Work? WTF?

Omg, work was driving me crazy last week. I couldn't wait to get out of there because I was leaving for a quick ski trip late in the week. Have you ever felt like you're jinxed at work, like your busy times come at THE MOST inopportune times?

For example, I could be sitting at my desk all day, and I'll have not a single thing to do, and not a single client will call. But the second I leave my desk for lunch, four clients will call me, all at the same time of course. And I actually really hate checking voicemail. It's such a huge pain to punch in all those numbers.

All this can be really frustrating at any job, but especially in a job where you have to deal with clients. It's not like you can really tell a client, "Well, actually I'm really busy with another client, so I can't do your crap." My job is not hard. I just have some picky clients asking me to do some fairly repetitive tasks. So not hard at all. Time consuming, yes, but no where near hard. Sometimes, I want to scream at them, "I can multi-task, but I ain't frickin superman."

The worst has to be the day before I leave for a vacation. I had been telling everyone--coworkers and clients--about my vacation this past weekend for two weeks. No one said a word until Wednesday, of course. Then, everyone's calling me that day concerned about the coverage I had arranged and client deliverables. I have no idea why everyone was freaking out about two days, which is how long I ended up being away.

It’s the same old story. I get the guilt-laden remarks from my boss and clients about me leaving. And they pile on the work so that when it rains, it POURS, and I get enough work all of a sudden to last me the rest of my lifetime. Sometimes in situations like this, I’m half tempted to get really "difficult" and go slower than I normally would to kind of "punish" everyone for not heeding my warning about my absence and to make them all realize that I haven't missed a day since August 2006, working throughout all the holidays. But I have too much professional responsibility to resort to anything so juvenile.

Anyhow, I'm now back from a few days of skiing, a bit refreshed and a bit frostbitten. I don't want to go back to work. I wonder if they missed me.

SOS: Gmail Down, Repeat Gmail Down

Gmail has been down for the better part of this afternoon. It's sad that I'm like having a coronary about it right now. The message from the Gmail folks is

“Server Error: We’re sorry, but Gmail is temporarily unavailable. We’re
currently working to fix the problem — please try logging in to your account in
a few minutes.”

It's been a few minutes and then some.

Not like anything that earth-shattering could have happened in the past two hours.

But it is fun to think about Gmail engineers scurrying about their server farms. The way I picture it, smoke must be coming out of their computers, or maybe they forgot to feed the mice who run in their wheels.

American Idol/Top 11: Why Was That Girl Crying?

Last week, we said goodbye to Buckwheat Brandon after Diana Ross gave a pretty strange performance. His departure was overdue, but it just means that we're all going to be subjected to Sanjaya's girly whines for that much longer.

This week is British Invasion week from the 1960s, it seems. And as usual, many of the contestants continued to exhibit their incredibly bad taste and poor judgement by choosing the most coma-inducing songs ever written. Really, there are so many good songs to choose from. So why was Melinda freaking out so much about what to sing?

Speaking of Melinda, she's getting kind of boring. The new hair-do did give us something to different look at, and I whole-heartedly approved of the new straight-do versus her old flippy haircut. But she sang some song that I had never heard of, perfectly in-tune albeit, but totally forgettable, especially because she also sang a showtune the week before. We all know that Melinda can sing anything under the sun. Why couldn't she have chosen something that was, um, a little more fun?

Her co-leader, Lakisha, really disappointed me too. First off, all I could think is "Whoa, mombo hair; mombo boobs." She also had some major bling going on, like she raided the Harry Winston closet. But her performance of "Diamonds Are Forever" kind of reminded me of a Nell Carter preening session. She really should have listened to Lulu and sung that other song.

By the way, Lulu was giving some really good advice to all of the girls. She was extremely nice to Haley by telling her that there was a place for everyone, which you could either interpret as a genuine compliment or a backhanded way to tell her that it's okay to be a loser. Anyhow, Haley ditched the bra and sang a flat "Tell Me" in a kind of slutty Kathie Lee Gifford way. It actually wasn't that bad, but definitely not the best of the night.

Lulu also had some words for Stephanie, Gina and Jordin. Lulu told Stephanie she sounds like Beyonce, which I'm sure both Stephanie and Beyonce are tired of hearing. Stephanie had an off night, although it was kind of hard to tell anything because I could barely hear her over some over-zealous background singers who sounded like a 50-person chorus (there were three singers). Overall, pretty bad, but not as bad as.....Gina. Gina sounded lost while singing "Paint It Black" by The Rolling Stones. It was really out of Gina's range, and I felt bad because I like Gina a lot. It was a good thing that Jordin came out to redeem the girls, giving a pretty kick-ass rendition of some song that made me want to trek through many hardships and rescue her from her prison of utter despair. Lulu advised Jordin to scream, which seemed to go against all the advice that the judges give, but here it really worked. Jordin sang with more conviction than anyone else that night with defiance and yet poignancy at the same time.

The guys were much better this week than they were the previous week. The guest artist was Peter Noone who started off by completely dissing Chris Richardson and even imitating the way Chris R. sings in a way that didn't seem in the least bit complimentary. Chris came out and sang some slow song. I'm still not sure what the judges were raving about because I didn't think he was that great.

The other guys were ok. Chris Sligh started in the audience and spent a little bit too much time there while doing a pretty good job, I thought, with "She's Not There." The "Bring Back Chubby" signs were very amusing too. Phil Stacey was just weird. He was walking all over, dragging that mic stand all over the stage, singing a bluesy song ("Tobacco Road"). I didn't think he was able to really pull it off. It didn't seem to fit him.

For the first time ever, I really enjoyed Blake. His pitch wasn't perfect, but I thought he Blake-i-fied "Time Of The Season" pretty well without making it sound silly like he did with whatever song he sang during Diana Ross week. He grabbed my vote for this week.

Finally, we come to Sanjaya. This time, Sanjaya was without the at-home perm, and picked something more upbeat than his past choices ("You Got Me Going"). His performance was very disturbing. I really did not enjoy seeing Sanjaya gyrate in front of Paula. But I guess at this point, Sanjaya feels like he has nothing to lose, because he knows he doesn't deserve to be there anymore. I'm not quite sure why he thought the judges were praising him. I think the judges are indulging him because they don't know what else to say at this point. But lucky for him, he inspires reactions of pre-pre menstruel extreme hormonal proportions as demonstrated by that really strange crying girl, or as the folks at TWOP called her, "Little Miss Sobshine." Seriously, what was with her?

My votes:

Best Performance: Blake Lewis. I couldn't tell who won the beat boxing contest between him and Ryan.

Worst Performance: Sanjaya Malakar. He and that crying girl should leave the show and go off and play with their Barbies.

Most Improved: Jordin Sparks. Not that she was all that bad during Diana Ross week. But she picked a much better song, and didn't sing it sitting down this time.

Ode To The Nutter Butter (Confessional #5: I Love Peanut Butter)

I was at Bouchon the other day to get some coffee, and I decided to help myself to a snack. Why are all good things made of carbs? Well I guess bacon doesn't have carbs, but everything else good in the world seems to.

Anyway, as I was looking at the display case, my eyes fixated on the Bouchon Nutter Butter. If I have a weakness in desserts, it's peanut butter. I think it's because if my palate tends towards sweet or salty, I definitely have a salty one. And peanut butter always has the right amount of saltiness to counteract any coying sweetness.


OMG, the Bouchon Nutter Butter was the best thing I've ever tasted in a while. Two sweet cakey discs of oatmeal goodness with this gooey, creamy, peanut-y filling.

Oh Nutter Butter
It is you who I pick
With peanuts spread so thick
Slathered in between
Two cookies that I could lick
It is you who I will eat alive or dead
Give me no substitute
No copycat from elves
Keebler or else
Just give me the original
And put me to bed.

If The World Ends Due to Global Warming, This Will Be My Last Post

So we've seen some crazy weather in the past few days. Last week on Wednesday we had warm weather which gave us a false sense of Spring. And then we got Nasty Ice Storm Part II that tested Jet Blue once again in their prowess at riot control. Given all this crazy weather, of course it's all anyone can talk about. Well, currently, I can only focus on two things--the weather, and this former friend of mine who I've finally just written off as a passive-aggressive lost cause. Good riddance.

But mostly I am thinking about the weather. Now I have to admit that I am not one to check weather forecasts or even have a thermometer outside my window. In college, I would tell what the weather was by just looking out the window and seeing what everyone else was wearing. But I can't really do that from my apartment here in New York because not as many walk up Amsterdam Avenue, and I'm a little too high up to see to clearly. So instead, I call down to my doorman and ask him if it's cold outside, which for some reason, amused my friend to no end.

Not being able to go outside because doing that would give you hypothermia is really "unfortunate" in the same way that that your significant other runs out on you is "unfortunate." I think not going outside is the cause of my China time sleep schedule and my irregular bedtimes. It's like I've lost all sense of time by staying indoors all day, and my poor body time clock has no idea when to be up and when to be asleep.

In any event, it's still pretty cold today after last week's ice storm. And all the weather talk obsession has continued with me and everyone I talk to. At every turn today, I've been talking to people about the weather. We're probably all hoping that we have some sort of insight into Mother Nature that weather forecasters don't. You know, like the inevitable old guy you might meet who will tell you, "I grew up on a farm my whole life, and those weather guys don't know shit. I woke up this morning and the birds were still flying South and the dogs were still howling at the moon. We're gonna have a huge snowstorm." Or, the guy at Duane Reade who told me "Those weather forecasters are always wrong. I wish I could have a job where I'm wrong all the time" like he actually resents the weather guy. Or my coworker who just moved to New York and who is asking me "When does it get warm here in NY?" Or my client who is tell me how he spent all weekend shoveling the snow from the driveway. All day it's been the same thing over and over.

Which makes me wonder (Carrie Bradshaw voice): why do we always talk about the weather? Why, when a conversation is struck up between strangers, does the topic invariably come around to the weather? Everyone always says talking about the weather is so cliched, like "At least we didn't resort to talking about the weather." The weather is constantly changing, obviously and gives us a something to talk about when all else fails. So...(focus on your computer screen) when will the weather...stop being so much like the weather?

Most comments about the weather are innocuous, like "Can you believe this rain?" or "It's so gorgeous out today." Or like when you ask someone "How was your vacation?" and they reply back, almost as if scripted "It was great. The weather was perfect." There's just no denying that when there is nothing else to say, the forecast is the topic of choice. No matter how you word it from "Hot enough for you?" to "I love hot weather, but even this is a little too much" we all like to participate in the societal weather dialogue.

And this shouldn't surprise anyone. Sure, it would be nice to have a more meaningful conversation with your fellow man, which may surprise some people to hear me say that since I have such hermit and anti-social tendencies. But I understand that the weather is the one thing that everyone has in common. Through different jobs, different boyfriends and girlfriends, different apartments, through different emotions, different brands of bottled water; different credit cards, different vacations, different ways to answer the question "What's up?" - through all that we are all subject to the weather. So if anyone occasionally grasp for that, for a moment to bond in our sameness, it's A-OK, and sometimes welcome, when you really do have nothing to talk about.

So I don't know where I'm really going with this post, and it took me a lot longer than I expected to write all this. Maybe I'm just in a contemplative mood. Or maybe I'm yearning for others to share ideas about our sameness. Or maybe I'm just disappointed about my former friend. Or perhaps, despite my tacit approval expressed in what I wrote above, I'm slightly disappointed that I'm not a more interesting person to go against the grain with others. Well, tomorrow is another day, and actually now that I think about it, exploring our sameness sometimes takes a lot longer than you might expect.

Especially if you're hanging out with these guys.

American Idol/Top 12: What A Bore

Last week, we said goodbye to Jared Cotter, Sundance, Antonella Barba and Sabrina Sloan. I don't have much more to say about Antonella, other than what I've already said. Poodle-hair Sabrina has never made an impression on me. Jared, who kinda looks like Alfonso Ribeiro and a used car salesman, looked PISSED OFF. I actually thought he was going to refuse to sing a final performance. And I was so glad to see sweaty and groany Sundance go. Last week, he sang "Jeremy" in this whiny voice, and even the return of his white boy blues the previous week when he sang "Mustang Sally" really wasn't THAT great. I don't know what type of revisionist history the judges were concocting when they said Sundance was one of "our finest singers." Simon said that maybe America "turned the volume down." Uh, yeah we did.

Carrie Underwood also came back to sing last week, looking like she was dragged on to the stage kicking and screaming, and utterly bored because she's too famous for the show now.

This week we finally moved to the big stage. I was pretty stoked this week because I thought we could possibly see some really great performances, and while I'm not head over heels in love with Diana Ross, I was pretty excited to see a true diva and legend. And I was really hoping that someone would sing "Upside Down" or "I'm Coming Out", which are my two personal favorite Miss Diana songs.

Well, no one sang either of these, and I really don't know why because some of them really could have used a jolt of upbeatness. For example, the judges absolutely raved about Jordin, but I'm sorry. While she did okay, I just couldn't vote last night for a girl who would sing a song from a retarded movie about baby dinosaurs. Melinda was okay too. She did seem kind of tentative at first and she sang a really boring song from a movie that I have never seen nor ever plan on seeing. At least she's improving in the wardrobe department and elongating that linebacker body of hers with some heels and a smart cocktail dress.

Each week, I always want to really like Stephanie. She can sing great, but she just lacks a certain something or just sounds, like the judges keep saying, too much like Beyonce. Gina sang one of the stupidest songs ever recorded ("Love Child"), but at least produced the funniest Diana moment when Miss Ross told Gina like 7 times to "pronunciate." Um, is that a word? Isn't it "enunciate"? Haley gets my vote for the most improved. Maybe I wasn't paying attention that well, but I honestly didn't notice that Haley forgot the words to her song. She did have a severe case of the nerves, but I was with Simon on this one and thought that Haley had a few bright moments in an otherwise below average, but not totally flailing, performance.

Which leaves us now to Lakisha. I have not been a Lakisha fan throughout all these episodes. I don't think America needs another gospel singer. But last night, I was thoroughly impressed with the control on her voice while she sang some song from Diana's movie glory days in Lady Sings The Blues. And while I'm not totally on her team, I ended up voting for "Kiki." I think mostly because she didn't do that annoying solemn nod of her head after each judge's comments that she usually does.

The guys just ranged from total snooze-ville to really strange. Chris S., sans glasses, and Blake did weird mixes of their songs, bringing a kind of weird Knight Rider quality to their songs. Sanjaya was terrible as usual, but not the worst. I'm just glad that Sanjaya has finally stopped talking about his sister, who he seems to have a borderline obsession with. Miss Ross told Sanjaya that he needed to "explode," and I'd like to think she was being literal. Chris R. was the only person to venture out onto the walkway, but his teeny voice really sounded bad. And I'm starting to notice how weird his herky-jerky, "to the left, to the left; to the right, to the right" dancing is. Phil was okay, but as usual, all I can pay attention to is his big ears rather than anything he sings. But I seriously couldn't believe how bad Brandon was. He was a disaster. Barely five seconds into the song, he was totally off-pace with the music. Then a few seconds later, you hear nothing come out of his mouth. OMG. He didn't just forget a word; he forget entire LINES. He did some weird injured bowler dancing to distract us, but boy what a mess.

My votes:

Best Performance: Lakisha. Technically, this is a Billie Holiday song, not Diana Ross. But, whatever. Also, didn't Diana tell you to use a mic stand? Um, when Diana Ross tells you to do something, you do it. She'll cut you down.

Worst Performance: Brandon Rogers. Back to the background for you, if you can still get a job after the huge Idol disappointment you turned out to be.

Most Improved: Haley Scarnato. I have to say that I was kind of distracted by the bottom of her dress, or were those shorts? I honestly couldn't tell because it seemed like some weird kind of lederhosen action going on down there.

All Of A Sudden I've Become Lazy

For some reason in the past couple of weeks, I've become very lazy. I've been working from home a lot, which really means that I am free to do nothing of great significance. I haven't been making my usual daily trips to the gym, and I can see it in my waistline. I even haven't been that inspired to cook anything new lately. I don't know what's wrong with me. Maybe it's the weather. I did go on a couple of job interviews last week, one of which I really liked. So maybe that will bring some spice to my life.

Now of course, the most constructive thing for me to do would be to post all day to describe all the tantalizing things I do, but I've been very uninspired on that front too. Thank god for American Idol for giving me fodder.

We Learn Something New On Idol

The boys go first again this week, sans Nick & AJ. I was really sad to see my favorite hand waving Idol go, but Nick I barely noticed. I felt like he always sang songs that his mom must have sung him to sleep. For the girls we were without Leslie and Alaina. I don't really remember aimless Alaina's singing. I only remember now, her inability to sing a single word on her last night because she invited all of the girls in a big group hug. I think she'll regret screwing up her last moment on TV months from now. Leslie, though, I'll miss. She was kind of one of those cuckoo girls who looked like she was *this* close to becoming Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction. She just kind of had this "I'm gonna kill you" look, and then at the end of her last performance, she started blubbering like she was the possessed kid in The Omen. But I liked what I saw of her, and I think she was sent home a little too early.

For this week, the theme is "Tell Me Something About Yourself." This is also the final week that the guys and girls will be separated, and thank god. The boys, this week, went back to showing what a lopsided contest this has been between them and the girls. None of the guys made any impression on me this week. For a change, Sanjaya wasn't the worst this week, but i think that's because he sang a song, which I happen to love ("Waiting On The World to Change" by John Mayer). My vote for the worst this week goes to weird-looking Phil. Simon was too polite when he made fun of Phil's bug eyes. Seriously, Phil really needs to play down the creepy factor. And this week, it didn't help that he sang terribly, singing some weird slow song by LeAnn Rimes.

My favorite male performance was Chris Sligh, kind of by default, because he seemed to be the least shrill and most in-tune. I think Blake could have been good, singing some old school ska-sounding song from 311, but he was just flat. Plus, I looked up the song that Chris S. sang, and it's a Christian Rock song, and we all know how I feel about that genre.

For the girls, surprisingly, I didn't think Antonella was this week's worst. But similar to Sanjaya, she sang a song which is another favorite of mine. Throughout this entire season, I've actually been disappointed by Antonella. I thought Antonella had one of the best auditions, and thought she had a nice Pop-music type voice. Her voice is completely different than Melinda or Stephanie or any of the booming belters, but I thought Antonella would still do well in her own style. But, sheesh, this girl can't even sing in-tune. This week, though, she was better and did a passable job at "Put Your Records On."

My vote for the worst goes to Haley Scarnato. I feel like she thinks she has a bigger voice than she really has. She started this season by tackling Celine and Whitney. And now she's singing some weird Faith Hill song that doesn't really have a hook, and I kind of think she should go back to being a gymnast.

For the best girl this week, Melinda this week, as usual was the consummate pro. But now that I see more of her, all I can think is Anita Baker. And she has got to do something about her neck (where the hell is her stylist?). This week, I voted for the girl who had made it a career of auditioning for Idol, but losing before the Gong show, Gina Glockson. She sang Evanescence this week, and sang it well. It was different and Gina worked that song with some serious rocker attitude.

My votes this week:

Best Guy: Chris Sligh. He doesn't seem intimidated by the spotlight.

Worst Guy: Phil Stacey. There's just something about him. He looks like the secret love child of Moby and Fiona Apple.

Best Girl: Gina Glockson. Gina--The prom dress last week didn't work. Stick with the Rock & Roll clothes.

Worst Girl: Haley Scarnato. There's a Miss Austin, TX Pageant out there for you.

My Knees Are Already Shaking

This May, I'm heading to the Grand Canyon. I've never been before (or to that part of the country for that matter), but I'm very excited. I haven't really started researching yet for my trip, but yesterday in the Times, I saw this:
This is the new Grand Canyon Skywalk scheduled to open on March 28. The developers used one million pounds of steel to create a bridge that can hold the weight of 71 fully loaded Boeing 747s (about 71 million lbs.) and withstand 100+ mph winds. But only 125 people will be let on at the time. Oh and worried about tripping? You get some covers for your shoes to help prevent slippage.

I think this is so dope. You get to go out on this floating walkway and look ALLLL THE WAAAY DOWN 4,000 feet (that's higher than any of the highest skyscrapers in the world) through the glass floor, which will need to be cleaned of vomit, I'm sure, throughout the day. A lot of people are criticizing this project as an eyesore to the Canyon, but I think, why not? There are already hotels, landing strips, motor boat docks, and helipads all over the Canyon. Plus this is a more wholesome way than a casino to make money for the Hualapai Indians.

Check out these construction workers. They're sticking out 70 feet from the edge of the Grand Canyon to install the walkway!


My only question is why do I have to pay some package prices, that include photo ops with the Indians and cowboy demonstrations, to walk on the walkway that I've already driven 242 miles out of my way to come see?

I Aim To Help

Today, I went over to Fairway to pick up a few things. I haven't been going there as much lately ever since the Equinox at 76th street closed, but today I happened to be in the neighborhood.

I got some fruit, some sparking water and a 1/2 gallon of milk, and then headed over to the cash registers. It was fairly subdued today, which at Fairway means that I only got hit once by a crazy, mean Senior Citizen. The express line wasn't that long either, and pretty soon I was at the cash register. All in all, a pretty smooth and short trip, which at Fairway is saying a lot.

The thing that has always impressed me the most at Fairway are the girls at the cash registers. These girls know their stuff. They know the difference between an English cucumber and a regular one; a Hawaiian and a Mexican papaya; and what are from the outside produce section versus the inside one (the prices are different in each section.) But today, I got a new girl; a new girl who was still in training. Oh god. Dealing with cash register people in training is so irritating sometimes. It's like you've become an involuntary participant in an instructional video. This girl made a mistake on my first item, and I pointed out that she was charging me the "inside" price, and not the "outside" one. Now not to cause any trouble, this girl was kind of ghetto, and she gave me a LOOK and screamed, "I need the KEY!" Well, I'm sorry that I put her out, but I was just trying to help her learn. She can thank me later when she passes the exam.

This Time It's Personal on Idol

Last week the foot fetishists and Asian mafia, couldn't save huffy, puffy Paul Kim. The other three to go were Rudy, Nicole and Amy and the most revealing thing about all of their departures was that their farewell performances were even more annoying than their first ones. Fantasia also came back, singing some song from The Color Purple, and looking constipated the whole time.

This week the boys had something to prove, after barely bothering to show up last week. And there was at least a glimmer of hope of a potential star in this week's male performances. The theme this week was dedications, which got some of our contestants a little too emotional, making me roll my eyes. I liked AJ Tabaldo the best. I don't even remember him last week, but this week, he got some snap in him, and sang "Feeling Good" in a pretty good performance. But his dancing had aspects of a weird burlesque act that looked like it should be in a Chippendale's training video. I did like the waving arms though; that was kind of cute. All he needs now is some leg warmers. At least his singing was good, and I had completely forgotten about this song. Typical American Idol though has already started to kill this song since dogwalker Leslie sang this exact same song the next day.

The worst guy was a toss-up between Most-Likely-To-Beat-It-Sanjaya Malakar and Brandon "Buckwheat" Rogers. I have to throw Brandon under the bus. Sanjaya was at least memorable (in a bad way) for the ridiculousness of his Gayle King hair, Michael Jackson outfit and fucking whispering a really lame song. Note to Sanjaya: having an "old soul" does not mean you have good taste.

But if Brandon wants to hammer into our heads why he was a background singer all this time, he couldn't be doing a better job. He just put us all to sleep with his tepid and embarrassingly boring singing of "Time After Time." Plus he whispers into the mic like a phone sex operator.

Before I get to the girls, I have to comment on Fox's subliminal messages to us to watch Jeff Foxworthy's new gameshow by panning to Jeff Foxworthy in the Idol audience 5 times every two minutes and relentlessly showing us ads for his new show 500 times the entire night. Subtle, guys.

After opening a huge can of whoop ass last week, the girls turned all weepy and sobby this week from their dedications. Jordin, who can't spell her own name, got a free Get Out of Jail card, when the judges failed to call her out on her off-key singing, and instead gave her some coos and puppy dog eyes and excused her sorry-ass wobbly performance.

Lakisha sang one of the greatest songs ever, "Midnight Train to Georgia." She was a'right, but not as good as when Paris sang it last year. I still haven't joined the Lakisha train. Melinda still remains my favorite, although I didn't think her performance this week was as much fun as last week. And now I'm beginning to notice her weird mannerisms and geez, Melinda, a little humility is refreshing, but your banter with Ryan sounded really forced. Of course, Ryan probably put you up to it.

The one problem that pervades American Idol is that no matter what season, all the girls get the Whitney/Celine syndrome. Now Whitney, I can excuse, because she's got some pretty kick ass songs and Whitney's become so much more fun now that she's become Crazy Whitney (although not nearly as much fun as Crazy Britney). But what Simon says is true, you are ALWAYS going to be compared to the original and so you better have some big pipes to bring it. Sabrina and Haley got the Whitney-drome, and kind of did okay. Haley was a little strange and I thought her head was going to explode like wind-up doll wound up too much.

Poor Antonella, though, got Celineitis. My main question is though who the hell wants to sing like Celine anyway? Why in the world did Antonella say "This song is more me." I'm too perplexed by that statement (am I supposed to see her as a creepy 60 year old French Canadian bear's concubine?) to make a snarky remark.

Well, I was late with this week's Idol reviews, and we all know what happened. I'm sad that the guy I voted for got kicked off. In any case, my votes for this week:

Best Guy: AJ Tabaldo. He's the best flipping-the-collar-as-if-ish gay guy on the show.

Worst Guy: Brandon Rogers. Did he actually try to blame his grandmother for his lame-o performance?

Best Girl: Melinda Doolittle again. Hmmm. You have a vocalist coach and a stylist? Makes me rethink your humble image. You're a professional. Still so far, you haven't sung one bad note.

Worst Girl: Antonella Barba again. Your pot shot comment at Simon about Jennifer Hudson was really lame and your rolling eyes didn't get you any points from me either.