Your Daily Photo (Stipulated in Martin's Performance Contract That Lionel Ritchie Never Come Within 25 Feet of Steve Edition)

Or maybe I'm making up that whole part about the contract, but if you look at the full size of this pic, you will see both Steve Martin and Lionel Ritchie separated by at least 25 feet...

(I'm not saying there's a secret, ongoing, and long standing, feud between the two, but I'm not not saying that, either)

Your Daily Photo (Who Will It Be? Adam or Kris? Lakers or Nuggets? Edition)

I was over at LA Live yesterday, I think something might have been going on at Nokia Theater, and at Staples Center. As far as Idol goes, they both annoy me in different ways, I can't imagine ever picking up an album or even downloading a single track from either, but Adam is far more technically proficient, plus he's more charismatic, so America, make Adam your Idol (and presumably you already have, given that voting is closed).



As far as the thing that went on at Staples, I care about that outcome deeply, more than is rational, and this Lakers team makes caring difficult given their inconsistency. I think both teams in this series have maturity problems (aka, lots of knuckleheads on each bench), but having a knucklehead coaching a bunch of knuckleheads makes me lean towards believing that not only will the Lakers win this series, but they'll sweep the Nuggets out of the playoffs, just like they did when it was a 1 versus 8 seed last year, though each game will be close.

Things That Are Inevitable

First inevitable thing, the Lakers will beat the Spurs tonight at Staples Center.

Second inevitable thing, right next door at Nokia Theater, David Archuleta will beat David Cook in the American Idol Finale.

Third inevitable thing, the Downtown LA traffic nightmare to compare all subsequent traffic nightmares is happening right now with both those events happening at the same place at the same time combined with those events starting at the peak of evening rush hour.

Great planning folks!

UPDATE: D'oh!

I was only 1-2 on these predictions. LA Lakers won, even after trailing 65-45 with 5:39 left in the 3rd quarter. They outscored San Antonio 44-20 in the final 17:39 of the game. Kobe had 4 points before that point, finished the game with 27. San Antonio wasted a great effort by Tim Duncan who had 30 points and 18 boards.

Your newest American Idol is David Cook, didn't see that one coming, figured the little singing monchhichi (soooo soft and cud di leeee) would win it for sure.

And as far as the traffic, wasn't that bad, guess anyone going to the events took the day off, and everyone else knew to avoid the area. Sort of like the gridlock fears during the 84 Olympics that never materialized. Businesses had flexible schedules, and trucks were banned during rush hour, instead of a nightmare, it was the easiest commutes of the last 30 years.

Glad I was right about the Lakers, don't care that I was wrong about the rest.

Improving Idol Voting

Idol voting most likely doesn't need improving, but some folks seem to think so.

A simple reform would be to have each contestant have two numbers flashed beneath their name each week.

One number, would be for folks voting FOR the contestant.
A second number, would be for folks voting AGAINST the contestant.

The positive votes would count +2, the negatives would count -1.

A person like Sanjaya, who polarizes fans, would have a higher bar set for continuing on the show, while a contestant who is solid and broadly popular would enjoy more relative success compared to a marginal singer/performer with a small but rabid fan base.

Seems like the eventual winner in a system like this would also be more likely to build a lasting career.

There are plenty of polarizing figures in pop music, though, so even if Sanjaya were to win it all, they could probably build product around him, at least for a little while.

The "vote for the worst" crowd have pulled a bit of a fast one this year. Vocally wise, Sanjaya mostly sucks, but as a performer he has charisma and strong appeal to a key demographic that cares about this kind of crap. The Stern-ites can claim they've influenced the weekly outcomes all they want, but most likely, it's the little girls obsessing about how much they love a sexually ambiguous kid who are pushing his votes.

The history of Idol shows that having a penis that young women feel has a credible possibility of being used is dangerous. Of the guys who've made it far on the show, only Bo Bice could be said to have been broadly sexually enticing/threatening.

First season, Justin gets farthest, and though attractive, his attraction is a very unthreatening kind of attractiveness. Second season was Ruben v Clay, and even though Ruben was a big huge black man, he was an asexual teddy bear, and Clay, well yeah. Season Three no guys made it too far. Season Four, was the exception that proves the rule. Bo Bice not only had a penis, but he seemed certain to be willing to use it. He seemed to be the first male performer to succeed in Idol appealing to sexually mature women more so than appealing to pre-teens. In the run-up to his showdown with Carrie, it was pretty clear that it was the moms pushing the vote on Bo. Last season, Taylor has about all the sexuality of Elmo (the tickle-me variety), his success is utterly inexplicable from a sex appeal standpoint.

This season, Blake has to be one of the favorites, he stradles the line between penis-ful and penis-less appeal. Sanjaya on the other hand is utterly and totally penis-less, and that's why he makes the young girls cry. Phil and Chris aren't sticking around much longer, so no use talking about them.

If Sanjaya somehow wins it all, there will be many folks who'll go crazy, but should that happen, it will be because he has a strong appeal to a rabid fanbase and he'll just be another in a long line of sexually ambiguous/unthreatening male performers who preteen girls find appealing (until they grow up and realize that guys with penises are preferable).