Of This and Other Worlds

I may have drifted out of active Kalan Porter fandom, but nearly a year after 219 Days came out I still find "Single" massively groovy and am not tired of it yet. Yeah, I know, blah blah stupid lyrics whatever. It's still catchy, IMO.

A few other songs which I am not tired of yet, in spite of the fact that I have heard them approximately 1,000,000 times and I know a lot of other people who can't stand them:

"True" by Spandau Ballet (not that I actively seek this one out or anything, but I never cringe when it comes on the radio)

"One Thing Leads To Another" by The Fixx

"Promises, Promises" by Naked Eyes

"Is There Something I Should Know?" by Duran Duran

We all have our weaknesses.

It has occurred to me that a few of my flist may be a bit shellshocked by all the Doctor Who raving all of a sudden, and are wondering whether I've completely lost my mind and will ever talk about anything else. To which the answer is:

No. BWAH HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!

Erm, actually that's not quite true. Just expect the DW stuff to be dominant for quite some time to come, because I have loved this show since I was a kid, it was one of the first fandoms I ever wrote fic for (and probably the one in which I've written the most fic, word-count wise -- don't even get me started on the illustrations!), and as you know I'm loving the new series all to pieces.

However, for those of you who couldn't care less about the Who prattle, and are wondering if I will ever get back to the Good Stuff, a brief explanation of where I'm at with regard to my other fandoms:

HP: Waiting for Book VI, like everybody else. Don't feel like speculating any more, even about Snape, until I have the straight goods from JKR Herself.

Alias: Keeping vague tabs on plot goings-on by reading other people's LJs, as am not actually watching the show at present. Understandably somewhat discouraged in my Sweiss leanings at the moment, so not so inclined to write a sequel/second chapter to A Man of His Word the way I'd once thought I might. You never know, though, things could change. Especially if You-Know-Who shows up later in the season as promised (no, not Voldemort).

Lost: Love the show. Have great fun speculating about it. Have developed elaborate theory about the island that I keep meaning to expound upon some day, but haven't got around to it yet. Absolutely no desire to write fic, however. I find the show itself too satisfying, and I'm too interested in the answers that the writers and JJ have to offer, to maintain that feeling of "ooh, I simply must fill in this gap!" that usually inspires plot bunnies.

Sherlock Holmes: Read Locked Rooms and loved it. Looking forward to reading other people's reviews. Still running the RUSS-L list, mostly by approving new members and glancing at the day's digests to make sure nobody is killing each other. Of course, nobody ever is, so it's a pretty low-stress job being ListMom. When was the last time you heard of a mailing list that has run busily for ten years and has hundreds of members, with not one single flamewar in the entire course of its history? This is why I love my Bees. *blows kisses to the Bees* Oh, and I haven't forgot about Case of the Winning Woman, it just requires more research than I have time to do at the moment. (Plus, where does one even start to find out about the terms of Victorian life insurance policies?)

Star Trek: Never again. No, really. I can't see it happening. I just don't care any more.

X-Files: On the other hand, never say never. I still get nostalgic for Mulder and Scully from time to time...

Oops, and almost forgot, which shows where my brain is at:

Kalan Porter: Felt that the Time Had Come to move on. Resigned my quasi-moderatorial status at KP4GU, and my real moderatorial status over at the Red Hot Topic KP board. Occasionally poke my nose in to one board or another to see if there's any really big news, but otherwise, that's about it. Wish him well, though.

After reading some of the spoilers on my flist, is it wrong that I have absolutely no desire to watch the season premiere of Alias? Is there any reason that I ought to change my mind on this point?

Sigh.

*goes off to download latest episode of Lost, for which I am blissfully spoiler-free*

Edited to add gratuitous off-topic avatars ( here under the cut )

Oh, my word. Why have I not seen this site before? Thanks to netninny for the tip. Of course, the videos are probably only funny if you're Canadian (although Due South fans will probably get a kick out of the guest appearance by Paul Gross), but you've got to love the bobblehead doll of our Prime Minister, at least.

On a more solemn note, it is Remembrance Day. *is solemn*

On a less solemn note, it is Kalan's 19th birthday, and next Friday the poor kid will have to put up with me asking him embarrassing questions over lunch ("So, when your mother heard 'Single', did she have kittens, or just a hairy conniption?").

Yes, indeed, I entered a "Q-Nadian Idol" contest offered by a local radio station, and yes, I won (thanks to the formidable voting powers of the KP Fan Club, who listened to the show online and called in from places like Vancouver and Quebec to support me), so yes, I am going to lunch with Kalan along with the four other contest winners.

I have the best husband in the world for not only putting up with my weird fangirly ways* but actually laughing good-naturedly when I asked his permission to enter the contest and telling me I didn't need to ask.

What do you think, should I print up the new t-shirt?

* I mean, it's not just this, it's been everything from making him read my Doctor Who fanfics to dragging him off to dinner with Laurie King to asking him to watch the kids for three days while I burbled about Snape at Convention Alley. Really, the guy deserves a medal.

Okay, in an effort to make some new CI converts (*cough*sabrinanymph*cough*) I am going out on a limb here and providing direct links. So if you want to watch any of these, whatever you do, please RIGHT-CLICK AND SAVE before you view them. Do not left-click and try to stream them directly off the site, or the nice folks at Red Hot Topic and CI2 Audio will be unhappy, and so will I. Thank you.

And now, without further ado...

RJ's Top Ten Favourite CI Performances
(with whys, wherefores, and linkage of videos and mp3s for the Idol curious)

( 1. The Way I Feel - Shane Wiebe )
( 2. Nature Boy - Kalan Porter )
( 3. True Colors - Kalan Porter and Theresa Sokyrka )
( 4. Space Oddity - Jacob Hoggard )
( 5. Song for a Winter's Night - Theresa Sokyrka )
( 6. Canadian Railroad Trilogy - Top 6 )
( 7. Born To Be Wild - Kalan Porter )
( 8. Straighten Up and Fly Right - Jacob Hoggard )
( 9. Come Away With Me - Theresa Sokyrka )
( 10. Still - Kalan Porter )

( Honorary Mention: Rock/British Invasion Medley - Top 10 )

Go! Watch! Comment!

Now that Kalan's won, bet you thought I was finished talking about Canadian Idol, didn't you? Ha ha! Not a chance. I need at least a couple more weeks. Right now I'm still going through withdrawal, and desperately browsing about for anything I haven't seen yet. Some recent discoveries:

( Finale Bloopers )

( Anime CI Fanart )

Idol show connoisseurs -- including a considerable number of Americans and other foreign viewers -- seem to agree that CI2 was the best Idol show ever, in terms of the sheer talent displayed by the Top Ten and the freshness their performances brought to a tired formula. Even some die-hard Clay Aiken fans have confessed that they think CI2 was better than AI2 by a long shot. I couldn't get through more than one or two episodes of AI3 this year and I really doubt I'm going to be watching AI4. I don't even know about CI3, because I think this season's going to be really hard to top. But I would recommend CI2 to just about anybody who likes music and enjoys live performances.

Soon I hope to do a post listing the top ten best performances of the season, with links to the audio and video of same for those interested (sabrinanymph, I'll convert you yet!). But in the meantime netninny has written up some handy summaries of this year's competition, meant to bring those who missed the show up to speed:

Canadian Idol 2 for Non-Canucks: An Introduction
Canadian Idol 2 for Non-Canucks II: The Breakout Stars
Canadian Idol 2 for Non-Canucks III: The Controversy
and soon to come, Canadian Idol 2 for Non-Canucks IV: ...And the Rest.

Not only are these summaries well-written and entertaining, they contain some of the more amusing quotes from Shoebox and Joe Dwarf's infamous snarky recaps, so well-beloved on the forums at TWoP. Bit of a strong language warning, but otherwise recommended.

"Mommy," said my four-year-old son, "Are there two winners on Canadian Idol?"

"Not after tomorrow night," I said. "There'll be just one."

"Oh," he said. "Then the winner must be Kalan. Because he sang the rockingest songs."

I did not teach him this. Honestly. Nor did I anticipate that both my preschoolers would fall utterly in love with Kalan's version of "Born to be Wild" on the first hearing and beg me to play the video (or just the MP3) over and over while they sang along. They don't seem to care much for Jacob (who I would think is "rockinger" on the surface), and Theresa (whom I quite like) leaves them unmoved. But Kalan's more upbeat performances seem to go over really big with them. Heh.

Oh, and GIP!

From the official CTV Canadian Idol page, re this week's competition:

The competitors have chosen some of [Gordon] Lightfoot's most memorable songs, including "Sundown," "Early Morning Rain," "Song for a Winter's Night," "The Way I Feel," "Rainy Day People" and "If You Could Read My Mind."

And the results show:

Airing live this Thursday, August 19 from 8 - 9 p.m. ET/PT on CTV, the six remaining competitors will not only sing but also play guitar, piano, bass, mandolin and fiddle together on the classic Gordon Lightfoot song "Canadian Railroad Trilogy." Canadian Idol is the first series out of over 25 Idol programs seen around the world in which competitors will play instruments.

*faints with happiness*

Seriously, I'm not kidding, either. Kalan plays violin like a virtuoso, and the others playing instruments are no amateurs either. So whatever happens, this performance is not going to be mistaken for Tiny Talent Time. And Gord! A whole two hours of Gord! I love CI2, I do, I do.

Glorified karaoke HA! Not in Canada, suckers.

*feels sorry for all the people who got stuck with nothing but American Idol 3 this year*