Melanie Amaro Wins X-Factor

 

 Melanie Amaro Wins 1st X-Factor in U.S.

 

Melaine Amaro joins America Idol champion, Scotty McCreery and Voice winner Javier Colon as winners of the three major singing competitions in the United States, by becoming the winner of the inaugural season of X-Factor.

 

I would have been surprised if she had not won, since Chris Rene and Josh Krajcik were not up to her level. I think we can count on hearing from Chris and Josh in the future, if they still sign a recording contract.

 

It is safe to say that Scotty McCreery has been the most successful recording artist, having sold in excess, of half a million albums. Javier Colon released his new album last month, so it is too soon to tell how it will do over the long run. It may be spring before Melanie Amaro’s debut album is released.

 

Back to Melanie….She came close to not even being in the Final 12, when Simon Cowell told her she didn’t make it and sending her home. However, Simon came to his senses and drove to the home of Melanie and told her she was back on the show. I am surprised that Simon didn’t choose in the first place. All is well that ends well for Melanie and we should hear some of her music on an album, in the not too distant future.

 

I am not worried that Chris Rene and Josh Krajcik, will never be heard of from again. They have too much talent for a record company not to sign either of them.

 

Chris is more versatile than the young rapper Astro. We will hear from Astro again, but doubt we will ever hear him sing, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas the way Chris did last night.

 

X-Factor only garnered about half the ratings of American Idol, but it doesn’t matter that much, since both shows are seen on the Fox network. One thing for sure, is that Simon will not make any brash predictions about X-Factor drawing 20 million viewers, which never happened in 2011.

 

We want to congratulate Melanie Amaro on winning X-Factor and the $5 million recording contract that will go with it. May she have great success, as a musician and may she enjoy every minute on stage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Steven Tyler: “Snorted $20 Million Worth of Cocaine”

Steven Tyler has said in his new book that he snorted $20 million worth of cocaine which should boost sales of his new book Does the Noise in My Head Bother You? which hits the bookstores tomorrow.

The book is already #9 in sales at Amazon.com in pre-sales. The 400 page book came out at a good time with Tyler at the height of his popularity as a American Idol judge.

However, the American Idol producers may not be too happy with one of their judges saying he snorted $20 million worth of cocaine. It is the ultimate waste of money to me. There are hundreds of charities who could have used that money more wisely.

The main selling point of this book besides the debauchery (which is a selling point to some)  is that it tells of how he rebounded from the depths of depravity to spark a resurgence for Aerosmith.

Amazon is selling the hardcover book for $15.05 which is a reasonable price these days and is actually cheaper than the Kindle price of $14.99.

Doris Day: Celebrates 89th Birthday

Doris Day celebrated her 89th birthday earlier this week.

Doris Mary Ann Von Kapplehoff was born on April 3, 1922. She is better known to her fans as Doris Day.

She hasn’t been seen on television except as a guest or in the movies since the Doris Day Show ended in 1973. For the last 38 years she has lived a low profile life.

When her third husband, Martin Melcher died in 1968, she claimed to not know he had planned a television series the Doris Day Show before his death.

She did the series and it was successful, which was the last time she appeared on television in a regular series of her own.

Her fear of flying probably was a huge factor in retiring, since she probably wouldn’t have consented to fly to movie or television locations.

She never liked anyone swearing around her and once required anyone that swore to place a quarter in the “swear box’ during a recording session.

Day surprisingly believes a couple should live together before being married as she stated in her 1975 autobiography:

[In her 1975 autobiography] You don’t really know a person until you live with him, not just sleep with him. Sex is not enough to sustain marriage. I have the unfortunate reputation of being Miss Goody Two-shoes, America’s Virgin, and all that, so I’m afraid it’s going to shock some people for me to say this, but I staunchly believe no two people should get married until they have lived together. The young people have it right. What a tragedy it is for a couple to get married, have a child, and in the process discover they are not suited for one another! If I had lived with Al Jorden for a few weeks, God knows I would never have married him. Nor would I have married George Weidler. But I was too young and too inexperienced to understand any of this. Now my heart was busted and I had lost my way.

She didn’t think much of Elizabeth Taylor’s penchant for wearing expensive jewelry saying it could have been better used:

[about Elizabeth Taylor's diamonds] When I see Liz Taylor with those Harry Winston boulders hanging from her neck I get nauseated. Not figuratively, but nauseated! All I can think of are how many dog shelters those diamonds could buy.

9 Year Old Tells Bible History in Nutshell

Nine year old Davis Burton tells what he learned after studying the Bible for a year and recaps in eight minutes some of the key events in the Bible.

It is amazing that he is able to relate what he learned, at such a young age, about the Bible. It also speaks highly of his comprehension of the Bible. His teachers had to teach him very well for him to remember Biblical events so well.

The following article tells more about Davis who attends the Pleasant Valley Church of Christ in Little Rock Arkansas:

http://www.christianchronicle.org/blog/2011/01/video-9-year-old-recaps-what-hes-learned-reading-the-bible/

Archive.org: Great Multimedia Website

Archive.org will keep a reader entertained for hours.

Archive.org is probably the best source for audio and video online this side of YouTube.  The home page for the website as I write this article has a link to an audio version of a Grateful Dead concert at Veteran’s Memorial Coliseum at New Haven, Connecticut on May 11, 1981.

The concert is only one of 803,305 audio recordings at the website.  There are 2,214 old time radio related links to old time radio shows and magazines that were printed during the height of the popularity of old time radio.

One Roy Rogers episode has been downloaded 74,882 times showing that the website is available for downloading many of the old time radio shows we grew up with.

Old time radio fans will love looking at list after list of old time radio shows available for downloading including some of the more obscure shows which have very few episodes in existence.

The live music archive features 88,813 archives while the moving image archives total 451,934.

Avid readers will enjoy knowing that there are 2.694,639 texts including books and ebooks. The new Bookreader at the site includes Origin of the Species by Charles Darwin and is the example shown of how the Bookreader works.

http://blog.archive.org/2010/12/10/2685/

There is an audio version of some books but the one I listened to was not of the best quality and seemed to be a computer generated voice which probably would be tiring to listen to for an entire book.

Most readers may not enjoy the voice and instead opt to read the books without sound. For those that like the audio they should enjoy the feature that highlights the portion of the book being read by the voice.

The Mega Reader iPhone app provides access to the 1.8 million free books at archive.org so they each iPhone user can have their own personal reader.

Each volume of the Warren Report investigation of the assassination of  President John F. Kennedy is available to read.

The site is an excellent source of reading material for educators and students who are looking for books that are no longer copyrighted.

One word of caution: it could take hours just to look at what is available at archive.org. This website may have the most content of any website online and is worth going to the website to see for yourself what is available.

http://www.archive.org/