entertainment ave!

It’s award show season, and there is no more controversial award show than the Golden Globe Awards. There are many in the industry that consider it a joke, that the Hollywood Foreign Press is a joke, and that the award is really meaningless, but these are the same industry people who are praying for their movie, show, song, etc., to be named as the winner this year. Why? Publicity, and somehow the Golden Globes figured out how to market themselves as the “fun” award show. Yup, you get everyone seated at round tables instead of a stuffy auditorium, so it seems like a wedding reception, and then of course there is the flow of alcohol that sometimes loosens up either a presenter, or better yet, one of the award recipients. We like a train-wreck, and for the most part people aren’t tuning into the Golden Globes to see who won, nope, they are tuning in to see said train-wreck, and hope it might be an actor or actress we admire who is slightly over-served and trips on their way to the stage.

Okay, I don’t know if that’s why people are tuning in, but it’s one of the reasons I’ll be tuning in, that and the fact that this year Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are hosting it and they can usually bring the funny. Hopefully they will be unleashed, hopefully the booze will be flowing, hopefully someone will be goofy, but you can bet there will be someone who gets up there proclaiming they didn’t have a speech written because they didn’t think they would win, people will gripe tomorrow, especially if a “darling” doesn’t win, that the awards are a joke, and in a few weeks once the Academy Awards hit no one will care who really won the Golden Globe. Except the winners.

I’ll be watching, but I wonder and I plight: Do you plan on watching the Golden Globe Awards?

That’s it for this plight! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

By:

The Dude on the Right
Maybe it’s just a fuse, maybe it was God telling me I shouldn’t watch John
McCain’s speech at the Republican Convention, but yesterday, just as I was
getting ready to settle on to my couch to see how John McCain will save the
world in a better way than Barack Obama (because that is what these conventions
are all about, aren’t they?), I went to turn on the TV in my living room, and,
well, it didn’t turn on. Because I couldn’t believe it wouldn’t actually turn
on, of course I kept pushing the power button about twenty times, both on the
remote and on the TV itself, and still nothing happened. What to do, what to do?
I fished the TV power cord from out of the power strip, went to my garage to get
an extension cord, plugged it into an outlet I knew was working, plugged the TV
into the extension cord, and wouldn’t you know it, my TV still didn’t turn on.

Now I know that my TV had been making funny noises a few weeks ago, but those
noises, surprisingly, had gone away, and things were working well.  I
figured my TV was just going through a phase, but sadly, it looks like that
phase was "Screw you, you ‘America’s Got Talent’ watcher. I just can’t take it
anymore, and since you continue to watch crap shows like "America’s Got No
Talent," "Dancing with Loser Stars," and "Yup, These People are Fat," or
something like them, I’m done. I just can’t take it anymore.  I’ll show
you!"

Yup, I think my TV just couldn’t stand my TV viewing habits, and with a new
TV season upon it, and my forcing it to show another season of the Chicago Bears
while the Chicago Cubs totally collapse during September, it felt it was actually
doing me a favor by shorting itself out, thereby making me realize that there
might actually be life without television.

But what my TV didn’t realize was that its days were numbered anyway, what
with him being an old tube, non High-Def television, and as I know The Chicago
Bears will be in the Super Bowl in 2009 (I am so optimistic right now), I was
looking to kick him to the curb anyway, or maybe put him in my bedroom,
especially when those great sales came around before the big game.  I’m
thinking, though, that I still might wait for those big sales, in the meantime
moving my basement TV to the living room, and putting my really old TV that is
still in the garage in the basement, even if the color is all discombobulated on
that old TV.  Who cares if green grass is red, anyway?

In the meantime, maybe I’ll put my broken TV on eBay.  If Governor Sarah
Palin can try to sell an airplane on eBay, maybe some sucker, I mean handyman, I
mean handyperson, will want a broken TV.  At least I should be able to make
some money on the shipping and handling!

That’s it for this one! 
I’m The Dude on the Right!!  L8R!!!

Thanks to the internet, Stu and The Dude were able to record their

"Weekend Wrap-Up!" podcast via Skype, and although not the most exciting of
Memorial Day weekends, some things for them were the same, and some things for
them were different.  Duh.

Stu is nursing a cold, which kept him keeping up with his Netflix queue, namely
watching "Wild Hogs" and "Cougar Club," while The Dude on the Right ventured
into Chicago to see

"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," fireworks, and have a
nice dinner.  Stu couldn’t go backyard camping with his kids, and The Dude
needed to buy a new filter for his kids.  And Stu probably didn’t use his

Wii Fit, while The Dude doesn’t own a Wii.

Now that they know the Skype thing works, there really isn’t an excuse for Stu
and The Dude to not ever do a podcast again.

By:

The Dude on the Right
Tonight’s mentor was Dolly Parton, and I know if I were there as a contestant I
would be screwed because rather than listening to anything she said I would be
just mesmerized with her, umm, voice.  Yea, her voice.  The only thing
I would be focusing on would be her big, giant, voice.

In any case, these
contestants overcame Dolly’s voices, I mean voice, and here’s how I thought they
did. (And, yes, the opening "April Fool’s Joke" during the she show was really
lame.  If they really wanted to do it right they would have teamed up with
ABC’s "Dancing With the Stars" and have millions of people wondering what was
wrong with their TV sets.)

Let’s go…

Brooke White
 - Sings – "Jolene"
 - A great song for her, and as much as I like her doing the acoustic
guitar thing I think she would be more potent if she wasn’t sitting on the stool
and able to "work" this song more.  She’s already got the fan-base so I
don’t think it will hurt her, but for "American Idol" this needed to be a
"performance" song.

David Cook
 - Sings "Little Sparrow"
 - So David, this week, decides to actually do his own arrangement, and
Dolly had nice things to say about it.  The country fans might not like it,
I did, and although the singing was off a bit at time, who the hell cares? 
His confidence is growing and it shows, and for him, I hate to say it, but like
a dude named Daughtry, it might be better if he loses.

Ramiele Malubay
 - Sings – "Do I Ever Cross Your Mind"
 - She sings nice enough, but what a wrong genre for her to be in after
last week’s issues.  She’s not country, and she’s not rock and roll; I
think she needs a "Rihanna Week" to pull her out of her funk.  Sadly she
will probably be gone by that night because even though I like her spunk, but
she still seems scared.

Jason Castro
 - Sings – "Travelin’ Through"
 - Simple enough song, but I don’t think he has the fan base to keep him
going much longer.  For me I can’t envision him on a big stage, but rather
doing a lot of acoustic shows in the smaller clubs, with fans that love him. 
He hasn’t shown himself to be able to command a 20,000 seater, on a big old
stage.

Carly Smithson
- Sings – "Here You Come Again"
- This might sound wrong, sexist, or whatever, but she doesn’t have the look to
pull off this song.  Sure, her voice is good enough, but this song doesn’t
seem to to in her genre of music.  Randy and Paula (especially Paula)
really liked her, but Simon had his issues.  I agree with Simon.

David
Archuleta
 - Sings – "Smokey Mountain Memories"
 - Dolly really loves him, she almost even cried.  Damn, I really like
this young dude, and even though his voice cracked a bit, on the slow songs he
seems to be fantastic.  I still, wish, that he would do something up-tempo
to see if can turn into a true performer instead of just wowing the dudettes.

Kristy Lee Cook
 - Sings – "Coat of Many Colors"
 - Please tell me she is going to get off her butt and sing this song to
the audience because she is singing great enough in the country genre. 
Okay, she got up, and is still singing nice enough, but she needs to learn a lot
about performing, and if she wanted to get any mentoring from Dolly it would be
how to be a performer and not a singer – if I were her, for this song, I would
ask Dolly how I could touch her, umm audiences.  Sadly Kristy was boring as
usual.

Syesha Mercado
 - Sings – "I Will Always Love You"
 - She sings purty enough, and I like her sitting on the piano.  She
comes across better looks-wise this week, but I really wish she could have
pulled off getting her butt off the piano for the ending of the song to really
blast it out for the crowd.  She almost had a chance to blow this song out
of the house, but instead just sang it.

Michael Johns
 - Sings – "It’s All Wrong, But It’s All Right"
 - As much as I didn’t like a lot of his carrying on with this song, as a
"performer" and not a singer he was probably the best of the night, and since
Paula talked to long, and my TiVo flipped to "Dancing With the Stars" and "The
Biggest Loser," I’m not sure what Simon said.  Doesn’t matter, he did great
and should stick around until next week when I can re-adjust my TiVo Season
Passes so Idol doesn’t get clipped.

Let’s wrap this up…

The thing that sort of makes me sad is that pretty much everyone on the show
right now is great, or at least good singers, but only a few of them seem to
have the personalities to be performers.  Every one of them you can picture
singing in a smaller club, with a group of fans, but none of them have shown the
step to the next level.  I suppose Dolly Parton week wasn’t the time to see
that (although a lot of them should have gotten tips from her about being a
performer rather than a singer), but if the "American Idol" folks want to truly
groom any of these kids, bring on a Bruce Springsteen as a two-week mentor to
help them become a small-club person, which most of them already are, to a
stadium rocker, which he is.  Pimp The Beatles if you must, but teach them
Springsteen or The Rolling Stones.

That’s it for this one! 
I’m The Dude on the Right!!  L8R!!!

The Dude on the Right is here for his Valentine’s Day podcast, and he doesn’t talk about love. Instead The Dude gives his analysis on Johnny Fairplay being booted from “Survivor: Micronesia” last week, feeling bad for Josiah who’s back living in his car after “American Idol,” and being happy some of his favorite TV shows will be back, soon. He is also worried that Howard Stern might be off the air soon recalling the movie “Spies Like Us” and the government looking to shoot down a “broken, spy” satellite.

For another Monday The Dude on the Right is flying solo for a weekend wrap-up podcast, but that’s okay because this podcast is all about Super. The Dude talks about the Super Bowl, about Super (thanks for asking) Tuesday, his almost being a Super Stripper, and Super Bowl commercials. And speaking of those Super Bowl commercials, he thinks the most creative of the bunch actually came during the Super Bowl Pre-Game, a spot titled “Bob’s House” from Pepsi, which The Dude thinks they actually screwed up just tad. The hell with Justin Timberlake, if Pepsi wanted to make a stir they should have run “Bob’s House” during the big game, without the pre-explaination of what it was about.

Even though it’s normally a day for a Weekend Wrap-Up Podcast with Stu Gotz, The Dude on the Right and Stu couldn’t figure out how to meet up today so The Dude on the Right handles the podcast duty flying solo. The Dude apologizes for his choice of words in yesterday’s blog, which he has since edited, but doesn’t apologize for liking the new “Rambo” movie. But mostly TV is on the mind of The Dude and he thinks it’s time for MTV to change its name because seriously, what do constant “America’s Next Top Model” marathons have to do with music?

The Dude on the Right is already flabbergasted at how strange 2008 has been, and it’s only ten days in. For this podcast he leaves the family stuff for later but instead delves into Britney Spears and Dr. Phil, wants The Academy Awards to go on but only if the writers get their stuff, and now that Sony/BMG is going to let Amazon sell music/mp3s with no copyright protection, why no love yet for Apple who, sure, wanted to sell a bunch of iPods, but showed the world some people would actually buy music over the internet.
The Dude is also flustered by the elections and the influence Iowa and New Hampshire have on the entire picking a President process, but he has at least 11 reasons why he is looking forward to this season of “Survivor: Micronesia.”

For this podcast The Dude on the Right is flying solo and gives his take on this entire Ellen DeGeneres dog crap, is in the corner of the “Mutts and Moms” people, and thinks the problem might not be the dog, it might be the cats. He also is baffled at how Britney Spears can still be screwing things up with her custody issues and practically begs her to move out of California. With the death of Joey Bishop, well, The Dude is sad to see the last of The Rat Pack go, long live The Rat Pack.
And of course, most importantly for him, screw the “feel-good” team of the Colorado Rockies getting to The World Series, for him it’s “Go Tribe!”

For this podcast episode of “Stu & The Dude’s Weekend Wrap-Up!” Stu Gotz is trying to deal with his allergies, and his weekend was sort of boring except he is amazed at the ability of his son to recognize various smells. The Dude on the Right saw “Shoot ‘Em Up,” but for the most part the boys talk about the MTV Video Music Awards that had Britney Spears not losing her mom-ass yet, and Sarah Silverman doing stand-up that would have went over great in a club, just not so much at the award show. At least The Dude didn’t have to talk much about watching the Chicago Bears and the Chicago Cubs both lose.