American Idol Recap – Road to the Top 24

Unfortunately there was no recap last night, as I was celebrating Maggie’s birthday (which apparently is more important that blogging about Idol), then watching the end of Carmelo’s debut and the Terps big win over FSU.

But before tonight’s revealing of the rest of the Top 24, here’s a recap of last night’s two hour show.

– 61 contestants remain, put in groups of 2 or 3, singing Beatles songs in Las Vegas. Very happy to finally see Idol show this portion finally. Usually it goes from after Group Week when they put the contestants in 4 rooms straight to announcing the top 24.

– Good to see Lauren Alaina finally showing some nerves, was afraid she’d get too arrogant.

– My favorite moment (even though it involved my least favorite contestant) was when Ashley Sullivan got married, because it was at the The Little White Wedding Chapel Of Love, the exact same place Maggie and I got married four-plus years ago!  I’m a little disappointed that Ashley didn’t opt for the drive-thru wedding like we did.

– Paul McDonald, Tim Halperin and Pia Toscano might have sounded the best doing the Beatles.  Was a little disappointed with Chris Medina and Casey Abrams duet, didn’t really mesh well.

– Sad to see Sophia Shorai get cut after her performance.  Probably her own fault for partnering with Ashley Sullivan.

– Thia Megia may have an incredible voice, but I think it’s confirming that 15 is too young of an age minimum for this show; she looks like a frightened puppy out there.

– They need to cut Scotty McCreery already, he’s a one-note low pony, plus John Wayne Schulz should be this year’s resident cowboy. Also if Rachel Zevita makes it thru to the Top 24, I may boycott.

– Not making the cut after Beatles performances include Ashley Sullivan, Molly DeWolf, Carson Higgins, Caleb Hawley, Denise Jackson and Melinda Ademi.  Not sad about any of those cuts.

Carmelo Trade A Success For Knicks

I spent the majority of the day yesterday refreshing my browser every 30 seconds it seemed waiting to see if there was any more news on if or when Carmelo Anthony might be traded and to where he might go.  As a Knicks fan (and season ticket holder), I probably read every single article online in the past three months that mentioned anything about Carmelo and his desire to play for the Knicks, or the Nets desire to give up most of their assets or random bits of leaked rumors (Melo to the Lakers, Rockets, etc.).

It was time consuming, it was frustrating, it was nerve wracking and now it’s over.  And ironically, I missed it all happening.  I must have fallen asleep around 10pm last night b/c before my head hit the pillow, Melo was still a Nugget.  However, when I woke up to take the dogs out at 3am, I made the fortunate (or unfortunate) mistake of grabbing my cell and seeing the several text messages I had about the trade going through.  I say unfortunate, because I spent the next two hours reading every article I could about the trade.

Fischer’s Friday Five

Several weeks ago, a rumor had circulated that there was going to be a sequel to The Big Lebowski, which is in my all-time top 5 favorite movies. Now I hadn’t been expecting or anticipating a sequel to this movie (::cough:: Ghostbusters 3 ::cough::), so this was a pleasant surprise and instantly had me salivating and waiting to see what was next for The Dude, Walter, Maude, Karl Hungus and Donnie’s scattered ashes. Unfortunately, this was a rouse perpetrated by Tara Reid (Bunny Lebowski), thus proving how stupid we all are for believing anything that she says. She may s my d for $1000, but I’d give that $1000 back to p her in the v.

Although that did lead me to think about what other great movies out there would I pay good money (apparently $12.50 is now considered good money) to see and what would the plot consist of.

I’m Jarrett, It’s Friday, and here’s my five…

TOP FIVE SEQUELS THAT SHOULD BE MADE

American Idol Recap – Top 100

After two-hours of group performances last night filled with drama, tension, tears and probably a mild case of diarrhea for some of these contestants, we’re left with 100 hopefuls hoping to become one of the 50 hopefuls to make it to next week, who will then become one of the 24 hopefuls to make it to the preliminary voting rounds to become one of 12 hopefuls to make it to the Kodak Theater to become one of 10 hopefuls to make the Idol summer tour to become one of 3 hopefuls to get to go home and celebrate with their family and friends to then maybe become an average-record selling Idol winner.  In other words, we’ll still mixing the Idol batter and this cake has yet to bake, but damn if it ain’t fun to lick the batter (unless it involves Tiffany Rios, shudder).

Last night saw one of my hopefuls, Rob Bolin, crack under the pressure and be sent home, so here’s my new Top 10 after Group Week.

CURRENT TOP TEN (Previous ranking in parenthesis)
1. Lauren Alaina (1)
2. Stefano Langone (2)
3. Deandre Brackensick (NR)
4. Casey Abrams (4)
5. Pia Toscano (NR)
6. Chris Medina (5)
7. Brett Loewenstern (10)
8. Clint Jun Gamboa (NR)
9. Denise Jackson (NR)
10. Matthew Nuss (NR)

American Idol Recap – Group Week

Fresh off a solid Hollywood round week last Thursday, Idol is back tonight for what might be my most favorite episode each season…the dreaded Group Week. Those unfamiliar, just think back to when you were in school and the teacher gave you a group assignment and made you pick your own groups. Sometimes you’re in a group where all of you gel and deliver an outstanding performance on the task at hand, and then other times, you’re stuck in an awkward mish-mash group with competing personalities, or people who don’t want to do any work and get all the credit, or someone that actually tries hard but is the obvious weak link on your team and you and the other members of your team secretly plot to have that person framed for murder and deported to Siberia. Not like I was ever a part of that…

Two hours tonight of drama, 168 contestants left from the first cuts of Hollywood Week, so let’s get right to it. Here’s my current Top 10 of those who I know made it thru from last week.

MY CURRENT TOP TEN (last week’s rankings in parenthesis)
1. Lauren Alaina (1)
2. Stefano Langone (2)
3. Rob Bolin (8)
4. Casey Abrams (3)
5. Chris Medina (5)
6. Robbie Rosen (6)
7. Jackie Wilson (4)
8. Thia Megia (NR)
9. Caleb Johnson (7)
10. Brett Loewenstern (9)

Valentine’s Day Gift

This is worthy of its own post.  This afternoon, Maggie came back from the gym and said she wanted to go to Taco Bell to get a small bite to eat.  I went along with her, b/c not only had I been a little stir crazy being home and cleaning most of the day, but I can’t resist the 89-cent chicken burrito also.

We pulled into the drive-thru and after some misunderstanding with the person taking our order (why would I want extra lettuce with my iced tea?), we proceeded to the window where they handed me our food, and then the manager came to the window and handed me a big red and white gift bag and said that it was a Valentine’s Day present from them.

Ooooookay, that seems weird.  Instead of opening it right then and there, I thought I should drive away just in case it was something ridiculous.  Sadly, a severed head was the first thought that popped into my head.  I pulled us into a parking space and looked in the bag and found a brand new 64 GB Apple iPad!  After a split second of wondering why Taco Bell just gave me an iPad, Maggie’s lack of a poker face gave it all away as she orchestrated the whole thing.

I’m not one for receiving gifts, just never been my nature, but not only was the actual gift itself awesome (especially those who know about my recent frustrations of not winning an iPad), but the hilarious execution made it all the more amazing.  I think I was in too much shock to laugh hysterically, but this was a great prank/present.  And couple with the birthday surprise back in August of Blanche and how that was delivered to me (came home from work, Maggie told me shower was leaking, go upstairs and there’s Blanche in the shower), I may start expecting these great gifts more often.  (What can I expect for President’s Day next week?)

Thank you very much to my lovely and talented wife.  You are my blog muse and I’m very lucky to have you to love and to be loved by you this Valentine’s Day, even if you’re going to be in Vegas the next few days.  Try to win some money baby, so I can get all the fancy apps for this mega-phone, mini-laptop contraption that I’ll be obsessed with now.

SAS Movie Review – Black Swan

SAS = Short Attention Span – basically if you’re like me, you don’t want to read a 3 page review of a movie that’s filled with dictionary look-up words and talks in-depth about the subtle nuances and how they correlate to post-modern, neo-classical, Machiavellian, or whatever random crap that was probably taught to me in school years ago, but has since been replaced with useless knowledge about things that would only help me in a People magazine crossword puzzle.

The point is, I will only write a simple review, nothing more than a page, and nothing that will ruin any aspect of the movie (I hope). So enjoy.

BLACK SWAN

I can probably simplify this in a few words.  Ladies (and men who like other men), you’ll like the movie for all the ballet involved.  Men (who don’t like other men) and ladies (who like other ladies) you’ll like the movie for some Natalie Portman/Mila Kunis hot, although brief, action, but enough to make me wish there was a sequel.  People that are asexual, vampires or Canadian, you’ll probably enjoy the movie because it’s directed by Darren Aronofsky, who did some other intense films such as Requiem For a Dream, The Wrestler and Pi.