Lotus Knows. Remix (DJ Steve Porter)
I think it’s definitely a cool video for this community. Nice to see it out there too…
I think it’s definitely a cool video for this community. Nice to see it out there too…
I make no excuses, I love American Idol. I have since it first came on the scene 8 years ago. It’s something I really enjoy and can watch with my children and talk about with anyone. I think it comes from the old performer in me. I tend to put myself in the contestants positions and enjoy living vicariously through them. I also tend to be thinking exactly what Simon is thinking, so his analysis is generally my sarcastic bad side with a British accent.
Anyway, this season, as I watched, I caught glimpses of this goth guy during Hollywood week who was unbelievable. We didn’t really see much about him early on. They focused on other contestants, but after hearing him a couple of times I predicted he would win. He was that good.
Once we started moving through the weeks, it was evident that this guy, Adam Lambert, was head and shoulders better than his competition. His vocals were always amazing, he had a killer stage presence, a glam look, and could hit notes that no one else on the show could even dream of. Oh, and pictures surfaced of him kissing guys. So he was either gay or bi-sexual. *GASP*
One of the other favorites early on was Danny Gokey. Danny is a widower (something we were reminded of approximately five billion times) and could wail pretty well. He was also very religious, and was a music director for a church and had recorded some gospel music. He got a huge following, and for quite some time, everyone expected a Danny Gokey / Adam Lambert finale.
During this battle, a nice unassuming guy by the name of Kris Allen quietly put in great performance after great performance. He turned songs like ‘She Works Hard for the Money,’ ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’ and even Kanye West’s ‘Heartless’ into awesome acoustic/adult-alternative tracks. He could play guitar and piano, and on some tracks he did so without any help from the Idol band. Creatively he matched Adam Lambert and blew Danny Gokey out of the water. To me, he very much reminded me of Jason Mraz, one of my current faves. And in kind of an upset, he beat out Danny Gokey for the finals.
So now we had two genuinely nice guys, Adam and Kris, both very creative with arrangements and such with Adam having the better vocal ability, and Kris having the ability to play musical instruments. But Adam, vocally was still phenomenal and Kris could sometimes falter and not be able to push through soaring choruses. Adam also worked a stage like he owned the place, and Kris seemed kind of shell shocked at times to be there.
So to me, the American Idol victory should still go to Adam. He’s the better singer and showman, and has been far more consistent all year long than Kris. But I think Kris will win. And the reason is simple. The Danny Gokey voting juggernaut, many of whom are deeply religious, will never vote for a gay man. So many of this huge voting contingent will go Kris Allen’s way, and I think that will sway the victory for him.
If Adam actually wins, I will have a lot of faith in our country to have voted for the openly gay guy. But right now, I don’t have that faith. Kris, although he’s very good and deserves to be in the finale, wouldn’t have quite the votes to win this, but I fear bigotry will push him over the edge.
I hope America proves me wrong.
Now make no mistake, both will get good recording contracts so it really doesn’t matter that much in the grand scheme of things. And quite frankly I love both Kris and Adam and look forward to buying both of their albums. I just think that based on talent, most everyone agrees that Adam is the best. It would be a shame for him to lose simply because of his sexual orientation.
I’ve been a lifelong Miami Dolphin football fan, and I’ve stuck with them through thick and thin. Last year’s 1-15 season was brutal, yet I still listened to every game on Sirius satellite radio. So to see the Phins turn things around, go 11-5 and win the AFC East this year has been wonderful. We just lost in the first round of the playoffs yesterday to the Baltimore Ravens who pretty much had their way with us. In the old days (pre-Jimmy Johnson and the subsequent years of suckitude) it would have ruined my whole week.
But not this time.
I’m very proud of the team and the turnaround they accomplished. It was their first trip to the playoffs in seven years, they won ten more games than last year, and they knocked the Jets and the Patriots out of the playoff picture. So in all, it was a pretty sweet year to be a Dolphin fan. I look forward to the continued Parcells/Sparano era!
Oh how I love Jon Stewart and the Daily Show exposing the double-standard that is the Republican punditry.
I am incredibly sad to hear that one of my idols passed away yesterday. Comedian George Carlin died of heart failure at the age of 71. George was probably my all time favorite comedian, and the 68 in Greyhawk68 is directly from one of his jokes.
Being a former radio guy, the Seven Dirty Words sketch always hit home, and his view on religion were always very much in line with mine. Yesterday a wonderful counter-culture voice was silenced. I’ll miss him.
Here is the NSFW followup to the seven dirty words on YouTube. Not for any of you who can’t handle bad language. You’ve been warned:
A very funny take on the Twitter outages.
Last night, David Cook was crowned this season’s new American Idol. This was despite the fact that the judges had all but given the title to David Archuleta the night before. In fact pretty much all the pundits really thought that the younger David would walk away with the title. I couldn’t be happier that David Cook won instead.
Now it’s not that I don’t think Archie is deserving, far from it. He has the beautiful voice of a young prodigy. But to me, he was more of a Josh Groban-type operatic singer rather than a pop/rock star. His vocals are impeccable, but he really had no stage presence and sometimes I didn’t believe the emotion in the songs. I think the main reason for this is his age (17). The world hasn’t “happened” to him yet. He’s been sheltered in his Dad’s little Stage Dad competition world where he couldn’t be a kid.
This is where I feel bad for young David. His Dad appears to be every bit as bad and pushy as the worst stage parents. He was bad enough that the Idol folks banned him from going backstage and to rehearsals for the last couple weeks. I think his Dad is damaging him, and we’ll see problems with young David in the future. Stage parents suck. Despite all of this, I think losing might actually do little David some good. He finally has some pain to tuck away and grow upon. It’s not a young-love heartbreak-type of pain that shapes the rest of us, but at least it’s something.
Anyway, I’m thrilled that Cook won for the simple fact that he can already walk on stage as a rockstar. When he sings in a controlled manner, his vocals can be every bit as tender and melodic as the best of them. When he straps on the guitar and rocks out you rock along. When he puts emotion into the music, you believe every damn world. You can tell he has the pain to grow upon. He was a musician and an entertainer rather than just a singer. He didn’t do any R&B tinged sappy ballads, in fact he even made a Mariah Carey song one of his own. He deserves this, much to the chagrin of all the 12 year olds that melt every time Archie says “gosh.”
So to me, I think this was a win for those of us in the older demographic that wanted a really good rocker type rather than a doe-eyed balladeer. And it wasn’t just a minor win, Cook won by 12 million votes. There were a total of 97 million cast. Now I could go into a whole diatribe about how I wish people would vote in our general election as fervently as they do for Idol, but I’ll save that for another time. The point is, us old folks won damnit. Now all you whippersnappers can get the hell off my lawn.
As many others have posted, Gary Gygax died earlier this week. For those who still don’t know, Gary was one of the creators of the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game.
It’s sad news when one of your childhood heroes dies. Especially one that influenced you so much.
When I got into Dungeons & Dragons, it really opened my imagination. As an only child with a lot of time on my hands, I would pour through the books. I would create my own worlds, map them out and create elaborate stories around them. I would role-play my characters with my friends and really try to act out what the characters would do.
The game helped create and build my imagination, my creativity, my writing, my analytical side and my acting skills. I can attribute all of those skills as something that increased exponentially because of D&D and Gary Gygax.
In fact my online persona of Greyhawk is taking directly from the World of Greyhawk mythos that Gygax created. (the 68 is from George Carlin if you know the joke.)
So to say Gygax influenced me is probably an understatement. Even though I haven’t played in years, there isn’t one of those skills that were not enhanced by Mr. Gygax. It’s like he was a +2 ring of intelligence for me. And for that I am so grateful.
Thanks for everything Mr. Gygax. Goodbye, your contributions were more than you probably knew.