I'm in Chicago for the first time in my memory. I don't count the time I went through there on my way West when I was a wee kid. I'm here on business, but I'm staying through the weekend for fun. So much to see and so little time to see it all. At least the first two days are on my company's dime.

This does mean that I will be without Internet connection as of Friday night, so sorry if you're looking for me, which you're not anyways. I'm taping Idol, so I'll have to wait a couple of days to see who's out next (Matt's gone ).

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I'm currently watching Smallville. I'm more than half way through the first season (no spoilers please) and really enjoying it more than I thought I would. As people previously noted (both online and offline) people start to drop off around seasons 3 and 4. I'll let you know how it goes, but that's months away if even this year.

One thing that sucks is retcons. I like to read trivia and notes about shows I watch when I'm catching up. However I had to stop reading them for this show. Some notes are giving away spoilers from future episodes, and in some cases giving away episodes from future seasons. That sucks. I've already heard about two minor characters that die. I think I know one of the major deaths too and that sucks.

Spoilers suck.

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I have a hankering for re-watching Justice League/Justice League Unlimited. I was missing JL Season 5/JLU Season 3/JLU Volume 2 from my DVDrips collection. I got sick of waiting for the Internet to provide them with me, so I got myself copies of the DVD's (thank you library) and ripped them for myself.

I then realized that I have a few DCAU shows like this so a quick visit to my library's website and I have 5 DVD's lined up. Then once I get them I'll rip them for myself and be content.

For those wondering, this is legal use in Canada and I'm not talking about distributing the files, so it's not even against DMCA or whatever it's called.

Anyways, I have this hankering from just listing to the theme once or twice. There's just something powerful about it that makes me want to re-watch the whole DCAU in reality. If you don't know what makes up the DCAU then read up. Although I don't care about Zeta too much and I've not seen much of Static Shock.

Too much TV to watch right now even though I have just lost a new show.

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Rank       : Airwolf
Level      :   50 
Percentage :   47% (+ 3)
Forum Posts: 5430  (+30)

Submissions                 Reviews
Accepted   : 2693  (+22)    Shows      :    2
Pending    :    0           Episodes   :   49
Denied     :  122           People     :    0
Total      : 2815           Total      :   51

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I'll mention only one thing about Canadian Idol, and then I'm moving on.

I heard a quote the other day from Greg. He said he was sad to leave, but because of the fan reaction (shock and anger to him leaving) he felt good about leaving. He intends on continuing on, just not with Idol. Expect to see more from Greg and his band in the future.

With that, I have decided I will continue to watch CI, but only because of Greg's acceptance not mine.

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In other news, I'm still enjoying Painkiller Jane, although it has it's ups and downs. The majority of the stories are pretty good, assuming you can ignore the quality of the show.

I've still got 3 episodes to watch to be caught up, and only 5 episodes left to be aired.

I was very surprised that they killed off one of the main 5 characters in the twelfth episode. That was shocking and a little unnecessary. I thought it was amusing that people asked if that character died in the comic books. I haven't read them myself, and neither have the vast majority of PKJ viewers. However, a quick read on Wikipedia tells me that the TV series has a similar story to the comic book, only minus the neuro hunting.

My guess is that the dead character (and the other major characters) have nothing to do with the comic book series.

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I've recently realized that I'm watching a lot more TV on my computer this summer. I'm watching more than I figured I would. At night I'm watching at least and hour at home and an hour at work. That's twice as much as I thought I would.

During the work day I watch 2 episodes of the original Twilight Zone. I'm part way through season 3, so that's working out well. And yes, I get my work done since I watch one while I have breakfast and the other at lunch.

Last year I had downloaded the first four seasons of Smallville, which I've heard much good about. Last night I finally decided to start these so I watched the pilot. It's hard to get used to some of the changes, but the production quality is pretty good.

My biggest issue with the show is that a 24 year-old is playing a 15 year-old Clark Kent. Heck, of the youth in the series, the actor playing Clark is the oldest one there - and that includes Lex who is beyond High School!

Yikes!

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Rank       : Airwolf
Level      :   50 
Percentage :   44% (+11)
Forum Posts: 5400  (+25)

Submissions                 Reviews
Accepted   : 2671  (+10)    Shows      :    2
Pending    :    0           Episodes   :   49
Denied     :  122           People     :    0
Total      : 2793           Total      :   51

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This to be an incomplete blog, on purpose. It is full of spoilers about Canadian Idol so if you don't know who was voted off, stop reading.

SPOILERS Abound

Tonight, it was revealed that the bottom 3 were Carly Rae, Brian and Greg. Even given the fact I don't like Carly Rae I can say that the best three performances of the previous night were those three.

In the end, Greg (my favourite and the best potential Idol winner this season) was voted off. Unless CTV announces (even if they have to lie) that the results were flipped by accident and say someone else is gone, I don't know if I can continue to watch this show.

Yes, me .. the CI fan on this site is ready to stop watching. I've have favourites lose before (e.g. Rex Goudie) and I've had people I did not like win (Melissa O'Neil and Kalen Porter). I've never before wanted to stop watching though.

With the combination of the best three tagged as "worst" and Greg being tossed, plus crappy performances by Matt and Jaydee, I just don't know.

I enjoy Jaydee's performances, but he's not Idol material. Matt needs to come back in a few years and he'll be awesome. Greg learned a lot between last year and this year and is ready for prime time.

I'll have to think about this and sleep on it. If I decide to stop watching I'll drop my editorship. If there's even a glimmer that I might still watch I'll hold on to the guide (once retired, always retired).

My only hope is that Greg signs a record deal ASAP and starts writing stuff, and once the Idol embargo is lifted he immediately releases an album. I'm sure it would sell better than any Idol record from the remaining Top 6.

Signing out before I explode .... 2C

Canadian Idol Forum on TV.com
I'm sure some of you are getting sick of my Canadian Idol talk, but that will change soon. The general apathy on this site for this superb show is dragging me down.

In the meantime, I have created a poll in the CI forum that I would ask everyone who refers to the guide or is a fan to respond to. I would appreciate votes, comments are not required.

Continuing with CI there was a nice quote from Brian May (of Queen Fame) released last night. He said:

"Roger and I were both surprised. They're wonderful artists, all seven of them. I actually have to tell you that I have a different feeling about the Idol thing after this. Perhaps things are evolving more [on Canadian Idol] towards the singer/songwriters and the really talented people who really should be on TV. God bless them."

Which I interpret as meaning they agreed to do the show for the exposure rather than the interest. It's nice to see that he can be honest and admit he thought it was a bunch of hooey, only to find out (this season especially) that talented people make it on the show.

I really believe that this year's Top 22, in general, were much better than any previous season of CI or AI. I'm not saying it to be ignorant or arrogant, but I honestly believe that the people that made it to the Top 22 this year are better as a whole. A lot of people this year are more than just singers (most are musicians and/or song writers) and it shows in the quality.

I am sad that CI gets a bad rap because the first two years were really just knock-offs of AI, but CI has been an innovator in the Idol franchise world wide, since the third season anyways. But enough of this, I can tell no one other than me really cares about this.

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I've been forcing myself to watch a bunch of movies I had sitting in a pile over the previous two weeks. I saw several movies, most of which were from last year. I want to talk about two in particular.

No Spoilers Contained Below

The first is the Illusionist. This was about one magician that does all he can to obtain the love of his life, and the story around it. The second is The Prestige. This is about two magicians that get into a rivalry due to the lost of a loved one by one of the magicians, and the ensuing story about them.

Both are period movies that were made about magic. Both had Ricky Jay as one of their magicians for training and reality training. (Ricky Jay plays a very bit character in The Prestige) Both start at one point in time, then quickly move back in time to where it all started. They both end up back at the scene that the movie starts in and then finish the story with the surprise ending.

I saw the Illusionist first and it blew me away. It was wonderful. I didn't see the ending coming ... well, actually I did figure it out about 10 minutes before the detective. It was a good story with a good twist ending. I got what I expected from that movie and I was happy.

Almost a week later I watched The Prestige and it blew me away in such a way that it made the Illusionist look like a "nice story" instead of the wow it gave me the week before. This even though I figured out the ending 30 minutes before the reveal in the movie. Even though I saw the twist coming, it was executed so well I was WOW'ed over. The surprise ended is actually given away very early in the movie, if you know to look for it, which you cannot on first watch.

In the end, I would recommend them both to anyone, but I would insist they watch them in alphabetical order.

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I haven't run into any further submission issues in the last week. You may of noted that submission count jumped higher this past time. It was almost 100% due to work on the CI guide. I have gone through and "corrected" both seasons 4 and 5. Now, all summaries are spoiler free, all on-screen items are in Trivia (like songs sung and people booted) and that Notes do not contain Trivia items. I also cleaned some of the quotes that were in the wrong format, but that was minor.

I feel better now. Thank you.

Canadian Idol Forum on TV.com

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Rank       : Airwolf
Level      :   50 
Percentage :   33% (+ 9)
Forum Posts: 5375  (+40)

Submissions                 Reviews
Accepted   : 2661 (+132)    Shows      :    2
Pending    :    0           Episodes   :   49
Denied     :  122           People     :    0
Total      : 2783           Total      :   51

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Canadian Idol Forum on TV.com
As the editor for Canadian Idol I feel the need to "spread the word" about the show. I will say that those able to download off the web, but don't live in Canada, should attempt to watch some of this season. A really great episode is the Top 9 from last night. It was better than last season and much better than the last two seasons of American Idol. This is my opinion.

I've asked kids that are in the target market here why they watch AI but not CI. Really it sums up to "Zack tries to be like Simon too much". While I can see that as a valid cause to not watch CI, I have two responses to that.
1. It turns out they haven't watched last season or this season when they make that comment. I must say that Zack started that way, but has naturally moved back to just being Zack. Zack knows what he likes and what he doesn't. He doesn't like Country music (nor do I) and so he says so. Zack is not nasty like Simon (who is nasty because he's supposed to be), Zack is just honest.
2. If it bothers you that much, then fast forward through his part or all of the judges, and enjoy the music.

I keep meaning to ask the kids, "do you watch AI for the music or the judges?". If they watch for the music, then they'd love CI and should skip the judges. If they're just watching for the judges then they need to turn off the TV because then it's just another useless reality show.

Whether you like CI or not, it still is the highest rated Canadian show on Canadian TV, just not in Toronto.

Oops, I went a little off-topic there.

My point was supposed to be that the Top 9 show was super! My point was that next week is a potentially stronger Top 8 performance show. The show's guest will be Enrique Iglesias and the theme will be "Unplugged". That's a simple way of saying acoustic instruments only, and likely most of the Top 8 will play instruments themselves.

Although I don't have the readers that I once had, I would ask that you help support CI if you are willing. Either post the above banner, or copy one of the links to the forum, or link to this blog entry. Last year the CI community was bigger, now it is about 3 people on this site. At this rate I won't keep editing this show due to lack of interest from the community.

It seems people are going to the CTV forums to talk and not here. That's there right, but why should I continue to care about the show on this site if I'm the only one.

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The submission system has made some major bug fixes since my last blog post. This is good. But it is very bad that it still has problems.

Currently, my biggest problem is that I added the CI Top 10 at an episode level instead of at the show level. If I had of added them at a show level I would have avoided the bug by just importing them with the rest of the stars. I didn't and so now I'm at a loss of what to do.

The bug is that once you create a person with this new system and want to add them to other shows/episodes they won't appear in the search results. For example, if you search for "Bixby" in the above search you will find several Bixby's including Jaydee (he's in the Top 9). But if you go to the Top 9 episode (or any episode) and search on "Bixby" you get results with all but Jaydee. No Jaydee means I cannot add him to the show.

I keep bringing up this issue, but it is being ignored.

Arggg.

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Those of you that have been around awhile will remember that I'm not fond of all of the emblems we have. I even asked to have less. Just as a place holder I decided to include my current list of emblems and the list of emblems that I think I should have.

How they are:





How I'd like to see them:



There's no point, I'm just saying.

Canadian Idol Forum on TV.com

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Rank       : Airwolf
Level      :   50 
Percentage :   24% (+ 5)
Forum Posts: 5335  (+35)

Submissions                 Reviews
Accepted   : 2529  (+56)    Shows      :    2
Pending    :    0           Episodes   :   49
Denied     :  122           People     :    0
Total      : 2651           Total      :   51

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