Monthly Archives: May 2008

Film and Television, Pop Culture

American Idol and The Funk That Won’t Wash Off

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AI Blows

I have a shameful, embarrassing confession to make: in another life, I watched two entire seasons of American Idol — the one where Fantasia (deservedly) won (I think that was Season 3) and the one where the ridiculously fantastic Bo Bice inexplicably lost to the robotic automaton known as Carrie Underwood. That’s when I decided this program was bullshit and I would never never ever ever watch it again. I have spent this entire season of American Idol openly hating on this show (while watching it sporadically in secret) and having my intense hatred of all that American Idol stands for reaffirmed every time someone with a pulse, like Carly or Syesha, got slammed to the mat while all the judges collectively felated finalist (and let’s face it, he was the “chosen winner” right out of the gate) David Archuleta, the worlds most obvious puppet-boy plant. And I’ve never been a huge fan of AI’s other Season Gazillion finalist, David Cook, because I think the world has enough Scott Stapp-by-Way-of-Chris Daughtry clones. But let’s face it: the guy can fucking sing and seems to have the ability to actually rock.

But anyway, I did end up watching last night’s season finale, the Battle of the Two Davids, while I enjoyed a delicious burger I’d grilled up for my dinner and waited for Hell’s Kitchen to start. Jacob over at Television Without Pity has a full-on righteous recap that is way more hilarious and scathing than anything I could possibly pull out of my ass on such short notice, so I’m going to defer to him, because he said it all.

Gail's Radness

In Praise of Street Meat

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Street Meat Rocks

The above photo is the closest approximation I could find (via Google Images, always so helpful) of the delicious “chicken and lamb over rice, with salad” lunch I purchased today from the street cart on the corner of Wall and Pearl. A five dollar bill gets you all that and a can of soda (today it was “a nice Hawaiian Punch”). Jesus god, what a bargain. Street Meat!

Design and Innovation

Happy Birthday, Walter Gropius, Founder of the Bauhaus

Gropius

Walter Gropius, German Architect and founder of the Bauhaus School, was born on this day, May 18th, in 1883. I admit to feeling a special sort of insider kinship with the Bauhaus, not only because I love band that took its name from this forward thinking movement of Architecture and Design, but because I once worked for an architectural firm whose founding partners has previously worked with another great Bauhaus architect, Marcel Breuer. Breuer designed those cool chairs that everybody has in their kitchens.

Music, Pop Culture

Rock Star Quote of The Week: Spencer Smith of Panic at The Disco

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PATD

“Now that we’ve stepped away from the smaller sub-genre that we were in, it shows me how narrow of a field of music it is that you consider yourself a fan of. There were really only a couple of bands or musicians that were actually thought of as [being] great musicians within this entire sub-genre of music. That’s something we became aware of as we got into bands like The Who or The Rolling Stones. There are key figures in these bands that people were fans of because they were just amazing musicians. Nowadays, a lot of times fans know the members of bands because they’re dating another celebrity, and nobody really knows how good they are at their instrument. That’s strange, so whenever I get asked about whom my influences were growing up I honestly get stumped. I was a fan of certain bands; therefore I just liked their drummers. Thinking about it now, a lot of these players weren’t any better than I am now (laughs).”

Film and Television, Pop Culture

Breaking News: RIP John Phillip Law

Diabolik
Law With Marisa Mell in Danger: Diabolik

Wow, I am in total shock at just discovering that actor John Phillip Law passed away on Tuesday of this week (May 13th, 2008). I swear to god, this is the craziest coincidence, because just this morning I put the 1968 Mario Bava-directed film Danger: Diabolik, starring Law in an utterly fabulous role, back into the mail after watching it obsessively over the past couple of days. While Law was gorgeous and amazing in this film, he will always be nearest and dearest to my heart for his role as Pygar, the Blind Angel in Roger Vadim’s Barbarella, which is one of my favorite films of all time. I will certainly have to be checking out more of Law’s filmography to posthumously honor his great career and extreme hotness. He was 70 years old.

Pygar
Law as Pygar with Jane Fonda in Barbarella