Everyone’s A Critic.

So last night I was wandering around aimlessly in my web browser when I stumbled across a blog about a sci-fi series called “The Event.” After doing some reading, I quickly realized that I am way behind the curve when it comes to this series, because it has already come and gone and at least a year has passed since.

Where the hell was I when this series came out?

“The Event” was an NBC series in 2010 that featured some mildly known actors, including Jason Ritter, who is the son of John Ritter (and boy does he ever look the part!). I watched the pilot episode last night and then started watching the series while I was riding the exercise bike this morning.

The series is about a big government conspiracy about extraterrestrials that crashed in Alaska back in 1944. Outwardly they look human, but their DNA is just different enough (around 1%) from ours to make them alien. For example, they age much more slowly than we do. The government thought they rounded up all the aliens from the crash site back in ’44 and have since kept them in detention in a special base in Alaska, but as the series progresses we find that some of the aliens were able to integrate themselves into society.

“The Event” does a lot with flashbacks in the couple of episodes I’ve watched, but it doesn’t feel as disjointed to me as when that series “Heroes” was jumping all over the timeline and no one knew what the hell was going on. I am finding myself hooked into the series quickly, which I think must be surprising because the series was canceled after one season. And I don’t remember ANYONE talking about it, though it looks like it’d be something that NBC would promote the hell out of.

There were some rumors about a year ago that the ridiculously named SyFy network was going to show a mini-series to finish off the canceled show, but this project has never come to light. So it’s kind of weird watching a series on Netflix knowing that it’s not going to come to its natural conclusion, but I’m too engrossed in it right now to care.

And for what it’s worth, I refuse to watch anything on a network that has perverted the term “SciFi” into “SyFy”. I’d buy the DVD before I admitted to losing a few IQ points to watch a show on a poorly named network.

If you know how “The Event” progresses, don’t tell me. I’m enjoying it too much.

Earl and I are currently sitting on Amtrak’s Empire State service on our way home. We left Penn Station about 20 minutes ago and now we are at Croton-On-Hudson. I am using OmmWriter on the iPad to write this entry, as it has musical accompaniment to help block the ambient noise here in business class, including the young girl that has been saying “Chug A chug A Choo Choo” repeatedly since we left Penn Station. I hope her vocalisations lead to an “I think I can attitude” later in life.

Last night Earl and I made our way through the “Occupy Wall Street” protests on Times Square to see the popular musical “Wicked” at the Gershwin. The house was sold out; there were several tourist groups and the like around us in row W. Like movie theatres of modern times, the audience was populated by people that couldn’t stop talking or checking their mobile devices. A family of our four in front of us were more concerned with the scores of the Va. Tech game than what was going on on stage. The two young kids were flanked by why I consider to be the typical well-off Republican couple with the dad showing disinterest in his kids and mom very well manicured but a little harried because the nanny had the night off. They were both obviously there at the show because of the kids as the the young ones were very excited about the show and sang to eqch other before the show started. Both had surprisingly great singing voices and excellent pitch memory, because they were singing the score from the show in the proper key. The mom and dad did little to encourage their enthusiasm for music, I hope the nanny encourages them back at home.

The show was not as engaging as I thought it would be. So many people have exclaimed in squealing tones how much they love the production, but Earl and I just thought it was good. The performers were excellent in their performances but we didn’t feel enthralled. I couldn’t get beyond the fact that the actor playing Elsebah did really, really good at sounding like Idina Menzel. There was nothing in her performance that marked it as her own, kind of like when the new guy from Journey does a really good Steve Perry impersonation in “Seperate Ways”.

By the way, now we are at Croton-On-Hudson. The stop before this was Yonkers.

I did enjoy the way that the story of “Wicked” was woven around “The Wizard of Oz”. That was kind of clever, but aside from “Defying Gravity”, none of the songs really stuck with me 15 minutes after the performance. Perhaps I should listen to the soundtrack again. I guess I recommend the show for good family fare if you’re visiting New York. Just please leave your mobile device off and pay attention to the stage, quietly, during the performance.

So yesterday I received notice that season two American Idol contestant Kimberely Locke (she came in third, I believe) started following my tweets on Twitter. I must admit that I found this a little bit strange but then realized she must have started following me when I mentioned that I was working in the studio the night before. I mean, why else would Kimberely Locke start following a man who describes himself as a “technology geek with the heart of a country boy that loves his partner, likes guys and enjoys Macs, photography, travel and interesting facial hair.”?

I wasn’t as surprised by her this morning, however, when she sent me a Direct Message because the DM contained a mention that her new single “Strobe Light” (or is it “Strobelight”) was available on iTunes starting today. I took the bait and downloaded it and took a listen.

As a Top 40 radio program director (my actual title was “Director of Operations”) I used to listen and judge music for a living and whilst I’m not the best person in the world at this task, I do think that I have a pretty good ear. I always base my feelings on that first listen because there’s a good chance that a radio listener is going to be listening for the first time and if they don’t like what they hear they’re going to jump to another station.

At first I thought that iTunes had a bad copy of the record because the effect used on the first few bars of the song make it sound like it’s a warped 12-inch record. Okay. I guess we’re going for a retro song. I got past that weird thing and then into the track.

Kimberely’s voice soars along nicely in the track but honestly, it’s not that well written of a song. A few parts of the mix feel like she’s out of step with the rhythm track and the entire thing is not as DJ friendly as you would want a retro dance track to be. This is unfortunate.

My second impression of the song was that it was a rough copy, because there’s parts of the second verse where it just feels like they forgot to put some instrumentation in or something. Kimberely sings along just fine, but she outclasses the mix by a mile. She’s always been classy and frankly, I think she’s worthy of a better mix.

The hook is a little odd in that it focuses on a melody that moves in a downward motion instead of an upward motion. Yes, the contrariness of this will make it stick out, but when you’re singing lyrics about moving with the flow and soaring high and such, you don’t want the melody leading you down the basement stairs.

I enjoy Kimberely Locke very much and I wanted to love this record. It’s intentions are good. It’s a shame that the result is rather mediocre. If I were still spinning in the clubs, it’d be an early night record. If I were still on the radio, it’d be “lunar rotation”.

If you’d like to hear the track, a sample is available on YouTube. Click here!

In the interest of having family television viewing time on the couch, I have watched all four hours of “American Idol” that have been broadcast thus far this week.

These are four hours that I will never get back.

Now I am the world’s biggest armchair critic and lord knows that I definitely do not have the chops to sing up there on stage like the next Really Big Famous Person but I know good music when I hear it and I ain’t hearing it on this season of American Idol. The judges keep crowing on and on about how this season is the best season of talent thus far but I think they have to say that because they certainly don’t want the illusion of Idol slipping in any way and perhaps if they say it enough they’ll start to believe it.

There are a few things about this week’s performances that stuck out for me:

1. This Alex Lambert guy has the *exact* same hairstyle as Carol Brady. It’s not a mullet. People say it’s a mullet but I wore a mullet back when it was business-in-the-front-and-party-in-the-back time and that, my friends, is not a mullet. It’s Wessonality at it’s best.

2. The guy that butchered Kelly Clarkson’s song last night should be escorted out of the theatre immediately and given walking papers.

3. The girl with the harmonica has new teeth.

4. I really miss Paula’s “I’m not drunk or stoned, no really” shenanigans. She was entertaining. I love Ellen, but she looks terrified to be up there and she feels really out of her element.

5. Kara is no Paula either and if I was the halfway decent guy with the scruff and all that, I would be pissed if the judges tried to upstage me with their swoony antics. On the other hand, Kara’s fawning over Casey(?) is typical of record industry behavior so I shouldn’t be colored surprised.

6. The audio mix of the show is whacked out. Sometimes we can hear the vocals, sometimes we can hear the band but never all at the same time.

7. I don’t know if the acoustics are bad in the auditorium or what but barely anyone is singing on pitch. They flirt with the key they’re singing in but they dance around it quite a bit. If they were all sharp or all flat I could blame acoustics, but there’s not even consistency there (not even during a single performance) so I think that it’s just a lack of ability.

I know. I’m the world’s biggest critic and like thousands of other people I think I know it all. Earl enjoys the show so I sit and watch. The only thing I find mildly interesting is if Ryan Seacrest will look über or just mildly hot, so I guess I’ll concentrate on that.

It’s much easier than recapping the show…

… my Tweets as typed live during tonight’s “American Idol”.

I love the English language. My abilities in the language are not the model of perfect syntax but I strive to speak and write well by utilising the skills I learned as a youngster and continue to learn each day. I try to talk English more goodly when I talk.

I was recently reading an article about the rapid demise of the proper use of English among students. College professors are shocked at the appearance of words such as “AFAIK”, “LOL” and the like are showing up in term papers. Students are now using text-messaging shorthand in lieu of forming complete sentences. The nuances of the language are rapidly falling away. Why describe something with a colorful, elaborate prose when you can plunk it out in terse, utilitarian, plain ol’ black and white on a tiny keyboard?

With the advent of spelling correction and the like, people are paying less and less attention to their spelling and in many occasions are using a program where they aren’t autocorrected. This drives me insane. I admit that I have my share of spelling and grammar mistakes on my blog. Due to my history of writing advertising copy, I tend to write as a person would speak versus how a person would read and that informal style tends to carry over to my words here. I write casually but I try really hard not to be casual with my spelling, as there really isn’t a formal and casual way of spelling a word. So I’d like to take a moment and review some of the basics that really get on my nerves:

lose vs loose
“Emma wanted to lose some weight so her pants would be loose.”
“Matt played with the loose change in his pocket.”
“I won. You lose.”

Here is how I remember: when you lose something you want to only lose one ‘o’. When you’re loose, you’re probably having double the fun.

desert vs dessert
“J.P. and Earl went for a Jeep ride in the desert.” (note: we were not driving through an ice cream sundae.)
“I think I’ll have the apple pie for dessert.”

Here is how I remember: There is one desert in the U.S. and once in a while I wish I could have two desserts.

their, there and they’re
“They’re happy that their mobile home was still there after the tornado.”

‘They’re’ is a contraction of they are. “They’re excited about winning the lottery.”
‘Their’ is possessive. “It’s their kid that is screaming.”
‘There’ refers to a place. “Put the couch over there.”

I just remember that one, though I occasionally mix it up when I’m typing quickly.