Media Staples

Toral, Son of Duras?

2005-10-07T10:51:00.000-07:00

Reaching out to others was the theme of last night's installment of The Apprentice. Like Mats Sundin after her, Rebecca (Capitol Edge) was put on the IR after her first hockey game. Broken ankle aside she decided to push on and show her capability by leading Capitol Edge in the next task. New friend Toral ...

I must pause here to demonstrate the extreme level of geekness to which I aspire. Wasn't Toral the illegitimate son of Duras on ST:TNG (if you don't know this acronym, just skip to the next paragraph)? And wasn't Duras a traitor??

... in accompanying Rebecca to the doctor made her best business decision yet. This weeks task was to hold a Technology Expo at a Senior Citizen's home. Success would be determined by average score on a questionnaire filled out by the Seniors after their Expo experience. Randal took the helm for the boys at Excel as he had some experience working with his grandmother and a digital camera. The girls decided to focus on looking hot and charming the elderly men to "push up" their questionnaire scores. This strategy was questionable from the outset as anyone who has ever been to a Seniors home knows that the women outnumber the men in the range of about 10 to 1.

Toral struggled horribly with working an HDTV (as Pops will attest, trying tech the night before the demo saves many a sale). Jen W., in charge of event planning both in the task and in real life, forgot to make any kind of theme or sign to let the Seniors know what was going on and handed them big slabs of a cake with "tethno expo" written on it.

The boys on the other hand had slick posters, easy to find tech areas and great food. Much maligned Markus even came through as charming and approachable as he taught Seniors how to use Tivo. Hotness, however, must have some value as the girls lost by only 0.2 (8.1 to 7.9 average score).

The winning boys team set off for a local children's hospital with arms full of Xboxs and portable DVD players while the girls were back to the boardroom.

Once again, Donald Trump and his lieutenants outlined exactly who Rebecca should bring back with her: Toral and Jen W. Rebecca, deciding that everyone on her team sucked intellectual rocks compared to Toral, decided to let Toral return to the suite. Apparently one trip to the doctor saved Toral her spot. Luckily Rebecca did bring in one other person (besides Jen M. who did great and didn't deserve to be there) who was actually responsible for the loss. It is obvious that Jen W. would not be capable of organizing a large event (like the final tasks in The Apprentice) if she could not even pull off a little Tech Expo at a Senior's home. Jen M. was absolved of any wrongdoing, Rebecca was chastised for being inflexible and Jen W. was fired.

Looking forward to a few fireworks next week!

2005-10-06T11:34:00.000-07:00

The Apprentice: Martha Stewart kicked off its third week with a bundle of joy and a deceptively simple task. Show plant Jim, after wishing his wife luck with her "task", became the father of a brand new baby girl! As Jim's chances of being Martha Stewart's apprentice hover near those of the Blue Jays winning the world series again, it would have probably been safe to attend the birth. Congratulations Jim!

This week's task: design and bake a wedding cake (professional baker supplied) and sell it to some eager brides-to-be at a wedding show. Matchstick (whom I will soon be renaming Ulong if they continue to lose members), desperately needing a victory, selected least experienced candidate David as their project manager. Primarious selected child-friendly Howie.

Armed with piles of Martha Stewart Wedding magazines and well placed Apple computers, teams struggled to come up with the perfect cake. To determine market trends, Howie (Primarious) sends troops to the New York Wedding Centre. Shawn (Matchstick) phones THE super-expensive-niche-wedding-cake guru in New York city and gleans information so spectacular that she turns to Stewart lieutenant Charles Koppleman and guarantees victory. She then adds her "fire me, I suck" line: if we lose, you can personally fire me!

Striking out at the Chinese dominated wedding centre, Primarious decides on a basic multilayer, multishaped "nuts and bolts" style cake that they will sell at a lower price point (at $6 a slice this is questionable). Matchstick goes with a bizarre multilayer slanted oval cake with pink ribbons around each layer.

Primarious sells 5 cakes for over $3000 in revenue. Ulong sells ... none. For Primarious, it's out to dinner with newlyweds Donald and Melania Trump. For Ulong, their third conference room in a row.

Who's to blame for not selling any cakes? Hmm...the baker? the accountant? the weddingly challenged PM? The SALES people? It seems that candidates have failed to learn the ultimate boardroom/conference room lesson. PMs: LISTEN and Ms. Stewart or Mr. Trump will tell you exactly who is responsible and exactly who to bring back with you (unfortunately if it's you who sucked you're out of luck). Candidates seem to get so caught up in the Survivor part of the game that they can't figure out how to save their own necks.

This is where Martha Stewart takes back the reins of her show: David makes his play and elects to bring back Dawn and Marcela. Disgusted, Ms. Stewart has her secretary haul back Sales team members Shawn, Jim and Bethenny. After dressing down the sales team, Shawn is fired for her cockiness in guaranteeing victory and her misplaced comment "fake it till you make it" (probably not a good idea to say this to a perfectionist, particularly the one whom you would like to hire you).

This has never happened on the Donald Trump Apprentice and it is what makes Martha Stewart's version so intriguing. You just never know when or how she'll change the show. She seems to treat it less like a game and more like an interview. Now .. what happened to "you just don't fit in"??

The American Race?

2005-10-04T19:01:00.000-07:00

It appears there has been a major change in the Amazing Race to make it more family friendly - they are not leaving the United States. This removes a couple of vital elements of the show - air travel and lack of sleep. I guess with kids around these elements were deemed to be too risky. However, the show is not the same without them.

The show has now become a cross between a Scavenger Hunt and Cannonball Run with kids screaming along for the ride.

So far the show is a quick run through American History. Last week it was the Revoluntionary War. This week, the Civil War. Which is actually pretty cool. It would have been quite a experience to get in the middle of a Civil War reenactment and some teams get full value from it.
The best part of this episode was when Daddy Rogers told his son to east instead of west and then tried to blame the whole thing on his son. And then, at the end of the episode, was so magnanimous to say if there was so blame to be laid he would take. All the while saying he has tried to teach his to not cast stones of blame. Sorry dude. This loss was on you and you had no problem trying to blame your boy when you thought you could. Sounds like the teacher needs to become the student.

Green with envy.

2005-09-30T10:55:00.000-07:00

The Apprentice 4 kicked off its second episode of the season with a highly anticipated foray into the lap of luxury. Lamborghini provided the task for this week: create a 30s promotional video and print campaign for a new Lamborghini.

The boys had this task in the bag from the beginning. Why? Guys love cars. Guys live cars. Guys get cars. Project manager Chris (obviously a Sith lord) fully guaranteed victory especially once the boys came up with the cool idea to rent an old Lamborghini and morph it into the new Lamborghini for the video. Markus provided an interesting sideshow, providing comic relief as he suggested silly campaign slogans directly to the executives and showed a complete lack of ability to tell a car to "go" or operate a walkie-talkie. Chris put him in the brig for the remainder of the task.

Meanwhile, back in Care-a-Lot, the girls decided Marshawn would be their PM and she immediately tasked Alla with creating a tough and intimidating video. Alla immediately transformed into a seasoned director, directing cameramen like Peter Jackson at the gates of Gondor. Marshawn hovered gracefully over the print team as they came up with slogans like "Are you in control?" "Are you intimidated?". The girls targeted the ad at the heartbeat of the automobile consumer: How does the car make me feel?

The boys had slogans such as Mark's: "Green with envy", which was pictured along with a green lamborghini (or should it be Lamborghini). Markus correctly asked if there should be a "?" as it really looked liked the car was envious. As he was in the brig; no one heard him. Or maybe it was the task winning champagne corks popping. Mark also decided that in "Lamborghini. The return of Italian intimidation" Italian should be all in lower case.

At the end of the day, the boys were destroyed by the girls and the girls went off to skate with a poupouri of old and new Islanders at the Nassau coliseum. Even the producers of the show seemed to be guaranteeing the boys a win with a reward that would interest few girls (well, I'd like it actually).

In the boardroom the boys rallied to accused Markus of destroying team unity and focus. Markus deftly points out the he was the only one who disagreed with the marketing strategy and the only one banished to the corner for the entire task. Donald Trump asked who was responsible for the creative mistakes of the "green with envy" add and the removal of the capital "I" from italian. Mark took responsibility. Mr. Trump then asked who Chris would like to bring to the boardroom. Completely ignoring the advice of Mr. Trump, who actually named who should be brought back to the boardroom and who should stay, Chris decided to bring back only Markus.

Donald Trump, now in a corner, tried to decide whether to fire Chris, who is the only person left who was involved in the task or Markus. Chris' departure was as "smooth as silk". In the words of Luke Skywalker to the Emperor "Your overconfidence is your weakness". Sith lord indeed. Now .. when do we get the Stormtroopers on this show !?!?!

Deja vu all over again

2005-09-30T07:05:00.000-07:00

The number 1 question in this season of Survivor is regarding Stephanie - is she on yet another loosing streak? With a heavy dose of physical challenges and a team not equipped to compete it looks like that may indeed be the case.

Sure, the girls may not have know what a pick was, but maybe Stephanie should have tried to explain it a little more than 5 seconds before their round of "Maya Ball". Couple this with a swollen ankle for Amy and Yaxha really never stood a chance.

You seriously have to question how these teams were put together because physically there is no comparison. But Jeff Probst did bring up an interesting point in tribal council. Is it a good strategy to try to make Yaxha more physical when challenges could easily become more mental in nature? Are they trying to compensate at exactly the wrong time?

Some compensation is required in the show though. If we have a repeat of Dead Tribe Walking then the show will get boring in a hurry. Unless the show has turned into let's see what happens when Stephanie snaps. Hey, at least Yaxha is unified! We will see how long the unanimity lasts as they get picked off one-by-one.

Tip Toe Through the Tulips

2005-09-29T11:09:00.000-07:00

The Apprentice: Martha Stewart was back last night with it's second installment of creative mayhem. Jim, whom this blog will point to as a possible plant within the Matchstick team, has turned the program into the home-ec survivor. Arrogantly pointing out his conspiracy to eliminate Jeff, he sent a warning to all of his team members: annoy me and you may be next.

Teams this week were contacted (by Martha's secretary as she was "too busy" to call personally) and assigned the task of setting up a flower shop in an empty store front. Teams would be judged on the revenue accumulated in selling flowers. As 90% of the camera time was spent with the often bickering Matchstick team, it was obvious that Primarious was going to win the task from the start. Chuck, a man with previous flower shop experience, was chosen to lead the Matchstick team. Carrie took the reins for the Primarious team (irrelevant information really as this team has less than 5 min of camera time).

Chuck (one letter and one computer key away from Chick) decided that Matchstick should sell one spring flower at a low price point. The local florist was due to receive a shipment of tulips "straight from Holland" the next day so a decision was made to sell tulips. Bickering then commences as show plant Jim attempts to railroad the idea sending Matchstick into a royal rumble over flower selection and marketing strategy. Chuck finally implodes and declares his resignation as project manager and his retirement from the loft. Suddenly transforming into modern day Rudy Wells', the rest of Matchstick "rebuilds" Chuck through hugs and pats and words of encouragement. Invigorated he then seizes the reins of Matchstick and decides that it will be tulips, there will be chicks in Dutch attire and there won't be any marketing.

Meanwhile back at the batcave, Primarious smoothly hires a professional florist to set up their whole store. Quickly sending customers into sticker shock at the high prices, Primarious deftly removes the tags and begins selling expensive flowers like beer at a hockey game.

Primarious destroys Matchstick with more that twice the revenue. Show plant Jim begins scheming as to who he will manipulate Martha Stewart into firing. Primarious gets a "reward" helping make a garden for kids. "It was great. Really. Helping out is such a reward."

Martha Stewart is flabbergasted that anyone working for her company would hire "tacky" girls in Dutch attire to push product. Bethenny rushed to explain that Holland really has nothing else to offer, further infuriating Ms. Stewart. After exhaustingly hounding team members to "vote out" Dawn, show plant Jim stokes the fire. Chuck calmly admits that as a creative person he does not have any leadership potential. As the job is an executive position he follows Donald Trump's Apprentice candidate Melissa's example in admitting: "fire me, I suck".

Ms. Stewart firmly dressed down the Matchstick team calling for focus, discipline and team work. Jim and Dawn were ordered to put up, shut up and make it work. Chuck was ... chucked. Martha Stewart was so engaged in disciplining the team that she forgot to use her trademark line "you just don't fit in" when firing Chuck.

Hopefully viewers will not have to endure show plant Jim much longer. Are creativity and leadership mutually exclusive? Find out next week on The Apprentice: Martha Stewart.

Hair-razing Race

2005-09-28T10:29:00.000-07:00

The Amazing Race: Family Edition left the starting gate last night looking more like the start of the Boston Marathon. 40 contestants (10 teams of four) started out with a race around New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. It is nice to see them actually use the States a little more as contestants usually immediately fly to another country and end with a brief race in the USA.

This show has twice the octane of the regular Amazing Race with twice the amount of yelling, cheering, screaming and bickering. It is however, far too reminiscent of my family on our yearly summer trip to somewhere like Ottawa; i.e. Mom stopping in the middle of the road because she missed a turn. Dad nearly killing the whole family by wrenching the steering wheel in frustration at being lost. The Italian family was particularly entertaining (my Dad's family is Italian too so these people I understand) as the yelling quotient was particularly high as was the lack of directional ability. And typically, the Dad ignored everyone and did whatever he wanted.

The challenges are watered down (even then some families had difficulty crossing the Delaware in a rowboat) and thus less interesting to watch. The detour involved pulling family members in a Mennonite coach or building a mini-house. It was well designed in that it was an advantage to have small kids to pull in the coach as opposed to two strapping brothers. Unfortunately the losing family (The Black Family) did not take advantage of this. It is also somewhat amusing to be racing through Mennonite country - there are few places where things move slower than here!

I understand that you can't have as much travel or crazy stunts as there are children involved but it is these things that make the show interesting for me. I don't thrive on the bickering (that's Pops' area) and this show has way too much of it. Maybe once the families get paired down a bit, the show will become easier to watch until then ... break out the anxiety pills.

Commanding Chief?

2005-09-28T06:51:00.000-07:00

Being in Canada I was able watch both Commander-in-Chief and The Amazing Race last night as CTV has time shifted C-I-C to 8:00PM.

The premise, an Independent Vice-President becomes Commander-in-Chief, to the dismay of a dying President, is completely flawed, but I have watched programs with larger flaws. This flaw was compounded when Geena Davis' character asked "what happens now?" when the President was incapacitated. Am I to believe that VP isn't well versed in their most vital role to the US Governmental system? And then to consult the decision with her kids and ask them to keep it secret - yeah, that what happen!

However, the pacing was crisp and the production value was high so I was willing to ignore some of that. Especially since the flawed premise reveals the central tension of the program. Should "Mack" finish the mandate of President - a mandate that he was democratically elected to fulfill? Or should she follow her own vision for the Presidency?

Another central in the program is what does an Independent mean to the writers of the show? Does it mean Democrat in Independents clothing or a true Independent. In the final speech of the program President Allen spoke of how "Freedom is our gift to the world". This used to be the talk of a JFK-Democrat but of late is more often a President Bush line. The other key foreign policy revelation in the program is that President Allen was willing to unilaterally invade a country to extract a women sentenced to death for adultery in Sharia-law dominated Nigeria (well Nigeria-ish). The background on this story is not well defined, so you do not know if Madoula (sp?) was an American or Nigerian citizen.

In reality it was just a plot device to allow "Mack" to take the Presidency instead of the mouth-breathing Speaker-of-the-House. Good thing because if a Government truly extracted such a person it would have been possibly the worst foreign policy decision in American history (suspension of disbelief, suspension of disbelief). Casting this aside, and the fact that the left side of Geena Davis' mouth appears to be deformed because of botox there was enough in the program to keep me watching another week or two.

The Amazing Race: All in the Family style

2005-09-24T01:28:00.000-07:00

I have to say that I am intrigued by the upcoming season of the Amazing Race. Considering the Staple Family Bloggers are a family of four the format is especially appealing. Our daughters, let's call them Cleotha and Yvonne to extend the metaphor, are still a little young to be chasing around the world though.

If you look at the teams there are some at a distinct disadvantage. I am curious to see how the teams with per-teenage kids manage to compete. I doubt they can and they will be eliminated pretty early leaving this a contest of adult groups of four.

I can't wait for Tuesday to find out.

Cowboy Up!

2005-09-23T12:26:00.000-07:00

That, you could say, was the theme of this weeks episode of Survivor: Guatemala as it was time for the laid out men of Nakum to cowboy up and make sure that Bobby Jon's streak of Tribal Council's was finally ended. Even though Blake was still milking his illness at camp he put in a strong effort in the reward challenge - strong enough that it got Judd to whining about how he could become the man.

Much to his pleasure the reward challenge was all about leverage and he used his frame to carry Nakum to a win.

The main source of intrigue at the Yaxha tribe was how Gary would react to being called out as a former NFL Quarterback. He decided to keep on lying and I am sure this is going to come back to bite him before this season is over. Other than that Yaxha seems to be sticking together - the flip-flopped on Morgan or Lydia but in the end they unanimously snuffed out her flame.

To this point the competition is tight - which makes the whole thing work better.

The Donald, and his Show.

2005-09-23T11:22:00.000-07:00

Now it is The Donald's turn. The original Apprentice aired the beginning of its fourth endeavour to find Donald Trump another errand boy/girl. Shockingly, Mr. Trump decided to shake things up, meeting his candiates on his golf course and beginning the first task with a breathtaking race to the copter. As everyone in the business world must already know - he who runs the fastest gets the deal.

AND ... there is no guaranteed exemption for the project manager of the winning team. Your team must vote you that priviledge. So I guess we know how often that will happen.

Teams were divided by sex once again (so Mr. Trump could "tell them apart") and team names were chosen : Excel, the guys. Captial Edge, the girls. Both names, much more appropriate that Martha Stewart Apprentice names Matchstick and Primarious.

Up for grabs: a cushy job, with a six figure salary, working closely with Mr. Donald Trump at one of his many companies.

The task involved selling fitness classes at two different Bally Fitness locations. Most money wins. The boys in the batcopter were able to select the best location, leaving the girls in Spanish Harlem. Kristi became PM for the girls, Markus for the boys. The boys marketed to clients already in the gym while the girls opted to use a suggestive flyer (XXX workout) to canvas people in the area of the gym (many times they were handing flyers to people who had not and would not ever smell the inside of a gym). Melissa, a woman of Hispanic heritage, decided she knew everything about fitness clubs in Spanish Harlem and spent nearly all of her time whining about Kristi (even to Carolyn!!!). Markus, boys PM, actually stopped a brainstorm to ask the guys if he could do anything better. You could hear the crickets.

In the end, the boys won by $17. Kristi was slammed in the boardroom for the suggestive flyer and poor organization but Melissa stole the show. Every other woman commented on how Melissa was negative and disruptive, prompting Melissa to announce in the final boardroom that she "can't work with women". She might just as well have said "fire me, I suck". Kristi won't last in this game but Melissa needed to go. If in all of her whining time she could have found one more customer, the girls would have won.

It will be interesting to see how the girls fair next week without their destructive influence. Ooh .. and I saw Stormtroopers in the preview for upcoming episodes ...

Martha, Martha, Martha!

2005-09-22T10:28:00.000-07:00

Ahhh ... good reality TV is back! Despite Pops' comments about the struggling Apprentice franchise, we checked out Apprentice: Martha Stewart last night. I have to admit to actually having more respect for Ms. Stewart after her foray into prison; she did her time and certainly did not deserve the accompanying public vilification.

Apprentice: Martha Stewart sports an entirely different look and feel from the Trump version, complete with a cheery conference room, personal phone calls from Martha to invite candidates to tasks, and an appropriate "Dear Jeff" letter to the candidate who did not "fit in". Rules are the same and Martha matches Donald with the near glee in which she delivers her "you're fired" line: you just don't fit in (complete with evil eyebrow).

Up for grabs: a cushy job working directly with Martha Stewart at Martha Stewart Omnimedia.

The early parts of the episode were extremely scripted, especially when Martha made comments to various employees on the way to greet her apprentices. One of the candidates, I believe Carrie, described the experience of meeting Martha Stewart as the "culmination of my life". I laughed at first and then realized that if George Lucas were going to give me a job at Lucasfilm I might get excited and say something silly too. Maybe.

Team names: Matchstick, the creative thinkers. Primarious, the corporate thinkers. Stupid, both team names.

The task was the same that every student gets from their English teacher at one time or another: take a fairy tale and make it contemporary. Although you don't have a professional illustrator etc. from Random House. Matchstick even had a professional writer on their team (Dawn). Did Jeff (project manager) utilize her? No .. because she could not work in a loud group environment. You would think that creative people would be used to allowing others to express their creativity in the conditions that suit them best. How hard would it have been to find her a quiet space to work? In the end the "creative" team produced a horrible rhyming version of Hansel and Gretel that as a parent I would never read to my kids (it encourages running away and not obeying your parents). Primarious smoked them with a fun version of Jack and the Beanstalk.

Did Jeff deserve to go? Absolutely. You can't fault Dawn for asking for and being denied adequate working conditions. Jeff made up the awful rhymes and story concept. What I don't understand is why he took the insufferable Jim in with him to the final conference. It was obvious very early in the conference that Jim wanted Jeff fired and bringing him in at the end just gave him another soapbox for his arguments against Jeff. It would have been much more strategic to bring in one of the women who praised Jeff early on and use her to argue against Dawn. BUT, that wouldn't have prevented Jeff's "not fitting in".

I had fun watching this show and look forward to the next. Hopefully Martha suggests they make French Fries. One at a time. Like I saw in the only episode I ever watched of Martha Stewart Living.

No man gets left behind

2005-09-15T21:42:00.000-07:00

What a way to begin Survivor: Guatemala. Cool twist to have Stephanie and Bobby John added to the competition. They really got the wrong end of the stick the last time around so it was nice that they were given a second chance.

Stephanie called the 11.5 mile hike through the jungle the toughest Survivor challenge ever and judging by the guys puking their guts out afterwards how could you argue. (Mavis: yes, ladies, water retention can be a good thing!). Spending the night in the jungle would not have been fun. Those monkeys were creeping me out. This could prove to be the most spectacular and most difficult season.

Poor Jim. Pulled a bicep muscle...seeya. (Mavis: bicep or not, Jim was a out anyway).

Melissa O'Neil Wins!

2005-09-15T11:02:00.000-07:00

There is no doubt that the right person won this years Canadian Idol. I think in time she could have a solid career. However this whole Season 3 adventure was less than inspired. I think it is time to raise the age limit in an effort to deepen the talent pool for the next crack at this.

Than being said, congratulations Melissa O'Neil.

Canadian Idol Final Two

2005-09-13T20:00:00.000-07:00

Last chance for Melissa O'Neil and Rex Goudie to win the title. I am hanging out in a hotel room in Northern Ontario so I may as well live blog the "then there were two" Idol. Here goes.

Melissa O'Neil

Angel of the Morning:

Pops: sung elevator-music style. Well maybe there is no other way. One of Melissa's problems is she can come off with no energy as she has several times in the past. I found the performance pretty boring. Most of the time the vocals sounded good but I just did not find it compelling enough.

Mavis: sounds a little sharp in the high parts and there is a lot of lower register stuff that is not strong. A little CHIME fm.

A Broken Wing:

Pops: Another lack of energy song. I really think she should have gone with something upbeat. She sings so much better on the higher notes - why not pick a song that doesn't start so low? She is a much better singer than Rex but her low-key performances tonight could open the door.

Mavis: Some beautiful notes in this song with some good emotion - worked for me.

Alive:

Pops: Wow, started off really, really bad. But as with Rex the guitars come in pretty quick and hides it. Once it gets back to the verse it is tough again. This song may be just too low for her. By the way, what a terrible outfit! The second half of the song was better for her but I must say I did prefer the Rex Goudie version.

Mavis: What's with the corset?? Sugary and sweet but she's not really a rocker and the song doesn't overly suit her - did they figure Suzi was going to win?? A lot of the time it seemed that her mouth movements didn't sync with the vocals ... hmm ...

Rex Goudie

Alive: the new Canadian Idol single.

Pops: Again weak at the beginning with the low stuff. But the song kicks in pretty quick - a little rock influenced actually - but that may just be the Goudie arrangement. Somebody teach this guy some stage prescence quick! He is just so stiff. The "rock-on" fingers are so cheeze! Not a bad song and to be honest that is about as good as it gets with Rex Goudie. All things considered a reasonable performance.

Mavis: I still think while this guy could easily head a decent band he's not the better singer in this competition. Did a very nice job of a song that suits him well.

Bulletproof:

Pops: So far another "not awful" performance from Rex Goudie. It is amazing how much better things seems when you lower your expectations. He struggles with some of the lower notes in the song but we already know he can struggle at times. He certainly has picked the right night to have his strongest night.

Mavis: very nice but exactly the same as the Blue Rodeo version - what happened to making a song your own? It suits his voice but I'd rather hear Jim Cutty. One of his stronger vocal performances (which isn't saying that much).

Superman:

Pops: Barely recognizable without the falsetto of the original. But the original can be tough to listen to so that is not all bad. Another reasonable performance.

Mavis: This song has been so totally overplayed on the radio that I can hardly stand it. Rex has some really bad notes ("fall") and again didn't stray significantly from the original (just not that high).

Predictions:

Pops: It is actually a lot tougher than I thought it would be. If Melissa O'Neil had performed better this would have been a no-brainer. Here is my problem. I am not sure if Rex Goudie actually won the night or just exceeded expectations better. And I think the answer to that question determines who the next Canadian Idol is. I think Melissa deserves it because she is the better singer. But the single does sound better with Rex singing. I'm sticking with Melissa O'Neil though.

Mavis: I came into the night thinking Melissa all the way but Rex did have his best night in many weeks. However, Rex on his best night is still a far cry vocally from what Melissa can do. Even though the Idol song was written for Suzi (or Rex), I'm going with Melissa. BTW, I will be happy to see the end of the Zac show - in fact maybe we should give the title to him for all of the limelight that he stole from the competitors. Looking forward to Sass performing tonight!

And then there was two

2005-09-07T20:02:00.000-07:00

First things first. That Hedley tune is actually pretty catchy. Doesn't seem to be out of place with the likes of Sum 41.

And Aaron is gone. I guess Mavis' second guess was correct. The Suzi Rawn rock vote went to Rex Goudie. Is it enough to give him the title. I certainly hope not becuase he is just not good enough. I can see Melissa On'Neil growing into the role.

We find out next week.

Canadian Idol Final Three

2005-09-06T22:22:00.000-07:00

Barenaked Ladies night on Canadian Idol has come and gone and Mavis and I give it mixed reviews. Some of their better songs don't fit the format so they were skipped. Instead we got some less popular (read - never heard) ballads.

Rex Goudie

Song 1: Brian Wilson

Mavis: BNL guys aren't the best singers and Rex is right with them. They have careers so he could to. Stickman dancing.
Pops: How many different ways can you say he can't sing. This song would have gone nowhere if this were the version released.

Song 2: Call & Answer

Mavis: Rough start. Doesn't have a melodic enough voice for this song. My husband's rendition of "Courage" is better than this.
Pops: Voice cracked on the first note! He is butchering it and he knows it. He somewhat in the middle. There are so many big notes at the end of that song that he didn't he bother to try.

Aaron Walpole

Song 1: Break your heart

Mavis: Never heard of this song. Does a nice job - I just can't believe this guy is Top 3 in Canada.
Pops: Cheese to 11. The come hither look doesn't work with someone who looks like Aaron - but he certainly went for it. O.K.

Song 2: Enid

Mavis: Somehow I knew he would do this stinker. He does an O.K. job of a crappy song.
Pops: This was never a good song, anyway. Not much actual singing in this song. The jumping around really hurt the vocals as well. Waste of time.

Melissa O'Neil

Song 1: The Old Apartment

Mavis: How does a girl sing BNL stuff. She did a very nice job of working in some high parts - nice.
Pops: I have to say I was hoping that Aaron would do this song - comes off a little syrupy with her voice. Complete lack of energy. It is tough because it is such a signature song but I don't she lived up to it and she opened the door.

Song 2: When I Fall

Mavis: Didn't really know this sing. She was a little shrill and I was pretty bored overall. She often picks boring songs.
Pops: A pretty mediocre performance of a mediocre song. She sang it nicely.

I will leave the post-amble to Mavis: Rex Goudie was overmatched but I can't believe it puts Aaron Walpole in the top two. We must raise the age of this show - we got nuttin'

A MediaStaples first

2005-08-31T19:44:00.000-07:00

I am sitting alone in a hotel room so I thought now would be a good time to live blog the Canadian Idol results show for the first time. Well, the actual results portion of the results show.
Here goes:

Ben is providing all the judges reviews simultaneously and with four that makes sense. Now the judges are giving messages to the finalists if they are leaving tonight. "If it is the end of the road for...". Of course we have to sit through a commercial first.

No bottom two tonight. Just Suzi Rawn going home. I think we all say that coming from a mile away. I think she peaked too early and got worse as the show went along.

Canadian Idol Final Four

2005-08-30T22:43:00.000-07:00

Or - Elvis thrashing night

First things first. Both Mavis and I are not big Elvis fans. That being said I have to agree with Zack. That was one of the worst nights of Canadian Idol in memory. I look at the final four and think, that's it!

Aaron Walpole

Pops: Back to track music and back to cheese. Nothing special but I guess it was safe.
Mavis: Decent rendition - looks the Teddy Bear part. Can't hear him that well over the background. O.K.

Suzi Rawn

Pops: No energy at all - just doesn't feel right and the audience seems to be dead. Complete dud.
Mavis: I'm off the Suzi bandwagon - a lot of shouting this time around. She's pretty 1D.

Melissa O'Neil

Pops: Song is to low for her at the start but she sings the 2nd verse much better. Very goof 2nd half which completely saves it for me.
Mavis: Warmed up to it after a while. Gained energy and was better in the higher parts. Very nice.

Rex Goudie

Pops: As good as it gets for Rex - which isn't good enought for me but he has gotten this far. Pathetic dancing.
Mavis: Sang fairly well, got cheesy at the end - enough to keep him alive.

Aaron Walpole

Pops: Is he singing this in the wrong key for his voice? Very boring. Worst performance for him in weeks.
Mavis: Doesn't showcase his voice at all and actually pretty boring but I'm no fan of Aaron.

Suzi Rawn

Pops: Can't hear you! Really bad in the low parts though she recovered in the higher parts. Suzi really needed to step up tonight and she choked.
Mavis: Way too low for her at the beginning then she started singing - much better, liked that she changed the song.

Melissa O'Neil

Pops: Again with the starting too low thing. She can hit the high note though. Another boring performance but she is really the only one left who can win.
Mavis: Sums up that girls can't go low enough for Elvis. Melissa's screeching tonight. Tough one.

Rex Goudie

Pops: Ouch. They all struggle at the start. He sounds out of tune to me. Pretty painful.
Mavis: Voice is not strong enough but this is no surprise. O.K.

Final Two

Pops: If Rex Goudie can gain the Casey Leblanc by being from the east it could save him but I think he is just too weak for it to happen. He joins Suzi Rawn in the bottom two and Suzi goes home.
Mavis: Araon Walpole and Suzi Rawn. Suzi goes home.

Didn't see that coming

2005-08-24T19:59:00.000-07:00

I don't think anybody did actually. It probably can be called a shock but it is certainly a surprise that Casey Leblanc is gonesville.

I think even Suzi Rawn was convinced she was done. Mavis asked if Casey's voters migrate to Melissa O'Neil. Maybe, but they could go to another Maritimer in Rex Goudie. I still think this whole thing is Melissa O'Neil's to lose.

Canadian Idol Top Five

2005-08-23T22:44:00.000-07:00

What can I day about Guess Who night? A couple things. Burton Cummings was (is) a great singer however their songs were too straightforward. The judges complain about Suzi Rawn not showing enough range. Duh! Have you heard American Woman. It goes nowhere. Especially the Lenny version. Anyways, here goes.

Rex Goudie

Pops: Once you get over the fact he doesn't sing that well you can enjoy it. Energy level was high - he certainly went for it. Not bad.
Mavis: Very 1-dimensional but he's just as good as a lot if guys who front rock bands.

Casey Leblanc

Pops: Who knew she could sing! She missed some low notes but that was her best performance. She really stepped up.
Mavis: As loose (relaxed) as she's been - nice vocals especially in the higher range but I am just not entertained by her.

Suzi Rawn

Pops: Why did she do it Lenny style? I think she blew another classic rock opportunity. Pretty good but it's always the same. Maybe she peaked too early.
Mavis: A lot of support from the background - solid but I'm starting to get bored with Suzi. But if Rex Goudie can front a band, so can she.

Melissa O'Neil

Pops: Strong vocally but it seems like there is something missing. Maybe she couldn't keep up with the energy of the song. Here I think this thing is hers to lose and she does this. Not quite enough.
Mavis: Toe tapping song, lots of energy, but it's repeatative. Very nice performance.

Aaron Walpole

Pops: It was cheese-free Walpole! Caused it to be a tad muted but I think he was going for that. Unlike Suzi he showed something different. Not bad. Not great.
Mavis: Like Suzi, this guy is what he is - cheese - and I don't like it, particularly weak tonight.

Bottom 3

Pops: Melissa gets another peak into the bottom 3. Maybe that'll inspire her to step up. Rex Goudie also gets a look-see. And Suzi can strut all the way home.
Mavis: Suzi is stompin' on outta here back to King Size Suzi. Aaron will be out soon enough and Melissa just did poorly this week.

This is a good idea

2005-08-23T16:57:00.000-07:00

Canadian Idol will have a Barenaked Ladies night in an upcoming episode. I like this and I think I will like it even more so after watching the Guess Who night. I think the performers might have an easier time singing songs that weren't written before they were born.

And I can't be the only one who thinks the Guess Who are overrated. I really don't need to hear American Woman again. Even if song by Lenny Kravitz or my guess for tonight Rex Goudie.

Stomp and strut

2005-08-20T06:16:00.000-07:00

I am glad I am not the only one who noticed.

... But, what we did get was Suzi’s own vocal style, the familiar moves (Stomp, Strut) and overall, a pretty decent performance. When I watched it back on TV, volume seemed low in the first two verses, but live, the whole evening was at 100+ decibels and I didn’t notice this. Suzi is at some risk because of the volume problem and the impossibility of measuring up to Janis.

Although Brian Fox went easier on Suzi Rawn than I did. The stomp and strut is really getting old. How 'bout a shimmy and a shake just to mix things up.

Hey, not bad

2005-08-20T06:03:00.000-07:00

50,000 people have actually purchased Theresa Sokyrka's "These Old Charms" album. I guess being a runner-up isn't that bad after all.

Not so-classic rock

2005-08-20T05:56:00.000-07:00

After a very busy I am finally catching up to some of the news on this weeks Canadian Idol. Not a good sign for Suzi Rawn and Rex Goudie when they ended up in the bottom 3 on classic rock night. In my opinion, if they can't dominate that night they can't win the competition. Here is how ChartAttack phrases it.

...Oddly enough, it was the two rockers who didn't impress viewers for the Idol rock episode. Along with Palmer, Kamloops' feisty siren Suzi Rawn — also a vocalist for her own band — sunk to the bottom of the group. Perhaps her solid, though by-the-numbers stroll on Janis Joplin's "Piece Of My Heart" wasn't exciting enough; it just didn't reveal anything more about the singer than what we had already seen.
Meanwhile, heartthrob favourite Rex "Hat Boy" Goudie was a surprise in the bottom three, just when it seemed like his brigade of shrieking fans would make him a shoo-in for the Idol crown. Like Rawn, Goudie didn't offer anything new to his performance, pulling the Metallica-ed "Turn The Page" towards his usual testosterone-fest send-ups.

It won't break my heart if either or both go. I don't think Rex Goudie can sing and I think that Suzi Rawn is more parody than performer. However the other three aren't exactly inspiring choices either. I guess this whole thing is Melissa O'Neill's to win now.

Canadian Idol Top Six

2005-08-16T18:04:00.000-07:00

Mavis sitting in for Pops tonight - Rock 'n roll night at Idol. Suzi and Rex have been waiting weeks for this. It was a rough night for B-b-b-ben but with a live band, the house was rockin'!

Melissa O'Neill

Mavis: struggled in the lower parts but was excellent up high (a little shrill), not too much energy in her performance.
Pops: boring start, good on the chrous, found the song by the 2nd verse. Maybe not enough "primal energy" that Sass wanted. But pretty good.

Rex Goudie

Mavis: can hardly hear him over the band, got a little better as the song went on - pretty weak for Rex on a night that should have been right in his wheelhouse
Pops: I can't hear him! That was awful - turn the page indeed.

Casey Leblanc

Mavis: She never looks like she is enjoying herself. Song was well sung - much better than last week.
Pops: She looks incredibly nervous. She just has no star power. She sings it just alright.

Aaron Walpole

Mavis: entertaining but I can't stand this guy. Background singer carried the high parts. Stinky cheese.
Pops: The energy level is really good. He is not the best singer - cheezy & all thar, but he performed. I liked it.

Suzi Rawn

Mavis: background singers sounded awful making Suzi sound even better. Typical Suzi but I think there could actually have been too much strutting!
Pops: I can't hear her either at the beginning. Stomp it Suzi. Strut it Suzi. Give me the pelvic thrust! Classic rock - she should own this night but she left the door open.

Josh Palmer

Mavis: this song is so overplayed on the radio and all he really did was yell. Way to much "love in" with the band. BTW, it's a singing competition buddy. I'm sure others would have liked to play instruments too.
Pops: He should be natural in this but it seems so forced. But I guess that is Josh. Cheats on the big note. I actually started laughing at the end. Really bad.

Bottom Three

Mavis: Josh and Aaron battle it out for the bottom spot - winner = Aaron Walpole. See you later bud. Rounding out the bottom three is Casey Leblanc.
Pops: Rex Goudie, Casey Leblanc and going home, Josh Palmer.

Random Clips

2005-08-14T19:27:00.000-07:00

A website called Vrrrm has some audio and video clips from the Battlestar Galactica contingent at the 2005 Comic-Con in Toronto. The most interesting bit is from Ronald D. Moore explaining how the first seven episodes of Season 2 are actually the conclusion of Season 1. From what I have read there will be a cliffhanger at the end of episode 7 and the a hiatus while they film some more episodes.

Is this why Casey is still in?

2005-08-11T15:18:00.000-07:00

...Californian Dave Delaterrza, who runs a website called "vote for the worst", has declared Leblanc the worst contestant.
"It's not that she's not a pleasant singer, not that she doesn't have an okay voice because everyone in the top 10 does, but she kinda just, uh, she's kind a boring on stage, she kind a just stands there," he said.

I am not sure how much impact "vote for the worst" has but it does explain a few things.

Who's going home?

2005-08-10T10:17:00.000-07:00

The Foxes on Idol seem to agree with Mavis that Daryl Brunt is in some trouble tonight. They also think that Casey Leblanc will finally experience the bottom 3. I am sticking with Josh Palmer but as I said it shouldn't be him (yet).

Canadian Idol Top Seven

2005-08-09T21:01:00.000-07:00

Big Band week and the judges were loving it. Seemed like they were loving the groove so much that they forgot how to be critical...well until Casey Leblanc and Daryl Brunt at least.

Suzi Rawn

Pops: Fun but didn't quite hit the chorus right - which is the whole thing with Minnie the Moocher. But she sure can sing.
Mavis: Has a nice voice - audience participation takes away from her performance - still I liked it.

Aaron Walpole

Pops: Style is perfect for his voice, right in his wheelhouse. Cheese but good cheese this time.
Mavis: He's fun but the voice is weak.

Melissa O'Neill

Pops: She seems under the song a bit, her voice just isn't big enough for the song.
Mavis: Maybe moving around more with the song would have been better - nice but song gets a little boring.

Josh Palmer

Pops: Can hardly hear him. Good style but could leave him in trouble.
Mavis: You can see his forehead! Too low for his voice? Creates a nice mood.

Rex Goudie

Pops: I'm just not sure he can sing well enough. The girls seem to like him though.
Mavis: A very good song performed ok. End was very nice.

Casey Leblanc

Pops: Why is she still here? Voice cracked, ouch! Recovered but not very good.
Mavis: Movements come off a little contrived - a nice try.

Daryl Brunt

Pops: This is actually really good. Strong performance.
Mavis: Great song - I was worried but he did very well.

Bottom Three

Pops: How do you pick? Casey Leblanc does not belong but has never even approached the bottom three. Daryl Brunt is out of his league but I think he squeaks through another weak. I guess my predictions don't matter 'cause I never close to being right, so here goes:

Melissa O'Neill, Casey Leblanc and going home - Josh Palmer (not that he deserves to but I don't know if he can get enough votes)

Mavis: I think Casey should go but for some reason she gets the votes so I can't pick her to leave.

Casey Leblanc, Aaron Walpole and going home - Daryl Brunt

Almost a train wreck

2005-08-03T18:59:00.000-07:00

I guess it was Amber Fleury's time to go but Suzi Rawn 2nd last!? We will see if she gets the bottom three bounce. How is it that Casey Leblanc has never seen the bottom three? And please, Aaron Walpole is a theatre singer, not a pop star.

It just get more interesting from here.

Canadian Idol Top Eight

2005-08-02T21:47:00.000-07:00

So it was '80's night on Canadian Idol. Mavis and I both started to pay attention to our own music in the '80's (not together, didn't meet until the grunge era) so it always good to reminis. How could no one do Corey Hart!

Amber Fleury

Mavis: This is probably as upbeat as she gets - underwhelmed (Pops: if that's a word, I know it's not, 'cause I looked it up)
Pops: She can sing with the country vibe. Very little prescence though. Not bad. Not great.

Rex Goudie

Mavis: Song is awesome but I've heard it so many times - not too strong on the high parts. Sting maybe not a good choice.
Pops: I get less impressed with him each week. Very plain-jane.

Casey Leblanc

Mavis: Wonderful at the beginning then she didn't sell it - dances as bad as I do.
Pops: I have visions of my high school talent night. But the marching really helped.

Daryl Brunt

Mavis: Sugary sweet tainted love with some nice notes and scary eyes.
Pops: Oh my God! He turned it into "putting on the ritz". Creepy!

Suzi Rawn

Mavis: I'm back in the '80's. She's done it. Great vibe.
Pops: She's got the '80's vibe down perfect. She delivered.

Aaron Walpole

Mavis: Awful!
Pops: I am finished with this guy. Extra Cheezy!

Josh Palmer

Mavis: He certainly makes the song his own, this time it was way too freaky.
Pops: That was terrible! O Lord indeed. He started on too high a note and never recovered.

Melissa O'Neil

Mavis: Definately had an '80's feel - kind of ran out of breath midway - chorus is weak (song's fault not hers)
Pops: Just not strong enough.

Bottom Three

Mavis: Mellisa O'Neill, Aaron Walpole and Daryl Brunt going home.
Pops: Josh Palmer, Aaron Walpole and Daryl Brunt going home. Even though I am not a fan of hers, how can Suzi Rawn lose this thing. She is the only one with any skill.

Wow

2005-07-27T20:25:00.000-07:00

Well did anyone see that coming. Ashley Leitao! And Casey Leblanc survives another week. I guess Maritimers are looking after their own and British Columbians don't care. I wasn't Ashley Leitao's biggest fan but that was way too early.

Canadian Idol Top Nine

2005-07-26T21:19:00.000-07:00

Stevie Wonder night. Why do they do it to these poor kids. It is like Elton John night. These are two of the best male voices in popular music in the last 40 years. Why don't they throw Bono at them to complete the destruction. In my opinion there were only two performances that weren't embarrassing to Stevie Wonder's legacy, Josh Palmer and Suzi Rawn. Suzi only because she wasn't even doing Stevie, she was doing the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Casey Leblanc

Pops: Nice Kareoke. If she got this far doing this she will get a little further.
Mavis: Heaven help this song - very odd timing.

Josh Palmer

Pops: Nailed it. Awesome.
Mavis: Looks like he belongs - his style may get tiring though

Amber Fleury

Pops: Too low to show off her voice. Strong finish but a little too muted.
Mavis: Beautiful voice, never heard of this song - really great.

Daryl Brunt

Pops: Vocally it wasn't bad but he has zero prescence. Weird way to lead off Superstition but he sounded nice doing it.
Mavis: Music picked up temp but he didn't - didn't enjoy the song and move with it enough.

Ashley Leitao

Pops: I'm not feeling it (all over).
Mavis: Great song, a little low in parts but nice energetic performance.

Rex Goudie

Pops: Awful. Unfortunately Pastime Paradise is not as good a song as Gansta Paradise and it showed in this performance.
Mavis: Stevie rocks out? Not feelin' it.

Mellisa O'Neil

Pops: Was it just enough? Great song done just alright.
Mavis: Groovy music and no one moves? Ho hum.

Aaron Walpole

Pops: Complete fromage!
Mavis: He tried really hard but it didn't work.

Suzi Rawn

Pops: When I heard the song selection I knew it would Chili Pepper style. She almost won me over last week but lost me this week. I just find the Suzi stomp way too annoying.
Mavis: What's with the echo? More Suzi than Stevie. OK.

Bottom 3

Pops: Aaron Walpole. Daryl Brunt. Mellisa O'Neil is going home.
Mavis: Casey Leblanc. Daryl Brunt. Melissa O'Neill is going home.

BattleStar Galactica is a hit...in the US

2005-07-23T10:42:00.000-07:00

Sci Fi Channel grabbed three of the top four basic cable programs in adults 18-49 with the return of its Friday original programing block.
"Battlestar Galactica" looked especially strong at 10 p.m., opening its second season to its highest ratings ever, just more than 3 million total viewers. It also notched the No. 1-rated show in all of television in the male 18-49 and 25-54 demographic for the hour.

Now if we in Canada didn't have to wait until the fall all would be good. At least with strong ratings like this we expect several more seasons. Hey, maybe even a remake of Buck Rodgers. One can hope. ;)

On the other hand

2005-07-23T10:35:00.000-07:00

I found this review of last weeks Top 10 on Canadian. I couldn't resist linking to it from this passage:

...Looking less than comfortable was diva-in-training, Daryl Brunt. The Sudbury, Ontario high school student always looks a bit terrified, as if judges Jake Gold and Farley Flex will rip him up to pieces for dinner, but that extra fear transmits some needed vulnerability when you're singing a schmaltzy Roch Voisine song. A bit more self-assurance and he'll be as fabulous as Ben Mulroney's pointy pink shoes.

Dvia-in-training - nice!

Here is another review page and another couple as well - Foxes on Idol. Someone who likes Casey Leblanc as much as I do.

...Casey started out at a really rapid tempo, and showed more nerves than even Daryl has. It got no better, and in fact, it was pretty darn painful to watch. She struggled with volume, and… well, most everything. At least she didn’t forget her lyrics or fall off stage. I will be kind and go no further, but this performance was… legendary. Can the power voters of NB (and points east) save her, or did Emily get an unexpected reprieve? I dunno, there were more people in the audience than where Casey lives.

Wrong Again

2005-07-21T07:51:00.000-07:00

It is no surprise that my picks for the bottom three were wrong (Daryl Brunt - hey 1 right, Aaron Walpole and Casey Leblanc, with Casey Leblanc going home), what is more suprising is that Mavis was as off as she was (Emily Vinette, Casey Leblanc and Amber Fluery going home).

Neither of us liked Emily Vinette early on so to heartbreak that she is gone. Seems that Caset Leblanc has some serious hometown support so she will last longer than she deserves to. Daryl Brunt is on the verge of a total meltdown so he is in serious trouble. And Mellisa O'Neil is going to have to step it up.

In reality it looks like there isn't much left in the Top 9. It appears it is going to come down to Suzi Rawn, Rex Goudie and Ashley Leitao. But it is probably too early to predict that.

Top 10 Review

2005-07-20T17:15:00.000-07:00

Well, we are finally at the Top 10 stage and let me just say that the results were not inspiring. A couple of good performances but overall it was pretty flat.

Aaron Walpole

Mavis: Just didn't sound good - off key?
Pops: Not the right song for his voice. He could be in trouble

Emily Vinette

Mavis: I love this song and I knew the "crying" part is hard to do (Roy Orbison after all) and she did a nice job
Pops: Started rough - I sense she is yelling, not singing the chorus. End was good.

Daryl Brunt

Mavis: He's all over the place in this song - ouch.
Pops: He seems like such a little boy. Nervousnous killed his performance. Horrible.

Suzi Rahn

Mavis: Guess she can't always rock but she was bang on in this song.
Pops: Much better. I typically don't like her but I enjoyed that.

Mellisa O'Neil

Mavis: Easy listening FM, here we come.
Pops: She is in tune, which is a nice change tonight. I just wish there was a little more power in her voice. Nice performance overall though.

Ashley Leitao

Mavis: Nice song for her voice - well done.
Pops: Safe. Sang it nice but a tad boring.

Rex Goudie

Mavis: Song stays the same - nice but not overly good.
Pops: I am sure what to make of this. Good not great. But enough to move on.

Amber Fleury

Mavis: Tough to do someone's "signature" song. Cheated on all the high notes - there are better songs for her.
Pops: Tough song choice. Sings it fairly well but no where as good as Sarah McLachlan.

Josh Palmer

Mavis: I really like this song - very careful, practiced...controlled but great.
Pops: Again, not sure what to make of this. I didn't think much of it.

Casey Leblanc

Mavis: This girl had the most votes in her group!? Not as good as Shania.
Pops: Safe. It did get better as she went along.

Bottom Three

Mavis: Emily Vinette. Casey Leblanc. Going home: Amber Fleury
Pops: Daryl Brunt. Aaron Walpole. Going home: Casey Leblanc

Wild Card Elimination Round

2005-07-12T18:49:00.000-07:00

I am not sure if this night was even intended. My sense was last nights begfest was to get into the Top 10. Either I misunderstood or Canadian Idol realized how foolished it was and has them sing. Either way here are our reviews.

Stephane Aubin

Mavis: Now we are lounge singing, nice when it picked up.
Pops: Trying to make it his own. Not bad. Came off a little boring.

Barrett Peitsch

Mavis: Speaking of cheese. Choppy and insincere.
Pops: This guy has horrible phrasing. No power behind his voice. This song should be emotional but he evokes nothing.

Devika Mathur

Mavis: tried to make some unique changes to the song - voice not strong enough
Pops: Kereoke. Bad Kereoke! She just doesn't sing well enough.

Vince Benenati

Mavis: Started out with the Inglesias rip-off but does well on the higher notes - pretty good. Top 10
Pops: I prefer upper-range Vince to husky Vince. If he styaed there he could work. Top 10.

Aaron Walpole

Mavis: Don't like this song, doesn't have the rich tone of the current version. Lots of energy. Top 10.
Pops: This guy can sing. Didn't leave anything in the bag on this performance. Top 10.

Dianelys Hernandez

Mavis: Has a great voice, accent gets in the way but nice performance. May not appeal to Canadians
Pops: I bet she could kick on Latin Idol. However...I hated it.

Luke O'Reilly

Mavis: I believe he tried to be sincere but he just doesn't have a strong enough voice. No chance.
Pops: He has a nice voice. Just nice. Not good enough to move on.

Josh Palmer

Mavis: Definately unique in this competition but I think he's a poser - trying too hard to be Noel Gallagher/Brit Pop
Pops: Not the right forum for this guy. Has potential but comes off cold. Considering he was not even top 3 in his original group I don't see how he moves on.

Suzi's through...and Melissa too

2005-07-06T21:03:00.000-07:00

I guess it is just me. I think Suzi Rawn is a poser and I can't stand the Suzi Stomp but Canada disagrees. And it makes sense that Melissa O'Neill got the most votes this week.

Time to tally the predictions...it wasn't even close.

Mavis: 7/8
Pops: 4/8

By the way, the pleading to get into the Top 10 is weird. They should have let them sing again. And Zack agrees.

Wild Card predictions to come.

What is with the wild card selections. Ben Mulorney introduces them and then the judges rip them. How about picking some good performers. Oh well. Here is what we have to pick from.

Barrett Peitsch
Julie Tellier
Luke O'Reilly
Dainelys Hernandez
Stephane Aubin
Jenn Beaupre
Aaron Walpole
Danian Vickers
Josh Palmer
Devika Mathur
Vince Benenati

Which confirms that Mavis knows what is going on and Pops has no clue. Mavis picked 6/11 wild card contestants correctly. Pops, 3/11. But really do Jenn Beaupre and Danian Vickers really belong even at this level?

Canadian Idol Elimination Round 4

2005-07-05T23:02:00.000-07:00

Well we are at the last of the elimination rounds (not counting Wild Cards) and all in all it wasn't the strongest night. It was actually hard to pick two to go through. I should let you know that we write our reviews before we hear the judges. I will vouch for Mavis on a couple of her reviews - especially Keely Hutton.

Genevieve Nadeau

Pops: Really bad song choice. Not good at all.
Mavis: Piano still too loud. I would love to see more power on the higher notes - nothing there.

Luke O'Reilly

Pops: Not bad but there is something missing - maybe presence or power in the voice.
Mavis: I wouldn't listen to a lot of records by this guy. Kalan's been done.

Keely Hutton

Pops: Misses the big note so misses the song. Weird key change as well. Good last note but not nearly enough.
Mavis: Don't sing out loud - at least the high notes - rest was polished.

Aaron Walpole

Pops: I liked it. Best so far tonight. A little camp at times but still he has a good voice and a strong performance. Top Ten.
Mavis: Nice voice - could stand to hear him again - high notes a bit off. Wild Card.

Danian Vickers

Pops: Way more personality singing than talking. Back half was pretty bad - started screeching!
Mavis: I think it realy helps to choose a song people know - nice voice, bad vibrato.

Suzi Rawn

Pops: Not enough range in the song - I am not a fan of her voice. She has a prescence but I question if she has a built in voting demographic. I think the ride is over...until the Wild Card round anyway.
Mavis: Husky voice. I did like it beacuse she had some energy especially compared to everyone else. Top Ten.

Matt Kennedy

Pops: Killed the first half and died on the second. Hard to know what to make of it. Maybe enough. Wildcard.
Mavis: Started great - hit a bad note and fell apart. Still he could make it through. Wildcard.

Melissa O'Neil

Pops: I wish I knew the song....really strong voice, althought lacking the connection. She did enough to get to the Top Ten.
Mavis: everyone is straining in the upper register tonight. Nice voice. I'm just not blown away. It is hard to pick two tonight and as such she will go to the Top Ten.

Star Wars Rocks

2005-06-30T12:26:00.000-07:00

Mavis and I went to the Star Wars concert by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra last night. I must admit that going in I was kind of ho hum about it. Don't get me wrong. I love Star Wars. I love movie music. I love live music. Seems a perfect fit. I guess you can chalk it up to me being very distracted with work. Anyways...it was my first time at Roy Thompson Hall and Mavis got us great seats. As soon as I sat down I caught the vibe. I was literally shaking in my seat.

The night started with the Star Wars Main Theme (duh!) and I had goosebumps. We were sitting in the choir loft, practically on top of the stage, and the power of the music was amazing.

The event was hosted by Anthony Daniels who also wrote the script for the narration. He was a great host - funny and charming. During the narration he would use his C-3P0 voice on cue and once even did an impression of Leia. The crowd loved him.

I have only been to a Symphony once, in Kitchener, so I am no expert. But this was no ordinary show. The crowd was pumped and after the Main Theme the roar from the crowd was huge. Not sure a Symphony ever gets roars!

At times it felt closer to a rock concert. Especially at the end. There was a long standing ovation and then an encore. Again, does this ever happen at a symphony? SPOILER ALERT. They saved the Cantina Theme for the encore and the crowd starting clapping along to the most recognizable bit. I held back 'cause I figured that it went way over the symphony etiquette line. But the second time the song hit this part the conductor, Erich Kunzel, turned to the audience and started clapping along. That was good enough for me to join in.

As you can tell, I loved it. Sign me up if the TSO ever does a Howard Shore or Hans Zimmer night. Awesome.

For the record here are the songs they played. SPOILER ALERT.

Star Wars Main Theme
The Adventures of Jar Jar
Anakin's Theme
Flag Parade (much better than I remembered, will have to check this one out again)
The Duel of the Fates (who doesn't love this)

Across the Stars (the only song chosen from Episode II but it is very good)

Battle of the Heroes (great piece from Episode III, the choir bit was perfect)

The Little People
Princess Leia's Theme
Here They Come
The Battle
The Throne Room

The Imperial March (Darth Vader's Theme)
The Asteroid Field
Yoda's Theme
Han Solo & The Princess
Finale

Jabba the Hut
Luke & Leia
Parade of the Ewoks
The Forest Battle
Star Wars Main Theme

The audience got it right

2005-06-30T07:13:00.000-07:00

Amber Fleury and Rex Goudie have made it through to the Top 10 of Canadian Idol. It is good to see the voters send through talent instead of dimples. These two will be tough in the Top 10 and it should make for a much better show in the weeks to come.

Canadian Idol Elimination Round 3

2005-06-28T20:54:00.000-07:00

Pops is flying solo tonight in a hotel room in parts unknown - thus I may as well live blog!
Mavis is now (June 29th, 9:44am) adding her comments after reviewing a taped version of the show (Mavis does Tai Chi on Tuesdays).

Barbra Preisman

Pops: Jazz singer - Ella speaks to her..let's see! No personality, no range. The scat was cool but no where near enough. Nice knowing ya.

Mavis: Unique - perfect for broadway. No chance.

Giselle Correia

Pops: Pretenders tune - done well so far. I like her voice but I would like to hear more range. She tried to hit a big note at the end...but the song didn't allow it and she missed it. Judges agree. Almost but not quite.

Mavis: Piano's too loud, is this girl sexy like the song? Song stays on the same notes - good voice.

Diego Alvarez

Pops: This guy can sing - latin George Michael? That's a tad weird, as is the way he pronounces some of the words but again he can flat out sing. Wildcard.

Mavis: Vibrato is annoying, couple of bad notes but nice voice. Song?

Devika Mathur

Pops: Another good singer who is not used to singing in English. You can call me on this if you'd like but it is distracting to me. It is a shame she didn't pick a more upbeat song, she seems to have a bold personality in the interview but reserved in the song. Judges love her.

Mavis: Strong voice - worth another look. Wild card.

Rex Goudie

Pops: Wow. What a great voice. The lighter trick was cheezy but he is just too good for it to cost him. I don't need to see anything else. Top 10. Probably much higher.

Mavis: Newfoundland AND can sing - he's in. Doing his own lighter waving was sad. Sexy. Top 10.

Michelle Madeira

Pops: Another strong voice but a tad boring. Nice big note but no prescence.

Mavis: I really can't stand when my bangs are as longs as hers. Nice voice but she was shouting the high notes - hurts the ears a bit. Bad last note!

Barrett Peitsch

Pops: If you want a song that is not too slow pick a song that is supposed to be sung quicker. It sounds like he is rushing Walking on Memphis. He has a nice voice, he is good looking but this version didn't work. It is hard to tell whether it will matter - he could get through on charisma alone. Wildcard.

Mavis: Nasal - not the character that Rex is but nice changes in the song - nice voice, nice dimples.

Amber Fleury

Pops: I love this song so she has a chance with me. Good emotion and nice tone. She won me over but I doubt she moves on. The judges are working overtime to get her through. The replay changed my mind. Top 10.

Mavis: I had already decided my top 10 picks and looking at Amber I knew she'd have to blow me away .. she did. Perfect - like the early Jann Arden - great voice but I don't know if Canada will vote for her ... but then did Ryan Malcolm have "the look"?? Top 10.

BattleStar Galactica Coming July 15th!

2005-06-23T19:56:00.000-07:00

Gateworld reports that:

The U.S. SCI FI Channel will have the world premiere of Battlestar Galactica's second season when it kicks of 20 new episodes on July 15. According to a report at the BBC's Cult Television site, the U.K. network Sky One won't begin airing the new season until October.

Hopefully this means that the Space Network here in Canada will air the second season at the same time! This is an interesting turn around as the UK got the first season of BSG well before us North Americans.

Ladies night on Idol

2005-06-22T20:31:00.000-07:00

After two consecutive male Idols are the Canadian voters determined to have a female champ? So far 3 out of the 4 who've made the top 10 are female.

With Casey and Emily moving Mavis goes 1-1 and Pops 0-2. Mavis has stretched out her lead to 3-1 in the prediction race. Time for Pops to step up.

Canadian Idol Elimination Round 2

2005-06-21T23:22:00.000-07:00

When begin this week with Mavis having a 2-1 lead on the prediction front. Leading off the broadcast I said to Mavis, tough group, boy was I wrong.

Dave Moffat

Mavis: Doesn't have the look (but did Ryan Malcolm), whiney, not a strong enough voice
Pops: I love Stevie, but this isn't even Stevie-lite. He has nice tone but scratched on a couple of notes...pretty good.

Alinka Chambers

Mavis: A little flat - actually a lot flat. Powerful voice though.
Pops: There is no good way to do Black Velvet. Bad vocal performance. Time to find a new destiny.

David Monger

Mavis: Uptight? Good showman - charming. No voice.
Pops: He sings like Adam Sandler. Heavy on the fromage. I didn't like it.

Casey Leblanc

Mavis: Never heard this song before but great, not enough big notes though.
Pops: I like her voice but the performance is really flat - boring. Wild Card Pick.

Josh Palmer

Mavis: He's doing some crappy British band. Unique? Song? Wild Card Pick.
Pops: Don't know the song, interesting rock vibe in there though. Top Ten Pick.

Julie Tellier

Mavis: Strong voice, WTF is this song? Polished. Wild Card Pick.
Pops: Cuts off all of her notes, really good voice though. I just wish she would go for it more. First one who attempted the big note. Wild Card Pick.

Vince Benanati

Mavis: I'll get tired of the breathlessness. Has the power when he uses it. Wild Card Pick.
Pops: Too much breathe-singing. There is a voice in there if he would just play it straight. I think he could nail a Paul Carrack or Phil Collins tune. Top Ten Pick.

Emily Vinette

Mavis: NERVOUS. Moves on - just for chorus notes, some pitchiness but potential. Top Ten Pick. Top Ten Pick.
Pops: Nervous beginning....middle & end. She could sing, I think, but it seems like the nerves constricted her throat. Wild Card Pick.

Canadian Idol Elimination Round 1

2005-06-15T12:26:00.000-07:00

First up I should declare that our satellite feed was a little wonky last night due to an electrical storm and as a result our sound was a little off. That being said here are our comments and predictions.

Matt Humphreys

Pops: I had never heard that song before - he has a nice voice but there was little range in the song.
Mavis: Decent voice but no chance. Some girls will phone in though.

Jenn Beaupre

Pops: Bu-bye. Is there a tune anywhere in what she was singing?
Mavis: Liza Manelli? Air Farce does it better. Nice range - go to broadway

Melody Bonicel

Pops: Boring. Had some big notes that she hit but there is nothing there.
Mavis: Safe but great.

Daryl Brunt

Pops: Good range, nice voice, cute guy. He's going through.
Mavis: Has this guys voice even changed yet? 2 thumbs up for Simba.

Dianelys Hernandez

Pops: Front half of the song was good but the second half faded. Will move into the Wild Card round.
Mavis: Jazzy, nice voice but boring. She'll get voted through though.

Stephane Aubin

Pops: Nice voice but a little flat on the big notes. Enough to move on.
Mavis: He mentioned that he was afraid to sing Georgia on my mind as a kid. He should have taken his childhood advice and avoided this song. He was flat.

Ashley Leitao

Pops: Was she even in tune? No connection for me but will probably move into the Wild Card round.
Mavis: Not as good at the original Poccahontis version - didn't feel it.

Cher Maendel

Pops: She annoys the hell out of me. See-ya
Mavis: To paraphrase Queen - Let Her Go

Review: Coldplay, X&Y

2005-06-11T11:26:00.000-07:00

It took me a little longer to get a handle on this album than others. For me that is good thing. Apparently EMI has banked heavily on this album...I think they will be rewarded.

Square One: I have often thought of Coldplay as what Radiohead could have been if that hadn't lost their grip on reality. This song confirms that for me. This is as close as Coldplay has sounded to Radiohead and it may be the best track on the album. The guitar and bass are very much out front and centre on this song. As a really bad bass player myself I have an affinity to songs with the bass playing the chords of a song. If there is any complaint is that the song ends on quiet note, if just to lead into the next song.

What If: Starts of with Chris Martin playing solo piano. This has become the trademark Coldplay sound - start quiet, slowly mix in the other instruments and build to a big finish. They do this many times on this album with mixed results. I think this song will play well live but it is a tad too formulaic (many would say that of all of Coldplay).

White Shadows: Another guitar driven tune. Reminds of a early U2 mixed in with the Cure. This one will definitely be a single and a hit.

Fix You: And now we are back to the formula. First Chris Martin with an organ. Cue in the piano at the 1 minute mark and then the acoustic guitar 45 seconds later. This one will be the cigarette lighter song. Just as it starts to get a tad old cue the driving electric guitar and the wall of sound finish. This one will be huge live. This time the build up was worth it.

Talk: This one is a good mix of Coldplay style guitar with synthesizers It gets to the point faster than most Coldplay tunes as well and that is a good thing. I think there is some Oasis style guitar thrown in for good measure - Noel would just love that. If the album is as huge as the hype this will be the 4th or 5th single.

X&Y: And back to the formula. This one is still growing on me and I have yet to decide if it works or not. The strings at the end are a nice touch but it might be too predictable.
Speed of Sound: It makes that this was the first single since it sounds the most like songs from A Rush Of Blood. I didn't think much of it the first couple times I heard it but I am getting it more now. The pre-chorus reminds me of Kate Bush - Running Up The Hill. You've probably heard this tune enough now to make your own judgment but this may prove to be one of their better songs.

A Message: This one is o.k., I tend to skip it when I am listening to the CD. Just not enough to it for me. Could work better live. It is not awful just not great.

Low: Another song that I can hear Radiohead doing, especially the bass line which drives the song. The big finish is also Radioheadesque with something else I can't put my finger on...maybe Floyd...maybe not...maybe you can help me this.

The Hardest Part: Another skipper for me. Probably me least favourite song on the album. By my experience this will be the one the critics like the best...oh well.

Swallowed In The Sea: And we are back to the formula. And whether you like this song will probably depend on how much you like the standard Coldplay sound.

Twisted Logic: The big finish. I like this song quite a bit. Pretty groovy guitar riff in the verses.

Til Kingdom Come [Hidden Track]: The campfire song, acoustic and all that. I am not sure why the classified this one as a "Hidden Track" - it is really good song.

So there you have it. If you already think that Coldplay arebedwetterss this album will do nothing to dispel that notion. If you are already a fan then you will be quite happy with it. As I mention several times it relies heavily on the Coldplay formulaic sound. But it is like KFC, it has it's secret recipe but damn dat chicken taste good!

7.5/10

And now the experts

2005-06-11T08:40:00.000-07:00

One of my favourite parts of reviewing a CD is reading the Rolling Stone review afterwards to see how they compare - and I do wait until after mine has been written to read other reviews.

Kelefa Sanneh's review is almost identical to mine. Although the grade was a little lower.

...this album contains its share of lovely ballads that sound, well, Coldplay-ish: Thanks to Keane and other imitators, Coldplay's name has become an adjective. One of the best is "Fix You," an unabashedly sentimental song where Martin delivers words of encouragement in a gentle falsetto. "Lights will guide you home/And ignite your bones/And I will try to fix you," he sings, proving once more that no band can deliver a stately rock ballad like this one. And although "Twisted Logic" may be an obvious Radiohead rip-off (with a title that sounds alarmingly Fred Durst-ish), the members find ways to build suspense while progressing toward that inevitable crashing climax.
Still, a surprising number of songs here just never take flight, from "The Hardest Part" (which actually gets less catchy as it goes along) to "A Message," which might actually be too Coldplay-ish: "My song is love," Martin announces, and you might find yourself wishing it weren't. Martin has talked about how hard he worked on this album, and it shows: Nothing on it sounds easy -- maybe 50 Cent made off with a little bit of his style and grace. X&Y does find ways to reward persistent listeners, especially those who make it all the way past the end to the bonus track, "Till Kingdom Come," which is the most casual thing on the album (it starts with Martin counting) and maybe the best. "I don't know which way I'm going/I don't know which way I've come," he sings, accompanied by little more than an acoustic guitar, and after what's come before, it's an unexpected delight to hear him sound so small again.

Whatever

2005-06-02T00:09:00.000-07:00

How can you tell when someone has given way to many interviews in a short period of time. When they spout insanities like this. Here is Coldplay's lead man:

"Actually, to be fair, I was wondering whether certain people would change if they heard certain songs.
"Would it be really possible to start Nazi Germany if you'd just been listening to Bob Marley's EXODUS back-to-back for the past three weeks and getting stoned? Would the idea of the Holocaust seem so appealing?
"I know this sounds so trite, but I mean it seriously, because music is something that every human responds to.
"That's a reason why people who've had bad relationships with their parents listen to angry stuff."

Peace, love, dope, right? Maybe Chris Martin should stick to singing.

An interview with Ben Mulroney

2005-05-31T07:58:00.000-07:00

It is actual better than you would think possible.

I like when he compares Canadian Idol with American Idol.

It's just really easy -- American Idol follows Canadian Idol. The comparison is natural to me. I just caution people on how they make those comparisons. I mean, make an informed comparison.
It's easy to compare the hosts -- we do the exact same thing. But don't compare Farley to Randy just because he's the black guy. It reeks of racism to me. He's the big, black guy, so what? If you ever listen to that guy speak and you listen to Randy speak, they don't come from the same place, they're not looking for the same things, but you're comparing them because they're black? Compare him to Simon if you want.
You want to compare Zack to Simon? Probably the least apt comparison in the world. One of them is as cold as a cucumber, completely detached and devoid of emotion. The other one wears his emotions on his sleeve. He leads with his emotions. He screams, he cries, he gets elated. You can't compare them. I mean, to do so is an insult to both men and it's an insult to the person doing the comparison. It shows they haven't even thought out their comparison.

Martin and Martin

2005-05-31T07:37:00.000-07:00

This article from the Globe and Mail is kind of cute.

"It's funny, because I'm always checking out news on U2, because obviously I love them," he says. "And in the same week that we said something about U2, U2 said something about Paul Martin. So there were all these headlines with the word 'Martin' in them, but sometimes it was me, and sometimes it was him.
"It was like, Martin Wants To Be U2 and then, U2 Slam Martin." He laughs merrily. "It was extraordinary!"

With all this hype this album better be good. With all the hits that EMI has taken, for them, it better be great! I do like the idea of the band scrapping an albums worth of stuff because they were repeating themselves. At this point in their careers they need to push their own limits to see what they are capable of. They can do the Rolling Stones thing, or alas U2, in 15 years from now.

And so it begins

2005-05-30T22:20:00.000-07:00

Canadian Idol is back and other than Jake Gold's glasses very little has changed. Zack cranky? Yup. Sass still in love with her cleavage? Yup.

The early programs don't interest me too much but I did like the King Size Suzy (sp?) bit. I will translate Jake Gold for you. We need an Avril Lavigne on this program...you are close enough, you are in.

One last note, we do not need to see Ben Mulroney without a shirt and can someone please fire John Dore.

Ego check time

2005-05-29T10:53:00.000-07:00

Coldplay wants to be the biggest band in the world but they are beat to No. 1 by a ringtone. Priceless.

...Amazingly, the novelty record is outselling the rest of the singles chart twice over, and has sold three times as many copies as Coldplay - according to mid-week sales figures. The Frog - the combined creation of Swede Erik Wernquist, who invented the animation, and fellow countryman 17-year-old Daniel Malmedahl, who created the sound - will also knock Oasis from the top spot after they single, 'Lyla', spent just one week at number one.

The only thing worse would be to be beat by Disco Duck redux.

Can't argue with this either

2005-05-29T10:46:00.000-07:00

Eight years after the universally panned album Pop, U2 may go back into the studio to record a brand new version. Disappointed with the original result, U2 lead singer Bono has admitted touring commitments led to a rushed release which prevented the band from finishing the album.

“The bones of a great album are there,” the singer explained in a recent interview with the Chicago Tribune. It didn’t communicate the way it was intended to. It became a niche record. That’s not what it was intended to be.” Calling it “the worst decision U2 ever made,” Bono revealed that the band had let the band’s manager take control of the tour schedule, which ended up forcing the group to stop work on the record before they were ready.

I agree that the bones are indeed there on Pop. Gone and Last Night On Earth are great tracks. With a little more effort MoFo and Discotheque could probably work as well. Staring At The Sun and Please already work and in the case of Please have already been tweaked. There are throw aways but to me there always are on U2 albums. Typically those are the songs the critics love...go figure.

It is bit of a strange project to consider however and Bono can sometimes be just talk (there is an understatement). Until I see confirmation from Larry Mullen I won't hold my breath on this project.

Can't argue with that

2005-05-29T10:40:00.000-07:00

U2 has been named the best live band of all time. Considering U2 puts a lot of effort into their live presentation this honour is well deserved. I have actually only seen them live twice. Once during the Achtung Baby tour and then during the All That You Can't Leave Behind tour.

This does not include the live videos. I would love it if the band re-released the Zoo Station concert from Sydney on DVD. The VHS is awesome but it would be even better in 5.1. My favourite U2 album is Achtung Baby and favourite song in Stay so for me this concert presents U2 at their finest.

Mavis' Quick Review - Alias Finale!

2005-05-26T07:51:00.000-07:00

There we have it - another season of Alias in the books! Ended with a squirt and a bang. Literally.

It's the end of the world as we know it ...

And I did feel fine. There is no real sense of doom at all in this episode. We're talking about pending mass hysteria and violence over the entire globe and really the only signs of worry are on the armpits of Marshall and Weiss' shirts.

Endgame?

Milo Rambaldi, evil genius of the 16th century, created a series of hypercomplicated devices and a wonderful gallery of pictures and references to Irina, Sydney and "The Passenger" (Nadia). His endgame - to produce giant water balloons (Mueller Devices) over all the cities of the Earth in order to eradicate a selected group of billions of humans that were prepared by drinking the tainted water. Those that avoided the water, Elena, Sloane and company, would then inherit the Earth. Moo-haa-haa-haa-haa! I am wondering why there were no pictures of Sloane in the Rambaldi documents. It seems he was far more important than Sydney as he was the one who stopped Nadia at the critical moment.

The X-files moment

Flashback to the X-files when Sydney and company are attacked by the infected Russians. Apparantly this infection (when did they start calling it an infection?) also renders a person impervious to bullets. Sydney and Nadia must have fired 100s of bullets into ONE Russian guy before he fell!! Looked like Billy Myles (from the X-files episodes late season 8) all over again.

OMG someone else is keeping secrets???

In the show where everybody's significant other is not what they seem (Jack/Irina, Senator/Wife, Christian Slater's character/Wife, Vaughn/Lauren ...) we discover in the dying seconds of the show that OMG Vaughn is not actually Vaughn!!!! And Irina knows!!!! Here are my predictions:

Marshall is actually an android designed and created by Rambaldi in the 16th century (watch out for more water balloons)

Weiss (actually pronounced "Vice") is an embedded Nazi agent who will begin eliminating all characters with accents starting with Nadia

Vaughn will turn out to be a Irina's third nephew twice removed - a KGB agent ordered to carry on Irina's work with .. ummm .. Sydney.

Jack and Sydney will finally be locked away as the greatest sources of leaking intelligence the world has ever seen!

Oh .. and someone was listening in on Sydney and Vaughn's conversation so that they could ram them with a car at the critical moment of revelation .. oh yeah, this is a TV show.

Oveall a pretty weak finale. It will be interesting to see how they pull of Garner's pregnancy next year.

Pops' Review - Revenge of the Sith

2005-05-23T06:54:00.000-07:00

First things first, this movie is much better than Episodes I & II. This one is actually enjoyable.

It still has the elements of the first two (or 4th & 5th...you know what I mean) that I did not like. There are too many special effects and the opening battle scene is just too big. Lucas relies far too much on computer animation which makes everything seem fake - and very easily forgettable. We just have too strong an ability to pick out real from fake. In the original trilogy the battles were more believable through the use of models. Now the battles are so large that it elicits a who cares response. I had a similar response to the final battle scence in LOTR: The Return of the King. There is just too much going on and filmed from a long-out perspective. I just fell detached from it all.

Speaking of unbelievable, why does the droid leader, General Grevious, have a smokers weeze? (Mavis explains here...missed that one) It comes off as dumb. And while I am on it, what is with the names, Grevious, Sidious...even Maul. So obvious they are boring. Darth Vader sounds ominous without you knowing why.

With the opening scene out of the way the movie does get better. It is no surprise that we are at this movie to see Anakin Skywalker turn to the Dark Side. In many respects Lucas pulls this off. The symmetry of Anakin losing his Mother and then, maybe, his wife provides a believable motivation. It is already established that he is weak and so it is not a leap to think that he is too weak to lose Padme. Poor Natalie Portman, she is such window dressing in this movie with only one good scene written for her ("your breaking my heart"). There is some clumsiness to the turning, especially the Mace Windu scence, but I can forgive this.

This whole section of the movie is probably why Lucas warned the kids away. When the Jedi are hunted down it would be too much for an 8 year to handle.

I said above that we went to this movie to see the turning. I am wrong there. We are there to see the turning into....Darth Vader that it. Allowing me to ignore surfing lava flows for a lightsaber duel, the payoff is worth it. The pain in Obi Wan's final speech the visuals of how Anakin is disfigured to the point of needing the Vader suit, very much worth the wait.

My only complaint is Padme dying of a broken heart. The whole turning to the Dark Side is completed through the vision of Padme dying. If Anakin follows Yoda advice it does not happen. If I was directing it the death would have been as a result of Vader using his neck grip thingy, causing a lack of oxygen to the babies, causing an emergency inducement of labour and death in childbirth. I think this would have been more effective and think about it. Luke and Leia are very small people. It really completes the circle if it is because they were induced prematurely. Maybe I am thinking too much.

Other touches are nice. Like the blockade runner from a New Hope playing a role at the end. I would have liked to have seen actual X-Wing fighters. There are only ~19 years between Episodes III & IV. The rebels are now a "rag-tag" fleet and I don't see them advancing ship design too far. The should have been fighting the Death Star with yesterdays technology. Also, it takes 20 years to go from a Death Star shell to "fully operational". Furthermore, while it was nice to see a Star Destroyer and a classic Empire crew, how did we go from Senator Palpatine being surrounded by Aliens, Droids and Clones to the Emperor hanging out with white British guys only...and what happened to all the cloned Jango Fetts in between Episodes III & IV. But again, I am thinking too much.

To conclude, this movie cleans out the bitter taste in my mouth left by Phantom Menace and Clone Wars. Revenge of the Sith was very entertaining and it left this Star Wars nut feeling satisfied.

The song as a parent

2005-05-22T15:53:00.000-07:00

Check out this interview that Bono gave to the Chicago Tribune. I found this part especially interesting.

...I hear so many songwriters describe their songs as their children, that they have to look after them. [Nonsense!] They're your parents, they tell you what to do. They tell you how to dress, how to behave when you're playing them. They tell you what the video looks like. If you listen to them, they manage you. And if you get it right, they pay for your retirement [laughs]. Because songs demand to be heard.

Judging by the concerts built around Achtung Baby! and Pop, U2 lives this philosophy. Bono also nails it when it comes to Radiohead.

...Radiohead just looked at the pop machine and the machinations of pop and just said, we don't have it in us, we don't have the energy, to have our way with that. I don't hear [Radiohead's] Thom Yorke singing on the radio. I want to hear Radiohead, extraordinary band that they are, on MTV. I want them setting fire to the imaginations of 16, 15, 14 year old kids. I was 14 when John Lennon set fire to my imagination. At that age, you're just [angry], and your moods swing, and it's an incredible time to be hit with something like that. I don't blame them [for not wanting to be on MTV]. But I think, what would my life be like without the Beatles? If the Beatles had just kept going on experimenting after "Sgt. Pepper," I'd be interested to hear it, of course

Wouldn't it be nice if Radiohead would go back to pop music. Some new stuff as accessible as The Bends or O.K. Computer would do down quite well about now.

There is quite a bit of cool stuff in the interview but it is far too long to quote it all. Check it out.

Not suffering Chris Martin gladly

2005-05-21T12:36:00.000-07:00

Not everyone is so glowing of Chris Martin. I found this article in the Scotsman quite amusing as they took him to task for his whining socialism.

...He informs us he has spent the last 18 months "just trying to make songs that make us [the cosseted band members] feel a certain way", but suddenly realised he was part of the turbo-boosted corporate machine. "Deadlines mean nothing to us," he declares then threatens to "sink the whole company if we have to".
My heart bleeds at the injustice that the world will not indulge this precious individual the eons of time he seemingly needs to create his work.
Cocky Chris - fresh from chalking up 20 million album sales - can afford to sneer as he leans back on his comfy cash pile. Most of us - including the legions of shareholders the world over, many of whom may have bought his records - have to work long hours just to keep the wolf from the door.

...He's not the first "artist" to whinge that his creativity is being compromised by commercial pressure, and he won't be the last. If artistic endeavour was his real goal, why sign multi-million deals with an entertainment Goliath?
No-one is denying Mr Martin's ability, but he should be aware that times and tastes change. And remember that more people buy shares than buy Coldplay albums.
Different times

Hey, whatever. I listen to music to be entertained and pretty much ignore the other stuff. Considering my favourite bands include U2, Coldplay and Radiohead I have a lot of ignoring to do!

And the hype continues

2005-05-21T12:26:00.000-07:00

The media machine that spits out so much trite is reving up in anticipation of Coldplay's X&Y. I really hope it lives up to its' advance billing...I sense it will.

..."X&Y" (Capitol), due out June 6, the follow-up to two of the most successful rock albums of the decade, "Parachutes" (2000) and "A Rush of Blood to the Head" (2002), which have sold nearly 6 million copies in America, according to Scoundscan, and 20 million worldwide.

The British quartet is poised for an even bigger year. "In terms of the tension and anticipation (surrounding its concerts and forthcoming album), I feel this could be the biggest band in the world," says Andy Cirzan, vice president with Jam Productions.

And a band with a heart. Chris Martin felt guily that the show they were doing was too small and there were too many disappointed fans. He hastily tried to open up sound check but no dice, so they gave away all the extra tickets.

..."There were a few people who got in who were almost crying because they got handed these free tickets," said Cirzan, a vice president of Jam Productions who promoted the concert. "A lot of bands would've wanted a press release - `Look what we did!' These guys just wanted to make a gesture in a difficult situation.

...Biggest band in the world? It's a dubious aspiration, especially for a singer whose persona resembles an idealistic schoolteacher more than it does a ruthless climber. The affable, apple-cheeked 28-year-old son of an accountant and a teacher, he is the antithesis of the disheveled rock 'n' roll bad boy.
"We were never very cool," says Martin, who met his future bandmates Will Champion, Jon Buckland and Guy Berryman in 1996 when they were attending University College in London.

..."There's a strange paradox because we think we're the best band in the world, but there's always a side of us that is quite surprised to have people agree with us," says Coldplay drummer Champion.
"It took us a long time to accept that people are not paying to see us be weak and apologetic about our songs. We have to stand up and fire at them. We were playing all these radio festivals in America during our first tour (in 2001), and we were sandwiched between bands like System of a Down, Staind and Disturbed, and we were getting abused. The audience was throwing things at us. Then we played our own show in Atlanta soon after, and it was an amazing feeling. It freed us up. We thought if we're going to do something, we should show our passion because people will respond to it."

Mavis' Review - Star Wars Revenge of the Sith

2005-05-20T17:34:00.000-07:00

Firstly I must confess that I love Star Wars (the original trilogy). The Empire Strikes Back ranks high among my favourite movies of all time. Here is my take on Star Wars Episode III. ***SPOILERS BELOW***

Opening sequence was reminiscent of AOTC but worked much better as Anakin and Obi-wan worked well together and the lightsaber fighting was awesome. All the lightsaber fighting is awesome. Lucas has said that this type of fighting was pretty much a lost art by Star Wars IV and that the prequel trilogy was an opportunity to see the fighting at its height. Love it!

Anakin's look was great - liked the longer hair but I don't know how necessary it was to have a scar. Christensen is still a little wooden but otherwise ok. McGregor is at his most Obi-wan, even spouting some of the original lines.

CGI ... lots and lots of CGI. Digital R2, digital 3PO, digital Wookies (who really have no real part - sorry for the Chewie fans who were hoping for more) digital sets, digital characters ... often you can tell that Obi-wan is looking at nothing while he's acting just by looking at his eyes. There is still something about gravity and the over polished look of the characters that actually takes away from the film. Watching Clone Troopers with CGI bodies and actor Temuera Morrison's head is actually funny. It is stunning to see fully realized versions of the Droid hideout, Coruscant, Mustafar, Naboo and Alderaan.

definitely a theme of pairing, probably as a result of the pending birth of the Jedi twins. Yoda fights Palpatine as Obi-wan and Anakin duel it out. Windu fights Palpatine as Obi-Wan fights General Grievous (a character created to show that the Empire was able to merge technology and organic life). The end of Windu vs. Palpatine mirrors the Emperor vs. Luke in ROTJ. In both cases Anakin/Vader must choose who to save. Padme takes her last breath as the mechanized Darth Vader takes his first.

No fart humour, almost no Jar Jar - awesome. Banter between Obi-wan and Anakin is much better than that of AOTC. Anakin is a lot less bratty. Chemistry between Anakin and Padme is awful once again. Some horrid lines between these two but there are far less of them than in AOTC. Dooku dispatched in the first half an hour - excellent.

Anakin chooses the dark side because of a woman. He even says it directly to her: "I did it for you." Gotta love the Eve complex here. I guess it is more generally his fear of loss. Chancellor Palpatine is rather convincing in his manipulation of Anakin but I had trouble seeing Anakin aiding in the death of Mace Windu and choosing to follow Palpatine especially after the Dark Side so obviously deforms Palpatine. He (Palpatine) looks so horrendously evil at this point that its hard to see Anakin joining the club. Then to go ahead and kill Jedi kids?? You'd think that he'd try to get a little more info on the "Sith death prevention technique" before he got in too deep. But I guess that's how the dark side is. Books written after ROTJ implied that using the Dark Side actually causes the type of facial/bodily deformation shown by the Emperor. Not so apparently.

I guess there are no ultrasounds in space - give me a break no one knew it was twins (except everyone in the theatre).

Lots and lots of killing. Some done off screen. Anakin and Obi-wan's fight is cool. Star Wars fans always knew that it was Obi-wan that deformed Anakin and that there was lava involved. Nice to see it fully realized. I guess we know now why Darth Vader is so much bigger than Anakin, those new legs added on a lot of inches.

I see Windu took some of the weakest Jedi of all time to try and take out Palpatine. Also, he decides not to tell the rest of the jedi who Palpatine really is before he goes after him (Jedi arrogance?)- might have given them the heads up on their destruction. Funny none of them felt any changes in the force before they were attacked.

Yoda rocks! Some great Yoda fight scenes that actually show him as powerful as Palpatine. R2 is quite the active little droid. I guess he got really rusty innards during the 20 or so years before he meets Luke.

No mechanized Darth Vader until the very end. I was hoping he'd become Darth about half way through and perhaps hunt down some Jedi.

Loved Bail Organa's Blockade Runner and the look of the Separatists slowly evolving towards how the Rebellion appeared in Star Wars IV.

Luke asks Leia in ROTJ: "Do you remember your mother?" Her response: "Just a little bit. She died when I was very young." and later she says she remembers "images really, feelings. She was very beautiful, kind .. but sad.". It was necessary to have Padme die during childbirth to fit with Anakin's reasoning for turning to the Dark Side but it causes this continuity error in that Leia should have no memory of her mother. I'm sure Lucas will call it some kind of "force impression".

Medichlorians (the symbiotic lifeforms that are responsible for the Force) were such an incredibly bad idea in the first place. There is no need to explain the force - it's a fantasy movie after all. Their mention in ROTS is another reminder of how bad an idea these were.

Ended with the birth of the twins which actually did bring a tear to my eye. Especially when Leia's theme played when she was adopted by the Organas. Was a little overdone when Uncle Owen stands looking at the twin suns of Tatooine as Luke did in Star Wars IV.

This movie is the best of the three prequel movies (this is not saying much as I despised Episode 1; Episode 2 is improved only by skipping by all of the Anakin/Padme scenes). Since "Pops" was unable to make it to the movie in time, I get to see it again ! We'll see if the good impression lasts a second viewing.

Mavis' Quick Review - Apprentice Finale!

2005-05-20T07:03:00.000-07:00

Last night NBC aired the final live episode of The Apprentice . Kendra vs. Tana, Book Smarts vs. Street Smarts.

Was it rigged?

Watching the final challenges for both Kendra and Tana it was obvious that Kendra had the far easier task (running the EA Sports Video Game World Championship) and the easier team to manage. All she really had to do was set up the location and make sure there was power to run the video games. Tana's challenge (managing the NY 2012 Athlete Challenge) was full of nasty details and potential hang-ups. How could one blame Tana for someone misplacing the American Flag? The Donald seemed to favour the younger, unattached, more socially sophisticated woman which of course is his perogative as he is doing the hiring.

Whose team was easier?

The worst members of the Net Worth team were by far more difficult to work with than those from Magna. Kristen, Chris and Brian were three of the most volatile personalities that they have ever had on the show. Brian from his task as project manager likes to do things his way and his way only. Kristen hated being told what to do and Chris had the audacity to chew tobacco when wearing a clown suit at a children's event (I always knew there was a reason I hated clowns). I don't excuse Tana her behaviour towards them though. Constantly putting down your team is not going to get them on your side.

Kendra had Danny, Micheal and Erin. Danny is unfocused, yes, but a good guy who probably excels most at team building with his feel good songs and attitude. Erin may be a little scatter brained but this was not a task at the Home Depot and she is very competent and well spoken. Micheal may have been the toughest personality of the group but certainly not a dominant one.

Doomed by "The BeDazzler"?

Tana lost the job the moment she became obsessed with "The BeDazzler" (a device that adds rhinestones etc. to clothing). The task was about selling limited edition T-shirts by famous pop-culture artists, not putting shiny knick-knacks on shirts. Tana's hometown hick sensibility was on display in that boardroom and the Donald obviously hated it. Too bad .. Tana was spectacular pre-BeDazzler.

Kendra wins - the right choice?

Tana was better overall but is just not as young and free as Kendra. If you can get by the Melanie Griffith style voice, Kendra is excellent at marketing. Kendra can be more easily molded and already has NY sensibilities. She had the easier task and thus shone at the end (even had a job offer from EA Sports). Seems The Donald got what he wanted.

Brit Pop

2005-05-19T17:15:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned previously The Servant is definately worth checking out. After much delay I gave Keane a listen...waste of time.

Stand Up is No. 1

2005-05-19T17:10:00.000-07:00

Dave Matthews Band's Stand Up is No. 1 on Billboard's latest charts marking the fourth time that DMB has topped the pop album charts. Although they sold less copies of Stand Up (464,500) than their previous No. 1 album Busted Stuff (622,000).

I think Stand Up is better than Busted Stuff though...makes sense, Busted Stuff was never supposed to be released.

Mavis' Quick Review - Alias Eps 20 & 21

2005-05-19T12:56:00.000-07:00

Alias offered a rare double header last night - episode 20 The Descent and episode 21 Search and Rescue. Here is my quick review (HEAVY spoiler warning!):

Could we finally see the Rambaldi endgame?

Apparantly this involves giant red spheres that cause already prepared victims (having consumed tainted water provided by none other than Sloane through his company OMNIFAM) to rage with uncontrolled aggression. I wonder if the people in that Russian city noticed Elena and Sloane constructing a giant "U" shaped device in the middle of the city. They probably thought it was some of that great Canadian art that appears at all of our public libraries.

Why is the liquid that consitutes the sphere now horrible and toxic? I seem to recall Vaughn literally swimming in the stuff in Season One. He doesn't seem too worse for wear.

Apparantly the CIA doesn't think it's overly critical to keep the Rambaldi artifacts secure. You would think that items capable of changing the face of the Earth might be under heavier guard.

Irina is back!

Remember Project Helix?? Yup .. two Irina's. Please, ABC, throw money at Lena Olin - she rocks! Seemed to have been a lot of hearing impaired guards keeping watch over Irina.

Dickson shot!

Isn't is amazing that the only two black people in the show right now have gotten together?

Sydney was actually on missions and in disguise

Finally .. maybe Garner's injury had healed more by this episode .. though it's Nadia who has the long kick-ass fight scene.

"It's the end of the world as we know it"

Then why do I feel fine?? I'm very interested to see how this Rambaldi stuff plays out - particularly what the heck Sloane has been up to for four years. Looking forward to the Season Finale!

Is it still Alias?

2005-05-18T06:51:00.000-07:00

I'll admit that I was late to the game. I started watching Jennifer Garner's Alias television show the summer after Season 2. Fans of the show would laugh at "Pops" and I trying to figure out what was going on by watching non-concurrent summer repeats of a show who's soap operaesque story builds week to week, season to season. We caught up quickly thanks to the proliferation of TV series on DVD (you can probably get seasons of Blossom by now).

Season One was fresh, tight and well executed (cliffhanger endings aside) and it seems Season Four is a desparate attempt to reinvent what made Alias so cool. [I will make no mention of the hideous Season 3 here - I'm pretending it didn't exist] The new title sequence says it all: picture after picture of Garner's different personas. Also, Sloane is back in charge. Romance is semi-intact between Sydney and Vaughn. Various Derevko sisters are stirring up trouble. A little Rambaldi thrown in for good measure. Then why does it fall way short of cool??

Several reasons: Alias had been morphed into two other shows: Mission Impossible and The X-files. Season 1 Dixon was window dressing for Sydney's semi-solo CIA missions. She did all the ass kicking; he waited in the truck. Season 4 we have everyone from Weis to Nadia (an unnecessary character that acts like an anchor weighing down the show) involved in 3 and 4 person operations where Sydney has a bit part (I do understand that Garner had an injury but there are plenty of undercover operations that could be executed without many physical demands). This large team approach is MI not Alias.

Early Season 4 we have an episode (Nocturne) about a couple of spies who become deranged as a result of some nasty drug. Suddenly we're in the middle of an X-files episode with a room full of sketches taken directly from X-files Season 3 episode Grotesque. Here an FBI agent is driven mad in his attempt to "get inside" a murderer's head. Sydney's struggle with the same demons is anything but fresh. And now that Garner is pregnant - watch out for the Scully style egg harvesting plotline - you know it's coming (we've already had the abduction part).

I thought Lena Olin was amazing in Season 2. She developed a facinating, complex character that demanded your attention and respect. I know she wanted too much money but the show has suffered since her departure. Now I hear rumours that Irina may not be dead after all - could it be Olin to the rescue??

I'm not holding my breath. I love the show, I do! But they have to start doing better than Sloane-clone. Maybe Alias can take a lesson from the X-files: for 7 seasons the show stayed true to its premise; Mulder and Scully took opposite approaches to investigating the paranormal. Alias needs to get back to its premise too!

Not just fatigue; hatred

2005-05-16T18:53:00.000-07:00

That is how Coldplay frontman Chris Martin answers whether he is concerned that they could become fatigued with their music if it becomes overplayed.

I sense some (loose) parallels with Joshua Tree era U2. This is when U2 finally broke out and it became "cool" to like them. But as any fad goes it does not take long for it to be "cool" not like them. Could Coldplay have a Rattle & Hum moment?

I don't think it will come to this since Chris Martin seems to have a smaller ego than Bono. But it appears X&Y will be huge for Coldplay so there is some danger of a backlash. To carry my analogy one step further though, I can live with a Coldplay reinvention a la Achtung Baby.

The New Battlestar Galactica - Not Enough Boxy?

2005-05-16T13:26:00.000-07:00

Yes, my husband finally found a way to pull me into the blogosphere: "Come on, you can write about Battlestar Galactica if you want .. or Alias .. or Idol"

First a little background: My brother (being the oldest and thus sole commander of the remote control) introduced me to SCI-FI at an early age. I have vague memories of spiders crawling onto people's backs and robots with protruding trumpets in Doctor Who; A giant cornucopia flying around space in the original Star Trek and a guy with a flickering see-through head in Battlestar Galactica. And just what did Baltar do when his chair wasn't facing the guy with the see-through head??

Now, being the SCI-FI junkie that I am now, hearing about a new Battlestar Galactica had me intrigued. I went into the mini-series with no preconceptions (as I discovered it that night because the Space network had a commercial for it). I also must admit to nothing but the vaguest memories of the original series.

Here is my take (some possible spoilers .. you were warned!):

Concept: Cool. Take a flourishing civilization of 12 colonies and reduce it to about 47,000 people by the end of hour three. Incorporate the original bad guy into the crew. Throw a teacher (I'm one too .. so extra coolness factor for me), well cabinet minister of education, into the deep end and make her president of the 12 colonies. I don't think the original series had an equivalent to this character?? Oh .. and no one's really sure just who and where the bad guys are. Took me a little while to realize that it wasn't supposed to be a continuation of the original series (probably because I had no info going in).

Characters: I have heard many a complaint about the gender switching that the characters from the original series underwent for the remake. I don't remember the original characters that well so I didn't find this bothersome. I was just happy there was no robotic dog! I love the stronger women's roles (President Rosalin, StarBuck) but am not as happy with the "nuanced" men. Adama has a gravitas that is undeniable but he is subtle, quiet and brooding. The actor who plays Apollo reminds me of some of the guys that I trained with for gymnastics (long, long ago). Cut, yes, tall, no. He's manly but in a small way. Don't get me started on Baltar (they did name him "Gaius" after all), though I guess he's supposed to be the Reg Barclay of this outfit (though much more dangerous). And the XO .. massively flawed. Where are the MEN??

The Sex: Too much. Too often. Too graphic. No, I wouldn't let my kids near this show (from what I've read the original show was a family show). There is a context for it in that some of the sex is used to manipulate the unbearably flawed genius Baltar and smooth the way for a lot of bad things to happen (and something else but perhaps too big a spoiler). It enables Baltar to exist among the shows"good guys" who can't see his imaginary Cylon friend. It keeps Boomer under cover. Why is it every SCI-FI show must have it's Seven of Nine?

The Story: Tight. Well thought out. Amazing pace early on. Character driven (someone please introduce BSG's Ron Moore to a certain Mr. Lucas). Ron Moore seems to relish being out of the constraints of Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek universe (ie. the Federation and those part of it shall always get along). BSG is full of juicy conflict: Father/Son, Starbuck/everyone, President Rosalin/Cmdr. Adama, Boomer/herself, just about everywhere you look. Story stalls a little mid-1st season as the CGI budget must have been exceeded and we're treated to strictly inside the ship eps. I guess this always happens on this type of show.

The Cylons: I miss the old silver guys. The CG guys are cookie cutter and uninspired. The "human" ones are mostly tramps. I like the idea that some cylons don't know that they are cylons. The living ships are a cool idea but pretty cheesy when you see the red cursor come on.

The Special Effects: Cool. Money was spent. Raptors going down the launch tubes are very reminicient of the original (at least what I remember). Does look a bit like a video game.

Favourite Scenes: President Rosalin's swearing-in ceremony; Starbuck telling Adama about Zack and the resolution later on.

Overall: I like it a lot. I find a lot to like in some of the characters, particularly Rosalin, Adama and Starbuck (butchy maybe but you gotta love the heart).

Review: Dave Matthews Band, Stand Up

2005-05-14T18:12:00.000-07:00

I picked up the new Dave Matthews Band album Stand Up today and here is my prelimary review. As I listen to it more this may all change but here is my review for now.

Dream Girl: All it takes is 40 seconds to slip right back into the DMB groove. It is a solid track to begin the CD and it even has a marijuana reference to keep the college fan base happy.

Old Dirt Hill (Bring Back the Beat): Between the chanting background vocals on Dream Girl and backing vocals on this track the CD has a bit of a Robbie Robertson feel. A nice summer tune.

Stand Up (For It): Good use of the electric guitar that Dave Matthews started to use on his last few albums as the riff doesn’t work without it. The horns are very prominent in this song as well – gives it a Junior Walker vibe and more energy than the previous tracks.

American Baby: (I will skip the weird anti-war intro bit – although I bet they jam this part out live) The first single and the most pure DMB tune on the CD. The main riff is a plinked-out Boyd Tinsley violin bit with a solid Stefan Lessard bass-line. The LeRoi Moore saxophones mix in the electric guitar very well. I very good fusing of classic and new-style DMB. One of my early favourites.

Smooth Rider: At 2:17 this shortest song on the album. Not much here and 2 minutes is plenty.

Everybody Wake Up (Our Finest Moment Arrives): One of the more catchy tunes on Stand Up, though it is pretty straightforward and might be the type of song that you tire off after a couple dozen listens.

Out Of My Hands: I can’t think of another DMB song so built around the piano. This is a pretty cool track. It evokes a kind of tension and builds as the song develops. The marching drums add some urgency and in the back third the bass comes in to good effect. I have a feeling this song will grow on me and I would like to see what they would do with this one live.

Hello Again: This might to do something for some listeners – not this one though.

Louisiana Bayou: Injects some of the energy that has been lacking overall. A pretty groovy track that they will no doubt jam-out live – and do partly in this version.

Stolen Away On 55th & 3rd: A nice song but almost DMB for your mother. It has all the right the elements to be a good DMB song – the horns, the strings, etc. but maybe a little too adult contemporary.

You Might Die Trying: DMB goes trip-hop…or not. A forgettable song for me.

Steady As We Go: Another piano tune that sounds a bit like Bonnie Raits’ I Can’t Make You Love Me at times, but not as good. Nice saxophone solo though.

Hunger For The Great Light: Another throw away for me.

The biggest impression left with me is that the album lacks the energy of Dave Matthews Band (much) earlier work. More in the vein of Busted Stuff and Some Devil (o.k. I know not DMB but…) rather than my favourite, Crash. There are some strong tracks, 4, maybe 5 of them but I am wondering if Dave Matthews Band’s best days are behind them.
6.5/10

And now the pros

2005-05-14T18:10:00.000-07:00

I purposly did not read any review of Stand Up before I did my own review of the new Dave Matthews Band album. It seems my review is not that out to lunch; Christian Hoard of Rolling Stone hits a lot of the same notes that I did. He gave it 3.5 stars.

...Stand Up is also a quintessential summer record, a collection of tight, group-composed grooves and breezy tunes that sometimes float by too easily.

I referenced summer tunes as well.

...On standout cuts such as the light-footed title track and the wistful backyard-barbecue soundtrack "American Baby," DMB's easygoing choruses sound fully cooked, which hasn't always been the case in the past.

...When he sings, "It's out of my hands for now," on the sparse, piano-backed lullaby "Out of My Hands," he might as well be describing his relationship to the music on Stand Up: The band's singular groove is as self-sustaining as ever, and this happy guy is simply content to let the songs come as they may.

Radwanski on Coldplay

2005-05-14T13:30:00.000-07:00

Adam Radwanski serves up a review of the Coldpay concert at the Kool Haus (Toronto) on May 11. Radwanski is no fan of Coldplay but understands why they are popular. If he is correct about the new CD it sounds like I will burn a hole through it.

...With their third album, X&Y, Coldplay are being called upon to best the success of A Rush of Blood to the Head, save their record label, and begin supplanting U2 as the world's biggest band.
What Wednesday's show proved, if nothing else, is this is not a band in danger of caving in under the potentially crippling pressure - and that's largely thanks to Coldplay's rock-steady front man.

...More promising still is that, once audiences have grown accustomed to them, unfamiliar X&Y tracks that served as speed bumps Wednesday could take the live act to new levels. While on record the new disc comes off a little overbearing, every song building to an overwrought crescendo, the sheer power of songs like A Message and Fix You (both served up in the encore) could eventually blow less ambitious standbys like Yellow out of the water.
The history of heavily hyped U.K. acts tells us this is the point where something goes awry. But Coldplay's consistently evolving stage presence belies what everyone around the band knows - that behind all the affability is a cool-headed plan to conquer the world. We may yet tell the grandkids that we saw them when they were halfway there.

Here's hoping that Coldplay isn't another Oasis.

Live by the sword

2005-05-13T19:26:00.000-07:00

So Rob and Amber think they got shafted out of (another) million dollars.

I'm not saying anything," Mariano grinned on yesterday's edition of "Live with Regis & Kelly" when Regis Philbin asked him if he thought there had been a "plot" to help the eventual $1 million winners, Uchenna and Joyce Agu, take the top prize.
"America can judge," Mariano laughed.

Considering that they are now reality tv veterans they should know better than anybody that these shows are also "tweaked" for entertainment purposes. Would it surprise me if the producers of the Amazing Race asked American Airlines (the shows key sponsor) to let Uchenna and Joyce on board? Not at all. Heck, it wouldn't even surprise me if the producers set up a Spanish speaking cabbie for Uchenna and Joyce as well. It was the perfect ending. Rob and Amber added a lot spice to the show but no one wanted them to win. Having them finish second, behind such a likeable couple was a natural Hollywood ending.

The Servant

2005-05-13T19:17:00.000-07:00

So apparently the band, The Servant, is doing quite well in France right now, especially their single Liquefy. You can find the video here. It is actuallly quite a catchy tune. I guess derivatives of Radiohead who begat Coldplay are all the rage right now. You find the tunes Cells and Orchestra on their site as well. I won't be surprised if we hear more on this side of the pond this summer.

Update: I have listened to Cells a few more times...good tune.

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room: Review

2005-04-20T22:26:00.000-07:00

"The fatal flaw…if there was one you say it was pride. But then it was arrogance, intolerance, greed."

I sense that these must be the magic ingredients in any scandal, be it Enron, Adscam or Oil-for-Food.

First things first, this movie is definitely anti-capitalist and anti-Republican although done in a milder manner than would be done by Michael Moore. The movie begins by pointing out that Ken Lay gave campaign contributions to then-Governor Bush. Also we are shown the clip of President Reagan pronouncing, “Government is not the solution to our problems, government is the problem” and proclaiming the ‘magic of the market place”. Later we are shown that Jeff Skilling followed a Darwinistic view of business and based his thinking on the book “The Selfish Gene”.

At this point in the documentary I began to get annoyed with the background music. We were told that Ken Lay was a son of a preacher, so they play son of a preacher man and hear President Reagan talk about the magic of the markets so the director plays that old black magic. It was far too heavy-handed and distracting to be effective.

Enron was based on Jeff Skilling’s idea of a new way to deliver energy; to make a stock market for natural gas. For the idea to work he insisted on mark to market accounting which allowed them to book future profits before they were realized. Arthur Anderson signed-off and the SEC approved. This is a common theme in the movie. Enron had many willing accomplices.

One of the contributing factors to the Enron scandal was the feeding-frenzy around the bull market of the last ‘90’s. The movie touches on this but not to any great detail. This makes sense because it spreads the blame to the average investor as well as Enron and their institutional backers. Jim Collins, author of Built to Last and Good to Great wrote an excellent article before the collapse of Enron entitled Built to Flip which explains the insanity of the ‘90’s market. The institutionalized money was looking to get rich quick and as long as the +25% returns were there for the average investor no one thought to question it. The movie goes to lengths to explain the great injustice to those who held all Enron stock in their 401K’s. One employee of a company who was bought out by Enron had his 401K go from $348.000 to $1,200. It was completely unethical and immoral that the senior management was able cash out when others were frozen but why didn’t the employees diversify when they got these extreme levels of return? Could they have fallen to greed and hubris as well?

Another contributing factor to the scandal was the business school concept that you wanted senior managements interests to be aligned with the shareholders. Therefore you reward them with stocks and bonuses based on the share price. This provided yet another proof of the law of unintended consequences and produced the culture of pump and dump and focus on quarterly profits. The movie did a really good job of linking all parties on this. It wasn’t just Enron, it was their Accounting Firm, their Lawyers and their investment Bankers. This was summarized by the clip of Senator Lieberman saying, “Why were the analysts blinded to the companies deceit?”
This part of the movie seems to be building to a nice conclusion and there is a good presentation of how the house of cards came crashing down. It also presents a good summary of how crazy it must have been in California during the rotating black-outs. Unfortunately it breaks down into a new (for me anyway) conspiracy theory that President Bush didn’t step in and fix it so he could bring down his future rival in Governor Gray Davis.

Anyways, you are snapped back to the anti-capitalist message through the distracting music track once again and you are told that the “free market is god damn expensive to the customers”. Not exactly are fair representation but it is somewhat saved by the author of The Smartest Guys in the Room asking, “The Enron Traders never seemed to step back and say, wait, it what we are doing ethical? Is it our best long-term interests? Does it help us if we totally rape California? Does that help our goals of nation-wide deregulation?” This is free markets. Enron went for short-term gain; broke every run rule to ensure and it caused their own demise.
The take-away for me is that any system needs checks and balances to keep it on the straight and narrow. Since the collapse of Enron accounting firms have had to split off their consulting divisions and banks have had to build a better “Chinese-wall” between analysis and investment banking divisions. Too bad so many people had to suffer to bring in such logical measures.

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room is a good summary of what happened with Enron but I found that it was too long and/or it had weak pacing. As I mentioned above I found the soundtrack to be annoying. Either make your point with the narration or make it with the music, don’t use both to say the same thing at the same time. It was a fairly good documentary but could have been much better with tighter editing. I would give it a 6 out of 10.

Glum Rock

2005-03-29T20:30:00.000-08:00

That is the new term being applied to Coldplay and their copycat bands, Keane, Snow Patrol, Embrace, the Thirteen Senses and Athlete (cool, new bands to check out).

I think it has more to do with Chris Martin's falsetto, some interesting tunings and chord progressions, but if you want to call it 'glum rock' I am cool with that.

...Everything sounds like Coldplay now. No other sounds can be allowed...Very restrained, not too much row...This could be Embrace, Keane or Snow Patrol, Thirteen Senses sound like this as well I'm told

I like the sound of this;

...Heart 106.2 FM DJ Harriet Scott said Coldplay have helped return guitar music to the charts and that their new album is among "their finest"

Guitar rock? The Brits must have a different definition that North Americans. I consider guitar rock the hair-metal stuff of the '80's. Besides, Coldplay sound as just as much to do with the piano as the guitar. The guitar riff in "In My Place" is exactly blazing either. But if that means less Boy Bands and Sugar Pop than I am all for it.

Hat-tip DrudgeReport

The power of free market economics

2005-03-24T20:29:00.000-08:00

Just in case you need another reason to confirm that competition is a good thing I point your attention to the article in Inside Entertainment Magazine from today's National Post (sorry can't find a link) about Coldplay.

...So, yes, I love U2 with a deep passion. But," adds Martin [Chris Martin, Coldplay lead-singer, for the uninitiated], with blue eyes sparking, "I also see them as the band for us to beast."

When people compete the consumer wins! As someone who shares a deep passion for U2 this is nothing but good news. Some of described Coldplay as Radiohead before they got weird. As someone who thinks that The Bends/OK Computer era Radiohead was amazing, I agree and Coldplay has the potential to replace Radiohead on my personal pecking order. It will take some incredible music to replace U2 though, but if Coldplay is coming close then I will be lining up to get the next album.

Here is a teaser:

...Songs such as "Square One", "Speed of Sound" and "A Message" are more urgent and epic than anything on Parachutes and Rush of Blood. And emotional ballads like "What If" and "Swallowed by the Sea," complete with Martin's soaring falsetto trademark, are heartwrenching enough to rival even "Yellow" and "Im My Place". Several edgy tracks have a searching, inquisitive quality.

X&Y will be released on June 6. I can't wait.

Review: How to dismantle an atomic bomb

2004-11-26T20:28:00.000-08:00

For those who know me it come as no surprise that I purchased U2's new CD the first day it was available. As a new blogger LeithWeb puts it U2's and Coldplay's music is currently the best even if their politics are the worst. I am not that harsh, Jubilee 2000 was a good idea and so is fighting AIDS in Africa, but some of Bono's religion does not fit together too tightly.

Anyways, as my good friend (and best man) puts it, I don't consume these things, I suck the marrow! In that spirit I have listened to the new CD at least a dozen times through and here are my impressions:

Vertigo: The best pure rock song they have written. What else needs to be said.

Miracle Drug: classic U2. An early favourite of mine. The song soars at the 2:45 mark with the by now familar Edge solo. I can't wait to see this performed live. I wonder if this is Bono's first public stance on embryonic stem cell research?

Of science and the human heart
There is no limit
There is no failure here sweetheart
Just when you quit...

But I sometimes read too much into these things.

Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own: This one is growing on me. The first half of the song is pretty boring but it builds nicely. The falsetto bit is pretty cool. I am sure it will be a hit on soft rock and adult contemporary stations.

Love and Peace or Else: This one could prove to be like Bullet the Blue Sky for me. I did not get that song in its Joshua Tree format but by the time the Zoo TV tour came around they have sufficiently reconfigured it to make it great. Same could happen with this, or I just don't it, take your pick. At times the bass line feels like 20th Century Boy by Chalk Circle (how is that for an obscure CanCon reference) but they were just a U2 rip off band anyway, sort of like Toad the Wet Sprocket (even more obscurity)

City of Blinding Lights: Pretty solid tune but it does not feel completely new. The bass line could be anyone that Adam has come up with. A friend of mine refers to Amnesiac by Radiohead as Kid B. Sometimes Atomic Bomb feels like "All they left behind".

All Because of You: nothing special here.

A Man and a Woman: Is it just me or is this U2 doing its best Fleetwood Mac impression? The drums and guitar are right out of the Mick Fleetwood and Lindsey Buckingham play book.

Crumbs From Your Table: Might be the best song on the CD. The intro has a bit of a Tonic feel to it but don't hold that against the song. Also at times it feels like it is Walk On Part II, especially the solo. With all that said I still think it is a great song.

One Step Closer: Filler, just like Grace on the last CD.

Original of the Species: Awful, what is with the keyboard riff at 0:33? A typical Edge guitar piece ends the song and almost saves the song, but it just started too badly to be saved.

Yahweh: Only U2 could attempt a song entitled Yahweh and get away with it (o.k. Madonna could now). It is an ok song. I like the chorus much better than the verses (musically anyways).

All in all I like the CD, but it is not as fresh as some of their other stuff. I am sure I will burn a hole in the disc by playing it too much though.

Bill O'Reilly interviews Bono (or did he interview himself?)

2004-09-02T20:34:00.000-07:00

As I said earlier, I love this guy, Bono I mean, not Bill O’Reilly (not that I dislike him). I am also very proud of Bono. When Bono spoke at the Liberal leadership convention he said “I am not a supporter of the Liberal Party, I am not a support of any party…but I do like to party.” When I saw him at the Democratic National Convention (on the TV, like you thought I was there) I began to have my doubts. But there he was last night at the Republican National Convention, spreading his message, continuing the fight against AIDS in Africa. I wish Bill O’Reilly had gotten out the way at times though. Yes, Mr. O’Reilly, you are smart, but can you let your guest speak. Here are some highlights.

BILL O'REILLY, HOST: … What most people don't know is that Bono has worked with both Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill. He joins us now. So are you a non-partisan guy?
BONO: I'm a non-partisan guy.
O’REILLY: You don't root?
BONO: I don't root anymore. Yes, I’ve stopped rooting. I'm rooting for people that don't have a vote and for people whose faces we don't see...

O’REILLY: ...Africa is your cause. That is what you are front and center on, correct? Africa?
BONO: Yes. I wouldn't call it a cause, though.
O'REILLY: Well, whatever you want to say.
BONO: It's an emergency. 69,000 Africans dying every day of a preventable, treatable disease...

O'REILLY: Let's talk about AIDS, because this is a very controversial topic within the United States itself. Now, we've got the epidemic under control here, primarily by education and frightening people into safe sex and all of that. In Africa, the education is almost nil. And that there's a tradition of men, as you know, not having sex protected, because of some kind of macho thing involved in it.
Now, Americans are going to say, I don't want my tax dollars going over to a civilization or a society that no matter what you tell them, they're going to continue to do disruptive practices. How do you answer that?
BONO: Look, if you see a car crash, somebody's lying there in the middle of the road bleeding and it turns out they're a drunk driver, you're still going to call an ambulance. We can't make these judgments about entire civilizations. We try to re-educate people, we try to deal with the problem.
And by the way, not dealing with the problem with something like AIDS, which metastasized, which grows on a geometric level, is really foolhardy. Because it will be more expensive to deal with it later.
O'REILLY: Look, you can't force the truck drivers who are spreading AIDS all over Africa, because they visit the hookers and then they drive their truck from one to the other to the other. You can't force them to use condoms.
BONO: But we can't use of judgementalism, and we're not wrong in the statements you've made to excuse our inaction. That's not going to fly...
O'REILLY: We have to take action that's...
BONO: God is not going to accept that as an answer and history is not going to accept that as an answer.

BONO: ...when Europe was going through the Bubonic Plague and lost -- 1/3 of Europe died in the Middle Ages to the Black Death. Imagine, say, China had a treatment for the Black Death and hadn't because it was difficult or expensive. What would we think of China now?

BONO: ...Two things happened on 9/11. There was -- the one that's reported, of course, is the attack on America. But the one that has not been reported, and reported with less disgust, is what happened in the aftermath, which was those pictures around the world of people jumping up and down, celebrating the Twin Towers turning to dust. One of the most disturbing -- they were the most disturbing images for me as a fan and a person who loves America.
A lot of people and this great country went; I don't care who you are, a politician, you stop that. How did this happen to us? How did this -- and this is the America that liberated Europe? Not just liberated Europe, we built Europe with the Marshall Plan which cost, by the way, 1 percent GDP over four years. That's when "Brand USA" was at its brightest.
Right now "Brand USA" has taken some blows and some knocks. And I'm saying there's an opportunity here. The Marshall Plan rebuilds Europe as a bulwark against Sovietism in the Cold War. It was smart. It wasn't just goodness of heart, which it also was. It was smart. And I'm saying in a hot war, here's a chance now to redescribe ourselves and be a bulwark against other militarism.

2004-08-28T08:33:00.000-07:00

I was in full Olympics overload this evening so I decided to surf the net to see what I could find. I stubled my way onto America Rhetoric where I found a Commencement Address at Harvard, 2001 delivered by Bono. (much better that a commencement address by Buzz Hargrove, but that is a different story). A little background here. I love Bono, and the rest of U2 for that matter. Right up their with my love of Wayne Gretzky. U2 for being so good that the world ignores that they are Christian Rock and Gretzky for his excellence and class. I have loved U2 since I was 10 and I defined who I liked by who my older brother liked. Those were the days, so much easier to mimic your brother than to be someone yourself. Alas, I am all grown up now and as big a U2 fan as ever.

But to the point...here are some excerpts from the speech, similar in tone and content to the one Bono delivered at PM Paul Martin's Coronation (or whatever it is called in Canada).

Rock music to me is rebel music. But rebelling against what? In the 50's it was sexual mores and double standards. In the 60's it was the Vietnam War and racial and social inequality. What are we rebelling against now? If I am honest, I'm rebelling against my own indifference. I am rebelling against the idea that the world is the way the world is and there's not a damned thing I can do about it. So I'm trying to do a damned thing. But fighting my indifference is my own problem.

When people around the world hear about the burden of debt that crushes the poorest countries, when they hear that for every dollar of government aid we send to developing nations, nine dollars comes back to us in debt service payments -- did you hear that? For every one dollar in government aid we send to these nations, we receive nine in debt service payments -- when people hear that, they get angry.

When the history books (that some of you will write) make records of this moment in time, we will be remembered for two things: the Internet, probably, and the everyday holocaust that is Africa: 25 million HIV positives who will leave behind 40 million AIDS orphans by 2010 in sub-Saharan Africa alone. [Note: Speech delivered June 12, 2001]This is the biggest health threat since the Bubonic Plague wiped out a third of Europe. And this is happening right now in our time.It's an unsustainable problem for Africa and, unless we hermetically seal the continent and close our conscience, it's an unsustainable problem for the world. But it's hard to make this a popular cause. It's hard to make it pop, you know? And I guess that's what my job is; 'cause pop is often, sadly often, the oxygen of politics.

Didn't John and Robert Kennedy come to Harvard? Isn't equality a son of a bitch to follow through on. Isn't "Love thy neighbour" in the global village so inconvenient? God writes us these lines, but we have to sing them -- take them to the top of the charts. But its not what the radio is playing, is it? I know. I know.

But we've got to follow through on our ideals or we betray something at the heart of who we are. Outside these gates, and even within them, the culture of idealism is under siege, beset by materialism and narcissism and all the other "isms" of indifference -- and their defense mechanisms: knowingness, the smirk, the joke. Worse still, idealism is being reduced to a marketing tool. Civil Rights in America and Europe are bound to human rights in the rest of the world. Human rights: the right to live like a human. But these thoughts are expensive; they're going to cost us. Are we ready to pay the price?

It is exactly these "isms" of indifference that drive me crazy. The exact sentiment that drove me to write PM Martin asking him to do something about what is going on in Sudan. It is also, I fear, what is truly behind the Bush-bashing. To paraphrase Bono, President George W Bush's and partners missions in Afghanistan, in Iraq, hopefully in Sudan, Iran, North Korea are expensive. And not enough of us are willing to pay the price.