Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Sicky Sicky

Mel took Drew into the Doctor this morning, because he still has a fever (it got as high as 103 on Tuesday). Turns out he has a mild ear infection, AND some tonsilitis. He has a non-penicilin med for the ear infection (since Abby and Mom are both allergic) and the tonsilitis should run it's course on it's own.

Fun, fun!

Also, I got the details on my apartment in Oregon: 400 square feet, baby! It comes with a bed and built-in dresser, a closet and....that's about it. The kitchen has a fridge, a range and a sink. My boss, Corey, is giving me a recliner-type chair of his to use and I'll be bringing a card-table and chairs to eat at (and play poker at, of course). He's also trying to get ahold of a microwave for me. If we don't find one up there, I'll go to a thrift store or, worst-case, I'll rent one. Gotta have a nuker!

I am definitely not looking foward to being a bachelor again, especially with the great-unknown ahead of us: How long will it be for?!?!?!?! But I am looking forward to the road-trip to get there. I'm going with my dad, so it'll be nice to get a little time with him, since it might be one of the last chances to do that for quite a while.

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

List of the Week: Computer Animation

Cars comes out in a few weeks, and my kids are more excited for this than anything they've ever seen. "Look Daddy! Car race movie!!!" In anticipation of (hopefully) another gem from the good people at Pixar, here is my list of the top-ten computer animated movies.


1. Finding Nemo - This is the creme-de-la-creme of the Pixar library. Wonderful story, great characters, perfect voice cast, and it looks spectacular.
2. Toy Story 2 - The first was great and this one improved upon it in so manys.
3. Shrek - I'm in the minority, I think, of people who liked the first one better than the second one. I think it was just so unique and distinguished itself from the Pixar films, that as the original, it really set the tone that was continued in the sequel.
4. Toy Story - Another amazing film. It's crazy, though, how the animation seemed so incredible at the time, but now, compared to the latest CGI flicks, it seems so primative.
5. Monster's Inc. - I love the story so much, and the adventure of it all, that it makes up for some questionable casting (Steve Buscemi, Jennifer Tilly). I'm not a fan of gimmick voice-casting, just to get big names. The voice actor has to fit the part. You want to remember the character, not just who did the voice. If it's a super recognizable voice, it usually doesn't work. John Goodman and Billy Crystal, however, work perfectly. I'm sure it's darn near impossible to get the perfect mix.
6. A Bugs Life - Another great pixar Flik (ha! get it?). A great case of perfectly cast voices. Kevin Spacey is the main villain, but you don't think "spacey" you think "Hopper".
7. Shrek 2 - Maybe it's over-saturation that drops it this far, because the kids watch it so darn much in the car. This is one of the best adult-inside-joke movies in the genre.
8. The Incredibles - Another fun story with perfect voice-casting. Bravo for NOT hiring Patrick Warburton for Mr. Incredible, but another deep-voiced actor: Coach! (Craig T. Nelson). Samuel L. Jackson is my favorite voice in the movie, with Jason Lee a close second.
9. Antz - Too "adult" many times, if I remember correctly, but I know that I enjoyed it.
10. Ice Age - You can tell that the quality really drops off by the end of this list. The first one was unique and fun and had a great adventure story, but it fell victim to the gimmick casting problem with Ray Romano.

Honorable Mention:
Jonah: A Veggie Tales Movie. It was good, but it was so far below the Veggie Tales episodes, that I just can't rank it any higher.

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Another MAJOR wt-freak from last night

Watch at your own risk


I still don't know what he won't do for love.

One Love, One Life, One HORRIBLE MOMENT

Why? Why oh why would Mary J. Blidge agree to come on and allow Elliot the Troll to butcher One? I think last night Bono died, rolled over in his grave, and then came back to life. So Elliot's mom won an award for best "family moment" or some crap like that (we have only watched bits and pieces so far). I have to say, after they gave her some much screen time, we know where Elliot gets his looks from. I think they used that family as models for some of the Lord of the Rings creatures. Watching her made me throw up in my mouth a little.

So Taylor won. Woopie! Welcome to the world of Fantasia/Reuben/Justin/Bo and Diana, where your albums don't sell crap.

Now back to take another headache pill...my brain still hurts from trying to take in everything on the Lost finale....a foot statue with four toes?!!?!? WTF?!?!?!?

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

And The Next Singer to be destroyed by 19-entertainment will be...

Go ahead and crown Mr. Hicks as your next American Idol. Simon hand picked him to be the winner last night and that ALWAYS leads to a victory. The fact of the matter is: Katharine didn't pull it off last night. Frankly, neither did Taylor, but he had enough momentum coming in and a big enough fanbase already in place, that he should walk away with the title tonight.

The evening came across pretty anti-climatic to me. Taylor was flat-out boring during his two redux songs. Katharine was solid in her two (I'm really starting to dig Black Horse and a Cherry Tree), but she sang both of them a lot better the first time around.

After those performances, I was still up in the air with who I would vote for. Katharine sang a hunk of pre-made pop crap called "my destiny". Your destiny? to finish second, sweetheart, sorry. It was a TERRIBLE song, and Cat was completely uninspired. I think she sounded a ton worse on TV than in person, because the judges liked HER, but she did absolutely nothing interesting with the song and in a matter of 2 minutes, turned herself directly into a cheap knock-off of Kelly Clarkson, who has emerged from the Idol shadow to be a legitimate pop star.

Taylor's song sucked equally as bad. Taylor himself, however, made it work for him. The first half of the song was miserable, and I thought that he was also being victimized by the crappy-song-that-he-shouldn't-have-ever-had-to-sing-in-the-first-place. About halfway through, however, it all of a sudden became a Taylor Hicks song and a solid Taylor Hicks performance.

My American Idol: Taylor Hicks.

One interesting note: I have always wanted the person that goes on to win. I wanted Kelly, Ruben, Fantasia and Carrie (although last year was the toughest call). I think I'm going to be right once again. According to Dial Idol, I am right, and it won't even be close.

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Somewhere over the Rainbow

I realize that my reviews haven't had that unique attempt at "humor" that I usually throw out there lately, and I think it's because all of the crap-tacular performers have long gone, and they're the easiest ones to throw the poisoned darts at. Well, maybe it'll be back this week as I have new-found loathing for the troll-boy, for one simple reason: He is NOT an american idol. Simple. He doesn't look like an American Idol and as was evidenced last night, he only sounds like an American Idol about 33% of the time. And if you open your eyes and try to watch the stiff wigger, it just gets worse, again. But more on Mr. Tunnis in a minute.

Let's talk about one of the shining moments in Idol HISTORY: Catherine McPhee rockin the Rainbow. Cat freaking nailed one of (if not THE) biggest moments ever on this show when she blew the roof off of Somewhere Over the Rainbow last night. I still have to consider Fantasia's "summertime" to be the biggest moment for me, because A - It propelled her to victory the next week and, B - I was a fantasia-hater for most of the competition and that completely turned it around and made her my favorite.

Last week I said that Cat phoned it in and wasn't taking it seriously enough. Maybe she was just feeling defeated, knowing that she couldn't do justice to Elvis week, because this week she was on top of her game. Granted, if I knew she was going to do R-Kelly, I would have hoped it was Trapped in the Closet, but I digress... I also thought that her Billie Holiday-ish third song was PERFECT and absolutely what I would love for her to do. Queen Latifah put out a Jazzy type of album last year. I wish we could go back in time and have Cat record that exact album and have Queeny stick to Chicago songs (which she nailed). That jazzy/bluesy stuff is RIGHT where Cat needs to be.

And what about the Ass-soul Patrol? He was good. No, he was GREAT. Taylor is awesome. His moment long passed when he did George Harrison's Something, but he is still a great soul singer.

I have to pick a new number one, since Chris is gone, so who's it going to be? Isn't it obvious from my rant above??!?!

1. Catherine
2. Taylor
3. The Toad-Faced/Buck-Toothed/Less-personality-than-David-Blaine - Elliot

Yeah. Um, what the heck is that guy still doing in this competition?!!?!?!! Nikki McKibben made the top three of season one, so strangers things have happened. I called him a wigger earlier. The dude has ONE move that isn't stiff - He moves his right arm up and down like he's Eminem, or something. This isn't a battle, RABBIT! You freaking sing SOUL music. News Flash - YOU'RE NOT A GANSTA.

Anyway: I have avoided Dial-Idol until after I type my prediction, but I doubt it will change: Elliot will be going home, they will first tell Taylor he is safe.

Now what does Dial-Idol say? ..... Closer than I thought it would be....

Monday, May 15, 2006

Site News: Back in Black

I think I read somewhere that Black is the new Orange, so out with the old, in with the new. I revamped the linkage, now on the right. Now Odelay is color-blind-friendly! And, I don't have to change the text size everytime I post, which is good.

Basically, I just got sick of the look of the old site.

If you regularly read my blog, post a comment somewheres so I know! I'd love to add to my friends and family sections, so if you blogsterbate, let me know that, too!

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Better Late Than Never

I'm home sick, so my review and predictions are a little late. Sorry about that. Last night was good. I liked seven of the eight performances. Cat was unimpressive in her first song and forgot a word or two in her second. Not good at this stage of the competition. My ranking of the four will probably shock you.

1. Chris - Flawless again. I loved the songs he chose
2. Taylor - He has such a great voice and he was able to show off both sides of himself last night, which was good.
3. Elliot- I've officially changed my tune on the troll. Dude was amazing last night. period. He picked the perfect songs and i was even able to watch him with my eyes open and still enjoy it!
4. Cat- I don't know what it is. I still love her, but she just didn't seem to take it seriously enough last night.

Predictions: Cat and Elliot will probably be in the bottom two and Cat will probably be going home. I think Elliott did enough to move on. I don't think Cat has Paris' votes locked in, they could scatter to all three, so that won't help her.

NOTE: There have been many shockers with the final three, and I won't be surprised if Chris goes home. Taylor is 100% safe and would be the only one to completely shock me. Elliot was AMAZING last night, and enough people might assume Chris is safe and spend more time voting for Elliott. It's happened before. It would SUCK SWEATY DONKEY GNADS, but it could happen.

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Cherry Trees, Styx and...the BEATLES?!?!!?

A strange night on Idol. Paris was great, Elliot was....Elliot, Chris rocked Styx, Taylor CHEATED and Catharine had her "moment". It's actually a bummer that one of these five has to go home, especially since it'll be Paris and she's a good enough singer to make the top-three.

1. Chris (Renegade, I Dare You) - I wish I has put it in print last week, when I heard they were doing songs from the year they were born. I was hoping he might get crazy and do a Styx song. I was actually thinking "Babe" would have been a great choice, even though I don't like that song. Instead, you goes the Billy-Madison route with my #2 favorite styx song, and IT ROCKED. The judges didn't like the second song, moreover, they didn't like him singing it, because his voice is TRASHED. So what? He's a hard rocker. With his style of voice, it'll go out on him occasionally. I still liked the song, even though I had never heard of it and still have no idea who sings it. It was a perfect choice for him.

2. Catharine (Against All Odds, Black Horse and the Cherry Tree) Apparently, America stayed focused on her rough first performance because she was second-to-last in voting on Dial Idol. Against All Odds was bad. She was off from the first note and never fully recovered. However, she MORE than make up for it with her second song. I strongly dislike the original version by KT Tunstall, I don't know why. Catharine put enough of her own spin on it, had fun with it and it was FREAKING AMAZING. I don't know what happened with her voice on that first song, because we all know she can sing. Hopefully this won't kill her.

3. Paris (Kiss, Be Without You) If you add in the degree of difficulty that she gave herself tonight, it is all the more remarkable how well she did. I REALLY liked her take on the Prince classic. Then, she goes after, perhaps, the biggest song out there right now (other than "Bad Day") and she did a good job with it. I like Mary J. Blige and Paris didn't quite live up to the original, and she went with a carbon-copy, but it was still pretty damn good.

4. Taylor (Play that Funky Music, Something) - Was it a good move? Probably. Does anyone else even CARE that he didn't choose an actually current song? Probably not. Taylor cheated and took the Beatles "Something" with his second song, since it is currently on the Billboard Catalog Album chart (probably on "1"). At first I was thinking it was weak, but then he sang the song. Holy Crap. Best version of Something since the original.

5. Elliot (On Broadway, Home) - I really wish Simon didn't steal my line: Why on earth would he pick a song where the lines are "I want to go Home"?!?!?! That's just bad kharma. And it's stupid. The good thing is, He sang it VERY well. I love Michael Buble and it wasn't as good as the original, but it was still his best song of the night. I did my whole eyes-closed thing during On Broadway (actually it was eyes-on-the-laundry). I think he sang it very well. There is no doubt that he's a good technical singer. The problem was, I HATE THAT SONG, and just like Simon, it's really easy to be biased against a performance if you can't get turned on by the song.

Bottom two prediction: Paris, Cat

Going Home: Paris.

I think at this point, we are headed for a Taylor/Chris finale, which I think would be the best finale yet. Both of them are out of the American Idol traditional mold and since (other then Kelly Clarkson's "Breakaway" album) I don't normal like the pop-centric music that this show has spit out, That is a very good thing.

Monday, May 01, 2006

Day Without an Immigrant


I, for one, had an AWESOME commute to work this morning!