Photo's from Christmas and 2006 so far.

Being away so much I don't seem to take as many photos as I did. And even when I do it seems that I am not very good at getting them on the website in a timely fashion. Ah well better late than never - I have just posted a new set of about 14 photos of Hollie from Christmas 2005 and this year so far.

I particularly like this one of her with Peter:

American Idol ... they lied ...

or did they? The show this week was just a'ight for me - not really my kind of music. But I thought that Paris did an outstanding version of her song. Chris excelled. Catherine McPhee is starting to make me wanna puke - OK, sure, she is very good, but I just want to punch her sugary smiley face in. Taylor, was well, Taylor did a good job. I enjoyed Elliot's performance too. Kellie sure did "burrcher", that'll be butcher her song, but in my view all credit to her for saying so before the judges did. And Ace, well frankly, thank heavens he's gone, what a frigging cheeseball !!

BUT ... no way ... I do not believe for one minute that Paris and Chris received fewer votes from the 'merkin public than Elliot or Taylor ... unless 'merica is doing the normal stupid thing and voting for things other than who can sing the best.

OK I am biased and don't really like Catherine that much - but Cowell was blown away by her and if he was then she's probably excellent. Kellie might have pulled a sympathy vote. But come on - please - don't tell me that more people actually voted for Elliot and Taylor than voted for Chris and Paris.

There's a paragraph of small print that pops up at the end of the results show - and last night I used the "freeze" option on my TV to hold that. The first sentence says - Portions of this show which do not effect the outcome have been edited at the producers discretion - or words to that effect.

I honestly wonder if they lie about the actual bottom three to make the TV more sensational. As in:

Producer 1: "OK guys, Ace is gone, let's stick Chris and Paris in the bottom three with him as we'll get more oooooohs and aaaaaahs that way"

Producer 2: "Great idea Producer1. And guess what even more people will hit the website to express their disbelief on the forums thereby increasing our revenue stream from advertising on there"

Producer 3: "Yeah Producer2. And don't forget they'll tell all the friends how unbelievable it was and that'll put 5% on the viewing figures for next week"

Producer 4: "Yeah!"

Producer 4 is really just the tea boy - but he likes to feel involved.

Of course, I could just be an untrusting bugger and the american viewers and voters could just be totally barking mad.

Queen of Wishful Thinking !!

So last night, American Idol, the contestants were doing Queen songs this week. I thought that it was going to be a really good week. But they picked some really weird songs and it was all a bit lack lustre. Chris picked Innuendo - and he did it well enough - but he could have had a really storming performance if he had picked one of Queen's more popular rock classics such as One Vision, Another One Bites The Dust. Kellie did an OK job with Bohemian Rhapsody. Paris did great with The Show Must Go On. Catherine absolutely destroyed Who Wants To Live Forever but Simon seemed to think it was great, ah well. Taylor did a reasonable job of Crazy Little Thing Called Love. Elliot sang Somebody To Love really well, but it is not really his style. Ace destroyed We Will Rock You and managed to piss off Brian May by suggesting that he should rearrange it in a particular way. Bucky, I can't even remember which song he did badly - but it doesn't matter because he's gone now anyhow. Ace must go next week - please God !!

Cowell says ...

Simon Cowell Says Taylor Hicks, Chris Daughtry, and Kellie Pickler Are Three Favorites To Win American Idol

You know I think he could be right !!