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Pop Culture – Page 8 – Life as an Extreme Sport
Life as an Extreme Sport

American Idol, Top 24 Guys, Week 1

American Idol has started back up; I actually started watching last week, during Hollywood week. Now we’re in the top 24, and it’s time to get my predicting hat on (let’s see how well theory holds up to practice). I’ll skip the long recaps at the moment, because I think the manipulations become more interesting when it’s down to the top 12. I will, however, note that we’ve had one contestant pull the dead relative card already – Jason Yeager – and I suspect that will backfire for him. And it’s also worth noting the difference between successfully sassing a judge (Danny Noriega double-snapped Simon most awesomely, and even Simon laughed at it for what it was) and just looking like an argumentative ass (Chikezie). People should remember to skip the sass and backtalk unless they’re really good at improv.

Also – I’m not fond of assigning theme weeks so early; everyone had to do a 60s song, and I really liked the free and random spirit of past season’s top 24. You never knew what you were going to get, and it was delightful for the unexpected. That said, I do think it was a way to prevent the contestants from shooting themselves in the foot by picking an obscure song. (Well, that and the fact that with the music now being available next day for iTunes download, I’m sure licensing became more tricky – I’m actually convinced this is the reason for the narrow selection.)

That said, here’s my take on it so far:
Top Three: Robbie Carrico, David Archuleta, Michael Oz
Bottom Three: Chikezie, Jason Yeager, Colton Berry
Top 6 predictions: David Cook, Robbie Carrico, David Archuleta, Danny Noriega, Jason Castro, Michael Oz
Going home: Jason Yeager, Luke Menard

Joe R over at TWoP thinks Like and Garrett are going home Thursday.

geeks in space

From io9, the Seven Habits of Highly Effective Spaceship Captains. Click the link for full justification, but here’s a summary of the captain and the lesson:

1. The Prime Directive is just a suggestion.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Enterprise, Star Trek: The Next Generation)
Lesson learned? Rules are made to be broken.

2. Always shoot first.
Malcolm Reynolds (Captain, Serenity – Firefly)
Lesson learned? Show your crew that you’re willing to take a bullet for them, and they’ll do the same for you.

3. Don’t be afraid to hook up with a cute spaceman.
Leela (Futurama)
Lesson learned? A good leader has to get laid once in a while, and she shouldn’t be ashamed of it.

4. When you’re about to go genocidal, get a second opinion.
Admiral William Adama (Battlestar Galactica)
Lesson learned? True leaders do not ever make decisions alone.

5. Just because you have a crappy ship doesn’t mean you’re a loser.
Han Solo (Captain, Millennium Falcon – Star Wars; god help you if you don’t know that one)
Lesson learned? Every crappy PC is a lean, mean Linux box waiting to be born. Oh, and in case that didn’t make sense: It’s not the tools; it’s what you do with them.

6. Freedom fighters make good teammates
Captain Janeway (Star Trek: Voyager)
Lesson learned? A little subversion goes a long way.

7. There is always somebody out there who can bend spacetime better than you can.
Captain: AI Ship Sleeper Service (AI that captains itself)
Lesson learned? No matter how in control you are, always be ready for something for which you’re completely unprepared.

If I were doing the list, I would probably swap out Leela – I don’t watch Futurama – and replace her with Jack O’Neill (Stargate: SG-1). The lesson learned would probably be something about a good leader using humour for group cohesion/loyalty, or the value of using both brain and brawn. Or maybe just that there’s always time for a good Simpsons joke…

wistful desire

If you don’t swallow your TV and digest it and taste it with your salty and sweet and bitter and whatever parts of your tongue, it doesn’t matter what you watch. Two hours of Big Brother is equal to sixteen hours of the History Channel or a single episode of Laguna Beach, if you look at it right. If you want to see war strategy in action. Whether it’s the nightly news or a sci-fi show, a show is not brainless if you engage with it; the quality of the entertainment is always directly dependent on the quality of the viewer, how much you are willing to risk in engagement. It’s about intimacy, interaction, the quality of how you choose to spend your time, and what you do with the information. It’s about intimacy.
Jacob discussing, deconstructing, analyzing, and recapping an episode of Doctor Who for Television Without Pity

Isn’t that just… amazing? I wish I could be even half that.