Moonshine and Motown with Paula Abdul

I had to take a couple of days off to hit the road while the girl friend packs stuff up for her departure on the 5th. It’s just better to stay out of the way so there are no overly emotional moments. I'd much rather have it end as harmoniously as possible.

I could have written on the road since I had my laptop but the keyboard is too awkward so I just passed on it.

I took a drive down into the Appalachians Mountains in Virginia and W. Virginia. I thought perhaps spring had sprung a little bit more than it had, but it was still nice. I love the mountains and feel at home in them.

I spent much of yesterday on W. Virginia roads. It was the second time that I did this type of trip through the eastern portion of the state. Man, its poor there.

Sort of made me feel better. I know that’s sad to say, but it was true.

It must really suck to live in those portions of W. Virginia. Because since that mountainous area is so nice one would think that more people with money would move there.

For probably 100 miles of road I couldn’t get any phone reception or any real radio reception. The two FM stations that I found had some real authentic hillbilly play lists.

Between that music and the poverty and the stereotypes of the people that I conjured up in my mind, I came around one particular corner on a road to see a sheep farm and I felt really bad for the sheep.

So I see that the Phillies picked up Luis Castillo, who was cast away by the Mets last week.
With Chase Utley an uncertainty because of his knee, I guess the Phillies wanted to…well I can’t figure out what the hell they want to do with that move.

Luis Castillo

Now come on, you have to love my art work there. I only even mentioned this because I had this vision in my mind the last couple of days. In fact, I couldn’t wait to get home in front of the computer to create the above masterpiece.

Let’s see…American Idol.
Well, a giant mistake was avoided last night when the judges saved Casey Abrams. How he was in the bottom three of the voting was a pure mystery.
Casey started to sing “for his life” at the end of the show and judge Randy Jackson stopped him in the middle of it and announced, properly so, that they were going to use their “one save” of the season to save Casey.
The bottom three were Casey, Thia Megia, and Stefano whateverhisnameis. It was Stefano who should have gone home based on his performance on Wednesday night, but the teeny bopper population kept him alive.

How Naima is still in this, I’m just not sure. Her song performance was actually decent on Wed but then she busted out some bizarre “African” dance at the end of it which was really a turnoff.

I have mixed feelings about these displays of “cultural diversity.”
First of all, the word diversity has a prefix of di- which means divide, or split.
How can we be one UNITED country if we continually focus on our differences?
The reason I am split, however, is because we are a melting pot; at least that is what was always preached to me when I was a kid.
And, after all, things like pizza and tacos and bratwurst obviously aren’t American creations; they are brought from other countries.

Moonshine is an American creation I think. I tried to find some in W. Virginia but frankly I didn't want to drive down some of the roads where I was pretty sure that I would find some. So I guess I didn't realy think it was as important as I originally thought.

But I didn’t see Jacob Lusk, who (just going on skin color here so don’t crucify me) seems to be clearly of African descent, break into some cultural dance at the end of his song.
Nor did I see Stefano or Pia or Thia do anything of the same.
It’s not like they aren’t entitled to do so, I just found it a huge turnoff for Naima to do this, just I did with Karen Rodriguez (and her constant reminder that she was Latina) since Naima is from Milwaukee.

The performances were great overall, though. It’s interesting to watch the singers develop as they work with professional producers and voice coaches. I really thought there was only one below par performance and that was from Stefano. His coaches focused on his stage presentation and that he should remember to keep his eyes open when he sings.
He did a version of Lionel Ritchie’s “Hello” and promptly kept his eyes closed.
That was exactly what Paula Abdul mentioned at the end of his song.

So I thought he was a goner.

I wondered what the hell the country kid, Scotty, was going to do with a Motown theme.

First of all, I was never a real fan of Motown. Of course there are some songs that I like. But I was never really a Stevie Wonder fan, or Diana Ross or any of the older artists. I was raised on 70’s rock and that’s just the way it is. Had I been raised in the Appalachians I would have loved the banjo and had a strange affinity for wool and we are all just products of our environments that way.

Where was I? Oh yeah…so what was Scotty going to sing from that era? He chose a Stevie Wonder song and countried it up. Did a great job with it too. This kid is a rising star. Even the rocker did a Stevie Wonder song and rocked it up. Durbin, that kid…great job.
It’s been a good season so far on Idol, even with the return of Paula Abdul.

I am also, by the way, a huge fan of the show Survivor. I have been since the very first season and the reason is simple...it is the best "reality" show out there. It was the first and it's been the best ever since. The show is wonderfully produced by CBS. The videography is amazing and the game concept of voting people off of the show has been copied by dozens since then.

Even one of the next best reality shows, The Biggest Loser, features a voting-off process. Even Trumps show does the same thing.

So one has to give Survivor credit where it is due.

I'll jot mroe about Survivor at another time. This is just the warning that it is coming soon.

I’ll do more baseball when the season hits and I start watching more games. I may do my own predictions here as well, but we’ll see.

My next show is April 6th in Collegeville, PA. Its a fund-raiser for the Make-A-Wish Foundation put on by kids at Ursinus College. Start time is 8pm and tickets are available at the door. I don't know how much the tickets are right now, but just bring lots of money with you and that should cover it.

The studio for my podcast network will get built in the house next week. I think I may have found the first addition to my gang and I am still looking for more.

Hit me up if you’d like to audition to join me. 302-547-4645.

Done