For this podcast, Stu and The Dude reminisce about their weekend. Stu didn’t do much, but The Dude on the Right talks a lot about seeing the movie “The Break-Up” with Whammy, where Stu asks The Dude if he did the “popcorn trick.” Their’s also some “Sopranos” talk, and some movie preview talk since The Dude on the Right posted about 20 new movie previews.
Stu & The Dude’s Weekend Wrap-Up: Stu Did Nothing, The Dude Saw “The Break-Up” and Posted 20 Movie Previews.
By:
The Dude on the Right
Yay! Another episode of "Stu & The Dude’s Weekend Wrap-Up!" Stu’s
weekend wrap-up was pretty simple, he did a hell of a lot of nothin’. I,
on the other hand, went to see "The Break-Up" with staff member Whammy.
Stu wanted to know if I played the "popcorn trick" on her, to which I told him I
only bought a bottle of water. Hmm? I might have to remember that
for the next time we catch a movie. I hope she isn’t listening! I
also told Stu about getting about 20 new movie previews up for the summer, and
Stu wanted to tell me a story about Whammy, but was afraid she might listen to
this podcast, like she told me she would, so he told me he would hold off for a
couple of weeks until we know Whammy won’t be listening.
Thanks for listening.
That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!
 |
Subscribe Here     |
Going Through TV Withdrawals, and a Bitch at the Racetrack.
By:
The Dude on the Right
We had pretty much a perfect weather weekend here in the Chicago area, and I’ll
talk to Stu about it during our podcast tomorrow. So because I can’t give
you a synopsis about what I did this weekend, I’ll just give you some ramblings
off of my head.
In any case, last week I was in a funk. I think I am
going through TV withdrawals since all of my standard shows are done, except
"The Sopranos" which concludes its season tonight. I almost got sucked
back into "So You Think You Can Dance," but baseball was on. I didn’t
accomplish much for the web site, at least on the surface (or at least that you
could see). I accidentally made some huge errors during the animation
process that has delayed our latest episode of "Stu & The Dude Reviewin’ the
Movies for You!", our review of "Over the Hedge," about a week. I watched
too much baseball, for some bizarre reason kept getting sucked into "Batman
Begins" on cable, which I think is a fabulous film, even bought the DVD, but
still haven’t reviewed it (that’s really got to be remedied soon), but I did
accomplish something and you can now find some small accomplishments on the "Movie
Preview" page. So far there are fourteen new movie previews posted,
with six more to come in the next day or so, and another six to ten ready for
posting by next weekend, just in time for your summer "What the hell movie
should we go see this weekend" questions.
And for some reason some of my
thoughts also keep coming back to my trip to
Arlington Park (a
horse racetrack here in Illinois), and I don’t really know why. One
thought was the fact that the one jockey won every race he was in, five races in
all. As someone always looking for easy money, and even though the horses
he was riding weren’t long shots, it would have been easy to double most of your
betting money that afternoon, if only you would know. But isn’t that the
thrill, and danger, of gambling, the fact that you never know? I did come
home with more money than I figured I would lose, so I still consider myself a
winner on the gambling front. The other thing that really struck me about
that day was this bitch of a woman we encountered, and how I still wish I could
be creative on my feet rather than thinking of things to say later in the day.
Anyway, it was still early in the afternoon and the six of us there grabbed some
eats to get us through the afternoon. Looking for a nice spot to eat our
pulled pork sandwiches and corn on the cob, I think it was Trash who spotted a
dude sitting by himself at a picnic table. She nicely asked him if he was
saving the picnic table, to which he replied that he was only waiting for one
person, so if we wanted a spot to eat, to go ahead. So half of us did.
Our intention was simply to eat our food and be on our merry way, and the dude
seemed to truly understand that. About halfway through our meal, the
person he was waiting for showed up, a dudette, and she proceeded to start to
chew him out a little bit for giving up part of the picnic table. It
wasn’t a loud berating, but we could hear it, and it seemed bizarre, on the
level, that for this picnic table, you wanted it all to yourself, just the two
of you, where you could really be a lot more cozy on the lawn. Anyway, I
don’t know if the dudette was his wife, girlfriend, sister, mistress, but at
least he had the balls to pretty much say "Just shut up and sit down," knowing
we would be leaving on our merry way soon. Therein lies the "I wish I
could have been quicker on my feet" thing. How many options would there
be? Oh, the options are so many. The first, and easiest, would have
just been to sit there the rest of the day. Let my friends go on their
merry way betting and such, but just sit there, telling them "No, I like this
spot, I think I’m going to camp out here all afternoon, maybe fake phoning them
my bet for the next race." Then there would be the "Pretend we are from
out of town and make her look like a dumb-ass" move by putting on a fake,
southern accent, and nicely go to the dude "Thank you so much for you
hospitality, sir, and giving us a nice spot to eat. I hope we didn’t cause
any problem between you and your misses" as we were leaving. And so many
other thoughts kept coming to mind, bending on the obnoxious to the making her
look like a complete horse’s ass (get it, we were at the horse races, horse’s
ass – oh man, I kill myself sometimes).
In any case, maybe getting that off my
chest here in this blog will help me to move on, realize that "Big Brother" will
be starting back up in a few weeks, and maybe I should use this time of lack of
TV shows productively.
On tap this week for Entertainment Ave! hopefully will
be our podcast of "Stu & The Dude’s Weekend Wrap-Up," more movie preview
postings, movie reviews of "Cars,"
"The
Omen," and "A
Prairie Home Companion," and I really want to do some CD reviews of the new
Dixie Chick’s album, an album from Blue October, and I’ll try like hell to get a
DVD review of "Batman Begins" done. I’d like to say I promise to get all
of that done, but there is the season finale of "Deal or No Deal" that might eat
into some of my reviewing time. God I sometimes hate TV.
That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!
What’s New? A Movie Review of “The Break-Up.”
For this movie review of “The Break-Up,” The Dude on the Right generally liked the film, but was bummed that Jennifer Aniston’s butt was blurry. He also wonders who is getting in trouble for having the wrong license plate on their car and where was “The Bean?”
What’s New? Stu & The Dude’s Weekend Wrap-Up: The Dude Loses his Virginity with the Horses, and Stu is on a Celebrity Tear.
For this podcast, Stu and The Dude give their wrap-up of the weekend, but it really turns into betting on the ponies, celebrity talk, and if you were two months old, with three working arms, would you want doctors to chop one off?
Stu & The Dude’s Weekend Wrap-Up: The Dude Loses his Virginity with the Horses, and Stu is on a Celebrity Tear.
By:
The Dude on the Right
We’ve got another episode of "Stu and The Dude’s Weekend Wrap-Up" for you with
this podcast. The Dude on the Right was excited because he had his first
trip to bet on the ponies, and felt he did alright because he came back home
with more money than he planned to lose. He also learned a valuable
gambling lesson about boxing trifecta’s and it’s not bad to bet the jockey and
not the horse. Stu, though, is getting sick of some celebrities, namely
one with the name of a famous French city, and another who seems to be having
baby and marital issues. Stu just doesn’t let up, and he doesn’t
necessarily blame the "Oops I Did it Again" girl, nope, he blames her people.
There’s also a strange discussion about a baby with three arms and one of Stu’s
favorite shows, "Rescue Me."
Thanks for listening.
Stu & The Dude’s Weekend Wrap-Up: The Dude Loses his Virginity with the
Horses, and Stu is on a Celebrity Tear.
That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!
|
|
Subscribe Here |
What’s New? A Movie Review of “X-Men: The Last Stand.”
For this movie review, The Dude on the Right caught “X-Men: The Last Stand” with Stu Gotz, who couldn’t really give The Dude any insight if this movie followed any comic book storyline. The Dude on the Right did like the movie, thought, but can’t get one scene with Phoenix out of his head.
What’s New? The Dude on the Right’s “American Idol” Finale Wrap-Up.
For this podcast, The Dude on the Right gives his thoughts on the “American Idol” finale and his take on the difference between Taylor Hicks and Katharine McPhee. He also wonders if college kids were playing the “Soul Patrol” game.
The Dude on the Right’s “American Idol” Finale Wrap-Up.
By:
The Dude on the Right
Hey everybody! "American Idol" finale’d last night, and as everyone in the
world with a computer probably already had a clue before the show, well, Taylor
Hicks won. For this podcast I give my take on the Taylor vs. Katharine
McPhee thing, why Katharine should have worn the dress she wore on Wednesday
night during her Tuesday night finale (it might have gotten her a few more
votes), and I hope college kids everywhere were playing the "Soul Patrol" game
while watching on Tuesday, although I’d be surprised if they made it to any
classes on Wednesday if they did. I also wonder if "So You Think You Can
Dance?" can fill some of my TV void, but as I’m typing this, and watching the
show, it’s still too soon to tell. No, wait, umm, I just caught a glimpse of this Juliya Tamarkina wiggling her butt, and a fine butt it is, as well as every other things and stuff on her body, dancing with her partner whom she needs to dump for an older, plumpier partner who wears a paper bag over his head. You know what? This show does have potential except the judges seem to suck. Hopefully the judges will get better and there will be more Juliya’s.
Oh well, thanks for listening.
That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!
|
|
Subscribe Here |
The Almost Last “American Idol”: Katharine McPhee vs. Taylor Hicks
By:
The Dude on the Right
Normally I would do a podcast tomorrow evening before "American Idol" giving you
my thoughts on the Tuesday night performances and my Paula Abdul clips of the
night, but since the two hour finale starts at 7PM here in the Chicagoland area,
I know I won’t be able to get it posted in time and oh so want to endure about
an hour and 45 minutes of uselessness to see who wins. So I figured I
would blog my recap of tonight’s performance, and give my podcast rehash on
Thursday night. So, without further ado, my thoughts on Katharine McPhee’s
and Taylor Hick’s performance, who should win, and don’t be surprised if they
win.
ROUND 1
Katharine: Black Horse and the Cherry Tree
Katharine did pretty well with this the first time around, and this time was
just okay. She looked great in the tight jeans and shirt showing her
belly, but she kept singing to the two percussion dudes on stage rather than the
audience.
Taylor: Living for the City
He’s being the Taylor he has become to be, working through the crowd,
wearing a funky suit jacket, and still looking like he’s going to take a dump on
stage as he stretches for a note or two, but I think that’s why we love him.
Winner of Round 1: Taylor
ROUND 2
Katharine: Somewhere Over the Rainbow
Again solid song for her, but she does not work the stage, nor the audience,
well. There she was, just sort of sitting on the stage, and doing, at
first, a fantastic version, totally into the feeling of the song. I felt
so good for her, she needed the perfect version, and I really wanted her to get
up somewhere near the middle of the song, work the front of the stage, and
finish it on the platform behind the judges belting it out for the audience, but
then two things happened that lost it for me: First, she just stayed
there, kinda crumpled on the floor of the stage, and second, she lost the
feeling of the song and started "mugging" for the camera every time it came near
her. What I mean by mugging is she shifted from serious mode to the
"grinning ear to ear" thing that has been bugging me about her all season.
Sad song, depressing song, it doesn’t seem to matter for her, once that boom
camera comes near her face, she shifts from serious and sad looking to "I’m
going to smile now because the camera is coming in for a close-up."
Taylor:
Levon
I will admit I am a little biased because this is one of my favorite Elton
John songs of all time, and Taylor does his own great way of knocking it out of
the ballpark. The thing with Taylor is when he’s not being goofy Taylor,
he does show that he has a fun voice, but this isn’t really the song that
showcased this, that one was a few weeks ago. He still works the stage
better than Katharine and exudes a confidence she just doesn’t seem to have.
Winner of Round 2: Katharine (but barely because of the
mugging.)
ROUND 3
Katharine: My Destiny
Singing what will be her first single, I am going to sound so incredibly
mean right now, and I do apologize to all of the Katharine fans, and to
Katharine herself, but here goes…
First off, and my mom has been saying it
all along, but whoever has been picking her dresses is doing a horrible job.
Like most men, I would have lied to her because I knew I wouldn’t get any at the
end of the night by being truthful, but that dress made her look fat. Oh,
and this is going to sound worse than mean, but she looked like she was shoved
in a sausage casing. Something just fitted her totally wrong with that
dress. Randy said she looked amazing, but on TV, or at least my TV, that
dress was horrible.
Next, this was a typical song for a "pop" idol, starting
the singer off in a lower key and building them up to a higher register where
they can take the song out of the ballpark, but she just seemed too nervous to
pull that off and hit a blooper, pop-fly for an easy catch by the shortstop.
The other problem for her, and maybe she knew this, is that maybe Katharine knew
people are tired of these kinds of songs from the finalists, and she also knew
Taylor had the stronger song.
Lastly, from the show, and maybe I’m wrong, but
it looked like Simon really wanted to just lay into her on every aspect about
the performance, but knew this was the finale and if he came out blasting the
song, her performance, and her look, that every aspect of marketing her would be
blown off the map. I’m sorry for being so harsh on her, but I’ll try to
explain more at the end of this way-to-long blog.
Taylor: Do I Make
You Proud
Sadly for the "American Idol" folks, this song has come out about a month
too late. Why? Because high school graduation ceremonies around the
country in every small town would somehow try to fit this song into the
proceedings. But Taylor doesn’t have to worry about the graduates because
I think he still has the wedding song market for the next six months if the
bride-to-be is a Taylor fan.
Taylor didn’t have to worry about an outfit,
because, well, Taylor doesn’t need to to look unbelievable, he just needs to
look like Taylor, so his normal suit was fine. What Taylor had going for
him, that Katharine really didn’t, is a perfect song for him. It wasn’t
the greatest song, but so much better than Katharine’s that it didn’t matter,
and Taylor sang it with the confidence that even if the lyrics were something
like "Do I make you proud, because I was caught sleeping with a hooker that I
picked up on the corner," he still would have pulled it off for his "Idol" fans
who wouldn’t have cared.
He knocked the song out of the ballpark for his
"American Idol" fans. And even Simon knew it.
Winner
of Round 3: Taylor
Based on Tonight, Who
Should Win This Fight: Taylor Hicks
Don’t Be Surprised if This One Wins: Katharine McPhee
The Dude on the Right’s Final Analysis
Here’s a little how I see this, so let’s go…
With our two
finalists, the marketing/public relations folks are really trying to scramble,
and maybe just me, but I think Simon knows this. Taylor is a great guy,
with a great voice, and I am a fan, but where, on any radio dial, can you market
him? Somehow lots of the public loves him, and the single they have him
recording has potential, but after the show is over, are you going to be
clamoring out there to get any single/CD he puts out, let alone be the reason
you go see him in concert? Maybe I’m wrong, and I read this somewhere
else, but he is the kind of dude who could, with his act, pull off a larger
bar/club atmosphere where he sang a mixture of covers and originals, but his
sound fits absolutely nowhere on the radio landscape, and that’s a marketing
nightmare. His voice doesn’t lend itself to adult contemporary, let alone
a teen audience, and there are few rock stations that would play anything he
puts out, probably mostly out of spite.
Katharine, though, almost has entire
package, just not the presence of Taylor. She’s got looks, she does need a
better wardrobe (and shorter hair to show off her boobs for me), but if she were
to lose a little of the Celine Dion-ish posing, she could fill a huge void,
sliding into a bizarre nitch between the world of Kelly Clarkson and Celine Dion.
Here’s how I would have loved to see her performances go: During "Black
Horse and the Cherry Tree" work the audience with an attitude. No big
grinning, just go out there, slap hands, work the stage, and keep an attitude
like "I’m a bad-ass, hear me roar!" Then, during "Somewhere Over the
Rainbow," fine, start it crouched down on the stage, but get up, sing to the
crowd, all of the crowd, but don’t get caught in the glamorous moment – You’re
trying to find your way home, to a happy place, there’s no place for smiling ear
to ear during this song. Lastly, you’ve got a lousy last song and you
probably know it. So what, go out there and just kick whatever ass you can
find.
I feel bad about bashing on Katharine, because I think she has huge star
potential, but somewhere, somehow, I think her biggest problem is that she was
never taught to get into the feeling of a song. All she knows is to sing
the song, she doesn’t know how to, and this is going to sound pretty cheesy, but
be one with the song. That, I think, is her largest stumbling block to
getting herself to the next level.
I suppose I should wrap up this way-to-long
blog by just admitting that you never really know what the fans out there in TV
land are going to do in regards to voting for the "American Idol," yet I still
love the show. It will be interesting to see how the voting goes, but for
me, I think Taylor will win, but Katharine has more potential for stardom.
That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!