American Idol: Final 4

Don't know who gets eliminated, but next week's theme is Rock n Roll Hall of Fame Top 500 Songs.

So - David Cook can finally sing Nirvana, Bruce, or Pearl Jam. Cool. I hope he goes for Jeremy.

Just watched the group sing, that was awful. Awful. so sad. They can't dance. should not dance.

American Idol: boring; Windfall profits: bad idea

Reviews start here.


Let me explain something:



If you invest $100, and you earn $10. you have earned 10% return on your investment,'



If you invest $100 000 and you earn $10,000, you have earned 10% percent on your investment,



If you invest $100 billion, and you earn $1o billion, that is a 10% of your investment.



So when congress talks about a windfall tax on oil companies, remember this: They invested $100B to make $10B. That is not windfall profit. That is conservative investment



Check out the earnings profits of pharmaceuticals and banks. They earn on average %20 percent on their investments.



Earning $10B is not windfall. It is a conservative return on investment. If Congress decides to tax the oil companies on so-called windfall profits, they will just stop drilling.

Stop being dependent on foreign oil:


Gladly - Let them drill off of Florida, California. and North Alaska.

Meanwhile, enjoy your SUVs!

Division II NCAA Softball Story that will make you cry: Central Washington vs Western Oregon

For once ESPN covered a story I didn't find in the blogs first. Really, this was the closing 5 seconds on Sportscenter and I found the story on espn.com, and I teared up when I heard it and when I read it.

Okay, small tears, but still. Perhaps because I have torn my ACL twice playing soccer. I have known moments as a D-III soccer/lacrosse player.

So quickly the story: 3 for 34 senior comes to bat, hits potential game winning three-run home run, and blows knee out rounding first (she missed it and doubled back). Rules say she can't be touched (by her teammates or trainers) or she's out, so she has to be subbed for a two-run single. Opposing team, knowing that they could lose, decide to carry her around the bases so she gets her senior moment. Tears. Seriously click on it, unless you hate women sports. And I will delete all your hater comments out there about women softball players, so fair warning. (gosh, I am defensive about these internet haters, aren't I?)

Come on - That's an awesome story.

Tonight's American Idol: Neil Diamond

Here are the songs:

Brooke White -- "I Am ... I Said" and "I'm a Believer"
Jason Castro -- "Forever in Blue Jeans" and "September Morn"
David Archuleta -- "Sweet Caroline" and "America"
Syesha Mercado -- "Thank the Lord for the Night Time" and "Hello Again"
David Cook -- "I'm Alive" and "All I Really Need Is You"

I really like Diamond. Everytime I hear Sweet Caroline, I wanna go Oh Oh oh.....just like we sang in the bar at Haverford College.

What's the song that goes "If you know what I mean..." That's what I wanted Cook to sing. His voice is very similar to Neil. Hope he nails it.

At least Syesha isn't singing "You don't bring me Flowers" they are probably saving that for the group sing.

I can't understand you Archuleta lovers......uggh. Coming to America...Today! uggh. moan mumble today, we're humming to america....moan mumble huh, smile. Get in first! uggh.

Summer Music Festivals: Coachella

It's starting, all the cool bands are hitting the summer festival circuit. So here is a link to the top songs for Coachella.

Look What I Just Bought: Dell XPS M1530 Laptop

I am personally doing my best to contribute to to stimulus of the economy. So I bought a new laptop from Dell - The Outlet. Same computer would have cost $500 more...Okay, I'm waiting for the haters about Dell, or PC....All my co-workers have gone Mac.

1	MU585	Base,Notebook,Core Merom,T75002.2,M1530
1	23EKR	Module,Ship Material,Notebook,SML,NO-CASE
1	CM279	Module,Bezel,Liquid Crystal Display,W/CMRA,Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamp,M1530
1	FW442	Module,Mouse,Bluetooth,5BTN Inspiron
1	HJ805	Module,Dual In-line Memory Module,3GB,667,1X2+1X1
1	HT992	Module,Dvd+/-rw,8X,1530,Teac Inspiron
1	NN655	Module,Hard Drive,250GB,5.4K W125,Inspiron
1	NX186	Module,Software,DSPRT3.4 Gteck0,Dimension,Inspiron
1	PN175	Module,Software,Works,8.5 English
1	PU575	Module,Remote Control Notebook,Mobile 2008
1	RN536	Module,Card,Network,Bluetooth 355,Thurman And Uma,Dell Americas Organization
1	RN893	Module,Battery,Primary,56WHR 6C,SIMPLO
1	RY114	Module,Remote Control,RC197 Windows Vista Os, DAO
1	UN078	Module,Software,Windows Vista Os,Hypertext Markup Language GUIDE,World Wide
1	XR147	Module,Assembly,Base (assemblyOr Group),256M,M1530

Last Post of the Night: Jesus Christ Superstar Carly is voted off! (crap)

Well, I had a premonition. Melinda Doolittle and Chris Daughtry were voted off in 4th I think. I thought Carly would make it to that. Wow. Scary tattoo, scary husband, scary fanbase. She rocked it though, and she and Sayesha were better than safers Jason and Brooke. I guess it is about fanbase, right? I literally gave up last year when Melinda was gone, because I didn't give hoot about whoever won and came in second or third. I will watch now, thought, cuz I am for the Cook.




And the awesome Carly performance:

Don't Cry For me Argentina; Betty Buckley Memory

My favorites. I'm glad no one tackled this song:



And the classic (remember she was in 8 is Enough?)Betty Buckley (from 2000):



Okay, found an actual broadway version:

recap from TWOP: "ALW is like, "A man! With dreadlocks! Singing my shitty song!" Then he explains the song to Jason using the word "glamourpuss," okay, and Jason laughs just between us that he didn't know it was a cat singing it. Which, why would you know that? Why would you just guess, from looking at the song, that it was about an old lady cat on a spaceship? I ask ya."

My favorite sites about American Idol

In no particular order,

First I go to What's Alan Watching? and after that his link on the right Check the Fien Print. That links to his column on Zap2It. However, it looks like he is on vacation this week.

Then, I await the Television Without Pity recap. This week's recap was extra hilarious. I laughed out loud at work. You know, LOL. ROTFL. yada yada yada.

Then, yes there is more, I check out the LA Times recap. It's always by a blogger who is at the show, and it is usually quite smart. After the elimination, it's even a smarter recap about what people did during the commercials and setup. Apparently, the week after Brooke hit the bottom 3 for the first time, she lost it and had to be consoled by everyone during commercials to get it back together. That is why when she is gone, it will be like watching a train wreck live.

And....then. yes, there is more. I check FoxNews recap, it's brief and easy to click on at work (cough).

And one more. EW has got a pretty classy TV Watch section that recaps the good shows. So, I haven't actually read it today, but the recap of Andrew Lloyd Webber episode.

Wow, that's a lot. I try to be original in my posts. It is not that hard, since most recaps have very different favorites. Mine? Carly, just for girl power. But I think David Cook might pull the upset.

do I vote? na. I leave it to the tweenies and the grannies. How else do you think Taylor Hicks won?

American Idol: Final 6

Sayesha: Wow, I really liked it. I agree with the judges, this is her thing, not Whitney or Mariah. This was fun to watch and the song was good. I read that she was singing something from the Skating show, and I just assumed it was a ballad. Well done.

Jason: Memory. Ouch. I like what what Paula said - it is a song meant for a female balladeer. And Jason is not that. When you have seen the show - you think Betty Buckley hitting the final chorus. This was not that. bottom 3.

Brooke: Double ouch. I think first it was a mistake to pick a song written for the movie, to get Madonna an Oscar nom. Not an original Broadway song. "Another Suitcase in Another Hall" would have been far better. Even trying Don't Cry For Me - although no one picked it, I guess on advice or being scared. God, I will cringe when she gets voted off - she will lose it. She has no confidence and has been losing it each week. sad, because she is talented.

The Chosen One: Don't recognize it, don't care. whatever. forgettable.

Carly: I'm writing this with DVR on hold. So she picked Jesus Christ Superstar. That is challenging. I was hoping someone would pick I Don't Know How to Love You, but maybe got scared off because of the lyrics. Let's see....un-pause.....wow, glad ALW convinced her to sing it...this is a running blog at this moment....Yay, no more Phantom.....receiver at 30.....OMG THIS IS SO FUCKIN AWESOME.....she is having so much fun....she didn't let the background singers carry her.....OMG that was her best yet. And I don't even know what the judges say.....I'm just glad to see her smile. You see, if I could sing, I would sing this song. In fact, I do sing this song but only in my shower. I've been singing ALW all day in anticipation.

I joked at work that Archeleta would do Jesus Christ because, you know, he is religious. I am so happy now and Cook hasn't even sung.

David Cook: no live blogging, that wore me out. Phantom is not a favorite. And he picked the big one.......Very good. Good rocker ending. Probably annoyed Simon. He really has a good voice. He is my favorite and this proved he can do anything (echoing Randy). Good job.

Bottom 3: Brook, Jason, ????, maybe Carly. Out: Brook. sigh. she just ran out of votes. I can't wait for the breakdown. I can imagine her not being able to sing........for the first time (that someone didn't sing off?)

Miley Cyrus does Madonna - And Madonna Approves

I usually am not in tune with the Tweenie world, but I do love Madonna. And here is a wsj article talking about the Miley Cyrus Youtube video which is basically a bunch of kids dancing. It is pretty cool. And also in the article is Madonna's Youtube response - which says keep posting. There is no such thing as bad publicity, right?

Also, a link to the site that links a few new Madonna songs. I haven't listened. But I am sure they are good. I love Madonna.

Lost in the Semis

I'll post tomorrow. We didn't make it to the finals, only the semis, which was best for us old girls.

Heading to San Antonio

Have a soccer tourney this weekend. Division 5, so hopefully won't be too painful since we only have 2-3 subs. We were going to roadtrip tonight, but change of plans and my friends want to leave first thing in the morning, 0630 (ackk!).

Wish I had more notice, this is kind of my weekend to spend time with my friends the last year who supported me, but now instead I'm going to stay at their house tonight so we can hit the road in the am first thing. If I had mentally planned ahead, I would have driven to Austin to see family tonight then San Antonio in the morning, but the changes were too short of notice. Oh well. I just got my Honda all fixed up, new battery and oil change, it would have been great to leave the office at noon for a mini-road trip.

Anyway, I may post later tonight and maybe from Hotel tomorrow if they have free wifi. But if not, here is your lolcats of the day.


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Flobots: Handlebars

Okay, trust me I have a taste for music. I knew 50 Cent was In Da Club before you knew what a bottle of bub is, and I knew that Outcast Hey Ya was a hit before you knew what shake it like a poloroid picture is. Seriously, I can call them.

I CAN GUIDE A MISSILE BY SATELLITE! BY SATELLITE!

So this summer's hit sure to flood you airwaves is an Eminem soundalike, Flobots singing "Handlebars."

Catchiest hook and will be the summer hit.....Of course I can modify this if I am wrong!

Will try a couple of links here...
video:



You can find mp3 here:

Flobots on the Handlebars at The Pop View

Supreme Court: Executions by Lethal Injections are Legal

They will be back in 30 days. Texas has already put them back on the schedule, pending appeal.

"Executions have been on hold since September, when the court agreed to hear the Kentucky case. The justices stepped in to halt six executions, and many others were put off because of the high court's review."

Eye for an eye. let's bring it on, again. Now that the review has been accepted (lethal injection is NOT cruel and unusual) see all states putting inmates back on the schedule.

A Billboard in Houston: When Will Your Luck Run out?

Seriously I drive by this everyday going to work. When I saw it I literally did a double take but had to keep my eyes on the road. I didn't get the message. It took me a week to drive by and notice it enough to record the message into my cellphone so I could write it down when I got to work (Houston driving is crazy - eyes on road at all times).

Drive Responsibly. www. TrafficCrime.net. Apparently, it is a mother's against drunk driving with CBS message (note, CBS owns the billboard).

A follow note indicated that it is also against violent driving, which makes sense. I mean, you read this, you think, "Well, everyone in Texas has guns, I might not want to cut that next person off."

Just a weird billboard. I think the Russian roulette has a symbol too, drive drunk, drive wrecklessly, it might be your last time. Cuz we Texans will kill yooooOooooo!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh, Kristi Lee got voted off. yay.

Wednesday Night American Idol. HIMYM viral video

Sepinwall said it best about Maria Carey night on AI. "There are few assignments in my professional life I've ever dreaded more than sitting through an entire hour of Mariah Carey covers."

How can they have a whole night of Carey, when they are constantly saying "don't do Mariah. Don't do Whitney" Oh, look it's Mariah night! And strangely enough, the guys were much better. Probably because they knew they couldn't be Mariah so they were just themselves.

I think David Cook could be the next Daugherty: The best selling AI of all time.

Change to HIMYM post, again from Sepinwall. I guess if you just read him, you wouldn't have to read my posts? I try to write some original stuff. Another viral video from Robin Sparkles of slapbet, and then a reference on how he get a friend hooked on hulu. It was identical to a party I was at on a Saturday afternoon - it started with showing an Office episode, then we proceeded to watch all the classic SNL Digital videos (Lazy Sunday, Natalie Portman, D*** in a Box).

Okay, did you get your taxes in? I got my usual extension, since I figure an accountant will be more focused on me on May 1 than April 1. And with my move and all, I had no intention of doing it early.

I've been doing a lot of research (ie surfing at work) on various deductions, so I think I have a good idea what I can do this year and get even better for next year.

AI: Who should go, Sayesha, who will go, sadly, Carly. i know many hate her, but she's got a great voice.





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Friday Night

Watching The Departed. luvs. Reading thebiglead (link to the right). Gonna catch up on Friday Night Lights on www.hulu.com this weekend. And for your cat luvers out there...



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The Office review

wow was this just hitting the right uncomfortable feel to it?


here ya go

Great TV Night: Idol Elimination

Poor Michael Johns. Seriously, he was/is so much better than Syesha and KFC. I guess it is all about the fan base. I thought Sayesha was out, their is a tivo theory out there that for the last four weeks, the least reviewed by fast-forwarding through performance were the accurate ones voted off. This week it was Sayesha. Like Cheikie, i will not learn how to spell her name since she will be gone next.

So, too bad. we have to get through some more yelling.

Oh yeah, Sepinwall's comments.

I swear when Brooke gets eliminated, she will not be able to control herself. it may be the first elimination that she won't be able to sing. we shall see....

Tonight: New 30 Rock and The Office

Sepinwall has a post on tonight's 30 Rock. I really love that show - I've been watching the episodes on hulu. You can really catch all the jokes if you watch on your laptop with headphones in. I tend to wander when it is just on the TV, and I watch it twice and read the reviews before the second time so I don't miss the jokes.

Here is what could've been the season finale if the writer's strike didn't end:



I'll post some of my other favorite moments later. Too many favorites for the Office but I will find some.

One Last American Idol Comment on David Cook

I am sure this song is someone's favorite (innocent). Our Lady Peace has a few hits. But this one did not help him, his low was too low and the high was drowned out by the backup singers.

Think what this could have been - this was the FIRST TIME he could sing ANYTHING that wasn't theme related or decade related. He could have picked audioslave, Pearl Jam, anything. Remember when Daugherty did Hemorrhage? That was a first. Do you think Pearl Jam allows their songs, or does no one want to try? Can you imagine a 90s/grunge theme? Black Hole Sun (technically he already covered Chris Cornell, but...)?

Anyway, bad song choice by Cook and he is in the bottom three for Dial Idol. He has a good voice, just not that song. bad bad bad I am disappointed. I really would love to see him win. Bruce? Has anyone covered Bruce? Can you imagine someone singing Pearl Jam Alive, or Black? How about Velvet Revolver I Fall to Pieces?

And everything Simon said about the Chosen One is true. Great song, boring delivery. But still number 1 on Dialidol.

We won our soccer game, I had no goals but 3 assists. Yay us. we are getting new uniforms! Adidas Torque.

American Idol: Songs that inspire (whatevs)

Zap2it review. how many puns can you find about (not) inpsire?

Will have the review after, but according to spoilers some really bad song choices. We shall see if they deliver.

I liked Jason's Over the Rainbow (israel kamakawiwoʻole version). Never really heard it but on commercials I think. here is a decent youtube version.



I fast forwarded through Sayesha and Kristy Lee. So not comment. Michael Johns did pretty much sound like Aerosmith, so i get the judges point to find his own voice.

Never heard of this one, sung by David Cook



And my favorite Live 8 moment, Robbie Williams "Angels", sung by the Chosen One. I get chills during this song.

Monday. Sony DE475 Sony Receiver

Well I did Craigslist this weekend. It's dangerous to shop online when you know you want something but don't want to pay full price. I need a receiver for the master bedroom which I had pre-wired for surround sound, I just don't have a receiver.

So Friday night I'm getting ready to go out (I do occasionally leave the house for purposes other than work), and I put the TV on XM (I have Direct TV, remember?)

I love my 2o year old Mitsubishi 20" TV. I am not exaggerating, I bought it in 1989 at college in main line Philly, at that outlet mall in something or other (something Corner?). It's a little small for the big master but it works. Since I have DirectTV (did I mention that? I swear I don't work for them) everything comes in digital including sound, I don't care about digital TV until I buy HD for the master. Actually I'll just move the Dell TV 42" HDTV (yes they made them, and I bought, still great pic read the reviews, the technology is actually Samsung) upstairs and buy a Sony 46 or 50 for the LR. I am also a Sony whore. Did I mention I am brand loyal?

So point is, I have wired upstairs with L/R front and center, just not surround yet. Speakers are there I just need to pull the wires from the wall to connect the rest.

So for you techno folks out there, Is a 10 year old receiver, with DTS/DD/etc good enough, or is technology so much better I should get a better receiver? It was only $75. And 5.1. We are a ways off when 6.1 or 7.2 is the standard.

Did I make a bad purchase. For some of you out there that's just beer money for the weekend. In fact I went out Friday night and our bill was $120 including tip.

So I figure, what the hey enjoy for a year better sound before I upgrade. What say you? BTW, the only thing I love/hate about directTV is the blue light. See in on top of TV? It is a good nightlight if you need one, but is quite bright when you don't want one.

Deadliest Catch

"Of all the reality shows, “Deadliest Catch” is by far the realest; people have actually died on it."

I haven't watched but have a co-worker who raves. So here it the NT article:

Commercial Fishermen, Battling the Elements Between Commercials

By CHARLES McGRATH

UNALASKA, Alaska

DUTCH HARBOR, a fishing port in this town on a pair of islands in the middle of the Aleutians, may be the bleakest, wildest frontier left in America. There used to be a bowling alley, but it closed. So, just recently, did the worst and most dangerous of the town’s three bars. Now most of the port’s social life, and a fair amount of its business activity, takes place in the two others. One of them, the Unisea, has a sign outside that says, “If you fight on these premises, you will be 86’d for an indefinite period of time.” Inside there is a sign proclaiming “Where Fish and Drink Become One,” whatever that means.

These are not bars for amateurs or casual drinkers. Getting hammered is the whole point. When the fishermen are in town, they toss around $50s like confetti in their eagerness to be served, and at the tail end of an evening one or two might drop to their backs on the floor and do a dying-cockroach imitation, waving their feelers in the air. Others stand in the middle of the room, glassy eyed, swaying slightly, itching for someone to bump into them.

Some of these guys are also TV stars of a sort and appear on “Deadliest Catch,” a reality series that begins its fourth season on the Discovery Channel on April 15. The show is watched by some three million viewers a week, making it one of the top-rated programs on basic cable, and it’s about work, of all things — the boring, repetitive and sometimes brutal job of crab fishing in the Bering Sea. A typical episode includes monstrous waves that slosh right up on the inside of your television screen, along with scenes of slicker-clad deckhands nearly faint with exhaustion and of anxious, bleary-eyed captains cursing and chain-smoking up in the wheelhouse.

Alaskan crab is caught in baited pots that are actually the size of small apartments and weigh about 800 pounds. These are launched over the side of the boat, allowed to soak for a while and then hauled up by a crane. Until they’re wrestled down, they’re lethal, free-swinging weights. When the crab (that’s a plural as well as a singular in fishermanese) are running, the crew members work day and night, sometimes 40 hours at a stretch. They haul pots in 30-foot waves and 60-knot winds, with seas cresting over the bow or the side. In the opilio, or snow crab, season, which usually begins in January, they routinely begin the day by chopping ice off the boat for a couple of hours. Fingers are smashed, ribs get broken, men sometimes go overboard.

Of all the reality shows, “Deadliest Catch” is by far the realest; people have actually died on it. In the first season one of the featured boats, the Big Valley — top-heavy with stacked pots — wallowed and then sank, drowning all but one of its crew.

A small number of boats are featured on “Deadliest Catch” every season and turn up weekly, like characters in an episodic novel. Each of them is rigged with two fixed cameras covering the deck and a smaller “captain’s cam” in the wheelhouse, focused on the skipper. Two Discovery Channel cameramen are embedded with each crew, stalking them day and night with hand-held cameras.

All this exposure has made unlikely heroes of some of the fishermen, especially a few of the captains: Sig Hansen of the Northwestern, who has the brooding, blond appeal of an aging Norwegian rock singer; Johnathan Hillstrand of the Time Bandit, who cultivates a sort of biker look: mullet, backward baseball cap, leather USA jacket and ostrich-skin cowboy boots; and the Cornelia Marie’s skipper, Phil Harris, gravelly voiced, tattooed and irascible.

They’re recognized on the street in Las Vegas, where a lot of fishermen like to vacation; they get sacks of fan mail, including marriage proposals, and make a nice bit of change on the side selling souvenirs, including thong underwear, on their boats’ Web sites. Last fall Brandee Lecki and Roseann Sullivan, two devoted fans of “Deadliest Catch,” traveled all the way from Swartz Creek, Mich., to Dutch Harbor, just to watch the fleet sail out for the beginning of the king crab season.

Dutch Harbor is hardly a tourist destination. The airport’s runway is so short that when a plane arrives or departs, the end is sometimes blocked with a pickup, to keep the plane from crashing into traffic headed for the docks. There are three or four trees in Unalaska, which is mostly cliff, and a number of blockhouses and Quonset huts left over from World War II, when Dutch Harbor was bombed by the Japanese. The landscape is beautiful, like the high Scottish moorland, and postindustrial, with truck chassis, fuel drums, spools of wire and other assorted junk rusting on the shore because it costs too much to ferry such stuff away. Sea lions troll the harbor. Perched on lampposts and trash bins, bald eagles are as common as pigeons.

Some crab fishermen refer to their time offshore as “sea-hab,” and as Captain Hillstrand writes in “Time Bandit,” a book he and his brother (and fellow “Deadliest Catch” captain) Andy have just published with Malcolm MacPherson, “The crew who work best on deck are animals who should be dropped off at the sea buoys on the way to port.” But Dutch Harbor is actually tamer than it used to be, back when crab fishing was an unregulated free-for-all and an unlimited number of boats competed against one another.

Since 2005 the Alaskan crab fishery has been “rationalized,” or run on a quota system, and the size of the fleet has dropped to around 80 boats from more than 250. It’s much harder to get a job now; as a result the quality of the crews has improved, with fewer misfits and druggies and guys on the lam. Some captains even lead middle-class lives in the off-season, with families and McMansions in Seattle.

Another civilizing influence on Dutch Harbor has been the Discovery Channel itself. “Deadliest Catch” has become so successful that every year Original Productions, the company that films and produces the show, increases its crew and steps up its production values.

Early last October, as the boats were fitting out for the beginning of the king crab season, some 30 production people were in town, many instantly recognizable by the brand newness of their Grundens foul-weather gear. They took over almost an entire floor of the Grand Aleutian, Dutch Harbor’s one decent hotel, and they commandeered most of Unalaska’s tiny fleet of severely dinged-up rental cars.

There were filmmakers filmmaking in the bars, and filmmakers swarming over the boats, installing cameras and electronics and then trying to waterproof them with plastic bags and electrician’s tape. And — for a documentary that the Discovery Channel had commissioned about the making of “Deadliest Catch” — there were filmmakers filming the filmmakers. A chartered helicopter buzzed around for a couple of days, taking aerial pictures of the harbor and getting on everyone’s nerves.

Inevitably the Discovery Channel’s presence has led to a degree of resentment and grumbling in the bars. There are skippers who are dying to get on the show, and others who want no part of it and make a point of shunning the film crews. One Dutch Harbor resident, Jeff Whited, who calls himself a “boat proctologist” — that is, someone who goes down into the bowels of a vessel to fix an engine or a prop shaft — said, “I hate these movie stars” while working on the Northwestern, Captain Hansen’s boat.

Even among the boats’ crew members, there is divided opinion. One deckhand confided that exposure on the show had done wonders for his sex life. Another said he was waiting to meet a “Deadliest Catch” groupie and was beginning to doubt it would happen. Another, a greenhorn, or rookie, said: “The whole thing bugs me. My whole point is to make money and look to my future, not to be on TV.”

In the early days of the show it was not easy to persuade captains and crew to subject themselves to this degree of surveillance, and a lot of ambassadorial work was done by Doug Stanley, now the show’s director of photography, who spent hours hanging out in the bars and on the docks. A former Grand Canyon river guide, Mr. Stanley is a big man with a beard and a ponytail who could easily pass as a fisherman himself, but he was nevertheless threatened on a couple of occasions; witnessed some horrific bar fights, including one in which the combatants wielded hammers; and learned, as he says, that there were “certain places it was not safe to be after a certain hour.”

“There are still guys who would like to beat us up,” he said in the fall. “Just for the sport of it — because we’re members of the community now.”

Some early-season captains agreed to be on the show out of curiosity, others because they wanted to leave a record for their children and grandchildren. “There are times I’ve said I’m done, I’m done with the stupid TV show,” Captain Hansen said. “When they go away, we’re still going to be here. It’s here or flip burgers. But most of the time I’m proud of it. This gives us a chance to show our work ethic.”

Aside from a few testy moments, like Captain Hansen’s swatting away the captain’s cam a couple of seasons ago whenever he didn’t feel like being filmed, the boat crews and the cameramen have generally gotten along pretty well. They’re not all that different, it turns out, except that while at sea the cameramen make less money. (In a good year a crab fisherman can earn upward of $75,000 and the captains well into six figures.)

Like some boat crew members, many of the cameramen are adventure junkies who have filmed in places like Iraq and Ethiopia. One, Christian Skovly, even signed on last spring as a deckhand on the Time Bandit. Sooner or later everyone gets used to having a camera around, and a far bigger problem than stiffness or stage fright is that the captains now act as directors sometimes.

“Hope they got that one,” Johnathan Hillstrand said one afternoon, for example, as the Time Bandit surged through a 20-foot wave, tossing off a cascade of spray. “We want them to feel seasick in their living rooms.”

The hired chopper was zooming around the fleet, which had been dispatched out of the harbor in a kind of ceremonial parade, to get heroic overhead and broadside action shots that could be used for the show’s opening sequence. A couple of pots were launched and then fetched back, empty. Crew members clambered needlessly on the tower of stacked-up pots near the stern. Listening to the chopper’s pilot on his radio, Captain Hillstrand explained, “They’re looking for gnarly footage.”

The weather was as good as it gets during crab season: above freezing, 20-knot winds and seas that seldom got higher than 15 feet. Because the Time Bandit’s wheelhouse is aft, however, the bow was rising and plunging, and the foredeck occasionally turned into what Russell Newberry, one of the deckhands, called an “antigravity chamber,” causing you to feel air, not deck, under your feet. After enjoying the ride for a while, Eric Babisch, a new cameraman, suddenly turned gray and became seasick not in his living room but right there by the pot hauler. This was a bad sign because Mr. Babisch, who had barely left the dock, had weeks of far worse conditions ahead of him. But Mr. Newberry grinned and, bending over with a sea-gloved finger, wrote “Eric” in the spew. “Take a picture of that!” he said.

“I sometimes think we should start over and get a whole new set of boats,” said Jeff Conroy, a co-executive producer of “Deadliest Catch,” talking about how camera-savvy some of the fishermen had become. This season the show is adding two boats to the cast — the North American and the Early Dawn — but it’s also sticking with what has worked in the past.

The producers love the Time Bandit because the crew is loose and scrappy and can be counted on for comic relief. Captain Hansen of the Northwestern fascinates them because of his Ahab-like focus and relentlessness. They like Captain Harris of the Cornelia Marie because he’s earthy and excitable, and they’re warming to Keith Colburn, captain of the Wizard and new to the show last season, because he’s such a contrarian. He’s one of the few captains not born to the business — he was a ski bum who turned up in Alaska looking for adventure — and unlike most of the others, his boat, a tub, was not custom-built for the crab fishery. It’s a refitted Navy oiler from World War II. Captain Harris also pays other skippers for the right to fish their quotas, which means that to make a buck he has to catch more and be more efficient than the others.

As it happens, all the boats are family operations. Captain Hansen’s brothers, Edgar and Norman, work for him, and on the Time Bandit there’s Neal Hillstrand, brother of Johnathan and Andy. (Andy, who in the off-season trains horses at his farm in Indiana, serves as the Time Bandit skipper during opilio season, when Johnathan works on deck.) Monte Colburn, Keith’s brother, is first mate on the Wizard, and last season Captain Harris had his two sons, Josh and Jake, working for him. Josh, who is older, was technically ranked under his brother, and the producers were hoping for a flare-up of sibling rivalry. What they got instead were scenes of the old man erupting at both his offspring.

Wave porn and scenes of fisherman numb with weariness only go so far. The producers have discovered that to sustain an entire season of “Deadliest Catch” they also need themes and dramatic narratives. Last year they got lucky when the Time Bandit became trapped in the polar ice pack, and they also squeezed a lot of mileage from the greenhorn theme with the stories of young Jake Anderson on Northwestern, struggling to win his crewmates’ approval, and hapless Guy Kisielewski on Wizard, a 40-year-old former rodeo cowboy who in less than 24 hours broke under the strain of crab fishing, quit on the spot and then sulked in his bunk.

“A greenhorn is low-hanging fruit — seeing how someone reacts to this insane world,” remarked Mr. Conroy, and he said he was pleased that Wizard had hired two more for the new season. He was also looking forward to more dynastic struggle, to something like the moment last season when Edgar Hansen seemed on the edge of mutiny (“If Sig were to exercise, his heart would explode,” he complained about his brother, comfortably perched in the wheelhouse), or to some more rivalry between Johnathan and Andy Hillstrand, whose temperaments and styles are very different. Johnathan is a hell raiser while Andy, who in good weather wears a cowboy hat on deck, writes in “Time Bandit” about “learning to be a better person through horsemanship.”

Mr. Conroy and the other producers talk about looking for a story the way captains talk about fishing for crab, and they monitor the running shipboard narratives with just as much care. Every day one of the embedded cameramen calls in by satellite phone to Ethan Prochnik, a producer at Original’s studio in Los Angeles, to report what’s happening on his boat. There’s also a hot line by which the film crews can hear what’s going on elsewhere in the fleet. “What you get is pure story talk,” Mr. Conroy said. “Someone will say, you know, we’ve got a greenhorn situation developing, and another boat might say, yeah, we’ve got one too.”

On shore the producers ask questions, make suggestions. “Out there you tend to lose sight of stuff,” Mr. Conroy said. “It’s like those of us on land, we’re your second brain. We can suggest story lines. We can suggest things to look for. We’re not making anything happen, but we are focusing on things. You can’t be footage collectors. You have to be storytellers.”

For the new season, he added, he was hoping for some underwater shots (his dream is to see crab actually entering a pot) and had also installed a galley cam in one boat, to catch the crew interacting during meals. “But,” he said with a laugh, “sometimes I think what we really need is a bar cam.”

On the last October Saturday in port, when the crew of the Time Bandit traditionally celebrates Halloween by dressing up in costumes and wigs, even a bar cam would have missed the moment when Johnathan Hillstrand, realizing that he had forgotten his Silly String (for spraying in the bar), went back to the boat and fell into the harbor. He hadn’t begun drinking yet, but it’s easy, if humiliating, to fall while boarding a crab boat; there are no gangplanks, and depending on the tide, you may have to climb around a stack of pots.

The bar cam would also have missed Eddie Uwekoolani, dressed in a Spider-Man suit, pulling his skipper out of the sea. On the other hand, it might have caught Spidey a little later, scaling the two-story stone fireplace in the lobby of the Grand Aleutian Hotel, falling and wiping out a wall sconce on the way down. And it would certainly have caught him a couple of hours later at the Unisea bar, his stretchy costume then with gaping holes where eager women had grabbed at it, doing an excellent dying cockroach.

To understand what happened next you’d have to rewind and play in slow motion: Half the people at the Unisea suddenly decided to move on to Latitudes, the town’s third bar, then still open. There was no signal, not much discussion — just a collective migration. As far as fishermen can figure out, Alaskan crab behave just the same way.

Battlestar Galactica

Frak! It is back. Here is Sepinwall's review:

A friend of mine who also got to see this one in advance complained to me that very little happened to advance the developments from the last 15 minutes or so of season three. We don't have any further details about the origins of the Final Four (or the identity of the Final Fifth), nothing significant on the nature of Starbuck's survival, etc.

And I see what she's saying, to an extent. Very little in "He That Believeth In Me" moved the stories forward, save maybe us getting more details about the religious cult that rescued Baltar from the angry mob. But my friend's complaint reminded me of some of the few negative comments I heard about this season's "Lost" premiere, from people who felt that it spent an hour reiterating things we had learned in the last five minutes of the previous season. My retort, then as now, is that sometimes plot has to take a backseat to character. If we don't care about the people involved in these crazy stories and how they're responding to the events as they unfold, how can we care about the events themselves? The "Lost" premiere was about the emotional response to the mind-blowing revelations of the previous cliffhanger, and that's primarily what "He That Believeth In Me" has on its agenda.

No, we're not any closer to understanding exactly how Saul Mother-Frakking Tigh is a Cylon, how Starbuck survived the explosion of her Viper (or if she even survived at all), but we got to see more of the characters reacting to these two stunning developments. And given this superb cast, and the fact that it was our first visit with these characters in a little more than a year -- not counting the flashback events of "Razor" -- I'm more than happy with that. A lot of very heavy knowledge was dropped on us and the characters at the end of "Crossroads," and it's not the sort of thing that can be just taken as fact while we move straight into the plot. Finding out you're a Cylon sleeper agent, or that you've been presumed dead for the last two months and are currently suspected of being a Cylon, takes some getting used to, and I'm glad we're not glossing over that.

This is the last season -- or the next to last season, depending on your view of semantics and how Sci Fi winds up scheduling these 20 episodes -- and I expect Ron Moore to answer every single question of import by the end of the run. I'm sure we'll get to the bottom of Tigh and Tyrol's true identities, of Kara's survival, of the identity of the last of the 12 Cylon models, the nature of the schism between the 7 and the 5, even the nature of the figment of the imagination versions of Six and Baltar.

I've got faith that all that information is coming, and therefore was able to groove on that mind-frak of a pre-credits sequence (the craziest space battle they've ever given us), or Baltar again using a mixture of Chip Six hallucinations and religious rhetoric to get laid, or Kara calmly telling Anders that she would put a bullet between his eyes if she found out he was a Cylon, or all the other wonderful character moments in this hour.

And there were little clues here and there for us to spend the next week picking over, including:

• If the Cylons -- or, at least, the advanced skinjob models like Number Six -- are programmed not to even think about the Final Five, who programmed them that way? And what kind of residual programming was left so that a simple scan of Anders' eye would cause the Cylon fleet to retreat, instantly?
• Even if Kara herself somehow bailed out of her Viper before the explosion (which I doubt, since as I recall, the canopy looked intact from Lee's point of view), where did the shiny new perfect duplicate Viper come from?
• Caprica Six tells Laura that "The Five are close. I can feel them." I'm sure everyone has been assuming that the last of the 12 was a character we've already met, and this should clinch that. So who? It almost seems too obvious to be Starbuck.
• Near the end of "Razor," the Hybrid told Kendra Shaw that "Kara Thrace will lead the human race to its end, she is the herald of the apocalypse, the harbinger of death; they must not follow her." If he was telling the truth -- and we know so little of him and his motives that I have no idea about his honesty level -- then Laura is absolutely right to lock up Kara and jump the fleet away from Kara's directions. But, again, why should we assume the Hybrid was telling the truth? Maybe Lee was right, and Kara was the next signpost they were supposed to find.
• Whether the "Galactica" universe has one true deity or a pantheon, why have the heavens been so kind to Baltar? Again, he's the recipient of divine intervention, both with the healing of little Derek and his improbable survival in that bathroom ambush, and again Chip Six seems to know what's going to happen before it does.
• And, not that it comes up here, but I feel like reiterating some of my Final Four questions from the end of last season: Given how long Adama and Tigh have known each other, and that Tigh fought in the first Cylon War, does that mean that skinjobs can age? That Tigh and the others actually replaced human versions of themselves? And what are the odds that four of the Final Five Cylon models would survive not only the initial genocide, but all the later skirmishes, and Sam's time on the wasteland of old Caprica, and the insurgency on New Caprica (where these four, along with Laura, were, coincidentally or not, the leaders of the resistance)? Could there, in fact, be many copies of these four as well? Is there some guy on one of the ore processing ships in the ragtag fleet who's constantly being told he looks like that famous Pyramid player Sam Anders? Does Tigh have a long-haired, peace-loving doppleganger out there who's like the Oscar Bluth to his George?

Lots to chew on, but I'm so glad to have these folks back. What did everybody else think?

The Office: In Memory of Nathan Robinson

Apparently a genius 15 year old who died recently in Boston from a staph infection/pnumonia/flu. Here is his obit from the Boston Globe.

And the impromptu youtube performance:

Thursday Night: Last sucky TV for a while; American Idol last post of the week

I think next week the real shows start again? Hold on...let me check my DirectTV DVR...plus 7 days...YES! Next 30 Rock: "MILF Island" awesome!...Next The Office: "Dinner Party" YESSSSSSSSSSSSS!

Okay back to post. Zap2it analysis. My favorite quote on Jason Castro: "Way to go, Jason! I wouldn't necessarily have thought the theme song from a movie about a transgender parent's pre-surgery odyssey could be transformed into something perfect for the next Muppet movie, but there it is."

I will leave you with Alan Sepinwall's blog to help you get your through the boring day, his favorite youtube or hulu clips.

American Idol: Dolly Parton, no more covers of covers but wish someone covered White Stripes version of Jolene

I thought tonight, was okay, not great. I love Dolly. Sayesha would have served well to go Dolly version rather than Whitney version. I will post original when I find it.

I was hoping Carly would do Jolene, given the White Stripes arrangement. ok well.



And I will Always Love you is my favorite Dolly song. Here is Hype Machine link

Dolly Parton - I Will Always Love You

and Jolene link:

Dolly Parton - Jolene

Sepinwall discusses.

As always, I will post Zap2it tomorrow.