I'm back.

Spotted from the Trail.
Originally uploaded by gina64.

We had a lovely time, what with all the card-playing, the eating, the hiking, the eating, the drinking and the eating. We saw bears again this year (touched-up photo coming soon, I hope), as well as various other flora and fauna, including a hummingbird and a Cheerios-eating chipmunk. Oh, and we were literally overrun with caterpillars.

Expect things like LOST and Alias and Idol recaps to appear here in dribs and drabs as I play catchup, and also look for more talk about the LOST webgame.

In the meantime, enjoy the photo above.

Uncle Teddy and Mortimer Unavailable for Comment.

Suspected 'hit-and-run grannies': "A federal grand jury indicted two elderly women accused of befriending transient men and then collecting on life insurance policies worth $2.3 million after the men died in hit-and-run crashes."

These ladies are a bit more hardcore than Aunts Martha and Abby.

Idol: Top 2

Finally, we make it to the Top 2. It was a bumpy road to the Kodak Theater and the showdown between Katharine and Taylor. Some people stayed in the game longer than their talent justified, while others were gone too soon. But that's all water under the bridge, and I think Kat and Taylor earned the right to be in the final. They're both talented and deserve this.

OK, so, we start off with the big reveal of the ginormous audience all spazzing out as Ryan welcomes everyone to the Kodak. Hey, there's Mandy Moore! And is that Ben Stiller hiding in the corner? Oo, he looks like he's got manorexia! Not good.

Anyhoo, the performers will sing 3 songs each: 2 that we've already heard them sing this season and their Idol coronation song.

Katharine's up first, singing "Black Horse and a Cherry Tree". Good, I liked this one. She stands and does a sort of a goofy dance with her drummer guys and does a good job. Not a stunner, but good. The judges feel pretty much the same way.

Taylor sings "Living For the City" from Stevie Wonder week in a ghastly purple velvet jacket. Despite that sartorial disaster - hey! Taye Diggs! - Taylor rocks the house and wins that round.

Next, Katharine repeats her best performance, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", and I think she does even better. Exhale, gina. She makes me so nervous. She can be both brilliant and horrifyingly bad within the same performance. This time she nails it.

Taylor sings "Levon" and to tell the truth I can barely remember it. The camera pans the audience and we see Kellie, and Chris, and there's Lisa, and hi Bucky and -- freakin' Constantine. Did you see his Smeagol-ly face mugging for the camera? What is he doing there? Why won't he go away? God, he is such a TOOL.

At this point in the show, I'm thinking they're about even. Now we get to hear the dreaded coronation songs, and this is where it all falls apart for Katharine. First of all "My Destiny" is possibly the worst song ever written for the show, and that's saying something. Making matters worse, however, is it is dreck that was written for a completely different type of singer than Kat. It's just horrible. She looks SO uncomfortable, like she knows this is the suckiest of the suck and she just wants to go back to her dressing room and cry and be surrounded by her thousand roses.

"Do I Make You Proud" is Taylor's coronation song, and while it is only marginally less sucky than Katharine's, he is a performer such that he can squeeze something good out of it and that's what gives him the edge tonight. Simon declares him the unofficial winner and the place goes bonkers.

Daniel Powter comes out, misses his cue, and finally starts to sing "Bad Day" along with a video montage from the season. Every time they show Elliot, I clap a little. How gay am I?

Tonight, in Ryan's words, is the "2 hour results spectacular!" TA DA! And tomorrow I get my life back.

Weekend in the Woods

Park Road
Originally uploaded by gina64.

I'll be away again this weekend, but for longer this time. I'm heading out tomorrow morning to the Mohawk Trail State Forest in western Massachusetts, where I'll be staying in a log cabin with 4 friends. We stayed at this cabin last year and really enjoyed it, so I'm looking forward to returning.

I'll try to get last night's Idol recap posted today, but I can't make any promises. Things will be quiet here until about mid-week next week, when I hope to get caught up on everything. In the meantime, have a wonderful holiday weekend, everyone!

All the Time in the World.

WARNING: There be MAJOR SPOILERS here.



I don't have time for a full recap just yet, but I did want to get something on here about last night's series finale of Alias.

Just a few random thoughts:

~ While I was certainly entertained, I thought the whole thing felt sort of slapdash, that it had a "thrown together" feeling. I think they had to cut some stuff in between to make it fit into 2 hours. But I understand that they had a lot to resolve in a short amount of time and I think they did a pretty good job. Plus I think it will hold together better on a second viewing. I didn't tape it, but I will be downloading it from iTunes and burning it to CD.

~ I really, really loved the music.

~ I guess The Cardinal storyline was finished last week. I appreciate that they wanted to not leave that thread hanging, but they could have at least connected it to Rambaldi. Oh well. I did feel badly for Tom. At least The Cardinal storyline gave some weight to his death. He and Rachel were cute together.

~ They really sent Irina all the way over to EVIL, didn't they? Man. Nice tie back to the conversation about choosing to be a good mother or a good spy - at the end when Sydney reaches out to her, literally, Irina chooses world domination and dies for it.

~ So that ball was The Horizon. Wasn't The Horizon shaped like a small book when they took it from the safe deposit box in Vancouver, and not like a sphere? Maybe what they got in Vancouver was a "How To Build Your Own Horizon In 10 Easy Steps" guide.

~ The flashbacks did a nice job of anchoring the story.

~ How awesome was it when the show opened with the location "SYDNEY"?

~ A part of me has known all long that they were going to kill Jack, so I should have been more prepared for it. I mean, I was waiting for it to happen, but I was not emotionally prepared for it. Jesus Christ, I was bawling! "You beat death, Arvin, but you didn't beat me." NO! SonOfABitch. Now what will happen when they ("they" being Syd/CIA people) find that Jack has disappeared? He's gone, there's no body...will they think to look down in the tomb? If they do, they'll discover that it's been blown up...won't they excavate and find Sloane? God, I'm way over-thinking this!

Anyhoo, I did like the end; although, truth be told, I would have sacrificed Vaughn to see Sydney walking along the beach with her baby and her father. It's a personal thing, but for me, this show has always at its core been about Sydney's relationship with her father (and by extension her mother), and not a romance. But that's a small quibble. I think they did a pretty good job. At making me CRY.

One more thing. It may at times seem like we have all the time in the world, but no one really does. So remember to make the most of yours.

Lordi, Lordi

EuroFug: "Lordi dresses itself -- primarily with the aid of reindeer fur -- as different monsters from different eras. Although presumably even the undead have an enduring sense of patriotic pride, as evidenced by the zombie whose face is rotting off, yet whose head is adorned with a kicky little Finland top hat, as if he is threatening here to break into a series of cabaret-style high kicks before he flosses his teeth with your intestines. And Mummy Of The Bride over there just seems so endearingly thrilled to be clutching that bouquet of spring life in his decaying arms. Fantastic. "

Let the Finales Begin!

Sadly, the absolutely very last new Alias episode will air tonight, from 9:00 to 11:00 PM on ABC. I am expecting revelations, heartbreak, thrills and some satisfaction.

I hope I'm not disappointed.

Where Did All The Time Go?

I have so much to do here, and so little time to do it in, so I'm apologizing up front for my upcoming virtual silence. I have yet to recap this week's LOST and Alias episodes, or the latest updates to the LOST webgame, and I'm going away this weekend. Next week will be even worse: the Alias 2 hour series finale is on Monday night, the Idol showdown between Katharine and Taylor is on Tuesday night, and the 2 hour season finale of LOST and the 2 hour final Idol results show is on Wednesday night! Thursday morning I head up to the Mohawk Trail State Forest for a few days of R&R in a rustic cabin, and I won't be back until the following Monday night. The chances of me being able to post anything of substance between now and then is pretty slim, I'm sorry to say. I'll give it a shot, but I can't promise anything!

As for this weekend, I'm joining a few friends for a bachelorette extravaganza at Foxwoods Casino. I'd like to say that I'll be coming back loaded with tales of debauchery to share, but who am I kidding? We'll probably all end up crashed in our motel room and watching Law & Order by 10:00 tomorrow night! We ain't no spring chickens anymore.

Besides, even if there is a tale to tell, I wouldn't. Whatever happens at Foxwoods, stays at Foxwoods.

Have a good weekend!

Idol Results: Class Act.

No big recap today. That's partly because of time constraints, but mostly because everything up until the end really pales in comparison.

The vote was close, with only tenths of a point separating all three of them, and Elliot had the least. I knew it was coming, but that didn't make it any easier to see him say goodbye.

Elliot Yamin is talented, kind and gracious and I hope he finds success and happiness, no matter what comes next for him. Well done, Elliot!

Unsubstantiated Rumor.

I just came across a rumor that if Katharine makes it to the Idol final next week, she will be singing a duet with Meatloaf and I think that's awesome.

No word on anyone else yet.

Idol: The Top 3

I just want to start by saying that Clive Davis, all of his music industry clout notwithstanding, chose really shitty songs. Has he watched any of this season? Maybe he knew his choices stunk and that's why he was hiding in the audience.

Hey! Was that Roseanne?! With blonde hair?

This is the night when each performer sings three songs: one chosen by Clive, one by a judge and one they chose themselves.

Clive's Choices

Elliot is first, with "Open Arms" by Journey. Clive doesn't get Elliot. AT ALL. It's just okay. Simon's right, he needs to loosen up. Come on, Elliot, you were so good last week!

Next up is Katharine and her song is even worse: "I Believe I Can Fly", by R. Kelly. Not only is it a crap song, it's completely wrong for her. That's more a Mandisa song. Anyhoo, I brace myself for another meltdown, and...wait a minute. That wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. She really made the best of a song that she was clearly not meant to sing. However, Katharine, it is poor form to make all those faces at the judges while they're critiquing you. You need to keep that in check. Bravo, though, for standing up for yourself against Randy's ridiculous "song choice" criticism.

And now we have Clive's final choice, "Dancing in the Dark" for Taylor. Boo! Hiss! It's my least favorite Springsteen song and it takes no great talent to perform it. The Paula dancing was kind of cute, though.

Jesus, I'm glad they got those out of the way right off the bat. I'm a bit underwhelmed at this point.

Judges' Choices

It's Elliot's second try, and this time Paula's picked "What You Won't Do For Love", by Bobby Caldwell. Is he off-key (or sharp or pitchy or flat or whatever you call it), or is it the band? They're certainly drowning him out. I really thought it was going to be a good choice for him, but...he does better than the first song, but not by much. He's just not "there" tonight.

Simon has chosen Katharine's second song: "Somewhere Over the Rainbow". Wow. That's the performance I've been waiting for from her. I actually had a lump in my throat by the end. Excuse me while I go and cry with her McFather. That was what she needed to do tonight to get to the final.

And now we have Randy's choice for Taylor: "You Are So Beautiful", by Joe Cocker. This is a song I've been wanting to hear from him all season. It was a very tender, subdued performance, well done.

Singers' Choices

Elliot, this is your last chance, you've gotta bring it. Unfortunately, he chose a song that very few people are familiar with - and I'm not one of them: "I Believe to My Soul" by Ray Charles (Donny Hathaway version). From what I can tell, he does a great job, but I don't think he connects with the audience at all. This makes me sad.

Katharine has chosen to sing "I Ain't Got Nothin' But the Blues". It's very stagey, but I don't think she misses any notes in there and I really don't think she oversings it, as is her tendency. Like Simon, I wish she had ended with Rainbow, but this wasn't so bad.

And finally we have Taylor, gettin' down with "Try A Little Tenderness". He's looking a little autistic there at the end, but overall I think he nails it. I just have to say, he is really rockin' those suits tonight.

I think Katharine had the night she needed to have in order to stay in the competition and I think Elliot is going home tonight.

Anyone want to come over next Tuesday and play a Soul Patrol drinking game with me?

On the end of Alias.

Jennifer Garner Says 'Alias' Had a Good Run: "'Alias' is coming in from the cold. 'I think we have done these characters justice and to do any more would be pushing it,' says series star Jennifer Garner, who plays double-agent Sydney Bristow, perhaps TV's most gorgeous female spy since Diana Rigg played Emma Peel on the `60s British series 'The Avengers.' "

Rain, rain, go away.

Beauty next door.
Originally uploaded by gina64.

I can remember a time when the sun used to shine.

I'm confused.

Is Deadwood dead?

Or not?

I'm sure this isn't the last we'll hear on this.

Less LOST repeats!

Mike over at shouldveaskedme posted the other day about where to place blame for the frustratingly long periods of time without new episodes (squarely on the networks, and I agree) of shows like LOST. Well it appears that the ABC honchos have heard our complaints and are meeting us halfway: "Lost fans will find fewer repeats interrupting its intricate mystery: Original episodes will be clustered in longer chunks after an October start."

I think a season like 24's - a compressed January to May season with no repeats - is much better suited to a show like LOST, but this is at least a start.

"In this business, it's always the children who suffer."

I See Dead People



We start things off at Nadia's funeral, which is intercut with Renee's autopsy. There are more people at the funeral than I would have expected. As Syd voiceovers the eulogy, we see the medical examiner remove a computer chip from Renee's chest cavity. After the funeral, Syd approaches the casket with Dixon and looks down at Nadia. She cries and asks Dixon, "How could I have trusted him again, after everything?" She's talking about Sloane. She says she won't make that mistake again.

At the Prophet 5 fortress, Sloane is pretty much being held under guard while deciphering the secret message on Page 47. Peyton pays him a visit and checks on his progress. Sloane replies that it's only been a week and surely after 500 years the key to Rambaldi's end game can wait a few more days. He tells her, "No one will stand between me and the fulfillment of Rambaldi's ultimate vision."

Back at APO, Jack, Marshall and Tom are working on accessing the data on the chip that was removed from Renee. Marshall says that it's a 30-year-old chip that appears to be corrupted and/or is missing portions of the data. He can't decrypt it. He puts the chip under a microscope and finds Vaughn's real name, Andre Michaux, etched on it. Jack says he'll tell Sydney about it. In the meantime, he wants them to find out what it was doing in Renee. We cut to a man with headphones on, listening in on their conversation. He picks up a phone and says he needs to contact Peyton.

At home, Sydney's trying to get Isabelle to sleep and has resorted to the old put the baby on the clothes dryer trick. Jack arrives and tells Sydney about the chip and how Vaughn's name was on it. Vaughn and Renee's fathers worked together against P5 and Jack wants to bring Vaughn in on this because he thinks he may be able to provide useful information. Syd doesn't like the idea because it will put Vaughn in danger, but SpyDaddy insists. Syd says OK, but she will be the one to bring the chip to Vaughn.

Peyton visits Sloane again and plays a recording of Dixon saying that Syd is meeting a contact in Nepal and will be taking the chip with her. She asks Sloane if he knows who this Nepal contact is and he says he doesn't. Peyton tells Sloane that P5 will be sending their own agent and they want him to brief her. The door to the room opens and in walks Anna-Syd. Sloane is completely nonplussed.

APO. Tom opens a magazine to the "Engineers Market" page and writes "CONTACT MADE AWAITING RESPONSE" on it. I wonder, is he writing with his left hand on purpose, you know how you do when you don't want anyone to recognize the handwriting? Because if not, he needs some penmanship lessons. Rachel approaches him and starts talking about not having a private life anymore but is really talking about how she thinks she's not a very good agent because she was fooled by Gordon Dean and now by Sloane. Tom reassures her that she is a good agent. Boy is she really going to feel stupid later on. Rachel walks away and Tom places a call on his cell phone, asking to place a classified ad in next week's edition. Of what, I do not know.

Sloane briefs Anna-Syd on Sydney - about the baby, Vaughn, etc. The scene is wonderfully acted by both of them. At one point, she chillingly says, "In this business, it's always the children who suffer." Oo, low blow. Sloane counters, awesomely, "Tell me, I imagine you do your best to avoid mirrors, yes?" After Anna leaves, a vision of Nadia appears to Sloane. Feeling guilty, are we?

In Nepal, at the tiny airport, a man called Nabeen (or something close to that) greets the person he thinks is Sydney, but is actually Anna. I know, it's confusing me, too. He tells her he's been sent by Vaughn, so now Anna knows that he's alive. As Nabeen loads her bags into the back of his truck, Anna knocks him out. He is replaced by her own man, who stays behind to greet the real Sydney while Anna drives off.

Marshall's on the phone with some mail order company arguing about a purchase. He hears a clicking on the line and investigates it. He goes to Jack's office, talks nonsense to him about coffee while writing a note for Jack to read. They convene to the parking garage where Marshall tells Jack that the logs show that Sloane logged on a few days ago and set up a passive surveillance system and Prophet 5 has been monitoring every conversation inside APO. But Sloane was gone already. How could he have logged on to the system? Was it Tom, perhaps?

Sydney and FakeNabeen are driving to Vaughn's when Syd's cell phone rings. Wait, cell phones work in the most isolated nation in the world? Anyhoo, it's SpyDaddy calling and he tells her that she's been compromised and P5 knows that she's contacting Vaughn. When she hangs up, she notices a truck broken down on the road up ahead. She knows it's a trap and before FakeNabeen can stop, she attacks him. This does not go well and the truck rolls over into a ditch. As Sydney tries to get out of the overturned truck, Anna-Syd approaches. Syd can't believe her eyes as she looks up and sees herself. Anna takes the chip from Syd's bag and when she says that she would have taken the chip from Renee when she cut her throat if she had known it was in her, Syd figures out that she's Anna. Anna sets the truck on fire and walks away. Syd manages to crawl to safety just before the truck explodes.

Anna-Syd enters Vaughn's hut and she and Vaughn embrace and kiss and I wish it was really Sydney and Vaughn reuniting. They talk about the baby and Vaughn appears to be fooled by Anna.

At Prophet 5 HQ, Peyton checks on Sloane's progress again. This time he says he's come across "an anomaly in the composition" and can she get a manuscript that he needs at a Geneva bookseller. Peyton says sure and leaves. Nadia appears again and the most significant thing to come out of this scene is that Sloane has already decyphered the secret code but is stalling and holding back the information. Why, I wonder? Also, when Nadia first appears, she has no neck wound but as she speaks it appears on her neck. Cool.

Anna-Syd has filled Vaughn in on the computer chip. Vaughn wonders if there's one in him, too. He shows her a scar on his chest that his father told him was from a bike accident that he doesn't remember having. They decide to do a little digging. Anna cuts into Vaughn's chest and removes a chip just like the one from Renee, but this one has Renee's name on it. Vaughn takes the chip and joins it with the one from Renee. They snap together. The data from Renee's chip wasn't corrupted, it was just incomplete.

While this was going on, Sydney has managed to escape the blast and get into a nearby truck. She calls her father and tells him that Anna knows about Vaughn and...she's been doubled. Dun-dun-DUN!

Peyton picks up the book at the Geneva bookseller. When she leaves, the guy behind the desk calls someone and says, "I believe there is someone trying to contact you."

Vaughn and Anna have accessed the data on the combo-chip. It's a map of a nuclear fallout bunker in Hamburg, Germany. Next we see them lifting off in a helicopter as the real Syd arrives too late.

Jack has gathered the gang in the APO conference room. In an awesome scene, he tells them that not only is Vaughn totally not dead, but Sydney's been doubled. He says that Vaughn and the double were spotted in Hamburg.

Nadia is still haunting Sloane, so he tells Peyton that he needs to make peace with the past in order to be able to concentrate on his work.

The bunker is beneath a jewelry store in Hamburg. They need to get into the basement of the store, so Vaughn suggests to Anna-Syd that they do what they did in Cartajena. She says OK, she'll follow his lead. Inside the store, Vaughn looks HOT. Being shot full of holes definitely agrees with him. They subdue the guard and owner and Anna-Syd guards them while Vaughn enters the basement. He finds the bunker. It is a repository for all of the information that his father and Renee's father have collected over the years on Prophet 5. But it has also been long abandoned, if all the cobwebs are any indication. Anna comes in and points a gun at him. Vaughn tells her he knew she was a fake - they were never in Cartajena. And she's a lousy kisser. They have an awesome fight and just as Anna's about to shoot Vaughn, she is shot right in the head, by the real Sydney. And now we get the reunion scene I wanted.

Sloane lights a candle in a church and turns and leaves. That's it? Light one candle and you're absolved of the murder of your daughter? After he leaves, we get a partial view of a figure approaching the candles. The person retrieves a small note that was left there by Sloane (we don't get to see what the note says). The camera pans up. It's Sark! I really thought it was going to be SpyMommy, but Sark will do just fine.

In the bunker, Anna's phone rings and Sydney answers, pretending to be Anna pretending to be Sydney. It's Peyton. She's in a car waiting to extract Anna. Sydney takes Renee's chip only, with a tracking device on it, and leaves Vaughn to meet Peyton. She'll be going deep undercover for her final mission, with the most challenging alias of all: Syd as Anna as Syd.

Next new episode: Wednesday at 8:00.

Kiefer Don't Need No Stinkin' Publicist.

Happy Mother's Day!

Puppies!

The Lost Experience

I've been playing the new LOST interactive web game. Have you? If you have would you like to discuss your progress? Or maybe you are stuck and have a question? If so, feel free to leave a comment on this post. But beware: there be spoilers here.

Question Mark

That about sums up this whole show, doesn't it?

"?"



Another good episode! We got some good drama and some new information relative to the island mystery. I'm amazed at how the writers can make you think you're getting answers when in reality the mystery is just expanding. Boggles.

OK, this was an Eko-centric episode (yay!) and Eko's having dreams and he's seeing dead people. He sees Ana Lucia (sporting a fresh bullet hole) and his brother, both of whom tell him that he has to help Locke find "the question mark", even if Locke does not want to, and that what Locke is doing is important; and he needs to bring his axe with him. Eesh. My mind goes directly to the "?" in the middle of the blast door map, which Eko knows nothing about. Eko wakes up and heads for the hatch to see John about a question mark.

Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Locke are all rushing back to the hatch after John fessed up about covering up the attack on Ana by Henry. She's alone in the hatch with Sawyer's gun and we all know how she gets when people try to kill her. As they approach the hatch, Michael stumbles out, saying that Henry got loose, took the gun, shot Ana, Libby and him and ran away. Eko joins them and they all enter the hatch and survey the carnage. It's really quite a sad scene. Ana's dead, but Libby's still alive! Barely. And Michael is not too happy about that. Michael always annoyed me, but I think that now I actually wish him harm.

Eko and John head off to track Henry while Jack, Sawyer and Kate stay behind to tend to wounded. Libby hasn't spoken, she's barely conscious, and it's clear that she's not going to survive. Jack sends Sawyer and Kate to retrieve the Heroin Marys from his stash. This means he has to reveal where he's hidden the guns: in a hole inside his tent. While at the beach, they run into Hurley, who asks them if they've seen Libby. Well, actually, yeah we have...they return to the hatch with Hurley and Jack injects Libby with some smack in order to ease her suffering. Poor Hurley goes to Libby and apologizes for forgetting the blankets. You just know he's going to blame himself for this. Or the numbers. Suddenly, Libby has a moment of lucidity, manages to blurt out "Michael!", but dies before she can say "shot me!" Bye, Libby.

Eko and Locke, meanwhile, are traipsing through the jungle, ostensibly tracking Henry. Eko tells Locke that what he and Locke really need to do is find the question mark. Eko doesn't know what that is, but he knows that Locke does. Locke won't do it so Eko head butts him. When Locke wakes up, he shows him the map and they head off to find the "?". What they do find is Yemmi's plane wreck, the same place where Boone fell and sustained the injuries that killed him. They make camp and go to sleep for the night and this time Locke dreams that he's Eko and Yemmi appears to him and tells him to climb the cliff. When Locke awakens he tells Eko and Eko climbs, using his axe (aha!) to help pull himself up. At the top, Eko sees the pattern of a question mark on the ground near the plane. When he climbs back down, he discovers that the pattern is actually a circle and surmises it was made to be seen from above. For periodic ration drops, perhaps?

Locke and Eko have found the entrance to another hatch - the Pearl Station. They enter to find an observation room, with 6 television monitors and 2 chairs. Locke turns all of the monitors on, but only two seem to be working: one is just snow but the second one is a view of Swan Station, or our hatch. There's a computer in the room and Eko uses it to print out a log filled with numbers and the word "accepted". They find an old videotape and pop it in. It's an orientation film, like the one for the hatch, with the same asian man narrating, but his name is not Marvin Candle, it's Dr. Wicklund, or something close to that. He explains that they are to observe the people in the other stations by alternating 8 hour shifts and recording everything they see in notebooks provided to them. The man says that the people they will be watching are part of an experiment and believe that what they are doing is of the utmost importance. This is the last straw for John. He now believes that pushing the button does nothing at all and that nothing in his pathetic life has had any meaning. Eko disagrees.

Which is where Eko's flashback comes in. He is impersonating a priest in Australia and just when he's about to leave town and fly to LA, his monsignor assigns him to investigate a local miracle: a young girl has drowned in a river and come back to life. Eko doesn't believe it, and when her father - Claire's psychic! - tells him that his wife is only claiming a miracle in order to discredit him, Eko accepts his explanation since it means he can wrap this up and get out of town. At the airport, waiting to board Flight 815, Eko is approached by the girl, who tells him that when she was "in between places", his brother Yemmi appeared to her and told her to tell Eko that he is a good (there's that word) man and a good priest, and that Yemmi will see him soon.

Back in island time, Eko explains to Locke that he did indeed see his brother again when he found him on the plane that crashed right on the spot above them. How can Locke not see meaning in this?

A few observations:

~ The timeline was a little wonky: It's daylight when Locke tells Jack about AL being attacked by Henry, yet it's nighttime when they reach the hatch? How far away is it? And then it's daytime when Kate and Sawyer get the heroin and tell Hurley about Libby? Wouldn't Hurley have wondered where Libby went to get blankets that it took her at least 12 hours?

~ I loved the scene where they return to the hatch and find the bodies. It's good to see that Sawyer can still be a decent human being when called upon. He's given up all of the meds, drugs and guns, which means he has no power now.

~ I wonder if they're building up to a major Jack freak out. He seems to be seething with rage.

~ Poor Libby. I had a feeling she wasn't dead yet, but I was hoping that she would have made it through at least to the end of the season. But nope, she's a goner. Don't despair, though - her story will be told. A little birdie told me.

~ I'm confused about the psychic. Can anyone explain to me his reasoning? And how does him claiming to be a fraud affect our understanding of the scene where we saw him telling Claire that she had to get on the plane, and it was important that she raise the baby? Is he not a fraud and was only telling Eko that to get rid of him?

~ I think that Yemmi's question mark and the circle are the same thing. From the air it looks like a "?" but on the ground it becomes clear that it is actually a circle - the crashed plane makes it appear otherwise. Yemmi's "?" and the "?" on the map are not the same, imo. If you look at the map again, you can see that the station outlined in a dotted line in the lower right corner has the notation "The Pearl?", and that is completely separate from the "?" in the center of the map.

~ So now we have the names of 5 stations: The Swan, The Staff, The Pearl, and The Arrow, all of which we have been inside of, and The Flame, which we have not seen yet. Locke saw a camera in the Pearl station, so does that mean that the watchers were being watched? And by whom? Also, the man narrating the Pearl orientation tape tells the intended viewer that they are to take the boat to the barracks to sleep at night. We've seen a boat, but where are the barracks? Off island?

Next new episode is Wednesday, May 17 at 9:00 PM. Namaste!

Is Deadwood Done?

"Deadwood" may be done at HBO: "The pay cable network has opted not to pick up the options of the actors on the show, releasing them to pursue other projects."

Season 3 (beginning on HBO on Sunday, June 11) looks to be its last.

"Don't look directly into his eyes, Katie, don't look into his eyes..."

Idol Results: Well Knock Me Over With a Feather.

The show starts and I'm so nervous I want to throw up. (Someone please slap me!) I wasn't worried about the chance that Katharine might go home - I KNEW she was going home and I was sick about how she must have been feeling. At this point, I don't like seeing any of them leave, but as you know, Katharine has been a favorite and I didn't want to say goodbye yet. Even if she bombed Tuesday night.

So anyway, we go through the opening and then commercials and then more video of them at Graceland and then commercials and then the Ford commercial and then more commercials and then the group sing. It's an Elvis medley and is miles superior to last week's abomination. Katharine sings Are You Lonesome Tonight and shows everyone why she should still be in the competition, but a little too late I fear. Then we have more commercials and we come back to Ryan talking to Rebecca Romijn and Jerry O'Connell and RR asks if Taylor can sing Jailhouse Rock again. Weird. Taylor does seem surprised, though. Anyway...this is killing me. Hurry up, let's get it over with!

When Taylor finishes singing Ryan tells him to stay onstage and calls Chris, Elliot and Katharine down from the bleachers. Taylor and Elliot stand together, Chris and Katharine stand together. Hmm, Chris is in the Bottom 2. Katharine looks miserable. She's not even trying to hide it anymore. It's over and she knows it. Ryan tells Elliot and Taylor to sit down and says to Chris, "So a lot of people have predicted that you would be the next American, Idol, haven't they?" Chris says "Yes." And Ryan barely lets him get that little yes out before he quickly says, "Well Chris, you're going home tonight." POW!

Everyone is SHOCKED. I think Marty was even in shock! That was some good TV.

And now I am left with the three singers I have been voting for each week - Katharine, Elliot and Taylor. Unbelievable. If Katharine isn't perfect next week, I don't think she'll be able to surpass Elliot.

Sheila tells me that I can't keep voting for all 3. I suppose she's right.

D'oh!

It's the Battlestar Galacticsimpsons!

Perfect, I love it.

(thanks, Mike!)

I don't know why I care, but I do.

Idol Winner Carrie Underwood Graduates.

Good for her.

Idol Top 4: Bye-bye, LittleMama

Elvis night is weird. I get that he's a giant in the music world, and an icon and all that, but he's about as relevant to contemporary pop performing as...oh, who am I kidding? So far this year we've had Barry Manilow, Kenny Rogers, Rod Stewart and Andrea Bocelli. How's that for contemporary relevance?

I guess my point is that it's incredibly difficult to take an Elvis song and "make it your own". How do you sing an Elvis song and not come off looking like an Elvis impersonator? I think Elvis stopped being an actual person around 1958 or so and everything about him became an indelible part of popular culture. So this night was harder than I think it would first appear to be.

The show starts and I wonder: Is Randy 12? Quit with the booing of Simon, dawg. Yes, Paula boos, but she also cries, punches, and claps like a seal, so we expect that type of behavior from her.

When did Priscilla Presley die and why didn't anyone tell me?

Taylor starts off the show with Jailhouse Rock and it's just the way you'd think it would be, with Taylor jumping around and having fun and Simon hates it. Simon does not like that brand of performing, and at least he's consistent on that point.

Hey! It's Jeri Ryan! Seven of Nine is in the house!

Chris has the Elvis shades on, which works for me because then I don't have to see his dead, unblinking eyes while he sings one of Elvis' best songs, Suspicious Minds. And he acquits himself nicely.

Elliot's video clip has me worried - he doesn't sound that great and he's forgetting the words and he's singing one of Elvis' lesser known songs, If I Can Dream. Then he comes out and totally exceeds my expectations, as well as those of the judges. Good job, Elliot.

Katharine sings a mashup of Hound Dog/All Shook Up and I really think this wasn't necessarily a bad choice for her; she just fell apart for some reason. I agreed with Simon that it came off as manic and desperate, especially once she changed over to the second song. And when she forgot the lyric Sheila and I both gasped and yelled "Oh NO!" She was also really out of breath at the end. It's a shame because she sounded awesome in rehearsal. She always does, imo, and I think that if Katharine could just stand at a piano every week and simply sing a song without all the theatrics, she would be kicking everybody's hineys right now.

It's time for the second round of songs. Taylor is singing In The Ghetto and he does what I said at the beginning was very hard to do - he makes it his own. Very, very good performance. I wish he would do stuff like this all the time.

Chris is back and he's singing A Little Less Conversation, a very sexy song but he has absolutely NO sex appeal, so it comes off as boring as hell. And did he cough up a hairball at the end there?

Elliot's up next and his second song is Trouble and again I think this is not going to work and again he proves me wrong and brings the house down.

Finally, we have Katharine, who, despite advice from Tommy Matola to keep from being loud, does just that and tries to turn Can't Help Falling In Love into a power ballad. She sounded wonderful in the beginning, and this song was better than her first, but she is not a powerhouse singer and I think she blew her chance to make it to the end of the competition. She's not making it easy for me!

At this point in the game, I would not be outraged with the choice of any one of these 4 as the winner, so it's really going to hurt as they are whittled down. And I think Katharine will be the one to go tonight.

I'm scared.

Are you ready for Elvis night?

I'm not. I'm terrified.

Le Freak, C'est Geek.

A thousand words.

Mr. Green Feet

Mr. Green Feet
Originally uploaded by gina64.

Marty helped with the yard work on Sunday.

LOST - Spoilers!

Two for the Road



Oh, the joys of being spoiler-free!

First off, I need to apologize for missing the recap for the previous episode. Life got in the way. If you need a recap, you can read one that's far superior to anything I could do at TWoP.

Well, the episode for the most part was pretty average. It picks up where the last one left off, with Kate and Jack finding Michael in the jungle. He's unconscious so they start carrying him back to the hatch.

In the hatch, Ana Lucia is fixing some mango bites for Henry. As she chops, we get a flashback. It's the day after she shot her shooter (heh), and AL's mother tells her she knows what she did. She asks her to get help, if not for her mother then because she needs to in order to continue being a cop. AL says she won't get help and quits the force.

Ana Lucia enters the armory to give Henry the mangoes and falls for the oldest trick in the book when he whispers and she leans in closer to him and he grabs her and tries to kill her. He comes pretty close, too. While he's strangling her, he tells her that he knows she killed 2 of his people (Goodwin and a woman who attacked the Tailies early on the beach) and that she's basically no good. Locke sneaks up behind Henry and bonks him unconscious with his crutch and saves AL.

We flashback again and now AL is working security at an airport. I'm not sure how safe that makes me feel. She gets off work and of course heads to an airport bar. Who should she run into there but Jack's dad! We'll call him Dr. Dad for short. Dr. Dad is on his way to Australia. He chats AL up and asks her to join him. He says he'll be up to something dangerous while he's there and he'd like AL to work for him as "protection". They decide to not use their real names and to call each other "Sarah" and "Tom".

Back at the hatch, Locke goes in to see Henry. He asks him why he attacked AL but didn't attack Locke when he was stuck under the blast door and vulnerable. Henry tells Locke it's because he's "one of the good ones" and that he in fact was on his way to get Locke and take him back to wherever he lives when he got caught in Rousseau's net. He's such a liar. Or is he?

Out in the jungle, Sawyer's picking mangos, wisely avoiding the Keith Richards Method of Picking Tropical Fruit, when Ana Lucia approaches him and asks for a gun. What do you think he said? Yep, a big, fat NO.

It's flashback time again and now AL is in Australia. It's the middle of the night and Dr. Dad knocks on her hotel room door. It's time to do what he came here to do and he needs AL to take him somewhere. It should be mentioned that Dr. Dad is also Dr. Very Drunk at this point. They drive to a house in the pouring rain and Dr. Dad knocks on the door. A blonde Australian woman answers the door. They argue and Dr. Dad demands to see his daughter (!). The woman refuses so he starts to get violent. AL gets him back to the car and drives away.

So Jack's father has an illegitimate Australian daughter. Who has a blonde mother. My first thought: Claire is Jack's half sister. Any takers?

Elsewhere, Hurley wants to do something romantic for Libby so he goes to Sayid for help. He wants to do the John Cusack thing with the radio, from Say Anything, but Sayid suggests it might be a better idea to take Libby for a picnic to this nice secluded beach he once took Shannon to. Oh, and Sayid is digging a big hole in the sand.

Saywer is finished mango picking and as he's walking back through the jungle he catches AL following him. She asks for the gun again, they tussle as she tries to take it and the tussling turns into some hot jungle sex.

Flashback: AL and Dr. Dad are still driving in the car. AL stops and asks him what the hell is goin on. He says it's a long story. He also says they are both running away from something. They are parked in front of a bar and he asks her to go in with him. She firmly tells him no and that this is where they part ways. As Dr. Dad gets out of the car, he hits Sawyer with the car door. I'm going to assume that this is the bar where we previously saw the doctor meet Sawyer, on the night of his death.

Back on the island, Sawyer and AL are finished with the hot sex. She tells him that if he tells anyone about what they did, she'll kill him. Believe her, Sawyer, she will. She returns to the hatch, where Jack asks her where she got the bump on her head. Locke covers for her and tells Jack it was his fault. Something about leaving a wet floor in the bathroom. TMI, John!

Meanwhile, Michael wakes up and tells Jack, Kate and Locke a story about how he found the Others, that they're primitive, live in tents, have only two guns and can be easily taken. He is so lying. I can't believe they fell for that. Especially after Kate saw the costume and fake beard. Anyway, later on, Jack, Kate and Locke leave the hatch, leaving Ana to watch over a sleeping Michael and the locked up Henry.

Hurley and Libby get lost looking for Sayid's beach and end up back at their own beach, with Jin fishing nearby. Libby says that's alright, they can still have the picnic right there. Hurley, however, is not the best picnic planner and brought no blankets and nothing to drink. Libby says she'll go get some blankets and Hurley can go get some wine from Rose and Bernard.

Jack, Locke and Kate ask Sawyer for the guns and he hands them over. Yeah, right. Why Jack didn't just tell him about Michael, his story about the Others, their plan to fight them and get Walt and the children back, I don't know. Whatever. Jack pulls his gun on Sawyer but when Sawyer goes to get his gun out, he realizes that Ana Lucia took it from him. Locke tells Jack there's something he needs to tell him about that bump on AL's head.

We're down in the hatch now, and Ana enters the armory. She gives Henry a knife and tells him to cut himself loose and stand up. She points a gun at him...and we flash back to Ana at the airport in Australia. She calls her mother and apologizes for running away and tells her she wants to come home. She tells her mother she'll be on Oceanic Flight 815.

When we come back to Ana she's not in the armory but sitting on the couch outside of it, with the gun in her hand. Michael wakes up and asks her what's wrong. She tells him they have an Other captive and that he tried to kill her; she tried to kill him back, but she just couldn't do it. In fact, she says, "I can't do this anymore." Michael says the Others are animals and that he'll do it for her. She hands over the gun. He asks her for the combination to the armory, where Henry is being held. He looks at her, says "I'm sorry" and shoots her! Dead! Two seconds later Libby walks in with the blankets and surprises Michael and he whips around and shoots her! Twice! Then he walks into the armory, looks at Henry, points the gun at himself and fires.

My jaw was hanging open for a good 10 minutes after that.

I initially thought that Michael had shot himself in the heart, but the previews for next week show him with his arm in a sling. I'm thinking that it looks like he was sent back to do whatever was necessary to free Henry, to make it look like Henry got free, shot the women and Michael and then escaped. If that's so, why would Michael do it? Did the Others promise him Walt if he did it? I have a hard time accepting that Michael would shoot two people in cold blood, not even for Walt. I think he was brainwashed, or it's some kind of mind control or maybe even the "sickness" they talk about. Michael was clearly horrified by what he had done, but I don't think that rules out mind control. He could have been programmed to do what he did but was unable to stop himself.

Whatever the reason, it was awesome.

I don't think Libby is dead. At least not yet. I may be naïve, but I believe that Michelle Rodriguez was going to be killed off whether she had the DUI or not. I wouldn't put it past the show to have Libby as collateral damage and name the episode "Two for the Road" just to mess with our minds. I think it's important that we saw Libby holding those blankets (and whatever else she might have grabbed) in front of her stomach like that - you could see the two bullet holes in the blankets. She was definitely shot, but I think that what she was holding in front of her may have lessened the impact and she wasn't mortally wounded like AL. I believe they are still going to resolve her connection with Hurley. How they will deal with her knowing about what Michael did, I'm not sure. Maybe she will be unconscious for the rest of the season, while Michael leads the group into a trap.

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it. ;)

Oh, and one more thing - the Hanso Foundation commercial. How weird was that? For those of you who aren't aware, there is now an online interactive game to be played in conjunction with the show. The commercial provided a phone number that, when you call in, will give you a password. Once you have the password, you need to visit the Hanso Foundation website and sign up for the newsletter and see what happens.

Phone number: 1-877-HANSORG
Website: Hanso Foundation

Make sure to visit Joop's Corner.

Next new episode: this Wednesday at 9:00 PM.

Drive Thru Reviews

Elizabeth I - Part 1 of the HBO miniseries, starring Helen Mirren and Jeremy Irons. I'm still trying to find time to watch Part 2 On Demand, but I couldn't wait to say how much I really loved this. It reminded me a lot of The Lion in Winter, with two acting giants commanding the screen and our attention. Helen Mirren is in practically every scene and turns in an acting tour de force as the complex queen.

Ringers: Lord of the Fans - This one was a bit of a disappointment for me. It's nothing new under the sun as far as fan documentaries go, and the transitional animation and graphics were highly distracting. Trekkies did it before and did it better.

March of the Penguins - A beautiful film.

And so the killing begins.

30 Seconds



The folks behind Alias warned us that the bodies were going to pile up as the show wound down, and they weren't kidding!

Alright, so, APO is trying to track Anna Espinosa, who when last they saw her had made away with Page 47. When last we saw her, she got the ultimate extreme makeover and was genetically altered to be an exact clone of Sydney.

We open on a mission somewhere in India, I think, and Syd's alias is hilarious - sort of a southern-fried Ivana Trump, but without the class. APO has learned that Anna is piggy-backing her phone calls on a router at an outsourcing company and Syd and Renee have been tasked with bugging her calls. Something goes wrong and Renee gets all badass and saves the day and they successfully retrieve the part they need from the router. Syd tells Renee she's awesome and she should work for APO, but Renee says no way.

Barcelona. Sloane meets with Prophet 5's frontman Joseph and tells him that he read the instructions for administering Nadia's cure (it came with instructions!) and he's not too jazzed about the part where Nadia's heart has to be stopped for 30 seconds for the cure to work. He tells Joseph he will not do it. Joseph tells him it is a Rambaldi cure for a Rambaldi disease and Sloane will have to have faith that it will work.

Meanwhile, the gang at APO have intercepted a call on Anna's line, from Barcelona to Switzerland, but it's not Anna doing the talking. It's Peyton. What does Peyton have to do with Anna and why is she using her phone? And why Barcelona? Has Prophet 5 set up a new HQ there? We know it's because Anna now looks and talks like Sydney, and that she's now working for P5, but they don't have time to worry about that. They discover during the call that the guy on the other end of the line is in possession of Page 47. His name is Koller. He's a document expert and he's been hired by Anna to find a secret message that's supposed to be encoded in its text. There will be a meet in Paris in a few days between Koller and Anna and APO sends Renee and Tom to intercept. Turns out Renee knows Koller and is confident that she can get close to him.

At the hospital, in Nadia's room, we see Sloane preparing to administer "the cure". He slowly turns off the electronic monitoring machines. He takes out a small sheet of rubber (sort of like a dental dam, I guess) and stretches it over Nadia's nose and mouth. Sloane apologizes through tears as Nadia slowly dies. It goes without saying, of course, that Ron Rifkin is amazing in this scene, as usual. Once Nadia's heart has stopped Sloane starts the timer on his watch. Like he needs to be reminded that he needs to move FAST. Anyway, he removes a hypodermic needle from the box he brought in and is about to inject Nadia when Jack walks into the room and, thinking that Sloane is trying to kill Nadia, stops him. Sloane manages to break away from Jack and plunges the needle into Nadia's chest. Ow. Nadia slowly awakens and Jack is impressed, He's also a little suspicious about where Sloane got this cure. Jack and Sloane talk about that and Sloane tells him he's been secretly doing illegal tests and experiments to come up with a cure himself. Jack isn't at all convinced, especially after Sloane says the cure ultimately came from Barcelona. Coincidence? I don't think so.

Syd shows up at the hospital and has a nice sisterly reunion with Nadia. Back at APO, Dixon and Jack are investigating Sloane's activities since Nadia fell ill last year; they don't trust him as far as they can throw him. Which is probably pretty far considering how tiny Rifkin is. They will track his movements and bug his phone calls. Jack tells Syd that he suspects that Sloane is in cahoots with Prophet 5, he just needs to find the proof. Syd says that until he does, she's going to hang out with her sister.

Nadia still isn't all that comfortable around her father, what with the way he was responsible for her turning into a zombie last year, so she's going to live with Sydney for now, and they can catch up on things and play with the baby. At APO, Jack tells Sloane about the supposed secret message on Page 47, hoping it will force Sloane to show his hand.

In Paris, Renee contacts Koller, and implies she wants to make a booty call at his place later on and Koller is all "hell yeah, see you later"; at APO, Sloane can't take it anymore and places a call to a mysterious someone who he tells he has to meet later that night, for what I hope is not a booty call; Jack intercepts Sloane's call and is all "I knew it!" as he calls Syd to tell her that he's going to follow Sloane to see what he's up to; Sydney tells Nadia, who shows up at Jack's car and tells him she's going along with him. She needs to know once and for all if she can trust her father.

What follows is the most blatant case of product placement I have ever seen when we get what amounts to a commerical for the Ford Hybrid SUV, starring Jack and Nadia. I couldn't believe it. Anyway, they follow Sloane to a self-storage unit; Nadia hides in plain sight (literally, that was the worst hiding job I have ever seen!) and watches as her father talks to a man, retrieves a case from the unit and then drives away. She and Jack get inside and look around, only to find Nadia's old things and what appears to be proof that Sloane has indeed been working on a cure for Nadia all this time, just like he said. Jack says that it appears he has misjudged Sloane. Oh Jack, don't you know by now that it isn't possible to misjudge Sloane?

In Paris, Renee and Tom have kidnapped Koller. After only a little bit of threatening Koller reveals that he has discovered that the Page 47 that Anna gave him is a fake.

Cut to Sloane Manor, where Arvin removes the real Page 47 from the case he took from storage. Sloane has been holding onto this little piece of Rambaldi all along, his obsession as healthy (or unhealthy) as ever. He pulls out a magnifying glass and begins looking for the secret message. He's interrupted by a knock on the door and he does a piss poor job of stashing Page 47 under his desk blotter. It's Nadia at the door, and she's come to stay with Dad. Sloane is very pleased, and they sit and have a nice little talk. While Sloane goes to check on dinner, Nadia heads to his office in search of a pair of scissors to cut off her hospital wristband (wouldn't that be the first thing you do when you get home?). She finds Page 47 and confronts her father. She tells him it's either her or Rambaldi. He begs her not to make him choose; Nadia says fine, then you can have neither of us and she tosses Page 47 into the fire! It begins to burn, and as it does, the eye of Rambaldi symbol glows on the page. Cool. Remember crazy Sloane from last year? Well, he's back! He pushes Nadia out of the way and grabs the page from the fire. Nadia falls onto a glass table and her throat is cut. Sloane watches as Nadia bleeds out on the floor. Poor, poor Nadia. I can't say I'm all that sad about her death, but her life was pretty shitty.

Koller and Anna are meeting in a market in Ghana and APO send a team - Syd, Renee, Dixon, Tom and Rachel - to try to capture Anna. Everyone takes their places, and before heading out to roam the market, Syd asks Renee again if she would like to join APO. Renee says no, because she doesn't trust anyone, only Syd. Oh no, she didn't just say that, did she?

Anna's car shows up in the market as scheduled, and they think they've got her, but then something's wrong; the car turns around and starts back the way it came. It crashes and Syd looks inside to see that no one is there. We cut to Renee, just as Sydney walks up to her. But that's not Sydney, is it? Renee barely has time to say "Syd?" when Anna whips out a knife and slashes Renee's throat! They killed Renee! This death actually had more impact for me because poor Renee died believing that Sydney had killed her.

The APO team figures out that someone must have tipped off Anna (hmm, Sloane, perhaps?) and Syd runs to check on Renee, only to find she has been killed. Jack goes to Sloane Manor and discovers poor Nadia, still on the study floor, surrounded by broken glass and blood. Does Jack feel responsible in part for her death? Sloane had better hope not.

As the bodies are discovered, we get a voiceover by the crazy man himself, who has finally (and to my great pleasure) gone over to the bad side. He believes that Nadia's death is a part of Rambaldi's plan. He is joining up with Prophet 5 in pursuit of the realization of Rambaldi's greatest achievement.

One of the things about these final episodes that I have liked so much is the way they have gone back to the roots of the show and pared it down to its simplest components - Syd, Jack, Sloane and Rambaldi. That's where it all began and that's where I hope it will all end. With Sydney finally exacting the revenge against Sloane that she sought after he killed her fiance way back in the pilot episode.

Next new episode: this Wednesday at 8:00. Can't wait!

Lemon Symphony

Lemon Symphony
Originally uploaded by gina64.

I bought two hanging flower pots today that were a little pricey but so big and beautiful that I couldn't resist. I just hope it takes longer than usual for me to kill them.

Lilacs.

Lilacs.
Originally uploaded by gina64.

We have a small bush with pretty small blooms, but they are pretty nonetheless.

Soaking it up.

Soaking it up.
Originally uploaded by gina64.

Whoa!

Idol Results: We'll Always Have Paris.

Oh, this is going to be a quickie. Work is kicking my ass this week and all I want to do is recap Idol and all the murder and mayhem that was Alias and LOST last night!

Without any guest performer, we were subjected to a group sing. Now, I haven't seen all that many group sings, and I actually thought the Queen one was good, but this...Sweet Jesus that had to be the worst song I have ever, ever in my life heard. I couldn't even tell you if it was sung well or not. It was one of those treacly, Up With People crapfests - except worse. That song must have been penned by the devil himself.

Next up was the Ford commercial and it kind of made no sense to me. I think I expect too much from this show. The best part is how they all crack up when they see themselves, especially Elliot. Oh, and Chris freaked me out with the big top hat.

OK, so Ryan goes down the line: Taylor, you're safe; Chris, you're safe, Paris, you're in the Bottom 2. Elliot and Katharine are left clinging desperately to each other and looking like they're about to be chosen for the sacrificial toss into the mouth of a volcano. Ryan tells Elliot he is in the Bottom 2 and Katharine goes into a state of shock that she doesn't completely recover from for the rest of the show.

Ryan tells Paris she's going home and to my surprise she does not break out in sobs but is very gracious as she watches her Bad Day video. Bye bye, Paris.

Next week? Elvis. Uh-oh.

TV Tonight.

Really quickly because I'm insane at work:

New Alias at 8:00 on ABC
New LOST at 9:00 on ABC
American Idol results at 9:00 on FOX

And a new LOST goodie:

The Hanso Foundation

(watch the volume at work)

Enjoy!

Idol Top 5: OTF

Well now, that did not leave me with a good feeling about anyone (except maybe Taylor because 1) he seems to be invincible and 2) he had a good night). Paula didn't even have a meltdown or do the seal clap! How disappointing.

This week's theme: each performer gets to sing one song from the year they were born and one song from any current Billboard Top Ten chart. That's 10 songs in about 45 minutes so we'd better get a move on.

From the year they were born:

Elliot starts us off with On Broadway, an AI standard for some reason, and it's pretty good. I like Elliot, but not the song.

Hey! Ace is already making the B-List celebrity audience appearance!

Then we get Katharine who looks drop-dead gorgeous yet again but (and this kills me because she's a favorite of mine) she asbolutely stinks up the joint and massacres Against All Odds (thanks, Kat, for making me feel so, so old). I do think it was a shitty arrangement but woo! Even she knew she bombed.

No time to really rip her a new one like last week when she didn't actually deserve it so we move on to Chris, who sings Renegade (by Styxx, Sheila, not Foreigner) and I think this was the best thing he's done on the show. He still wants to kill me, but at least he's not telling me he loves me at the same time.

Little Paris is up next and did I say Katharine made me feel old? Well Paris makes me feel ancient when she sings the song that came out the year she was born: Kiss, by Prince. In between sips of Geritol I realize that Paris Bennett doesn't really care anymore.

Finishing off the first half of our program is Taylor, who sings Play That Funky Music White Boy. It's exactly the kind of performance that Simon and half of the viewing audience hate, so I think Taylor's starting to not care, too, but in a different way. He's going to do what he likes doing whether people like it or not. Not necessarily the way to win this competition, but he hasn't done too badly so far. As for the performance itself, it certainly wasn't a vocal showcase - especially witht that monster band drowning him out - but it was fun.

From the current Billboard Top Ten charts:

Back to Elliot who sings the lovely Home. I admit it, I like that song and I thought he did a wonderful job with it. I just hope it won't be his sing out song, no matter how appropriate.

Here comes Katharine again and I'm still really nervous for her after the first song. She's sitting on the floor and I think, "This is not good." Then she sings Black Horse and The Cherry Tree, not a particular favorite of mine, and totally (and surprisingly) rocks the song. I hope that it's good enough the make up for earlier disaster.

Chris is back and he's got the Flames of Rock burning behind him and the strobing lights and the screaming and...here we go again. It's something called "I Dare You" and he's screaming at me and whatever.

This time Paris sings a Mary J. Blige song (sorry don't know the title and don't have time to look for it). I don't know the song so I have nothing to compare it to, but I thought she did a good job and I can't get excited because I don't think it really matters at this point.

Barmy Taylor gets the pimp spot this week. He gets creative with the category and sings Something by George Harrison, a favorite of mine. And he does a fantastic job with it. So good, I may have to download it.

Who do I think will be in the Bottom 2? Paris and Katharine, with Paris going home.

Is there a guest performer tonight? (9:00!)

Artie Bucco,warm and convivial cokehead.

Giada Disaster Part Deux

Giada had another cooking disaster and TVgasm was there!

I had a sharp reaction, too.

Sharp Reaction to G.O.P. Plan on Gas Rebate.

I don't want the $100.00. I want Congress and the oil companies to get out of each others' pockets and stop pillaging ours. Fix the problem, don't try to silence me with hush money.