September 2006 – Page 6

Quick Hits: Friday Edition

My wife just got a phone call from some friends in Nebraska so I took the oppertunity to pause the movie, put down the beer and get some quick blogging in. So here it goes, lazy man style:

Things are going so well in Iraq that US troops are now digging trenches all around Baghdad in an effort to better safe guard the city. I always thought Baghdad could use a moat. [Yahoo News]
The Colbert Report: Senator George Allan isn’t a racist, just look at all the “ethnic” friends he has. [YouTube Video]
NBC has decided to become one of the first major networks to offer free online streaming of many of their most popular TV shows. Yay Free! [Gizmodo]
Everyone had the upper on your favorite pair of Converse All Stars, aka Chucks burn out before the soles? Then why not knit yourself a new pair? [Boing Boing]
Famed fashion designer Michael Kors and the fashion industry in Spain have made a fantastic decision and are flat out refusing to hire models that are skinny to the point of grossness. Yay! Let’s see some models with some meat on their bones, please! [PR Inside]
President Bush rebutt’s torture bill comments made by Colin Powell in the usual “nu uh! nu uh! nuh uh!” fashion. [Think Progress].
You know when election time comes everyone and their brother releases horrible “elect me” videos, usually tearing down their opponent instead of propping themselves up? Well this is the best. election. video. ever! [Daily Kos]
President Bush sings “Sunday, Bloody Sunday” by U2. [Break.com]
HA! This little ditty does not surprise me at ALL. Apparently the evil Dr. Will of CBS’ hit reality TV series Big Brother All Stars is going to be the next Young & The Restless star. He totally reminds me of Joey on friends when he played the Dr on a soap opera. [Tabloid Whore]

Alright folks, that’s enough of the quick hits for now. I have a Red Stripe Beer and movie waiting for me. Hooray Beer!

High Power Microwaves Tested On Protesters Before The Battlefield

[Um… What? Sorry, did I read that right?]

Airforce Secretary Michael Wynne wants to see “non-lethal” weapons like microwave powered devices tested against American citizens (see also Anti-War Protesters) before they are used in the battlefield.

Domestic use would make it easier to avoid questions in the international community over any possible safety concerns, said Secretary Michael Wynne.
[Um… Yeah, who cares about the safety of dirty hippy protesters, as long as we don’t hurt the enemy. Riiiiiight, makes sense to me?]

”If we’re not willing to use it here against our fellow citizens, then we should not be willing to use it in a wartime situation,” said Wynne. ”(Because) if I hit somebody with a nonlethal weapon and they claim that it injured them in a way that was not intended, I think that I would be vilified in the world press.”
[Where as is you injured a protester no one but the protesters and sympathizers would care, and they don’t support the war anyways, so who cares about them. Great line of reasoning.]

[I love when government and military officials say stupid things like this. I guess ole’ Georgie boy has been able to get away with say things a hell of a lot worse, so why not everyone else, right? Oh well, it’s pretty safe to say the entire system is screwed anyhow, what difference is another crackpot wanting to make protesters into guinea pigs going to make, not much.]

Bush vs Powell vs Common Article 3

You know the world is in a sad state of affairs when even Colin Powell is saying President George Bush is going to far.

Though the US Senate (I believe?) just recently passed a bill with the goal of further protecting prisoners of war and terrorists from cruel and unusual “interrogation” tactics, the good ole’ boy Mr. George Bush is trying to force a bill through that would achieve the complete opposite.

The bill which President Bush is trying to push through would see the rights of US interogators protected substantially more so then those of the people being interogated. Colin Powell stated that Bush’s proposed changes to the War Crimes Act would “liberalize the definition of what is torture” and would allow US interogators to use “hypothermia, threats of violence to the detainee and his family, stress positions, ‘long-time standing’, prolonged sleep deprivation, and possibly waterboarding” without any fear of being prosecuted at a later time.

Colin Powell made his thoughts on the matter quite clear and finally disagreed with how far President Bush is going, stating that â€œThe world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism. To redefine Common Article 3 would add to those doubts. Furthermore, it would put our own troops at risk.â€

I’m glad at least one person in that big white building and weird pentagon shaped building has finally managed to pull their head at least 1/4 of the way out of their ass. It’s things like this that make me utterly discusted with Bush. It really amazes me that he can even get away with trying to push things like this through, how absurd.

Segway Falls Flat on it’s Face… Again

Segway Inc., creators of the “revolutionary” Segway scooter, have recently issued a complete recall of all Segways ever sold, to the tune of roughly 23,500 scooters.

The company, based in Bedford, NH, along with the Consumer Protection Safety Commission urged all Segway owners not to make use of the scooters until they are inspected by an authorized dealer.

Apparently there is a fault in the software that operates the gyroscopes and balancing computers that can, at random and completely unexpected times, abruptly throw the Segway into reverse. This, of course, would result in the surprised (to say the least) rider being thrown to the ground face first.

The company has dispatched specially equipt laptops to all dealers in the hopes of avoiding and future issues and repairing the existing fault. The process takes around 20 mins to complete, but will save many a Segway rider from broken teeth and a scraped up face.

This is almost as funny as when they originally hyped the Segway for release and everyone thought it was going to be something cool like a rocket pack, only to find out it’s actually a glorified lawn mower for the incredibly lazy. Go Segway!

Survivor Cook Islands Recap: Sekou Eliminated

Tonight was the 1-hour premier episode of Survivor Cook Islands that I have been looking forward to for quite a while now. Like hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of other people, I had my butt glued to the couch 5 mins before the show started and was chomping at the bit. Let the madness begin!

The show starts off like the good old days of Survivor with all four teams running around a boat, grabbing what they can and, in some cases, stealing things from other tribes. The contestants were given 30 seconds to grab everything they could get their hands on before they had to jump overboard.

Everyone seems to get a decent amount of stuff and the first bit of controversy begins when Jonathan of the Caucasian tribe (aka Rarotonga) stole one of the chickens that had been caught by Yul of the Asian-American tribe (aka Puka). Oooooh, chicken stealer! You gonna pay!

Pan to the Hispanic-American tribe (aka Aitutaki) landing at their camp site, getting setup and Ozzy scaling a coconut tree, retreiving coconuts for his Aitutaki tribe mates. These guys seem like a pretty put together team, excluding the fat, lazy, metalhead Billy, that is. I forsee much lazyness and slacking in his short future.

Flip to the Asian-American tribe (aka Puka) and we find out that Cao Boi is already feeling a bit left out, which is no surprise, really. He’s the oldest member of a young team, the only one of the team that is an Asia born Asian and he’s excentric. Personally, I think he’s going to be the cool guy this season. The cooky character that everyone loves, love Chicken George from Big Brother.

Over to the African-American tribe (aka Manihiki) we go. Sekou starts off right away trying to be the leader and trying to get everyone organized and we all know how well that works, at least all of us that have watched Survivor before. This should be an interesting tribe, the alliances started instantly, everyone of them seems to be pretty stubborn and headstrong, I can almost smell the drama.

Last but not least we see the Caucasian tribe (aka Rarotonga) getting established. Jessica “Flicka” gets herself into some hot water right away by lifting the box where the chickens were being kept, letting them escape. After a while trying to catch the chickens everyone gave up. Jessica came in as an underdog, outcast person as it is, just for being alternative by nature, and losing the chickens right off the bat sure isn’t going to help.

The African-American tribe (Manihiki) are the first to find their gross, tainted, disease ridden water supply, but at least there’s a lot of it. A few trends emerge as well, with Sekou being lazy and taking to many breaks and two of the ladies, Rebecca and Sundra getting close already – I think we have the makings of an alliance here.The Caucasian tribe (Rarotonga) can’t manage to get any kind of shelter together so they are all forced to snuggle up close and get real friendly to stay warm. Right off the bat Adam and Candice seem to be getting just a little bit more friendly the everyone else – Does Survivor have an equivalent to the Big Brother showmance? I guess we’ll find out soon enough.

Yul of the Asian-American tribe (Puka) complains about having a headache and Cao Boi, being the crazy old coot that he is, diagnosis it as being something called the “bad wind” and proceeds to massage, rub, manipulate and generally screw with Yul’s temples and forehead and, amazingly enough, his headache goes away. As dumb as that looked, it was pretty cool.

Continue reading “Survivor Cook Islands Recap: Sekou Eliminated”

Rock Star Supernova Winner: Lukas Rossi

Tonight’s episode of Rock Star Supernova was the season finale and saw the Winner finally be announced. I have to say, first off, that I’m glad they packed it all into a 1-hour season finale, I hate when they drag finale’s out for 2-hours when there is simply no need to do so.

Now, on to the Rock Star Supernova Winner Recap:

Everything starts off as usual, with a recap of the previous nights performances in all their total awesomeness.

The announcement is made and the contestants to have been in the bottom two at one point or another are:

Magni
Toby
Lukas

*dramatic pause*

The contestants at Risk are:

Magni
Toby

Magni performs “Fire” by Jimi Hendrix

My Thoughts: Great performance again, the song was totally rockin’ and he did fantastic work with the guitarist for the house band again. With that being said, the first time he did it was a bit better then this round, but this round was still pretty good.

Toby performs “White Wedding” by Billy Idol

My Thoughts: Toby seems to be lacking some of his energy in this performance, it’s not as high as usual. The performance was decent, the vocals were only so-so, it really wasn’t his best job and he needed it most at this point in time.

Tommy Lee makes the announcement and the tommy-hawk falls squarely on Magni.

Booooo! I really liked Magni.

That leaves us with the Final 3:

Toby
Lukas
Dilana

Tommy Lee, Jason Newstead and Gilby Clarke of Supernova give everyone a chance to say their final piece and why they think they should be the lead singer of Supernova.

Lukas says it would be an “honor to lead them [Supernova] in a world tour.”

Dilana says “this band needs someone 1000% dedicated” and that “Lukas is amazing. Toby is incredible, but I’m the one!”

Toby keeps it simple and says “I feel like I’m ready now.”

With their final sentiments being spoken, Tommy Lee makes the request to hear everyone sing just one more song.

Lukas performs “Bitter Sweet Symphony” by The Verve

My Thoughts: Weak song, but a strong chorus. Good performance, but over all, sub-par vocals. Lukas didn’t do very good this time around, the previous version was MUCH better and much more genuine.

Dilana performs “Zombie” by The Cranberries

My Thoughts: The vocals weren’t bad, but not great by any means. The performance was a so-so effort and overall, it wasn’t anything special. Again, the first time around was much better. What is with these guys tonight?

Toby performs “Somebody Told Me” by The Killers

My Thoughts: Toby shouldn’t sing any songs by The Killers because they never end up sounding right, his voice just doesn’t fit properly with the songs. Though his performance was great and as high in energy as ever – much better then his performance for White Wedding.

Jason Newstead takes the mic and essentially says that Toby’s voice is fantastic, Supernova has never doubted it through-out the entire competition and it can cut through the guitars with no problem at all, and they love that.

Then he promptly drops the axe and cuts Toby.

Super Boo! Toby was my favorite to win, I can’t believe they cut him, he did fantastic in this competition. He’s so going to make and release his own album, without a doubt.

Toby’s parting words were that he had “the best time ever” and that “you boys, you taught me so much.” Good on you mate! You rocked it out.

That leaves us with the Final 2:

Dilana
Lukas

Both of whom received the highest votes from last nights performance show, surprisingly.

And, of course, Supernova threatens to make their decision, but first: the obligatory 5 minutes of suspense and annoyance creating commercials, yay!

Back from the commercials we come and the final words are spoken of each contestant. Supernova says that Lukas was “really, really amazing for us” and that Dilana was “enchanting” and her “voice is amazing.”

Supernova announces that they are making their decision based on the highest votes received from their fans, which means the:

Rock Star Supernova Winner is Lukas Rossi!

Everyone says how awesome Dilana is and that she has a few surprises in store for her as well:

Tommy lets her know that she can come on tour with Supernova and front the House band.
Gilby Clarke offers to help write and produce Dilana’s record.
Tommy Lee and Dave Navarro BOTH offer to play on her record as well.

That is a pretty sweet deal for coming in second place.

Supernova takes to the stage, hugs all around for Lukas and they break into their first song as a complete group, “Be Yourself.”

I have to say, I really got into this season of Rock Star Supernova and enjoyed it quite a bit. The competition was very stiff and big props go out to Lukas Rossi, Dilana Robichaux and Toby Rand for making it into the final 3. They all did fantastic and made the season a great one. I’m going to miss not having any Rock Star Supernova to watch anymore. I wonder what super band they’ll come up with next year?

Rock Star Supernova Winner: Finale Tonight!

Don’t forget, tonight is the finale of Rock Star Supernova and the winner will be revealed. The season finale starts at 8:00pm EST/PST on CBS, don’t miss it, it’s going to rock!

Tonight we will finally learn who is going to be the lead singer of Supernova and Rock Star Supernova Winner. Will it be Dilana, Lukas, Toby or Magni? Who knows, you’ll have to watch to find out.

My personal hopes are that either Magni or Toby become the Rock Star Supernova Winner. One thing is for sure, come 7:55pm I’ll be glued to the couch for at least an hour scribbling away on my note pad.

Stay tuned for the official Rock Star Supernova Winner recap post!

Rock Star Supernova Recap

Rock Star Super Nova is down to the final four and tonight’s show was the last performance show before tomorrow night’s grand finale.

The finale four contenders are Magni, Toby, Dilana and Lukas. It’s been a tight race for most of the show and it’s still all up for grabs.

Ryan Star was apparently picked as the favorite artists, for some reason, and got a chance to come back, sing another crappy song and plug his doomed album.

Ryan sang “Back Of Your Car”, which is his original and it sucked as much as it did the first time I heard it.
He plugs his new album, which is cleverly titled “Darkhorse” and thanks Dave Navarro for the idea.
He also wins Honda’s newly redesigned Honda CRV, yippy.

Now on to the actual show, sorta.

Everything stars off with a recap of the entire season for the final four contestants, shows how people have turned around, gotten better, gotten worse and evolved over the lifespan of the show.

Each rock star gets to sing 1 cover song and their 1 original again.

Toby sing “Kharma Police” by Radiohead

My Thoughts: It was so-so, certainly not great, but not terrible. This is my favorite Radiohead sone of all time, so it’s a hard comparison to make.

Then he sings his original song “Throw It Away”

Dave Navarro liked the set and called it a “great rock show.” Gilby Clarke said he seemed to get “a little lost” at the start of the radiohead song, but he pulled it all together in the end.

My Thoughts: I have to admit, this is a super catchy song, he sang it really well, has a great performance to go along with it and did a fantastic job. He’s going to be a hard one to beat. He also had Magni play backup guitar and he wrote EVS on the back of his head. Toby’s just plain cool.

Lukas sings “Fix You” by Coldplay

My Thoughts: Great performance, great song, by far one of his best performances yet, up their with Creep by Radiohead. He should really stick to these style of songs.

Then he sings his original song “Headspin” with a different arrangement then usual.

Dave Navarro introduces Paula Abdul and says Lukas did a great job, though he questions his performances all season, his multiple singing styles have shown through. Tommy Lee keeps it simple, as always, saying “Wow, cool as hell.” Gilby Clarke kept it simple as well and said “great, so good.”

My Thoughts: The all acousitc version was so much better then the original and I really liked this version. The vocals were much more powerful and he did a fantastic job.

Dilana sings “Roxanne” by The Police

My Thoughts: This acoustic version of the song was really cool. Dilana had great vocals and having Lukas, Toby and Magni sing backup was a great idea. Very good performance.

Then she sings her original song “Supersoul”

She jumps into the crowd, rocks out in front of Supernova, rocks the very back of the crowd, stops to say high to Paula Abdul and finishes the song off in front of Supernova.

Dave says “I think you’re awesome.” Tommy Lee says “We love you” and Gilby Clarke says he “looks forward to seeing you [Dilana] every week.”

My Thoughts: The performance was good, the vocals were so-so, I didn’t like this song the first time and that hasn’t really changed at all.

Magni sings “Hush” by Deep Purple

My Thoughts: The performance was very high energy, magni’s vocals were really good and the guitar and singing work with the house band guitarist was a great touch. Magni has great potential as a front man.

Then he sang his original song “When the Time Comes”

Dave Navarro said “killer job.” Though Tommy Lee disagree completely and said that the other 3 originals were memorable, but Magni’s isn’t memorable at all. Jason Newstead said that he digged the original and Gilby Clarke said “great job! sang great, performed well.”

My Thoughts: Not bad, not great, so-so, not a big fan of the song. He could do a lot better.

So ends the nights performances, now all we can do is wait until tomorrow and the Rock Star Supernova Finale.

The initial rankings for tonight’s show were:

Dilana
Toby
Lukas
Magni

I have to say, I don’t like the looks of the early rankings, though those will certainly change by tomorrow.

Don’t forget to catch tomorrow’s 2-hour season finale at 8:00pm EST/PST on CBS.