Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Nothing Special


toothpastefordinner.com

I know, I know. I'm just not feelin' it right now. 24 doesn't even seem to be worth blogging about.

I downloaded the series premieres of Raines and Andy Barker, PI. so, maybe I'll write about those sometime.

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Wednesday... American Idol.... Top 12 Results Show

Diana Ross sounds weird, and I think she took a few sips out of Paula's glass.

I tuned in late. I think I saw Phil in the bottom 3, and the last spot in the bottom 3 will be either Sanjaya, who should leave, or Haley, who I picked to leave last week in my ultimate week-by-week predictions.

Won't be surprised if Phil goes home though. Ooh, Brandon is the other one in the bottom 3. Heck, I'm not gonna be shocked or sad if any of these people leave.

Sanjaya is in the bottom 3! I love being wrong.

Phil is safe. It's GOTTA be Sanjaya that leaves. Come on.

Sanjaya is safe. Brandon is gone. What the heck is going on?

I had Brandon leaving on April 4 - after Haley, Sanjaya and Phil. So, the bottom 3 are in my top 4 to leave. So maybe I'll get them all out of order, but the top 8 should be about right.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Monday... 24... Ep. 6-13... "6:00 PM-7:00 PM"

CTU is watching as Logan is being brought in. Milo makes a brief half-second appearance for the first time since he got shot. Logan asks Chloe who she is, then what's going on with Bauer. She can't talk now. She says he has the security camera to keep him company, and to stay put in holding.

Buchanan calls a meeting and introduces everyone to Mike Doyle and tells all of them Bauer is being held captive. Milo plays dumb so the new guy can puff out his chest and tell everyone that their primary goal is to capture Markov, then get Jack out. Milo continues to argue, not being able to do much else with his right arm in a sling. Ooh, apparenty Milo has issues with Doyle and says he is a jerk, just like John Denver. Wait, that was IN Denver.

Chloe comes back in after missing the whole meeting and asks Morris for the summary. He tells her that the goal is to get Markov, not Jack. This does not make Chloe very happy.

Speaking of Jack, he sees his friend who tried to help him a week ago (five minutes ago?) and he's lying on the floor. A guard kicks Jack and tosses him down the stairs. He then calls Markov asking if he should kill the American. Jack plays unconscious, and somehow knows just exactly when the guard is raising his gun. He lassos his belt around the gun (!) and tosses the guard to the ground! Jack worms his way to the gun while the guard grabs a small cuticle knife. No contest. Markov watches as the guard gets shot. He tells his men to find him in the basement, as if he would just stick around. No one can find him behind that one suitcase! Markov instructs everyone to turn off everything everywhere. Jack gets to the phone and calls CTU but can't finish his call! "Damn it!" So, he moves some fuse wires around and turns out the lights.

Milo tells Buchanan that Jack just called and Bill tells Milo to continue messanger duties, and to tell Doyle that Jack is not dispensable.

Buchanan tells Logan his plan to attack, and Logan doesn't agree. Logan tells Bill that he knows a way to convince President Subaru-ov to act against Markov. His insane ex-wife, Martha.

Doyle walks from computer to computer pointing out things that are wrong. Nobody likes him. He grabs Morris by the neck because Morris takes 2 extra seconds! Then he makes a big speech about him being in charge, and he don't want no lip. Milo tells Doyle not to manhandle the nice bald guy, and to come to him with any problems.

Lennox meets with VP and says he will look the other way, for now. But the truth will prevail! But VP wants Lennox to flat out lie and say he SAW Assad plant the bomb. Lennox doesn't like it, and VP spits on him. VP convinces Lennox to go along with it, because we're mad as hell!

Gredenko, still way out in plain sight where nobody is looking, is getting the bombs ready. Hey CTU, why not hover around and look for people surrounded by airplanes and drones?

Buchanan tells VP his thoughts about Martha and attacking the consulate and VP tells CTU to plan as if they're going to attack the consulate.

Aaron is taking care of Martha Logan, giving her fruit and magazines. Logan calls. Aaron answers "Martha Logan's Bungalow!" Logan gives him the skinny while Martha gets angry. Aaron continues to argue that she does not want to speak with him, but Logan mentions the Suvarovs. Martha jumps and gets on the phone. Luckily they're only minutes away from CTU so Logan is going to come see them.

Bill tells Logan they are going to attack, and if he doesn't like it, he has to get Martha's cooperation, Suvarov's wife's attention and Suvarov's demand to make Markov surrender before it's too late. It's a long shot.

Jack finds two Russians loving it up in a back room and asks them how they contact the outside world. Jack threatens them and asks for a phone, or he will kill them. The guy leaves and he tells the girl she'll be fine. Unless of course CTU attacks the consulate, which is very possible.

Logan arrives at the bungalow and Aaron refuses to shake hands. Aaron says Martha changed her mind, and she doesn't want to see him. Don't remember her ever agreeing to see him. But she pops out of her room when she notices how thin he is. He tells her the season's recap but doesn't want to go into any more detail. Martha will not dance like a monkey, and doesn't think Logan's "prison" is all that bad. Martha asks Aaron what to do, and he tells her to do it. She dances for him now.

VP and Lennox sits down with the Ambassador. VP threatens that he will attack his country unless they help him find the rest of the bombs.

Mrs. Suvarov is giving a speech and cannot be bothered yet. Logan apologizes for upsetting Martha and she starts getting frisky with Aaron in front of him. She starts getting very angry and takes it out on some kiwi. Logan says a few nice words to Aaron and Martha loses it again. She gets up with her fruit and stops short. She takes a knife and stabs Logan! She hits an artery! Good aim Martha! Logan is bleeding bad.

Bill wants to know if Martha can still talk to Suvarov. Aaron doesn't know. She says of course, she's not crazy! Anya doesn't know much. She tells Anya that details are very important, except apparently for Logan. Anya asks for more information...

...Seconds later, Suvarov commands Markov to surrender and to give up Jack unharmed. Markov disobeys and hangs up. Suvarov tells Bill that Markov won't give up, and agrees to the attack on the consulate.

Jack finally gets the phone from the lovebirds. (Chloe could've gotten it in seconds.) A couple of guards come in and start shooting. Man lovebird is hit!

CTU attacks the consulate. Guards down! Jack and the woman are ok.

Markov calls Gredenko and tells him they are under attack and to launch the drones immediately.

Doyle introduces himself to Jack.

The drone is ready to launch.

Bill tells CTU to focus on Shadow Valley.

Logan wakes up, says "Martha" and flatlines.

Monday, March 12, 2007

Miscellaneous Musings, Buffy Edition

Not much to muse about today, but a very special Happy Anniversary to Joss Whedon and his Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which aired it's first episode on March 10, 1997.

July 31 will be the 15th year anniversary of the movie release, but the TV show definitely had better reviews and probably more viewers. Some people are still surprised when they found out there was a movie.



Buffy the Vampire Slayer, played by Sarah Michelle Gellar, lasted seven seasons on the WB and UPN. It also led to the spin-off series Angel, which started after season three of Buffy and lasted five seasons, going on one year after Buffy ended. Angel (David Boreanaz) made apperances on Buffy's final episodes, but Gellar only appeared on a handful of Angel episodes, and none after Buffy ended. Whedon had originally planned for only five seasons of Buffy, according to a Q&A with TVGuide.com in December.

Buffy has been sort of a measuring stick for some of the newer TV shows, with studios knowing that a strong cast and storytelling is needed to make shows, especially genre-strong ones, work.



Egged on to have the series make a comeback or at least have some TV-movies with some of the favorite characters (Spike comes to mind), Whedon will be writing some comic books now. Rather than comics and novels that stood by themselves, Buffy: Season 8 will be a graphic continuation of the television show. The series should be 20-30 issues and will be written by Whedon along with some comic book pro writers and some former Buffy writers.

Whedon also had a comic series called Fray, which was about another Slayer in the future, but I can't seem to find anything that leads me to believe there were more than eight of those, but sold over 200,000 copies combined. "One issue of Fray was a year late," says Whedon.

Obviously due to his success with strong female characters, Joss was writing and re-writing the anticipated and probably required if-it's-a-comic-it-has-to-be-a-movie Wonder Woman film, but is no longer attached. Rumor has it the front-runner to play the lead was How I Met Your Mother's Cobie Smulders, who I think would have been awesome.

A little where are they now for ya:

Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy) starred in both The Grudge movies (2004, 2006). She voiced April O'Neil in the new animated TMNT movie, due out in March. She also has three movies coming out: Alice, Addicted and Suburban Girl.

Nicholas Brendon (Xander) starred in a couple of TV shows, Kitchen Confidential and a voice in the Disney Channel's American Dragon: Jake Long. He has a horror movie coming out in 2008 called Unholy.

Alyson Hannigan (Willow) currently stars in How I Met Your Mother, which has been a show for a few Buffy alums to guest-star on. She has regular roles in parody movies, including Date Movie and Farce of the Penguins. She also had a recurring role on the TV cult-hit Veronica Mars, another show centered by a strong female character.

Anthony Stewart Head (Giles) will be appearing in the 2007 film Sweeney Todd, based on the Broadway musical. It stars Johnny Depp as the lead character. He also played Duncan in a modern retelling of Macbeth, which is in post-production.

James Marsters (Spike) had a recurring role on Smallville for eight episodes. He had a role in the 2006 horror film Shadow Puppets, which according to some seems to be a blatant rip-off of a Buffy episode where the gang lose their memories.

Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia) also had a story arc on Veronica Mars. She has also been in a few TV movies and posed for Playboy magazine in June 2004.

David Boreanaz (Angel) stars in the Fox drama Bones, which was recently renewed for a third season.

Eliza Dushku (Faith) starred as Tru Davies on the Fox drama Tru Calling, a low-rated show which also saw good DVD sales, like Whedon's Firefly. According to IMDb.com, she's in production on numerous projects.

and D.B. Woodside (Principal Wood) is the President of the Unites States on 24!

Friday, March 9, 2007

Miscellaneous Musings, Idol Edition

Not only is this shaping up to be the worst crop of talent in American Idol history, but it seems to be the most talked about season to date.

Thursday morning I was driving to work when the WDVD Morning Show began by talking about Wednesday night's performances. Apparently "Blaine" loves to tease the girls about how much he loves Antonella. Well, I got out of work just a couple hours later, and as soon as I got in the car, they were still or again talking about the show!

This morning I went to Denny's, and all of a sudden, as if it were the first season of Survivor, I overheard "Did you hear who got kicked off?!?!" They talked about it for about ten minutes. Now, since I do watch it and blog about it, obviously I'm kinda guilty. And I do talk about it with people. It's just insane that I don't remember people talking about the better artists more.

The Morning Show is now playing an interview from Lakisha. They did pause for a few minutes earlier to talk about Tom Brady and Britney, but thank goodness they're back to Idol!! Right? I now get back to hypocrisy by continuing to post my thoughts on Idol.

Hahaha, did Frenchie really use a coke bottle?! Ew.

Anyway, I promised my predictions. I reserve the right to make predictions based on performances on the spot, but I wanted to take a stab at the order in which they will leave now.

March 14 - Haley Scarnato
March 21 - Sanjaya Malakar
March 28 - Phil Stacey
April 4 - Brandon Rogers
April 11 - Stephanie Edwards
April 18 - Chris Richardson
April 25 - Gina Glocksen
May 2 - Chris Sligh
May 9 - Jordin Sparks
May 16 - Melinda Doolittle
May 22 Finale - Blake Lewis vs. Lakisha

Lakisha wins.

This is tough. I really don't even see Blake lasting that long, but... I don't know who else can. Like I said, it's a strange season. That would be an interesting finale though, with two really different singers. Blake could possibly make one of those horrible exclusive Idol songs entertaining. I'm not thrilled over anyone really. Everyone is saying Melinda is going to win right now. Well, I should say that Simon said that and everyone wants to agree with him to make it sound like they know what's going on. I actually wouldn't be surprised if she left much earlier, the way this season has gone.

We'll see.

Thursday, March 8, 2007

Thursday... American Idol... The Top 12 Revealed

This.... is American Idol.

To recap, my picks to leave were Sundance, Phil, Antonella and Haley. Even though I hope I'm wrong and Sanjaya leaves.

Group song. Man, this season is so boring! Hopefully Carrie Underwood can save it tonight.

I wonder how comfortable those upside down salon hair bowl seats are.

With as many viewers as they have, do they really need these recaps? I know they have to stretch the show to fill an hour, but come on.

Girls and guys together? Hmm. Let's go.

Lakisha and Blake are first, and they're obviously going to be in the top 12.
Chris Sligh is not.... going to find out until after the break. Oh geez.

I think Ryan feels like Howie stole his thunder with the whole commercial cliffhanger thing, he's bringing it back.

Bones is new next week? American Idol moves to 9:00. Woah!

And now, Chris Sligh can finally sit down.
Jordin "Zap" Sparks is young and safe. The youngest ones always seem to last.
Phil needs to go. Damn, he's safe. But maybe there's hope for Sanajaya leaving now.
Jared could be gone though. I didn't think to pick him, but he hasn't been that great.

I know one girl who is happy to see him go! I don't think he sounds as bad as some of them, though. His song is kind of ironic.

Slippin! 0 for 1 tonight, 5 for 9 so far, I think. I'll have to go back and check. After tonight I'll be making a post and picking the Top 12 and how they will go home in order. Idol's website had a game like that last year. I'll try to find and post my picks.

Melinda and Brandon are both safe.
Gina Glocksen! and Chris Richardson should both be safe. Yup.

Aw, here comes Carrie. I can't describe in words how upset I would have been if Bob Ice beat her. Yeah, I call him Bob Ice. I want to find that picture of her with the Grammys. It was adorable. It's gotta be a little surreal for her, and the others that come back. She was just one of however many people trying to win that year, and she comes back being one of the biggest names in her genre. That's a pretty big leap.

Antonella, Haley and Sundance are all still vulnerable. Sanjaya is over there too, as is Stephanie and Sabrina Sloan. Wow, that's a lot of S.

Antonella and Stephanie. I can't see them both going home. Antonella is out, about three weeks too late for some. I don't think she is surprised. Maybe she'll compare herself to Jennifer Hudson again!

Haley and Sabrina up. I don't think they'd send two home back to back, so they should both be safe. Or, maybe not. Haley is safe! I'm about to throw something. Gina better win this whole damn thing now. I've never had a favorite leave this early.

So, two I picked to leave are already safe. One left, and the other is Sundance. And just to mess with my picks more, I bet Sanjaya will finally leave. Those are the only two left. I'd rather have Sundance stay one more week, but I want my percentage to go up!

Let's see what this announcement is. Oh, 200 episodes. And they're going to end poverty? Hey, that kid is better than Sanjaya! So, they're going to donate money for every vote cast on a certain Tuesday (I missed the date) and then people can donate themselves on Wednesday. BORAT is going to be on! That's funny. I assume he'll be in character then. Which seems a little weird when they're trying to make people aware of how bad things really are. If you've seen Borat, you weren't treated to a history lesson.

'Til Death is still on the air? Wow.

Sanjaya is still on this show? Wow.

VTFW even told people to vote for Sundance. Ok, I didn't like his performance, but Sanjaya hasn't even been average yet! This is an INSANE top 12. I can't believe one of these people is going to sell millions of records (because people WILL buy whoever the heck wins, regardless.)

2 for 4 tonight. 3 for 4 in Week 1, 2 for 4 in Week 2. Which makes me 7 for 12.

Wednesday, March 7, 2007

Wednesday... American Idol.... Top 8 Girls

Top 8 Girls. I wish the top 12 could include 7 of them (minus Antonella), because the guys were suckin'.

Here we go.

"Our most groundbreaking Idol project"? Ten bucks says it's the Idol Camp they already advertise on their website.

I missed what Randy just said. It's a live show.

Jordin starts it out. She sounds better without the backup singers. She kinda blends in when they're going so you can't really tell how she is doing. Randy thinks it's hot and dope. Paula likes her zzzzzzzzz, and Simon is once again not thrilled, but she will 100% be here next week. I think the judges now pick comments out of a hat from the past five seasons.

Sabrina is better than Christina, haha. Oooh, except for that note. Wait, this isn't a Christina song. Oops. En Vogue. I think she's kinda losing it and trying to do too much. Still better than the guys. Randy isn't thrilled, Paula thinks she can sing (wow, great insight) and Simon thinks it lacks emotion and it sounds like a hotel performance. But without hesitation she deserves a Top 12 spot.

Here comes Antonella. I actually hope she does great and everyone has to re-think their position on her. Haha, position. Oh no, Corrine? Gonna be tough to compare. It's weird when people try to do songs that are currently on the charts. She actually sounds pretty good though. Randy thinks it's ok, Paula is tripping over her politeness, and Simon says goodbye to her in so many words. She always looks confused when Simon says something bad. Randy thinks she can sing better than she shows; it seems like she thinks she IS better than anyone. I like her singing better than her attitude.

Haha, American Idol lottery tickets. Man, they can sell anything.

I've never heard this song Haley is doing. For some reason, it has the sound of a Christmas song. Eh, not much better or much worse than what we've heard so far. It ended a bit abruptly. Randy wants more "Wow" and "Yo!". Paula regurgitates Randy's comments. Simon thinks it's horrible. Woah, he hasn't used such a big insult like that since the auditions. Ryan is trying to make her feel better and give her some pity. Simon backs off a tad, but thinks it may be her last performance.

Stephanie is wearing an American Idol t-shirt in her interview. Haha. She should make the Top 3 girls easily. But if she has a bad night, people will remember it more. She did seem "pitchy" as Randy might say. And there it is. "Chaka done sung it. It not gon' be sung like that no'mo'." It's amazing that Randy can say all these neutral-to-negative comments and Paula says nearly flawless. Simon thinks she is one of the best but is copycat.

Lakisha (or LaKisha?) wants a hug from Ryan. Hmmm, who should he choose between her and Chris Sligh?

Oh boy. Randy goes on and on about these popular artists and now Lakisha is doing a Whitney song. He's either gonna say it's hot, or start another rant about how anyone he's worked with shouldn't be copied on the show. Or, "another great performance." I wasn't thrilled. Simon says she brought passion and believability. Didn't mentioned "charismar," though.

I think Fox really wants me to watch Wedding Bells. Ok, they talked me into it.

Gina Glocksen! Still my favorite name. She's only wanted this for the past four years? Hmm. Another chart topper here. I think this is her kind of song though, even though I'm not a big fan of it. It's hard to like it now when I don't even like it that much with Amy Lee singing it. She'll make it to the top 12, though. Randy agrees with me, and so does Paula, and so does Simon, but they all think she might have oversang it a tad.

First shoutout to the band in weeks!

Why does Melinda bore me so much? She just looks stiff and plain. I don't know. Except now she's all over the place. I think it's the first time someone has walked off the main stage while singing. She's closing the show and it was definitely memorable, so she'll make it. Randy thinks she could make a record right now. Paula pours on the compliments. Simon calls her a tiger.

They better hurry with the recaps so they can show Wedding Bells on time! They've only shown commercials every three minutes.

I'm going to vote for the first time this year. Once for Gina and once for Sabrina.

Top 3 girls could easily be Lakisha, Stephanie and maybe Sabrina. Jordin and Gina could be the dark horses.

Should be an easy pick this week, with Antonella and Haley leaving. Vote For The Worst wants people to vote for Antonella and Sundance, two of my picks to leave. So, we'll see if they screw me over.