Super Bowl Ads

The best ad from last night’s game:

Okay, I might be biased, but that’s just funny. In case you don’t get the reference:

A close runner-up:

The worst? GoDaddy’s ads.

Top Ten: Friends Episodes

Who doesn’t like Friends?! It’s probably my second favorite television show behind I Love Lucy. So without further adieu.. my top ten Friends episodes.

10. The One With The Rumor. Great episode guest starring Brad Pitt.

9. The One Where Eddie Won’t Go. Adam Goldberg’s last episode. The way Chandler gets rid of Eddie is great.

8. The One Where Ross Got High. The dialog aimed at Jack & Judy Geller towards the end is hilarious.

7. The One With The Flashback. Great episode even though it’s not consistent with other facts as we now know them.

6. The One That Could Have Been. Great ‘what if’ episode!

5. The One In Barbados. Aiesha Tyler brought a new dimension to the show, and this is my favorite episode during her guest starring role. The ping pong scenes are hilarious.

4. The One In Vegas. Love this episode! The images of Ross and Rachel getting married and Chandler and Monica almost getting married are classic.

3. The Last One. Great series finale. It left the viewers with a sense of closure with the six main characters all left in a good place. At the same time, I feel the finale also left room for a reunion.. movie anyone?

2. The One With The Embryos. This is the one where Chandler/Joey and Monica/Rachel bet their apartments and switch. So many classic quotes from this episode.

1. The One Where No One’s Ready. Friends at its best. The entire episode takes place in Monica & Rachel’s apartment.

Top Ten: American Idol Contestants

For quite a while now, I’ve been trying to figure out what I wanted to blog about on here since I post the family-types of things over at tomandmonica.com. So I came up with an idea to post ‘top ten’ lists.. about anything. Fun, right? Well, hey.. I think so.

For my inaugural list, I’ve decided to start out with my top ten American Idol contestants.

(10) Brooke White. Best when at the piano. I love the Carly Simon vibe.

(9) George Huff. Good ol George. His happy, genuine performances were enjoyable. I’d love to see him release a cover album of Motown standards.

(8) Jason Castro. Unique style. His recordings of Jeff Buckley’s ‘Hallelujah’ and Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s ‘Over the Rainbow’ are awesome.

(7) Allison Iraheta. Such a great voice at such a young age. I’m anxious to hear what her album sounds like.

(6) Kris Allen. The newest idol. What I liked about him was that he never swayed from his style. He never overdid his performances.

(5) Blake Lewis. Idol’s original risk taker. His rendition of Bon Jovi’s ‘Living on a Prayer’ was amazing.

(4) David Cook. He has that ‘it’ factor. Great voice, great presence. Very likable and humble.

(3) Carrie Underwood. Outstanding country singer with a somewhat cross-over feel to her. I have a feeling she’s going to be in the business for quite a while.

(2) Kelly Clarkson. The original. No list of this nature would be complete without her. It was really a toss-up between Kelly & Carrie, but Kelly won out since she was the first.

(1) Chris Daughtry. Best rocker to appear on the show. Monica and I saw him in Lubbock.. puts on a great show. His debut CD is one of the few CDs I can actually listen through in its entirety without skipping a track.

American Idol > President?

Supposedly, over 100 million votes were placed last night for American Idol. That’s ridiculous.

Why?

That’s almost as many votes that were cast in the 2004 US presidential election. According to Wikipedia, 122,267,553 votes were cast for president.

On another note, it’s now obvious who the judges and producers want to win this year. Archuleta sang well last night for the most part. But so did Cook.

I feel the judges were very unfair in their assessments of David Cook. For example, all along the judges have stressed being original, making songs their own, and essentially “thinking outside the box”.  Apparently this doesn’t apply to the crappy winner’s song. His performance of I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For was amazing, but I would tend to agree that he should have chose a different song than The World I Know. He performed it well, but I would have rather seen something bigger and better. I loved his little dig against Archuleta though about performing something new.

David Archuleta did exactly what he has been doing all season — he sang slow, sappy ballads. He has shown absolutely no originality, improvement, or versatility. Is that not the point of having theme weeks?

David Archuleta, if crowned the winner, will falter just like all of the other male American Idol winners. David Cook will excel and follow in Chris Daughtry’s footsteps.

Maybe Idol producers will fix the show in time for season eight.

Fixing American Idol

No, I am not saying American Idol is fixed. There are so many conspiracy theories out there concerning the outcome of American Idol, and this is not going to be one of them. What this will be, however, is my thoughts on how to “fix” the show and regain the ratings it has lost this year.

1. Limit the number of votes from a single source. In other words, one telephone vote per phone number and one text message vote per mobile phone. Once the lines close, rank the contestants in numerical order based on the totals.
2. Make Simon, Randy, and Paula part of the rankings. In my opinion, Randy and Simon are usually spot-on with their evaluations. Paula is, well, Paula. Require each judge to rank the contestants each week.
3. Selling the studio recordings on iTunes this year was genius. Take those sales into account. Again, rank each contestant based on sales. This would require more than 24 hours between the performance and results shows. Additionally, it would require the studio singles being released immediately following the performance show. Why do this? Simple. The ‘tweens’ texting 42,983 times for their favorite contestant will not necessarily translate to album sales. Incorporating sales figures will provide an actual indicator of which contestants truly are selling records.
4. Theme weeks can be killer. You can’t make a rock singer sing great Broadway or Mariah Carey. Sure, David Cook somehow pulled it off and truly showed his versatility. That is not the norm though. The goal of American Idol is to find the ‘next big star’ — and there is no way David Cook would attempt to put out an album of Broadway hits. This week’s theme though (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame) was perfect. It allowed the contestants to pick, from a wide variety of songs, two songs that ideally fit them. Eliminating the superfluous themes will better allow the public to see the true artist and what kind of album they would record.

There is one final change that would legitimize the show again — publish all rankings, vote totals, sales figures, etc.

As for this year’s show, it will definitely be a David vs. David finale. Let’s just hope that David Cook is victorious.

“Undiscovered” American Idol?

So, yes.. I admit it. I’m an American Idol fan. While I don’t necessarily agree that this is the best year yet, the talent is definitely great.

Randy Jackson said something after Michael Johns’ performance last night that struck me funny.

Let me just add that this show is about being the best singer, undiscovered talent we can find.

I realize defining the word “undiscovered” is subjective; however, let’s define it as those never having a record contract. By that definition, the Top 12 isn’t as undiscovered as Randy thinks.

• David Cook – Solo album and multiple releases with the band Axium.
• Carly Smithson – Album released by a major label (MCA) under her maiden name.
• Michael Johns – Multiple releases with multiple groups.
• Brooke White – Solo album.
• Kristy Lee Cook – Solo album.

So by my count, five out of twelve have already been discovered. Should they be on American Idol? According to Randy Jackson, they shouldn’t be.

However, using that very same logic, there are a host of other previous contestants that shouldn’t have been on the show either:

Kelly Clarkson, Chris Daughtry, Carrie Underwood, Jordin Sparks, Taylor Hicks, Bo Bice, Constantine Maroulis, Mandisa Hundley, Lisa Tucker, Phil Stacey, Chris Sligh, Brandon Rogers

Don’t misunderstand me.. I don’t care that they all had records out prior to Idol. But Randy’s statement just isn’t true.

Observations, Ramblings, & Utter Randomness

This will be a hodgepodge post containing a random assortment of topics. So clear your mind, start reading, and try to keep up.

Family & Friends
Monica and I have some of the greatest family and friends. Everyone has been exceedingly generous with baby gifts. To everyone that has been kind enough to send us or give us cards and gifts, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Additionally, a huge thank you to my Mom, my sister Kim, Monica’s sister Amanda, and friends Dru, Stephanie, and Mandy for throwing two wonderful baby showers for Monica.

Fuel Costs
Gas costs significantly less in DFW then it does in Lubbock. By significant I mean $.10 – $.20 cheaper. Ridiculous.

Tollways
I love tollways. Sure you have to pay, but it’s worth the money. Driving from Irving to Frisco took ten minutes. Can’t beat that.

Texas Tech
I hate using this phrase, but once again, it fits. Typical Tech. Come off a great win versus Texas A&M, get cocky, get put in your place by Mizzou. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – Mike Leach is not the man to lead Tech to the next level. Until we hire a head coach that realizes a team is only as good as its weakest link, Tech will continue to be the red-headed stepchild of the Big XII South. On a happier note, we received our Red Raider and Lady Raider basketball season tickets in the mail. This is the first year we’ve bought both men’s and women’s season tickets, so we’ll have an abundance of games to attend!

Chicago Cubs
Swept out of the first round. I’m definitely not a fair weather fan, but it’s rather repetitive to have to keep saying “Just wait until next year”. I guess it could be worse..

NFL
The Bears are struggling for consistency. It’s too early to assess whether or not they can rebound and turn the season around. The best news is that Grossman was finally benched; he was given far too many chances and failed almost every time. On a happier note, I’m in a fantasy league for the first time, and through yesterday, in first place! Let’s hope I can sustain that for the rest of the season; I could use the $120 prize.

Work
I’ve been at my new job for over a month now and I’m loving it. Like all jobs, there have been some stressful situations – namely a rather large one that still is on my mind. It’s a different kind of stress than my former job, and I am much happier where I am now. It’s what I was born to do.

2007-2008 TV Shows
Lots of great shows this year – new and returning!

• Damages – GREAT new show on the FX network. If you haven’t been watching this show, wait until they start over and replay it from the beginning. It’s another “serialized” show in that you can’t just pick it up mid-season. It was a summer show that I would imagine will come back next summer. The season finale airs this coming Tuesday.
• CSI: Las Vegas. We have too many shows we DVR, so we’re only following CSI: Las Vegas this year. We don’t watch the Miami version as David Caruso is a horrible actor. We’ll put CSI:NY in our Netflix queue.
• Heroes. After a rather slow start in the first episode, it’s gotten far better. I don’t know how long this show will last after last year’s fantastic rookie season.
• Back To You – A new show on Fox staring Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton.
• Carpoolers – A new show on ABC staring Jerry O’Connell and a bunch of other people I’ve never heard of before.
• Grey’s Anatomy – This is more Monica’s show than mine, but it’s actually not that bad.
• Private Practice – As we watch Grey’s Anatomy, of course we’d watch its spin-off..
• Desperate Housewives – We’ve watched this show since day one, and this season is already far better than last year’s.
• Jericho – After the widely-covered fan outrage, CBS will be bringing Jericho back as a mid-season show to close up the storylines.
• Cold Case & Without A Trace – We love these mystery-type shows!
• The Big Bang Theory – This is definitely Monica’s show.. I’m not really that sold on it.

Hmm.. that list makes it seems like we have no life! Oh well – we enjoy it.

Well, that’s the end of this post.. I’ll be surprised if anyone makes it this far!

American Idol Simpsons Style

This clip from Idol Gives Back always makes me laugh.