Wednesday, March 21, 2007

American Idol

I think we can all safely never again use the word "douchebag," and we can forever more use the word "sanjaya." Laura said of his performance last night that he looked like "a 13 year old in front of his stupid-ass webcam." I just hope he's an organ donor, because that would be the most good he could ever do for anyone. He picked a great song and did it completely wrong. The sad thing is that the judges actually seemed to like it (except for Simon).
Another one worth mentioning is Gina Glocksen. She also picked a great song--"Paint It Black"--and completely ruined it. I can't help but think that the whole "rocker chick" thing is a facade, because it's just not believable. She looked and sounded like a drunk chick at a karaoke bar last night, and after hearing Sanjaya and then Gina both destroying perfectly good songs, I remarked casually that I was "going to go drown myself in the toilet."

Why doesn't everyone just vote for Melinda Doolittle? She is incredibly talented. While for the past two weeks she has picked terrible songs, she has always completely nailed them down and made them quite listenable. If everyone voted for the best only, she would win next week because nobody else would get any votes.
Of course, that kind of thing won't happen, since I don't vote and there are probably a million other people that are thinking the same thing that also aren't voting.
I should probably also mention Blake Lewis. I get the feeling that regardless of the results, he is going to be the most successful of the contestants this year in terms of record sales and career longevity. Laura said she would actually buy his album if he came out with one (and I'm sure he will). He's certainly quite talented at rearranging existing songs, so I suppose he could probably write pretty well too.

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Mosel-Brummels Wedding

My good friend Crystal Mosel (now Crystal Brummels) got married this last weekend (to a good guy named Peter Brummels), and I had the enjoyable job of taking candid shots throughout much of the hubbub, using my parents' Canon Powershot S3 IS. I posted a few others over at my photoblog here and here, but just for fun here are a bunch more:

Groom at Rehearsal
Here's the groom, Peter Brummels, giving a speech at the rehearsal.

Bride at Reception Decoration
And here is the lovely bride surveying the chaos of getting the reception hall ready.

Bride and Bridesmaids
The bride, a teacher, posing with her bridesmaids (my 7-months pregnant wife Laura is on the far left, and the others are all college friends of ours--Tina Bentley, a teacher who drove all the way from Idaho, is next to Laura, Sarah Scherer, also a teacher and my wife's former roommate, is on the far right, and Molly George, a med-tech, is in the center--apologies if I misspelled anyone's name).

Bride and Mother
The bride and her mother.

Embarrassing Picture of Molly Posted Just for Fun
I showed this to everyone else in the room first and got a laugh, and when I showed it to Molly she insisted on immediate deletion of the offending image. I'm posting it here for the world to see now, just for fun.

:)

Hairspray
Sarah getting her hair sprayed and ready for action!

Huh?
The soloist, Liz Gaunt (also an alumnus of Concordia University in Seward) and her son (Isaiah or Isaac, I can't remember for sure) reacting to the conversation.

Crystal and Augustus ("Gus")
Crystal and her dog Augustus, better known as Gus.

Beringer White Zinfandel
There were many, many such bottles at the reception dinner. They provided well for us all!

Best Man's Speech
The best man, Peter's brother, giving his obligatory speech.

Groom's Speech
And finally, the happy couple! Thanks much to them for letting us be a part of it all (I was also an usher). Three cheers!