Hold Your Applause

Survivor Lives On

The first 2/3 of the "Fans vs. Favorites" edition of Survivor wasn't doing a lot for me, to be honest. The fans weren't especially interesting and the only one who seemed to want to play, Tracy, became marginalized right away. The favorites were somewhat more tolerable, and Cirie will never not be great to watch, but the inclusion of Johnny Fairplay let a bad taste right off, and the premature loss of Yau-Man (wrong side of intertribe alliance, too feared for his reputation for smarts) and Jonathan (injury during poorly designed challenge) took away a couple of the better characters.

The first little hint of intrigue came around the time of the merge, when Parvati decide to put herself at the center of a second solid alliance in her new tribe to go along with the original favorites alliance she had (everyone on that original alliance still being in the game). This isn't something we've seen very often on the show, and it was a surprise to see Parvati, basically an empty (bathing) suit in the Cook Islands, being the one to pull it off. We assumed that at some point Parvati would be forced to choose an alliance, or would be able to use one as an escape pod when one alliance got the upperhand, but instead we saw something very different: she and Cirie engineered the ouster of Ozzy while still keeping the overall trust of Amanda, the other member of that original alliance and someone who was completely left out (wisely) of the Ozzy plot.

Ozzy leaving seemed like one of the epic moments in recent Survivor history, but little did we know it would touch off the greatest sustained run of memorable tribal councils in 16 seasons--an incredible accomplishment. Jason (who had foolishly quit the immunity challenge the week before and was saved only because Cirie and Parvait became more interested in Ozzy) failed to play his individual immunity idol, even though he had to have known how vulnerable he was and stood a very good chance of winning future individual immunities had he used the idol the week he didn't have it. Then Amanda, who was becoming a target due to her likability, fooled everyone except Parvati by playing individual immunity and engineering the boot of Alexis, who had sent her to exile island in the first place. Finally, and most inexplicably, the remaining four women convinced Erik that his only chance with the jury was to "redeem himself" (for what was never explained) by giving away the individual immunity idol to Natalie, who then proceeded to vote him out along with the rest. Erik has thus gone down in reality show infamy, a cruel fate for someone who apparently cares more about winning the approval of Survivor contestants more than is really healthy.

One would assume the excitement is just about over, and it's hard to sense who might have the upperhand in tonight's finale, though I don't think Natalie has much of a shot. Erik and Jason would never vote for her, and I doubt any of the favorites would support her over one of their own. In fact, I don't know why Cirie and Natalie weren't more genuinely interested in the phony deal they presented to Erik (the three of us vote out Parvati). There was apparently a little concern about Parvati either having the individual immunity idol or giving it to Amanda, but if I'm Natalie that's a chance I'm willing to take, because I suspect she's finishing fourth unless she wins the last immunity challenge (and I think Amanda will be favored to win this, as she won it in China). For Cirie's part, I think she would win in a trio with Natalie and Erik, and possibly with one of these two plus Parvati, but I don't think she can beat Amanda.  Cirie too could be in for a fourth place finish (although I think she's a lock to win the fan vote for the $100,000).

At any rate, Amanda looks like the favorite to win tonight, which is interesting because many found her to be downcast when she appeared on the China season finale. Little did any of us know she had made her second straight final four (at least), and is one tribal council away from becoming the first person to play the game twice and never be voted out.

A few other tidbits:

* The game would have been very different had Jonathan not been to injured to go on and Kathy not followed behind him. That tribe never lost an immunity challenge after the player switch, but they went into the merge with no numbers advantage. It's likely that Parvati would have found herself marginalized had Jonathan and Kathy not left, but when they did, she took advantage and hooked herself up with Alexis and Natalie. (And as we've found out the last few weeks, Alexis and Natalie weren't nonentities as much as we weren't learning much about them because they spent several weeks not going to tribal council.)

* Ozzy's first time playing the game didn't really provide him with much Survivor experience, because he was hardly ever in any jeopardy, losing individual immunity only once. Although he lost the first 2 individual immunity challenges to Jason this time around, he certainly figured to win his share had he just stayed in the game, which is why I can't understand how he could have been so casual about the individual immunity idol, which he never once carried with him to tribal council. He seemed to think that because he was in an alliance, everyone would just stand back and let him win the cash. He forgot he was in an alliance with Cirie.

* And regarding our favorite nurse: the thing that makes her a great Survivor player is that while so many always say "It's a game, nothing personal," she really means it. Everything with her is a means to an end; all relationships are about trying to get her closer to the money. She's a lot like Richard Hatch in that respect. All she does is think about ways to get ahead in the game, and she has antennae for opportunities and potential fractures to exploit that are absolutely uncanny. If only some more of the so-called fans had anything like the same game skills.

The Annotated VH1 "Greatest Songs of the '90s", From Someone Who Remembers the Whole Damn Thing

100. "Rico Suave," Gerardo: Do they not want us to watch the last 4 hours, 55 minutes of this? Get serious, you guys.

99. "The Rain (Super Duper Fly)," Missy Elliott: I think Missy really likes her pot.

98. "Unbelievable," EMF: Good riff. Holds up.

97. "Gett Off," Prince and the New Power Generation: Eh, not his best decade.

96. "(Can't Live Without Your) Love and Affection," Nelson: Only nostalgia for MTV cheese can explain how anyone voted for this.

95. "This Is How We Do It," Montell Jordan: A theme song for the 1995 Cleveland Indians, but otherwise I never cared for it.

94. "The Way," Fastball: I'm surprised anyone remembered this.

93. "Stay," Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories: Nah.

92. "911 Is a Joke," Public Enemy: Kind of a throwaway by their standards, but hell, it's Public Enemy.

91. "Building a Mystery," Sarah McLachlan: I always did like her voice, even if the Lilith Fair thing was a little obnoxious.

90. "You Get What You Give," New Radicals: Greg Alexander really wasn't Todd Rundgren?

89. "Never Said," Liz Phair: Everyone who bought Exile In Guyville must have voted. I don't think I've ever once heard this on the radio. That obviously doesn't make it bad, but it never crossed over into even the broader rock scene, much less pop culture in general.

88. "Barely Breathing," Duncan Sheik: Nice little song, but one I'm surprised anyone still recalls. Sheik is now winning Tonys, of all things.

87. "Achy Breaky Heart," Billy Ray Cyrus: No comment.

86. "Linger," The Cranberries: We'll still be hearing it in 50 years.

85. "Insane in the Brain," Cypress Hill: Excuse me, I have to go slug a cop.

84. "Informer," Snow: They were too embarrassed to honor "Macarena," but had room for this?

83. "Cannonball," The Breeders: You can't have a list like this without an Ohio State dropout on it.

82. "Mind Playing Tricks on Me," The Geto Boys: I knew time would be kind to this one when it was a current hit. A true genre classic.

81. "I Don't Want to Wait," Paula Cole; "Say a little prayer for I"--what the hell was that all about?

80. "I'm Too Sexy," Right Said Fred: I'm going to have to hurt somebody.

79. "Bitch," Meredith Brooks: You can't deny it was catchy.

78. "Are You Gonna Go My Way," Lenny Kravitz: Totally derivative, but it can't be denied.

77. "It Was a Good Day," Ice Cube: For most of the real prolific acts on this list, VH1 didn't nail down their best hit, but I do think this was Cube's all-timer.

76. "Runaround," Blues Traveler: Meh.

75. "Jump," Kris Kross: Underrated because these kids fell off the face of the earth, but holds up as classic pop 15 years later.

74. "Believe," Cher: Overrated because this woman refuses to fall off the face of the earth.

73. "Sex and Candy," Marcy Playground: "Disco lemonade." This song still makes me giggle.

72. "One Week," Barenaked Ladies: My sister told me once she was tired of "quirky Canadians." I believe she had this song in mind.

71. "Tennessee," Arrested Development: The band that named itself after its future career path. This sound was destined not to take over hip-hop, to put it mildly.

70. "Virtual Insanity," Jamiroquai: Inexplicable.

69. "Freak on a Leash," Korn: I never really got into this sound, though they were definitely influential.

68. "Gettin' Jiggy With It," Will Smith: This was hardly his best hit of the decade, but I think it's held on to our memories because, well, it's a ridiculous phrase.

67. "Groove Is In the Heart," Deee-Lite: Definitely one of the best songs on this list.

66."I'll Be," Edwin McCain: Pleasant enough. It has certainly tugged at the heartstrings of many.

65. "The Humpty Dance," Digital Underground: Probably not the song these guys would want to be remembered for.

64. "Peaches," The Presidents of the United States of America: I'll always stand up for silliness.

63. "Mo Money Mo Problems," Notorious B.I.G. feat. Puff Daddy & Mase: Biggie hardly even appears in this one. I'm not sure why VH1 picked this to represent him instead of his previous single, "Hypnotize."

62. "I Alone," Live: Ed Kowalcyzk was the singer for those who felt put off by Michael Stipe's macho posturing.

61. "All I Wanna Do," Sheryl Crow: I liked most of her '90s singles (not so much since).

60. "Poison," BellBivDeVoe: I always liked the general sound these guys represented, but they were pretty lame.

59. "Buddy Holly," Weezer: What's with these homies dissing my girl? As a card-carrying Weezerphile, I can't object to this.

58. "Damn, I Wish I Was Your Lover," Sophie B. Hawkins: One of the weirder songs on this list. She scared me a little.

57. "Can I Get A..." Jay-Z feat. Amil & Ja Rule: I have to dock Hova some points here for introducing the world to Ja Rule.

56. "Mama Said Knock You Out," LL Cool J: With the prespective of time, the fact that LL was complaining about being written off in his early 20s is sort of funny. Great song.

55. "Criminal," Fiona Apple: Probably a little underrated. I don't have much use for anything about Fiona Apple except her music.

54. "One Of Us," Joan Osborne: She had her magic moment with this one.

53. "O.P.P," Naughty by Nature: Those clever, dirty boys.

52. "Fly," Sugar Ray: I didn't have much use for Smash Mouth, who were always sort of confused with these guys, but they had several singles better than "Fly" and are nowhere to be seen on this list.

51. "California Love," Tupac & Dr. Dre: Gangsta rap's greatest moment even though it's not actually a gangsta song. Singles don't come much cooler.

50. "Man In the Box," Alice In Chains: This isn't the song from these guys I would have picked (I would have gone with something from Dirt), but I turn it up every time I hear it.

49. "Who Will Save Your Soul," Jewel: Revenge of the poetry-scribbling teenage girls. What were we thinking?

48. "3 AM," Matchbox Twenty: Why this and not the world-conquering "Smooth" or their first hit "Push"? It's just not very memorable.

47. "Good Vibrations," Marky Mark & the Funky Bunch: See comment at #96.

46. "You're Still the One," Shania Twain: You can win a lot of bar bets by asking people what the best-selling album of the '90s was: it's the one this song appeared on.

45. "Only Wanna Be With You," Hootie and the Blowfish: Is it time to forgive Hootie yet?

44. "Killing Me Softly," The Fugees: I liked them. I'll let Lauryn Hill know when she returns from Alpha Centauri.

43. "My Lovin' ("You're Never Gonna Get It)," En Vogue: I thought En Vogue would become what Destiny's Child became about 8 years later. Good song.

42. "Shine," Collective Soul: I won't say how it is I know this, but a couple of these guys' songs are great in strip clubs.

41. "Two Princes," Spin Doctors: Jesus, people.

40. "I Wanna Sex You Up," Color Me Badd: Consider yourself colored. Because your music sure wasn't.

39. "Iris," The Goo Goo Dolls:  I'm just getting depressed now.

38. "Genie in a Bottle," Christina Aguilera: Xtina may have disavowed her early hits in her pursuit of skank, but I always liked this song and it really holds up.

37. "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)," Green Day: Admit it: you like it too.

36. "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)," C&C Music Factory: Really the best example of the little Eurodisco flurry we had in the early '90s.

35. "Wonderwall," Oasis: This was hardly their best hit, but I think Oasis became a bit underrated because the Gallaghers were sort of jerks. Enough time has passed that we can look back with affection.

34. "Semi-Charmed Life," Third Eye Blind: I used to like to compare different radio stations to see how much of this song they censored. The oral sex stuff got through most of the time, surprisingly.

33. "Wannabe," The Spice Girls: Their second U.S. single, "Say You'll Be There," was one I really liked, but it's inevitable that this cheese is the one people remember more.

32. "No Diggity," Blackstreet: Had the good sense to be released at a time when it really stood out on the radio. Which it still would today.

31. "Creep," Radiohead: They've spent nearly 15 years running away from it.

30. "Tearin' Up My Heart," N' Sync: Even then they were sort of turning into a one man band, weren't they? That J.C. Chasez couldn't be denied.

29. "Ice Ice Baby," Vanilla Ice: See the link to the left for the apology I'm expecting.

28. "Livin' La Vida Loca," Ricky Martin: For about 9 weeks in 1999 everybody suddenly had to pretend this stuff was interesting.

27. "Mr. Jones," Counting Crows: I never did find these guys commercial, and apparently everyone agreed with me after a while.

26. "My Name Is," Eminem: Few songs have done a better job of introducing the artist.

25. "Black Hole Sun," Soundgarden: I like it. I'm a sucker for Chris Cornell, although there was a picture of him with his children in Newsweek a few weeks ago, and that concerns me some.

24. "Jump Around," House of Pain: I remember when we went through a phase where every summer there was at least one big rap hit that made you want to go hit someone. This was probably the best of those songs.

23. "Whatta Man," Salt-n-Pepa & En Vogue: This is one of those songs where I can understand why it was popular, but I never got into it myself. Salt-n-Pepa was cool, though.

22. "Loser," Beck: I think once this guy proved he wasn't a novelty act, this song started getting respect again. Weirdest song on this list by a long shot.

21. "My Heart Will Go On," Celine Dion: I guess you have to rank it.

20. "MMMbop," Hanson: See #23. Should we blame these guys for the boy bands? And if so, can we go back in time and keep their parents from ever meeting, or something?

19. "Sabotage," Beastie Boys: I still turn it up whenever I hear it.

18. "Enter Sandman," Metallica: Their original fans never forgave them for writing a catchy song, but I imagine they've gotten over it by now.

17. "Say My Name," Destiny's Child: WHAT??

16. "U Can't Touch This," MC Hammer: This song has gone through the entire cycle of perception: phenomenon to overplayed novelty to fondly remembered artifact of a bygone time. You can't deny this.

15. "Under the Bridge," Red Hot Chili Peppers:  I don't know that there's any band I "like"  that has a higher ratio of crap to good stuff than the Peppers, but this deserves all its kudos.

14. "Vision of Love," Mariah Carey: Good song, though if we knew what it would lead to we all may have prevented it from becoming a huge hit.

13. "Nuthin' But a 'G' Thang," Dr. Dre feat. Snoop Doggy Dogg: Highly influential, and of course it gave us Snoop.

12. "You Oughta Know," Alanis Morrissette: Alanis is polarizing as hell and most of the time I find her pretty unbearable, but this song fully deserves its reputation.

11. "Jeremy," Pearl Jam: Hardly their best song and I'm sure they would agree, but the show is airing on VH1 and they need a video to illustrate it.

10. "Nothing Compares 2 U," Sinead O'Connor: You knew it would be huge when you first heard it, even though no one knew who Sinead was.

9. "Losing My Religion," R.E.M: For a brief moment, these guys really did write good pop songs.

8. "Waterfalls," TLC: Nothing about them wasn't overrated, sorry. That documentary about the final days of Left Eye was really engrossing, though.

7. "...Baby One More Time," Britney Spears: Oooh baby, baby. We're coming up on the 10-year anniversary of this song infecting America. And infecting is a word that just seems to fit Britney anymore.

6. "Baby Got Back," Sir Mix-A-Lot: Yes, according to VH1 this was the greatest rap hit of the decade. It is legitimately funny, though. Its reputation has risen in recent years--a similar list made the day the '90s ended probably wouldn't have mentioned it.

5. "Vogue," Madonna: I'm the farthest thing from a knee-jerk Madonna basher, but the reputation of this song has always puzzled me. I think it's one of her less interesting major hits.

4. "I Will Always Love You," Whitney Houston: I can respect it without being much interested. Right?

3. "I Want It That Way," Backstreet Boys: The singles on their first album were better, but this song cemented them as a phenomenon so here it sits. Scarily, we're overdue for another boy band infestation.

2. "One," U2: Seeing this song's slow rise to standard-hood has been an interesting experience. When it was new, I remember thinking, "OK, the new U2 single." The idea it would be as revered as something like "Imagine" 15 years later would have struck me as incredible.

1. "Smells Like Teen Spirit," Nirvana: Well, yeah.

Tell Me You Love Me: Naked Emotion

The irony of the HBO series Tell Me You Love Me, which ends its first season Sunday, is that a show initially promoted as having a level of sexual explicitness never before seen on television has turned out to be almost the complete opposite of ratings bait.

The series is almost European in its deliberate pace, insistence on the importance of dialogue, and yes, the amount of nude flesh on display. The prototypical Tell Me You Love Me scene is two people alone in a room, talking quietly (or even harder for some to bear, not talking). There's no music until the closing credits roll. There aren't fights so much as there is emotional violence, and things that don't happen tend to have more import than things that do. Even the sex isn't the sort of rapid-edit, Adrian Lyne-style music video knockoff that Americans are used to seeing onscreen. The lengthiest sex scene so far this season, if not necessarily the most graphic, a "nice to see you again" grappling between exes Jamie (Michelle Borth) and Hugo (Luke Farrell Kirby), conveyed the physical need of both characters, but was so matter-of-fact it ended up about as erotic as those nature films from your 7th grade science class.

The show is structured around 3 couples, all of whom have a relationship with therapist May Foster, played by Jane Alexander (the 68 year-old Alexander had her own sex scene this season, perhaps inspired by her stint in the Clinton administration). The closest thing to an Everyman couple, certainly the pair that seems exactly right as married, is Katie (Ally Walker) and David (Tim DeKay). The couple has stopped having sex, but seem mutually unable to articulate exactly what went wrong, although the accumulated weight of responsibility and family seems as good an explanation as any. In what has been the most startling outburst so far delivered on the show, David used his first visit to May's office to unload at length on how it's impossible to get turned on surrounded by the mundane details of his suburban existence. Katie is incredulous and hurt: "Our entire life. That's what you just trashed," she responds.

For her own part, Katie is obviously uncomfortable dealing with the whole notion of sex as a pleasurable activity in itself, going so far as to recently bring up with  David the subject of having another baby, as if by becoming a mom again on the threshold of middle age, she can put off ever having to think about sex again. On the most recent episode, Katie was alarmed to discover that her best friend Rita had decided to divorce. The women had always listened to each other's gripes about husbands and family; now with Rita ditching a husband, making the decisive move that her friend would find unthinkable, Katie seems adrift and hyper.

The other couples are less interesting, if only because the females in them aren't especially likable. Carolyn (Sonya Walger) is an attorney, the sort of driven career woman that doesn't come across well in pop culture. Husband Palek (Adam Scott) is an easygoing builder. The first several episodes of this season chronicled the pair's heavily scheduled sex life as Carolyn set out to get pregnant, something that finally happened only after they had more or less given up on the idea--and after Palek said he really didn't want to have kids anyway. As the last episode ended, Palek, overwhelmed by the baby and a major work setback, suffered a panic attack and later told Carolyn (who had just quit her job) that he needed to leave the marriage. Neither of these people seem well-suited for any relationship, let alone one with each other (I had been blaming Scott for my problems with their storyline, but he's really picked up his performance the last two weeks). But can Palek just walk away from fatherhood with no regrets, the way his own father did?

That leaves Jamie, who has been a lightning rod for critics of the show, in part because Borth's voice takes a lot of getting used to, and in part because as the youngest of the females, Jamie has borne the brunt of the nude scenes. However, I think she's a good deal easier to take now than she was at the start of the season, when she broke things off with Hugo over his refusal to definitively promise he could stay monogamous forever. After Jamie began therapy and confided to May that she herself had never been monogamous, she became more interesting to watch, because she's young enough to show some growth. She went from Hugo right back into a fling with Nick (Ian Somerhalder, who was much cleaner-looking playing a plane crash victim on a tropical island on Lost than he is on this show), but now seems ready to try life alone for a while.

Despite its ratings, which are lower than those for the show that preceded it in HBO's premier Sunday slot, the now-canceled John From Cincinnati, Tell Me You Love Me has been renewed for a second season (it has to be a lot cheaper to produce than David Milch's surfing melodrama was). The final episode is currently running on HBO's on demand channels, and without spoiling anything, I think it was meant to function as a possible series finale, with resolutions of sorts for all the pairings. Things are wrapped up so well that I wonder if the second season might not even have a substantially different cast. Whatever they decide to do, I hope more people check out this unusual and provocative drama. I'll be back next year even if everyone keeps their clothes on.

Maybe the One Time Adam Levine Was Glad To Be White

There's not much reason for someone like me (i.e., someone who not only remembers the first President Bush, but was old enough to vote for him--or not) to watch MTV these days, but I recently caught the current Maroon 5 single "Wake Up Call" on the channel and paused to listen to it, since I find it a welcome change from their typical pale soul thing. But I was struck by something: unless I completely overlooked something, the video played essentially without any deletions or bleeps in the song itself. Considering the song is about taking revenge on a girlfriend by killing the man she's cheating with (and it's implied, revenge on the woman too) and the video features a gun, this surprised me some.

At some point in MTV's life cycle, the channel began censoring not only the usual things that get censored on television--language and nudity--but references to drug use and violence. Until the Maroon 5 video, I had assumed this policy had no wiggle room because a lot of the things that have been bleeped out over the years have really been pretty innocuous and hardly "glorfiying" (I hate that expression) of drugs or mayhem--the use of the word bong in the Breeders' "Cannonball", Rihanna likening being "Unfaithful" to shooting her boyfriend in the head, Sean Kingston's use of suicidal in the obviously non-depressive "Beautiful Girls."

Needless to say, this sort of censorship has been most prevalent in hip-hop, to the point where you even wonder why MTV bothers playing certain videos. I'm not sure where I would draw the line if I ran the network, but you'd have to be pretty dim to think that the reference to robbing jewelry stores in the silly Nelly single "Grillz", which MTV has never let pass, is a real invitation to crime. Which brings up Maroon 5, which is to put it mildly not a particularly threatening band. Could a band made up of actual black people and not wannabes like Adam Levine and co. actually get a song with the lyric "Came without a warning so I had to shoot him dead/He won't come around here anymore" played on MTV with the lyrics unbleeped? This question is of course rhetorical.

Viva Phil!

You just know Phil Keoghan has been chomping at the bit, biding his time while all those upstart Kiwis (Flight of the Conchords, that host on The Next Great American Band) attempted to steal his thunder.

But Phil's absence from our lives is nearly over. CBS, having somehow overestimated America's desire to see Hugh Jackman and Melanie Griffith sing, has canceled Viva Laughlin after just 2 episodes. While The Amazing Race was left off the CBS fall schedule, a 12th season was filmed over the summer, and many assumed TAR would be moved up from the winter to fill an inevitable early hole in the CBS lineup (you might remember this is what happened with TAR 6 in the fall of 2004--that was the year we had Seasons 5, 6, and 7 air in the space of about 10 months).

So our favorite TV travelogue is back in just 13 days, on November 4. More on this season's batch of racers (who I really want to be good so as to finally get the taste of All-Stars out of my mouth after 5 months) as we get word.

Survivor: Once More, With Egg Roll

15 seasons? Has it been 15 already? We're all getting older. And yet, Jeff Probst stays the same age. How does that work?

The flagship reality show has done a great job of not so much reinventing itself as tweaking things enough every season to keep both participants and viewers on their toes. It doesn't always work--almost everyone now concedes that despite a pretty good cast, Fiji was weakened by its big twist, the luxury v. poverty division that rendered the first half of the season drama-free.

Whether due to  some concern about the signs of age in the show or simply excitement about the fact that they're in China, CBS seems to be pulling out the promotional stops this go-round. The CBS home page provides some videos that answer some longstanding fan questions, giving a glimpse of the production base camp and showing the work of the "dreamteamers," who test all the challenges beforehand to make sure they're suitable for the show (I assume the ability to retrieve and put together puzzles is the key to getting hired as a dreamteamer).

As for the cast itself, there haven't been many recent editions of Survivor to begin with only 16 players. That makes for a fairly predictable 13-week season--12 weeks to get down to the Final Four, and then a finale--but I assume it won't quite work out that way. The larger casts seemed to make it harder to get to know everyone early, so I give a thumbs-up to this development.

I've learned from my years of following Survivor that trying to predict winners by looking at cast bios and preview videos is a fools' game (although it is often very easy to predict which players will be utter disasters). But I'll offer a few ill-informed opinions anyway.

At least early on, I'm pinning my hopes on Aaron, a surfing instructor who unaccountably grew up in eastern Ohio. Aaron is an Ohio State graduate, and frankly that's all the info I need to pull for him. While I don't know that she's going to last too long in the game, I look forward to seeing Denise, a school cafeteria worker who named her dog after Patriots linebacker Tedy Bruschi and has one of the most extreme mullets ever seen on television. Courtney has an interesting bio: she's highbrow enough to have named her cat after the poet Catullus, and yet she's had a succession of lowbrow jobs (she's currently a waitress). She shows a few indications of being the comedian in the cast, and if there's anything better than a pretty girl with a sense of humor, I'd love to know what it is.

I have no idea what to make of Steve "Chicken" Morris, who appears to be an attempt to revisit the magic that was Tom Buchanan (he's even from the same county as Big Tom). He has dogs named Zek, Cluck, Poke, and Eli...of course he does. Jaime is a native of Florida who describes herself as a lifelong Buffalo Bills fan, and there's no way that's a good omen. Todd is described as an "openly gay Mormon" (he's not the first one Survivor has had), and I'm going to describe him as quite likely to be the biggest tool in the cast. Someone who says shopping and drinking coffee are among his hobbies, calls himself "fantastic, amazing, awesome and super-original," and says "the Spice Girls are the most significant historical event of the past 100 years" is someone I'm not going to like, I'm pretty sure.

This edition of Survivor is unusual for casting some people who are semi-famous already, and unlike the situation is Guatemala, where ex-quarterback Gary Hogeboom hid his status from everybody, I think at least a couple of these folks are going to have problems staying hidden. Amanda is a former Miss Earth, and since I had never heard of Miss Earth before hearing of Amanda, she might not qualify as famous. But Ashley Massaro is familiar to anyone who follows professional wrestling, and Jean-Robert Bellande is a big deal in the world of poker. I'll be interested to see if the qualities that go into being an excellent poker player are transferable to Survivor, and whether the others decide to gang up early on the (presumably) wealthy celebrities.

The biggest difference between this edition and the most recent versions is that there is no more Exile Island, which didn't seem to provide the drama the producers had hoped for. The individual immunity idols are back, though, and maybe this cast learned something from the Fiji cast in terms of how to use them optimally. We'll find out, starting tonight.

Merely the Latest Sign That I'm Getting Older

Today I heard "The Hustle" on my local easy listening station.

The Hibernating Hit Phenomenon

I'm currently vacationing in a part of the country where, if you're lucky, you can pick up two or three radio stations at a time that are both 1) English language and 2) not trying to convince you that you're on the sinful path (which in my case was old news). I was in the car for a big chunk of yesterday and had the radio on the same station most of the time; and during my drive I heard Pink's "U + Ur Hand" about every couple of hours. It turns out that even though the song title hits uncomfortably close to home, it's a great summer single. But what's weird about "U + Ur Hand" is that it could have been a great single last summer too. Over a year after the release of Pink's I'm Not Dead, the record company finally came up with a song from the CD that radio was interested in, even though the disc got generally good reviews at the time of its release. Looking back on it, it appears obvious that "U + Ur Hand" was the best potential single off I'm Not Dead, but a lot of smart people must not have thought so. The album's first single, "Stupid Girls," got a lot of attention for its message and perceived targets, but purely as a song it was a mite lacking.

Is it my imagination, or are we seeing more of this sort of thing lately? Traditionally, singles are released in rough order of what their perceived commercial potential is. There are deliberate exceptions that usually have to do with re-establishing an artist with their base before releasing a single with wider appeal. We used to see this sort of thing back in the heyday of hair metal, where the first single would usually be a screamer for the core audience (i.e. guys), and then the second single would be the radio-ready power ballad for the girls. Even back then, record companies didn't always know what they had--Def Leppard's biggest-ever hit, "Pour Some Sugar On Me," was the fourth single from Hysteria.

But some of the biggest singles of the last few years came along relatively late in the life cycle of the albums they came from. The biggest hit of the past 12 months, Beyonce's "Irreplaceable," was the third single from B'Day even though its commercial potential was almost comically obvious, especially compared with the eccentric jazz-like first single "Deja Vu." And Gwen Stefani's first solo album was almost killed in the cradle by leadoff single "What You Waiting For"--which I actually like a lot, but was probably too out there for pop radio (come to think of it, I'm not sure I've ever heard it on the radio). The second single was the hookier "Rich Girl" before the CD really kicked into the stratosphere with "Hollaback Girl," the biggest hit Stefani has ever been associated with. I've learned that "Hollaback Girl" is a real argument-starter; a lot of people still think it's absolutely idiotic. But to me, it's clearly the most commercial song on the record, so you wonder why it took several months to get it on the radio.

The latest example of this phenomenon, on a smaller scale, has come from Amy Winehouse. "Rehab" was the big hit in the U.K., but Island tried to push "You Know I'm No Good" as the first single stateside off Back to Black. That probably would have been my choice too, but radio said no no no and has jumped on "Rehab" instead, possibly because its title gives it a certain novelty element.

Now I'm thinking that the Kevin Federline CD might not be dead, but only hibernating till its hidden gem of a single is discovered.

The Hibernating Hit Phenomenon

I'm currently vacationing in a part of the country where, if you're lucky, you can pick up two or three radio stations at a time that are both 1) English language and 2) not trying to convince you that you're on the sinful path (which in my case was old news). I was in the car for a big chunk of yesterday and had the radio on the same station most of the time; and during my drive I heard Pink's "U + Ur Hand" about every couple of hours. It turns out that even though the song title hits uncomfortably close to home, it's a great summer single. But what's weird about "U + Ur Hand" is that it could have been a great single last summer too. Over a year after the release of Pink's I'm Not Dead, the record company finally came up with a song from the CD that radio was interested in, even though the disc got generally good reviews at the time of its release. Looking back on it, it appears obvious that "U + Ur Hand" was the best potential single off I'm Not Dead, but a lot of smart people must not have thought so. The album's first single, "Stupid Girls," got a lot of attention for its message and perceived targets, but purely as a song it was a mite lacking.

Is it my imagination, or are we seeing more of this sort of thing lately? Traditionally, singles are released in rough order of what their perceived commercial potential is. There are deliberate exceptions that usually have to do with re-establishing an artist with their base before releasing a single with wider appeal. We used to see this sort of thing back in the heyday of hair metal, where the first single would usually be a screamer for the core audience (i.e. guys), and then the second single would be the radio-ready power ballad for the girls. Even back then, record companies didn't always know what they had--Def Leppard's biggest-ever hit, "Pour Some Sugar On Me," was the fourth single from Hysteria.

But some of the biggest singles of the last few years came along relatively late in the life cycle of the albums they came from. The biggest hit of the past 12 months, Beyonce's "Irreplaceable," was the third single from B'Day even though its commercial potential was almost comically obvious, especially compared with the eccentric jazz-like first single "Deja Vu." And Gwen Stefani's first solo album was almost killed in the cradle by leadoff single "What You Waiting For"--which I actually like a lot, but was probably too out there for pop radio (come to think of it, I'm not sure I've ever heard it on the radio). The second single was the hookier "Rich Girl" before the CD really kicked into the stratosphere with "Hollaback Girl," the biggest hit Stefani has ever been associated with. I've learned that "Hollaback Girl" is a real argument-starter; a lot of people still think it's absolutely idiotic. But to me, it's clearly the most commercial song on the record, so you wonder why it took several months to get it on the radio.

The latest example of this phenomenon, on a smaller scale, has come from Amy Winehouse. "Rehab" was the big hit in the U.K., but Island tried to push "You Know I'm No Good" as the first single stateside off Back to Black. That probably would have been my choice too, but radio said no no no and has jumped on "Rehab" instead, possibly because its title gives it a certain novelty element.

Now I'm thinking that the Kevin Federline CD might not be dead, but only hibernating till its hidden gem of a single is discovered.

Up All Night On Summer Vacation

A little reminder that my other blog is coming out of hibernation. House Happenings is a blog all about the Big Brother season as it unfolds. It was around this time last year that we were finding out which former houseguests were under consideration for All-Star spots, but with just 2 weeks to go before the debut of Season 8, we're still totally in the dark, save for the traditional promise that this will be the wildest season yet. Which no doubt means the typical gaggle of twentysomething bubbleheads half comatose on slop and chatting endlessly about favorite places they threw up. (Gee, I usually don't get cynical like this until mid-August at the earliest.)