Raising Hope

If you like some twisted humor let me suggest that you watch Raising Hope on the Fox network. Its in reruns now but I think its easy enough to catch up on episodes rather quickly through an On-Demand system with your cable TV provider.
Here is the treatment of the show according to its FB page…
RAISING HOPE is a new single-camera family comedy from Emmy Award winner Greg Garcia that follows the Chance family as they find themselves adding an unexpected new member into their household.

At 23 years old, JIMMY CHANCE (Lucas Neff) is going nowhere in life. He skims pools for a living, parties every night and still lives at home with his family, including his MAW MAW (Cloris Leachman); his mother, VIRGINIA (Martha Plimpton) and his father, BURT (Garret Dillahunt).

Jimmy’s life takes a drastic turn when a chance romantic encounter with LUCY (guest star Bijou Phillips) goes awry once he discovers she is a wanted felon. Months later, when Jimmy pays a visit to the local prison, he learns Lucy is pregnant with their baby, and after she gives birth, he is charged with raising their daughter.

Back at home, Jimmy’s family is less than enthusiastic about a new addition to the household. His parents, who had him when they were 15, never knew anything about raising a child and have no interest in trying again. Jimmy may be able to get some help from SABRINA (Shannon Woodward), a sardonic checkout clerk he met at the supermarket if only he can work up the nerve to ask her out. Despite it all, Jimmy is determined to take care of his baby – whom Virginia thinks they should name HOPE.

With very few useful skills but their hearts in the right place, will the Chance family be successful when they step into the unpredictable and immensely challenging world of parenting?

Cloris Leachman steals this show as the rarely-lucid grandmother. For me, it’s laugh-out-loud funny.

Cast of Raising Hope

Back to TV. America’s Got Talent started again this week. It is a show that I did watch for the first time last year when Howie Mandel joined the judging staff. I like Howie and while I believe that just about anyone could be a judge on any of these shows, he is definitely a plus.
This is the show that last year introduced millions of people to Jackie Evancho, the 10 or 11 year old singer that blew away the world with her voice, only to come in second to some other dude whose name no one can recall (Michael Grimm.)
I thought at the time that the other dude got the win because everyone knew that Jackie was going to succeed regardless of whether she won that show or not. That was sort of fair to me in one sense even though we could probably count on one hand the number of people in this country more naturally talented than Evancho.

Jackie Evancho

New “Dungeon of Manlove” shows are now posted at http://www.marshcast.com/. They are still not for the sensitive. I really have tried to calm it down a little bit so that there is more of a general appeal so we could bring in many more listeners. But it’s not happening. That’s fine; we have other types of shows in the planning stages now that will do that trick down the road. For now, the Dungeon will just remain what it was intended to be…dirty.

Living my own dream…lol

Done.

Progress?

Politics today. If you are looking for baseball, hypnotism, or American Idol chatter, you will not find it here. I’d rather just lay it out up front. You are excused if you don’t wish to read more about today’s subject.

How do you define progress?

Webster defines it as a noun in three ways:

\ˈprä-grəs, -ˌgres, US also & British usually ˈprō-ˌgres\

1

a (1) : a royal journey marked by pomp and pageant (2) : a state procession b : a tour or circuit made by an official (as a judge) c : an expedition, journey, or march through a region

2

: a forward or onward movement (as to an objective or to a goal) : advance

3

: gradual betterment; especially : the progressive development of humankind

— in progress

: going on : occurring

I’d never it used in example 1, above, but that matters not.

I’d like to deal with examples two and three for a short while.

Personally, I have goals towards which I would like to make progress. I would think that with few exceptions people want to make progress, right? Am I crazy here? No, I am not; I am totally sane.
My parents wanted me to do better than they did in their lives or, in other words, progress beyond where they ended up in life. So did their parents. Our FREEDOM basically depended on our own ability to progress and keep from being dependant on others in society.

Here, I guess, is where some people begin to have differing ideas about this.
My parents wanted me to have MORE in life and get more out of life. That meant, to them, that I would acquire more wealth so that I would be financially secure so that I would not have to worry about where I got meals, where I lived, etc. They wanted me to drive a new car so that I didn’t have a piece of crap to drive around all the time, leaving me potentially victimized by ill-timed breakdowns. They wanted me to have a bigger house and more land so that I could have more to pass on to my family so that they could be financially secure also, and so on down the line.

I will just assume that you get my point about that without elaborating further.

In America, our ancestors have all wanted the same things, progress in medicine, technology, energy, transportation, etc., etc.
Because of that societal desire to become better at living, in all aspects of our lives, our society advanced. Our ancestors worked hard to create and develop these ideas and things so that we could have better lives and then we would take what they created and develop and create even greater things for our kids.

That, to me, is progress.

So, I’m sort of curious to know why these days we seem to doing things that are regressive and labeling them progressive some how.
Take the automobile. I think what it has done for our freedom and for our economic engine of progress speaks for itself.
Yet, there is an actual movement to do whatever it takes to essentially remove the car from roads.
I have run into more people than I care to know even exist who say we would be better off without the car.

These people, now get this, call themselves “Progressives.”

HUH?!

Not a new term, I know. But it does just want to make you slap yourself in the face to wake up, right?

These same people want us to do away with things like oil, coal, and anything that create actual real energy to power our lives and provide HEAT and replace it with things that do not yet work properly.

Before I continue, let me say that I am all for doing whatever it takes to develop and create new energy sources. But if these sources don’t work better than oil or gas or coal and are not cheaper, THAT IS NOT PROGRESS.

Our education system, once an envy of the world, is not making progress, yet some 75% of educators call themselves “Progressive” to some degree.

Our dollar is regressing. It buys less. Our government, currently run by a Progressive, actually makes policies that intentionally lower the value of our dollar! If our dollar is worth less, how can we progress in our lives?

Our home values are declining. Again, our government, currently run by a Progressive, has enacted policies that have made it more difficult for people to buy a home. If we can’t buy homes, how can we progress?

For the last two examples, we are now being told that we should learn to do with less. This comes from the mouths of Progressives.

Just kick me in the head now because I can’t wake up from this nightmare.

Sidebar…Canada’s economy is now growing at twice our rate. Recent changes in health care there, to a system with INCREASED privatization…according to our Progressives, HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THAT. Just look the other way, sheep…that has nothing to do with it.

It’s so bad and so hypocritical that these people….these Progressives….want those who have actually progressed in their lives, to basically go backwards under THE NAME OF PROGRESS!

If they don’t they are called all sorts of names which include greedy, lustful and even criminal.

We never seem to see these Progressives actually help those who have not progressed very far in life move forward. No, instead they focus their attention on those who have reached goals and then decide to penalize the advanced in the name of progress.

I could continue with more examples of this but let me move to a totally unrelated note…

I wonder if you have ever read the following:

Current Communist Goals
EXTENSION OF REMARKS OF HON. A. S. HERLONG, JR. OF FLORIDA
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Thursday, January 10, 1963
 
Mr. HERLONG. Mr. Speaker, Mrs. Patricia Nordman of De Land, Fla., is an ardent and articulate opponent of communism, and until recently published the De Land Courier, which she dedicated to the purpose of alerting the public to the dangers of communism in America.
At Mrs. Nordman's request, I include in the RECORD, under unanimous consent, the following "Current Communist Goals," which she identifies as an excerpt from "The Naked Communist," by Cleon Skousen:
[From "The Naked Communist," by Cleon Skousen]
CURRENT COMMUNIST GOALS
1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.
2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.
3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament [by] the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.
4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.
5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.
6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.
7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.
8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.
9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.
10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.
11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)
12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.
13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.
14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.
15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.
16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.
17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
18. Gain control of all student newspapers.
19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.
20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.
21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.
22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."
23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."
24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.
25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.
26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."
27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."
28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."
29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."
31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.
32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.
33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.
34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.
36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.
37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.
38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand [or treat].
39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.
40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use ["]united force["] to solve economic, political or social problems.
43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.
44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.
45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the

World Court

from seizing jurisdiction [over domestic problems. Give the

World Court

jurisdiction] over nations and individuals alike.

I saw this quite some time ago. I wonder how many of you have ever read it. A few things are no longer relevant but most of the real majors ones on this of 45 still are.

There is a conclusion that one could make here; it does seem as if SOMETHING has really made “progress” here in America.

Done.

Norris > Utley....duh

Back in 1995 I started a little business called Delaware Sports. It began as a local cable television show and blossomed into what is now a  small sports video production service.
The show itself was really a labor of love. Over the course of its 13-year run I spent so much money that I have no chance of being able to retire someday. To this day I struggle with the financial troubles I had trying to produce a weekly television show with the help of one other part-time person and basically zero support from the business community.
I had to finally decide to take on something different which is why I transitioned into the area where I am now with my stage hypnosis shows.
But there are a lot of things that I miss about working on Delaware Sports on a daily basis.
At this time of the year here, the high school state championship tournaments are taking place. Since I do still videotape for clients I get to head out to see a lot of games.
I don’t know all of the players like I used to know them, but I love the atmosphere. Its fun to watch all of the kids so emotionally involved in these events from the players to the fans to the ball girls at the girl’s soccer games. (The parents are sometimes not so fun to watch, but they do add something else about which to speak as well.)
I met a lot of great kids over the years covering Delaware Sports. Those of who you who access this blog through Facebook would find a lot of them on my connections list. So I miss developing those types of potential long-term relationships.
So during each of the three seasons of high school sports championships I struggle with whether or not to start anything up like that again. There are less expensive ways to do this now, I say to myself.
Now, I do have a growing staff of people working on our podcast show, The Dungeon of Manlove, and we are planning an entire network of shows (one is actually already running and three others are in the works.) It would stand to reason that it would be a little easier to get something like that going again.
I would just have to make sure that there is advance financing for that though. The sales staff we are working to create would have to get companies signed up in advance. That’s always tough to do.

Now the summer season of television is ready to start. I don’t know exactly why I want to write about TV in this space, but I have found that I like to do so. Since I don’t get paid to do this either, I will simply do what I want and say what I want….SO THERE!

How It's Done

Crap. I was supposed to write more about baseball here. Well, it’s been tough to get excited about it. The dirty Phillies are visiting my beloved Mets right now and had two come-from-behind victories in the first two games, so that’s not boosting my baseball mood.
The Red Sox have been on fire and are now in first, as predicted earlier. I just need the Braves to step up since that was the bolder pick in the NL East, but they aren’t cutting the mustard just yet.

Phillie fans are now giving Chase Utley Chuck Norris-like attention, which doesn’t make any sense at all. I won’t go through all of the Chuck Norris jokes here to which they are trying to compare Chase Utley. But they don’t make any sense because Utley is often injured. Sure, he comes back, but if he doesn’t play he can’t do anything heroic. It’s very important to note, naturally, that Chuck Norris never gets injured, he only inflicts injuries so therefore Utley could never be Norris-like in actuality or in tale.

I realize that this winning thing that the Phillies have brought to Philadelphia the last few years is a very new concept for Philadelphia sports fans. After all, the Phillies, even with these hot few years, are still the team that has lost more games than any team in the entire history of the planet Earth. So we will have to excuse them for a while until they learn how to be winning fans and have more practice creating these types of tales of legendary heroes somewhere down the road.

Done.

Alfred E. Neumann - Recording Star



Congratulations to Alfred E. Neumann for winning AI last night, as successfully predicted here prior to the show last night.
Alfred E. was one of the young people who I thought from way, way back was going to land a recording contract with someone. Score a point for me.




Alfred E. Neumann


If you don’t know who Alfred E. Neumann is, he is the main character from Mad Magazine. I am just happy that he was able to make this mid-life career change and have such great success with it.

 



Alfred E. McCreary



I had a great show in DuBois, PA last night. It was a 250 mile ride out there and I had to turn around and come right back because I didn’t have a doggie sitter. So I got home at 3 this morning and am a little beat.

The show was a senior high school dinner celebration. I found out a half an hour before show time that I was replacing a guy who had been doing that party for 24 years in a row.
So basically I was hired to try to replace a local legend.
This isn’t the first time that I have received this news shortly before a show. It adds a little pressure because of a natural tendency to compare acts. It meant that I had to find out the kind of things they had seen before with this guy and change my routine accordingly.
After the show I was told that I’ll be back next year.

So its cool that I am booking shows into 2012 already. It means that my show is getting better and people want to make sure that they are on my schedule as soon as possible. That’s very flattering. Now I just need to fill my summers some how. I have ONE “tentative” show for this July and August, while I have three lined up right now, is usually pretty slow also.

I was listening to the Philthies game on the radio last night on the way home as they were playing a 19 inning game against the Reds. Infielder Wilson Valdez pitched the 19^th inning for the Philths and ended up getting the win as the Philths scored in the bottom of the 19^th. Valdez had to face reigning MVP Joey Votto, Scott Rolen, Jay Bruce and the Reds pitcher. He got Votto to pop out, plunked Rolen (which the fans really enjoyed) popped out Bruce and the pitcher grounded out or something.
So Valdez, who started the game at a position, closed out the game on the mound and picked up the victory. That has not been done since Babe Ruth did it way back when.
It’s not a record or anything, but rather a fantastic addition to a baseball trivia book.

But the real reason I wanted to write something here today was so that I could say congratulations to Alfred E. Neumann and get those pictures posted here.

Done.

Biggest Loser - New Best Show in the World

It’s show night in DuBois, PA, wherever that is.

Good thing it’s a private party and not a public show tonight because the finale of American Idol is on and I am sure it will be well watched.

The winner of American Idol will be Alfred E. Neumann, and that is still the funniest thing that has happened on TV for a couple of years. This is not a slight to Lauren Alaina, anyone of the final 5 or 6 could have won, but it will be Scotty in a landslide.

Last night was the finale of the Biggest Loser one of the top reality shows on TV. I like to watch the very first show of BL, one in the middle and the finale. That is how you really get an impact of how this show has changed these contestants’ lives.

People on this show routinely lose at least 25% of their initial body weight and the winners are close to 50% with a couple over the years actually losing more than half of their weight.

Those are some fat people that land on that show, I’ll tell you. You have to have a lot of flub to be able to lose that much weight and not die.

Former Olympic Gold Medalist Rulon Gardner was on this show this year. He quit near the end of it and did not return for the finale. I missed the first 15 minutes of the show last night so I don’t know if they mentioned him or not. I get the feeling he just wanted to get re-motivated and felt that he didn’t want to upstage or out-perform the others on the show who were hardly athletes at all let alone one of Olympian caliber.

But the biggest bombshell thrown out at this show last night was literally a bombshell. Anna Kornikova will replace the legendary Jillian Michaels as a trainer on the show.

Already all men in American who watch this show now have no clue who Jillian Michaels is anymore.

Great Googly Moogly, Anna Kornikova….whoa. Now it looks like I’ll watch more than just those three episodes of that show’s season next year. Yikes. And…she looked goooood when she was introduced last night.

If you don’t know who Anna Kornikova is, here is a picture.

And another

And another.  It would even be ok for her to reject me and run away from me if this was the result...

I could go on and on.
She was a professional tennis player who never won anything and no one cared who owned male genitalia.

Then I watched The Voice while flipping back and forth a little to see who won Dancing with the Stars on its finale.
First of all, it was disturbing to watch Kirstie Alley, who came in second. While she remained completely talented and charming as always, I still had the picture of Anna Kornikova fresh in mind while Alley is dancing around on this show (where she should have been on Anna’s new show as a contestant) with a boob flopping out of her dress. Not that I mind boobs flopping out at any time, mind you, but…ugh…no good here.

Heinz Ward, the Pittsburgh Steeler won the trophy, but I really couldn't have cared less.

So, back to The Hair…I mean Voice. Still, Christina Aguilera has this horridly colored hair that takes all attention away from everything else while she is on camera. I want to like this show, but the fake applause is still grinding on me. I am not sure how much longer I can handle it and when America Has Talent and True Blood return I might have to ditch The Voice.

The Bachelorette started this week, I think. I watch the Bachelor because there are 30 desperate women who are trying to get the attention of whoever is the luckiest man in the world at the time. Some are even pretty hot. But watching this show is not particularly manly even with all of those women on it so that is gay enough for this straight man right here. I ave to draw the line at judging which desperate dude is going to get the girl who I never agree should have the opportunity to have all of them fake like they actually want her for a full season.

I am fully invested in The Event on NBC. It’s an alien show where aliens from another world are coming to Earth to RE-colonize it. The premise is that they were on Earth first and their home planet is ready to explode so they are returning over 2 billion people here. But we have never seen any hint of an alien since they are very close in DNA to humans.
That concept is far too convenient for me but it does allow the writers to have them intermingle with the human population as sleeper cells preparing for the Event to take place at some point. We learned Monday that the Event was NOT anything that has happened so far up to, and including, the event where their whole planet was transported between the Earth and the Moon. This was a pretty cool effect which they obviously spent a lot of the money they saved on alien costumes throughout the season to produce.

If you are someone who has listened to The Dungeon of Manlove podcasts first, let me thank you. For those who listened and were deeply offended by our very raw and filthy language, let me apologize even though you were warned. For those who listen please let me ask you to subscribe to the show the next time you listen to it.
We are tied into the advertising program where the show is hosted. Companies can shop around on the hosting site for popular shows or shows which match their particular demographics. Without subscribers there is no way that any company bothers to take a listen to what we are doing. Subscribing is free; it just requires registering on the site. So that you know, I have never had any unsolicited messages from the hosting site besides notifications that a new show to which I have subscribed is now posted.

Ok, so no baseball in this one today. So let me just mention that the Indians are still the best team in baseball AND that despite the fact that some of my early team predictions were off, some teams are now on the move that are making those predictions more in line with what I suggested might happen, including the run by the Red Sox, who are now just a half-game out of first place, and the Cardinals who now possess first place in the NL Central.

Done

We're Alive!

Well its good to be alive, I think. I was not scarfed up in the rapture on Saturday so its back to work today.

For those of you who thought it was the end of the world on Saturday, it was not supposed to be, except for anyone who died of regular earthly causes or who was taken by the lord early. It was the date of the Rapture.
No, the end of the world date is now October 21^st…for sure this time. That is when the actual end comes.

I heard that a quarter of a billion people were supposed to be raptured. I didn’t read any headlines which talked about a large group of missing people somewhere out there so there are two conclusions I can reach; 1- there are even more sinners than even I thought or; 2- I’ll be working past October 21^st also, so I better prepare myself mentally for that.

I was on the road Saturday and was listening to the radio station where the guy who made this prediction can be heard during the evening throughout the week (Harold Camping.) One would think that if those stations were airing that prediction that there would be all sorts of news about it throughout the day, particularly during the “final week.” Things like what we should pack, stories of rioting and looting, and what type of messages we should leave our sinning friends and family members.

Nothing.

I listened to Camping take phone calls one evening. Some people were challenging his interpretation of the Bible and some were totally in agreement, someone asked him why his stations were still soliciting funds (his ministry is worth over 70 million dollars) but what he never did say that day was that May 21^st was the rapture date, at least when I was listening. He mentioned earthquakes in New Zealand (but that had already happened a couple of months ago) and a specific time but nothing about angels sweeping down and scooping up the chosen few.

Harold Camping

I don’t doubt that Camping is sincere about this. He made this same prediction in 1994 and I got a call back then from someone trying to make amends with me because he believed it was all coming to an end. Naturally it didn’t but Camping has such faith in what he believes that he didn’t allow his past failure to sway him.

There are lessons in that. One, I think, is that we should never give up on our dreams!

Ok, maybe that is a stretch to talk about how to rise from the ashes of defeat and failure.

I am not a religious man. This is one of the glaring reasons why; because these messages are skewed by human interpretation. Which religion, if any, are teaching us the correct lessons handed down by God? I even say that, respectfully, with a core thesis that God does exists.
I was exposed early in life to a wide variety of religions. Therefore, I am a product of my environment in that way and have this present opinion. I was told to remain open minded to all beliefs systems because humans do make mistakes.
Even early on in elementary school I remember an exercise where one kid was told a story and had to whisper it to the next one and so on and so on until the final kid in the class had to repeat the story that reached him. It differed so greatly from the original story, which had just been told 15 minutes ago to someone, that it made a very strong impact.

So the other lesson I can take out of this could be that I should trust what I actually see and experience so that I can make critical decisions in life. (I will only speak for myself here…I just crossed out all of the “we’s in there.)

I do admire people of faith. It takes a great deal of courage to stand against a majority of opposite beliefs in times when in the minority. But there is also a war saying that I like to quote sometimes- “Is that the hill you want to die on?” Just having faith that your battle team can capture the hill sometimes doesn’t mean that faith alone can overcome the overwhelming odds stacked against you.

In my 49 years of life I have now survived two raptures, a couple of end-of-the-world dates, Y2K and the consistent playing of Prince’s “Party like it’s 1999” the year before.

This gives me hope that I can survive Lady Gaga, at the very least, and this continuing mess of an economy. That’s right, I went there again and I went there because I trust what I experience and see and not what some preacher or politician wants me to have blind faith in and blindly believe what he says to be true. 

Let me ask one question though, especially for you non-believers of God. About two years ago in Los Angeles a flower was discovered that had never been documented before...in LOS ANGELES, not in some remote jungle.

How did it get there?

Done.

Cowboy (and girl) and Indians

We have a final pair set now on American Idol – Scotty McCreery and Lauren Alaina. Scotty was one of my picks as a potential finalist. Steven Tyler picked Lauren right from the beginning.
Ousted was Haley Reinhart, my favorite. She got better and better as the weeks went by but was really my favorite because she is hot.
Two factors, I believe, led to her being voted out last night; 1- she exudes perhaps a little extra confidence that some describe as arrogance; 2- and the country community has spoken.
Scott and Lauren are 17 and 16 respectively, both humble, respectful and charming and they both are country singers.
One of Haley’s last performances on the sing-off the other night was pretty cool as she had her father on stage with her playing guitar in a Led Zeppelin song.
While I didn’t initially see Haley as a sure-bet recording artist, I sure do now. Same to be said with Lauren. We are going to hear 7-8 of these contestants on the radio in different genres in the next couple of years.

One of the big additions to this season was music producer Jimmy Iovine. I really don’t know anything about the music industry when it comes to producing records. But the other day I dusted off Meatloaf’s “Bat Out of Hell” CD and saw that Iovine had a major credit on that CD. I then heard him say on the show the other day that he worked on Tom Petty’s “Damn the Torpedoes’” album also. These are two all-time classic works of rock music. He is chairman of Interscope Records (a name that is foreign to me) and has also produced for John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen, U2, Stevie Nicks (who he was linked to romantically at one point also,) Simple Minds, Dire Straits and Patti Smith to name a few others. He also helped Eminem launch his career and Lady Gaga too.

Iovine is worth an estimated 700-875 million dollars and he spent all of that time working with these kids, which on the surface seems pretty selfless until you then figure that he’ll probably sign most of them.

Jimmy Iovine

One of his greatest contributions is having the singers stick to their true selves. Scotty, for example, is really only a country singer. That is what he wants to, that is what he is. In the past the judges would insist on singers “stepping out of the box” to try new things so that they could “see what they could do.” Then they would tell the singers to stay true to themselves. It never made any sense to me and Iovine as much said so as well.

I think that means I could be a record producer and make a few extra million also!

Two quick baseball notes.
Jason Giambi became the 4^th player in history to hit three homeruns in a game after the age 40 last night against the Phillies. He joins Reggie Jackson, Stan Musial and Babe Ruth on that small list.
And the best team in baseball is….The Cleveland Indians!

Done