Yes.
I’d laugh at this show if it wasn’t so sad.
How many sides does a trapezoid have?
How many decades are in 2 millenia?
What color do you get when you mix red and yellow?
What’s the closest star to the Earth?
The woman contestant actually had trouble answering those questions. I nearly shat myself when she said that Mexico had the longest border with the US.
Give it another 10-15 years, I’m sure we’ll be dumbed down enough that we can’t compete with a 2nd grader.
So I’ve been trying to get tickets to see Chris Daughtry, fan club was supposed offer pre-sale tickets (no email ever came). Money conquers all and I’ll say it right now – American Idol was staged, Daughtry is complicit, the entire scheme rigged to cash in on his record sales and tour sales.
American Idol has always been a prize of the pop music market. They’ve promoted generic, unoriginal crap for several years now. While the sales of some winners have been adequate, over the past few years the marketability of the performers has dropped drastically – case in point, Taylor Hicks. If the idiot who signed that karaoke singer’s million dollar contract isn’t working the fry vat at a McDonald’s somewhere I’ll be astonished.
The real crime is that a ringer enters the show, Chris Daughtry. He sails through several rounds with bigger and better backdrops only to be dropped in favor of people with inferior talent and stage presence. Everyone’s shocked. Daughtry is dumbfounded. The judges are in tears. The mistake was Seacrest. He simply said “You’re going home.” That’s it. No shock, nothing. Other people get voted off every week and he’s always got a little something more to say. He didn’t look shocked because he wasn’t.
Fans are furious. Complaints arise of his number going to other contestants (one of mine went to Hicks). The official and accepted line being “He was so popular people didn’t vote because they didn’t think they had to.” Sure, its possible… Likely? Not even close. Every week they claimed more callers. How could they claim a record number of callers that week if enough didn’t call in to support the best performer on the show?
Now everyone is looking for more Daughtry. They buy t-shirts and cd’s from his Absent Element days. Realistically, all are waiting for the inevitable release and tour. The release comes out and breaks record with how quick it hits platinum status. Shows sell out within seconds of tickets going on sale.
I probably wouldn’t care so much if I had gotten tickets, but the simple fact that these shows sold out in less than a minute and that ticket brokers who use official tickets THEY OBTAINED FROM PROMOTERS AND TICKETMASTER as well as others that resell tickets have them for prices ranging into the hundreds of dollars… I call bullshit. Anyone who pays $100+ for a $20 ticket is a complete moron.
I’m sure there are folks who will pay for it. I’m also sure that come the next tour, bigger venues will be available and they’ll likely sell out as long as more people don’t catch on like I have. The trick to selling anything is that the consumer must want what is for sale. They must desire it. I won’t disrespect Daughtry’s talent or presence. He’s got plenty of both and kudos to him for that much… But this whole situation STINKS to high heaven, and I have very little doubt it isn’t completely staged.
Q/A:
and then make a new season with no talent whatsoever?
This season is no different than any other, a lot of mediocre performers with minimal stage presence. For God’s sake they’re going to have an ABBA week. Who the hell cares about ABBA? Should the ratings be enough to keep checks coming in from sponsors, expect at least 2 ringers next year. I say 2 ringers because whoever pulled this off will definitely want to bring in more money to make up for not pulling the same act this season. They couldn’t pull it this season because it would simply be too damned obvious to drop another ringer into the game and have them cater to the ‘anti-idol’ market. Mark my words, the folks with the power will always make more money off the losers than the winners – especially after Daughtry.
I don’t like the N word either, but I think the fact that the city council is dedicating time to place an unenforceable moratorium on the use of a WORD simply to “convey the legislative body’s strong condemnation of the word” is an absolute farce and they should all be booted out of office for wasting taxpayer money on paychecks.
That’s right folks, we’ve reached the point where we are legislating words. I’ve got an N word for the NYC City Council – It’s Neanderthal. I’m surprised they haven’t attempted to ban a word which accurately describes the council.
There are more words out there that could benefit from a moratorium, words like “terrorist” and “jihad.” Those words convey a hatred that affects everyone, even folks who use the N word casually and during comedy shows. I haven’t seen any Muslim comedians crack jokes about the Jihadist who confused his road-flares for dynamite and burned his beard off during an attempted attack yet. Maybe then we’ll get some more attention placed on real problems.
See, the problems with politicians like those possessing the city council is that they honestly believe if we stop using the word we’ll stop thinking about reasons for using the word… Eradicate hate by eviscerating the dictionary. How long till they ban the word Nazi so we forget about the 3rd Reich and how many brave men died in battle with pure evil?
Twats.
I’m a middle class 27 year old computer technician.
I drive a car that gets 30mpg+.
I use florescent light bulbs in my house.
I conserve electricity and fuel the best I can. I spend approximately $50 per month on utilities, perhaps $75 per month on gasoline.
I don’t believe that mankind has any effect on Global Warming, real or imagined.
Al Gore is a wealthy adult politician who was the Vice President of the United States for 8 years, and has spent a considerable amount of time and effort since, promoting the idea of man made global warming and profiting from it greatly.
Don’t know what he drives.
Don’t know what sort of light bulbs he uses.
I know that he spends nearly $30,000 a year to pay for gas and electric at his Tennessee home while out on the Global Warming trail. The guy has natural gas powered lamps on his driveway. I guess they produce less CO2 than electric ones. The average US family uses about 10kWh a year. He uses 20kWh a month.
Mind you, I get shit from people for criticizing HIM. Goes to show just how much he really thinks about what he’s fighting for. I hate politicians.
Al Gore’s Personal Energy Use Is His Own “Inconvenient Truth”
Back at my first job I’d take my break and write up a little comic strip to vent my frustrations with a bit of humor. Today I’m giving it another shot. Back then I used a pencil and paper, today I’m using a Wacom tablet and Paint. Let me know what you think, even if you think it’s crap. 🙂
A sampling of the original comics I did over 10 years ago can be found here.
Cute advertisement which apparently won awards down under has been pulled due to the complaints of viewers.
It involved a tot driving up to a girl his age in a brand new truck, picking her up, and going to the beach.
Cute, innocent, dangerous. For starters, parents complained that the possibility of a copycat was too great. The liklihood of a 6 year old stealing the parent’s Hyundai, stacking books on the seat and rigging a device so they can operate the foot pedals was far too great. Parental responsibility be damned. Personally, I find the greater offense to be the blatant acquiescence of heterosexuality in the ad. Why couldn’t it be two boys? Or two girls?
Parents raise copycat risk from TV’s revhead tot
IMHO, corporations need to learn when to say STFU. I highly doubt that any of the complainers actually drove the truck in the ad or had given any consideration to driving the truck in the ad. They complained just to complain, and most likely based their complaints on an inherent inability to take responsibility for their own offspring. Seriously, there’s a difference between being socially conscious and being a doormat. Its about time people were told to STFU when they’re being unnecessarily immature.
Has valid science on Global Warming been overlooked due to the politics of climate change?
From an article regarding a new submarine:
“Deepglider opens up new research possibilities for oceanographers studying global climate change. The glider’s first trip revealed unexpected warming of water near the ocean floor, and scientists are interested in studying whether the temperatures are related to global warming.”
Pretty cool stuff, however I feel that the mainstream media focus on the idea of ‘man made global warming’ has seemingly overruled any discussion or science involving other sources, like the sun or the superheated core of our very own planet. Takes the fun out of it really. Scientists should be exploring every possibility regardless of consensus, and those preaching consensus should be standing on the mountain top with a pair of stone tablets BEGGING the scientific community at large to prove them wrong.
Now to be straight, this is not a review of the show, this is a review of the packaging and distribution of the episodes. The show IMHO gets 5 stars and the networks get NONE for yet again failing to allow a vision from Joss Whedon to reach full fruition. Hopefully he hasn’t been completely jaded by the pricks in black suits that make Wolfram & Hart look like the Muppet show. At this time there are currently two pressings of the series, the older pressings cost about $60+ per season and come in large boxes. The newer pressings cost anywhere from $20 to $40 per season. Now I could have gotten them all on-line for less than the $37 per box I paid but damnit, I wanted it NOW.
Like I said, the boxes are smaller than older DVD distributions, and each set contains a full 22 episodes from each season of the show in 3 individual slim cases containing two DVD discs with 4 episodes each. Season one is full screen, seasons 2 through 5 are wide screen. Also, I find the individual slim cases easier to manage than other distributions which rely on custom fold-out binders which arrange the discs in a way only understood by the person who set them up.
Now it’s pretty hard to screw up a DVD distribution, especially a 2nd pressing, but I find the menu configuration completely ridiculous. At first load you get an intro trailer for the disc (not unique, same intro for each disc in a season), then you get an episode listing. Nowhere on the menu is the option to play all – a feature that I’ve learned to enjoy from my Smallville collection.
Play all would allow the viewer to select one option, and each episode will play in succession until the disc is complete. At the end of each Angel episode you’re sent back to the episode menu, and for the next episode you must back out of that menu, select a new episode, then play it from its own menu. It’s un-necessarily complicated. I may just dupe these discs and customize them myself.
Beside the quirks, the collection is complete and the cases are an attractive addition to any library. If you plan to pick it up, make sure to get the slim cases, as the ‘fat’ cases cost more, and for some odd reason are placed right next to the slim ones.
So last night I’m at the supermarket, and I’m out of contact solution. Looking through the various selections I see this black box, a new solution from Amo. Figure I’ll give it a shot. So I get home around 2am, put the contacts in a very unique container, put in the solution, and go to bed.
I wake up 8 hours later, pop in my contact, and feel like I’ve just been maced.
Now this wasn’t your typical saline solution, this was hydrogen peroxide plus some other stuff, including spiffy little neutralizer tablets. I didn’t think I needed them. Oops. So I take them out, put them back in the solution, add the tablet, and 6 hours later while my left eye still looks like I just cleared an ounce of Jamaica’s finest the contacts are in and actually feel nicer than when I use saline alone.
Course, if I had read the damned instructions I could have avoided this whole thing.
So I’m a perv. I love watching the Real Sex series on HBO. The show has a very unique theme song which stands out every time I hear it. You could imagine my surprise when flipping through channels this morning I heard the EXACT SAME SONG playing on HBO Family. Turns out there’s a kids show on HBO “George & Martha” it was called, which uses the exact same song.
Someone at HBO has a twisted sense of humor I think.