LOST, American Idol, and Art Class
...I finally sat through the 2 hour LOST season finale... and I can honestly say that I'm done. As a fan of the show, I defended the muddled mess it had become to friend and foe alike, but after seeing that, it was a major let down. The real shame here is that the show has a very solid writing staff, a decent cast, and a cool promise, but it suffers from extremely flawed plotting and execution. The flaws are made more glaring on the heels of HEROES's season finale and the 2 episodes that led up to it.
The whole "the flashback in reverse" thing, if this show is suppose to go as far as 2010, they played this card way to early in the game for it to ever make sense. And if they pull any of that time travel bullshit, it will totally undermine everything that happened during the course of the show.
As much as I dig Juliet and Ben as characters, "the Others" as an advanced civilization was a huge mistake.... It would have worked much better if they set a straight course of the survivors vs. environment their plot-line. That was a much more logical and organic conflict. And everything should have been established immediately and then let the mystery of the events could unfold in a natural and logical way. Not to say to everything had to be revealed all at once, but give the audience a little bit to go on. Not every fucking thing has to be a big revelation or shrouded in intrigue. All-in-all. LOST=latter day X-files 2.0...
The good, the bad, the ugly, and the WTF: AI 2007:
I have a love/hate relationship with American Idol. On one hand you're set up with the promise of an awesome train wreck and you stick around to what's left after all the fatalities, but surprise, surprise, along the way despite yourself, you find yourself caring about some of the survivors and in a way, their journey becomes your journey. After 6 years though, it has been a long haul and the enthusiasm's waned and it's become more of a circus, but those final performances get to you as the cameras pan on proud parents and other loved ones and then you realizes why you tuned in the first place. Having said all that, this is what I take away from AI 2007:
The Good:
1) Say what you will about her "aw shucks, I can't believe this is happening to me" persona, Melinda Doolittle can sing her ass off. She reminds me of Stephanie Mills...(you know when she was somewhat relevant)...though her performance of "Nut Bush" was fantastic, I couldn't help but anticipate the arrival of Laurence Fishburn, as Ike Turner, brandishing a boot at her. And that made me laugh, a lot.
2) Despite Melinda's awesome talent, America got it right, of all the contestants, Jordin Sparks best embodied the true spirit of what American Idol is, the search for the next great *POP* star. Everything about Jordin screams Pop music and for the first time since Kelly Clarkson a true blue pop singer won the competition.
3) It was infinitely better than last season.
The Bad:
1) Sanjaya Malahkar inexplicable survival.
2) Sanjaya's Hair
3) Sanjaya's singing
4) Ryan Seacrest further descent as a self-loathing homosexual...(dude, c'mon...)...seriously Ryan, you hide it so poorly.
5) Paula trying to prove she has depth and intelligence and failing miserably
6) The feuding between Simon and Ryan, more homoerotic than "300" and "Alexander" put together.
The Ugly:
1) Watching Sanjaya standing in the bottom 3 week after week and taking the abuse he had to take, but then he would sing again and I stopped feeling bad for him.
2) Paula's sad attempts to speak. This is when it became abundantly clear that Paula officially became Whiney Houston
3) Having to endure Ryan's camera hogging and overstepping his job as the host by challenging the judges as if *he* were on the panel.
The WTF:
1) Phil Stacy's creepiness
2) At the risk of being totally politically incorrect, why was Marlee Matlin at the finale??
3) That crying little bitch in the audience. Why did they feel the need to put a plant in the audience to prop up Sanjaya??
4) the videos for Ford. I guess there's a "whore" clause in the contract the contestants have to sign.
and so endeth this season of AI, but I'm not sure I'll be back for #7.
Last night was the first night of a 10 week course on comic book illustration and I have to say it was fun, but pretty intimidating too. I'm basically self taught and I've only taking an art class here and there as electives at university. The people in this class are insanely talented it's unreal. But anytime I get to sit around and draw and talk about comics and comic related stuff is a little slice of heaven for me. We just did some sketching and brain storming last night as well as doing the introduction bit. But all-in-all I'm really looking forward to the up coming weeks when we get knee deep in the work.
The whole "the flashback in reverse" thing, if this show is suppose to go as far as 2010, they played this card way to early in the game for it to ever make sense. And if they pull any of that time travel bullshit, it will totally undermine everything that happened during the course of the show.
As much as I dig Juliet and Ben as characters, "the Others" as an advanced civilization was a huge mistake.... It would have worked much better if they set a straight course of the survivors vs. environment their plot-line. That was a much more logical and organic conflict. And everything should have been established immediately and then let the mystery of the events could unfold in a natural and logical way. Not to say to everything had to be revealed all at once, but give the audience a little bit to go on. Not every fucking thing has to be a big revelation or shrouded in intrigue. All-in-all. LOST=latter day X-files 2.0...
The good, the bad, the ugly, and the WTF: AI 2007:
I have a love/hate relationship with American Idol. On one hand you're set up with the promise of an awesome train wreck and you stick around to what's left after all the fatalities, but surprise, surprise, along the way despite yourself, you find yourself caring about some of the survivors and in a way, their journey becomes your journey. After 6 years though, it has been a long haul and the enthusiasm's waned and it's become more of a circus, but those final performances get to you as the cameras pan on proud parents and other loved ones and then you realizes why you tuned in the first place. Having said all that, this is what I take away from AI 2007:
The Good:
1) Say what you will about her "aw shucks, I can't believe this is happening to me" persona, Melinda Doolittle can sing her ass off. She reminds me of Stephanie Mills...(you know when she was somewhat relevant)...though her performance of "Nut Bush" was fantastic, I couldn't help but anticipate the arrival of Laurence Fishburn, as Ike Turner, brandishing a boot at her. And that made me laugh, a lot.
2) Despite Melinda's awesome talent, America got it right, of all the contestants, Jordin Sparks best embodied the true spirit of what American Idol is, the search for the next great *POP* star. Everything about Jordin screams Pop music and for the first time since Kelly Clarkson a true blue pop singer won the competition.
3) It was infinitely better than last season.
The Bad:
1) Sanjaya Malahkar inexplicable survival.
2) Sanjaya's Hair
3) Sanjaya's singing
4) Ryan Seacrest further descent as a self-loathing homosexual...(dude, c'mon...)...seriously Ryan, you hide it so poorly.
5) Paula trying to prove she has depth and intelligence and failing miserably
6) The feuding between Simon and Ryan, more homoerotic than "300" and "Alexander" put together.
The Ugly:
1) Watching Sanjaya standing in the bottom 3 week after week and taking the abuse he had to take, but then he would sing again and I stopped feeling bad for him.
2) Paula's sad attempts to speak. This is when it became abundantly clear that Paula officially became Whiney Houston
3) Having to endure Ryan's camera hogging and overstepping his job as the host by challenging the judges as if *he* were on the panel.
The WTF:
1) Phil Stacy's creepiness
2) At the risk of being totally politically incorrect, why was Marlee Matlin at the finale??
3) That crying little bitch in the audience. Why did they feel the need to put a plant in the audience to prop up Sanjaya??
4) the videos for Ford. I guess there's a "whore" clause in the contract the contestants have to sign.
and so endeth this season of AI, but I'm not sure I'll be back for #7.
Last night was the first night of a 10 week course on comic book illustration and I have to say it was fun, but pretty intimidating too. I'm basically self taught and I've only taking an art class here and there as electives at university. The people in this class are insanely talented it's unreal. But anytime I get to sit around and draw and talk about comics and comic related stuff is a little slice of heaven for me. We just did some sketching and brain storming last night as well as doing the introduction bit. But all-in-all I'm really looking forward to the up coming weeks when we get knee deep in the work.