they were good musicians as opposed to half of the contestants moving on. Lily was one of the most creative and original talents Idol had seen, but I guess America doesn't value originality, talent, and musicianship. Or maybe they all thought she was for sure safe and gave their votes to less deserving favorites that looked like they could go. In a final lineup filled with singer/songwriter girls, I guess there just wasn't enough room for all of them, it just should have been Lacey to go, not Lilly. With the votes getting divided up among the singer/songwriter types, the door is left disturbingly wide open for Katie, Paige, Aaron, and Tim to go a long way. I suddenly have a sinking feeling in my stomach that Tim Urban could actually win this thing with his Disney Channel looks. When the only demographic of voters for Idol are girls 9-12 the show is officially over, and if Tim wins that will be the case. I just don't know about this show anymore....at least we still have Crystal and Siobhan making things interesting. Let's try to keep them in the race, please!
March 12, 2010
Idol Follow-Follow-Up: America Jumps the Shark
It's official guys, thanks to your votes, American Idol has officially jumped the shark! Katelyn, Lily, and Alex, worthy competitors and talented musicians, did not make it into the top 12 (and Todrick too). All while Paige, Tim, and Lacey continue on....I guess Votefortheworst.com really does have an influence. Katelyn and Alex really didn't have a chance of winning, but 
they were good musicians as opposed to half of the contestants moving on. Lily was one of the most creative and original talents Idol had seen, but I guess America doesn't value originality, talent, and musicianship. Or maybe they all thought she was for sure safe and gave their votes to less deserving favorites that looked like they could go. In a final lineup filled with singer/songwriter girls, I guess there just wasn't enough room for all of them, it just should have been Lacey to go, not Lilly. With the votes getting divided up among the singer/songwriter types, the door is left disturbingly wide open for Katie, Paige, Aaron, and Tim to go a long way. I suddenly have a sinking feeling in my stomach that Tim Urban could actually win this thing with his Disney Channel looks. When the only demographic of voters for Idol are girls 9-12 the show is officially over, and if Tim wins that will be the case. I just don't know about this show anymore....at least we still have Crystal and Siobhan making things interesting. Let's try to keep them in the race, please!
they were good musicians as opposed to half of the contestants moving on. Lily was one of the most creative and original talents Idol had seen, but I guess America doesn't value originality, talent, and musicianship. Or maybe they all thought she was for sure safe and gave their votes to less deserving favorites that looked like they could go. In a final lineup filled with singer/songwriter girls, I guess there just wasn't enough room for all of them, it just should have been Lacey to go, not Lilly. With the votes getting divided up among the singer/songwriter types, the door is left disturbingly wide open for Katie, Paige, Aaron, and Tim to go a long way. I suddenly have a sinking feeling in my stomach that Tim Urban could actually win this thing with his Disney Channel looks. When the only demographic of voters for Idol are girls 9-12 the show is officially over, and if Tim wins that will be the case. I just don't know about this show anymore....at least we still have Crystal and Siobhan making things interesting. Let's try to keep them in the race, please!
March 10, 2010
Leisure Academy: What I Learned at Joshua Tree
A friend and I recently went camping for two nights out at the beautiful Joshua Tree National Park, and it fully delivered the leisure experience we were looking for. The scenery was incredible, huge rounded rock piles bulging out of the ground to climb on surrou
nded by the idiosyncratic joshua trees, like a beautifully painted background in a Disney movie or something that was placed 2 hours east of L.A. The park was not crowded at all in the middle of the week and we had a huge campsite area all to ourselves, if only the wind hadn't picked up so much on the second night it would have been perfect. All you need is a loaded Ipod and travel Ipod deck, a campfire, beer, and snacks and you are livin' easy. They have 28 miles of hiking trails there too if you are in to that. We explored a smaller 2-3 hour hike to the top of Mt. Ryan that I would highly recommend, not too strenuous with amazing views. The park is so big though, we only saw a fraction of it. The park rangers were all real friendly and helpful too. Anyway, here is the knowledge I gained on the trip that I would like to bestow upon you now:
Jump Rocks campground is the best, don't waste your time with the Hidden Valley and Ryan campgrounds, just drive on past 'um. (Joshua Tree specific)
Bring a ton of firewood, you need a lot of fuel if you want a warm fire all night. We were lucky to find a place in the Joshua Tree town that sold it when we ran out.
If you are cooking a meal at night, prepare everything during the day, in the light, and have it ready to go. It's much easier.
According to the park ranger, rock climbers are party animals, so if you wanna party, befriend some rock climbers.
Wrap some Pillsbury biscuit dough around some chocolate chips, put a stick in it, and cook it over the fire. In 10 minutes you've got yourself a warm chocolaty biscuit ball. Our own variation of the "Woof-um".
Don't buy generic coals if you plan on cooking things over them.
Don't heat gummi bears over the fire and eat them, they take on the consistency of Gak...and are gross and probably harmful to your insides.
Large fires + strong winds = not safe.
3(ish) words: FLAME HEATED POP-TARTS.
Our Sweet Campsite Nestled Among Jumbo Rocks
...yeah, that's it. Short post today. Go camping. Explore nature. Leisure on.
nded by the idiosyncratic joshua trees, like a beautifully painted background in a Disney movie or something that was placed 2 hours east of L.A. The park was not crowded at all in the middle of the week and we had a huge campsite area all to ourselves, if only the wind hadn't picked up so much on the second night it would have been perfect. All you need is a loaded Ipod and travel Ipod deck, a campfire, beer, and snacks and you are livin' easy. They have 28 miles of hiking trails there too if you are in to that. We explored a smaller 2-3 hour hike to the top of Mt. Ryan that I would highly recommend, not too strenuous with amazing views. The park is so big though, we only saw a fraction of it. The park rangers were all real friendly and helpful too. Anyway, here is the knowledge I gained on the trip that I would like to bestow upon you now:Jump Rocks campground is the best, don't waste your time with the Hidden Valley and Ryan campgrounds, just drive on past 'um. (Joshua Tree specific)
Bring a ton of firewood, you need a lot of fuel if you want a warm fire all night. We were lucky to find a place in the Joshua Tree town that sold it when we ran out.
If you are cooking a meal at night, prepare everything during the day, in the light, and have it ready to go. It's much easier.
According to the park ranger, rock climbers are party animals, so if you wanna party, befriend some rock climbers.
Wrap some Pillsbury biscuit dough around some chocolate chips, put a stick in it, and cook it over the fire. In 10 minutes you've got yourself a warm chocolaty biscuit ball. Our own variation of the "Woof-um".
Don't buy generic coals if you plan on cooking things over them.
Don't heat gummi bears over the fire and eat them, they take on the consistency of Gak...and are gross and probably harmful to your insides.
Large fires + strong winds = not safe.
3(ish) words: FLAME HEATED POP-TARTS.
Our Sweet Campsite Nestled Among Jumbo Rocks...yeah, that's it. Short post today. Go camping. Explore nature. Leisure on.
March 5, 2010
Idol Follow-Up: America Still Extremely Racist
Just as I predicted in my last post, the first person voted off American Idol this week is John Park, the only Asian on this year's show. But America, not to be outdone, took no shame in booting Jermaine Sellers (African-American), Michelle Delamour (Puerto Rican?), and Haeley Vaughn (African-American) out of their show. Apparently no time this season will be spent appeasing the minorities. Todrick (gross name!), Paige, and Andrew are all that's left, and Andrew is really the only one from that group with a chance to go far, but only if he stops theses lackluster performances that fall so short of his awesome "Straight Up" cover. However, each of these singers did have legitimate reasons to be voted off (anyone that sings a Creed song should automatically be disqualified), but white contestants do too. Of course, Tim Urban, the worst contestant this show has had in a long time, wasn't even in the running to be voted off...but it's ok, he prays before every performance. Now he has the Bible vote in addition to his cute white-boy looks appealing to NASCAR America, Idol's largest voting demographic. Also, last season's Danny Gokey, perhaps the whitest contestant Idol has ever seen, performed his new single.
Anyway, I don't want to bore you with another recap of continued horrible guy performances, Seacrest Vs. Simon, and Kara hate, though it all was still very much there, all still indicating to Idol's self-destruction. (If you do want to read a good recap check out the blog at VoteFortheWorst.Com, they watch the show with a similar eye as I do, but are better writers.) But I do want to focus on the budding Seacrest/Didi (Dicrest?) relationship taking place. I've never seen Seacrest so sensitive to a contestant's emotions in the real, non-TV-personality way that took place last night. Before introducing Didi's video, Seacrest was all over her, in an obvious flirty way. And then after an emotional judge's comments, Ryan was all holding her and looking into her eyes and reassuring her and holding her...there is clearly something going on between them. Maybe Seacrest isn't gay afterall? Just another subplot on America's favorite reality show.
The good news: Siobhan Magnus delivered another out-of-left-field performance, this time of Aretha Franklin's "Think" and blew the judges away with an amazing note. Man, she is sooo in her own world, but I LOVE IT!!! I really hope she goes a long way in the competition with her vocals because her lovable weirdness has boosted her to my #1 favorite spot. Crystal Bowersox, after being hospitalized the day before, tore up the Idol stage with a truly professional and engaging gospel-y version of CCR's "Long As I Can See The Light" making her the clear front runner for this season, plus everyone loves CCR. In a sea of terrible guys, Alex Lambert redeemed his excruciatingly hard to watch performance last week with a solid John Legend cover, he has a very pure and listenable voice, the best of the guys, if he can keep his nerves down I can see him go far, and I hope he does. He's already got the sympathy vote, so he has a good chance. The night's biggest surprise for me was Katelyn Epperly's back-to-basics cover of Coldplay's "The Scientist." She went from forgettable nobody to top 12 front-runner without changing the song in to some incomprehensible/inferior version. The judges really need to stop encouraging this musically destructive behavior, the songs can be great without changing the melodies and whatnot every single time...I mean, the show has survived for 8 seasons without this excessive nonsense!
Anyway, great job America for your continued racism, and truly great job Katelyn Epperly for stepping up your game and making your place on the grid known. ...and Go Siobhan!
Anyway, I don't want to bore you with another recap of continued horrible guy performances, Seacrest Vs. Simon, and Kara hate, though it all was still very much there, all still indicating to Idol's self-destruction. (If you do want to read a good recap check out the blog at VoteFortheWorst.Com, they watch the show with a similar eye as I do, but are better writers.) But I do want to focus on the budding Seacrest/Didi (Dicrest?) relationship taking place. I've never seen Seacrest so sensitive to a contestant's emotions in the real, non-TV-personality way that took place last night. Before introducing Didi's video, Seacrest was all over her, in an obvious flirty way. And then after an emotional judge's comments, Ryan was all holding her and looking into her eyes and reassuring her and holding her...there is clearly something going on between them. Maybe Seacrest isn't gay afterall? Just another subplot on America's favorite reality show.
The good news: Siobhan Magnus delivered another out-of-left-field performance, this time of Aretha Franklin's "Think" and blew the judges away with an amazing note. Man, she is sooo in her own world, but I LOVE IT!!! I really hope she goes a long way in the competition with her vocals because her lovable weirdness has boosted her to my #1 favorite spot. Crystal Bowersox, after being hospitalized the day before, tore up the Idol stage with a truly professional and engaging gospel-y version of CCR's "Long As I Can See The Light" making her the clear front runner for this season, plus everyone loves CCR. In a sea of terrible guys, Alex Lambert redeemed his excruciatingly hard to watch performance last week with a solid John Legend cover, he has a very pure and listenable voice, the best of the guys, if he can keep his nerves down I can see him go far, and I hope he does. He's already got the sympathy vote, so he has a good chance. The night's biggest surprise for me was Katelyn Epperly's back-to-basics cover of Coldplay's "The Scientist." She went from forgettable nobody to top 12 front-runner without changing the song in to some incomprehensible/inferior version. The judges really need to stop encouraging this musically destructive behavior, the songs can be great without changing the melodies and whatnot every single time...I mean, the show has survived for 8 seasons without this excessive nonsense!
Anyway, great job America for your continued racism, and truly great job Katelyn Epperly for stepping up your game and making your place on the grid known. ...and Go Siobhan!
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