I love classic rock. I love nerds and smart people. And geeks. You may already have known that. I like odd looking people (see Clay Aiken). But hey, this guy is the epitome of all that.

You may have already known that I was a major Clay and Taylor Hicks fan. Clay — because he’s a spectacular vocalist and Taylor, because he was a charismatic, fun performer.

I thought (and even swore) that American Idol would never come up with anyone I’d “idolize” to this degree. Well I was wrong. I do believe that David Cook is my most favorite contestant on American Idol ever. EVER. That’s hard to say, especially being an almost “rabid” Clay fan 4 years ago. But here’s why.

David Cook is cool.
He looks interesting (the hair is off somewhat, but getting better). So he’s falling into the strangely handsome category for me, plus did you see his baby pictures??! I mean, what were those? I always thought ALL babies were beautiful but MAN, now I’m not quite sure…
David Cook has awesome vocals and is almost pitch perfect. He glory notes the way Clay Aiken does. So that gets me.
David Cook sings ROCK. My favorite genre of music ever. No, not hard or metal or southern rock. Classic or alt. rock are my preferences. So he falls squarely into that niche.
He performs like a true rocker should. Not a poser, not like Robbie whatever-his-name-is. Sorry, don’t want to offend anyone here but that other guy Robbie Carrico was just giving off some kind of boy bandish vibe.

Those are my reasons for loving David Cook and why I believe he’s the best American Idol contestant I’ve ever seen and heard.

Oh and the comparisons to Chris Daughtry and Bo Bice? Well, as they’ve said everywhere else, “different strokes for different folks”. I have mp3s from Chris and Bo and I still prefer David’s voice. There’s a deep polish to it. But again, that’s just my opinion.

If you’ve heard some of David Cook’s pre-Idol songs, you’ll know what I mean.

I’ve been spending all my time trying to make a living off blogging with my other site (The Digerati Life), and haven’t had as much time to devote on new sites. But I’ve decided to turn this blog — formerly known as Silk Willow — into something a bit different. It’s personal, gives you my opinions of shows I’ve been watching lately, and is just a place to vent. So I don’t intend to run it like my other site (at least not yet).

New name for this site? Let’s see….. hmmm…. how about “FANTARD NATION”? Yeah, that’s it. Since that’s what I’ve been doing lately, being a serious fantard who spends inordinate amounts of time perusing internet forums and sites just to get a piece of a great American Idol season (and yeah, other shows too).

Hope to see you around here.

You know how while you are watching these reality tv shows now, how they keep popping up these silly text or web contests that viewers can participate in, to get some interactivity out of the viewing experience? Well, in these such little trivia quizzes or polls or what not, David and Mary aka Team Kentucky are scoring pretty high as viewer favorites.

So much so that when they were in last place last week, they were the first to NOT get eliminated in a non-elimination leg. Somehow I thought it was fishy… I know it’s a ploy by the network. When a popular team is up on the chopping block by finishing last, they save those non-elimination legs for these people so they are kept in the game. I don’t believe they have those special exemptions predefined in advance. I believe the producers see how the race goes then decide at that moment when to bestow the immunity upon whoever lags.

How clever it is. That’s why they have those interactive questions for the audience littering commercial breaks. By taking the pulse of the tv watchers then employing surprises in the show by bending the rules just a little bit here and there to keep the team favorites around, they’ll be able to keep more of the audience around.

Of course, I could be all just spouting hogwash and things behind the scenes aren’t really run that way. But it’s my theory. If anyone can argue otherwise, I’d love to hear about it!

This game play is actually cool by me since I am one of those viewers who are steadfast fans of the coal mining couple from the Bluegrass State. Their alliance with the single mothers from Alabama and the Asian brothers from San Francisco is an interesting demonstration of human dynamics involving very unlikely partners.

Go Kentucky, Alabama and Cho Bros!

Well, they did it. They got rid of CowBoy aka Cao Boi, the Vietnamese voodoo priest (sort of) who practiced pseudo shamanism on his fellow tribemates. In case you don’t know who he is, it’s the guy with the wrap around tattoo in the photo. They got rid of him because he was too unpredictable and I suppose… strange… but I absolutely enjoyed his uniqueness on this show. Survivor, just like The Amazing Race, is suffering from absolute mediocrity with contestants whose names and faces simply blend into each other and who lack any form of memorability. Cao Boi was a standout in a sea of average fellows and it’s a shame his unconventional approach to things got him the boot.

On the other side of the spectrum is Yul, who is a lovely soft-spoken Korean-American who I really think should win this year. He’s the rather wholesome looking guy in the left photo and is a Stanford graduate nonetheless. Wheww!! Not only because no Asian has ever won in this show before but he plays the Survivor game with a lot of integrity….so far. I listened to him during tribal council respond to Jeff Probst’s prodding questions with such class, and effortless dignity (ok I’m pushing it here but I like the guy) that I could not help but be lulled by his calm and gentle voice. The guy is strong; just check out his buff bod. The guy is smart; he discovered the hidden immunity idol… like right away! The guy plays clean or has played clean up to this point. So what’s there not to like? He’s my favorite this year to win. And if he doesn’t, it’s just one more example of why life is not fair.

Two Asian guys, both rock in different ways. Just goes to show you there is variety in every race and culture.

< Thank you canmag.com and roanoke.com! >

It’s just like when you hear an old song and you are sent back to a time when you heard it elsewhere, or when you fall ill and some kind of strange regression takes place and you feel deja vu about being sick in bed as a kid under the care of a guardian. Perhaps it’s some Pavlovian thing that happens to me but I certainly get that effect with tv shows that really pack me a punch….most notably this one.

There are already American Idol Season 6 advertisements appearing and reminding us that they’ll be back in January. Just great — I can’t wait to revisit my old haunts such as the boards, the spoiler sites and this special place: the awesome DialIdol site.

DialIdol is where all the post AI performance night activities culminate and you find out whether your voting efforts are really paying off. It’s a real-time vote tracker for the show and being the geek that I am, I find it fascinating how it works. It extrapolates voting totals using downloadable software that people use to set up and track their land line calls for specific American Idol contestants. It counts busy signals from your phone, using this as the measure for “popularity” when you call for certain contestants and through some formula calculates the contestants’ relative rankings. And recently, the site has expanded to cover more programs that involve audience voting such as So You Think You Can Dance?, correctly predicting Benji as the winner and Celebrity Duets, again correctly placing Alfonso Ribeiro on top. It now is in use during Dancing With The Stars and is there to confirm what is known all along, that Joey Lawrence and Mario Lopez are leading in votes.

It is such a great invention and am glad it’s around to keep things honest for the producers of these talent shows. Can’t wait to play this game again.

Not to worry. I don’t see a silence in this place for too long for as soon as some rousing (or truly ridiculous) new program comes along, I will be back. Till then, I’ll be hanging out at My Left Brain.

I can tell that 33 year old Lorenzo Borghese is enjoying himself immensely, as this experience is but another feather stroking his well-nurtured ego.

The girls are a motley bunch of professionals, give or take a farm ranch hand, socialite or native Italian female or two. There’s noone here connecting with the Prince just yet, so you know that their bottom wiggling will be escalating as the season wears on.

My own brush with a Bachelor boils down to my insurance agent actually being close friends with Andrew Firestone. I was only motivated to sign a contract with the agent if he got me an autograph of Andrew and his then chosen flame, Jennifer Schefft (who subsequently became the Bachelorette sometime ago). For all I know this agent was just pulling my leg by producing some signature on a rag he could’ve penned himself; but whatever. The insurance contract was a good deal anyway.

The ability of this show to spark a genuine love connection is in question given that its track record for initiating successful long-lasting relationships suck, but no matter, since dreamy (or is it deluded?) hopefuls continue to fight over and proclaim their right to the final rose — or in this case — the tiara. For their own sake, I sure hope these women are just feigning naivete about the whole love thing and are really all actresses just seeking media exposure.

For all that, I’d file this particular season under the category of crassy lifestyles of the rich and famous.

Watch The Bachelor in Rome on ABC, Mondays 8/9c.

Where’s that drool bucket when you need it? The metamorphosis of Clay is just reaching its peak. I can’t believe the scrawny guy from American Idol Season 2 is now this pop deity.

Last week, its second week on the charts, Clay’s “A Thousand Different Ways” found its way to #8 with 74,000 units sold — a slide from second place with 211,000 sold on the first week. Justin Timberlake’s “FutureSex/LoveSounds” moved down to #5 from #1 after 3 weeks.

C’mon Clay fans… where’s the love? Well, to answer my own question — it’s reportedly a downward trend for physical album sales. Sales by this medium are being cannibalized by digital music sales, such that general CD sales are down 5 percent from last year. To see how it all stacks up, here’s how Clay’s first week of album sales have done historically:

To place those numbers into perspective though, A Thousand Different Ways made the Digital Sales chart at #3 and the Internet Album chart at #1. I know not what the real numbers are for these charts though. Still, that’s something to sing about.

It all doesn’t change the fact that Clay’s pop star is shining quite brightly. The Magical Mystery Tour look totally becomes him, so much so that the folks who used to tease me about liking Clay for his nerdiness are now curiously asking how he got to look so attractive. The guy grew up and gained some weight, that’s what. And to be real, it helps to have deep pockets; pockets whose depth and thickness I’m contributing to, quite happily.

To see how your other favorite idols are faring, check out this chart watch!

 
 
Technorati Tags: Clay Aiken, ATDW, A Thousand Different Ways, American Idol, Claymania, Claymates, ClayNation, Measure of a Man, Bubel Aiken Foundation, Simon Cowell, Justin Timberlake, clack, music, music charts, television, celebrities

 
So Do You Think They Can Dance?

Dancing With The Stars was a tearful night of the Waltz interspersed with some heavy footed Paso Doble.

Why is it that when bonafide B-rated celebrities decide to make television by joining a talent contest, it never quite gets as exciting as when real average hard-working joes like you and me are given the opportunity to show off what God has given us?

Answer: these B-stars aren’t RAW. Hollywood doesn’t have the same rawness, freshness and awkwardness that you see when you simply pluck someone off the street (or audition line) and make him sing or dance. And that’s what’s missing here. That’s what was missing in Celebrity Duets and Skating with Celebrities.

Nevertheless, I fought my drowsiness with heavy yawning and Tivo’s handy fast forward. With memories of Tom Jones brought back by the dreadful Las Vegas theme song intro, I cringed through the show asking “Who ARE these people?” I vaguely remember Joey Lawrence as Joey Russo from Blossom when I was a tween in the last century. Vivica Fox is some movie actress who appears in movies I don’t watch. Guess that’s because I’m more a Tivohead than a Netflixer. I don’t do sports tv, so the football player is just yet another clumsy figure who moves like Frankenstein on the floor. The only recognizable people to me were the king of tabloid talk shows, Jerry Springer (shown weeping over his waltz with his soon-to-be married daughter — oh the irony!) and eye-candy deeply bedimpled Mario Lopez. So without those two I would be hanging out on Bravo rewatching Project Runway.

This week, they sashayed to two emotional dances:

The Sentimental and Romantic Waltz characterized by

• soft, flowing movements
• effortless rise and fall (make like a carousel)
• serene facial expressions (toss in a few tears)

The Angry Paso Doble, where role-playing is key, requires

• flamenco feet (stomp away)
• marching movements
• defined hand movements
• flavor of the Bullfight

The only attention-worthy performance was the hot Latin guy Mario channeling last year’s winner Drew Lachey; the rest of the time I was lulled into a stupor with the “If I Were A Painting…” and “You Light Up My Life” routines.

Just give me So You Think You Can Dance? instead.

Watch Dancing With The Stars on ABC, Tuesdays/Wednesdays @ 8/7c. 
 
Technorati Tags: reality tv, reality show, Dancing With The Stars, celebrities, celebrity, Mario Lopez, Hollywood, television, ABC, TV, Tivo, entertainment, Drew Lachey, dance, dancing, Jerry Springer, Emmitt Smith