Rockstar - Week 11 Performances

Not many comments tonight; not that there was much to comment on anyways; it was all good :)

It's the final performance show of the series; scheduled is one original (possibly a reprisal of their performances from last week, hopefully not)

Before we get to the night's proceedings, we have an important announcement. The winner of the Verizon Wireless vote for an encore is Ryan. (Just a note to the graphics people - it's hard to say that someone's a fan favourite if a lot of viewers can't vote for it!)

In addition to coming back to perform again, he gets a vehicle from everyone's favorite car company that sponsors the show, plus a phone from said phone company [44% owned by Vodafone]

And now we have a recap of the path to the final four.

tonight's plan - a cover and a reprise.
tomorrow - the bottom two perform and one is eliminated; in the second hour, all three perform and the winner is selected by 9 pm wednesday

adbreak - 8:10; from tomorrow turn your pop culture knowledge into $2.2 million dollars; back @ 8:13

First up - Toby - Karma Police - Not bad; I'm not familiar with the song, I think Gil's comments were right that he did seem a bit lost there (the lyrics seemed to be a little muddled to me)

reprise - Proof that he doesn't need to go crowd surfing to be great

Adbreak - 8:20 back @ 8:24

Lukas - Fix You - onya dave for remembering that it's cellphones that get flicked instead of bics ;)

reprise - the "a man and his guitar" version. you know what? Dave's right - this is all about sitting back and watching a great rock show.

Apparently Paula Abdul had nothing to do Sunday afternoon :)

Adbreak @ 8:31 @8:35

Dilana - Roxanne - Nice ironic effect of the Red light; it's just too bad that you have to keep dragging that crap up, otherwise I'd still like you.

Reprise - I admit it; I didn't pay attention. The performance sounded much calmer than last time though.

Adbreak @ 8:42 Back @ 8:47

Magni - Hush - Yeah; that's why you're here tonight.

Reprise; Ok, so he forgot the English name...c'est la vie :) Like Tommy, I really didn't remember much of this one; I'd still like to hear it in Icelandic

adbreak @ 8:55

I think voting will look like this -

1 - toby
2 - lukas
3 - magni
4 - dilana

though I think I could be wrong with the middle section.

back @ 8:58

Aww...TBA is gone :(

early results

dilana
toby
lukas
magni

hm...it's not what i had expected; though really all I did was put dilana on the bottom of the list while the votes put her at the top...

Of course, Right now is a varying time around the world ;)

9|11

As if it's not known, today was the 5th anniversary of 9|11 (note that there are a few news organizations that are using the pipe instead of the slash in their "primary" logo for commemoration, yet most graphics have the slash).

I can still remember where I was when I first had heard the news; I was up at college and at the time that the actual attacks had occured, I was on my way over to my 8AM class (it was in the main campus of the university, about a 10-15 minute bustrip from where my dorm was). During the class - a physics lab which involved using carts and video cameras hooked up to systems running Windows 2000 - we heard nothing. On my way to the next class, which involved another bus trip, I heard people talking about these what I thought were rumours that the World Trade Center had been destroyed. Not knowing exactly what was going on, I was nervous about whether or not these people would try to attack the city I was in, and the fact that I was on the third floor of a three-story building didn't make me too comfortable.

Classes that day were suspended at 12:00 (quite against the trend of the rest of the country), and I took a trip back to my dorm where I had the first opportunity to actually see this footage. Interestingly, instead of parking myself in front of a TV or just listening to a radio, I actually went out and did stuff - including making a trip to the supermarket (I still have the savings club card for that store even though it hasn't been used or even needed for almost four years now) to get the papers.

The rest of the day was spent watching TV (on one of my roommates' computers as mine had gone dead the day that I had arrived there), and I remember finding a bit of odd pleasure in seeing a grief counselor appear at about 1:00 AM.

My story aside, one of the themes for the day has been how these events have changed the country. They have, for sure. First, we've all learned that it's easier to take shoes off when going through an airport, unless you wish to be wanded by someone. Secondly, threat levels, instead of being addressed directly, are assigned a color. Third, news on TV is almost always constantly available (at least outside of commercials) at the bottom of your screen - even during the local newscasts.

Lastly - for a lot of people who are like me, their birthdays no longer are "their" day, but I'm to the point now that it's ok to be happy on this day. Despite the media's thinking, we aren't going to forget what happened on this day, but business now goes forward perfectly fine, so why shouldn't birthday celebrations?

Rockstar - Week 11 Reality Show

It's the final week, and the final Reality Episode. It appears that this is going to be a fun buffer-fest as the video played 17 seconds and is buffering for some time now. I'm guessing that MSN's servers might be a bit overloaded due to it being the 5th anniversary of 9|11 (I might have more on that in a bit).

First off, direct links to the show -

Sgement One
Segment Two
Segment Three
Segment Four

Segment one -

Well, in the parts that had moving video, we saw the rockers at dinner and discussing the fact that it's almost the end. Please notice the introduction of a second Aussie character for this week, even if it is in relation with the, ahem, gifting of a vehicle (i hope they told Toby about having to pay tax on the thing!).

Another interesting observation - the speedometer's km/h scale is so small, it's almost invisible.

And, in another amazing coincidence, we have some more self promotion for an upcoming album in January 2007

Some nice Job Shadowing person has placed the rockers' photos on the memento wall in the song selection room.

Segment two -

Let's see if this segment is a bit better on the streaming for this segment. And it was for the last three segments

Song selection is another original (or is it an encore of last week?), plus a choice of every single song done on the show, plus four songs that haven't been done yet. Despite the sheer number of songs, Dilana and Lukas end up fighting over one anyways; she wins but then chooses another song. Jeez! It's no wonder why you don't have any fans anymore.

The kicker? She's rearranging it like Chris did and the house band ain't happy!

Segment three -

The rockers pack and head out. What a cool shot of them standing at the end of the pool leaning on their guitars.

So, who's gonna win? Rumours are out there that Lukas has been selected already, but it's anyone's game at this point. Be sure to tune in whenever it is that the show airs (8AM, 8PM, 8:30PM, 9PM, 10:30PM, Late night) on whatever station it's on ;)

Covering the News from 9,000 Miles Away

At the beginning of the week, the news of the death of Steve Irwin shocked the world. The week would end in the same way with Peter Brock, another famous Aussie losing his life on Friday in the TargaWest, outside of Perth, hitting a tree after going through a hairpin turn in the second stage of the all-tarmac event.

While Irwin first made his name known here in the US with his Crocodile Hunter programs on the Discovery Channel and Animal Planet, which led to him becoming somewhat popular "back home". However, there were many people who did not like him as he seemed to be a mockery of the stereotypical Australian, with his very noticeable "broad" accent, and his trademark line "Crikey!" Others were critical of the way he treated the Alligators and other wild animals with seemingly reckless abandon for his own safety. I was watching an episode of "Crocodile Hunter Diaries" a couple of months ago, and one thing that he had said during the filming of him doing a demonstration at his Australia Zoo was that the reason he would treat the animals in the way that he did was that so they could keep their natural instincts.

Brocky, on the other hand, was a man who was only really well-known within Australia and New Zealand. The easiest way to prove this is by taking a look at major sports and news websites. Of course, things have changed throughout the day, so the situation overnight may have been different.

We start with ESPN. The major story right now is the matchup tomorrow between the #1 and #2 teams (by a vote of coaches, not necessarily by any objective means) in College Football. To find the story about Brock, you have to go to the Other Series section of the "NASCAR+" area of their site.

Next up is Fox Sports. They're not especially well-known for their sports news operation, but they do a respectable job of reporting the stories. The Brock story is buried under the all headlines portion of the Motorsports section (again, like ESPN, marked as NASCAR - as if to say there is nothing else).

In fact, of the non-Antipodean sports news sites I canvassed, the only one that had the story on the front page was Sports Illustrated. Honourable mention goes to MSNBC, who have the story available from their front page, but you have to drill through two levels of menus to find it.

However, there is one site that should be mentioned for their total ignorance of the story. Speed Channel, a channel dedicated to motor racing, doesn't have the story listed at all on their news page. You'd think that a site who has a story about a karting event in Rock Island, IL (written by "News Wire") would at least mention Brock - especially when you add in the fact that in the past few years they've shown the V8 Supercar series (most rounds except Adelaide, Sandown and Bathurst I believe, though I seem to remember seeing some footage of the Clipsal 500 a few years back). I would predict that there might be a mention of it on Sunday during their news program or during the Wind Tunnel talkback program.

Obviously, the take of the news sites in Oz is one of full coverage. Just about every major newspaper has the story on the front page of the Saturday editions. Also, the Sydney Morning Herald sent out a "Breaking News" email about it (interestingly enough, it was The Age that sent out the "Flash Update" about Irwin). Also, the news.com.au network has full coverage, including video from Sky News. Bizarrely, Network Ten's motorsport page RPM doesn't have the story on that page, but both Nine and Seven have it as the main feature on their respective co-branded sites.

One final note about the media coverage of the Irwin death, all three commercial networks had footage air here in the States. Seven's footage mainly aired on NBC. A report from Nine was featured on CBS - it was in widescreen, and instead of cropping the picture to make it look decent or showing it with letterboxing, CBS decided to air it in the "stretched" mode. The only work from Ten that I saw was on CNN, who spoke to their News Director in Brisbane in the first hours of the story.

Update: During the coverage of Qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix, Bob Varsha did mention what had happened. Bob is one of the most knowledgeable racing commentators in this country; kudos to him (now, if we could send the whole crew to more races other than just Indy). Also, the BBC's story has appeared in its RSS feed, which is included in Firefox by default.

Safe Driving Tip

If you want to be safe driving, it might not be advisible to have all of this on your dashboard. Heck, I don't even like leaving my wallet on the dash; it's quite distracting to look at even though I'm not the driver.

Rockstar - Week 10 Results

As always, I have spoilers here ;)

Good morning again :)

Tonight we find the final five all seated at the side; Storm forms a heart with her hands.

Votes were almost too close to call.

Heh heh heh Tommy can bleep himself and not only did he do the show last night, he did an Aerosmith/Mötley Crüe show! ;)

We finally make the pregnancy official, thanks to Dave

Before the music, we recap last night.......Why did the writers use some of the songs as puns? :) And was Tommy's shirt was a Marlboro shirt?

Apparently nothing happened at the house since Sunday and the cameras didn't get to go to Pulse again this week.

It's all Love - with Magni; not a bad track, and kudos for someone having the forethought to send a stagehand to play catcher :)

And we see the rockers coming into Television City in a bunch of H***a E*****t S*s, surrounded by throngs of people there for the show, including one person who had their hands in the shape of a heart. I guess I missed that memo ;) Back in the studio and Brooke announces that the encore performer gets the car they came in! Whoa! Free pub baby!

Of those people, how many do you think were there for this show, and how many were there for The Price is Right?

3 mentions of the name of the car so far before the break, then we see the adboard for it, then we see the AD for it

Adbreak @ 7:13 Another NFL commercial note - we have a new "Team Mom" for Campbell's Chunky Brand, to fit in with the new Super Bowl Champions (btw, it used to be called the "World Championship" from 1967 until 1970, then it was just called the Super Bowl) Back @ 7:17 I'll say encore will go to storm ... probably not toby as he had it last week

The music will continue as they go on a 28 city tour with the house band; and ANOTHER tour update! Panic Channel will be along as well. What next? INXS? :)

And the encore announcement. Colour me wrong; it is toby who wins the H***a-mobile (oh i'm sure the sponsor representatives are happy with jason on that :p)

Brooke needs to give him the key to the vehicle and reminds us that it is a car, and that we can see it on the internet.

And now the bottom 3. Will they all end up standing? I think so.

A wild vote with record breaking numbers.

Standing -
Toby
Storm
Magni
Lukas
Dilana

See, I was right - they all stood ;)

But first we need to verify the tallies once more build the suspense so we need an adbreak :p

Adbreak @ 7:23 Back @ 7:27

Now time for the bottom 3.... predicted Storm Magni Dilana

First up - Storm - Wish You Were Here (Floyd) - She has the sad face on i think. I'm not familiar with the song; it was ok; I think that hit Jason

SEcondly - Dilana - And now she has crutches with dead (?) flowers - I want you to Want me - Nah. I was half expecting something *close* to the original, but..nah.

Adbreak @ 7:35 Back @ 7:39:54

Next wednesday we see a winner chosen

But first we have to kick someone out and we have only 2 candidates - Magni sits down.

OK, false start there...Toby? Don't you move buddy; you're moving on. Thus, making our third up Lukas. Whoa. Encore of Headspin. What was Tlee reacting to? Ah well, great performance anyways. :)

Hmmmmm...who will go? I think Dilana's performance was the weakest of the night; Lukas is most definitely safe. It would be a real shock if they tossed him. I think Storm probably had the strongest performance. Again, it's a toss-up; I'll say it'll be Storm, but I'll not be surprised if Dilana goes.

Adbreak @ 7:45 Back @ 7:48

Comments from the band - gil - Storm: Likes the changing of performance last night, but this is her, what? 4th time now; Dilana - the one to watch, BUT 2 weeks in a row; Lukas - First time in bottom 3; sit yo' ass down! ;) (No it wasn't said that way, but I can say it that way :))

Tommy - not gonna do it, Jason will do the booting; both incredible fantastic performers, and are respected as comrades in rock, and someone has to go home, this week it's you, Storm.

Of course, this means that on Monday we'll have the opportunity to see Dilana beat herself up again...or will she change her 'tude?

To close, Brooke invites the final four up on stage, then reminds us of the special Verizon features - Vote to bring someone back next week at 9/8 central, and that you can receive Verizon Ringtones Deluxe from the fella holding one of those neato chocolate phones...MP3 player, camera, GPS, and phone

Adbreak @ 7:54 back @ 7:57, but we have adboards first

One of the 27 cities is the metropolis of TBA w00t! And we see the naked dive into pool :)

Credits - I think you'll be winning Lukas; either you or Toby.

Rockstar - Week 10 Redux

I'm listening back to the performances from Sunday afternoon and broadcast last night.

The songs I'd never heard of - Behind Blue Eyes (though I may have heard it at one time or another in the past) and Suffragette City (I thought they were saying Suffer Jet City before the credit came up)

First off - I'm over Dilana; the dredging up the whole bottom 3/not doing well/dummy spit has lost me. In her original there's a line that says she wants to go to her detractors and say "thank you". I wonder if the real lyric is "f--- you"? I think it'd make more sense that way.

Magni - I can't think of anything to add. :)

The music in the outcue seems quieter than the incue from commercial.

Storm - I'm not a fan of these monosyllabic nonsense words like doo doo doo, and following it with a yeah doesn't help. Makes it too cliché and uninspiring. also, the what the what the what the what the...yeesh. I was probably too distracted watching the show to notice or i'm just too influencable. However, I probably would like it better if we didn't have such stern broadcasting regulations. The uncensored version of the song is available on her Myspace; it's better than the live version - though the repetition part is still there - What the f... is what the f... is (etc.).

I'll have more later on this when I can listen without interruption :)

It's later :)

Lukas - On the second listen, I like the whole show; it's probably just me but I just have a hard time looking at him, the smile he had (at right) during the Bon Jovi made me chuckle. If you wish to hear the original version of this, you can do it on MySpace

Toby - I didn't note this, but the audience participation at first was very anemic, but he picked up their slack...About the only negative thing I'd say is that he should have mentioned the title of his original, for the benefit of the live studio audience. (You notice how they never mention that shows are filmed (or taped) in front of a live studio audience anymore?)

Rockstar - Week 10 Performances

Pre-show thoughts - I wonder if they'll show the last names of Magni and Dilana with their songs. A new show on CBS is a near-clone of the NBC show Treasure Hunters (major sponsor Genworth Financial, a subsidiary of GE like NBC). BB - Julie, why are you reading your card? Don't you know what to say?

Ryan's original is the #1 download (for 99c) on MSN.

Recap of the reality show: Just as a question, who in the world puts computing terms into a rock song?

First - Dilana with a ripped calf - Behind Blue Eyes - Wow; excellent performance, and it's amazing that she didn't fall off of the stool

Intermission - QUIT TALKING ABOUT IT DAMN IT!

Supersoul - Not a bad song. It's listenable. Thank you for not singing your name this week. Props to perform with the injury, especially jumping around.

Adbreak @ 8.12 back @ 8.14

Before we go on, let's remind folks that the NYE show is sold out, but there's one on 1/1/07. And the House Band will open, featuring the other rockers.

Second - Magni - Back in the USSR - Pretty good, but the part where he was next to the guitarist seemed a bit uncomfortable.

When the Time Comes (freshly translated to English) - ok, can we put the micstand down sometime soon? I'm liking this better than Dilana's; also, the energy is great, probably best all year. Great comeback to Tommy, but I think they have a point that there was a "sameness" to the two performances.

Adbreak @ 8.21 (darn it, ESPN2 is showing the DCI Drum Corps competition at the same time :( ) Back @ 8.25

Storm - Dave comes up to join in - Suffragette City - What a contrast to the pool scene...it seems to me that dave is working the crowd a bit more than she is. Whoa, that was different. That trenchcoat is coming off ! :) :)

(What the f--- [what] is) Ladylike - Whoa. That wasn't different, I think that was amazing. With work like that, I kinda hope she doesn't go through to win.

Adbreak @ 8.32 back @ 8.36

Lukas - Livin' on a Prayer, Acoustic - Hmm...he took a risk with this one, I think it might have paid off, but I just don't know....

Headspin - Much better perfromance in this half, it's a great song. yeah dave, it's cellphones now, this generation doesn't understand the meaning of "flick your bic" :)

Adbreak @ 8.43 back @ 8.47 - this year's ads for nfl ticket are ok, but I still like the ads where the quarterbacks show up and tell the potential subscriber about sunday ticket

Toby - ARGH! it's ozzie, not ah-see! - Mr Brightside - Is it me or is Storm more omnipresent this week than even brooke? Funky cut there, but it's ok for time constraints. Great performance.

Throw it Away - Note for Tommy, you'll never make it as a pickpocket. Yeah, I'm liking that also

Hmm...bottom 3...this is purely on support...Storm Dilana Magni...The only one I'll be surprised if he's there at the end of voting is Lukas

adbreak 8.55 back @ 8.58 bugger i think the servers are down now...and they are :(

Current running order -
1st - toby
2nd - lukas
3rd - magni
4th - storm
5th - dilana

a note on the server, if I refresh the popup, it works fine :)

And, no. They didn't show last names.

Rockstar - Week 10 Reality Show

Oh for crying out loud Dilana, stop beating yourself up. Everyone has a bad day sometimes. You've done 11 stellar performances over the first 9-½ weeks of the show.

Line of the show - Storm, after jumping into the pool naked: "I'm so dirty!" :)

Oi toby, you hear of paper, mate? You really don't have to write on your hand, but if it suits ya...evs

Oh jeez, not only are they showing the brand name, now they've got people saying "H***a R*******e" and "H****s"

Maniac Mag-Lite? Interesting name

Lukas says that the track is right up his alley, but only had one verse done plus the chorus. Gil says that it's his competition to lose

How could Dilana have not known that songwriting wouldn't be part of it? And the fact that the song is about what had happened over the last 2 days with the voting says that she is still NOT over what had happened.

Interestingly, not only are the rockers doing the two songs, it's going to be a set and they will control the part between songs. It should be interesting

Storm's original - "What the F--- is Ladylike?"

Dilana and Behind Blue Eyes - Um, The Who as country? Again, if you keep harping on about the mistakes, you're not gonna win the fans back. I'm not gonna say anything else about the stuff you did. It's time to move on

Prior to the credits in segment 4, clips of the originals are heard.

Some photos

I've shown photos taken with the new camera, but I haven't really shown off photos taken with my trusty Minolta Dimage Z1. Well, with over 11,500 photos over 2+ years to choose from, I decided to show off some from the last week ;)

First off is this car, apparently either a 57 or 58 Chevy, which was parked alongside the road, apparently after being in a parade...

Then we have the results of having placed a sign with a direct Southern exposure without having the proper reflective material -
Last, but certainly not least, was this fella, standing at the side of the road. He didn't seem to come from anywhere, nor did he seem to know where he was going. And no, I really don't know why he's got a camel with him ;)

Other interesting things -

"Deal or No Deal" is coming to the Telemundo Network, partly owned by NBC. Of course, since it's in Spanish, they had to "translate" the title, so it's called "Vas o no Vas" or will you or won't you go, with the you in this context being informal.

ESPN on ABC started this weekend, and it's just that - ESPN on ABC. The graphics all say ESPN. The only way you know it's ABC is that they have a solid logo at the bottom right of the screen.

Dollar stores aren't always what they're cracked up to be. Despite claiming to have "1,000s of Household items for $1.00", none of the items purchased actually were a dollar. Of course, that's one dollar, before tax.