Wrangler: Anatomy of an Icon Trailer - TLA Releasing

He died of lung cancer yesterday.

American Idol - Year They Were Born

Idol is getting harder and harder to call. Each week we are seeing the Idols struggling with song choice, image, and identity. This week is the week of songs from the year they were born. Most of the Idols were born in 1985 and 1986, with 2 on the outer edges (1980 and 1992). Here is a short list from Billboard of song choices they had:

1980 Top 20 Songs
1. Call Me, Blondie
2. Another Brick In The Wall, Pink Floyd
3. Magic, Olivia Newton-John
4. Rock With You, Michael Jackson
5. Do That To Me One More Time, Captain and Tennille
6. Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Queen
7. Coming Up, Paul McCartney
8. Funkytown, Lipps, Inc.
9. It's Still Rock And Roll To Me, Billy Joel
10. The Rose, Bette Midler
11. Escape (The Pina Colada Song), Rupert Holmes
12. Cars, Gary Numan
13. Cruisin', Smokey Robinson
14. Working My Way Back To You/Forgive Me Girl, Spinners
15. Lost In Love, Air Supply
16. Little Jeannie, Elton John
17. Ride Like The Wind, Cristopher Cross
18. Upside Down, Diana Ross
19. Please Don't Go, K.C. and The Sunshine Band
20. Babe, Styx

1985 Top 20 songs
1. "Careless Whisper".....Wham!
2. "Say You, Say Me".....Lionel Richie
3. "Separate Lives".....Phil Collins & Marilyn Martin
4. "I Want To Know What Love Is".....Foreigner
5. "Money For Nothing".....Dire Straits
6. "We Are The World".....USA for Africa
7. "Broken Wings".....Mr. Mister
8. "Everybody Wants To Rule The World".....Tears for Fears
9. "The Power Of Love".....Huey Lewis & The News
10. "We Built This City".....Starship
11. "St. Elmo's Fire".....John Parr
12. "Can't Fight This Feeling".....REO Speedwagon
13. "Crazy For You".....Madonna
14. "Easy Lover".....Phillip Bailey & Phil Collins
15. "Everytime You Go Away".....Paul Young
16. "Don't You (Forget About Me):.....Simple Minds
17. "Take On Me".....a-ha
18. "Party All The Time".....Eddie Murphy
19. "Everything She Wants".....Wham!
20. "Shout".....Tears for Fears

1986 Top 20 Songs
1. "That's What Friends Are For".....Dionne & Friends
2. "Walk Like An Egyptian".....Bangles
3. "On My Own".....Patti Labelle & Michael McDonald
4. "The Way It Is".....Bruce Hornsby & The Range
5. "You Give Love A Bad Name".....Bon Jovi
6. "Greatest Love Of All".....Whitney Houston
7. "There'll Be Sad Songs".....Billy Ocean
8. "How Will I Know".....Whitney Houston
9. "Kyrie".....Mr. Mister
10. "Kiss".....Prince & The Revolution
11. "The Next Time I Fall".....Peter Cetera & Amy Grant
12. "Burning Heart".....Survivor
13. "Stuck With You".....Huey Lewis & The News
14. "When I Think Of You".....Janet Jackson
15. "Rock Me Amadeus".....Falco
16. "West End Girls".....Pet Shop Boys
17. "Sledgehammer".....Peter Gabriel
18. "Human".....Human League
19. "Sara".....Starship
20. "Higher Love".....Steve Winwood

1992 Top 20 Songs
1. End Of The Road, Boyz II Men
2. Baby Got Back, Sir Mix A-lot
3. Jump, Kris Kross
4. Save The Best For Last, Vanessa Williams
5. Baby-Baby-Baby, TLC
6. Tears In Heaven, Eric Clapton
7. My Lovin' (You're Never Gonna Get It), En Vogue
8. Under The Bridge, Red Hot Chili Peppers
9. All 4 Love, Color Me Badd
10. Just Another Day, Jon Secada
11. I Love Your Smile, Shanice
12. To Be With You, Mr. Big
13. I'm Too Sexy, Right Said Fred
14. Black Or White, Michael Jackson
15. Achy Breaky Heart, Billy Ray Cyrus
16. I'll Be There, Mariah Carey
17. November Rain, Guns N' Roses
18. Life Is A Highway, Tom Cochrane
19. Remember The Time, Michael Jackson
20. Finally, CeCe Peniston

Some singers had it better than others, but when the judges talk about how they have "all the choices" of songs to choose from, they are a bit obnoxious. Here's how they did:

Danny Gokey - "Stand By Me"
He had to go ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL the way down to the 80s or 90s in the Top 100 songs of that year to find this song, which should tell you how difficult this year was to choose. There are some great songs in that year (The Rose, Fame, Upside Down) but they are not songs that would make great Idol moments. He did what he could with the song, turned it into a great vocal, but it was safe.

Kris Allen - "All She Wants to Do is Dance"
Kris is a great performer. He made the song fresh. Still, not my favorite song choice.

Lil Rounds - "What's Love Got to Do With It"
Bless her heart...this is an "Untouchable..." a song that should be avoided because you can't do better than the original. She did a good job with it, but "good" is still 2nd rate to Tina's "great."

Anoop Desai - "True Colors"
Wow...he did a really good job with the song. It was impressive. Not a moment, but not bad.

Scott MacIntyre - "The Search is Over"
ac crap sung almost as well as the original. The guitar was a nice change, but really??? Stop listening to Paula, even "lucid" Paula.

Allison Iraheta - "I Can't Make You Love Me"
She is fighting to be a contender. She's like a dark horse who sings well every week. Comparisons to Kelly Clarkson seem a bit premature, but she is singing very well. Mature and interesting.

Matt Giraud - "Part-Time Lover"
I loved his voice. His performances often border on melisma, but he's very good. This is one of his better performances.

WTF?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
Last performance cut off by DVR because the show ran long. WTF?!?!?!?!?

Top 3: Danny, Allison, Kris

Bottom: Lil, Scott, Matt

I think Lil is in trouble. If Matt hadn't received a good review, I think he'd be the one in the hot seat.

How To Make A Roux

This is for Ted. Bobby Flay did a Throwdown episode with her so she should be the one you learn how to do a perfect roux from.

Bon apetit!

Gilles and Cheryl Paso Doble

The dance of the night AND he does it half naked !!!!!

In-freakin-credible!

Sometimes you get more than you bargained for

My fitting room at the Plantation is often a sweltering hot pit of funk, truth be told, due to the anal emissions of my middle aged, country fitting room attendant. She has a reputation of not only being very gassy (and proud of it “Better out than in”), but of also not knowing when to take a trip to the restroom when necessary. On more than one occasion a manager has had to either clean her or the salefloor up after she waited too long to make a sprint to the restroom and redecorated the seat of her pants in the process.

So, apparently Stinky had too many taquitos the night before, and her Midwestern tummy violently disagreed. Our fitting room is a large one, but it still is an enclosed space, so I’m SURE that it was much like any other day she worked: hot and stank, where you could actually feel and maybe see the odor. So, she’s farting away, happily relieving herself of the internal stress of the gas buildup, when it happens. Again, she doesn’t often realize when she needs to go, and apparently she isn’t keen on whether she has “the squirts” as my father used to call them or just gas. So she let ‘er rip. I can only imagine the look of shock and horror on her face when she felt something shoot down the back of her leg, but I’m certain that the fitting room, for the near future at least, will be a much fresher place to work. Kegels and abject fear of embarrassment work wonders on tightening a sphincter.

Dallas police Officer Robert Powell first interview...After he Detains SUV and Mother Dies

From the officer's mouth.

Wow...

Dallas cop on a power trip detains NFL player while his mother in law dies

The video is disturbing for a number of reasons: he clearly wasn't listening to anything the family was saying, he enjoyed detaining them, and it took 2 nurses to come down and tell him the woman was truly dying before he let them go...with a lecture on how to properly respond to an officer.

As of today, the officer resigned.

Whatcha gonna do

Hubby and I are facing a dilemma that many parents of adult children face: how to instill a work ethic into a person with none.

19 y.o. (hereafter known as 19 because I'm not very creative and i watch too much "House") is a good kid and we love him. Just wanted to get that out of the way, first because the rest is not pretty.

He moved out over a year ago because he didn't want to follow the basic rules of the house (don't lie to the people who feed you, don't steal from the people who house you, bathe daily, don't live in squalor, and don't do drugs). Not the most difficult list we could come up with, but seemingly insurmountable.

Cut to the beginning of the year when all of his other options were failing (roommate leaving him, girlfriend tired of him, used up all goodwill at friends' homes because no one likes a freeloader) and he asked to move back in. After some soulsearching and many discussions, we took him back as long as he could follow the rules of the house. He agreed and things were copacetic up until March.

Hubby and I, stressed from our jobs planned a lovely vacation cruise to the Caribbean. 19 stayed home because he refuses to get a passport and because who wants to spend the money on someone who won't help himself get away to the islands? Vacation was a blast and we return home to hungry puppies and kitty. No 19. For 4 days. Letters in the mailbox from law firms gave us a clue as to where he might have been, but we didn't know for sure. He returns home witha story about how he'd been hanging out with his girlfriend. At some point we reveal to him we know he was arrested and he comes clean about getting caught with "herbal substances" and apologizes. He lost his job because he couldn't call them from jail because his one phone call was to his girlfriend to try to help bail him out and take care of the dogs while we were away (mind you, the sad irony of the arrest is it happened the very night we left for the cruise, so 4 days were spent in jail instead of his warm bed.)

So now, what is our intrepid 19 doing to get his life in order? Sleeping in late, hanging out with friends, helping girlfriend study. Actively searching for work? Not so much. Preparing to pay for court costs by saving money from his job? Nope. The child doesn't even really have a desire to get a car of his own. Really?!? At 15 I wanted my own car just so I could get away from my parents as far as the gas would take me. I hate looking at him like a failure for not having a sense of want in his life, but there is so much more to the world than the four walls of his bedroom. Why can't we get him to see that?

American Idol - iTunes Week

This was a week of some decidedly weak performances and few breakout performances. Oh, and someone has either been talking to Paula about her critiques or she has found a thesaurus because she is wordy and almost profound...then she begins to ramble and it all goes to hell. You can tell Simon enjoys this Paula better than boozy/narcotics Paula because now he can insult her intellect and it not seem like he's kicking a wounded puppy. Now on with the critiques:

Anoop Desai - "Caught Up"
He wanted to go for an Usher, urban, uptempo number and looked awkward. He sounded okay, but okay isn't going to get him to the finals. Very karaoke.

Megan Joy - "Turn Your Lights Down Low"
Never sing songs from the crazy one from the Fugees. It was passable, but again, is passable American Idol material?

Danny Gokey - "What Hurts the Most"
He does a good job with Rascal Flatts. I'm still a fan. Not his best and he still hasn't had his "moment," but we know it's coming.

Allison Iraheta - "Don't Speak"
I love her. Her voice is interesting and she did some nice things with the song. Her stylist needs a good kick in the ass.

Scott MacIntyre - "Just the Way You Are"
Okay. He sings Billy Joel a week after Paula recommends he sings Billy Joel. Woo hoo.

Matt Giraud - "You Found Me"
There is something I really like about him. He has a wonderful voice and I can hear him selling albums. This wasn't my favorite performance of his. Hubby hated it.

Lil Rounds - "I Surrender"
You go, girl! That was really very good.

Adam Lambert - "Play That Funky Music"
Uhhh...okay! Our first WTF moment of the season. Either you loved it or you hated it.

Kris Allen - "Ain't No Sunshine"
Riveting. Simple. Beautiful...up until the last note. Still, very nice.

Top 3: Kris, Lil, Adam

Bottom 3: Megan, Scott, and Anoop

Bye, bye Megan.