TV-Rollicking Updates on AI 2007-Top 12 Boys and Girls; Apprentice LA-Honey task; Grammy 2007 Fashion

Catching up on some big TV events this week.

First, we have the final 12 boys and girls on American Idol 2007. Pics of all and notes on who to watch for.

Also, the Grammies 2007…heh. Some pics and some snide comments, as expected of me.

And yes, we are keeping up with Apprentice LA although no one else in America is. This report a real honey.

Pic of the Day

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Quote of the Day I don't know what you could say about a day in which you have Seen four beautiful sunsets. -- John Glenn after orbiting the earth

Web Site Worth the Visit United States Geography Here's a neat game and good for the school youngsters. Take the shape of a state and "drop" it where it's supposed to go. CLICK HERE

TIDBITS RANDOM TIDBITS ON DOLLS Barbie doll has had more than 80 careers -- everything from a rock star to a paleontologist to a presidential candidate. *** Barbie Goes to College was introduced in 1964. *** Quinceanera Teresa doll was released in Mexico in 1994 to celebrate Girls Day. *** There has been some controversy over Barbie's figure when it realized that if Barbie was a real person her measurements would be an impossible 36-18-38. *** Barbie doll has five sisters, Skipper, introduced in 1964, Tutti, a twin introduced in 1966, Stacie in 1992, Kelly in 1995 and Krissy in 1999. *** The Barbie doll was invented in 1959 by Ruth Handler (co-founder of Mattel), whose own daughter was called Barbara. *** Doll collecting is second only to stamp collecting as the most popular collecting hobby in America -- Barbie doll is collected by women, men and children around the world.

 


The Grammys 2007

I have absolutely no comment on the 2007 Grammy Award show that anyone would want to read. Except, perhaps, a note that the disgraced Dixie Chicks seem to have friends in the record industry and this group received a bunch of awards. Not bad for a singing group whose records nobody buys. I suppose the Chicks think this will boost their career when all they really had to do was keep their big mouths shut. I don't think it's going to help unless the Chicks change music genre. Because country-western music fans across the fruited plain are not going to buy Dixie Chicks' records...period.

You can lead these hard-headed country-loving folks to water but you CAN'T make them buy.

Beyond that, below some links of interest and some pic montages you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.

CBS' Official 49th Grammys Award Site
2007 Grammy Winners









The Apprentice LA-A "Honey" of a Task

This year's Apprentice continues on and still we have the mansion versus the tent thing going on. And STILL it is a twist to this reality series that I do not like one bit. All this being said, The Arrow team had been in the mansion for finally winning a task but this would not last long. The teams' task the week of 2/11/07 was to work with the Sue Bee Honey company, harvesting, bottling and selling honey in Ralph's supermarket. As always, the team that sold the least would be declared losers, would be banished to Tent City and someone on the losing team would be fired.



Aaron was project manager for Arrow while Aimee was project manager for Kinetic. The Kinetic team used one of their team members, Angela, to help sell the honey. Angela is an olympic gold medalist and what better representative to sell honey than a finely toned human being who, or so the buyer might assume, consumed lots of honey and got big, healthy and strong?

Arrow sold 217 jars of honey to bring in $718. Kinetic sold 345 jars of honey to bring in $345. Thus, the Kinetic team won this task.



The Arrow team did try some new and daring things, including an attempt to sell honey in bulk. This did not work and I'm not surprised. People aren't likely to buy large quantities of honey to keep on hand. Honey is something not used all that much in daily cooking or meal prep. The winning team was rewarded with a behind-the-scenes show of Lakers basketball.

The pic text below is WRONG. Surya did NOT get fired. Aaron was fired for the Sue Bee honey task.


What was intriguing about this boardroom meeting was how team Arrow jumped all over Surya, a fellow who VOLUNTEERED to join them from the Kinetic team. First chance, the entire Arrow team tries to throw Surya overboard.

Donald Trump had real issues with Arrow team leader, Aaron. Trump complained endlessly that Aaron didn't give him much feedback after the last task and implicit with Trump's complaint was his concern that Aaron might be a bad communicator.

Also, that little love affair between Nicole and Tim was exposed at this boardroom showdown. This romantic angle presents lots of dramatic possibilities later in the season. Because what happens when, say, a team leader Nicole has to vote to fire her beloved Tim?

Trump fired Aaron over his failure with the honey task and the Arrow team once again claimed the cots in Tent City.

American Idol-The Final 24

Just a few comments on the 2007 American Idol competition now that we're down to the top twelve males and females.

Official American Idol Site HERE.

I have two contenders for this 2007 series to watch out for. In the female finals, Jordin Sparks is the one to watch. For the male finalist, there is no doubt in my mind that the most talented guy, and definitely a top five finalist, is Blake Lewis.

Three interesting contenders were eliminated. Two were members of the American military, a female and a male. One was a very tall female, over 6', that I was sure would move on.

Below, the final 24, males AND females.





Stick around because we'll have voice and style critiques as the finalists above perform.

AMERICAN IDOL 2007 LINKS
Seattle and Minneapolis 1/16/07 and 1/17/07
Birmingham 1/30/07
San Antonio 2/6/07
The Top 24 2/12/2007

APPRENTICE 2007 LA LINKS
First Show 1/7/07
Swimsuit Task 1/14/07
Michelle Quits 1/21/07
Pollo Loco
The Honey of a Task

More TV Reviews HERE
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TV-"The Apprentice LA" with Exclusive Pic of Trump's Dog

Here's a TV update on Trump's The Apprentice LA.

There's an element of the show this year that annoys the hell out of me. On the 1/22/07 episode, another contestant was annoyed at the very same thing and no, she wasn't fired, she QUIT!

Even if you're not keeping up with this year's series click in on this post because, for the first time ever in a public venue, we have a pic of Trump's dog.

You gotta see this.

Pic of the Day

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Quotes of the Day The whole secret of life is to be interested in one thing profoundly and in a thousand things well. - Horace Walpole *** There are good days and there are bad days, and this is one of them. - Lawrence Welk *** There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it. - Oscar Wilde

Web Site Worth the Visit Crazy Images Here's a cool site. Bring up various images and use your mouse to navigate. One neat image is a view of the land as one would see in an airplane. By moving the mouse the view changes, spins, weaves and wanders. It'll even make you a bit dizzy. CLICK HERE

TIDBITS Intriguing Things About the Human Body When filming summer scenes in winter, actors suck on ice cubes just before the camera rolls - it cools their mouths so their breath doesn't condense in the cold air. Humans were first infected with the HIV virus in the 1930s. Thinking about your muscles can make you stronger. If left alone, 70% of birthmarks gradually fade away. Grapefruit scent will make middle aged women appear six years younger to men. The perception is not reciprocal and the grapefruit scent on men has no effect on women's perception. Women blink twice as many times as men do. Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair. We are about 1 cm taller in the morning than in the evening. Layers of cartilage in the joints gets compressed during the day. There are approx. 550 hairs in the eyebrow. The strongest muscle in the human body is the tongue. The life span of a taste bud is 10 days. The world's youngest parents were 8 and 9 and lived in China in 1910. The largest known kidney stone weighed 1.36 kilograms. Most dust particles in your house are made from dead skin. Kidney stones come in any color--from yellow to brown. Babies are born without kneecaps. They appear when the child is 2-6 years of age.

 


"The Apprentice LA-1/21/07-Michelle Quits and I Don't Blame Her a Whit

First, allow me to correct my error for the first two posts when I called the team "AERO" instead of "ARROW". You may thank closed-captioning for my confusion as AERO is the name alphabetically flashed across the screen instead of ARROW.

Let us begin with a pic of those Trump kids.



I'm not at all sure what Ivanka is wearing in the pic above but I don't especially like it. On the show of 1/21/07, we were introduced to Little Donald for the first time. Hey, this Trump child doesn't have half the business and communication ability of his sister. I suppose he will be around the rest of the season and I doubt he will add much to the commentary.

Now, the task for 1/21/07...

Because Arrow had lost the first two tasks, Trump split that team into two sub-teams. These sub-teams of Arrow were then charged with creating a special tour for the bus line Starline Tours. It seems even Trump felt sorry for Arrow, who had to spend all of its time since the reality show's 2007 inception living in the so-called "Tent City".

Which leads me to a complaint about that whole stupid concept of this living in a tent notion. First, this idea is a blatant rip-off of "Big Brother", another reality series. Having one of the Apprentice contending teams live in tents brings nothing to the contest and is very distracting. Second, that stupid contest they have offering viewers a chance to call in and vote for THEIR choice of exile to Tent City, well it's dumb too, and hokey, and the audience vote hype tends to take away the gravitas a show involving logical choices to run a business requires.

It seems another contender agreed with me and QUIT because of it.

Michelle's team featured a tour titled "A Day in the Life of the Rich and Famous". Aaron's team had the Laker Girls as a "draw" for tourists to ride the Starline Tour bus. As these two sub-teams of Arrow fought to win the task, the rival team, Kinetic, was shown frolicking and enjoying life in the fine quarters provided for them. This vignette also brought nothing to the series.



Starline Tours did offer their opinions of how the two Arrow sub-teams did and a few customer review forms were read in the infamous board room. Michelle's team did not do very well but it was no mind because Michelle saved everyone a lot of bother...SHE QUIT!

Michelle had not been very well liked by her co-contenders and she had been set up early in the series as a possible candidate for firing and the hints thrown at the viewers is that it would be very soon. I don't know much about Michelle and her ability to lead, much less her personality which so many of her team mates complained about. I do know that Michelle told The Donald off during the Board Room meeting when she quit and I know that I not only admired her moxie, I also admired how right she was about the set-up of this year's "Apprentice".

For Michelle thought that living in a tent was distracting and sucked all the creativity out of her mind. Why I was practically cheering the woman on. In fact, I think King Trump was very upset about Michelle's complaints as, hey, no one's ever up and quit on The Donald.

Michelle was right. I can't imagine how those contenders forced to live in tents are supposed to effectively compete at their best when so much of their lives in a tent is spent dealing with..., well, life in a damn tent. Trump trumpets his Apprentice series as one of great seriousness, that the winner will be chosen based on his or her ability to function and perform with a seriousness that produces positive business results. This year the creator of the series somehow thinks that adding this tent sub-plot will add to viewer intrigue. It didn't for this viewer at least. Michelle further complained that living in a tent was not part or parcel of what she signed up for when she auditioned for the series and she can't function well under these circumstances. I certainly wouldn't be able to function well either under those circumstances and hey, I'd quit in a minute.

Already the team condemned to the tents has one strike against them before the next task is assigned. The team that won the precious task enters the contest for the next task with one leg up. They are rested and ready for action. The "tent team" begins the task assigned already behind in terms of mental acuity. It can't be hard to rest well sleeping on a hard ground under a flimsy tent.

So Michelle, kudos to you from this viewer. I think Trump throwing that tent angle in with no warning is a bit mean and underhanded. And the whole thing adds absolutely nothing to the series. The Apprentice series is struggling for life and it's obvious Trump is trying everything, including publicly fighting with Rosie O'Donnell, to keep interest in the contest alive. Forcing the losers to live in tents is not the way to go.

Finally, we came across this pic of Donald Trump's dog and offer it here, exclusively and on this Blog, for reader yuks. Pic below.















Link list for Apprentice 2007 below:
First Show 1/7/07
Swimsuit Task 1/14/07

More TV Reviews HERE