My Kind of Reality TV

This week we added Dancing With the Stars to American Idol so that pretty much lays out our Spring TV viewing.  Here's what I thought this week.  Feel free to disagree - my husband does.

American Idol

Erica is the clear winner this week.  Loved her makeover, loved her song.  She put the appropriate grit into New York State of Mind.

A close second was Joshua who did his usual phenomenal job, I just wished he had chosen a more well-known song.

My choices for bottom three were Skylar, Heejun and Colton.  Here's my reasoning:  Skylar should have listened to the pros - both in wardrobe and singing.  She has a nice voice but tends to try too hard to always be a powerhouse and it verges on screaming.  Heejun sang My Life, which is one of Billy Joel's best, but he killed it - and not in a good way.  The key was too low, which gave him pitch issues and there was no passion.  If you're gonna sing a song about telling the world where to get off, you need to have some fire behind it.

And, yes, Colton.  The judges raved and Dave gave him the top spot but, while I can't deny that Colton's an incredible musician, he could have taken a lesson from JLo.  She talked about how Billy Joel writes his life into his songs and they need to be sung with the appropriate emotion.  Piano Man is the story of a piano player in a bar, playing for "the regular crowd".  The mood of the song matches the mood of the bar - laid back, simple, perhaps a little melancholy.  Colton's version took that mood out of the song and that ruined it for me.

One final note:  Why, oh why, did only a couple of the contestants listen to the fashion advice they were given?  This is Tommy Freakin' Hilfiger!  He might know a thing or two about fashion.  And you'll avoid wearing a dress that makes your hips look like an artichoke.

Dancing With The Stars

This is going to be an amazing season.  There were really no bad performances on the first night.  I was amazed by Jaleel "Urkel" White's musicality and showmanship.  I'm going to enjoy watching Melissa Gilbert square off with Max.  She handled Nellie Olson - Max will be a cakewalk.  And good golly, Miss Molly, but Gladys Knight can still move!

But the guy who gets my vote is Jack Wagner.  Doesn't matter if he spits on the judges and falls on his face, he's still Frisco Jones (General Hospital 1983-1995).  Gotta vote for the 80's heartthrob!

Surprise!

Regular readers will remember our many escapades with Amanda's car.  This is Karen - a 2000 Pontiac Grand Am.  Amanda received Karen for her 16th birthday - four years ago.  She has held up amazingly well, considering, but as you can see, she's seen better days.

Karen has over 180,000 miles, missing trim, peeling paint, chipping window tinting, and fewer knobs than places for knobs on the dashboard.  While she still purrs along - like an asthmatic, overweight cat - she's beginning to show her age.  And since Amanda will soon be leaving her teens years, it was time for a "big girl" car.

Enter the yet-to-be-named G6 Convertible.  I have always thought it would be fun to surprise one of the kids with a new car, and I got to check that experience off my bucket list.  

Saturday night we met Amanda at the Prairie Band Casino north of Topeka to have supper with family.  We arrived early and talked the valet attendant into letting us park the new car, complete with bow, right next to the valet lane where she would see it when she pulled up.  Then we attempted to look inconspicuous as we all milled around on the sidewalk, awaiting her arrival.

When she finally pulled in, she was so busy looking at her family perched like expectant vultures, that she didn't even notice the car with a bow - the car she had looked at and drooled over and mentioned...repeatedly.  When we directed her focus the other direction, we got just the reaction we were hoping for - squealing, jumping, hugging, grinning, more hugging, laughing, more squealing...

Of course everyone was so excited to watch her reaction, that no one got a snapshot of it.  Picture a cross between Tigger, the Energizer Bunny, and an operatic soprano, but dressed cuter. It will certainly be in our memories for a long time.  One family member commented that she didn't know who was grinning more - Amanda or Dave.  An experience you should try to have if at all possible!

Mini Reviews

The Comforts of Home by Jodi Thomas

In Harmony, Texas, twenty-year-old Reagan Truman has found her place, and found her family. But with her uncle taken ill and her friend Noah lost and disheartened with his life, Reagan is afraid of ending up alone again, and she's not the only one. When a terrible storms threatens the town, the residents of Harmony are forced to think about what they really want. Because making the connections they so desperately desire means putting their hearts at risk.

Well written, interesting people, but a lot of individual story-lines at once that never seemed to connect. Third in a series so possibly I just needed more background info, but the multiple plots and number of characters - though each one was a good story - made for slow progress and little tension.  3 out of 5 with a footnote that I haven't read the first two.

Hollywood Confessions by Gemma Halliday

Allie Quick has high aspirations - much higher than reporting on the latest celebrity gossip for the L.A. Informer.  But she needs a headline-worthy story under her belt. When the producer of the trashiest reality shows on TV winds up murdered, and Allie convinces her editor that this story has her name written all over it. Between an aging dance-off judge, a family with sextuplets and triplets, and the star of a little person dating show, Allie has no shortage of reality stars to question. But when she finds herself falling for her prime suspect, Allie's relationship with her editor is suddenly on the rocks, and her life is in danger. This is one deadline Allie can't afford to miss! 

One blurb on Amazon states that fans of Janet Evanovich will love it - and well they should, because it's Stephanie Plum does Valley Girl.  It's got too many vulgar words, redundant phrases and cliches; but not enough originality.  A "little person" in the story - check, Stephanie's done it.  Car issues - check, Stephanie again.  Empty cupboards, extra layers of mascara - check and check, done and done.  The clues seem to come awfully easy, as does access to Hollywood film studios, so it's difficult to get invested in the story at all.  Sorry, but it's a 2 out of 5 for me.

Great Cat Mysteries: An Anthology of Feline Capers

Intrigue, crime and murder create suspense in this edge-of-your-seat collection of stories whose plots are all centered on a beloved feline, by some of the finest bestselling mystery writers of all times. The audio features The Adventures of 7 Black Cats by Ellery Queen, The Duel by J.A. Jance, No Hard Feelings by Larry Segriff and Nine Lives to Live by Sharyn McCrumb. Performers include Jean Smart, Jamie Farr, and Eleanor Mondale. 

There are some advantages to driving an old car to work - I still have a cassette player (I'll be taking it to Pawn Stars soon to see if it's worth anything as an antique) so I can enjoy some lesser-known books from years gone by that don't rank reproduction in CD.  This was a fun collection read by many recognizable voices, including that guy from the Smuckers Jelly commercials.  The down side to 15-year-old cassettes is that they wear out, which was the case here, so there was a couple stories I didn't get to hear - but 4 out of 5 stars for the ones I did hear.

American Idol

For the second week, Joshua Ledet was the big winner on American Idol.  His rendition of When a Man Loves a Woman was phenomenal!  He had emotion; beautiful pitch; was individual without making the song unrecognizable; and his performance had that "big moment" that gives you goosebumps.  I loved it!

Colton and Holly tied for the other spots in my top three.  Holly sounded great, but the song had no dynamics.  As soon as she hit the first note, I thought "Wow, that's amazing, but where do you go from there?" And I was right, it went nowhere.  It didn't go downhill, but it didn't build either.

I'm not a hard-rock girl, so it's always difficult for me to measure the rockers in the group, but even I could tell that Colton did well.  

The rest of the pack was just that - one big group of decent but not outstanding.  And that's what I have to say about that this week!

Trail of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz

For the first time in Spellman history, Isabel Spellman, PI, might be the most normal member of her family. Mom has taken on an outrageous assortment of extracurricular activities—with no apparent motive. Dad has a secret. Izzy’s brother and sister are at war—for no apparent reason. And her niece keeps saying “banana” even though she hates bananas.

That’s not to say that Izzy isn’t without her own troubles. Her boyfriend, Henry Stone, keeps wanting “to talk,” a prospect Isabel evades by going out with her new drinking buddy, none other than Gertrude Stone, Henry’s mother.

Things aren’t any simpler on the business side of Spellman Investigations. First, Rae is hired to follow a girl, only to fake the surveillance reports. Then a math professor hires Izzy to watch his immaculate apartment while he unravels like a bad formula. And as the questions pile up, Izzy won’t stop hunting for the answers—even when they threaten to shatter both the business and the family.

The fifth "document" in the Spellman series is right on par with the first four - tangled, clever and a hoot!  Izzy Spellman is a mix of the best parts of Stephanie Plum and Harriet the Spy.  Her entire life is mysteries and cover-ups - at least from her point of view.  What most families would solve with a few direct questions, the Spellmans solve with stake-outs, bribery and recording devices.

I thought Document 4 was going to be the final installment, so I was thrilled to hear about #5.  I hope there are many more to come. I would recommend that you read the five books in order because they build heavily on each other but, most importantly, read all five books.  

American Idol

I'm starting a new feature - a weekly roundup of our favorite reality/game shows:  American Idol and Dancing With The Stars (new season starts Monday, March 19).  Disclaimer: This is purely for entertainment. I don't have any degrees in music, any experience in music performance or production, or any inside information on these shows.  However, I still think I know more about music in general, and current pop music specifically, than those record-producer/rock star types.  

Last night's top dog, hands-down winner was Joshua Ledet, who sang "I Wish".  Josh was in a class by himself for vocals, performance and originality.  

Our second spot went to Jessica Sanchez, who sang "I Will Always Love You".  That's a big song, recorded by two very powerful icons, so it was a gutsy choice.  Loved the acapella beginning, but she got too caught up in flamboyant runs and fake vibrato.  She's  got the power and the voice to just stand there and sing that song - sing the beautiful melody that Dolly Parton wrote without attempting flashy embellishments and everyone would be bowled over.

Deandre Brackensick was much better than usual; he avoided the constant falsetto and kept his hair in a ponytail so he didn't look like Cher doing the hair flip.  Skylar Layne was also above the pack - she got three "beautifuls" from Stephen Tyler.   Hollie Cavanaugh was the final contestant to make my "above average but didn't blow me away" rank.  

This is the first Idol performance I can remember (and we've watched every season except #1) that I didn't think there were any really bad performances - just varying grades of forgettable.  The low end of the spectrum, in my opinion, was Elise Testone (unfairly, because the judges forced her to switch songs and, I think, killed her chances in the process), Colton Dixon, and Heejun Han.  The remaining contestants are just kind of a mediocre blur.  

Dave disagrees with my rankings slightly - he's a much bigger Colton fan than I - but he agreed that there were a lot of "meh" performances, and sometimes the show really misses Simon Cowell's dissenting voice (though not his attitude) when the current judges say basically the same thing to every contestant.

Who are your favorites? And who earned your thumbs down?  

Read With Someone You Love . . .

Today is World Read Aloud Day, sponsored by LitWorld.  

World Read Aloud Day is about taking action to show the world that the right to read and write belongs to all people. World Read Aloud Day motivates children, teens, and adults worldwide to celebrate the power of words, especially those words that are shared from one person to another, and creates a community of readers advocating for every child’s right to a safe education and access to books and technology.

I have wonderful memories or reading aloud to our children.  When Mitch was first old enough to get the concept of words and numbers, everything he "read" said "BR9".  Although he was still too young to string letters into words, he understood that we read the letters on a page.  We never really understood what "BR9" meant, but we were thrilled he was looking at books.

When Amanda wanted to hear a story, she would find a book, open it to the first page and grip it in both hands, then silently back up to a seated adult and wait to be lifted and read to.  If they didn't take the hint, she would glance over her shoulder and demand "Read!".

When Harry Potter-mania started, our kids were too young to read them on their own, and we had concerns about content amid all the hype.  So, when Mitch wanted to be "in" on the craze that everyone was talking about, we spent hours on the porch swing and I read the first book aloud.  Not sure if it was the story or my reading, but he never seemed interested in reading further - perhaps he read the others on his own? -  but it's a sweet memory and a great way for parents to know what their kids are reading.

Even in high school, Amanda liked to be read to, and seemed to focus better when the story was read aloud.  We read To Kill a Mockingbird and several other school-assigned books, cuddled on her bed - usually with me reading while rubbing her back. 

On a side note: I read nearly every book our children were assigned, from kindergarten through high school, just to be aware of what they were learning and to be able to discuss it.  When Mitch's 4th-grade class read Holes, I was appalled at the idea of 9-year-olds reading this dark, frightning story of a boy who is wrongfully accused and sentenced to a juvenile prison camp where he is forced to dig holes all day.  I feared nightmares!  He loved it and found nothing scary about it.

Regular blog readers know that Dave and I continue to read aloud - mostly in the car.  We travel enough that we keep a "together book" for road time.  Sometimes we'll continue it in the house if we're at a gripping point in the story and there is no road trip in the forseeable future.  Our favorite "read together" books have been Stephen King's Under The Dome and 11/22/63.  We strongly encourage this practice - it promotes a shared interest and starts interesting discussions.

Please check out LitWorld's site, see how you can be part of World Read Aloud Day, and - most of all - read aloud with someone you love.