Idol Chatter

OK this is not one of those subjects I tend to spend much time on but in watching the evening news I saw this short spot on how there isn’t the money there used to be in recycling.  Kind of a bummer really when you think about it.  Many of us need a bit of encouragement to ‘do the right thing’  - especialy businesses.  If we can incent them to dispose of trash in an environmentally friendly manner, all the better.

If businesses go from making money by recycling to having to pay for pick up, one has to wonder if they’ll start to opt for just sending it to the landfill.  That would be unfortunate.  Regardless of what you believe about the cause of the worsening of our fagile balance here on Earth, we should all do the right thing to keep our planet not just good for our lifetime but good for the multitude of generations to come.

Black Friday 2008 has now come and gone.  With much trepidation many retail stores and, frankly, economists will be counting the numbers.  Is Black Friday a good barameter of the Holiday spending totals?  Or could it be that with all the hype about how dramatic the deals were going to be and how much price slashing would be evidient, customers were left feeling a bit disappointed?

If that’s the case, if Black Friday becomes Bleak Friday, there is still a modicum of hope.  The fact is that Christmas will come and some level of buying always happens.  Christmas 2008 is already fated to go down on the records as one of no growth and probable retraction of sales volumes that have been achieved in prior years.

And the real story about Christmas 2008 will be told after Christmas as some retailers just won’t be able to make it.  There’s no jolly in that thought.  But the US economy is one driven by the consumer.  Consumers are fearful.  There have been many job layoffs already announced and as folks reduce spending in fear that their jobs may be next, they actually promote the very outcome they seek to avoid.  Ironic isn’t it?

In a day or two we’ll all be told how it went.  In the meantime, perhaps I’ll make a trip to the mall or better yet wait until Cyber Monday and buy something online.

Will Preseident elect Obama select Senator Clinton for Head of State?  This is the subject getting a fair amount of attention as Obama talked with both Clinton and Governor Richards about the post.

I am reminded of the old saying “keep your friends close and your enemies even closer”.  Obama does not seem to like Clinton much depsite the acclaimed speech she gave at the DNC and her campaign stumping she did for Obama after he had won the party’s nod for Democratic nominee.

The news pundits are also wondering how Vice President Elect Joe Biden might factor in any foreign policy role.  However, no matter who is offered and accepts the HOS role, he or she isn’t going to want Biden ‘helping’ out.  The HOS must have a firm command of international relations and Biden, unless serving for some humanitarian type of endeavor is likely to just be in the way and potentially undermining the HOS position.

Today regular programming was interupted to bring us breaking news.  What happened?  Was the US attacked?  Did another major financial institution declare bankruptcy?  Did some notworthy public persona commit some unspeakable crime or at least some significant gaffe?

Truth is none of these events happened.  Nope.  What as so important was that the President Elect Barack Obama and his wife Michelle made their first trip to the White House.

Are you kidding me?  This is considered news?

Why I needed to see the President elect and his wife enter the White House in real time is totally beyond me.  Why I needed to know that they have a $100,000 budget to redecorate the private quarters and the oval office is also totally beyond me.

With all that is going on in the current environment one would hope that we could actually concentrate on real news.  Leave the President elect and his lovely family alone for just a day.  I’m sure they would enjoy that as much as I would.

Looking a little worse for wear, President Elect Obama held his first press conference yesterday.  In a discussion that seemed halting at times and certainly not the smooth delivery we’ve grown accustomed to, the Obama basically admitted that fixing the economy was going to be a difficult job and require a lot of time.  Like we didn’t know that already.

And Obama clearly made a gaffe when he said in relation to talking to past presidents that “I’ve spoken to all of them,” he said, after a pause adding, “… that are living. I didn’t want to get into a Nancy Reagan thing about doing any seances.”  That required an apology when someone pointed out to him that while Nancy Reagan was into astrology she did not hold seances.

The only time Obama seemed to lighten up was when the conversation turned to what kind of dog would the Obama family be taking to the White House.  I’m not sure America really cares much about this subject but then again, you gotta love puppies!

The election is over and for some of us, not a moment too soon.  The most important element of election night after, of course, the announcement of Barack Obama as our 44th president was the gracious nature of the speaches made by both McCain and Obama that evening.

After the last six months of negative ad after negative ad - from both parties - one began to wonder if we had any civility left in us.  Tuesday evening fortunately gave us reason for hope in that regard.  Both men praised each other and as they delivered their praise it seemed to this writer that both honestly meant every word of it.

This turn moves us as a nation to a higher standard, a higher moral ground that cannot help but restore our confidence in ourselves and have the rest of the world more grateful for the more meaningful, intelligent discourse.

Thank goodness… and thank you to both honorable men.

It may be just me who thinks that Obama is sounding a bit weak in his McCain-Bush comparisons - but then again, maybe not.  Newsweek online just did a comparison of many of McCain’s proposals that have no relation to anything Bush has proposed.  Some of these ideas include:

— McCain wants to use half of the $700 billion financial rescue package that Bush signed into law to buy up troubled mortgages at full face value and then negotiate easier loan terms.

— McCain has called for the resignation of Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox because he has “betrayed the public’s trust.” Bush appointed Cox in 2005 and has stood by him.

— McCain has proposed sweeping changes to the health care system, replacing existing income tax breaks for worker’s health coverage with refundable tax credits of up to $5,000. Bush had proposed replacing income tax breaks with a standard deduction for health insurance, but it was not as large a proposal as McCain’s and it died in Congress.

— McCain differs with Bush in several ways over energy policy, points that his campaign argues would have a big impact on the economy. Among them: McCain supports a mandatory cap-and-trade approach to cutting greenhouse gases, which allows industries to either reduce their pollution or to purchase credits from companies exceeding pollution targets.

— McCain wants to eliminate taxes on unemployment benefits.

On the flip side, Obama want disparately to avoid any ties to the concept that he’s part of the ‘Tax and Spend’ Democratic Liberal group.  But his voting record is with the Democratic majority 96% of the time as reported by the Washington Post - Is he really his own man?  Of course that’s when he does vote.  Again according to the Washington Post, Senator Obama only has only exercised his vote a little over half the time:

Barack Obama has missed 303 votes (46.3%) during the current Congress.

While Obama shows a clear lead in the polls this last week before the vote, one wonders who it is that the US public is really voting into office.

With the blow up of Sarah Palin’s wardrobe expenditures reportedly totaling around $150K, Campbell Brown of CNN’s No Bias, No Bull put the issue up for pubic debate - do women have to work harder than men?  Are they judged more harshly - especially when it comes to how they look?

We could probably go round and round on this issue.  But perhaps the more interesting subject is how put together do you need to be to step into the political limelight at the level Sarah Palin has?

Sarah’s background is not one the oozes money.  Pictures released of her old wardrobe pre VP run showed a women doing her best with a limited clothing budget but you wouldn’t cite her as having great fashion taste.  Others running for office come from a situation of greater incomes (didn’t Obama make several million last year?) and frankly years to build up the stylish wardrobes they sport.

Looking at all the candidates and their wives (since Sarah is the only women I’ll throw the wives in too) you can see that they all dress extremely well.  I mean come on, if anyone doesn’t think Obama is spending a ton on his wardrobe, not to mention his wife Michelle’s understated high style selections (how often have you seen her look drab or wear the same outfit twice?).  And McCain has a solid wardrobe that probably costs more than it looks and his wife Cindy (who has a fortune) is often sporting top designer wear with lovely if pricely jewelry.

Perhaps the real issue is whether we’d really take anyone who shops at Target seriously.  The unfortunate truth may just be that we are more influenced by the proverbial ‘book cover’ than we want to admit.

This week the girls go bonkers. Well maybe or maybe not, I suppose it depends on your point of view.

In the Democratic camp, Barbra Streisand takes out after John McCain. Clearly this gal does not like that guy. Well when your are so deeply entrenched in the democratic leftist mentality this type of attack can hardly be surprising. Babs calls McCain’s pick of Sarah Palin ‘desperate and irresponsible’ and that it was pandering to women.

Pandering? Well that’s a personal call but one could argue that Obama’s pick of Biden was uninspired and unimaginative.

In the other corner, Elizabeth Hasselbeck from The View takes a shot at Michelle Obama after John McCain’s wife Cindy was interviewed on ‘The View’. According to Elizabeth, who as far right as Babs is left in her political views, she enjoyed that Mrs. McCain came on just to talk and took a shot at Michelle who apparently had a rather extensive list of subjects that were not to be brought up.

Maybe Mrs. Obama had an ‘off limits’ list but come on Elizabeth, it’s The View, not 60 Minutes. Give Michelle a break - she’s not running for office, her husband is.

Perhaps both gals ought to stop spewing negative feeds about what they don’t like and spend more time bringing focus to issues we really need to deal with. That’s a vote to grow up gals!

Let me be clear after that teaser of a headline - Steve Jobs is, as far as I know, alive today. But there sure was a lot of stir created by Bloomberg Financial when it’s wire service inadvertently released an updated obituary of Steve Jobs.

This may be placing fuel on the Jobs’ health fire. I recently wrote about Mr. Jobs’ health here with the discussion of what ‘bug’ (the official stance of Apple) did he have. So to make a mistake like this can easily cause a huge stir with Apple stockholders.

Bloomberg has apologized for the mistake and released a public retractment of the obituary. But people will continue to watch Mr. Jobs’ health closely.

A tip of the hat to Gawker.com who has published the entire updated obit (read that for fun here).

With the announcement of a new judge on Idol,  Kara DioGuardi Grammy nominated song writer, one has to wonder if Paula Abdul will be pushed out.  Current buzz hitting the airwaves says NO!  Paula will stay (at least through the next season).  The spin is that there has always been a goal for a fourth judge.

Now one has to wonder if that’s true.  Buzz from the Idol publicity machine says that the four judges format is working well internationally.  That may be true but four judges makes a tie possible which they’d then have to create new rules to ‘break’ any ties in votes.  So are they trialing this new face (quite easy on the eyes BTW) who has tons of credit to her name this season to replace Paula in a latter season.  Time will tell.

This weekend Shia LaBeouf was arrested for DUI - That’s the ugly.  In an interview, Shia almost seemed to be blaming his alcohol issues on his dad saying that they’d “would drink together and smoke together, and it’s just a bad deal.”  That’s the Bad - does of these young celebrities take full responsibility for their behavior?

But perhaps the ‘good’ in all this is Shia realizes that he does need to change.  As he says “It’s not something that is conducive to being a role model — no iconic actors that I know of have problems like that.”

So the real question is will he do anything about it?

Despite rampant speculation that Steve Jobs’ pancreatic cancer (or some version of cancer) has returned, Jobs himself is apparently going on record that he doesn’t have another round of cancer. Jobs first round of cancer was discovered back in 2003 and in 2004 he had special surgery that removed part of his digestive system.

According to the New York Times:

Patients undergoing the procedure typically lose up to 10% of their body weight and may suffer digestive problems for the rest of their lives.

Is this what is causing the gaunt look that Jobs is currently sporting?

Well it’s not Batman, it’s Christian Bale.  Rumors are circulating that something happened on Sunday evening with Christian, his mother and his sister.  The mother and sister filed assault charges on Monday.

No details yet on what actually happened. But… (more…)

Arod’s divorce from wife Cynthia may cost as much as a half billion insiders speculate. Is all the publicity and huge ‘bill’ for the adultry taking a toll? That’s not clear. Rodriquez plays in All Star game without rumored romantic interest Madonna in attendance.

By the way, have you noticed that Alex keeps picking women who tend to fit a certain look? Blond, lean and, well, stacked seems to get his eye.

In an interview aired on Extra, singing sensation Rihanna says she’s not contemplating any breast augmentation.  That’s nice to hear - a gal who is as beautiful as Rihanna is doesn’t need any ‘work’ done.  Nature got it right the first time.  And she makes a healthy role model for younger women who can feel good about their bodies no matter what their shape.

Rihanna will have a spread in an upcoming In Style magazine so watch for it.

With the news now out about the lovely two new additions to the Jolie-Pitt family, attention now is turning to the question of who will secure the rights to take (and publish) the first pictures of the babies. Rumors are flying that the winning bid may swell up to 8 digits - over $10,000,000. That’s a whole lot of money!

For their part, it is anticipated that Brad and Angelina will take the proceeds and donate them to charity. You can feed a lot of starving children with $10 million.

How much do you think is too much?

Over the weekend Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt welcomed the newest additions to their family.  Jolie delivered a boy they’ve named Knox Leon and a girl affectionately called Vivienne Marcheline on Saturday night at a hospital in the south of France.  Vivienne’s middle name, Marcheline, is that of her maternal grandmother, actress Marcheline Bertrand who passed away last year.

Reports indicate that mother and babies are doing well.  Now the bidding wars begin for first pictures of the babies.  Stay tuned!

We love celebrity gossip because when we pay attention to this talk, we feel as if we are really in Hollywood and the news is really affecting us. Many people idolize celebrities – they mimic their choice of clothing, attitude, and lifestyle. Because of this, when we hear gossip, we feel especially close to the talk. Although celebrity gossip should not matter much to us, it does because those are the people that some of us aspire to be.

In addition, celebrity gossip also gives us something to talk about. Often times, people forget that stars are human too and are not perfect. Talking about their mistakes and wrongdoings is strangely a more accepted form of gossiping, and provides an alternative to talking about people that are actually in our lives, like friends and family.

We also feel safe talking about celebrities because we know that we are in no danger of suffering social consequences if they find out what we are saying. Gossiping about celebrities in large groups also provides a feeling of togetherness and links people based on the stars that they idolize and the issues that are important to them.

Jamie Lynn Spears gave birth to a healthy baby girl on Thursday.  Little Maddie Briann came into this world at just under 8lbs and reported to be a cutie.

Ms. Spears had been the lead in the Nickelodeon TV show ‘Zoey 101′.  Rumor has it that there is no plans to bring the show back which had the main character leave at the end of last season.  What the future holds for Jamie other than motherhood is yet to be determined.  Many mothers of preteen girls were aghast when Ms. Spears announced her pregnancy at the tender age of 16.  Obviously they’d rather have a role model that doesn’t seem to advertise that teenage pregnancy is something to which they should aspire.

Ashley Simpson got married over the weekend. Contrary to some rumors, she did not walk down the isle in a yellow dress. Instead Ashley walked beaming down the wedding isle in an ivory colored Monique Lhuillier dreamy wedding dress.

But her new husband’s (Pete Wentz) bulldog was the ring bearer. Funny stuff.

The pictures are in so the rumors are true, Mel Gibson has invited Brittany to have a stay on his private resort.  Brittany has been cleaning up her act a bit in the last few days so maybe a little quiet R&R will help her continue to heal.  One can only hope so.  TMZ is reporting that it’s Mel’s wife Robyn who’s the driver in the ‘help Brittany’ mission.

In other Brittany news, she recently has stepped into what has to be speculated as a ratings boost celeb role on the TV sitcom “How I Met Your Mother”.  Got decent reviews in the role of Abby.

Gone Fishing!

No show notes this week. Gotta catch a plane…

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Single Moms!

This week Derek and Jason discuss The American Idol formula, The Bachelor doles out roses based on Birthdays and Patriotism, And Derek reveals he wants to blow Darts! who is Darts you ask? Find out on this weeks Idol Chatter!

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CHECK OUT MY BEST FRIEND!

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Wow! Zim! Zam!

This week Jason explains why Tyrant Banks is a money grubbing and Derek explains democracy!  It’s our one year anniversary y’all! Plus Derek’s stalker takes on a bold new tactic, and it’s working!  All that, and a whole lot of mindless banter!

Check out BUFFS OFF, an amazing Survivor Podcast!

Check out AMERICA’S NEXT TOP PODCAST!

To hear all of Scotty’s Serenade CLICK HERE!

Check out ARMCHAIR APPRENTICE!

But first, VOTE FOR US ON PODCAST ALLEY!

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OPERATION: CUPID’S ARROW

The Top Models are true Fashion Victims as they pose for CSI:TYRA.
Survivor has voted off 5 women in a row– and (according to Rocky) Anthony makes 6!
Monica is still deliciously “O.T.T.” on Project Catwalk, some Apprenti meet ‘the Terminator’, while Muna just gets terminated, and Derek becomes a ‘Canadian Idol’ of sorts- all on this week’s
jam-packed Idol Chatter.

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CHECK OUT AMERICA’S NEXT TOP PODCAST

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Cingular Sensation!

Derek, Jason, and Hollie discuss the legal options of a white trash job applicant, the end of the line at the end of the world for Romber, and the stupidest mistake Tyra Banks ever made.

Sorry Folks, no chapters this week, technical difficulties!

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CHECK OUT JASON’S SUBMISSION FOR ON THE LOT!

 
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America’s Next Top Mail Order Bride.

In this week’s episode we learn a brand new word…  We find out whether or not “Derek” is a white trash name (Hint: It is),  and we learn that you have to be skinny to model in a sewing competition – not to host it!

CHECK OUT JASON’S ENTRY FOR “ON THE LOT”!
(don’t forget to leave an HONEST review)

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We’re BACK!

The “Odd-itions continue on American Idol, The Apprentice L.A. is not as “in tents as Trump promised, and Derek and Jason break their New Year’s resolution (ALREADY) on the much anticipated return of IDOL CHATTER.

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Check out KATHY’S REALITY TV PODCAST!

 
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A Freudian Black.

On this weeks episode: Derek and Jason discuss the Exciting Finale of Project Runway and fight about (what else) Elizabeth Hasselback! Jason plans his next wedding, and Derek comes dangerously close to coming out of the redneck closet….

SEGMENTS:

I – Project Runway
I – Amazing Race
I – Detour
I – Survivor
I – ANTM
I – Pit Stop
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Why We Don’t Like Mondays.

Idol Chatter jumps the proverbial shark by introducing a wacky new character! Hollie’s boyfriend Brett drops by, sparking a haughty round table discussion about poop.

Sorry for the delay everyone.  Work, Exams, and Life in General got in the way.

Watch for our mysterious “Lost Episode” (the show we recorded last week but couldn’t upload) coming soon!

SEGMENTS:

02:10 - Amazing Race
08:58 - The Bachelor
21:15 - Detour
27:59 - America’s Next Top Model
39:18 - Survivor
52:23 - Pit Stop
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These Boots Were Made For Cruising!

It takes less than 2 minutes for this episode of Idol Chatter to reach a shocking new low… and it only goes down from there. 2 evictions are twice the fun on Survivor ! It’s no “Secret” that Melrose had the best commercial on ANTM! And something is afoot with Gay Aiken in our Detour this week!

Segments:
02:38 – ANTM
10:54 – Project Runway
16:03 – Amazing Race
27:10 – Detour
35:37 – Bachelor
44:54 – Survivor
55:43 – Pit Stop

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