Andy Labis, Author at Entertainment Ave!

Lying is a Crime, Paula Abdul Needs to be Watched, and Dumb Robbers in Australia

By:

The Dude on the Right
Our federal government has nothing better to do like looking for terrorists,
trying to find Osama Bin Laden, figure out how to get out of debt, make a
decision on the Sirius / XM Satellite Radio merger, or take a hard look at the
immigration issue, nope, what’s most important is who lied – Roger Clemens or
Brian McNamee? Yup, baseball seems to be the most important thing for our
government to work on, and I talk about it during

this podcast episode.

I also give a little bit of insight into this season
of "Survivor: Micronesia," and I am worried about David Archuleta on "American
Idol" (who should win this competition hands down) because Paula Abdul seems to
want to decapitate him and hang his head from her rear-view mirror. And
sometimes there is nothing better than a story about stupid robbers in
Australia, complete with bad sound drops via me.

Thanks for listening! And Mom, get well soon!

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

Download and Listen

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American Idol – The Ten Dudettes Who are Left

By:

The Dude on the Right
The dudes tried their best for 70’s music, and didn’t do to well, so now it’s
time for the dudettes. Here’s how I thought they did…

Carly
Smithson
– The Irish dudette who had a recording contract before. There’s still
something wrong about that.
– Crazy on You – Heart
– Like the bouncing, don’t like her tats, picked a good song for her, but
I wonder why she doesn’t work the stage more.

Syesha Mercado
– She does do a pretty good baby cry.
– Me and Mr(s). Jones – Billy Paul
– I actually liked the song, even though the judges didn’t seem to like it.
Maybe it came across better on TV than in the studio. She still needs to come
into her own.

Brooke White
– You’re So Vain – Carly Simon
– Almost seemed to be in the wrong key for her because she couldn’t hit
the low notes, but even though, it was good. I still like her, but if she’s
going to be working with the guitar she needs a wireless headset and work around
the stage because this ain’t no coffee shop.

Ramielle Malubay
– We are happy to know she can hula dance!
– Don’t Leave Me This Way – Thelma Houston
– Maybe they aren’t allowed to actually work the crowd because so far
they all just stand in that middle circle, but I am liking Ramielle and thought
she did a great job. I don’t know what the hell is wrong with the judges, but I
liked it.

Kristy Lee Cook
– As opposed to seeing what the dudes are in their real life, we like
knowing what the dudettes are like, and I like that she’s a tomboy.
– You’re No Good – Linda Ronstadt
– Nice outfit, and she’s doing her best to work the song. I think she
sings purty as well. Please, voters, keep her around for a while!

Amanda Overmyer
– She’s a bookworm, and a Harley chick, and a nurse.
– Carry On Wayward Son – Kansas
– Sure, she’s a rocker chick, but this was a horrible song especially
with the "American Idol" band being her back-up band. She’s looking scary,
and in the end, that won’t work for this show.

Alaina Whitaker
– Our staff member Big Cooter doesn’t like food touching each other either,
but at least he doesn’t use a different fork for each food.
– Hopelessly Devoted to You – Olivia Newton-John
– Stop the hunch back (it shows in the side shots), fix the gap in your
front teeth, but it just wasn’t a performance kind of song. She was good,
should have done "You’re the One That I Want" from "Grease," in tight leather,
but needs work. Head to the dark side – country music.

Alexandrea Lushington
– If You Leave Me Now – Chicago
– It’s a nice, simple song, but the key to this song is it being from
Chicago, the band. She did a decent job, but nothing spectacular for me.
There are probably so many more songs in the 70’s that she could have done that
are more in her wheelhouse, it was almost sad she did a song from Chicago – the
band, not the city. If she had done a song from the city, not the band,
umm, sweet.

Kady Malloy
– She sings opera – does she know Orff?
– Magic Man – Heart
– Since it seems the singers aren’t let loose to actually work the crowd,
Kady just looks like some chick singing a Heart song. It really didn’t
work for me. She’s cute, but man, bolt into "Carmina Burana" in the middle
and really make the song your own.

Asia’h Epperson
– She was a cheerleader. Ready, o kay.
– All By Myself – Eric Carmen
– It was nice and all, but she couldn’t hit the power ballad of it at the
beginning, instead worked it into the ending. I think she got shorted
because she didn’t seem to do much of the song at all. Simon was right in
his comments, even if she was coming off being sick.

Hell, at least some of the dudes seemed to pick up on what to sing with the
70’s era, but the ladies were all over the place and none of them kept up with
some of the dudes. The voting will be interesting, and I won’t give you my
take on who should get the boot, but unless someone steps up in a huge way, or
he totally fucks up, David Archuleta has this season already in his back pocket.

Then again, if next week is the 80’s, at least some of these folks will be
singing songs released when they were alive.

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

American Idol – The Ten Dudes Who are Left

By:

The Dude on the Right
So last night was the night for the remaining dudes on "American Idol, and
here’s my rundown of what I thought of the dudes. We’ll see if have enough
gumption to do a synopsis for the dudettes this week. Here we go…

Michael Johns

Go Your Own Way – Fleetwood Mac

Wrong song, can’t sing it, I really didn’t like it.

Jason Castro

Hates doing interviews – Dude you better get used to it.

I Just Want to be Your Everything – Andy Gibb

Don’t even think of doing a Gibb family song if you can’t do the high
notes, and you can’t. I do like that he plays a guitar, but damn, is this a
classic from the seventies with an acoustic guitar you should be trying to
pull off?

Luke Menard

Killer Queen – Queen

Singing was okay but dude, can you at least try to be a performer? How
do you do that – you work the stage. Quit standing there.

Robbie Carrico

We don’t really care that you drag race cars.

Hot Blooded – Foreigner

He just sounds boring as hell. There’s no inspiration in the
performance. For me he was lame.

Danny Noriega

Don’t You Remember You told me you loved me Baby? – The Carpenters

What the hell is going on? Can’t any of these dudes be a performer? And
he couldn’t sing the song well, either. Maybe the judges heard something
else, but on my TV it was lame.

David Hernandez

Papa was a Rolling Stone – The Temptations

So far he’s the best performer out of the boys, but he dances like a,
well, he doesn’t have soul. Singing-wise he was alright.

Jason Yeager

Long Train Running – The Doobie Bros.

He at least is trying to be a performer, but it doesn’t look genuine.
Everything seems to be wrong with the song choices, or the fact that we
don’t give a damn about he 70’s anymore.

Chikezie

I Believe to My Soul – Ray Charles

Did a hell of a lot better than last week. Seems to be coming into his
own and might be a force to be reckoned with if he can keep it up. Still
likes busting on Simon though, which might be fun.

David Cook

We don’t care that you’re a word nerd.

All Right Now – Bad Company

Did okay, but it’s hard to be a rocker with the "American Idol" band as
your backup. Needs to work it more.

Dude, don’t bust on Simon. Chikezie is starting to quip with Simon well,
but you just sound like an ass.

David Archuleta

He’s got everything working for him – the boy band looks, the voice, and
the "I’m so humble attitude.

Imagine – John Lennon

Unless he screws up royally, or one of the hot dudettes gets millions of
dudes to vote, he pretty much has thing already wrapped up. Somehow he made
"Imagine" his own, and that’s not an easy thing to do.

Some of the dudes showed they might have a chance in this thing, but a lot of
them still don’t know how to pick a song. If next week is about the 80’s,
at least some of the songs might have been put out after these dudes were born.

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

Flickr, Picasa, and Scanner Dilemmas.

By:

The Dude on the Right
As I’m trying to pay attention to "American Idol" tonight, with the dudes
singing classic songs from the 70’s which so far have been bad renditions of
songs from Fleetwood Mac, Andy Gibb, Queen, Foreigner, and The Carpenters, I’m
also in a quandary because I can’t get my film scanning stuff like I want.

First off, I finally scanned all of my concert negatives, got them digitized in
a decent resolution, and slowly plan to update the photos on the website with
the higher resolution versions I now have. That was the easy part, with my
old HP Photosmart film scanner.

But
then I decided I wanted to start digitizing older photos (like this cute girl on
the right), and old negatives, and post them on the internet for family,
friends, and anyone to see, and I have run into many questions, and many
choices.

As far as posting them on the internet, I started by setting up a
site at Flickr, but I have to say that as much as I like it, and would pay the
yearly fee for unlimited stuff, I am worried about the potential takeover by
Microsoft and what that might mean to the photos I post. I also looked at
maybe using Google’s Picasa instead, but from some quick things I have read
there are some copyright/publicity issues Google might be able to enforce.
And as I was investigating Flickr vs. Google, I came upon a bunch of other sites
that seem to do a similar thing, namely set up family photo albums. I’m so
confused.

Then came the problem of a scanner. My old scanner was an HP
Photosmart S20, which has served me well through the years, but it doesn’t
handle the medium format film that my mom had stored in a box. So, today,
I went to get a new scanner, based on a lot of reviews I read on the internet,
and even though I like the scanner (it’s an Epson), the software for it sucks,
and I’ll be damned if I’m going to spend more money for scanning software.
So, sadly, tomorrow, I have to hope the store will take it back, and then I
suppose I’ll go back to an HP scanner (I loved the software that worked with the
Photosmart), I just hope the HP folks kept the same format for the software (or
at least close) that I am used to, and that the scanner works like I need it to.

Now don’t get me wrong, for most people the Epson software will be fine, but for
me, and my photos, it blows (and if the Epson folks want to know why they can
e-mail me), because all I really want to do, before the rest of my older
relatives pass away, is to find out who all of these people are in photos that
are tens, and twenties, and maybe even thirty or forty of years taken before I
was born, and if it takes me that much longer to get the photos digitized and
posted (like the Epson software leaned itself to), those relatives will be dead
before I find out.

If you’ve got any suggestions for digitizing old negatives,
medium format (up to 6 x 12), or if you have an internet site you love for
posting your family scrapbooks, please let me know. Right now I have to
figure out how to box up my Epson scanner I bought, hope the store takes it
back, and then hope again that if I buy the HP version the software will be to
my liking. With my luck the new scanner won’t scan worth a darn but the
software will be great.

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

What’s New? A Podcast of: Stu & The Dude’s Weekend Wrap-Up! Oscar Talk, Who’s Jimmy Kimmel “F”-n, and Stu Won’t Shut Up.

The Dude on the Right is back from his weekend in Lorain, Ohio, a city where both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are making campaign stops, but The Dude didn’t stay long enough to see either of them. Instead he got back to the Chicagoland area as quick as he could so he and Stu Gotz could put together a new episode of their “Weekend Wrap-Up Podcast!” The Dude would have liked to have stayed to see Barack speak and Hillary flash her crazy-eyes, but instead he gets to listen to Stu not stop talking (maybe Stu should be a politician?).
But because Stu wouldn’t shut up this podcast is all over the place, including talk about The Academy Awards and who should have won an Oscar, movies like “The Ex” and “Be Kind, Rewind,” buying a meat slicer, “Saturday Night Live,” starting a porn site, a non-bachelor party, Jim Cantore from The Weather Channel calling Stu in the middle of the night, and Mama Gotz almost falling out of bed. At least The Dude got to tell Stu that Jimmy Kimmel is fucking Ben Affleck.
So many things are in this podcast, and probably a few more. Go ahead, give it a listen.

Stu & The Dude’s Weekend Wrap-Up! Oscar Talk, Who’s Jimmy Kimmel “F”-n, and Stu Won’t Shut Up.

By:

The Dude on the Right
For this blue (and I’m not talking sad, I’m talking bad language) episode of our

"Weekend Wrap-Up Podcast!" Stu Gotz just doesn’t want to shut up (nor keep
it clean), not that there’s anything wrong with that. What it does do,
though, is lend this to a podcast of topics just about everywhere and anywhere.

We give our wrap-up of "The Academy Award" broadcast, how some missed out on the
coveted Oscar, and both Stu and I thought it was really cool that they let
Marketa Irglova come back out and give her speech for winning the best song
Oscar for "Falling Slowly" from the film

"Once" after the band cued her and Glen Hansard off the stage after Glen
spoke. We also discuss fashion, which is scary, and found it funny that
John Stewart slammed

"Norbit" even though it was up for an Academy Award.

Stu saw a couple of
movies over his weekend, one via his Netflix, namely "The Ex," the other without
Mama Gotz, namely "Be Kind, Rewind," and lets me know what he thought of them,
while I tell Stu about the joys of buying a meat slicer. There’s also talk
of the return of "Saturday Night Live" with a fake commercial called

"Annuale" that Stu said nearly had Mama Gotz fall out of bed (we both found
it very funny), and I have to admit I was wrong because it was Fred Armisen who
was doing the Barack Obama impression during the opening, not someone new,
although I still think Darrell Hammond doing Jesse Jackson doing Barack Obama
would be better.

I did hip Stu to the fact that Jimmy Kimmel has figured out
how to get back at Sarah Silverman, namely because
Jimmy
Kimmel is fucking Ben Affleck, and we find that Jimmy has the star power
Sarah only wishes she had. Stu also wants us to start a porn site because
that’s where the real money is, only I have trouble with the domain name he
wants to buy. Finally, since Stu still can’t stop talking, he now hates
Jim
Cantore from The Weather Channel because Jim woke the Gotz family up at
three in the morning just to tell him about an upcoming Winter Storm Warning and
not a tornado.

Thanks for listening! And Mom, get well soon!

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

Download and Listen

Subscribe Here

There Are Still Too Many American Idols for Me to Care.

By:

The Dude on the Right
As a fan of "American
Idol" I have to agree with my mom that there are still too many contestants
for me to really care. Sure, they trimmed it down to 24, twelve dudes and
twelve dudettes, but after watching the dudes do their singing yesterday, I
could care less about them. The dudettes are tonight, but other than
checking out which ones are doing the smart thing, namely trying to look hot as
well as sing well, I don’t think I care about them, either.

The other thing,
and maybe I’m wrong about this (go ahead, correct me), but I don’t think they
used to start right off the bat with a theme, at least not for the top 24.
I always thought that, at the beginning, they let the kids pick any song, from
any genre, from any time period, as long as it was on the approved "we’ve got
the rights to this" list, to kind of show what these people thought they could
sing well. Instead the boys were dropped right into the fire, with it now
being 60’s week, where most of the dudes seemed to struggle because A) They
didn’t seem to realize they were suppose to make it their own, nor 2) I’m
guessing most of them had no idea how to make it their own, what with now being
with the band and all. The judges kept blasting them for singing the song
as the song was originally done, but I didn’t think that, at this stage, most of
our twelve dudes would be comfortable enough saying something like "Hey, band
people, I’m singing Elvis’ "Suspicious Minds," but I want it done in a hip-hop
style that maybe Kanye West would do. I don’t really know what that means,
but since I have to make the song my own, and you’re the band, well, you figure
it out." Some of the dudes did okay, I don’t think anyone sucked that bad,
but it seems odd, at this early stage of the competition, for the contestants to
have to reconfigure classics (and oh, by the way, the folks at "American Idol"
need to look at a calendar because Danny’s version of "Jailhouse Rock" belonged
in 50’s week, as it was released in 1957, I believe) into something
contemporary.

We’ll see how the ladies do tonight, and after yesterday I can
probably guess there might have been a lot of scrambling, with maybe one of them
saying "I am now doing "Baby Love" by The Supremes, and you better figure out
how to make it sound like a version that Amy Winehouse would do." Somehow
I don’t think that would actually happen. My guess is the judges will be saying
the same thing as yesterday, with maybe a couple girls, hopefully the
good-looking ones, somehow making the song their own.

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

What’s New? A Podcast of: Lindsay Lohan is Naked, TV for Kids at Night, and Idols on iTunes.

The Dude on the Right was happy when he read Lindsay Lohan was getting naked, but for this podcast he states that he doesn’t like Lindsay trying to copy Marilyn Monroe, that she should be her own woman. He’s also frustrated because he ruined most of the animation of his and Stu’s animated review of “Sweeney Todd,” questions the decision to run a show geared for families, namely “My Dad is Better Than Your Dad” at a time-slot when the kids should be getting ready for bed, and wonders who will be buying “American Idol” performances on iTunes.

Lindsay Lohan is Naked, TV for Kids at Night, and Idols on iTunes.

By:

The Dude on the Right
With the Gotz family running through the winter cold bug, Stu didn’t want to
take a chance and infect me (Thanks, Stu!), so I’m flying solo in what normally
would be a "Weekend Wrap-Up" podcast.

Instead, this podcast starts with much jubilation as

Lindsay Lohan has finally gotten naked for the rest of us to see!

Sure, I
could probably fill the entire podcast of my analysis of Lindsay naked, but to
change things up a bit I also question why the NBC show
"My
Dad is Better Than Your Dad" is on at 9PM on the east and west coast when
its target kid audience should probably be getting ready for bed, I give my
analysis of NASCAR’s Daytona 500 from Sunday, and I also wonder who will
actually be buying performances of the "American Idol" contestants via iTunes.

And, oh yea, in giving you my weekend wrap-up I did see

"Jumper" and

"Definitely, Maybe," but my weekend also resulted in my tale of animation
woe as I pretty much blew-up all of my work on our upcoming animated review of
"Sweeney Todd," mostly because I’m an idiot.

Thanks for listening!

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

Download and Listen

Subscribe Here

I Don’t Think Mom Will Need a T-Shirt

By:

The Dude on the Right
As I continue to use my blogging for some psychotherapy in dealing with the
death of my father last month, a couple of strange thoughts hit me the last
couple of days, some now dealing with my Mom, brought on by the death of my Dad.
And as bizarre as this sounds, I’m wondering now what should be put in her
coffin. Since she’s still in the land of the living, I suppose we should just
ask her, but hopefully she won’t need a t-shirt.

Here’s the thing: Even with
my Dad’s many health issues, he always seemed to just soldier on, but with Mom
being diagnosed with lung cancer a few years back, and sorry, no offense Mom,
most of those in my family figured Dad would stick around and Mom would be the
one to go first. But Dad had other plans, because he always had to do things his
way, and last month his time on Earth was done. As we finalized his official
obituary (I’m still working on my version), we also found/wanted some things
buried with him.

In the couple of days following his death, as we were going through things,
we found his wedding ring, which he never wore as long as I could remember, but
it was stowed away, separately, distinctively, in his box of cufflinks. It was
decided Dad would be buried with his wedding ring on, and from my perspective,
to make sure, in Heaven, he remembered he couldn’t pick up other women.

It was also decided that Dad would be buried with a puzzle, because he liked
doing puzzles. We debated about burying him with an old puzzle he had already
completed, or a new puzzle for him to work on. So there, for him, is a puzzle of
the Chicago skyline that I gave him for Christmas but he never got a chance to
work on.

And as his official obituary stated, Dad enjoyed eating chocolate. One of his
favorites was a coconut/chocolate concoction called a "haystack." Back in Lorain
there was a chocolate/candy company called "Faroh’s" that had the best
"haystacks." They were made with long strands of coconut draped in tasty
chocolate, but sadly they aren’t there anymore. Dad did have some "haystacks"
left with him, even though the newer version from another supplier look like
turds with white speckles, and I have to admit, I snuck a few out of the box
before I left the rest for him for his eternity. Though not as pretty as the
Faroh’s brand, they were tasty. Sorry, Dad, I couldn’t resist.

But it wasn’t until the other day when I realized Dad had something of mine,
for the rest of forever, and it’s simply a t-shirt.

I normally don’t wear t-shirts but with the colder winter we have been having
this year, and my wanting to be a little more stylish, on colder days I started
wearing a white t-shirt, and with the pending passing of my Dad, I packed my
arsenal of four, white t-shirts for the trip back home. It wasn’t until the
other day when it was cold outside, and I was looking for a t-shirt, that I
realized I was one short, and that Dad was wearing my t-shirt. Forever.

You see, like most people dealing with the passing of a parent, there is
always that awkward part of what to have them wearing in their coffin. Dad
wasn’t a suit man and definitely not a jean’s man. His general attire, before he
become bedridden when it was just easier to stay in a hospital gown, was a dark
pair of slacks, usually blue, a t-shirt, and a flannel shirt in the winter,
something lighter in the summer. We found the pants, found a nice shirt, but
couldn’t find a crisp, white t-shirt in his dresser, so I gave Dad one last gift
– a t-shirt.

It was weird when it donned on me that Dad was buried with my t-shirt. It
didn’t make me sad, just seemed weird. I hope Mom won’t think it weird when we
ask her if she wants anything buried with her. I doubt she’ll need a t-shirt,
but when that time comes, I might just bring a spare one anyway.

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