Random Pop Culture

Thanks to Steve for hitting Idol. I got home tonight and tore through the girls quickly, fast-forwarding through almost everyone. Just not feeling it besides Crystal. I don't think she can win because she's not the type who wins this thing, but I think she is the most talented. I hate that people are singing songs by Marvin Gaye or Sam Cooke or Aretha Franklin. Sure, it may sound okay for Idol, but these kids can't hold a candle to the original and I can't get the original out of my head. I'm fine with who got voted out tonight because none of them had any chance to win and two of them were downright annoying. I'm not fine with them singing that insipid Black Eyed Peas song using auto-tune. I. Am. Not. Fine. With. That.

Great Survivor, great blindside. It's not just that I dislike the Heroes tribe, it's that I specifically dislike Amanda and James. So Amanda being dumb enough to believe Tom and Cirie's subsequent dressing-down of Amanda were right up my alley. Add to that the look of overconfidence on Candice's face in Tribal followed by her look of misery and Rupert's realization that he had made a horrible mistake by hitching himself to Amanda and James followed by him tearing at his hair and shaking his head. Love it. Plus, the continuing leadership of Rob and some great Coach stuff. Russell has great sound bites, but nobody tops Coach. New favorite quote of the year: "Am I going to change? No. Am I going to be the Dragonslayer and slay everyone? Yes."

The more I thought about last week's Lost, "The Lighthouse", the more I liked it. This week's was also very good. I don't know that I'm okay with Sayid being evil, but I'm not sure that he actually is. He's under Locke's spell, but I wouldn't be surprised one bit if he ended up sacrificing himself once he realizes that he's made the wrong choice. I like Kate being embedded in Locke's crew (and Locke maybe knowing it). I like the setup of Jack, Hurley, and Ben versus this group of bad guys with Sawyer (he seemed more indifferent than outright evil) and
Kate as the wild cards. I get the sense that this was the end of the setup for what's to come. One question: Do you think that the "Flash Sideways" has something to do with what Locke said to Sayid about making his dreams come true? Like it's a timeline that Locke has made happen or put into play? I guess the big argument against that is that it's the real Locke, one would guess, that is in that timeline. Either way, good stuff.

The fact that Maryland is going to be everyone's Final Four dark horse makes me think that they are going to go out quickly. They could. They played very poorly early in the year. However, they are also very talented and have a makeup that can beat anybody on a given night, with the exception of a couple of teams. But I'll save that for the next week or two as we get into my favorite sports time of the year. The conference tournaments have begun. Championship Week is two days away.