Facebook vs. MySpace

I have an account with both sites. I set them up as a way to promote books and reconnect with old college buds.

I used to prefer MySpace over Facebook, but I'm not so sure now.

Facebook is wonky - more so than MySpace. It takes a while to get used to its rhythms and methods. But both sites are fairly silly in their own right. MySpace continues to be a spam avenue for people posting porn sites. Facebook allows you to send virtual gifts to others (I haven't figured out the point of that yet). And I've run into people on both sites who've responded to my friend request with "Do we know each other?"

It's a funny thing to be on a networking site where people resist networking.

However, it's more difficult, it seems to me, to do this on MySpace. There seems to be more resistance to networking there than on Facebook. I've sent out oodles of friend invites on MySpace with few to no results (except for the occasional "Do we know each other?")

On Facebook, it seems to be less of an issue. Most people accept the invite and I've only had one questioner during the time I've been doing this.

I don't think all this social networking has really done a darn thing when it comes to book sales. I certainly haven't seen an increase because of it. But I'll keep on keeping on because there's definitely NO benefit in not doing it.

The Truth is Revealed

Let's face it.... this is really why beach volleyball is an olympic sport:



No mystery there!

ManRam vs. JayBay

The last second trade which sent Manny Ramirez to Los Angeles and delivered Jason Bay to Boston will go down in Sox history as one of the biggest. Certainly one of the top ten. Ramirez was an iconic figure in Boston, albeit a rather self-absorbed, self-centered, selfish and wacky one. Sort of like Tom Cruise with a bat.

It's already been touted as a top niner by the Boston Herald, so I must be right.

Anyway, the sweet irony to the whole situation is this:

In their respective debuts, Jason Bay scored both runs for the Red Sox which gave them a 2-1 victory over the Oakland Athletics and Manny Ramirez grounded into a double play in the bottom of the ninth to set the stage for Los Angeles' 2-1 loss to the Diamondbacks.

2-1.

On one team, the new guy was the difference-maker. On the other team, the new guy was the yawn-maker.

Manny had two hits in four at bats - neither of them productive.
Jason had one hit in five at bats, two walks and was hit by a pitch. His one hit was a triple, and he brought home the winning run on a Jed Lowrie infield single.

This isn't to infer that the debuts are some sort of harbinger of things to come. (Or are they?)

But look at it from this point of view. Manny bats clean up for the Dodgers, drives in no runs, gets no runs. Jason Bay bats fifth for the Sox, gets on with a walk in his first at bat, goes to third on a JD Drew double and comes home on a sac fly by Lowrie in the second inning. Then in the 12th, he hits a triple and is brought home, once again, by Lowrie, winning the game.

Teamwork. Pure and simple. Setting up scenarios to provide the opportunity for the team to score.

We will miss the Ramirez home run explosions - no doubt about that. But Jason Bay has returned a vital element to the Red Sox, the sense of team.

And it could make all the difference in the world.

Sox Knox

So here we are, 1 day away from the trade deadline of July 31. Of course, trades can still take place after that date, but the players must clear waivers first before a trade goes through.

The Red Sox have some issues that need to be addressed. The bullpen could really use some competence and consistency beyond what it's been able to do this year. The catcher position has really gone downhill from an offensive standpoint - Jason Varitek is batting .215 at last look and Cash was never going to be another Pudge Fisk, though he handles Wakefield well. Jacoby Ellsbury has fallen off the map offensively. And there's always the everlasting saga of Manny being Manny.

At this point in the season, the Red Sox' hold on 2nd place in their division seems tenuous. They lost a three game series to the Yankees and have done so as well against the potent Angels. The Rays don't show any indications of rolling over and playing dead either.

The Yankees made a good deal and acquired Xavier Nady and Damaso Marte from the Pirates. The Angels have traded for Mark Texiera from the Braves. They have both improved their teams with players in which it was rumored the Sox were interested.

And the Red Sox have done - nothing.

The "brilliance" of Theo Epstein seems to have been trumped this season. Maybe the Sox don't need to shore up any positions to make it to the post season - there's still a lot of baseball to play.

But as things stand right now, I'd say it's time for RSN to lower expectations.

Just Had to Post This...

Ran across this quote on someone's Facebook site and loved it!

If a man makes a statement in the forest and his wife is not there to hear it, is he still wrong?
- Unknown

2008 Meets 1987

The Boston Celtics have made it to the NBA finals for the first time since 1987. 21 years ago, the Celtics lost to the Lakers, one of the biggest sports rivalries of the 1980s.

21 years ago (at this time), I had been married for less than a year. My wife and I moved from Georgia to Maine 21 years ago, and it would be another six years before we started reproducing.

21 years ago, I was 26 years old and had hair.

One newspaper story states: "Boston got past an old nemesis to set up a matchup with another rival." The Detroit Pistons were an old nemesis from over twenty years ago. But back then they had Bill Laimbeer, Isiah Thomas and Dennis Rodman. The Pistons of today don't exude one-one hundredth of the "badness" that those guys did.

Then again, the Celtics of today have a Big 3, but something doesn't seem right to place that moniker on Garnett, Pierce and Allen. As much as they may be a Big 3, they aren't THE Big 3, if you know what I mean. In fact, I would daresay, there'll never ever be a trio like Bird, McHale and Parrish in the history of basketball again.

Yeah, it's the newsies trying to gin up comparative excitement. I don't think it's necessary, though. The NBA was magic back in the 80s for what it brought in terms of talent and entertainment. Now it seems to be resurging a bit from its hip-hop, grunge 90s image, and the new-look Celtics have caused people to notice it again.

Good luck 2008 Celtics. You don't need to worry about the brand legacy. Create your own.

On another note:

Apparently Susan Sarandon has stated that if McCain is elected President, she will move to Italy or Canada.

Didn't she say something very similar when Bush was running back in 2004?

Hey Susan - your credibility is showing! lol

Is It Too Much to Ask?

Can we, as a culture, just stop saying the combo word "ginormous" right now? It's not funny; it's not cute. I don't even think it's particularly descriptive.

Am I wrong here?

Also, can we ban normal retail commercials where the spokesman in the ad at the end says, "I'm so and so, and I approved this message."? It's annoying enough to have to hear it in political ads.

The AI Finals

First song:

Clive Davis Pick

• David Cook - “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” by U2
• David Archuleta - “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” by Elton John

I love "I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” and David Cook did it well. From the 1987 album, The Joshua Tree, this song along with With or Without You, Where the Streets Have No Name set it number 26 on Rolling Stone magazine's greatest 500 albums ever. Unfortunately, though it's a terrific song, “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” is a bigger song musically (not lyrically) and music is what you hear. It was right up Archie's turnpike, and I think he probably took round one.


Second Song

Songwriters Contest

• David Cook - “Dream Big”
• David Archuleta - “In This Moment”

Let's be honest - both songs sucked. Not so much from a performance point of view, but neither is memorable. Neither is big. And both are laden with cheese. Having said that, I thought David Cook had the better performance of the two.


Third Song

Personal Choice

• David Cook - “The World I Know” by Collective Soul
• David Archuleta - “Imagine” by John Lennon
  

I will never like "Imagine". It sounds like Lennon childishly whining out that the world would be perfect if it was only the way HE wanted it to be. It's socialistic drivel, and I don't understand a generation's infatuation with it. I also don't like the fact that Archie reprised it. I have never liked that practice, though I suppose it makes things actually easier for the singer when they don't have to learn a new song. DC did a sweet job with "The World I Know." I've heard only a couple songs from Collective Soul before and that wasn't one of them. But I really liked his performance of it.

Because of this mindless love for "Imagine" Archie probably won the round. I would have picked DC though. His performance was artistry. Archie's was schmaltz.

So in my world the score ends up David Cook 2, David Archuleta 1.

But I've always preferred art over teenage marketability. Guess that's why I'm not rich.

What Could be Done?

American Idol has slipped in the ratings. It's not drawing the same amount of people it has in the past. For its time slot, it still usually leads, however, the decline has been noticed and commented on ad nauseum (sometimes with hand-rubbing glee).

Part of this has to be attributable to being in its 7th season. The bloom is off the rose, so to speak. It has reached saturation and is going through the natural evolution of a show that has run for multiple years. I assume (I don't really know) that Survivor probably doesn't draw like it used to. But these reality shows are so inexpensive to make (relative to other shows) that CBS is still able to make money from it despite the drop in ratings.

That's ultimately what keeps a show running - if it makes money.

One of the other problems with AI, as far as I can see, is that it has become all too predictable. Even if the judges' comments aren't scripted, they often give the appearance of being so. And it seems like they try to shape the 'contest' to go in a specific direction. This year's example would be the final David vs. David face-off.

I think it's time to retool Idol.

I think it's time to turn it into a singing competition instead of a popularity contest.

Here's a few ideas as to what sort of changes I'd like to see.

1. When it gets down to the final 6-8 (or maybe even 10?), the participants should sing the ENTIRE song - not a 90 second snippet. Or at least they should be limited to 3 minutes (this will prevent someone from singing a 10-minute song, but still give sufficient time to build to a climax.

2. The results show needs to go. It's 95% fluff with only 5% of what we want to see. I did not watch any results show beyond the top 10 this year because I am sick to death of Ford videos, group sings, special guest star sings and so on. I just want to know who stays and who goes.

3. The top 6 should have to face off against each other in a steel cage death match. Bo staff optional.

4. There should only be one vote per person. No speed dialing, no multiple text messaging. Then we will actually see that only 100 people are voting each time - not the 300 million they continue to claim.

These are a few ideas. I'm sure that others have many more. Feel free to submit them in comments.

Redirect - Jason Fans, Enjoy

I can't be much of a blogger if I keep posting what other people write, eh? However, I really enjoyed this article. It made me wish I'd written it. It's written by Ann Powers of the Los Angeles Times.

Jason Castro rides off with the fun parade

We’ve hit a strange spot in this year’s “Idol” saga, a sort of creeping lull that bodes of something sinister. It’s the moment on the battlefield when four soldiers are sharing a cigarette, and kaboom! A grenade goes off. The mood, I think, isn’t just a matter of real favorites departing, now that the finale is almost here.

The question hangs in the air: is “Idol” working? Or do dropping ratings and the strange enervation of the show’s Final Four contenders suggest that it has lost the potential to tap into pop’s fundamental pheromone, cited again and again by exhausted Idol strivers as a goal: simple, fleeting fun?

Jason Castro had more fun than any other contestant has managed in weeks, doing his hippie dance as he romped through “I Shot the Sheriff” after being eliminated. Good for him for reprising a song the judges clearly thought was inappropriate -- a song he obviously loved, and actually sang fairly competently, whatever the panel says.

Think about “I Shot the Sheriff” for a minute. A huge crossover hit for Eric Clapton in 1974, the song definitely sounded more Marley-esque in Castro’s hands. Its lyric is about killing a police officer; its rhythms evoke the off-kilter, skanky reggae of the late Jamaican master’s most revolutionary songs. This choice was way edgier than David Cook’s post-Stone Temple Pilots reworkings of R&B.

Had Castro chosen a more conciliatory Marley song, like “No Woman, No Cry” (also on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s list of 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll) Syesha might have departed before he did. But the good-natured nonconformist, apparently already sensing doom, chose to put his own pleasure first. His loosey-goosey rendition offered an exceedingly rare “Idol” sighting: the kind of spontaneity musicians actually conjure when playing live nearly anywhere but a television studio.

I wanted Jason to be eliminated, because I thought his super-sleepy energy was damping the fire of his more vocally gifted and showmanlike competitors. Now I’m not so sure. There’s something wrong up there: David Cook seems truly drained, David Archuleta’s melismatic runs grow more extreme as his anxiety visibly mounts, and Syesha Mercado is so desperate to figure out why she’s special that she’s taken to embarrassing herself with sweeping declarations about her “Idol” journey’s relationship to the slightly more momentous contest taking place on the primary circuit.

A quick defense of Syesha: I know some people were horrified that she turned the civil rights anthem “A Change Is Gonna Come” into a vehicle for self-aggrandizement. She didn’t make her comparison tactfully, but she’s not the only entertainer to relate personal success to the larger matter of uplifting the race.

Kanye West’s notorious line in the song “Good Morning” –- “I’m like the fly Malcolm X, buy any jeans necessary” –- may or may not have been a joke, but Mary J. Blige was dead serious when she told “Blender" magazine, “My God wants me to bling.” And I’ll bet Halle Berry’s emotional Academy Awards’ speech upon becoming the first African-American to win Best Actress was somewhere in the back of Syesha’s mind when she made her comments.

Of course, Syesha’s hardly the first non-white woman to do well on “Idol.” But she stands alone in that category now. This year’s wide range of personalities could be one reason for the current aura of melancholy –- as their numbers dwindle, each hopeful seems more isolated within his or her niche.

Previous seasons had variety, but there was a sense that the Idols were learning from each other, or at least enjoying friendly rivalries. Now, each fits into a slot so particular that it’s hard to see how they even relate. What can Cook, a grown man who even tried (vainly) to inject some sex into the show this week with a growly “Hungry Like the Wolf,” really have to say to the virginal Archuleta? Can Syesha, whose charisma has unfurled alongside a disturbingly ruthless pageant-queen personality, stand to be around either of them, or is Cookie too grimy and Archie too naïve?

The “Idols” have to love each other for the show’s formula to work. They have to project real glee when they joke around in those silly Ford commercials, and cry in each other’s arms when Ryan gives one the ax. Without camaraderie –- without some whiff of fun, even in the hardest moments -- “Idol” no longer feels like an agent of magical transformation. It feels like an endless casting call.

No one wants to watch careerist kids fighting to be become pawns in a dying music industry. If the last few episodes of this season continue to sink in that direction, it will end in a sad finale, no matter who wins. Come on, Final Three. Bring back the fun. Keep that bit of Jason Castro’s spirit with you.

- Ann Powers
(photo courtesy of Fox)

Idol Wrap - Wednesday Night

I don't want to go into any specific comments with regards to particular singers and songs. However, I do have to say that the judges seem to be following some sort of scripted(?) path to carry Archuleta to the finals. I don't know why, but he just didn't deserve the magnanimous amounts of praise heaped on him.

He wasn't bad, but he wasn't THAT good.

I think Jason looked and sounded better during dress rehearsal than the live performance. Syesha did a really nice job, both songs.

And David Cook was David Cook.

With the show creating David Archuleta as some sort of strange standard-bearer, I find my interest levels dropping in the whole process. Next week, when it's only Cook, Mercado and Archuleta, I'm going to be hard pressed to think of a reason to tune in.

But I probably will anyway.

500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll

This is the list that the AI contestants have to choose from this week:

500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll

They pick two from the list. Which direction do you think they'll go in?

Jason - The Weight by The Band?
David C - London Calling by The Clash?
David A - Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon and Garfunkel?
Syesha - Respect by Aretha?

Tune in and find out.

---

AND HERE ARE THE SPOILERS:

Performance Order! From Carie

• David Cook - “Hungry Like the Wolf” by Duran Duran
• Syesha Mercado - “Proud Mary” by Ike and Tina Turner
  
• Jason Castro - “I Shot the Sheriff” by Bob Marley
• David Archuleta- “Stand by Me” by Ben E. King
  
• David Cook - “Baba O’Riley” by The Who
  
• Syesha Mercado - “Change is Gonna Come” by Sam Cooke
  
• Jason Castro - “Mr. Tambourine Man” by Bob Dylan
  
• David Archuleta - “Love Me Tender” by Elvis Presley