Hold Your Applause

Unfinished Business

Due to unforessen technical difficulties--namely, my failure to publish entries and save them at the same time, a skill that anyone who can turn on a computer ought to be able to handle with no problem--I haven't actually been posting the last several American Idol recaps as they've been written. So here they are, just below this post in the 3 subsequent posts; perhaps better late than never although I suppose you'll be the judges. Does anyone even remember Stephanie Edwards at this point?

So Where's The Blogger?

You may have noticed the pace of posting has been off lately here, due in part to an increased workload and in part to a personal matter that doesn't particularly need to be mentioned here. However, the latter is in the process of resolving itself, and I do hope to be able to devote additional attention to all of you once again in the coming weeks.

Halls Are Properly Decked...

...shopping is finished (not always the case, ya know), and there's nothing left to do but snack and post a holiday message right chere.

I wish everyone a happy holiday season, and I thank all of you for taking part in the fitful first few months of this little experiment, in which I have tried to apply some of the bombastic drivel currently associated with political blogs to the mostly untapped arena of entertainment blogs. So far, so good, although my time management remains the problem it has always been. Hey, that sounds suspiciously like a New Year's resolution.

Try to catch A Christmas Story sometime in the next 18 hours, a film that rewards mass repeated viewings. And now, a gift of sorts, for those of you who haven't already seen it (and I stole this from one of those political blogs mentioned above, The Agitator ): the cast of Scrubs does A Charlie Brown Christmas.

Putting A Year To Bed

I've been silent here the last couple of days due to some offline things to deal with, but unlike the big weekly magazines, this is a one-man operation, so no canned features or double issues as we approach 2007! Now I'll admit that I did think about taking a real vacation from the blog, because as Time's Person of the Year, frankly, I deserve one.

In the coming days, look for some year-end comments about the TV, film, book, music, and culture scenes; as well as a wrap-up of The Amazing Race and Survivor (about which all I'll say here is: I love it when a prediction is right).

January is the worst weather month of the year where I live, but what I like about is the return of 2 of my longest-standing TV obsessions: 24 and American Idol. I find Idol especially fun to write and chat about because 1) everyone has an opinion about the music; and 2) it provides a dramatic arc unlike anything else on TV, something you can't get from the pre-taped reality shows. So that's something to look forward to, in case you're into it, and the ratings suggest you probably are. If not, well, Jack Bauer eviscerating people is a good substitute.

Idol is the rare show whose ratings were still going up in Season 5, especially noteworthy since it had already been the top show on TV for years and presumably didn't have much room to grow. But I think the expansion of the age range for contestants has been a godsend for AI, opening the show up to people who know what they're doing. And the last 2 winners as well as near-winner Chris Daughtry have expanded the audience for Idol by showing that successful contestants can come from previously untapped parts of the music world. There's some evidence that contestants with full-fledged professional careers are following in the footsteps of Taylor Hicks and thinking of the show as just one more way to get exposure, which means that the price we pay for longevity of Idol is that we'll be less likely to ever see an unknown come forth like Kelly Clarkson.

This chatter on my part is leading up to the announcement that AI has a major surprise planned for midseason, which sounds like it's going to be a one-time event of some sort. My guess is that whatever it is won't have anything to do with the competition itself, which means I'm not likely to find it all that interesting, but if it involves the departure of Paula Abdul to become the "roommate" of Miss USA in her current abode, I'm all for it.

Not That You'd Ever Want To Leave Here...

...but yes, there are some other good entertainment/pop culture sites out there. I finally got around to adding links to some of those sites in the sidebar, and I urge you to make the acquaintance of any of them that you aren't already visiting.

I started out with those that popped immediately to mind, and will certainly keep adding to the list. If any of you want to suggest a link, let me know in the comments--or even via e-mail (yeah, I've had the e-mail listed in my About page for 2 months, but now it's nice and handy in the sidebar).

In other news, Roger Ebert's review of Borat contains a link to the Web page of the Kazakhstan foreign ministry.

The Longest Journey....

...begins with a single post.

Hi. I've been in and out of the world of blogs for a few years now, but for brief periods here and there. Since I apparently believe that anything worth doing once is worth doing badly several times, I'm back, at the urging of some friends and acquaintances who clearly don't know what they're in for.

This blog, as I envision it, is going to deal more or less with the world of entertainment and the culture in general, however I happen to define those things. I might post the occasional purely personal item, although I barely have the energy to live my life let alone write about it, so fear not.

There are, of course, other popular subsets of the bloggal universe. The political blogs are wonderful, but you tend to attract like minds only. While I maintain an interest in politics, I'm not sure I'm enough of a firebreather to run a successful political blog, and that's even assuming that there's still a way for a newbie to get noticed doing one. Likewise, I think there enough good people doing sports blogs and celebrity blogs that a new one is hardly necessary. I make a distinction here between the sort of entertainment blog I expect this will evolve into and celebrity blogs that are mostly just pictures and bitchy comments. If you want to see the Olsen Twins walking into a Starbucks, there are any number of blogs that will meet your needs. If the Olsen Twins wind up in Medea, or better yet, playing the guests of honor on CSI, then I might be prompted to say something.

I'm pleased to meet all of you. If I've already met you before, then I either apologize for whatever I said, or promise that you'll get the money no later than Friday.