Cheyscer

I just saw one of the hottest girls I've seen in a while on Wowowee today, which is saying alot since that show is full of gorgeous women (I miss the Philippines). Her name is Cheyscer. She was wearing a sash because she was a winner of some pageant or contest. She was so attractive that Willie allowed her to co-host the main segment, but she was more eye candy than a great interviewer. It made for a great bit though. Willie is hilarious and this is one of the few times I can say that I would also have flirted with her if I were in his position. Screw professionalism.

Super-hot. If she developed a personality then she could be a star in the Philippines. Well, you know what, many of the stars and starlets are very vapid so she could still have a shot. Man was she attractive. I even had a hard time googling her, so I had to google Wowowee since she's new.

I really hope to see more of her on TV and not in the lascivious sort of way. That can be later.

Choose Love.

At the end of last Sunday's mass, the monsignor at my church made a semi-veiled statement about President Obama's commencement speech at Notre Dame University. He did not mention Barack's name, but he did say something about how the Catholic priest who made the Notre Dame school song is probably rolling in his grave.

That's fine to me-- the Catholic church is allowed to protest this visit from a pro-choice politician, and I do not blame them. The University of Notre Dame (I still can't figure out if it's university of OR ND Univeristy) is a Catholic institution and is a private one at that. Both the views of this president and the church are at conflict in the case of unborn babies/women's rights.

But I will say how I don't like it when politics creeps into my weekly mass. Sure, I should have been not paying attention as usual, but the monsignor snuck his message at the end of mass so it was a change in the format. If he mentioned it in passing during his sermon, then I would not be blogging this right now.

Unborn babies/women's rights are a very, very delicate issue that cannot be easily explained, much less solved, by just a single person. But I genuinely agree with both Barack and my monsignor in this case. Long story short, my priest talked about how "God is love" and Obama talked about opening a dialogue. What needs to happen is that both sides need to talk about it but in a less impassioned way so as not to alienate the other side. I'm not saying that both sides should compromise, not immediately at least, but to at least listen.

Yes, I'm biased becasue I go to church on Sundays, but that's it. That's exactly all I do, I go to church once a week. It does not make me anything more or less than a person who goes to church once a week.

But I believe both sides are lacking in love, so I choose love.

Top 3 Major Idol Dump

Been gone for a bit, but let's talk Idol.

The top three performed last night and I think the judges just plain suck at picking songs for the contestants (Apologize, or should I say, 'pologize? really?). Of course Randy picked OneRepublic's Apologize for Kris to sing. Why did he pick it? It's because Randy is constantly trying to prove to us that he's "hip" or "relevant" and is "down" with what's "in". Rather than pick a song that would make Kris sound awesome, Randy chose a song because it's a popular song that was popular two years ago and the whole season he's been saying how the contestants should do OneRepublic. Is that the only band that's current? Don't get me wrong, I don't hate the band. I think they're decent, but that song is so played-out. Proof that the song choice sucked is when Chris performed a single/album worthy rendition of that idiot megalomaniac/idiot Kanye West's song Heartless. I won't hate. That song by Kanye ain't bad, but Kris' performance was killer. It was very catchy and he displayed his vocals too at the same time. He did not flounder around like Randy forced him with 'pologize.

Sorry, Kris, if you're not through to the next round, let's hope it's not because Randy is a 13 year-old me-too wannabe.

Speaking of bad song choices. What the eff was Paula's choice? I never heard of "Dance Little Sister". I'm sure it's a decent song, but it seemed forced on Danny Gokey. And while there's plenty of evidence that Gokey was responsible for adding that scatting/improv-but-not-really part in the middle, I'm pretty sure Paula thought it would be a genious idea to have Gokey go all "skippity bopp bopp bee doo". Seriously, I don't know much about scatting, but it sounded like shite. No, it sounded like shit. I felt bad for the saxophonist who had to mimick the scats that Gokey was choking up (wait, you're seriously going to riff the same thing over and over again? I thought you're supposed to improvise and make it sound good). Maybe Gokey isn't used to the improvised part. Maybe there is a limit to his perceived smug, in-your-face-watch-me-sing style, and it's when he's battling another musical instrument.

But give it up to Danny, I really liked his "You are so beatiful" rendition. He toned it down and controlled his singing. And when it came down to belting it out, that's what he did. I don't know about how genuine the emotion was, but it was close to a sincere performance as I think we'll see from him. In the very least, his performance makes him a contender for the finals. Sans scatting, of course.

Adam Lambert. Let me just say, right out of the bat, while I may have some haterade in my genes, I just don't get Adam. It's not really his ability, because he can sing when he's not screaming like a motherfucking banshee. It's just that. Stop screaming all the damn time, Adam. Not every song requires you to stick your tongue out and blow air at a high pitch. Save it for the epileptic inducing funk performances where it really doesn't matter if you scream because the song and the lights and the whole goddam presentation are already assaulting everyone's senses and better judgement that adding yelling to it really makes not difference.

Yes, I really did enjoy the slow performances he's done, specifically the "Tracks of your tears". And I thought he'd learn to tone it back. But I guess that's part of his personality, and I won't knock him for being himself. He seems also to be very humble. But I wouldn't look forward to his album. I may enjoy a broadway musical with him in it though.

Actually, Simon picked a good song for Adam ("One" by U2), but of course Adam had to "make it his own" but singing the melody different and spackiling some screaming for added effect. Come on. This would have been a good chance for Adam to show the world (or me at least) that he can find a happy middleground between screaming in songs and doing slow ballads. U2's "One" is perfect for that. He could have sang it the way it was meant to be sung (sang?) by starting off soft with emotional and then end it loud with authority and meaning. Good pick, Simon, but Adam had to reaarange it.

That's the other thing. I hate Adam's arrangements of certain songs that do not need to be changed up, like that fuggin' "Ring of Fire" that became some weird middle-eastern gamish that made me feel slightly icky at the end of watching it. We get it, okay, you're musically inclined enough to make songs your own. Just don't start owning every song you sing because sometimes the original owner sang it just fine.

And one more thing. Adam's other slow performance would have been great except that Idol tried to play it off as an original rendition of "Mad World" by Tears for Fears. I've actually heard the slow version somewhere else, like in Donnie Darko. So Adam was not being a musical genious when he slowed down "Mad World". What pisses me off more is that everyone loved it so hard like he was the second coming.

Everyone sweats Adam Lambert. But let's see how good his music is when everyone has to readjust the volume of the tracks of his album on iTunes because he's screaming the whole damn mammajammin' time. Ugh, I hate that.

Other than that, Adam is okay. And to be extremely fair, I really did enjoy his own personal song choice and performance of Aerosmith's "Crying". That's an example of where screaming makes sense and sounds good.

I hope Kris gets in though, because, at least, when he tinkers with other peeps' music, it actually sounds better. He also sang "Falling Slowly". Enough said. But for the record, also because I won't get tinnitus from listening to his music.

Midseason TV

Where's the snap judgments for The Unsusuals? Seems like the most original of the mid-season shows that's not yet canceled. I'm going to stick with it until it gets canned just to see Goldberg and Perrineau play off of each other.

I have yet to see Southland (DVR'd), but I'm hoping it's less ER with cops and more The Shield but with not-so-crooked cops.

Parks & Recreation is crap. I like Poehler but she plays basically a female Michael Scott (I know, it's been said before) and The Office has not been funny recently, so why should we expect copycat mockumentary to be any funny? Stick to 30 Rock and Scrubs and enough of this staring into the camera business.

Who am I kidding? Kings gets all but canceled because of poor ratings (can network TV just give shows a shot). I understand the ratings were bad but what do you expect from sticking a high-concept drama on at Sundays? Okay, maybe that time slot wasn't so bad, but at least leave it on that day to let it catch some steam. I'm still reeling from NBC's cancellation of The Black Donnelly's.

Let The Right One In, Part 2

I understand if you've read the novel Let The Right One In by John Lindqvist, who also penned the screenplay for the movie, but that's to be expected. I pretty much never enjoy movie adaptations of books I loved, so it's acceptable and understandable to hear negative reviews. However, I don't understand the critiques from people who just don't get it. There's no disputing taste.

What's great though is that Lindqvist did the screenplay too, so the vision of the movie still holds true, in some way, for the novelist. I don't plan on reading the novel because I already love the movie and want to keep the same interpretation that I had when I watched it.

I'm goint to say it again, best coming of age and love story. Made even more meaningful when you add the vampirism and somewhat pedophelia undertones. The fact that the reasons for the two characters being together is so open to interpretation, makes this movie so great. Definitely worth watching again. But to be honest, I only got the the pedo part after the fact (from reviews, it's apparantly a theme in the novel).

Let the Right One In

You need to see this movie.

I could Let the Right One In as a vampire movie, but that would not do the movie justice. It's a coming-of-age story and a love story with a spice of vampire mixed in. I have not seen Twilight and have no real desire to as it has been described as tween/teen porn, but I have a feeling if you want something deeper and meaningful, this movie will hit the spot so many times over.

There are no gimmicky or splashy special effects that make vampires look like cartoon characters that belong on a chocolate cereal. It's about a 12-year-old boy who just doesn't seem to make friends and is the subject of bullying at school; and he meets this vampire girl and they become friends. Of course there's action and suspense and blood. But this is not a Saw movie. I really can't describe this movie well enough. Again, I would not even call this a vampire movie, but a love story. It's a love story of the first love kind. What's even better is it's the kind of love that's innocent but true.

Think of when you were twelve, or think of your first love. It's ironic that it takes a vampire movie to make a great love story, and not the overly sappy and romanticized kind. But then again it's not a vampire movie.

Uber props goes to Lina Leandersson, who is the best vampire ever and the best love interest or friend in a movie. If vampires were real, Lina's Eli would be the mold. Of course, since love stories usually have two individuals, Kare Hedebrant gets props too. Definitely the best love/friendship couple I've seen in a while.

There's a Bomb

I'm late on this.

I'm trying to figure out when is it ever a good idea to yell "There's a bomb!"? I could also make a sexist remark, but there were some guys on the line too and I have much love for the "short" ladies, which in my case would mean ladies of my height or taller.

They do look like ants though. And once people saw that it was just a car that had overheated, why were they still running away? Mob mentality? The ANTM people are going to hold another batch of New York additions. So people should be on the look out for anything that might resemble a bomb and just get rid of it. Extra jail points goes to whoever drives their car and makes it break down in front of the lines again. Extra are-you-f@#$ing-kidding points if someone yells out "There's another bomb!".

iPod for the Blind

Meet the new iPod shuffle. Now with the new feature of: if you lose the earbuds, you have to buy the same pair from Apple since the shuffle can only be controlled with the earbuds. Yes, the iPod shuffle has no buttons at all (aside from the lock/shuffle/switch).

I guess this is still for those people who workout and need music but don't want to buy the iPod nano, which to me, is light enough and more full-featured than the shuffle.

Who will benefit from the new shuffle? People whose ears fit perfectly with the earbuds, who take good care of the shoddy earbuds so it won't break or get lost, and for blind people. There's a new feature where a robot tells you the name of the song and artist if you hold the special button on the earbuds long enough. Then if you hold it even longer it tells you your playlists. This makes me wonder why one doesn't get the nano instead. If you're literally blind, I understand then this feature, but it seems infinitely wiser if you can see with your eyes, to look at screen and choose your next song.

Still, Apple is apple. I'm always going to pine for a MacBook Pro. Sigh.