7 Quick Takes Friday: Now with less treadmill!

Take 1

(No I haven’t quit using the treadmill desk… I’m just trying to keep it from being the centerpiece of every blog, tweet, and Facebook update I post.)

Take 2

I’m writing this post Thursday night because tomorrow I’m going to SCBWI-LA, the international conference of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. There are some interesting workshops I’m going to try to attend, and some people I want to meet and hang out with–other than that I anticipate a fairly loose schedule. What does one do at these things? I’ll find out and let you know.

Take 3

I feel like I’m beating not just a dead horse but a dead wooden horse that nobody cared about in the first place, but I have to say it: So You Think You Can Dance is just not doing it for me this season. I totally blame the stage. It takes the dancers away from the audience, so instead of performing smaller routines with more heart, the dancers are given these huge, acrobatic routines to do. Is it any wonder there have been 3 dancers out because of injuries? Bring back the old stage. And the old judging panel, while we’re at it.

Take 4

Those of you who met me through my sewing blog might remember Mary Sue, my fashion-aware friend, the angel on my shoulder when I go shopping. (Unfortunately, Target provides you with a devil for your other shoulder as you enter the store.) Anyway, she came over the other day and we went through my closets. And I mean we went through them the way Winston would go through a bowl of Cheerios. Fast and brutal. She would pull clothes off the hanger while I was still whinily trying to justify them. I ended up taking 5 giant bags of stuff to Goodwill. And it feels so good! Everything that we took out was stuff I either didn’t wear or shouldn’t wear.

I was inspired to do it by Six Items or Less, a 30-day experiment a bunch of people did in which they tried to wear only six items of (non-undergarment) clothes. Now, six seems a little extreme to me. But being down out of the 200s is probably a good thing.

Take 5

There’s a new AuthorMix up today! It’s a Speed Round, a quick shot of goofiness. Check it out here! (And if you enjoy the AuthorMix videos, please consider blogging, tweeting, or otherwise spreading the word about them.)

Take 6

While cleaning out my closet, we removed a box from the lowest cubby in a corner, leaving an open cubbyhole at ground level. I decided to see what would happen if I put Winston’s blanket in there. He instantly climbed in and fell asleep. For some reason I think it’s hilarious that my dog is in the closet. Except earlier today, I slid the doors over to find something to wear, and a couple of minutes later, Winston comes pushing his way out through all my clothes. Oops!

Take 7

The other day, I went to breakfast with Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, who are two of my guests in AuthorMix and the authors of Beautiful Creatures, which was one of Amazon.com’s top 10 books for 2009; and Vania, a book blogger-turned-book trailer producer. It was so fun and I got the best cupcake ever. Mostly, I was enthralled and inspired by Margie and Kami’s utter passion for books. These are two women you want in your corner, believe you me. They could get their own house at Hogwarts. I don’t know what it would be called but it would be awesome.

Cheerio, all! Happy weekend!

Add comment July 30th, 2010

Saturday miscellany

Okay, so Parks and Recreation, The Office, and 30 Rock were all insanely funny this week. I think all of them had lines that could go down in the history of great TV one-liners, although I don’t recall any of them verbatim. Matt Damon’s line about the birds on 30 Rock was pretty awesome.

Speaking of TV, I’m sure none of you are watching American Idol this season. I have to say, after performers like Adam Lambert last season and David Cook the year before, the contestants this year are basically a snoozefest. Lee will probably win but it’s like, I don’t care! I’d still vote for Didi Benami if I could. I do think this year’s contestants were a highly good-natured and courteous bunch. Maybe that’s their problem. Time to start throwing chairs and wrecking hotel rooms. Where’s the passion?

I got overly optimistic with my last batch of library books, and I am way behind (in terms of due date). I’ll get there, though! An interesting mix of books on the reading list this month.

I started going back to yoga. YAY! Especially since I hurt my leg in Hawaii, stretching it feels sooooo good. Plus the teacher is a friend of mine and I like to support her. She always seems to know exactly what parts of my body need stretching, although sometimes that means doing poses I’m not particularly fond of. Have you ever noticed that the yoga poses you dislike the most are the ones you need the most?

The weather is warming up. I forgot how quickly my house transitions from “winter freezing” to “summer baking.” Insulation, what’s that? The upside is that I can wear my cute summer dresses around the house without getting frostbitten toes! Huzzah!

So that’s the news around here. I’m a little behind on BALTWIM (Blogging At Least Thrice Weekly in May)… does that mean we’ll see a sneaky Saturday night post? Possibly! Bite those fingernails!

Cheers!
k.

May 22nd, 2010

7 Quick Takes Friday, #3

That’s right, everybody! It’s time for…

No. 1

I’m just going to admit it: I like certain reality shows that are viewed in some circles to be unworthy. (I think I admit this on, like, a weekly basis. But as far as TV confessions go, it’s a biggie, so that’s probably about right.) I won’t dwell, but here’s who I like: American Idol: Crystal, Siobhan, and Didi. America’s Next Top Model: Raina and Jessica. Also, anybody but Ren (where did she even come from? I keep thinking a horse’s head ended up in somebody’s bed at some point… that’s a Godfather reference.) Project Runway: You know what? I don’t even really care this season. Nobody has been consistently amazing.

No. 2

Thanks for the compliments on yesterday’s backyard post. Ironically, just as I was feeling all free and lovely about the natural growth, I scheduled a landscape guy to come look at our front yard (which is tiny, but a wreck, mostly because it has no sprinklers or hose), and the husb said, “Have him look at the back, too. It’s a mess.”

No. 3

If you happen to live in or near New York, you should go to the NEw York Public Library’s Teen Author Symposium. Specifically, you should go Saturday afternoon (Bartos Forum, 42nd Street, 1pm) to the Stuff for the Teen Age Event, because BAD GIRLS DON’T DIE made their 2009 list! Did I mention that here, or just on Twitter? Anyway, go and cheer or hold my books up and go up to strangers and say, “In your FACE!” (Except do it in a whisper… it’s a library event.)

No. 4

I’ve been really bad and bought a lot of music over the past few days. What doesn’t help are these collections iTunes sells, like Top Hits of the 1930s, which is 172 songs for $19.99! And Ladies of the 1940s, 40-something songs for $9.99. And yes, it’s all the original artists! What’s a girl to do? Plus I had to buy some of Didi and Siobhan’s American Idol performances. I love music, but I can’t listen to anything with lyrics while I write. So who knows how long it’ll be before I actually get to listen to any of it. I am especially fond of this cover of And So It Goes by Sara Gazarek.

No. 5

iPhoto, the photo management software that comes with Macs, has a new feature that supposedly recognizes faces. It finds what it thinks are all of the human faces in a photo, and then you tell it who’s who in a few instances, and it tries to identify those people in other photos. Well, it constantly fails to even find the faces, and much more rarely identifies something that is not a face as being one. I’m not going to name names, but it was looking for one of my friends and suggested a picture of a pig snout. I forget who, but somebody at work once gave one to Winston as a treat. Nothing in this world has ever meant more to anyone than that pig snout meant to Winston. Maybe the whole Gollum/Precious thing comes close. Anyway, I’m never going to tell this person iPhoto thought they resembled the snout of a pig, but it struck me as pretty funny. (And no, I can’t post the picture… pig snouts are very literal and extremely gross.)

No. 6

I’ve been trying for a long time to get the husb to bring home a drive that I can use to back up the computer (I can’t get one myself, it’s a very complicated Man-Computer thing… just like I’d never try to pick out a TV myself). I was especially re-inspired by this post at Anne & May, so I stepped up the nagging. Then, yesterday, I had a CD in my computer, and it wouldn’t come out. But it kept trying to spit it out. Then I turned off the computer and for a second, it wouldn’t turn on. In retrospect, I was probably pushing the button wrong or something. But it scared the everloving daylights out of me. And I finally got my drive.

No. 7

Currently reading: Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson and The Liars’ Club by Mary Karr

Happy Friday, everyone!

4 comments March 19th, 2010

How writing is like Survivor

I watch a lot of reality TV. I tend to stay away from shows that are just sitcom-style reality (sit-real?)–you know, The Hills,Keeping Up With the Kardashians,Jersey Shore, any kind of real housewives anywhere. I like shows where somebody learns something or is inspired–either me (Project Runway, Top Chef) or the participants.

Which brings me to my ultimate guilty pleasure: Wife Swap.

The format is basically this: two women from drastically different households switch places for two weeks. For the first week, they live the life of the other woman. For the second week, each wife makes up a set of rules that force the other family to live by her rules. The drama comes when you have a control-freak personal trainer switching with a laid-back competitive eater. Or a shallow, pampered shopaholic trading place with a farmer. Or a devoutly religious woman switching place with a family of more, ahem, relaxed morals.

At the end of the two weeks, the pairs of husbands and wives meet up across a table and talk about the experience. About half the time, someone gets up and leaves in a huff, but they always come back to finish up. (You can just picture the producers saying, “Now, come on, you’ve made it this far. And the contract clearly states that if you want your $25,000, you have to do every singe thing we tell you to do.”)

Wife Swap is on about forty times a day, so there’s never a shortage of episodes to watch. But my style of watching the show has evolved. Instead of watching beginning, middle, and end, for a total of 42 minutes of program time, about eight of ten times, I watch the first ten minutes and then skip ahead to the last ten, for about fifteen minutes of program time. Why? Because those are the bits of the show when something changes.

In a vast majority of the episodes, the middle chunk is all drama–kids whining, dads whining, moms crying, everybody yelling… it’s all filler. The interesting part is finding out whether the experience changed them, and how they think about it later.

Notice I said that I skip ahead in about 80% of the episodes. The other 20% bring something extra to the table: characters who draw you in. Unexpected connections between the women and their surrogate families. Revelations, growth, moments of self-reflection. Sometimes a woman, faced with having the other family live by her rules, realizes that she doesn’t particularly like her rules. Sometimes a fundamentalist housewife realizes that the biker family she thought were heathens are actually (gasp!) Christians, just like she is!

I think this is an extremely valuable lesson for a writer. A novel chronicles events in a character’s life. It cannot be an interesting beginning, a bunch of filler, and an interesting ending. The middle needs to be about more than just whining, crying, and yelling. You need to have a story. Once you get the formula down, as a consumer of books or TV or movies, you find yourself looking for the next plot point. The next moment when something’s going to change, or somebody’s going to grow. It’s the job of an author to make sure that a book is so full of those characters and moments that the reader doesn’t want to skip the middle.

And on that note, I’d better get to work!

The Daily Plah: Day 4
Currently reading: The Battle for God by Karen Armstrong
Song of the day: Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood, the Nina Simone version
Book 2 progress: Wrote a new opening chapter. Ready to get a move on!
Other notable facts: I’m so excited for the return of The Office tonight!

3 comments March 4th, 2010

So You Think You Can Dance – my top nine routines (spoiler-free)

(Did you enter my contest yet?)

I’m a HUGE fan of Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance. If you’ve never seen it, you probably have a picture in your head that’s something like Dancing With the Stars, but it’s so much more than football players slurking their way through sambas.

SYTYCD is a competition show that starts with twenty young dancers, in male-female pairings, and each week, the couples are assigned a new style of choreography and a new choreographer to work with. I don’t have any statistics, but I can only imagine what the show has done for the appreciation of dance in the USA (and across the world, via the international versions).

When was the last time you saw a teenager (or a, um, 32-year-old) get excited about a Viennese Waltz? When was the last time you saw a hip-hop dancer do a quickstep? The show incorporates world dance styles, like Bollywood, African dance, and the Argentine Tango. It’s broadening people’s minds and putting a spotlight on true artistry and skill.

One of my favorite things the show has brought to light is that street dancing–like hip hop, breakdancing, and popping and locking–really IS dance and does have tons of musicality. The best evidence of this is how the dancers who “come from” those styles often adopt other dance styles effortlessly. (The winner of season 4 was a hip-hop dancer.) It’s really about breaking down boundaries.

And the dances are amazing!

Now that Season 5 has ended, here’s my list of my top nine routines from the year. (Yes, I decided to stop at nine. Sue me.)

Warning: some of these videos may be removed by the copyright holders, which I understand but don’t understand. It;s kind of like not letting someone paint your house for you because it’s YOUR paintbrush. But whatever.

#1 – “Addiction” by Kayla and Kupono
What can I say? This is #1 by about a million miles. Kupono plays the addiction, and the brilliant Kayla plays the addict. By the end of this dance, the dancers are crying, the choreographer is crying, and I’m a blubbering mess. It’s just brilliant.

#2 – “Crash Test Dummies” by Ashley and Kupono
This was on the first top-20 show of the season, which was an incredible show. In my experience, people run hot and cold on this dance. I found it absolutely mesmerizing. Ashley was voted off the show pretty early, but in this dance, she is gorgeous and adorable.

#3 – “The Butt Dance” by Evan and Randi
Evan is a Broadway-style dancer who, in my opinion, will reach his potential after he spends a little time at the gym lifting weights and developing his muscles, so he can hit a little harder (he’s often compared to Gene Kelly, but Gene Kelly was never unintentionally soft in his entire career). (The dancing starts at about 2:25.)

#4 – “If It Kills Me” by Jeanine and Jason
This was choreographed by the guy who came in second in season 2, Travis Wall. It’s a very emotional and strong dance, and the first dance to really show off Jason well.

#5 – “Hot Like Wow” by Kayla and Max
This dance reminds me of the Disney movie “Aladdin,” which my little sister watched approximately 500 times as a child. (The dance starts at 1:58.)

#6 – “Viennese Waltz” by Kayla and Kupono
This dance is just beautiful. Kupono’s grace and elegance really served the routine well. And Kayla, as always, is amazing.

#7 – “Paso Doble” by Brandon and Jeanine
In the paso doble, the man is meant to be the matador and the woman represents the cape. This is the first paso doble all season to get even close to that. There was a good one last season, but this one is just incredible.

#8 – “The Thief Dance” by Janette and Brandon
This was my favorite original couple, before they started mixing and matching dancers five weeks in. (The dance starts at about 1:27.)

#9 – “Waltz” by Asuka and Vittolio
This was just another very pretty routine. I really liked Vittolio, but he never really took off on the show. A lot of people disliked Asuka from the start, based on her “sexy” image.

10 comments August 8th, 2009

I’ll fly away in the morning…

* I am leaving to go to Harrisburg, PA, for the dog show. Don’t adjust your TV sets, this one doesn’t air until July. It is 5:15 a.m. and I have been up since 4:30 because I hate rushing in the morning. I would rather be sleep deprived than harried.

* Last night, Adam Lambert’s performance on “American Idol” blew my mindgrapes. I am always excited to hear what he will do next, which I’m starting to think is the only true test of an “Idol” contestant.

* On Twitter, I used the term “zomg” to describe Adam’s song. Then I thought I’d go look up “zomg.” It’s one of those terms coined by overenthusiastic gamers, much like “pwned” (pronounced “poned,” invented when someone tried to type “owned”… means the same thing only slightly more extreme). Apparently the gamer went for the shift key and hit the “z” instead. It is technically pronounced “zoh-my-God,” which I don’t think will change the fact that to myself, I say, “zombie-oh-my-God.” I mean, are there even any other words that start with z anymore? There won’t be, after the zombie apocalypse.

* All of the books I’m reading right now are giant hardcovers, and that means I don’t know which one to take on the plane. I wish I’d charged my Kindle.

So I don’t know when I’ll have internet access again… definitely within a day or two. Meanwhile, happy Wednesday!

6 comments April 8th, 2009

The biggest winner.

(Warning: Biggest Loser 3/24/09 spoilers!)

If you don’t watch NBC’s reality weight-loss show, I don’t necessarily blame you; it’s two hours when it could be one hour, and the way they go out to and come back from commercials is enough to make a saint throw the remote control through his or her divine plasma screen.

(DIGRESSION: Lately, the husb and I play a game called “Did they lie or not?” when the show goes to commercial during the final weigh-ins. They always cut out when a player is on the scale, about to find out the week’s weight loss. The scale settles on a number, which the audience doesn’t get to see, and we are treated with a shot of the contestant and the trainer, either amazed or shocked or devastated or smug. But the trick is, these expressions usually having NOTHING TO DO with the actual outcome or the actual reaction to the weight. They’re just reaction shots stolen from the footage. We imagine the producers saying to each contestant: “Now look happy. Now look sad. Now pretend you’re angry. Now look amazed.” And therefore having a whole stable of images to choose from. Welcome to the magic of reality TV!)

Anyway, the show is about a group of overweight players who come to “the Biggest Loser campus,” are hooked up with trainers and a gym, and change their lives by working out, eating well, and adjusting their mentalities.

I happen to love the show, regardless of its shortcomings, because I’m a sucker for people having their lives changed in a profound way. Often the mental and emotional changes are greater even than the dramatic weight loss–the contestants discover that they are strong, powerful, determined people, underneath the weight that had been making them miserable.

One girl on the show has stood out from the beginning. Her name is Tara, and her designation is, “Former model.” She started the show weighing in at 290-something, and in 12 weeks, she’s lost 99 pounds. She is seen as the most powerful player in the game.

Look, I try not to swear here, but this girl is a badass. There is no other word to describe her. During the weekly challenges, she goes and goes and never, ever gives up. She is not only physically tough (the contestants all had to run a half-marathon, and she came in first place), but mentally tough. During one challenge, she stopped only long enough to throw up, and then kept going.

Because of this, she has (as the editors told us 90 times) a target on her back. She’s the one to go after, because she’s the strongest player and seems poised to win it all. On The Biggest Loser, contestants are eliminated every week, but only those who fall behind in their weight loss. If you consistently lose large amounts of weight, you can coast through. Tara has stayed at the top, but if she ever falls “below the yellow line,” she’s going home, and she knows it.

This week’s challenge was two-fold. First, the players all had little blocks representing the amount of weight they’d lost so far. Then each had a scale with his or her name on it. Each player took his own weight blocks and distributed them among the other players, as a handicap for the second part of the challenge.

The male players, who have each lost in the neighborhood of 100 pounds, piled their weights on Tara’s scale. By the end of the round, she had an extra 257 pounds on her scale.

The actual distribution of the weight was accompanied by the other contestants’ uproarious laughter, while Tara grew more and more stone-faced. They teased her for not having a sense of humor; they told her that she should have expected it; they chided her for being rude when she didn’t want to “talk about it.”

Maybe it’s the Ayn Rand fan in me (or maybe it’s my inner 8th-grade-overachiever, who was laughed at and mocked by an entire classroom one memorable day), but I don’t like to see people ridiculed for their virtues.

When the second part of the challenge was revealed, it became clear how much of an obstacle the 257 pounds would be–the contestants would be pulling a car (yes, a real car) 1/2 mile. The cars were weighted equally, with the exception of the extra pounds added in Round 1. So Tara’s car weighed an extra 257 pounds.

The challenge begins. Two of the guys make a strong start. One runs a bit, to get a head start. Tara starts slowly, but her progress is steady.

As the two guys in the lead try to overcome one another, they fail to notice that Tara is gaining on them. Halfway through, she overtakes one of them. Further on, she overtakes the second.

She finishes the race several car lengths ahead of the second-place finisher, and well ahead of everyone else.

I mean, seriously!

The feeling you are left with, as a viewer, is the feeling I want to give to the girls who read my books. I want them to feel as though they’ve just watched someone who had dirt kicked in her face overcome her obstacles, win the race in spite of her disadvantage, and realize that no matter who laughs at you or mocks you, the strength you need is inside of you.

There are things and people in your life who will encourage you, and things and people that will leave you feeling torn down. But you keep going. You keep pulling, and you pass the people who tried to hold you back. Because at the end of the day, strength and determination and will can conquer obstacles–even if your obstacles are heavier than other people’s.

And besides–the heavier the car, the sweeter the win!

3 comments March 26th, 2009

American Idol, Top 36: week 3

Bloggin’ it as it comes. Now with 500 fewer words than last week!

Von Smith “You’re All I Need to Get by,” Marvin Gaye.

Von will have to fight the college girls off with a stick when he headlines on a cruise ship. Occasionally looks like a supervillain when he sings.

Verdict: 6 out of 10 stars. Nobody can do this song like Kelly Clarkson did this song. I feel this might be the end of the road for Von. However, this is nowhere near as dismal as some of the performances from the past few weeks. Also, I think I owned those shoes.

Win: Simon’s, “No, I mean, you look appalling, but–”

Taylor Vaifanua (from “Hurricane,” Utah, which is a slap in the face to my native South Florida, but whatever): “If I Ain’t Got You,” Alicia Keyes.

Seventeen years old? Hmm. Her vocals on the chorus are better than 7 of last week’s performances.

Notable: There is a signature move that a giant majority of Idol contestants do that the husb and I call “Squatzies.” This involves planting one’s feet and bobbing up and down. When you see someone doing this move, you are obligated to shout, “SQUATZIES!” at your television screen. Taylor has nailed the squatzies.

Verdict: 5 out of 10. Good bye.

Win: Me: “She’s only seventeen!” The husb: “She doesn’t have a rep yet!”

(Wait, those were tears of joy?!?)

Alex (aka, “Oh, that guy!”) Wagner-Trugman: (Studio City represent!) “I Guess That’s Why They Call It the Blues,” Elton John.

I like this guy WAY better than Nick/Norman, humor-wise. I have a feeling the judges are going to make fun of his growly singing.

Verdict: If I’m being honest, I kind of like Alex. 7 out of 10, mostly for personality.

Win: Alex: “Well, thank you,” to Paula, while his eyes say, “What on earth do you mean?”–OMG! Simon actually said, “growling!” The win goes to ME!

Win #2: Ryan Seacreast gets an American Express Black card for saying, “Put it on my Amex.”

Arianna Afsar: “The Winner Takes It All,” ABBA.

This could be a mistake. Too old a song. Weird! Weird! Aaah, the wobblies! They stress me out. Okay, she has an incredible voice. But she could have picked a better song.

Verdict: 3 out of 10 for most of it, 8 out of 10 for like three moments.

Win: Paula’s profound, “It’s a songful of melody.”

Notable: Who would win in a fight between Paula’s earrings and Randy’s watch?

Ju’Not Joyner: “Hey There, Delilah,” by Plain White T’s

Oooh, I like him from the start. OMG, smart! And good! Who could have hoped for anything like this? And he’s a very new combination of singer/style for this show.

Prediction: Randy will say, “Yo, that was hot, dawg!”
Follow-up: I was wrong. But close.

Verdict: 8 out of 10.

Win: Ju’Not, I hope.

Kristin McNamara, the karaoke host. “Give Me One Reason,” by Tracey Chapman.

She looks so 80s, her features and makeup. Oh, she looks like Cheryl Tiegs. She sounds like a karaoke host. This is the kind of performance famous people can do once they’re famous. But this isn’t what you do to get famous.

Verdict: 6 out of 10.

Nathaniel Marshall: “I Would Do Anything for Love,” by Meatloaf.

The husb hates him, but I’m a fan, myself. I don’t know why. Uh, wait, no, not of the singing. But I like him as a little guy. The thing is, when Adam Lambert (from last week) is in the competition, you can’t sing Meatloaf. Because that guy could smack it out from under you like a shaky ladder.

Notable: that’s kind of like what my hair looks like in the morning.

Verdict: a regretful 4 out of 10.

Fail: When the judges start bickering and making jokes, it’s really sad to watch the contestants getting sadder and sadder.

Fail Sandwich: Paula. Go home, Paula.

Felicia Barton: “No One,” Alicia Keyes.

Ohhhh, that note. Ouch. Okay, I really dislike people who can hit the notes but don’t sound “pretty” when they do it. I guess I’m old-fashioned. I like pretty singing.

Verdict: 6 out of 10. Nothing special for me.

Win: Bangs.

Scott MacIntyre: “Mandolin Rain,” Bruce Hornsby.

Never heard this song. Oh, wait, heard it a thousand times. Can I say that I don’t think his vocals are where they need to be? Also, I thought this song was all about banjos.

Verdict: 6 out of 10, with some spots of 8 out of 10. I agree with Randy about the great parts being really great. And the passion.

Win: the husb likes Scott’s “super-helpful brother.”

Kendall Beard: “This One’s For the Girls,” by Martina McBride.

Ah, reaching out to the country fans. MINI SQUATZIES, She’s not great. Not terrible. Meh. The second half is pitchy. And she looks tired.

Verdict: 6 out of 10.

Win: Kendall’s outfit-choosing mom.

Jorge Nu?ez: “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down On Me,” Elton John.

Good voice. Lots of control. Kinda boring. Don’t care about him.

Verdict: 7 out of 10. Ooh, he grew on me when he was all cute with the judges, and confused by Paula’s nonsense.

Fail: Racist Paula. Woo. Great.

Lil Rounds: “Be Without You,” Mary J. Blige.

Worst name ever, but whatever. She’s a good performer. I appreciate her technically, but she’s not my favorite. Seriously, a pro. Good for her.

Verdict: 8 out of 10, reluctantly.

Win: Lil. Clearly.

My predictions: Lil, Scott, and either Jorge or Ju’Not.

My personal favorite of the night was Ju’Not.

2 comments March 3rd, 2009

Omissions and misinformation, a little Thursday rant

This morning on the Today Show, they aired a segment about how identity thieves are using people’s file sharing programs to steal their personal information.

Now, I’m not going to go into whether file sharing is amoral or immoral or whatever the ethics behind it are. But the simple fact is that much of it is very illegal. In fact, the song they used as an example was a Beyonce song.

I just sat there marveling as the news report claimed that, “These file sharing programs can have a dark side.” You think? How about the dark side of illegal file sharing?

I was also quite boggled by a quote from a man whose daughter’s file sharing had led to their tax returns being stolen and sold on the international market. He said something like, “I never thought someone could use these programs to commit a crime.”

Seriously, dude?

I’m floored by the massive viewpoint that was left out of this news story. It’s kind of like if they did a story about people who pick the pockets of car thieves while they’re bent over hot-wiring a car.

Look, I don’t care if you file share or don’t. As an author, I have to hope in the name of my own livelihood that somebody doesn’t find a way to share my book online for free.

But the lazy reporting has GOT to GO!

Similarly, this week’s episode of “The Biggest Loser” (which I love) featured a quiz about health and nutrition. The first question was:

“True or false: Switching from regular soda to diet soda will extend your lifespan?”

The contestants answered “false,” and the woman from Prevention magazine said, “Yes! It’s false! Studies show that both diet and regular sodas can lead to metabolic syndrome!”

So how do you get from, “studies show that diet soda can lead to metabolic syndrome” to “diet sodas will NOT extend your lifespan”?

Yes, studies have shown that diet sodas are not always effective because their sweetness can cause people to crave sweets, in which they then indulge, which causes them to gain weight that may contribute to metabolic syndrome.

But that is CORRELATION, my friends, not CAUSALITY. And the absolute “false” renders this ridiculous. I promise you that there are some people out there who switched from regular soda to diet soda and did not get metabolic syndrome, and (gasp!) extended their lifespans.

They didn’t mention how much diet soda vs. how much regular soda. They didn’t mention the health of the person in question. They didn’t put it in context of studies or specific situations.

They just made an ignorant, unsupportable blanket statement and passed it off as a fact.

Bah!

8 comments February 26th, 2009

Katie’s thrilling “American Idol” recap: Top 36, Week 2

(Note from Future Katie: this is waaaay longer than I thought it would be. 1300 words? What is wrong with me? Non-Idol fans may just want to, you know, not go there with me. I will totally understand.)

Tonight is the second top 12, from whom three will go on to the actual top 12–the top-voted girl, the top-voted boy, and the next-highest vote-getter, regardless of gender.

I’m going to blog it as I see it, which means you get to ride the thrilling emotional roller coaster along with me.

Jasmine Murray “Love Song” by Sara Bareilles. I didn’t know they made people this pretty. It’s that wide-set eyes thing that makes people super photogenic. She has a nice voice, but this song doesn’t show off her strengths. At all. Too bad.

And I hate it when people respond to critiques by saying, “I had a great time.” Don’t care what kind of time you had. Want good singing. Also, it’s hilariously dumb that she tried to vote for everyone. Very good use of your time. Should have been working on your vocals.

Matt Giraud, “Viva La Vida” by Coldplay. The dueling piano player. You have to be careful when you sing one of the best popular (and my current favorite) songs. His angsty, breathy style takes all of the transcendently high-flying confidence away from the song. And his runs make me want to throw up. Awful. Why? Why? Why? Go home, guy. Just go home and leave my playlist alone.

The judges want everyone to remember Hollywood week, but I hope there’s not room for him in this week’s top 3 (because that means it’s going to be a really long night).

Jeanine Vailes, “This Love” by Maroon 5. Never seen her before, have we? She has kind of the opposite face of Jasmine. She makes the song sound like something I would have listened to on the local pop radio station while brooding in my bedroom every night in 7th grade, between “Buffalo Stance” and “My Prerogative”. I really dislike that sort of round-mouth approach to singing. Don’t hoot the notes, dear. Sing them for us.

Paula: “Great legs. Simon?” Nice.

SIDE NOTE: I’m just noticing how casually Ryan Seacrest is dressed tonight. Also, thank goodness the horrific family interviews are gone from this show.

Nick Mitchell as Norman Gentle, that song from DreamGirls. I think he could have a show in Vegas, headlining at the Trop or some other low/mid-grade hotel. I’m just not interested in comedy music. And his voice isn’t good enough to justify the character. Maybe a cruiseline or something.

Best comment: “I don’t know those people” when Simon mentioned his parents. I think this guy is going to end up with a sitcom or something.

Seacrest: “This is live, can you tell?” Seacrest, 1. Dopey interviews, 0.

Allison Iraheta, “Alone” by Heart. Awkwardest pre-interview ever. I like the tone of her voice. I hope she can hit some notes… Hey, not bad. First good performance of the night. And better, I think, than Carrie Underwood’s wooden version a few years ago. Plus, pink hair. And 16 years old?!? All good.

Her mother is dressed like a Miss America contestant. But that’s okay.

SIDE NOTE: The husb is eager for someone to actually come out and sing the telephone book, as the judges keep insisting someone could do.

Kris Allen, “Man in the Mirror,” Michael Jackson. Good luck, dude. Could work if he plays it up, boy band style. Actually sounds kind of current. Perhaps singing about looking at yourself and making a change is what made Michael Jackson go nuts with the plastic surgery. Probably not.

Not bad, better than everyone but Allison.

SIDE NOTE: What on earth is wrong with the back of Paula’s shirt? It looks like she got attacked by a werewolf.

Megan Joy Corkrey, “Put Your Records On,” Corinne Bailey Rae. I love this song. She’d better sing pretty. Hmm, she’s talk-singing. Hmm, she’s failing. Also, the hand-wringing dance is unintentionally funny. And she’s dressed like a six-year-old. She puts me in mind of Alice in Wonderland. She dances like those flowers in the early 90s that used to jerk around when you played music.

Wow, seriously? Paula’s right, she is beautiful. But wrong about doing everything right. Dressing, wrong. Wiggle-dance, wrong. Sing-talking, wrong. (Note to Randy, “drop dead” is not a compliment unless you attach “gorgeous.”)

SIDE NOTE: but her look is definitely what I have in mind for one of the major supporting characters in my work-in-progress.

Matt Breitzke (aka, the welder), “If You Could Only See,” Tonic. I think he has an uphill battle since the other blue-collar hero, Michael Sarver, got through. However, he’s not bad. I’m not sure this song is enough of a stretch for him. He sounds like a less-good imitation of the original. Wedding singer, maybe?

I think he could have chosen a riskier song that would have sounded much better and paid off.

OMG, we’re only on 8?

Jesse Langseth, “Bette Davis Eyes,” Kim Carnes. I like her as a person. “Oh, you’re talking crap? I’m in!” She has an interesting voice. I’m just not sure this is good enough. Actually, it gets better. And she has an interesting look, although let’s put some bangs on that forehead, m’dear.

Okay, stop trying to show off your musical knowledge. And I do agree with Simon, she’s “too cool for school.” She needs to get over herself a little.

Kai Kalama, “What Becomes of the Broken-Hearted?” Jimmy Ruffin.
I’ve never liked this guy. Let’s see if he can change my mind. Actually, looking at him, I don’t know what I don’t like about him. His shoulder undulations are a little creeptastic. His voice is okay. A little generic. The husb really likes him.

I agree with Kara that the song is old-fashioned. Maybe that’s what I don’t like about him.

SIDE NOTE: Megan is doing the spastic flower corkscrew dance on the balcony.

Mishavonna Henson, “Drops of Jupiter,” Train. Ooh, she sounds good. Sounds comfortable. I’m not wild about the “eh eh ehhhhhh” parts. Yes, I like her. She’s interesting enough to want to see more of.

The judges are left cold. I can understand that. She doesn’t compare to Allison. She almost has that Melinda Dolittle thing, where she’s so complete a package that she’ll start to drive me batty after a couple of weeks. “What ho! I assure you, I am crazy, Mr. Seacrest. Pray entreat my dear friends on yon balcony. They will bear witness… You shall see my inanity in its glory! Ho ho ho!” (Pardon me, I’m reading both Tess of the d’Urbervilles and Vanity Fair.)

Adam Lambert, “Satisfaction,” the Rolling Stones. I have high hopes for this guy, because I think he has an incredible voice. I’m not wild about this song as a song, but let’s see.

Hmm, no. This is not a song that was designed to show off voices. I hope he moves on and chooses songs I like more.

And oh, hush up with the “some people like it, some people hate it” comments. When you can do better, you should go ahead and do better. Even if some people like what you’re doing when you’re not very good. Dingbat.

The husb and I have a theory that the better singers get the more attentive lighting design. Adam seems to have drawn the long straw in that regard, although the bars of color remind me of the outside of a Toys R Us.

My predictions? Allison Iraheta, Adam Lambert, and Matt Breitzke vs. Kris Allen as a backup. And possibly some room for Mishavonna in the wildcard show?

Allison is the best of the night.

Simon was right, I already forgot the red-headed girl.

But the award for best twisty flower balcony dance definitely goes to… Megan Joy Corkrey! Wooo!

Next week, I’m thinking about doing ten-word reviews.

2 comments February 25th, 2009