MOVED

Danny's Blog has moved to quietpoolperspective.blogspot.com

Id'old' Blue Eyes

If the rumors of Simon leaving Idol after this season are true, it will be a very sad day. Listening to the judges is already unbearable, but at least I know there is some enjoyment when Mr. Cowell comments. Can you imagine listening to only Randy, Kara and Paula next year? Wow that would be rough.

Quote of the night- "He's got a little Sylar in him," Pops after watching Ms. Lambert's performance.

Last night was songs from the Rat Pack Era. Which means any song that Old Blue Eyes, Sammy D or Deano ever recorded.

Five--
Allison Iraheta- (Someone to Watch Over Me/Frank Sinatra) This girl needs to work on her diction, because I can't understand a single word she sings. That being said, she deserves to be in the top five, but not any further. This was good, but not great at all. All of the critics love her and I don't know why. Thankfully America doesn't seem to and hopefully she heads home tonight.

Four--
Kris Allen- (The Way You Look Tonight/Frank Sinatra) Again this was good, but nothing special. The beginning was great but I thought it got away from him a little through the second half. He tried to do too much with it and didn't pull it off. Also the falsetto in the middle didn't work for me at all, it was not nearly powerful enough. This was just so much worse than the original that it's hard to say it was a great performance.

Three--
Danny Gokey- (Come Rain or Come Shine/Frank Sinatra) Gokes started a little too slow again. The last third of this was so good that I feel bad not putting him second. His bluesy tone knocked the end of this song out of the park.

Two--
Matt Giraud- (My Funny Valentine/Frank Sinatra) Unlike Danny, Matt's performance held my attention from the first note to the last. I just listened to Sammy's version of this a couple of days ago and Matt's was wayy better. He kept his runs to a minimum in this one and when he brought them out they added a lot to the song. Also his falsetto was on point.

One--
Adam Lambert- (Feeling Good/Sammy Davis Jr.) Every night he does what he does with the utmost professionalism and makes every song his own. I will admit this wasn't one of my favorites of Ms. Lambert's, but it was still miles better than anyone else in the competition. Also his opening to the song was unbelievable.

Tyson: Assistant Coach

If you have enjoyed Tyson on this season of Survivor then I suggest watching this video of last week's tribal council. It has Tyson's audio commentary and it is hilarious. Enjoy.

We Could Be Heroes

Last night NBC threw two hours of season finale action at us. While this post is going to be mostly about the Heroes Volume Four finale, I need to mention how great Chuck was last night. It was a fantastic ending to an awesome season. If this is, in fact, the last we see of the CIA/Buy More crew, I will be sad but pleased with what they gave us.

Unlike Chuck, which has been getting better and better over the past two years, Heroes has been all over the place. Season One was one of, if not the best first season in my memory. After that the show started on a downslide, which might have been caused by the writers’ strike during the second season. Volume Three started this fall and it was more of the same mediocrity. Now for me, volume four was looking like a step in the right direction, but last night’s finale threw me through another loop.

I have always been the guy who says that, in a serialized action show like this, you need to kill people off at times to keep the viewer’s attention. This is something Heroes wasn’t willing to do. Sure they got rid more minor characters like D.L., Isaac and Linderman, but when they kill off Nikki only to bring her back as Tracy, or they kill Nathan at the end of season two only to have him be healed by Claire’s blood it just makes me angry.

So when spoilers for this volume’s finale said that a major character would die, I didn’t think they were going to cop out like they did. -SPOILER ALERT- So Peter and Nathan go in to attack Sylar (which they don’t let Claire or the audience see, bootleg) and surprise surprise, the killer with multiple lethal powers kills the dude that can fly around. After Nathan’s throat is slit by Sylar, and Peter has mimicked Sylar’s shape shifting power, Peter shifts into the form of the President and stabs Sylar with a tranquilizer. Now Peter, Claire, Noah, Angela and Parkman are left with a dead Nathan and a knocked out Sylar. As a political move, and so that Angela doesn’t lose her son, Parkman gives Sylar’s body all of Nathan’s memories and removes anything to do with Gabriel Gray/Sylar.

So there wasn’t really a death of a main character. Sure the real Nathan is dead, but he’s still around in Sylar. And I guess the essence of Sylar won’t be around, but the preview of volume five shows that the new Nathan starts to show Gabriel’s original power of knowing how things work. So we will probably end up with having a half Nathan, half Sylar dude wondering around in the near future. That's not really killing anyone off.

And to top things off, at the very end of the volume five preview we see Tracy again. After shattering herself into a million pieces a while ago she is now back and has some sort of water manipulation power like Alex Mack. Unless this is not Tracy, and is in fact the third triplet, it is more proof that they can’t kill anyone off.

Top Basketball Movies (14 & 13)

14. Love and Basketball (2000)
Starring: Omar Epps, Sanaa Lathan, Dennis Haysbert

Half chick flick, half basketball movie. What’s better than that? Well 13 movies I will name later, but Love and Basketball is a classic. Monica Wright was on my top females list earlier and Quincy McCall is much sweeter than the Eric Foreman I have to endure on Monday nights. Throw President David Palmer into the mix and it’s not half bad. Monica and Quincy grow up together as good friends and star bball players in high school. They finally get together and then go off to college at USC. They then inevitably break up, but then Monica comes back to play him in one-on-one for his love. The dude obviously wins, but they get back together anyway.

Favorite Character: Quincy McCall
Least Favorite: Coach Davis
Quote: “Double or nothing,” Quincy.

13. Semi-Pro (2008)
Starring: Will Ferrell, Woody Harrelson, Andre Benjamin

So there’s this guy Will Ferrell who has made a few comedy pictures in his day. Well one of them was Semi-Pro. Although it is not one of the elite Ferrell flicks, the basketball player in me laughed hysterically at most of the bball scenes. The very first basketball game is classic, with Jackie Moon taking over as the star with Coffee Black not out to the court yet. Jackie posts up, demands the ball, kicks it out and demands it again over and over again. He then continues to take eight steps on his way to a sky hook and then gets extremely mad at the ref when a travel is called. Not to worry when Coffee Black enters the game, he takes over, and after dribbling through the entire opposition multiple times, he swishes a three from the corner. While the entire team is hugging and celebrating the basket, you can see the visitors scoring a fast break layup at the other end. It just doesn’t get much better than that.

Favorite Character: Jackie Moon
Least Favorite: None
Quote: “In the annals of history people are going to be talking about three things: the discovery of fire, invention of the submarine, and the Flint, Michigan Mega Bowl,” Jackie Moon.