Idol: "Why did I even come here?"

It's Hollywood Week, my favorite part of the show.

Day 1 - First up are the girls, who will come before the judges in groups of 6. Things start off well, with all the first 6 going home! Among them, surprisingly, is Jory, the Canadian girl who met the Queen. I'm not sad to see her go, but I really thought she was going to go farther.

Also out is Rachel, the Army reservist that I did like. Oh well. Others who didn't make it: Porcelana of the very low pants, Sarah who ran away to NY for her audition and Ashlynn Carr, the one who makes all the weird faces. And puts sugar into gas tanks of men who wrong her. Watch out, Simon.

Shakira impersonator Perla and cute little Baylie Brown make it through to the next round.

At the end of the day, we are left with 56 out of a total of 114 girls.

Day 2 - It's the guys' turn. Navy man Jarrod Fowler gets cut, but the Seattle beatbox guy, Castro, Sundance and Chris Sligh all make it through, and it's really sort of boring. A total of 34 men make it through.

Day 3 - It's time for the Group Round! And for more people to be sent home. Most notable: "born to be a pop star" Baylie Brown gets the axe. So does Perla. And you know, there's really not much more to say except that 36 people go home (adios, Castro), leaving 56.

Day 4 - This is the day where they stick the remaining 56 people into three rooms and tell one of the rooms that they have to go home. I love this part. Most of the singers that I want to make it through, do, and BFF Amanda, who has turned out to be exactly the way I thought she would be, gets cut.

Tonight, The Top 24 will be revealed. I love this part, too.

LOST Recap

Not in Portland

Things pick up right where they were left in the "fall season finale": Jack has nicked Ben's kidney sac, causing bleeding that will kill him if Jack doesn't sew it back up within an hour, but he won't sew it back up unless the Others let Kate and Sawyer go. There's a problem, though - Pickett is about to shoot Sawyer's head off. Jack makes Kate promise that she'll run and call him on the radio when she's safe. When she calls him she's supposed to relay a story back to him that he told her on the day of the crash.

We open with Juliet sitting on a beach, holding a leather pouch of some kind and clearly upset about something. She goes inside and walks down a creepy hallway that has flashing florescent light fixtures. She must be in the DHARMA medical station. Things get creepier as Ethan Rom and his chipmunk cheeks pass her in the hall. Yes, she must be in the Caduceus station. She enters a room bathed in candlelight. She prepares to inject a woman with what's in the pouch. The woman is clearly ill, probably from cancer. Hey! It's Jane from Deadwood! The LOST writers must love that show as much as we do.

As they talk we find out that Juliet is treating this woman with injections and doing it without "his" knowledge, although we don't know at this point who "he" is, and that the woman is in fact Juliet's sister. And that they're in Miami! I swear I didn't realize this was a flashback. Tricky.

Back in the O.R., Juliet listens as Jack instructs Kate to take the walkie, Sawyer and get running. He's given her an hour's head start. Because Pickett is distracted with all of the walkie-talkie stuff, Sawyer is able to get the gun away from him. Sawyer lays a beating on Pickett, locks him and the other guy in the cage and he and Kate make a run for it. Yay!

In the O.R., Juliet tells Tom to go get Kate and Sawyer back, and if he has to, to kill them. Jack screams that he will kill Ben, but Juliet tells him no, he won't.

Flashback: Juliet sneaks into a Bio Research Lab at night. Well, she doesn't exactly sneak in - she has a security card - but she's skulking like someone who doesn't want to be seen. Juliet used to have curly hair. I guess they don't have rollers on the island. Anyway, she gets a call on her cell phone as she's skulking down the hall. It's from Dr. Alpert's office and he's calling to confirm their meeting the next day. You'd better turn your phone off, Juliet, or all the skulking in the world will do you no good.

Juliet is stealing vials of the drug that she is injecting her sister with, and as she's taking them from the fridge a man comes in with a much younger and much taller woman and they start to make out. Juliet hides behind something but guess who forgot to turn her phone off?? The man, Edmund, follows the ringing phone and finds her. He asks her why she's there and introduces her to his young friend. Edmund is Juliet's ex-husband. He also appears to be her boss. Not a good combo, if you ask me. She manages to come up with a lame reason for being in the lab and gets out of there before he can ask any more questions.

Operating Room: A clearly more confident, present-day Juliet tells Jack that Kate and Sawyer are not getting back to their side of the island because they are on a completely different island. (they're on a smaller island, 2 miles offshore) Oops. Jack looks to Tom, who's all, 'fraid so, dude. Jack strikes back at Juliet by revealing that she wanted Benry to die during the surgery and asked Jack to make it look like an accident. They start yelling at each other about it who's telling the truth and Tom tells them to shut up and Juliet to leave. One her way out the door, she tells Tom that Jack won't let a patient just die.

Pickett and friends are released from the cage and they start chasing after Kate and Sawyer. Kate and Sawyer make it to the beach, and realize they will need a boat to get to their island. Kate actually does the smart thing and walkie-talkies Jack and asks for a boat. He asks Tom how they can get off the island, but before he can get an answer out of him Pickett shows up and gets off a lucky shot, blowing the walkie out of Kate's hand and into a million pieces. There's a lot of running through the jungle. And some very bad shooting. Just as Kate is about to get shot, Alex (Rousseau's daughter) takes out the shooter with her trusty slingshot. Awesome. She tells them to follow her. There's more running until Alex hides them in a hole in the ground. Pickett and friends pass them by.

O.R.: Tom asks Jack if Juliet really asked him to kill Benry, and Jack says yes, it's true. Right then Benry wakes up (actually, I think he's been awake for a while). He asks to have Juliet brought to him.

Flashback: Juliet is summoned to Edmund's office by Sheri, the girl Edmund was sucking face with the night before and who is his new research assistant. He tells her he wants "in" on the medical experiments she's been conducting in private on her sister. He threatens her with an ethical/criminal violation if she doesn't let him take some of the credit. Seems Juliet has a history of getting walked all over by powerful men.

Other Island: Tom tells Juliet that Benry wants to see her. Elsewhere on the island, Alex tells Sawyer and Kate that she has a boat that they can use to get back to their island, but they have to help free her boyfriend Karl. Remember Karl? He's the kid that tried to escape from the zoo on Sawyer's first day there, but was caught and taken away by Pickett or Tom or somebody. How many days ago was that? 2?

By the way, Sawyer is crazy with the nicknames in this episode. Like a little too crazy.

In the O.R. - Benry and Jack have a little chat. Just as I thought, Benry's heard everything. Juliet comes in and he asks to speak with her alone. Jack leaves and watches them from the observation room, with Tom. We can't hear the conversation between Juliet and Benry. Tom hilariously introduces himself to Jack: "I'm Tom, by the way." It's a little too late for the niceties, Tom!

Juliet leaves the operating room and tells Jack to go back in and finish Benry's surgery. When Jack asks why he should that, she says because she's going to go help his friends escape. Tom is gobsmacked.

Flashback: Juliet is having her meeting with Dr. Alpert from Mittelos Bioscience. He shows her a slideshow of their offices in Portland, OR and it all looks really fake and creepy and 30 years old. Alpert tells Juliet that Mittleos is a privately funded company ,so they have a lot of freedom. He wants her to come work for them, leading a team of scientists. Mittelos is impressed with her work impregnating a male field mouse and he shows her x-rays of the prematurely withered womb of a 26 year old woman who could use her help. She tells him that she can't, that her ex-husband wouldn't let her, that the only way she could get away from him would be if he got hit by a bus. She leaves, her passive-aggressive work being done. As she leaves, she tells him that she's not a leader.

Island: Juliet strides into the video room and locates Sawyer, Kate and Alex on one of the monitors. She's disappointed at seeing that Alex is involved, too.

Kate, Sawyer and Alex approach an island building that is being guarded by Aldo, who is reading "A Brief History of Time". Not your average guard, I see. They awesomely fool him with the old "Wookie prisoner gag" and get inside, where they find Karl in a room, strapped onto a chair with big, glowing goggles on. (I forgot to mention that Alex also threatens Aldo with telling her father on him. Was she raised by Benry? Or was it someone higher up?) Karl's undergoing some kind of re-programming, being forced to watch a very weird video and listen to loud, crazy bongo music. Some of the phrases flashed on the screen:

Plant a good seed and your joy will gather fruit.
Everything Changes
We are the causes of our own suffering
God loves you as he loved Jacob
Think About Your Life

What it all means, I have no idea, but it's cool. I also heard that if you play a portion of the "music" backwards, you clearly hear a voice that says, "only fools are enslaved by time and space". (sorry I don't have a link to the wav file at this time, but I did hear it on the radio so it must be true!) "Mittelos" is an anagram for "lost time". Are these hints, perhaps about another of the DHARMA experiments? Could some of these experiments have affected Desmond and is that why he's seeing the future?

Digression, I'm sorry...Flashback: Juliet comes home, where her sister is now living with her. Her sister tells her that the treatment worked and that she's pregnant. Again, I ask the question: why would a woman who is very sick with cancer go to such extremes to get pregnant? I hope things get explained further some day.

Cut to the bastard ex-husband who is walking along a sidewalk and talking on his cell, telling the person on the other end they are "insufferable" and "mean". He's talking to his mother, of course. Ha! Juliet approaches him, tells him that Rachel is pregnant and he's trying to convince her to publish her results wehn... BAM! He is hit by a freakin' bus. The Passive-Agrgessive Express. And while I should have seen it coming, it scared the shit out of me.

O.R.: As Jack finishes the operation, he asks Tom why, if they can get off the island, they didn't get help for Benry and take him to a facility? Tom begins to answer him, saying "Because, ever since the sky turned purple --", but he's interrupted by a geyser of blood squirting from inside of Benry somewhere. Jack has nicked an artery (by mistake this time).

Kate, Sawyer, Alex and Karl find the boat, one of the sail-canoes, but Pickett finds them as they're loading Karl onto it. Just as he's about to shoot Sawyer, Juliet comes out of nowhere and shoots Pickett dead. Finally. God that guy was annoying.

While Jack enlists Tom to help save Benry's life, Juliet lets everyone on the beach go, except for Alex, telling her that the only way her father would let Karl go is if Alex stayed.

Jack is trying desperately to save Benry. Kate calls on the walkie talkie. She tells him that Juliet is letting them go, they have a boat and they're safe. He needs her to tell him the story he told her on the beach that first day. The story calms him and helps him fix Benry. But while she tells the story it's obvious to Sawyer and everyone else that there's still a connection between Kate and Jack.

Jack makes Kate promise never to come back for him and turns the walkie talkie off.

Sawyer, Kate and Karl paddle away as Juliet and Alex watch.

Flashback: Juliet is viewing Edmund's body in the morgue, where she breaks down, crying.

O.R.: The surgery is finished, and Jack was able to remove the tumor.. He suggests to Juliet that she do a biopsy to see if it's malignant. He asks her what Benry said that made her want to save his life...flashback to Juliet crying in the morgue. In one of the most inappropriate recruiting maneuvers ever, Alpert and a very jowly Ethan approach her. She kind of starts to put together two and two with the whole hit by a bus thing, but Alpert slimes his way out of that and tells her that they really want her to come work for them. She asks if she can take her sister with her, but he says the site is too remote, not in Portland, exactly.

Back to the O.R.: Juliet tells Jack that she's been on the island for 3 years, two months and 28 days and that Benry told her that if she let him live and helped Jack, Benry would finally let her go home. So she is being held against her will, too.

Tonight: Kate doesn't listen to Jack and launches a rescue mission and Desmond is stilling seeing things!

Classy

Britney Spears went to a strip club in New York City and she wasn't happy with the red micro-mini dress she had on. Too many clothes, apparently. So what's a girl to do in such a situation? Well, any enterprising woman would know that despite all evidence to the contrary, there are plenty of clothing options available in a strip club. You just need to know where to look.

Embarrassing photo included.

Now that's a big bunny!

Oh, SNAP.

New York Daily News: "Tina Fey dissed archfoe Aaron Sorkin Sunday night at the Writers Guild Awards. The '30 Rock' star competes with Sorkin's 'Studio 60': Both take place behind the scenes at a show like 'Saturday Night Live,' where Fey was head writer. Wiggling around the Hudson Theatre stage in a party frock with plunging decolletage, Fey told the crowd, 'I hear Aaron Sorkin is in Los Angeles wearing the same dress - but longer, and not funny.'"

Not on your life.

'Hardy Men': Cruise, Stiller take on 'Boys': "The long-in-development project sees the Hardy Boys grown up but not speaking to each other, having been estranged for many years. They are forced to overcome sibling rivalry when they reunite to solve a mystery."

I was going to stay that I will be staying far, far away from this movie, but you know what? I don't think there's a "far away" that's far enough away for me. Stiller already desecrated the memory of the awesome Starsky & Hutch with his extremely unfunny remake, and now he wants to taint another one of my favorite shows from growing up? And Cruisazy is going to be in it? A comedy? Noooooo!!

This is so upsetting.

We painted!

02-11-2007 005
Originally uploaded by gina64.

We've got just the walls done so far. The trim is in desperate need of a new coat of paint, but that's going to have to wait for a bit longer.

You can see in one of the photos that we've got the recessed lights installed. Next come the pendant light over the sink and the hanging fixture over the kitchen table. The ceiling fan is being removed.

The lighting is the last big part of the project. Once that is finished it's just small finishing touches and then it's done. And hopefully that will be this week!

Now this is a relaxed cat.

This 'n That

I knew there was a reason I didn't like her.

The Idol contestant Ashlyn Carr who got a second chance even though she makes funny faces when she sings? She's a vengeful psycho girlfriend. I could tell she was no good.

The article doesn't say whether or not she was kicked off the show, but it does say that Akron Watson, the guy I liked who sang Sam Cooke, was "disinvited" because of an old pot bust. Wasn't Bo allowed to stay on despite an old drug bust?

Wow.

Reality star Anna Nicole Smith dies after collapse: "Reality TV star and former model Anna Nicole Smith was pronounced dead Thursday after being taken to a Florida hospital after being found unconscious in her hotel room, a law enforcement source with knowledge of the case told CNN. "

Her life was a long, sad nightmare.

LOST: "Not in Portland"

Until I can get a recap up, I thought I'd start a discussion of the episode. What did you think?

Me, I thought it was good. At first blush it seemed like just a lot of yelling and running around, but when I was talking to Holly about it this morning, I started to see it in a different light.

• Do you think that Juliet's fertility miracles have anything to do with Sun's pregnancy?
• What was up with Juliet's sister? She looked like she was undergoing cancer treatment, but then I wonder, why would anyone in their right mind try to get pregnant when they might be dying? I heard speculation is flying around that she used to be a "he", and that's why it's such a miracle. THAT would be interesting. And the casting choice would make a lot of sense - Robin Wiegert was Calamity Jane, after all.
• So who's withered womb do you think was on the x-ray that the Mittelos guy was showing to Juliet in the interview? I'd say it was probably a woman from the island. Maybe for some reason they're all infertile and that's why they steal children?
• Speaking of Mittelos, check it out: mittelosbioscience.org (I got a "service unavailable" message as of this post). Also of possible interest: "mittelos" is an anagram for "lost time"; and "mittelos" is German for "indigent". Who knows?
• Any ideas about the re-programming/brainwashing room?
• Like Edmund Burke, I had absolutely no idea that bus was coming. That was awesome.
• Kate was really kick ass. I wish she would be like that more often.

OK, I think that's enough to start things off. The recap will be up soon.

And I hear it's going to be a good one.

Tonight the show begins in its new timeslot, 10:00 P.M., and will run for 16 straight weeks with no repeats.

Forget where things left off in November? You can check out TWoP's recap before watching tonight, because I was never able to manage my time well enough to get one done myself. The short version: Jack is in the middle of operating on Benry, who is bleeding to death and he has a plan to save Kate, who has just had some crazy jungle love with Sawyer, who is about to get shot in the head. Yeah, right.

Anyway, I hear that a bunch of stuff will happen/be revealed tonight, so don't miss it!

Idol: Hallelujah, Praise the Lord, It's the Last Stop on the Audition Tour!

Disclaimer: I had a hard time concentrating. I have a very bad cold, Mickey would not stay still and that was just as well because Marty kept trying to hump him.

So the best I can do is highlight a few of the more memorable characters from San Antonio:

First, there was Brian with the creepy energy. Loud and in your face. I guess he thought he could scare the judges into letting him through to Hollywood. Not so.

Haley Scarnato was wearing this really groovy one piece halter thing that really showed off her kickin' body. I thought she was good, but Randy said she was just OK and Simon said she was too "cabaret" (the outfit was, yes). I must be getting old because I liked her. She gets through to Hollywood, despite their reservations.

Poor, deluded Jasmine, and her uneducated family's sign: "Are Next American Idol".

Baylie Brown is 16 and is from Krum, TX and would have fit perfectly into a mockumentary we watched this weekend about a nasty teenage beauty pageant (Drop Dead Gorgeous). She's cute, she can sing, she has a highly marketable name, and she's going to Hollywood. Simon tells her she was "born to be a pop star" and she nods her head in agreement. Confident? Conceited? Time will tell.

We got an "Other Door" montage, a tribute to the best part of this year's audition shows. Thank you!

William Green, one of a pair of cousins, hilarously sang "Amazing Grace" like "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" and cracked us up.

His cousin Akron Watson, however, has a beautiful voice and is on his way to Hollywood. Unfortunately, Akron also has little to no personality, and will probably be heading back home very soon.

Ashlyn Carr made funny faces while she sang (not really all that well, I thought) so they told her no; but then they called her back and gave her another chance. She still made funny faces and still sang only mildly well, yet this time they put her through. Probably because she's cute. But I don't think I like her.

Tonight's show is a roundup of highlights from the audition tour, the good, the bad and the horrific, and I think I'm going to skip it. Let's get to the real competition.

Best Headline Today

Heroes - "Godsend" and "The Fix"

So I am finally caught up on Heroes! I enjoyed Godsend more than The Fix, which seemed like a "setup" episode, laying the groundwork for the good stuff tonight.

A few comments and questions:

1. Does the Invisible Man have a name yet?

2. So Claire's mother can light things on fire with her hand. I wonder if she was that cause of the fire that she supposedly died in. And we all know how Claire survived the fire.

3. How cool is it that George Takei is Hiro's dad? And how cool is it that the Hero symbol is on the hilt of the sword? We found out that it's a combination of 2 symbols: 'godsend' and 'great talent'. Does that imply a divine mission?

4. One of the things that always gives me pleasure when I watch this show is when we get to see the payoff for things like Isaac's paintings, for instance. The reveal is done in such a low-key manner that you could easily miss it. Like the shot of Hiro and the dinosaur.

5. I know I'm alone in this, but my love for Nathan Petrelli continues to grow. His scenes with Hiro are priceless.

6. Matt is BORING.

7. What is that plastic thing sticking out of Sylar's head?

The only reason I'm sorry I missed the Super Bowl.

Men with no pants.

Coming Together

02-03-2007 008, originally uploaded by gina64.

More work to report on:

The soffits above the cabinets have been built and the crown moulding is up. Also, John finished putting the tile up around the window and behind the stove. Not all of the grout is on yet. It dried a little lighter than we thought it would, but we're still happy with it.

Oh, I am working for the WRONG people.

Employees Enjoy Super Bowl Holiday, Free Beer: "The beer-and-wine distributor decided to make Monday a paid holiday and plans to send workers home Thursday and Friday with a six-pack of Blue Moon beer and a Super Bowl T-shirt. "

To be honest, though, I did forget all about the Super Bowl so I guess I wouldn't deserve the holiday. But that doesn't mean I shouldn't have it!