Whine & Cheese

$27.72

That's what American Idol cost us this year.

What do I mean by that?  Does 28 x 99 cents help out any?

Yep, that's what we spent on downloaded songs thanks to Idol (I should say "I"... even though we share a iTunes library... Todd might not necessarily agree with some of my purchases).

Times have certainly changed.  Just a few years back, the world eagerly waited for about a week for the release of Kelly Clarkson's first single via a CD single... this season Jordin Sparks' debut was on iTunes the next morning... and for the first time all the Top 12 performances were available in full-length versions the next day via the Idol website.  So we have a lot more of the Idols on our iPods than ever before.

In the power of the pocketbook, Blake is our American Idol... surprisingly enough even out-purchasing our beloved Melinda.  Our (former?) neighbor Jordin had a decent showing, but LaKisha only managed one song... none of the other contestants made the cut.  Here's the run-down:

Blake (7) - You Give Love A Bad Name, Time of the Season,  You Keep Me Hangin' On, You Should Be Dancing, I Need To Know, When The Stars Go Blue, This Love.

Melinda (5) - Home, As Long As He Needs Me, I'm A Woman, Have A Nice Day, Trouble Is A Woman

Jordin (3) - A Broken Wing, I Who Have Nothing, To Love Somebody

LaKisha (1) - This Ain't A Love Song

Idol Gives Back led to two purchases:  Carrie Underwood's I'll Stand By You and Annie Lennox's Bridge Over Troubled Water.

Some of the above songs were duplicated with their original artist:  When The Stars Go Blue (Tim McGraw), A Broken Wing (Martina McBride), and This Ain't A Love Song (Bon Jovi).

Blake's semifinals inspired a couple of more... Keane's Somewhere Only We Know and Jamiroquai's Virtual Insanity.

We likely would have purchased them at some point but Gwen Stefani's The Sweet Escape and Maroon 5's Makes Me Wonder got an earlier buy bump thanks to their appearances on Idol.

The purchase of this season's goodbye montage song... Daughtry's Home was a no-brainer.

Although it was gasp-worthy that contestants referred to Feeling Good as a Michael Buble song, I was curious enough to get his version (and well before his bumbling appearance when he filled in for Tony Bennett)... it is a good take on the classic... but c'mon, who could possibly approach Nina Simone?!?!

Heck even little 'ole Antonella got me to purchase Corrine Bailey Rae's Put Your Records On... the song never did much for me when it first came out... but after letting some time pass and Ms. Barba handling it surprisingly well, I changed my mind and have found it to be pretty catchy.

Not a bad list of additions in my opinion... but you can let me know if you think there are any groaners in the bunch.

Black Swan Green (#16)

Ok, now I am four books behind... better start churning out some book posts!  When I started this reading challenge, the main reason I chose "pages" as a measurement was to avoid the temptation to just read short(er) books... but that seems to be what I am doing, so go figure.  This next book (only finished two weeks ago) is the second of the latest trio of Booker Prize nominated/winning works...   

As you may recall, my last book post was the 2006 Booker Prize winner, The Inheritance of Loss.  It was a bit of an upset in the literary world.  David Mitchell's Black Swan Green was thought by many to be the favorite to win... but it didn't even make the shortlist cut, where the field is narrowed to five finalists.  As with any award, I am sure the Booker has little to do with "the best" -- which is pretty darn subjective anyhow -- but more with things like politics, buzz, previous works, likability of the author, etc.  Although it is a comparing the proverbial apples to oranges, I preferred BSG to Loss... though no diss to Desai's winning work, which I noted was quite a good book.

If Mitchell missed out on the Booker, he can still take comfort in...or have the added pressure of... being named one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World.  Coincidentally enough, that issue arrived in the mail shortly after I started this book, with Mitchell said to have "served notice that he would be remaking the traditional novel."

Onto the book!  It is a quite charming tale of 13-year old Jason Taylor over the course of one year... ok technically, 13 months which are split into the 13 chapters.  While the book is linear, the chapters are pretty much standalone, each a bit of a vignette into the teenager's life.  It took a couple of chapters to get used to... as the action doesn't quite pick up where the last one left off.  It is an interesting literary exercise by Mitchell... sort of like a jigsaw puzzle where something that is happening in say Chapter 11 helps explains what happened in Chapter 7 (or vice versa). 

A coming of age story as well... no surprise that this ends up being a formative year for Jason... a lot of life lessons that will ripple into Jason's future.  The book is set in 1982 ... so there is a nostalgic aspect to the book as well (and quite nicely on target for me, since I was 15 years old that year)... including England's military scratch down in the Falkland Islands... which rather nicely resonates with some stuff going on right now.

For anyone who was ever a kid (now there's blurb any publisher would love), there are certainly plenty of things you can relate to... well unless you were one of the "cool" kids (though I have never met anyone who would admit that)... BSG is a balance of humor and heartbreak... with young Jason on the edge of that cliff where one starts to look at life without so much innocence.

Oh.. curious about the title?   I am not giving anything away by telling you all it is is the quite odd name of the village that the Taylors call home.

2007 10K Reading Challenge:  + 291 pages (Total Pages: 4960 pages) 

Weekend Doings

A pretty relaxing holiday weekend here at W&C.... here is a "fast round" edition of some of what happened... of course, the underlying assumption is that you care (but it is against a blogger's belief to think otherwise).

* Had two nice BBQ'd dinners... though red meat heavy, steaks on Sunday and some nice, high brow, grocery store, meat department, pre-made (is that enough adjectives for you?) steak kabobs on Monday.

* Todd got into the pool after doing some yardwork on Sunday, but despite those triple digit temperatures our pool is still a tad too chilly... maybe next weekend as the temps are really starting to kick in.

* We are not quite sure if Rocky's balls have been removed... he is just as wacky as ever... and, as expected that whole "rest, no jumping, no strenuous exercise for 10-14 days" post-surgery is truly laughable... likewise, his last round of shots (including rabies), didn't cause him to miss a beat either.

* Finished and started a book... though you wouldn't know via W&C, I am now three books behind about blogging about them.  This reading challenge is working out quite well, and I am enjoying the books and increased reading time as well.

* Went to a baseball game on Saturday night... we have about 8 games per season via Todd's work group and it was definitely nice to have one on a weekend night during a long weekend... and it was free visor night too!

* Tennis caused our TiVo to run out of suggestions (our gauge for how "full" it is) on Sunday... though didn't end up watching much from the French Open.  The first two days were pretty much rained out... plus on Monday it was only televised on The Tennis Channel (which our cable company has yet to pick up).

* We did manage to free up some space ... closer but not quite yet done with Lost and 24... and w/ no new episode this weekend caught up on The Sopranos with another crazy episode... only 2 more to go!'

* Watched the penultimate episode of the season for Brothers & Sisters just last night... oh my goodness!   Now, I am not a total softie... but I'll admit that I do get emotional at times over a TV show... though only a handful or so occasions in the past few years... but I was this close (insert appropriate visual) to the ugly cry with that wallop of an episode.

* The MINI Cooper hit a milestone on the way home from the ballpark... 5,000 miles!   Yes, a whopping 333.333 average miles per month.  But that will change soon enough...

* This weekend we finished booking Part 2 of our summer vacation, the fairly well-hinted around road-trip with the Cooper.  A pretty spontaneous Part 1 was booked last weekend... so we are all set!  Now the dates just have to get here.  I'll give you details in an upcoming post... I know how popular those vacation posts are!

Don't Spoil Me

Well... you can spoil me... but despite it being the official start of summer, I'm talking about TV spoilers, and more specifically season finale spoilers.

We've made some choices when it comes to our television viewing.  If you are regular W&C reader you know out TV viewing tends take more than a dip in the deep end... while we haven't exactly cut back on the number of shows we're watching, we have tried to cut back on the number of hours we watch per night. 

These days that's usually between 2 - 3 hours a night, though rarely either end of that range.  Part of that is watching the news... real (Charlie Gibson) and faux (Jon Stewart)... and we wrap up around 9 pm (thankfully our primetime ends at 10pm, I don't know how you "coast" people last until 11pm).  The rest of the pre-bedtime evening is spent reading, entertaining the puppy, or just unwinding.

So you probably can guess there's a gap... or should I say, overflow... more shows being TiVo'd than hours being watched per night.  We started "catching up" last night ... but here's our overflow going into the holiday weekend (there's still more other stuff on the TiVo too!):

3 hours of 24

4 hours of Lost

2 hours of Brothers & Sisters

2.5 hours of Scrubs

2.5 hours of Entourage

Technically 1 hour behind on The Sopranos...  it gets recorded on Sunday night (it doesn't air early enough for us to watch it "live" on HBO HD) and watch it the following Sunday before the next episode records.

Plus, I am currently watching the second half the past season of Battlestar Galactica... there was just way too much TV in January, so I waited until they aired on Universal's HD channel (I just watched what was considered the "surprising" Starbuck-centric episode... which I kind of knew about already).

I have avoided spoilers on most the shows (and thanks to everyone who post "warnings"... I have yet to be spoiled by a blog)... most surprisingly with 24 and Lost, which is probably not a good sign for either.. since in the past, it was hard to avoid hearing spoilers the morning after (producers are promising big changes next season for 24... Is '24' running out of time?). 

Oddly enough, B&S is the show I know the most about... along with some things on Scrubs... Entourage is pretty un-spoilable ... and, believe it not, I have done pretty well with The Sopranos.  I honestly don't know how I avoided hearing about the "accident" for a week (I feel pressure not to spoil on a post all about spoilers)... though I knew something big happened in that particular episode.   

So our television season will certainly spill over to June... now, just to keep that summer programming under control.

Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!

Most mornings I watch our local independent TV station's morning show... it also airs Oprah and Dr. Phil, so most mornings I am usually treated to repeated teasers of that day's episodes. 

Tuesday's Dr. Phil promos caught my attention as the voice-over boomed...

THE TRUE LIFE OF MARCIA BRADY!

This one was a juicy one... because I heard it over and over and over again throughout the day.

"After four years of silence, Dr. Phil helps Marcia track him (her father) down and confront him about his horrid accusations....  Marcia's Family Face-Off!"

If that kind of promo wasn't enough... shows like Entertainment Tonight were all over the story as well... if you care to read some of the details (I'll admit to some curiosity) here the ET link to: Marcia Brady Breaks Down.  I would link to the Dr. Phil site... but honestly I don't want a direct link... don't need that guy on my ass.

But call me silly ... and I am certainly not ... ahem! ... a psychologist... but call me crazy, but if you are trying to help someone, I would think the first thing that might just be a tad helpful is to stop referring to her by the fictional TV character she played over 30 years ago!

I don't expect much from Entertainment Tonight... they are certainly in need of something to fill their half-hour with now that those Anna Nicole EXCLUSIVES!! are starting to slow down... once a show genuinely about the entertainment industry, it is a bit scary to see what now qualifies as "entertainment" tonight... or any night!

I expect a bit more out of the good doctor.  When he first rose to fame via Oprah, I liked the things he had to say and appreciated his straight-forward "tells it like it is" approach... but it's been a downward opinion trend here as well... the inferred political affiliation of hosting recent Christmas in Washington specials... that his wife and children are now "experts" as well (and published authors to boot)... and this increasingly tabloid-ish promotion of the show.   

It would have been nice to hear the name... Maureen McCormick... just once in these promos... heck, even... "TV's Marcia Brady, Maureen McCormick's Family Face-Off On The Next Dr. Phil!" would have been good enough. 

Full disclosure, I did see the beginning of the show and after a few "Marcia" mentions Dr. Phil did switch over to Maureen... and no, I didn't watch the show beyond the opening montage.

Likewise, I am not sure what all this says about Ms. McCormick either.  Increasingly common with each passing day, it is hard for me to comprehend why celebrities want to take personal matters like this public.  Now that's what is really worth of a visit to the psychologist's chair!   Sure it's a need for attention... besides Dr. Phil, McCormick is also appearing on the latest season of VH-1's Celebrity Fit Club, where she admitted to suffering from bulimia as a teen (I assume it's an overweight issue now... my reality tv schedule is too full to watch this one).

Ultimately, I think the "appeal" of airing (or watching) McCormick's woes is to solely make all of us "Jans" feel better about ourselves.

AI6: This Is My... Nope

We were finally off to the Kodak Theater and the final night of performances for American Idol 6... of course, tonight we have our 2 hour, 47 minute wait for the big pay-off... but there will be so much to look forward to.. the return of the likes of Haley and Phil and Sanjaya (though pretty strange that he didn't get any camera time last night, I assumed he was there with the rest of the fallen Idols)... and seeing if Ryan Seacrest will inappropriately say something like "bitch" in front of millions of impressionable young children during this "family friendly" show.

Surprisingly enough Paula looked pretty good with her broken nose, apparently the strategy to use massive amounts of hair extensions to act as a distraction worked out... I would say she had the best make-up job of the night... but that went to Chris Daughtry... give that man an eye-liner endorsement deal!

So onto the finalists... depicted below as wax figures at Madame Tussauds (just kidding, this picture just looked incredibly fake when I first looked at it):

As you can see, I am not sure who is going to win.

Of course, Jordin should win ... she is the better vocalist and has those big, glory notes in her repertoire that is what "singing" is all about these days.  But more so, and as I said last week, she fits more into the Idol mold...

Nothing demonstrated that more than the Idol song... This Is My Now.  Not a word of that song need to be sung for any of us to know who would have the better performance.  Despite the new song writing competition (that received little/no attention), it was still the typical piece of cliched finale dreck.  Heck, I would have voted for Jordin just so Blake wasn't strapped down with that as his first song!

Blake was in a catch-22 last night with You Give Love A Bad Name.  It was his best performance (or if you are in the "not best" category, it was the most memorable) of the season... so it seemed like he had to choose it for his encore song.  But I would have preferred something else... it was enjoyable, but didn't quite have the impact of hearing/watching it the first time.  I agree with EW's Michael Slezak that Somewhere Only We Know from the semis would have been a good vocal, non-beat box choice... and then he could have blown us out with something new... something he didn't quite accomplish with the tepid She Will Be Loved.

The money is on Jordin... and my suspicion is that she will win... but there seems to be just enough "sure thing" talk going around that I think Blake can slip in for the upset... but will either be able to reverse the curse of #2?  In five previous seasons, only one runner-up (Clay Aiken) has hit platinum status on the record charts.

Andy Gets Pumped Up

Since I semi-regularly blog about tennis, this one was just too good to pass up.  First, thanks to Kenneth for being my source on the latest "news" as well as being the first place that I ever saw this now in question magazine cover below... also, this breaks one of personal blogging cardinal rules... if it's been on Towleroad, everyone has seen and/or read about it already... so that usually means you don't have to blog about it (and the guy certainly doesn't need more traffic via you measly link).

But anyhow... here is tennis player Andy Roddick on the cover of this month's issue of Men's Fitness.  As mentioned, I first caught a look at it over on Kenneth's blog...

I did just a quick glance... despite being the apple of many a gay man's eye...  Roddick just isn't my favorite tennis player or person in the world...

(probably undeserved... but I find him to be annoyingly cocky and a whiner... which, for me, cancels out any cuteness factor.. and then there was the whole Mandy Moore break-up...)

.... but something just didn't seem right.  While he is a professional athlete and the body to go with it... something still seemed out of whack.  Since tennis players need to be fast, they tend not to be really built... sure Rafael Nadal has the biceps, but his chest is not  as proportionally huge... but Andy seemed strangely bulky on the cover.

Sure enough... even the cover boy agrees... he released this honest and good-humored statement on his website:

"I spent the last few weeks in Austin really focused on my training and getting back into shape, but pretty sure I'm not as fit as the Men's Fitness cover suggests... little did I know I have 22 inch guns and a disappearing birth mark on my right arm.  I saw the cover for the first time when I landed after Rome, it was pretty funny. I walked by the newsstand in the airport and did a total double take. I can barely figure out how to work the red-eye tool on my digital camera... whoever did this has mad skills...  maybe Rafael Nadal wants his arms back?  If you can manage to stop laughing at the cover long enough, check out the article inside, the photo shoot on the boat was pretty cool and I recognize the person in those photos."

I'm not sure what magazines think they are accomplishing by such obvious (i.e. bad) photoshopping ... and it is even more egregious since it is a "fitness" magazine. 

I guess "5 Easy Moves" to "How To Build Big Arms" just involves a fews clicks of a mouse?!

No Balls

Our little boy has grown up...

... this morning I dropped Rocky off for his snip-snip-sniperoo surgery.... or more accurately the trifecta of trauma... on top of that procedure, he is getting a microchip implanted in his head as well as his last round of shots (including rabies). 

It is definitely a little strange not having him around... though that was made up for lunatic he was this morning.   As my fellow pet owners may know, no food after 8 p.m. the previous night and no water in the morning.  We are up and about before 6 a.m. here... and drop off time at the vet was 7:30-8:00 a.m. ... so it was quite the wait.

My original intention was just to go back to bed after Todd headed off for work... and when I usually feed them.  But that didn't quite work out well.  They know that they go outside before they eat... so while back in bed, there was scratching at the door... of course, they wanted out so that they could come back in and eat.  And Rocky was hungry for anything... branches, wicker plant baskets, and more often than not his big brother... and big brother was not thrilled with the no food, no water morning either.

After an hour and a half of heightened activity and increasing guilt over the fasting, I arrived at the vet promptly at 7:30.   Got the run down for all the costs, probably signed my dog's life away should anything happen... and off I went... pick-up after 3 p.m. (though that's what they said about Toby... and I got a call around noon time that he was ready to go... anytime, really... NOW!). 

So all is quite calm here... the other animals seem to be enjoying their hours-long vacation of not being attacked by the black-and-white monster at any given moment.   

Just got back from taking Toby for a walk (it's back to early morning walks since it is starting to hit 80 by 9 a.m.)... and he certainly enjoyed it.  I did as well.  Toby is a very good walker... almost scary good... kind of like a battery-operated dog with an on-off switch... and it is one thing I think is almost Dog Whisperer worthy about me... so much so, that Todd got me a "Pack Leader" t-shirt for Christmas.

However, I have yet to wear it in public!  Despite trying my best, I have yet to feel I have a good handle on Rocky.  He is like a hummingbird... all over the place... left side, out in front, sniff a rock, over to the right side, licking Toby's chin, collapsing in "exhaustion" if there's 2 square inches of shade.   I am rationalizing that some of its just puppy-ness and that it will get better... probably not a theory that Cesar would buy.

So we'll see what Rocky is like when he gets home today... I imagine he'll be knocked out... though they have warned me of sleepiness after each round of shots and that's certainly not been the case.

UPDATE: 10:50 am.... Out of surgery, just waking up and doing fine... available for pick-up after 3:30 pm, we'll see if that lasts!

UPDATE: 4:15 pm... Rocky is home.  He was a bit more active than I would have expected at the vet, but I plopped him in the backyard and he's just sitting in the shade... so I think he is still a bit loopy.  The vet tech told me, his front legs just started to work in the past hour or so.   So I suspect it may be a quiet night with him.   Now, I just looked at the paperwork and it doesn't seem like he got his last round of shots... grrr!  I'll have to give them a call tomorrow, since they were packed when I left.  Toby also went along for the ride since he was due for a bordatella shot... and he needed that since the pups are going to be boarded late next month... but that's another blog entry!

UPDATE: 4:45... The vet called to tell me they forgot to give Rocky his last round of shots after he woke up from surgery... so get to go back tomorrow

The Light in the Piazza

Last week, it was pretty heavy on reality TV here at W&C... so let's try to start this week off with a bit of high(er) culture... though no promises for the remainder of this season finale week!

Friday night we were off to thea-tah... and I have to give props to Todd for going with little resistance.  You see, it was a must-win Game 5 for the Sus in the NBA Playoffs.  His gay gene crosswires/potential short-out is that in many instances he would choose watching a sporting event over a night of musical theater... heck, even I could understand the game outweighing the show in this instance. 

We didn't know a whole lot about this show going in. Todd had concerns it was going to be too romantically mushy... while I was kind of thought the same, I expected a bit more given its impressive Tony Award resume... 11 nominations and 6 wins (it did win best score, but lost best musical to Spamalot).

To make a potentially long review short(er)... and not that we expected otherwise... but Piazza is not landing on our "best" list.

(Plot spoilers ahead.... )

The story takes place in the 1950s... a upper-ish class mother (Margaret) and daughter (Clara) from North Carolina are vacationing in Florence... when in a chance encounter, the daughter meets a young and handsome (and non-fluent in English) Italian (Fabrizio)... it's love at first sight and they almost immediately wish to get married.  The complication: we learn the child-like Clara is actually developmentally challenged after a childhood accident with a pony.

While that storyline had some potential we found it just a bit lame... though there is no faulting the performance of the actress portraying Clara... she was quite good balancing a mix of innocence and confusion.  Eerily enough, at intermission, both of us agreed that the gal who was "Spiritual Sandy" in NBC's Grease: You're The One That I Want would be perfect for this role. 

However, the show hinges more on the role of Margaret... and neither of us were feeling her all that much.  I assume she is supposed to be a sympathetic character... her life squashed with a "slow" child and a loveless marriage.... but I don't think either of us ended up liking her all that much... there was a snobbish quality about her (that granted was part of the character), that just never pushed her into a positive... well... light.  This was only punctuated by the curtain call... with the actress doing a big 'ole dramatic (and gag-inducing) curtsy.   Perhaps, I/we just missed something.  I know the actress who originally played the role  won the Tony and many other theater awards that season.

Oh, I should add that the actor who played Fabrizio was quite pleasant to look at ... so that was a certainly a plus...  though, as a group, the Italian accents among the Naccarelli family ventured into Italian cartoon character territory.   Also, showing "saving" for us were the wonderful sets and lighting... both of which, we would agree, were deserving Tony wins.

Alas, we didn't find the music all that memorable... and it was a bit difficult to hear/understand the lyrics (our theater is often criticized for poor acoustics... go figure... though I usually don't have a problem)... but that said, we've seen worse.  The production certainly had a "quality" feel to it... but after seeing dozens and dozens (and dozens!) of shows... it's getting more difficult to impress us.

Express Lane: Issue 30

Trump to NBC: "You can't fire me, I quit" - Hey, Donald it probably would have sounded better if you said this before the network released their fall schedule. (5/18/07)

'Office' Worker Fischer Fractures Back - Get well wishes to Jenna who took a nasty tumble down a flight of stairs in NY on Monday.  Fortunately, she avoided spinal injury and is expected to be back to Dunder Mifflin later this summer.  (5/17/07)

FOX Orders Two More '24' Days - And Jack's back as well, with Keifer inking a $10M+ deal that keeps the show going thru 2009... with critics and fans (myself included) thinking the show is suffering from creative fatigue, producers are promising "sweeping changes" next season. (5/16/07)

CBS Opts For Stability - Rounding out the Big 3 networks, CBS announces it's fall schedule... not watching too much here... 'Mother' is back, but 'Old Christine' and TAR are held for midseason... while only new show, the musical thriller (you read that right) 'Viva Laughlin' caught my eye. (5/16/07)

ABC Adds Nine Shows for Fall - Here's what ABC plans for the fall... lots of new shows and changes pretty much every night.  The one new show catching my eye is 'Dirty Sexy Money' starring Peter Krause and helmed by 'Brothers & Sisters' Greg Berlanti. (5/15/07)

NBC Has Flair for the Dramatic - Check out NBC's tentative Fall line-up... see what's new (Lipstick Jungle), borrowed (Bionic Woman), returning (Scrubs?!!), gone (Studio 60, Crossing Jordan), and moved (Medium, Friday Night Lights). (5/14/07)

Danielle and Eric broke up after The Amazing Race: All Stars - Shocking ain't it?  When will reality romance ever bloom?  (5/8/07)

ABC details final three "Lost" seasons - Ok, folks... only 48 episodes, three seasons of 16 episodes left!  Starting planning that "Lost" finale party for May 2010. (5/7/07)