We Interrupt This Blog...

I've been playing with Movie Maker while the houseguests sleep. Now if I could only get Movie Maker to realize my name is Jackie, not Jacki. These are photos I've taken around NYC and NJ. And, yes... this is my own YouTube video. Yeah, I'm a bit weird. ;-)

Where's Your Pants? - This Week on 'The Late Show with David Letterman' - July 9-13, 2007

Apparently CBS doesn't know where their pants are! As I write this, the entire guest list for the week at the official Late Show website is entirely blank... just an empty box. Grr. I'll have to peruse AOL TV Listings for my info, huh? It seems that CBS and the Late Show could hire someone who would actually keep their site in a timely fashion.

• Monday, July 9: Don Cheadle, a summer toys demonstration, musical guests The Smashing Pumpkins. This one sounds like a keeper to me. I love when Dave does toys!
• Tuesday, July 10: Sienna Miller, Michael era, musical guest Interpol. Um, okay. I guess.
• Wednesday, July 11: Actress Emma Watson, musical guest Spoon. I'm not really excited.
• Thursday, July 12: Actress Vera Farmiga is the only guest listed. I'm sure there's more to the show than that!
• Friday, July 13: Queen Latifah, author Alan Zweibel, and The Smashing Pumpkins. That can't be right... Smashing Pumpkins on both Monday and Friday? I doubt it!

Anyhow, there are the discombobulated guests for the week. CBS should get their site updated!

'Big Brother 8' - Saturday Evening Into Sunday Morning - 7/08/07

<-- In what seems like it's going to be the custom throughout the summer, Dick has stayed up most of the night. He's washing dishes and cleaning the kitchen. If he keeps this up, we'll have to call him Domestic Dick instead of Evel Dick. (Note: That's his spelling of evil, not mine!)

We're not into the really heavy drama point with these hamsters yet. But each day, we learn more about them.

Here's the lowdown from Saturday evening and the overnight hours in that Big Brother House of Loquacious Loonies:

• Carol thinks that Amber and Jessica have teamed up to campaign against her. She thinks Amber is using her family for sympathy. Meanwhile, Amber told Eric that she's just making sure everyone knows how much she wants to remain in the house.
• Jen actually wore clothes all day instead of her barely there bikini. Of couse, they were Jentastic clothes, but...!
• Jameka calls Dick "E.D." because she refuses to call him "Evel."
• Zach has lost almost 30 pounds this year before going into the house.
• Many of the houseguests are concerned about Daniele's weight. She's one of the ones on BB Slop and a thin woman losing more weight. Dick is very worried.
• I don't watch Joe a lot on the feeds. But when I do, I find him annoying. He likes to be the center of attention and is into impressing others by namedropping. "Oh, I know Susan Sarandon!" Um, I don't care.
• Joe has also memorized all of Finding Nemo. (And I think I'm a time-waster, eh?)
• There was a bit of strategy talk between Jameka and Daniele. It sounds like they want Jen out next week but they're worried about her relationship with Mike.
• Daniele thinks that Kail, Mike, Jen, and Eric have formed some sort of alliance or pact.
• Dustin spilled the beans -- both he and Jessica were recruited for the show, they didn't apply. So that means that of the enemies, it was Joe and Carol who wanted to be on the show in the first place.
• Dustin and Amber are getting closer every day. I can see them working together on strategies. Between them, they think they have Nick, Dick, and Zach in their corner.
• Dustin has a crush on Nick.
• Amber had a "date" with Mike -- which she endured because she wants him to be in her corner. Dustin had a "yoga date" with Nick.
• There's a bat who calls the backyard his home. At least that will mean fewer bugs under the lights at night.
• Carol thinks that Amber is trying to "steal" her votes by doing things like giving Zach a backrub. (Okay, girl... I liked you in the beginning, but you're annoying me now.)
• Nick told Kail that Joe offered to be in a secret alliance with him. "How do you back out without telling him you're already in a secret alliance?"
• Kail and Zach now think Carol's not a threat and they should really get rid of Amber this week. These are two to watch -- they're already heavy into strategy early in the game.
• Amber thinks that Joe harasses Dustin.
• Carol said that the producers told her she should try harder to stay and that she was in the Top 3 on the viewers website poll.
• The food restriction for the BB Slop folks went off at midnight, so they feasted.
• Carol thinks the tides have turned and she now has the majority vote to stay in the house. We'll see.
• Dick and Dustin think that Mike and Kail have a strong alliance to each other and that Mike "spies" on others reporting back to Kail. Neither trust Kail; both think she's a very strong player.
• Jen had a brouhaha with Nick. We got Blue Liquid Tunnel.
• Daniele thinks Eric is crazy. "He flipped out on me twice today."
• Dick has a "date" with Kail tonight. (What a couple!)
• Again, Dick stayed up longer than everyone else, talking to the cameras and housecleaning.

Okay... my thoughts on a few things now...

Eric is not a good choice for America's Player. He's too antsy and anxious. Why oh why couldn't they have chosen Jameka? I think that girl is going to fly under the radar until the end. Eric is too flakey and full of nervous energy. Plus, they'll have to bleep every other word out of his mouth for national network television.

I think Kail is a bit Maggie-like. She's gathering the flock and is quietly in charge.

Are Nick and Daniele merely a showmance or are they going to be an item? I don't know.

'Big Brother 8' - Live Feeds Report - Through the Day - 07/07/07

It's the Double Ds! Dustin and Dick laze about outside in the yard.

To address a few things in the comments --

I said "Keith Richard stand-in" for Dick because he actually was exactly that in one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies (the most recent, I believe). Yes, he bears a resemblance to Tommy Lee, too. Give him a few more years and I bet he'll look more like Keith.

Some entries back, a reader questioned why I said Canadians are technically Americans. I reply: On what continent is Canada found? Oh? North America, eh? It's similar to someone from France being both French and European.

These are live feeds reports, so beware... there will be spoilers!

Here are the events from today in that Big Brother House of Silly Sycophants:

• Just a note - I think this is the first season that a good percentage of the men wear shirts.
• Big Brother woke the houseguests up not long after 8 AM their time. The lights must remain on in the bedrooms. They fussed, but they're right. It's a fairly early wake up call for a quiet day.
• Carol thinks Dick snores too much and said she only likes Starbucks coffee -- nothing else will do. She also hates the cameras. (Well, duh... that's the idea behind the show! @@)
• Nick and Zach are agog at Daniele's beauty.
• Jameka thinks Jen doesn't even know her name. (But I bet she knows Mike Boogie's name!)
• Jen's latest Jen shirt is "Jensa Member." @@!
• Eric clipped his mic to one of his nipples. He's our player? Eep. Big Brother finally told him to move the mic higher.
• For a change, not all of the talk in the house is about Hollywood and such. Dick tends to get into talks of art, museums, race, religion and more with others.
• Aha... Daniele and Dick are indeed strategically working together. They're worried that Zach may have some suspicions about them doing do.
• In addition to that huge $5 debt, Carol also had problems with Jessica's mother. She said she's a pageant mom and put too much pressure on her.
• We got a brief audio blurb of a Diary Room discussion with Zach. They were asking him about the Veto comp and staying the HOH during it.
• Nick is still smitten with Daniele.
• They must have entered the house last Saturday as they said it was their one-week anniversary inside.
• Jameka got a bit offended by Dick during a talk about religion, but it's not a huge deal.

That's about it for the day so far. We still don't know if Daniele will use the Veto to save either Carol or Amber. In the beginning before I watched this group much, I really wanted Carol to stay. But the more I see her, the more she grates on me a bit. However, if Daniele used the Veto to save Carol, Kail might put Jen in her place. Amber would certainly stay over Jen. That would be fine with me. Get it done, Ladies.

But... you know, I think we almost always lose a woman first on the show. I'd have to research back to be sure, but the count of Women First Gone has to beat the men.

'Big Brother 8' - Live Feeds Update - Into the Morning - 7/07/07

At least I like the colors of the house "screensaver" more this season than last. It's a blue whirly liquid tunnel, perhaps tying in with the rabbit hole in Alice in Wonderland. It would be almost relaxing if it didn't move so quickly and wasn't accompanied by the overly loud theme music once again.

But I like blue liquid tunnels much more than angry red clouds (or fire). If we must endure this whenever the show doesn't want us to see what's happening, at least I can sit and say, "Hey, pretty colors."

Some folks wonder why we see it, right? Every time a houseguest sings, we get this clip because it's considered broadcasting and the show hasn't paid royalties to air the song. If the houseguests talk about someone who hasn't signed a release, we get the clip because they don't want lawsuits. Then there's when the show doesn't want us to see various competitions or houseguest talk about the show's staff. Although we often get the clip until well after a competition, eventually the houseguests talk about what happened when we were liquid blues.

Before I go into the actual events of the night, I'm going to call my early season favorites... I like Dustin and Jameka. Both get along well with others and seem to be going with the flow in the house. I enjoy watching Dick more than I thought I would and Daniele a bit less. He seems a bit lost, a bit bereft. She won't give him the time of the day. Eric is probably going to work out okay as America's Player, but the guy has issues. He's very antsy and will end up getting bleeped on the show more than Dick, the Keith Richards stand-in. Now, if Dustin didn't have the Joe Nightmare on his back, I think he would have been better as America's Player. But, of course, he might not even be on the show without the connection.

Onto the late night into the dawn events from that Big Brother House of Hapless Hipsters:

• Carol, who could very be evicted this week, wants Big Brother to change her picture on the Memory Wall. No, not to black and white. She thinks she looks snaggle-toothed in it. She noted that only she and Jameka seem to be dressed in the women's photos.
• Jen seems to be the one on the outs with almost everyone in the house. Although Kail said that she had no problem with Jen, almost everyone else has mentioned that she annoys them. Unless she can win competitions, I don't foresee a long stay for her.
• If it means anything this early in the game, Nick's key was the last to be revealed in Kail's Nominations Ceremony.
• Is Nick smitten with Daniele? Possibly. There's been a lot of flirting and he had a long talk with her about how his first impressions were totally off-base. He thought she was a hot dumb blonde, but told her that instead, she's a very smart hot blonde. @@
• Unlike previous seasons, these houseguests are into fake "dates." In a way, it's interesting as they get to know each other. But all they really do is dress up and prepare for the date, then sit around and talk.
• Joe decided he would tell scary stories accompanied by a flashlight. The stories weren't scary, but the flashlight worked.
• Dick, Jen, and Mike had a discussion about how boring Kail is. No, Kail wasn't there to give her opinion.
• Dick has an issue with all of the knives in the house being plastic. He obviously didn't watch Season Two.
• Mike and Dick were the Stay Up Late Dudes, still up as I type this at 5:30-ish in the morning their time. Joe woke Eric up, so now he's out there with them ticked off at Joe.
• The boys are talking about making the teacup in the yard the new Jack Shack (no, I won't explain) by covering it with quilts. Eww.

I'm going to go ahead and get this posted. Why am I actually liking Evel Dick? That's just not right!