"American Idol" Season 8 Starts tonight!

Hello,

Above obviously is the gorgeous Nicole Kidman! Keith Urban you are a lucky man!

To quote Rod Stewart, "tonight's the night", obviously he wasn't singing about "AI" but so what. So tonight is the big night. Definitely check out my friends over at votefortheworst.com. They have a great website, check out their feature on "American Idol" plants. (Including the information that David Osmond flamed out in Hollywood, he's one of their "wilted plants". Thank goodness we don't need another David Archuleta or Sanjaya.) Also votefortheworst.com has a feature on all the crappy songs new judge Kara DioGuardi has written.

I am withholding my opinion on Miss DioGuardi until I watch a couple of episodes of this season. All I can say is that she can't be worse than either Randy "5 phrases" Jackson and Paula "dumb as a rock" Abdul. So let's hope she is a step up. I understand that Simon Cowell is the ultimate tiebreaker.

Unfortunately I won't be able to watch the season premiere live, thank goodness for the DVR. I will be watching tonight's episode tomorrow. I do have tomorrow off so I will be able to see tomorrow night's episode when it shows normally. Remember starting tomorrow to read Michael Slezak's snarky commentary over at ew.com. It is usually available early in the morning the day after the actual episode. He is very funny and knowledgeable not that I always agree with him. For instance, I did not think David Archuleta's "Imagine" was amazing. I thought it was just another one of his many boring performances.

Only one week from today until we finally get a new President, thank goodness. President Bush has been trying to explain all his bad decisions away. Sorry George, it doesn't work that way. You are the worst President in modern history, so trying to explain away will not lessen any of your mistakes. Your first mistake was surrounding yourself with terrible people like Dick (a very apt first name) Cheney and Karl Rove. That decision led to the idiocy of that Mission Accomplished picture. President Bush please be quiet and fade away gracefully. You can do that at least. Maybe later you can get some small redemption as an elder statesman. Maybe.

W. is the first person in a new feature of mine: people that need to go away. George W. Bush please go away. Dick Cheney and Karl Rove and any of the other crooks who surrounded Bush go away please. The less we see and hear from you the better.

Okay back to the music: Video of the day: "Before He Cheats" by Carrie Underwood. This was much better than any video that came out in 2008. According to the 2008 CMT Top 20 Video Countdown, this was a very weak year for country music. (More on that later.)

For those of you that can watch it tonight, enjoy "American Idol". For those of you who don't like "AI" there are a lot of great books out there. I will be back tomorrow with my initial observations of the season premiere and Kara DioGuardia. Have a great day, themusicaddict

American Idol Season 8 starts tomorrow!

Hello,

Only one more day until American Idol! This is one of the very few shows that I watch almost every episode of. I also love "Cold Case", "Mad Men" and "Life On Mars". All of them are very entertaining shows.

I may be back later today, if not I will be back tomorrow.

Have a good day, themusicaddict

Jessica Alba, BCS throws up on itself

Hello,

The above picture is of course the lovely Jessica Alba, who is also a new mother. Congrats!

I received an e-mail response to my posting about Melinda Doolittle. I will present it as received.

"Melinda Doolittle's Debut Album Coming Back to You Drops 2/3/2009. It promises to be an eclectic mix of blues, classic R&B and jazz. The first single, “It’s Your Love” is available for purchase on iTunes.You can pre-order the entire album at http://www.melindadoolittle.com/ and some of the proceeds will go to Malaria No More.

Also check out the great videos Melinda has posted for her fans at http://mdoolittlesblog. blogspot.com/.Keep updated about Melinda's career at http://www.melindasbackups.com/ which is a web site owned by Melinda Doolittle. Melinda’s Backups™ is a non-profit supportive association inspired by Melinda and authorized by her to operate this web site on behalf of her fans.

I am one of her backups (fans) and can truly say that not only is Melinda hugely talented but she is also exceptionally kind and gracious."

Obviously it's mostly an ad, but it is nice to see someone reading my blog. Again I welcome all comments and I will reply to them. Also yesterday I had written her new CD comes out on February 5th, I apologize for the incorrect information.


This is the cover photo of Kelly Clarkson's new CD, "All I Ever Wanted". (Previously I had stated the title would be "Masquerade". My apologies.) The lead single is still going to be "My Life Would Suck Without You". You can hear a 30 second snippet of this song at many places. Those sites include amazon.com and mjsbigblog.com. From this 30 second snippet it sounds like the song really rocks. Kelly you are looking good also.

Previously I reported that Apple's iTunes is changing a couple of major things. They are making all their songs DRM free and also changing their pricing structure. From what I have found out, both of these changes will go into effect this spring.

I was visiting one of my favorite websites yesterday, mtvmusic.com. I had been reading about the Top Ten songs on ew.com from 1982. This is a regular ew.com feature that I enjoy very much. The author, Whitney Pastorek, shares the same sort of nostalgia about these songs as I do. Also she is very funny. Anyway one of the songs on that Top Ten list was Rick Springfield's "Don't Talk To Strangers". Pastorek was making reference to the video for that song. So I went to mtvmusic.com to check it out.

While there I checked out some of his other videos and found out he has a new CD. Who knew? The name of the CD is "Venus in Overdrive", this CD came out last summer. This CD has some really good songs. I would definitely urge you to check it out. You can catch a couple of the videos at mtvmusic.com. Some of the good songs from this CD include the title track and also "What's Victoria's Secret?". He has some other newer songs that are really good as well. The best of those songs are "Souls" and "Don't Walk Away". (Also a confession, my first "rock" concert was Rick Springfield on Halloween in the early 8o's. I was much less a music snob then and I thought he was great in concert. I have always had a soft spot in my heart for him since then. BTW my second rock concert was AC/DC on their "For Those About To Rock, We Salute You" tour.)

Video of the day: "Don't Talk To Strangers"- Rick Springfield.

Also after the BCS threw up all over itself with their latest debacle of a National Championship game, President Obama pushed again for a 8 team playoff, I agree with President Obama. The BCS is a greedy way for the big boys to keep the money among themselves. In one of the most ridiculous quotes of all-time I saw some idiot from the BCS claiming credit for giving Utah a chance to show how good of a football team they are. Not only are they greedy, but they are stupid. I so agree with you President Obama, just don't let have the idiots of the BCS have any control over college football anymore.

One of the biggest debacles of the BCS is that very mediocre teams from the Big East and ACC get automatic bids. They played each other in their bowl game, a battle of multiple loss teams. I think like 3 people watched that game. It was a real non-thrilling 20-7 victory for Virginia Tech over Cincinnati. That was the first win in the BCS bowls since 1999 for the ACC, and they get an automatic bid? (BTW Utah has won it's last 8 bowl games including two BCS bowls.)

This is not to take anything away from Florida or Oklahoma, because those are two great teams. I still can''t believe Florida held Oklahoma to 14 points. Oh by the way Florida coach, Urban Meyer, use to be the head coach for the University of Utah. Do you notice a pattern here?

Songs that are rocking my iPod: 1) "Papa Loved Mama" (Live)- Garth Brooks 2) "Just Like Heaven"- The Cure 3) "Sweet Dreams"- Air Supply Embarrassing admission #2 I really like Air Supply. They had a lot of great songs in the 80's and this was one of them. 4) "Back Where You Belong"- .38 Special 5) "Tennessee"- Tim Blane A song that you probably haven't heard of that you need to add to your collection. 6) "Physical"- Olivia Newton-John 7) "Over The Hills and Far Away"- Led Zeppelin 8) "American Idiot"- Green Day 9) "Santa Monica"- Everclear This is one of those songs from a band that never reached this high level ever again. 10) "Buffalo Stance"- Neneh Cherry. A great song from a great 80's CD. Cherry was not much heard from after this CD, she sort of faded into obscurity like Lauryn Hill did a few years later. 11) "Addicted"- Ace Young Yes this is the former "AI" contestant. 12) "Doctor's Appointment"- The May Fire 13)"Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)" 14) "Anything Goes"- Guns N' Roses 15) "Driver 8"- R.E.M. This is early and classic R.E.M. 16) "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk"- Trace Adkins 17) "The Movie" (Spoken Word)- Jim Morrison 18) "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'"- Nancy Sinatra

That is it for now. I will hopefully be back tomorrow, themusicaddict.

Teri Hatcher, Season 8 "AI" Countdown

Hello,

Above is the amazingly gorgeous Teri Hatcher. (Thanks to babble.com for the picture.) Wow! If you remember she and "American Idol" have a connection. Hatcher sang Carrie Underwood's "Before He Cheats" on "Idol Gives Back" last season. A lot of people didn't think she did a very good job singing the song, however I thought she did a pretty good job. I even bought her version from iTunes and have enjoyed it many times. Although Underwood's version is definitely the superior version. Underwood sings that song with a lot of power and feeling.

AMC has officially announced a third season of "Mad Men", it's coming this summer. Also Clint Eastwood's new movie "Gran Torino" opens today. It has been receiving generally positive reviews. I plan on seeing it when I can. Video of the day: u2's historic "Sunday Bloody Sunday" live at Red Rocks. That performance really propelled them to stardom. They are still one of the few bands that survive from the 80's. Also one of the even fewer bands that survive from the 80's that are still relevant. Remember their new CD "No Line On The Horizon" is out this spring.

Also coming out soon is Melinda Doolittle's new CD. The name of her first CD is "Coming Back To You" and it will be released on February 5th. This CD has 13 songs on it. Go to her official website, melindadoolittle.com, and get the MP3 title track from the upcoming CD free. themusicaddict has been a fan of Melinda Doolittle since her audition performance on "American Idol" Season 6. In much more unfortunate news, Sanjaya is also releasing a 5 song ep pretty soon. Sorry I just did not have the heart to look more into that. I think along with William Hung and David Archuleta that Sanjaya is one of the most annoying "AI" contestants ever. All three of you please go away!

AOL.com has a feature detailing the Top 16 "American Idol" performances of all time. I checked out this feature yesterday and I agreed with some of their choices. However some of their choices really sucked. Those include David Archuleta's "Imagine", David Cook's "Billie Jean" and Ruben Studdard's "Superstar". Studdard sang that last song with all the emotion of a pretzel.

However they were right on some of their choices. For instance, Jason Castro's "Hallelujah", Chris Daughtry's "Hemmorrhage", the amazing Jennifer Hudson's "Circle of Life". The two of the 16 songs I liked the most were Lakisha Jones' "And I'm Telling You I'm Not Going" and Tamyra Gray's "A House Is Not A Home". This last one you must watch, it is an amazing, amazing performance. Her voice sounds great. Her first CD is pretty good and I am not sure why she has not become a star. She has not even been on the pop culture radar for a few years now.

Remember to set your DVR for Tuesday, January 13th for the opening night of Season 8 of "American Idol". It will be two hour episodes on both January 13th and January 14th. I hope new judge Kara DioGuardia brings some spice to the show. Apparantally the men this year will be the show's highlights. Also check out votefortheworst.com to keep things from being too serious.

Have a great weekend, themusicaddict

iTunes pricing change, Charlize Theron

The above is Charlize Theron, one of the most beautiful women in the whole world.

Yesterday at Macworld, Apple's Phillip Schiller announced a couple of major changes for the iTunes music store. Schiller is Apple's top marketing executive. 1) By the end of this fiscal quarter, all songs sold at the iTunes music store won't have the digital rights management (DRM) protection. What that means is if you buy a song from iTunes you can basically play it and listen to it anywhere. It will not be exclusive to your iPod. Several news stories pointed out that amazon.com has been doing this for over a year already. But it counts more with Apple, as they are by far the biggest online music store. 2) Apple is also changing their pricing structure. It use to be that all songs are 99c, no matter how new or old it is. I think it has been that way since the start of the iTunes music store, at least as long as I can remember. Now iTunes is going to offer a multi-level price structure. Songs will either be 69c, 99c, or $1.29. Apple is going to let the record companies decide the prices. With the greedy and struggling record companies deciding the prices I predict the prices will obviously skew towards the $1.29 price point. That's not really a prediction. That is based on the record companies poor choices over the years. They run their business as well as the American auto makers. Record companies suck! Now when does this new pricing change take effect? I read several news reports yesterday and I couldn't find a date.

Video of the day is Kelly Clarkson's "Because of You", an extremely heartbreaking video. Although it does end on a positive note. The ending suggests we should learn from our past so we don't keep on making the same mistakes again. The song I am definitely not sick of: Katy Perry's "I Kissed A Girl". Although I don't like most of the lyrics, this is just a great, great song.

A couple of quick movie reviews. 1) "Bolt" with voices from John Travolta and Miley Cyrus. This is a pretty good show. The hamster character is hilarious. The story is great without pandering to little kids too much. One of the most enjoyable movies I have seen with my kids. 2) "The Day The Earth Stood Still". This is your typical modern day sci-fi movie. It has some good performances and the story is okay. However I sort of had a blah feeling after leaving the theatre.

Also rollingstone.com (not rs.com) has published the cover of their next weekend, it is of George Bush. The cover article is "Bush Apologizes: The Farewell Interview We Wish He'd Give". Okay Rolling Stone I know you thought W. was a bad President, but who didn't and we get it already. Please do not put him on your cover anymore. Let him fade away. I think most people already think he was a terrible President, but let's focus on the future. Also I am about equally excited about the upcoming season of "American Idol" and the Barack Obama Presidency. I am hoping the Obama Presidency is the more successful of them both though.

One final note, I am currently reading a terrific book: Neil Stephenson's "Anathem". He can be a notoriously difficult writer to read. This book is also a bit difficult to read. If you stick with it though, there is a rhythm and you can really get into the story. However you should only pick up this book if you are willing to be challenged. Thanks to Wired Magazine for bringing this book to my attention. Also thanks to our local libraries, where I picked up my copy. themusicaddict is a huge fan of the public library system.

Have a good day, themusicaddict

Twitter inspired blogs, Halle Berry

Hello,

I have decided I am no longer going to have long blogs two or three times a week. Instead I have been inspired by Twitter, in that there will be more but shorter blogs. Here is the first Twitter inspired blog.

Of course the above picture is of the oh my goodness, she is hot Halle Berry. She is one of the few women, like my wife, who keeps on getting better looking as they age. Amazing. I think maybe she should change her name to Wowee Berry. (Thanks to Esquire for the fantastic picture.)

Some quick upcoming album news first. rollingstone.com has a brief description of 10 songs from U2's upcoming CD, "No Line On The Horizon". Also Kelly Clarkson's new CD will probably be titled "Masquerade", it should be out March 17th. This one is suppose to be closer in sound to "Breakaway" rather than "My December". Either way is fine with me as I liked both CD's. Also Prince plans on releasing 3 CD's in 2009. He is saying they will be "dirty but not nasty". I think that means he will be bringing the funk. I am not sure if there are that many Prince fans left. His best days are behind him obviously. His two best CDs are "Purple Rain" and "1999", he hasn't approached that level for several years now. (Thanks to rollingstone.com for all three tidbits of information. I also realized rs.com is someone else's website. If you want to get to the Rolling Stone magazine website, you need to type in rollingstone.com. Or do as I do, bookmark it.)

Short tidbits: song I am officially sick of "Ur So Gay" by Katy Perry. I still like Katy Perry but that song has got to go away. Also almost any hip-hop song or song by Coldplay and Oasis. Although "Wonderwall" is a fantastic song. I heard a song coming from somebody's stereo. It was a hip-hop song where the rapper kept on repeating "Volkswagen" and dropping the f bomb. What a stupid song, also not very creative. Video of the Day: "Low"- Kelly Clarkson. A good video but an even better song.

Also is "Good to meet you" the biggest lie ever. How many times have you said it and meant it?

Finally songs rocking my iPod 1) "Rock of Ages"- Def Leppard I am not sure why but this song was really rocking my world last night. It almost felt like I was transported to the 80's, back to the Lep's heyday. That song reminded me why I still love Def Leppard so much after all these years. 2) "Since I've Been Loving You"- Led Zeppelin 3) "The Best Damn Thing"- Avril Lavigne 4) "Don't Bring Me Down"- ELO 5) "The Man Comes Around"- Johnny Cash 6) "Touch Me" (Live)- The Doors 7) "License To Kill"- Gladys Knight 8) "Animal"- Def Leppard 9) "Set It Off"- Audioslave 10) "The Last Beautiful Girl"- Matchbox Twenty 11) "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?" (Live)-Nirvana. One of the few good songs from the 90's most overrated band. 12) "Bodies"- Drowning Pool 12) "Piece of Crap"- Neil Young and Crazy Horse 13) "Poundcake"- Van Halen 14) "Higher Ground"- Red Hot Chili Peppers The best Stevie Wonder cover song ever. 15) "Black Sheep"- John Anderson 16) "As Good As I Once Was"- Toby Keith and 17) "Say Hey (I Love You)"- Michael Franti and Spearhead

Seriously I did not think it would be this long. Have a great day, themusicaddict

UTES RULE!, American Idol Countdown

Hello,

Happy New Year! I wish that to you even though I think New Year's Day is sort of lame. Other than college football, it is just another day to me. To quote U2, "Nothing changes on New Year's Day". There has been a lot going on in the music world.

Apparently current Guns n' Roses guitarist Richard Fortus told a magazine that G n' R was about to embark on a tour in March and be on tour for 2 years. Now he is retreating from that statement, using the old standby that he was misquoted. (My favorite use of that was when Charles Barkley claimed he was misquoted, IN HIS OWN AUTOBIOGRAPHY!) I do hope that G n' R do go out for one more tour. Axl Rose is now 46 and he is not going to have his voice forever. Does that make you feel old too that Rose is 46?

The countdown continues for Season 8 of "American Idol", it starts on January 13th. That is one week from tomorrow. On both January 13th and January 14th each show will be two hours long. We can see how the new judge is. Has Randy expanded his vocabulary to 10 words dawg? Will this hopefully be the last season for Paula Abdul? Will she review a performance before it actually occurs again? How Will the producers play out the whole Paula Goodspeed suicide incident. How many times will ew.com's Michael Slezak or the website votefortheworst.com make you laugh? Is there someone as lame as David Archuleta on this season's show? If so can we vote him off now? Will all the changes affect the chemistry of the show? This could be a make or break season. If they continue losing viewers like last season, "American Idol" may be in trouble. Although I think they have contracts in place for the next couple of years.

Other news: the Utes rose up and slayed the mighty Alabama in the Sugar Bowl on January 2nd. I have been on a high since that great game. For the record I am a big BYU fan but Utah is my Alma mater, so I cheer for them when they are not playing BYU. Actually I cheer for all Utah schools. The Utes beating Alabama was particularly sweet though, as no one nationwide gave the Utes respect. Teams from their conference don't get much respect, but the MWC plays some great football. Once the final rankings are released two MWC schools, TCU and the U. of U. should be in the top 10. In their bowl game TCU knocked off the second to last undefeated team in the nation. Utah is the only undefeated team in the nation, going 13-0. BYU played like crap in their bowl game or they would probably have been a Top 15 team when the final rankings come out.

One final note about college football system, the so-called BCS national championship game is Thursday. This game should be terrific, watch the game just to see Oklahoma's offense in action. It is a thing of beauty to watch. We would actually need a playoff system though to have an actual National Championship game.

Other news apparently Apple CEO Steve Jobs has a hormonal imbalance. He is saying that is what is causing his gaunt appearance. He has already started treatment and he should gain the weight back by this Spring. He is rail thin. That is the official story at least. However is that the truth? This is a company that relies on it's CEO more than almost any other company. Without a publicized succession plan in place is this just a ruse so Apple's stock won't get hammered. I wish you a speedy recovery Steve.

Well that is it for now. Hopefully I will be back tomorrow with more info. I may write a new blog or change this one around some. I haven't yet decided. I have some pictures of other beautiful women to share with you. Also I have a bunch more music news. Have a great week! themusicaddict