IDOL - Girls Club

First impression - not a true blonde in the bunch. Twelve interchangeable brunettes. Nothing striking, or remarkable in terms of appearance.

Second impression - the winner of AMERICAN IDOL is not going to be a guy.

The winner of AMERICAN IDOL is SABRINA SLOAN. If she brings it like that every week, no one else stands a chance. Even Xtina is probably worried about this girl...

LESLIE HUNT - better than I expected. A huskier voice than I thought would come out of that tiny person.

ANTONELLA BARBA - Apparently there are spicy pics of her full on party mode circulating around the Internet. After tonight, I don't think anyone at IDOL is going to care.

HALEY SCARNATO - Learn to breath, honey. One of my biggest peeves is a singer who can't finish a lyric phrase without taking a breath. It's a skill that can be learned. Take a class.

ALAINA ALEXANDER - makes me yearn for the days of that horrid teenage singer from Hawaii. I'll have to ask Gretel what her name was..... Gretel?

GINA GLOCKSEN - Powerful, but cracky. Still Sabrina's to lose.

LAKISHA JONES - Damn! Why didn't any of the guys show this kind of confidence? Great performance - where does she go from here? (I think Sabrina's got more versatility and marketability.)

Note to Brendon Rogers - body language while in the dog pound is important. My TiVo caught Brendon crossing his arms in defiance while Simon was praising Sabrina (and dissing the boys at the same time). Gotta pretend to be a happy camper, buddy - or you'll go home sooner than you expect.

We'll see tomorrow - and remember to stick around for the very last O.C. ever.

Letters from Pan's Labyrinth

Over the last few years, I have developed the tradition of spending President's Day in the cinema.

I try to squeeze in as many Oscar contenders as possible during the week before the Oscars. It can make for quite a long day of 'important' films, but I'm better for it. I think.

Two years ago I managed to see SIDEWAYS, MILLION DOLLAR BABY and THE AVIATOR in one long, butt-numbing day. By seeing all three of these films back to back to back, I discovered they all shared one plot element in common - someone broke a nose in each film. Had I seen these films months apart, I might never have made the connection to what makes a film 'important.'

This year the local pickings were a bit slimmer. I was only able to see PAN' LABYRINTH (Best Foreign Film Nominee) and LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA (Best Picture Nominee).

Apparently, this year's measure of importance comes in subtitles.

Yep, I read two movies Monday. One in Spanish, one in Japanese. OK - that's facetious, I really have no complaints about subtitles. loved CROUCHING TIGER, love Hiro's scenes on HEROES, as well as Sun and Jin's scenes on LOST - and LOVE anything by Kurosawa.

As for this year's films, the real link was the amount of gruesome violence depicted. While I knew what I was getting in IWO JIMA, the level of sheer meanness displayed in LABYRINTH was hard to digest - and that's what makes the film brilliant.

LABYRINTH is almost a kid's flick. A little girl who lives in a harsh world finds a magical world to which she can escape. It is the harshness of her world that was surprising. Not going to give anything away, but it's very easy to understand why this Dorothy would want to escape to Oz.

As for IWO JIMA, war is hell. And the Japanese soldiers who are forced into sacrificing their lives for their 'beloved' Emperor go through enough levels of Hell to write their own epic poem. Clint Eastwood does a masterful job of directing this film. The muted colors (except for the brilliant scarlet reds) echo the dispair of the young men sentenced to die for a cause they don't really believe in.

The echoes of FLAG OF OUR FATHERS are brilliant.

All in all, my day was well spent. I saw two brilliantly photographed films. Both told a story of young people who are no longer in control of their future or their destiny, surrounded by untold violence.

Good stuff.

IDOL - Boys Club

So, I've finally had time to watch last night AMERICAN IDOL. The top 12 guys went at it, Seacrest and Cowell pretended to fight and several guys gave strong evidence that they should not survive to the IDOL Top 12.

SUNDANCE HEAD - Dude is just NOT living up to his original audition. America's not going to cut you much slack. Better get it in gear 'cause Simon can't save you from here on out.

BLAKE LEWIS - The beat box guy can really sing! I thought he was by far the best singer of the night. He could win this whole thing.

SANJAYA MALAKAR - OK, so how long will he get by on his hair? The girls are gonna eat him up, his looks may get him past this week, but if he doesn't start singing, he's toast.

CHRIS SLIGH - Really like this guy, too. I loved the fact that he and Blake both sang non-traditional IDOL songs. They were too hip for the room, but I think they scored well with the voters.

EVERYONE ELSE - Feh. Not worth writing about.

Let's see what the girls bring tonight.....

Fox News Gets an F

OK, I'm a conservative. I admit it. I'm not ashamed of it.

I listen to Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck.

I get most of my news online, though I do enjoy SPECIAL REPORT WITH BRIT HUME on Fox News. I check in on Brit's 'Grapevine' segment and the roundtable discussion every day that my schedule allows.

I believe for the most part, Fox News follows it's motto of "We report, you decide." fairly faithfully. Their dominance in the 24 hours news market is certainly something the Suits at other cable news channels salivate over.

Last week, FNC made a rather serious blunder with the premiere of THE 1/2 HOUR NEWS HOUR, a conservative DAILY SHOW knockoff.

I haven't seen the show - but I did peek at a couple of minutes of it online.

It ain't funny. And while that's a problem all its own, my beef is simply this: it's on the wrong channel.

Irreverent commentary by the host of a discussion program is one thing. But a 30 minute comedy show that skewers one side of the aisle 100% of the time has no business on a 'fair and balanced' news network.

If Rupert Murdock feels a need to air a program like this, he needs to clear a time slot on FX and let FNC do more reporting so I can do more deciding.

At least that's the way I see it.....

CBS Gets a 'C'

In retrospect, CBS's coverage of Super Bowl XLI was cold and impersonal, which somehow seems to be what I expected.

As the game wound down, the end no longer in doubt, CBS chose to ignore the multitude of personal stories taking place on the sidelines. There were no shots of Colts teammates congratulating each other, no shots of Bears players realizing their shot at the championship was slipping through their hands.

Instead, the announcers droned on about what was happening on the field - which to a football fan was pretty much irrelevant from about the 4 minute mark of the 4th quarter.

It's just another example of how square and clunky CBS is in the 21st century broadcasting world.

Apart from the Colts, the only other 2nd half winner I saw was the NFL. Their fan-written spot about how hard it is to say goodbye got a decent boost from some professional folks who spiffed up the original concept a bit - and throwing in a shot of Brett Favre was very nice.

Congrats to the Colts!

Now, I'm off to prep my resume for the GoDaddy Marketing team!

Super Bowl XLI: 1st Half

Through halftime:

Winners:

Prince! He was literally singing in Purple Rain. He's a queer bird and has a rep for being a demanding performer. But he stuck it out, gave a helluva a show in horrible conditions - and he was NOT lip synching. Most excellent!

Manning. Weather related slop aside, he took command of the game mid-way through the first quarter.

Chevy. Their spot featuring Chevy in classic American pop songs was smart.

Sprint. Connective dysfunction. Very clever.

Losers:

Grossman. Two fumbles snaps. Apart from one long run the Chicago offense has been non-existent.

Budweiser. Their series of spots have been uninspired and sophomoric. Nothing really clever there at all.

Careerbuilder.com. I miss the monkeys.

CBS. I'm watching in glorious Hi-Def, but the action is too far away from the camera for me to see any of the details hi-def should be bringing me.

Time for the second half....

This Commercial Brought to You by CBS

Wow. CBS is really whoring up it's Super Bowl pre-game show. I don't think I've ever seen such blatant product placement in a sports show. The first hour was presented by the new Eddie Murphy NORBIT - which means footage from the film was intercut with clips of the Colts and the Bears in the open.

Stuff like that has been happening for quite a while, but I still hate it.

Hour two was presented by Pizza Hut, which resulted in James Brown, Dan Marino and company actually eating a Cheesy Bites pizza from their desks.

I know commercial sponsorships are an important part of the broadcast, but this year, I think maybe CBS has gone too far.

As for the game - well, the last time the Bears played in the Super Bowl, Walter Peyton got a ring - his only one. This year, the Bears are back, but it's Peyton MANNING who's getting the gold.

My guess - Colts 27, Bears 10.

Ghost Rider vs. Evil Tax Man

Tonight during BONES, audiences were treated to a typical GHOST RIDER commercial. Immediately following it was something special.

It seems that after ridding the world of evil, Ghost Rider uses Jackson Hewitt to file his taxes. The agent was challenged by Mr. Rider's flaming W-2 form, but ultimately managed to slip Mr. Rider's quick refund loan into one of Mr. Rider's many pockets. You see, he couldn't just hand it to him, as it would burst into flames.

A pretty neat set of combo ads.

But then Mrs. Kimosabe pointed out a line from the movie spot that goes something like "After dark, whenever he's in the presence of evil, he will become the Ghost Rider."

So.....the flaming paperwork would seem to indicate that Jackson Hewitt is evil.

Seems a bit like Carnival Cruise Lines teaming up with Titanic, if you ask me.

Score one for the better half!