amaranta

Yes, that was Mike Doughty. What I find interesting is that it's definitely a religious song (I think Doughty wrote it while finding sobriety; I'm not aware of Doughty recording anything else that's overtly spiritual) and that it was played over Crosby's drive to the retreat. Not sure what they were going for there, whether it was about Crosby's journey and the specific situation with Tyson Ritter/Oliver Rome, or his ultimate destination, which seems to be up in the air at the moment. Anyway, song title is "His Truth Is Marching On." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nh1Oz596p5Q&index=187

I would love it if Griffin walked in to meet with Blake and said: "I've found my inner rocker. I'd like to do a rock classic for the knock-outs - perhaps Led Zeppelin's Black Dog." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fgm7F30EN50 Griffin of the Battles was nothing like his blind audition. And that's a good thing.

I really enjoyed the battle of the two country boys with the three names, because it was more like a performance than a battle. James David has a smooth, rich tone; Craig Wayne is rough and gravelly (another Bob Seger type voice on The Voice - imagine that!) and their vocal differences worked together to create some lovely harmony. If neither makes it to the final, and considering how well they got a long with Little Big Town (agree with prior posts - that jam session was a wonderful show moment), they should join forces and form a band or something. Seriously. I'm not at all surprised that Maiya is gone. There was nothing unique about her style or her voice. On any given Sunday I could cruise around town, hit a dozen churches with a gospel service and find a Maiya. Yes, I live in a large metropolitan area but the point still holds - she wasn't that special. There's a reason some seemingly great singers are back-ups - they don't draw focus from the main act when on stage. There's a lack of charisma, no It factor. And once the battle rounds come, you go home. Speaking of It factors, I'm glad Chris went through over Jonathon. And was also pleasantly surprised by that. I was fine with everyone who got through except for Sugar. She and her growl of coolness are already on my nerves. Alicia Keys and Stevie Nicks are Goddesses. There are no likely limits to the embarrassment I would have caused myself if I had walked into a room containing either one of them. And Alicia's "take it to Aretha" moment was inspired. I got chills.

I never saw Billy Abbott, not being a Y&R watcher. I've only seen Miller as Richie Novak (Annie Lavery's brother) back on All My Children. He played a murderous sociopath, and there were a couple of times he actually scared me. He was convincing when it came to murderous crazy. It's too bad that character was beyond redemption; I thought he was a good actor. But he played such a sicko I don't see how they could have turned it around. And AMC had already done a cutting-the-tumor-out-makes-the-killer-go-away story. Hmm, I wonder if Ron knows about that storyline? /snerk

Last year I fell in love with a little show called "Spy" cruising around on Hulu. http://www.hulu.com/spy Darren Boyd is wonderful and there is a good supporting cast. It's a British comedy (shown on Sky1 in the UK; Hulu only in the U.S.), 2 seasons, 17 episodes in total. Description is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spy_%282011_TV_series%29 It's fun and silly. Boyd has a wonderfully dry, deadpan style. I think I preferred the shorter first season, only 6 episodes; but IMO it's all quite good.

Many house guests over the years have done much worse than Christine and still were not booed upon eviction. Do I think it was because audiences didn't want to boo and jeer during past season evictions? Nope. Do I think care and diligence took place during past seasons to at least try and enforce the no booing policy? Yes. Now do I think CBS staff present that particular night was more lax, perhaps even going so far as to turn a deaf ear and blind eye, on the no booing rule during Christine's exit? Yes again. Because, along with all of the above mentioned crap Christine pulled, she (IIRC) is the only competitor to have ever uttered the words 'I hate Julie Chen' while in the Big Brother house. If Frankie goes, the reaction might be tepid. But I don't think we'll get the all out booing we got for Christine. Lesson to all future BB contestants - Don't mess with The Chen. Ever.

I still get chills from that performance. I haven't watched Grey's in years, but they used a near perfect song choice for the Meredith holding on to the bomb in patient scene (poor Kyle Chandler!), Breathe (2 AM) by Anna Nalick. "And life's like an hourglass, glued to the table..." Edited due to postus interruptus; life threw me a Rube Goldberg moment and the lid on my laptop closed. Joining the love for the music on Chuck. The Season 2 finale, Chuck versus The Ring and the use of Mr. Roboto during the wedding / fight scenes was brilliant. ("Why are you letting Sam Kinison and an Indian lesbian wreck your wedding"? Love.) Also loved the call back in the show finale with Jeffster helping to save the day by performing "Take On Me." Every summer I pick a show to binge watch and this year was "Suits". I think I've developed a crush on their music person. While I am really liking the show itself, each time I settle in to watch I grab a pen so I can jot down info on the music so I can search after the episode. People have set up playlists, but I'll just post one of my favorite finds from the current season (not a clip, but the music video; the actual scene doesn't appear to be there):

To me it looks like the cabin where Michael killed Claudia Z. I keep expecting to see an axe handle.

Someone needs to feed Rebecca Herbst a donut. I cringe when someone is so thin you can see the indentations from their breast bone. And her shoulders look like they could cut someone.

Matt Bomer lost? Noooooooo! I was going to watch this later, for The Normal Heart nominations and for the Robin Williams tribute. Nope; I'll YouTube the tribute tomorrow. And refresh here and keep reading you guys for the rest.

My UOs: I liked Bradford Anderson and thought he was one of the strongest actors on the show. I may not have always like the writing for Spinelli, but I always liked what BA brought to the table. I liked Julie Marie Berman and the way she portrayed Lulu; she seemed to capture traits from both parents. True, they brought her too far over to the Carly side, but I think that's on the writers. Plus she had this one scene that has stuck with me, during the Franco kidnapping and being strapped to the bomb. She was so real with the panic/resignation of thinking she was going to die she actually unnerved me a bit. I hated the story line, but JMB nailed it. I don't mind Haley P.'s voice and think she's becoming a strong actress. Plus I think she's grown into a beautiful young woman. It's TeCa's quavery voice sets me on edge. The Beards: I like both Roger Howarth's and Jason Thompson's. I've liked NLG in the past but think she has jumped on the overacting train in her love scenes with Julian. I'm glad they are taking a break. I'm secretly hoping they can do something, anything, with this decision of having RoHo play Franco. (Yes to a name change, please!) I like Howarth and want him to stay. Even as a long time viewer I've never liked JZ/Bobby. There's just something about her speech patterns, her choices of where she places emphasis, that grates. I like the actress that plays Britt and think she is gorgeous. I actually remember her from Chuck, where she played Shaw's dead wife.

I didn't see a link to the art for this episode so I thought I would post one. Hope that's OK. The Girl on the Cliff by Augustus Edwin John

As the episode progressed my worry grew for Louis: I felt for him, I grew tense over his situation, and during the voice over for his letter, I got teary for him. As for Harvey, Jessica, Mike and Rachel, I was surprised to realize I didn't give a shit*. I still like Donna. Loved Jessica's clothes this episode. I think they made a huge mistake this season, moving Mike out of the firm, and that they've never fully recovered. It was too soon: if Mike's exit from PS ever had to happen then that storyline should have been used as a final season arc. Now they're having to perform writing gymnastics because of that choice, especially with all the moves bringing him back into the fold. *Suits speak. ;-)

I can't write two posts tonight. Just can't. Maybe tomorrow. But I wanted to participate in this tribute, so I'm bring over my In Memoriam post - One of my very favorite things that I ever heard about Robin Williams: He and Christopher Reeves were very close friends for many years and roomed together before they were both famous. After Reeves accident, Williams dressed up as a doctor and went to Reeves' hospital room. He proceeded to "examine" him, "diagnose" him and generally riff about hope, life, and love. He continued these visits well into Reeves rehab, urging him to never give up. Goodbye Mork, Garp, The Fisher King / Parry, Adrian Cronauer, Peter Banning, The Genie, Sean Maguire, John Keating, Armand Goldman, Daniel Hillard / Mrs. Doubtfire, Dr. Malcom Sayer, Teddy Roosevelt and Simon Roberts. And more. There were times you were effin brilliant. And, oh yeah. This news really sucks.

One of my very favorite things that I ever heard about Robin Williams: He and Christopher Reeves were very close friends for many years and roomed together before they were both famous. After Reeves accident, Williams dressed up as a doctor and went to Reeves' hospital room. He proceeded to "examine" him, "diagnose" him and generally riff about hope, life, and love. He continued these visits well into Reeves rehab, urging him to never give up. Goodbye Mork, Garp, The Fisher King / Parry, Adrian Cronauer, Peter Banning, The Genie, Sean Maguire, John Keating, Armand Goldman, Daniel Hillard / Mrs. Doubtfire, Dr. Malcom Sayer, Teddy Roosevelt and Simon Roberts. And more. There were times you were effin brilliant. And, oh yeah. This news really sucks.

Only on TV do people put someone on call waiting before gossiping about this person to someone else on the other call waiting line. And of course they will always do it wrong and they end up talking to subject of the gossip.

Hear, hear. Now my confession... I tried. Really, I did. Made it through two and a half episodes. I hated Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

My Mom owns the DVDs. When I visit, I confess I sometimes play a Sully-centric episode just so I can look at Joe Lando. As for the series itself, to be honest, I don't really care. Is it any good? Hell if I know. Joe Lando helped me to understand why guys would watch whole episodes of Bay Watch.

Oh Yeah. Beside Zach being completely adorable, I also find him very charismatic. I would think you have to be to act with, and pull from focus from, Matt Bomer's Brice on Chuck. Others: Bradley Whitford. He had me from "Love's Labor Lost" on ER. And if LemonLyman.com had been real, I may have registered. Speaking of Matt Bomer - I'm picking him as my other TV crush. Usually I gravitate toward the somewhat unconventionally handsome and Bomer is so freaking beautiful. It ought to be illegal to be that good looking. But I also find him a talented actor - I think he (and DeKay) save White Collar from being mediocre TV. I'm rooting for a Matt Bomer Emmy win for the Normal Heart.

David Ogden Stiers will always be Major Charles Winchester. I think he's talented and I have enjoyed some of his other work, but I still see Charles.

I adored James Garner. I watched both Maverick and The Rockford Files (loved the answering machine opens) in syndication / online, leading me to seek out his movies: The Great Escape, Murphy's Romance, Support Your Local Sheriff, Victor/Victoria - hell, just about everything. Even the ones with Doris Day. He also starred in two of my favorite TV movies: Barbarians at the Gate and Promise*. Plus I thought he was really hot. RIP, Jim. *Promise is wonderful. He and James Woods were both amazing. It was made back when the Hallmark Hall of Fame series was still worth something. Perhaps the Hallmark channel will air it as a tribute.

Browsing through this thread for the first time and I have tears in my eyes. I had no idea about Caleb; he seemed like such a great guy. You're in my head! Except that I did see Parvati's fist season. I didn't like her. Other favorites: Yul, Earl, Cirie, Stephanie (first season only), Ozzie (ditto), Denise, Tasha, Kim, Sandra, Rob. Least: Hantzes, Rupert, Colton, Na'onka.

I love breakfast food. Twice a month we do breakfast for dinner, which usually consists of waffles or French toast (made with Challah or sometimes Brioche), scrambled eggs, and hash browns. Every once in a while we include smoked salmon. Anyway, back to the vote - I go with waffles. But come on Leslie - try the French toast!

David Walton. Until About a Boy got renewed I think he had a perfect record in cancellation world.

Another UO: Happy Endings. I liked it some of the time but didn't see it as this amazing, wonderful show that needed to be saved from cancellation. Possibly because I never saw Pally's appeal. And characters that say things like "ah-mah-zing" and/or use "totes" as an exclamation deserve to be pummeled about the head and face. (Side eyes Penny.) And the Keyser Söze episode had already been done by Cougar Town and, IMO, done better.