing. That was shit, dude. Nice grille though. Her ortho did a great job.

Heather. If I didn't know her name, and I had to guess it after taking one look at her, I would guess Nicole. But my second guess would be Heather. I like her personality. But the girl is a shower singer. Her boobs are worth ten thousand votes, and her voice is not ready for prime time. Boring fucking song. And what's with all the altos this year? Lets hear some more sopranos.

Melissa. She's got a different look than the rest of the beauty queens. I'm glad she decided to go brunette. Another alto, but I like the throaty quality to her voice. She's more comfortable at the low end of the spectrum, and she can belt it too. If she picks the right songs, she can go far. At first, I would have said this was a safe song choice, but she nailed it. I agree with Paula, amazing.

Wow, Melissa said she has never been shown on AI until now? I find that hard to believe. Those shows were taped and pre-edited. I can't understand how they could fail to show one of the final twenty four at least once.

Lisa, the sixteen year old. Very pretty and sings good too. A little "pitchy." She's trying to work the crowd. I expected better from her tonight. She'll make it into the middle rounds at least, though. She's got heart.

What drugs is Paula on this year? They're totally different than the ones she was on last year. She's too mellow. I think I liked the hyper Paula better.

Kinnik. I miss Vonzell, and I think the judges did too. Holy crap. When I heard she picked Oleta, I said forget it. But I was way wrong. That was the performance of the night for me. I'm sorry the judges are all whacked. I didn't hear no sharps. Even still, better sharp than flat on that song.

Katharine. A little advice honey. You might want to re-think the whole emulating Barbra thing. As Walter Matthau once said of her: "Great talent... difficult person." She can sing, but it wasn't a standout for me. She does this strange dancing thing. It's weird, like she's having a seizure or something. Dude, she was up there but she was not the best of the best tonight. I'd say she was like number five, maybe six.

Posted by: annika at 08:00 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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1 Sorry, I was watching NBC just so I could simmer over their failure to fully cover an Olympic event (in this case, ladies' figure skating). And no, an argument between two Americans does not count as an Olympic event.

Posted by: Ontario Emperor at February 21, 2006 11:45 PM (etmLz)

2 I have concerns over Paris's habits. She shouted, "Hey!" four times, and I think she ended with, "Hey, yeah!" All those "hey's" are the singing equivalent of "you know?" and I was seriously getting annoyed with them. As for Melissa--they didn't show Bo Bice until this round last year, either. Opera chick is so out of there, and I'll throw the party when Brenna is booted. That chick annoyed me from the first time she opened her mouth.

Posted by: Victor at February 22, 2006 04:52 AM (L3qPK)

3 Forgot to snark on Katherine: I liked her voice and song choice (and you know how much I love Babs!), but her stage presence/dancing reminded me of Joe Cocker. Her butt was about the same size as Joe Cocker's, too.

Posted by: Victor at February 22, 2006 04:54 AM (L3qPK)

4 Lol, excellent analysis Victor. Except her butt was the size of Joe Cocker. btw, I could swear they showed Bo earlier, are you sure about that?

Posted by: annika at February 22, 2006 06:43 AM (fxTDF)

5 My AI crush this year is Katharine. Although that Pickle girl is easlily the hottest of the bunch...there's something about Katharine I prefer. And Brenna is like nails on a chalkboard for me.

Posted by: Robbie at February 22, 2006 08:49 AM (lbWbV)

6 LMAO, the boyfriend and I too, wondered what Paula is on this year....

Posted by: Amy Bo Bamy at February 22, 2006 11:27 AM (Wz2Gp)

7 Oh, and Randy calling all the girls "dude" and "man" got _damn_ annoying.

Posted by: Amy Bo Bamy at February 22, 2006 11:27 AM (Wz2Gp)

8 Dude, let it go. I'm for the one who flashed her tits.

Posted by: Casca at February 22, 2006 05:45 PM (2gORp)

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A hostile with key information is a hostile down.

Posted by: annika at 10:00 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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You suck.

(One of many examples: Sly's first public appearance in 13 years and you'd think they might have shown the man more respect. Or didn't you think people would want to hear the vocals?)

Update: See pictures of Sly's sweet hairdo at Tony's.

Posted by: annika at 11:31 PM | Comments (12) | Add Comment
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Admit it, Casca. You got a little-teary eyed when Tia got booted.

And Barry is great.

Posted by: annika at 09:10 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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