• As Mom and Dad continue on the road to responsible environmental stewardship/hippiedom, the chickens have been joined by more animal friends: 1,000 worms for the compost bin Jason and I (but mostly Jason) built almost five months ago. Now instead of just dumping our coffee grounds and vegetable remnants outside, they'll be fuel for worm ( Read more... )

Some of you* were wondering what happened to my American Idol Player-by-Player yesterday. The truth is, I am now at the point most of you reached weeks, years or lifetimes ago: I have lost much of my interest in this show.

* More specifically, one of you.Haley has emerged as my uncontested favorite (I once again gave her 30 minutes of phone votes ( Read more... )

This is a cool - and wide-open - double theme. I'd prefer they just sang one song each (and the show was only an hour long), but "Now & Then" is the quintessence of this televised karaoke contest that makes competitors sing old songs so they can decide which one will get to make new songs. As it turns out, the actual theme of the night is Jimmy's ( Read more... )

OMG has will.i.am become a permanent fixture on this show? What did we do to deserve this? And how bald must Jimmy Iovine be that we have never seen him without a hat? The theme tonight is "Songs From the Movies," which, as we know, can mean just about anything. Let's just hope there are some surprises and we don't hear "Against All Odds" and " ( Read more... )

Lots of Pia Toscano mileage today...

"Every American agrees" that Pia was sent home too early and the American Idol winner-selection process is fatally flawed. Well, it's easy to complain that something is broken, but it's a lot harder to take broken things and fix them. Here are some proposals for getting American Idol back on a more logical ( Read more... )

That had to be the most shocking AI results show ever. I honestly wasn't expecting Pia to win this thing due to the "pretty-girl ceiling" effect I've written about before, but I am still flabbergasted that she somehow finished ninth. WUWT ( Read more... )

Should have been a good night, but I'm not sure that it was.

Jacob Lusk - "Man In The Mirror" (Michael Jackson)
I think this is a song I'm tired of hearing on Idol. Didn't like his intro: "If America doesn't vote for me, America sucks." So I'm gonna go hard on him even though he sang it well enough. B

Haley Reinhart - "Piece Of My Heart" (Big ( Read more... )

Setting aside the voting out and saving of Casey Abrams (which officially never happened), here's how this year's American Idol ejections have played out ( Read more... )

Weren't they going to get rid of the theme nights this year? Apparently not. As single-artist themes go, though, Elton John's a pretty good choice.

Scotty McCreery - "Country Comfort(s ( Read more... )

Normally the American Idol results shows are 59 minutes of absolutely worthless time-killing TV punctuated by the announcement of who's going home. Tonight's show, I dare say, might have actually qualified as entertainmentWe got sharp-looking suits and dresses, Stevie Wonder, the heartfelt birthday tribute to Steven Tyler, the surprising bottom ( Read more... )