Bolt's track is complete!

On Friday the official handing over ceremony of Usain Bolt’s Reugopol track by BSW Regupol Sports Floors took place at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus . The track is almost an exact replica of the one on which he broke the 100 meter record in Berlin last year and similar also to the 2008 Olympic track in Bejing where he catapulted to super stardom.

Usain making his entrace to the ceremony.

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UWI Principal Prof. Gordon Shirley holding a piece of the track donated by Ulf Poeppe of BSW.
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The blue and white eight-lane track is located to the north of the university's other main sporting facilities, namely, its four football fields, the Sir Frank Worrell Cricket Ground, three tennis courts, a swimming pool and an indoor court. The university intends to create a Sporting Centre of Excellence, similar to that of the Australian Sports Academy.
The next phase of planned developments include a 6,000-seat mini-stadium with lighting, a football academy - in partnership with the Jamaica Football Federation - and a Caribbean Institute of Sports Medicine.

Ulf Poeppe, Prof. Gordon Shirley, Minister Babsy Grange and Usain take front row on stage.

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Usain Bolt and yours truly:-)

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Minister of Sports, Olivia 'Babsy' Grange, who along with Bolt, UWI principal, Professor Gordon Shirley. Shirley, DSW’s Ulf Poeppe, IAAF regional representative, Neville 'Teddy' McCook, UWI director of sports, Grace Jackson, and Bolt's coach, Glen Mills were all on hand for the official ribbon cutting. Many notables in the sports world were present including FIFA reps, Adidas Reps, Puma, Courtney Walsh, Racers Track team members were present as well.

Minister Grange, Prof. Shirley and Usain Bolt along with Racers Track Members in the inaugural run!
Photo source

I must mention Captain Horace Burrell (Head of Jamaica's Football Federation) who arrived via helicopter in the middle of Professor Shirley's speech. That was entertaining to say the least. Usain's Coach gave a very entertaining speech. It was full of gratitude and sincerity but most of all light-hearted and filled with humour. One thing that was missing from the festivities, was recognition was not paid to the UWI Students who have been living next door to this construction zone. As a resident on Rex Nettleford Hall, it has not been easy dealing with all the dust, so a show of appreciation would have gone a long way. We do see the big picture though, and I am sure most if not all UWI students are happy for this addition.

Event: Daddy Chess, Bunji, Faye-Ann, Tallpre and more for Atlanta Carnival!!!

Atlanta Carnival is around the corner. Allu ready?????

Lisa Raye talks to VIBE: I'm digging for platinum

This week actress/reality tv star LisaRaye stopped by the Vibe and Uptown offices during her "Day in the Life" in New York City. Holding no punches, the former first Lady of Turks & Caicos went in on why her marriage failed, why she decided to do a reality TV show and being a gold digger.




On her marriage to Premier Misick:

Maybe I didn’t give my relationship the time to get close. I let a lot pf people into the relationship. I didn’t make time to be a wife.

On why she decided to do reality tv:

When I first decided to do a reality tv I needed money. It was a business decision.

On being precevied as a "gold digger":

People think that I’m a gold digger. I’m digging for platinum. I can’t do nothing with a Burger King man unless he own about 20 or 30 of them."
Read the rest of the interveiw HERE.

You can see Part 1 and Part 2 of her VIBE interview by clicking on them....


She was also on Wendy Williams talking about why she wears white and her new project with Queen Latifah's production company.

Party Down, "Precious Lights Pre-School Auction": Rumpled Stiltskin

A review of tonight's "Party Down" coming up just as soon as you know the difference between you and James Van Der Beek's parrot...

"You'll never work in this town again!" -Leonard Stiltskin
"I know." -Henry

Rob Thomas(*) has told the story many times of how he, John Enbom, Dan Etheridge and Paul Rudd pitched "Party Down" to HBO, only for the HBO execs at the time to decide that they had conflicting visions of what a Hollywood comedy should be. And so HBO ultimately gave us "Entourage" (about Hollywood insiders who get everything handed to them on a silver platter) and Thomas and company eventually found a home for "Party Down" (about Hollywood outsiders who struggle for everything and fail far more often than they succeed) at Starz. And an episode like "Precious Lights Pre-School Auction" - which namechecks "Entourage"(**) while featuring the return of JK Simmons as foul-mouthed movie mogul Leonard Stiltskin - is a reminder of why the outsiders' perspective is so much more fun.

(*) Rob, by the way, spent a year at the start of his career writing for "Dawson's Creek" and has taken opportunities in the past to have fun at the expense of The Beek, here with the phrase "James Van Der Beek's parrot."

(**) Love that Roman is a phony who will say "F--k 'Entourage'" while at the same time knowing and caring about the show enough to be indignant at Kyle's suggestion that Roman would be Turtle, when Roman clearly knows, "I'd be E, and you'd be Turtle."

So here we have the members of Party Down once again attending a function they'd never be allowed into as guests in a million years, though Casey comes closest by running into a comedian-turned-mom who's basically Casey a few years down the road. (***) Stiltskin and his wife are there to taunt them about how far all the characters haven't progressed in the last year: Henry never got to play Young Abe Lincoln, Kyle is still nowhere (and, unsurprisingly, Mrs. Stiltskin has chosen to forget their time together), Roman is at best proprietor of a a prestigious blog, etc.

(***) And in a meta touch, the character was played by Andrea Savage, who played Casey in the original homemade pilot shot in Thomas's backyard. Savage couldn't do the series because, appropriately enough for this character, she got pregnant.

Kyle's still trying, and still believes in himself enough as an actor to enjoy gaming Roman, while Henry is slipping so deeply into his new manager job - with the Taco Bell view that accompanies it - that he tears into Ron with the kind of speech he'd have laughed at a year earlier. (He tries to play it off as acting, but you can see the self-loathing on his face afterward.) But they're all running in place, and Ron, with his disgusting 'pit stains and loss of his barely-legal girlfriend, is actually going backwards.

But for once we get a small victory, as Casey nails her audition for a small role in a Judd Apatow movie(****), dissuading her from following Savage's path for at least a little while.

(****) Between Lizzy Caplan's early role on "Freaks and Geeks" and the amount of crossover between the Thomas and Apatow repertory companies, what other director could it be?

Structurally, "Precious Lights" didn't have the comic build that the best "Party Down" episodes do, but it still had plenty of great one-liners, whether it was Stiltskin explaining that he once drank ape sperm to get a game with Tiger Woods, or Roman's line about The Beek's parrot, or Casey lamenting all her bad auditions, including the time she was told she was "'too Jew-y'... and I was reading for 'The Diary of Anne Frank.'" And the tip jar gag was a nice role reversal from the episode last year where team leader Ron insisted on putting out the tip jar over everyone's objections, only for the partygoers to cheap out on them.

What did everybody else think?

Christian Louboutin‘s Third Barbie

Christian Louboutin‘s third Barbie collection is out! The limited-edition Anemone Barbie wore a satin chartreuse and purple gown with a bow. It also comes with four mini red-soled shoes. If you want to own this $150 fashionable doll, you can check Net-a-porter.com.

The Office, "Body Language": Kiss me, stupid

A review of last night's "The Office" - and this week's bit of potentially huge "Office" news - coming up just as soon as I reanimate a bull...

The internet briefly freaked out earlier this week when a radio clip turned up of Steve Carell saying he intends to leave "The Office" when his contract ends. Everyone calmed down quickly once they realized two things: Carell's contract runs through next season, so we still have a while to go; and chances are high that over the next year, NBC will find a way to keep Carell around, whether that requires more money, a more flexible schedule that would have Michael largely absent from some episodes, or what have you.

Now, I think most of us are in agreement that this hasn't been a particularly strong season for "The Office," and that's led many of you to declare that the show needs to end soon. Even with the Carell situation, that ain't happening. "The Office" is one of NBC's few success stories, and its only real comedy hit (the other three Thursday sitcoms are largely being buoyed by its wake), and while a network's fortunes can change in a year, I have to believe the show is too valuable to let go. And I do think, as I've said before, that whatever problems there have been this year, the show can rebound, because I've seen it happen to great sitcoms that have had off years.

And in watching an underwhelming, Michael Scott-centric episode like "Body Language," I almost wonder if an arrangement where Carell isn't around as much might be beneficial.

Look, I love Steve Carell. Funny man, talented man, kind man, and the show would not exist without him. He's been at the center of most of the funniest moments and episodes of this show's history, as you'd expect from the leading man. But despite being at the center of the show, Michael has always been the character the writers have had the most trouble getting a handle on. Some weeks, he's the 8-year-old who never grew up. Some, he's got Asperger's. Some, he's just a normal guy who isn't as funny as he thinks he is.

The inconsistency, and the writers' tendency to fall into the trap of highlighting Michael's worst qualities (writers on "The Simpsons" fall prey to the same thing with Homer), can make me really dread Michael-centric episodes sometimes. "Body Language" wasn't nearly as bad as this season's "Mafia" - nor was Michael as idiotic in this one as he was there - but it was still a fairly uncomfortable, airless outing, one where nearly all the laughs could be found in the Dwight/Daryl/Kelly subplot.

Given the choice between more episodes like this or occasional episodes where Michael's on the road and Dunder-Mifflin has to get by without him, I think I might take the latter. That way, perhaps the Michael-heavy episodes might be more focused.

I know there can be a danger in trying to elevate supporting characters above the lead, but "The Office" has always been structured in an odd way, where Michael is the main character in terms of screen time and his importance to the plot, but where he's otherwise written like a supporting character while Jim and/or Pam are written as more traditional leads. So I think an "Office" with Carell's reduced participation might actually work, and perhaps work better than what we've gotten this season.

But again, that's a year away, at a minimum, and hopefully the series can rediscover some of its juice before then.

What did everybody else think?

Marc Jacobs in Time Magazine World's Most Influential People

Marc Jacobs was named as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine. When I checked the Time Magazine's website, I was surprised by the story written by Victoria Beckham for her friend, Marc Jacobs. Victoria praised Marc Jacobs for the changes he had made with each of his collection. Marc Jacobs must be very proud because he is the only fashion designed that was included in the list.

Meanwhile, some artists and entertainers like Lady Gaga, Robert Pattinson, Sandra Bullock and Glee‘s Lea Michele were also featured on Time‘s list.

Click here to view the complete list.

Parks and Recreation, "94 Meetings": But a rich ain't one

A review of "Parks and Recreation" coming up just as soon as I alter a gazebo...

Ron Effing Swanson hates meetings. I know that. You know that. April Ludgate certainly knows that. But you can only put off the thing you hate for so long, and "94 Meetings" had a lot of fun with the idea of Ron trapped in a hellish day of meetings (and dragging April, Andy and Ann along with him), while at the same time doing some nice character work on both the budding April/Andy romance and the sweet, paternal relationship developing between Ron and April.

The meetings were a nice mix of the absolutely ridiculous (the purple bikini man, the guy who yells at 5-year-olds for lack of talent), eminently reasonable ones made absurd (Andy being unable to say yes to the woman) and unlikely left turns (Ann spending her day diagnosing moles). And perhaps the funniest part of all was Ron describing the situation as "a blood-saked, nightmarish hellscape. However, to Leslie Knope...," followed by the abrupt cut to a giddy Leslie declaring, "Oh, how fun!"

Leslie's own plot, however, didn't quite click for me, in part because they didn't tie the gazebo situation strongly enough to Leslie's fear of Mark and Ann getting married, in part because the show has been a little vague about where Leslie stands on that relationship, anyway. We've mostly moved past the idea that Leslie is crushing on Mark, but when she claimed to feel nauseous over news of a possible engagement, I began to wonder if she still had feelings for the guy that she's suppressed all this time for the sake of her friendship with Ann. Instead, it turned into a commentary on Leslie's fear of being a single person in a world of couples, but the idea was introduced too late in the episode, I think, for it to have worked.

On the other hand, Leslie chained to the swinging gate? Oh, how fun!

And any episode that can give us both Ron whittling a duck and an introduction to April's parents (who couldn't be less like her) and sister (who couldn't be more like her) is an overall winner.

What did everybody else think?

Community, "The Art of Discourse": See if you can guess what I am now

A review of last night's "Community" coming up just as soon as I meet Sting at a Cracker Barrel...

"Ridiculous situation descending into heavy-handed drama for the illusion of story... check." -Abed

After last week's all-out "Goodfellas" parody, "The Art of Discourse" confines most of the meta/pop culture humor to the Abed and Troy subplot, while going more straightforward in showing Jeff and Britta, and also Pierce and Shirley, dealing with being the old men (and women) out on campus.

Jeff and Britta's conflict with the high school kids was played entirely for laughs, as we once again see that those two are more entertaining when they join forces for some ridiculous goal than when we're supposed to care about the simmering sexual tension between them. This was a really strong episode for Gillian Jacobs as Britta let herself get sucked into trying to pwn the three Schmitty kids, whether pathetically trying to defend her life choices (invoking Winona Ryder and wearing a Discman) or going pure evil in that moment when she had the brainstorm to send Jeff to have sex with Lisa Rinna.

The Pierce and Shirley plot, meanwhile, did a nice job of balancing laughs (Pierce being oblivious to his racism, the gang all turning on each other in the search for New Pierce) and some more genuine character moments about Shirley and Pierce's feelings about each other and their respective places in the group. Unlike the scenario Abed described in the quote above, this felt like actual story, and like something the show's been building to for a while. If the series wants us to care about this community and its characters beyond their role as avatars of pop culture gags - and it clearly does - then sooner or later Pierce's treatment of Shirley in particular and the group in general had to be addressed, and in a mostly heartfelt, sincere manner. Some very nice work by Chevy Chase and Yvette Nicole Brown in this one, and ultimately their moment of bonding climaxed with a nice callback to the pantsing joke that started the whole mess - and by the time we got to the food fight and the extended riff on the end of "Animal House," it felt okay to go whole-hog on the parody, and I look forward to seeing Troy and Abed in "College Cut-Ups 2: Panty Raid Academy."

What did everybody else think?

Cougar Town, "Letting You Go": Sail away

A quick review of last night's "Cougar Town" (which, if I haven't said it enough lately, has been vastly improved since the start of the season) coming up just as soon as I use my mouth vacuum...

I haven't written much about "Cougar Town" lately, but it hasn't been for lack of watching/enjoying. It's just that between vacation time and the crunch of Wednesday programming, something's had to give, and this show has settled into a nice, strange groove that doesn't always leave me a ton to say by the time I have time to say it.

But "Letting You Go" was a very strong episode on several levels. It kept up the goofy enthusiasm of Jules and her cul de sac crew to find ways to fight boredom by trying to start new rituals, first with morning drinking, then with the late night Enya parties. The entire cast is really game for this stuff, and here I want to single out Josh Hopkins, who came across as a total stiff in nearly everything I've seen him do in the past, and is completely loose and fun and fearless here as Grayson.

The episode also did a good job of pushing the Jules/Travis relationship back to the forefront, after letting it slip away at various points this season. Jules is, on many levels, a sad character (again: morning drinking), and I like that the writers have found ways to acknowledge that quality, and the clinginess of her relationship with Travis, without undermining the humor of it all. And it also makes sense that Travis's impending departure (from her home, if not the show) would finally send Jules towards Grayson.

One question: is the mention of Winston University (home of the med school affiliated with Sacred Heart on "Scrubs") the first sign that "Cougar Town" and "Scrubs" are part of the same fictional universe, even with Christa Miller playing different roles in each? Or was there an earlier one I've forgotten?

(And second question: funnier Bill Lawrence show dog? Rowdy or Dog Travis?)

What did everybody else think?

Modern Family, "Travels with Scout": I am not left-handed, either

A review of last night's "Modern Family" coming up just as soon as I lose the deposit on that fog machine...

I often have less to say about the episodes of "Modern Family" that work than the ones that don't, and since two and a half out of the three main stories this week were very funny, I'm going to be brief.

Cameron's brief drumming career was a nice example of the writers striking gold with an unexpected character crossover, with Dylan and his bandmates briefly being awed by Cam's stick skills, and Mitchell and Hayley bonding over their totally rockin' boyfriends. Jay's fiasco with the slasher film was a good story where good intentions (and a mental image of Mitchell's friend as a sweet kid who would never star in such a movie) led to increasingly bad consequences (and which gave Rico Rodriguez his usual chances to shine as Manny), and in the main plot, I enjoyed both Claire's growing affection for Scout and Luke unintentionally acting like a dog.

But as to the main part of the main plot, I think I find Fred Willard a little too perfect in his casting as Phil's dad, if that makes sense. If you wanted to cast someone who'd be Phil plus a few decades, you go get Willard, who's made a career out of playing men who think they're much funnier than they actually are. But the idea that Phil is the way he is because his dad is exactly like him, while logical, was maybe too on-the-nose to click for me, and I spent a lot of the Willard scenes waiting for the episode to swing around to someone else's story.

Still, very funny overall ("What's up with 21 Jump Street?"). What did everybody else think?

American Idol: Top 6 results

Quick spoilers for tonight's "American Idol" elimination show coming up after I laugh about how the show actually ran short tonight, forcing Seacrest to vamp...

So, bottom three of Big Mike, Siobhan and Casey. Big Mike sent to safety, commercial break, then Siobhan goes home.

Early in the finals, Siobhan was the only contestant I cared about other than Crystal. But as I said last night, I grew tired of Siobhan's one not-so-great trick, and also of her endless babbling whenever the judges criticized her (she was at least 40 percent responsible for a lot of the overruns). I'm more bored with Aaron, but she was one of two who most deserved to go home.

Question: when is the last time someone in the finals went home after getting the pimp spot? I know Melinda Doolittle did in season 6 (but in the Top 3 show, which doesn't quite count), and I know Lilly went home despite being pimped in the semis this year, but has it happened in the finals in recent years before this week?

Firewall & Iceberg podcast, episode 14: Happy Town, Breaking Bad, and more

Wednesday brings with it another episode of the Firewall & Iceberg podcast, this time with Dan and I (with no new "Lost" episode to dissect) trying to muster some enthusiasm to talk about "Idol," teaming up to slam "Happy Town," discussing our divergent paths with this season of "Survivor," checking in on the awesomeness of "Breaking Bad" this season, and more.

Fienberg has all the relevant links and times up at his blog, and if you subscribe via iTunes or RSS, it should be all ready to download.

30 for 30, "Run Ricky Run": The spliff myth?

A quick review of "Run Ricky Run," the latest "30 for 30" film, coming up just as soon as I put on a wedding dress...

After last week's unsurprisingly polarizing "Silly Little Game" (which I liked even with the wacky re-creations of events), "30 for 30" is back on firmer documentary ground with "Run Ricky Run," Sean Pamphilon and Royce Toni's extremely personal portrait of Ricky Williams. Though Pamphilon's perspective was more inside than, say, Steve James's on Allen Iverson, I appreciated that this wasn't a one-hour apology for Ricky. It looked at his failings, but also at the potential causes of those failings (being molested by his father, anxiety disorders) that go far deeper than the easy media "He just likes smoking pot too much" narrative.

(On the one hand, I found it a nice touch that they kept showing "PTI" clips to see how Tony and Wilbon's take on the guy changed over the years. On the other hand, I'm angry that I was forced to watch even a few seconds of Skip Bayless, after going out of my way to avoid him for several years now.)

I watched this only a few days after a Tribeca Film Festival screening of Ice Cube's "Straight Outta L.A." (it airs May 11), and it's hard for this more low-key story to live up to seeing Al Davis's terrifying face in HD on a giant movie screen. But "Run Ricky Run" did its job in showing me a side of a story I only thought I understood.

What did everybody else think?

Dancing With The Stars: Jake Pavelka's Dancing Career Ends In Tears

I am finding I don't watch the Dancing with the Stars elimination show. I let the DVR record enough of American Idol so that I can watch it til there is enough of LOST recorded to watch LOST with the fast forward through commercials ability enabled.

When I go to watch LOST I find that the recording starts with the ending of DWTS.

Last night when I started to watch LOST I was pleased to see that Jake Pavelka was this week's Dancing "Star" to get eliminated.

I did not care for Jake Pavelka when I first made his acquaintance. My dislike for him was cemented the first time I saw him cry, well, actually sob, after he returned to The Bachelorette to tell Jillian that Wes was a Bad Boy.

I did a lot of fast forwarding through Jake being The Bachelor. I am sure I missed some crying incidents, but managed to see a couple.

So, last night it was no huge shock to me to see that being eliminated from Dancing with the Stars had Jake in tears again.

Part of the crying might be due to be sad that his run of reality show bucks may have now run out and he now needs to try and find a new pilot job. The pay on The Bachelor and DWTS was far in excess of what Jake makes piloting. Or so I have read.

Maybe Jake will get a hefty offer from ABC for the rights to film the wedding of Jake and Vienna. Then again, with Jake being voted off by the house fraus who vote on DWTS it may finally be realized this is not a guy who is all that well liked by the viewers. I was surprised the overly earnest guy kept dancing as long as he did.

Nielsen Rating's Top 20 for April 19 - 25

The Nielsen Rating's Top 20 TV Shows for April 19 - April 25. The first number is the ranking, the second number is the season average, then the show name and network. The last number represents the number of viewers in millions. An asterisk * indicates a tie.

Rank	Season avg. rank	Show name	Network	Viewers in millions	Season-to-date average (in millions)
1.	3	Dancing With the Stars	ABC	21.1	19.6
2.	1	American Idol (Tues.)	Fox	19.7	25.6
3.	2	American Idol (Wed.)	Fox	18.8	23.9
4.	7	The Mentalist	CBS	15.0	16.8
5.	10	Dancing With the Stars Results	ABC	13.6	15.5
6.	8	CSI	CBS	13.4	15.8
7.	49	Glee	Fox	13.0	8.6
8.	17	Survivor: Heroes	CBS	11.9	13.4
9.	21	CSI: Miami	CBS	11.7	12.8
*	14	The Big Bang Theory	CBS	11.7	14.2
11.	17	60 Minutes	CBS	11.4	13.5
*	12	Two and a Half Men	CBS	11.4	14.8
13.	15	Desperate Housewives	ABC	11.3	14.0
14.	23	House	Fox	10.8	12.6
15.	32	Romantically Challenged	ABC	10.7	10.7
16.	27	Amazing Race	CBS	10.6	11.1
17.	33	Castle	ABC	10.4	10.4
18.	8	NCIS: Los Angeles (rpeat)	CBS	10.3	15.7
19.	5	NCIS (repeat)	CBS	10.0	18.9
20.	27	Lost	ABC	9.5	11.9

Sandra Bullock Adopts Son Louis Bardo (Picture) and Files For Divorce

Sandra Bullock is the mother of a three-month-old baby boy, born in New Orleans, named Louis Bardo, whom she brought home in January 2010!

The 45-year-old Oscar-winner began the adoption process with husband Jesse James four years ago. But the couple kept the news private until now.

"He's just perfect, I can't even describe him any other way," the actress revealed the happy news on People magazine, "It's like he's always been a part of our lives."

However, Bullock also announced that she had filed for divorce for the sake of Jesse James’ cheating scandal.

She is now adopting the baby son as a single parent.

The Real Housewives of New York City: Secrets of a Jewish Mother---Jill Zarin is Mentally Ill & Mother Gloria is Nuts Too

The latest iteration of the Real Housewives of New York City has been, I dunno, well, strange.

Most of the strangeness is brought courtesy of Jill Zarin. It's like all the characters have had, to some degree, character alterations.

Simon and Alex now seem nice and normal. Kelly now seems harmless and, at times, amusing. Ramona's bi-polar mood swings are amusing, even when she is being a mean girl. LuAnn really has become countless in more ways than one. Bethenny still seems the same.

But Jill. She seems to be mentally ill. Her Bethenny obsession with the enabling by LuAnn is so off-putting. And has off put the viewers, with the result that Jill Zarin's Facebook page, Twitter account and Bravo blog are overwhelmed with viewer's giving her a well-deserved bitch slapping.

I have been victim of a toxic person like Jill. It is not pleasant. Having been a toxic person victim it makes it difficult to watch Jill, at times.

When we first met Jill's mother, Gloria Kamen, Gloria seemed innocuous enough, just a nice old Jewish lady. But, we have now seen enough of Gloria to suspect Gloria's mothering is likely why Jill is such a mixed up mentally ill mess. Gloria really annoys me, she's looks like a re-animated cadaver. An unpleasant re-animated cadaver.

The idea that Gloria, along with Jill's sister, Lisa Wexler published a book titled "Secrets of a Jewish Mother: Real Advice, Real Stories, Real Love."

The book quickly tanked and is now being sold on Amazon at a steep discount.

From previews and the press it seems newly married, pregnant Bethenny realizes what a toxic poison her friendship with Jill Zarin was and that she is much better off rid of her. It is hard to get rid of a toxic person. They can haunt you like a nasty ghost.

American Idol: Can't anyone here produce a TV show?

Okay, this is just getting stupid now. After everyone got so angry last week about "American Idol" running five minutes long (despite only having seven performances to stretch out over an hour) and cutting off people's DVR recordings of "Glee" (and after people were torqued that the "Idol" Gives Back results show ran 17 hours long and prevented part of America from enjoying Tim Urban's elimination), the show somehow ran long again last night. It was only by a minute or two, but once again people watching "Glee" on a DVR delay lost part of the final musical number.

After the jump, I look at who's potentially to blame, and what can be done to fix things...

Okay, so our candidates for blame, in no particular order:

Bruce Gowers: He's the director of the show (Emmy-winning director, no less, even though they can't bring it in on time and the cameras are never where they should be), so on one level the buck stops with him. By now, he should have realized they're having trouble with time and ordered some things cut, whether it's judge talk, or Ryan Seacrest chatting up Shania Twain to fill time that ultimately didn't need to be filled, or what have you. Keep the show lean and mean for the first 2/3rds, and if it looks like there will be time, you can do a little padding around the last few performances. In a live telecast, the director is calling the shots, and Gower has failed miserably in this area.

Ryan Seacrest: Keeping the trains running on time has always been one of Seacrest's specialties, but he's been flaky in a lot of ways this season, including this one. If Gowers isn't telling him to cut the judges off when they start to bicker, or to go straight to the phone numbers once Simon's done talking, then Seacrest needs to take that initiative on his own and get things moving. Again, save the contestant-judge dialogue for late in the show if it's abundantly clear you have time to spare.

Four judges: It still boggles my mind that it occurred to no one on the show last year that bringing in a fourth judge would consume air time, and that something else would have to give. What's given, for the most part, is the number of songs - we're only going to get 5 next week, when in the pre-Kara days, we would have gotten 10 (two from each contestant) - even though that's the whole point of the show. But even when stretching 12 songs over 2 hours, or 6 songs over 1, the judges still consume way too much air and airtime. And it isn't just that there's an extra judge, but that Kara and Ellen are both chattier than Paula was (Paula, for all her insanity, seemed aware that she should stop talking after a while). So by the time we get to Simon (the other major reason for watching), the other three have gone on so much that the show is running long, and Simon gets cut off abruptly more often than not. They all need to be given earpieces so that Gowers (or, hopefully, someone more competent) can tell them to wrap it up and hand things off to the next judge. That, or they need to be given shock collars that go off if they run over their allotted time.

The producers: Again, four judges is too many. They either needed to not replace Paula when she left (and I was saying that even before Ellen turned out to be a complete waste of time), or they needed to be willing to sacrifice some other part of the show. I don't care if that's the mentor clips, or the Seacresterviews (which, admittedly, Coke sponsors), the introduction, or what have you, but something had to give, and nothing has. And as the bosses of the judges, Seacrest and Gowers, they should have authority to speed things up. But they don't seem to care.

Fox: The sense I get from talking to people at Fox is that they're as annoyed by this as the rest of us - several "Fringe" episodes got messed up this way last spring, and now it's happening to "Glee," a much more important piece of the network's future - but they have no control over the "Idol" producers. When a show is as big a hit as "Idol" is - single-handedly carrying Fox to a first-place Nielsen finish season after season - the producers realize that the network needs them more than they need the network, and they can do what they want with impunity. What's Fox going to do? Cancel "Idol"? Cut off the telecasts at 9 no matter what? (That would anger even more people than are being irked about the "Glee" thing.)

Basically, until Ken Warwick and company decide they care about ending on time, we're stuck with this mess. So if you watch "Idol" and/or "Glee," make sure your recordings are padded by a minimum of five minutes every week. And even that wouldn't have helped you with last week's results show. Sigh...

Parenthood, "Perchance to Dream": It's tricky

A review of last night's "Parenthood" coming up just as soon as I unleash the fever...

Parenthood (whether the concept or the TV show) isn't a competition, but I couldn't help noticing that the parent doing the best job in "Perchance to Dream" is Crosby (and Jasmine, too). Adam freaks out over Haddie's sexuality, Sarah again tries to project all of her regrets onto Amber, and Julia took the broken mug issue way too far to overcompensate for the old lawyer=liar saw. Crosby, meanwhile, had no problem interrupting his date with Jasmine to help Jabbar through his fear of pooping in strange places, and he and Jasmine both recognized that they don't want to send the wrong message to the kid if their attempt to go from co-parents to couple doesn't work out.

Now, I'm not complaining about any of the others this week. Some of the most interesting stories on this show involve parents screwing up, as we saw with the scene where Haddie called Adam on his double-standard treatment of her. But just as no one would have expected Dax Shepard to give one of the best performances among this cast, who would have thought after the first few episodes that we might get a night where Crosby was so much more on his game than his siblings?

I don't want to give short shrift to Kristina's decision, by the way. The whole work/kids dilemma is a familiar one, in life and on TV, and Kristina has the added complication of a special needs kid. As much as she enjoyed her time back in grown-up world, I can understand her reluctance to go back full-time not long after finding out about Max's Asperger's (and not long before Haddie goes to college). And it was interesting to watch Adam throughout that scene, because you could tell he was trying to do right by his wife even as he very clearly didn't want her to go work for Sundra from "Survivor: Cook Islands."

"Perchance to Dream" was one of the show's more thematically and tonally consistent episodes. It was also a fairly light one, not only with Adam's goofy dancing, but Sarah and Amber listening in horror to Mike O'Malley's poems about Sarah's va-jay-jay, everyone else's reaction to Julia's cordoned-off area, and Drew's reaction to Haddie taking off her bra in the kitchen. Plus, Run-DMC! (Which gives me an excuse to link to the original video, with Penn & Teller.)

What did everybody else think?

'Happy Town' review: Sepinwall on TV

In today's column, I review "Happy Town," which premieres tonight on ABC. Not a fan, and it won't be part of the blog rotation as I move over to HitFix (nor would it have been were I staying here). Feel free to discuss the premiere here if you watch it tonight.

Justified, "Blind Spot": Don't make me a target

A review of tonight's "Justified" coming up just as soon as you think we're going to banter here...

"You think there's never going to be any consequences for this?" -Art

Raylan Givens began this series as a man in control - of his emotions, of predicting the actions of his opponents, and of winning any and every fight. As we enter the second half of this first season, his return to Kentucky, and the various headaches from his past that have come with it, now has him as a man in control of very little, save for his usual good aim and skill in a fight. He can keep it together when dealing with the amateurs and low-level thieves and killers he's faced in recent episodes, but put him in a room with Boyd Crowder as Boyd goes on about the Good Book, and all of Raylan's cool, all of his training, goes out the window, and he becomes every bit a 21st century Seth Bullock. His relationship with Ava has opened up all kinds of blind spots - to how he's risking his career, and to the dangers still posed from the Miami mob over his shooting of Tommy Bucks - and all of a sudden, Raylan looks less a superman than a mortal, fallible one.

After last week's episode tried to split its focus between a routine Raylan case and all the ongoing storylines, "Blind Spot" was devoted entirely to the various messes Raylan finds himself in, with Art, with the Crowders, and with Miami. And while I've quite enjoyed a bunch of the self-contained stories the show has done, there's no question that it's more intense, and more fun, when we're dealing with stories and characters continuing from week to week.

Walton Goggins was tremendous tonight (as was Timothy Olyphant at showing Raylan losing his cool). Goggins can go pretty broad at times, as he did in the series pilot, but ever since Boyd had his jailhouse conversion, he's been doing some really small, interesting work with the character. As Goggins plays him, you're never quite clear how much of the born-again thing is real and how much is Boyd just playing an angle. After all, Raylan told us in the pilot that Boyd was too smart to buy into the white supremacy nonsense, and was just doing it as a way to get over. It's entirely possible that's what he's doing here - that he knows it gets under Raylan's skin, and even that he knows he can survive whatever the other prisoners throw at him - but there's also a weird conviction to it. If it's all an act, would he really let things in the prison laundry go that far, not knowing his father was nearby and ready to save him?

And speaking of big, bad Bo Crowder, give a big welcome to Mr. M.C. Gainey, boys and girls. When I said a few weeks ago that the producers had to get a really imposing actor to play Bo after the off-screen build-up, Gainey (aka Tom Friendly from "Lost," among many, many bad-ass roles) was the kind of guy I had in mind.

We're very clearly pushing towards some kind of ultimate confrontation between Raylan, the Crowders and Miami in the second half, and I'm looking forward to every minute of it.

Some other thoughts:

• Better late than never, but I was glad to see Ava finally acknowledge that it's kind of a big deal, emotionally, that she killed her husband. Up until now, Ava's been temptress first, character second, and between the early scene in her bedroom and then her initiative in stopping the bad guys at the end, she seems both more like a real person and more like a good match for Raylan.

• And speaking of which, note Winona trying to mark her territory by going on and on with Ava about all the burdens of having been married to Raylan.

• Getting back to Seth Bullock, in an interesting bit of casting, the hitman from Miami was played by Ray McKinnon, who played the doomed reverend on "Deadwood" season one. Not only does he have history with Olyphant, but he and Goggins teamed up for "The Accountant," a 2001 short film that won both men an Oscar (and led to me sitting at home asking, "What on earth is Shane from 'The Shield' doing at the Academy Awards?").

What did everybody else think?

American Idol, Top 6: Shania Twain Night

A review of tonight's "American Idol" performances coming up just as soon as I lament professional comedian Ellen DeGeneres' need to do two different "Shania Twain-as-train" jokes in one episode...

First of all, Shania Twain's Canadian-ness is one of those things I tend to forget (in spite of my own half-Canadian ancestry) for years at a time because I only hear her sing, and the accent only comes out in her speaking voice. Very unsettling to be reminded she could have played the love interest in a Bob & Doug McKenzie movie if the timing had been a bit different.

As to the show itself? Well, let's just say I find Shania's speaking voice more interest than a lot of what's in her songbook - and particularly the parts of her songbook that were performed this evening. (If only Big Mike or Aaron had come out and did "Man, I Feel Like a Woman"...)

Lee Dewyze, "You're Still the One": Every week, the judges completely ignore the number of outright horrible notes he lets into his performances. Until this week, those at least were the exception each week and not the rule, but tonight Lee sounded more off-key then on, while at the same time looking like he had just been up all night trying to recreate the "ADRIAN!!!!" scene from the end of the first "Rocky." I don't dislike Lee in general, but this was probably the worst he's been so far.

Michael Lynche, "It Only Hurts When I'm Breathing": This is Big Mike doing his young Luther thing. Mostly sounded good - though the falsetto was oddly weak in spots - and passionate (the "wet" quality Simon was complaining about), but didn't do a lot for me.

Casey James, "Don't": Some other contestants this season have been ruined by inconsistent comments from the judges. Fortunately for Casey, the judges have all been telling him the same thing for weeks, and he finally listened. No pointless guitar mini-solos, no fixed half-smile; just his usual Bob Seger voice married to some genuine emotion. More vibrato than I would have liked, but overall his best since "Jealous Guy," and one of his strongest performances overall.

Crystal Bowersox, "No One Needs to Know": After last week's powerhouse, tear-inducing "People Get Ready," Crystal takes it down several notches with a quirky alt-country performance that sounded very much like the sort of thing she might play at a concert five years from now in between two of her better-known hits. I liked the vibe of it, and the way Crystal sounded a bit like Neko Case when she went into the falsetto. The judges were clearly irked (though only Simon came out and admitted it) she didn't swing for the fences again after last week, but I'm fine with a Mama Sox double now and then.

Aaron Kelly, "You Got a Way": Aaron's voice has been pretty brutal the last month or so, but on a country-themed night he finally managed to grab hold of the notes and not sound like he was straining to reach them. But if he sounded better technically, he still put me to sleep, though I believe I woke up just in time to hear Kara accuse him of being a virgin. Is that about right?

Siobhan Magnus, "Any Man of Mine": Okay, I think I'm done with her. All the usual Siobhan tics - dull, pitchy low notes at the beginning, building to a wail and an endless power note - and here we got the added bonus of her having major breath control issues as she tried to walk and sing at the same time, and then as she tried to deal with some particularly wordy verses. The judges were impressed by the big note at the end, but I've seen that trick too often to care when the rest of the song was so uninspired.

Best of the night: The Outlaw Casey James, followed a ways back by Crystal.

In danger: I'd be fine with either Siobhan or Aaron going, but he had the whole "I was singing it to my mom" moment, and she had the pimp spot, which is still mostly invulnerable, so... Lee, in spite of never being in the bottom 3 before? Big Mike, because his voters could get complacent twice? I'll be curious to see if Crystal goes bottom 3 after the judges finally criticized her, and also after a small-by-design performance, but I'd be stunned if she was in real danger.

Finally, as many of you know by now, I'll be blogging at HitFix starting next week, and in figuring out how the new job is going to work, I think "Idol" is one of the few shows I cover regularly now that won't get the weekly treatment in the new home.

Part of that is that it's been a real bear doing "Idol" and "Lost" live on the same night (which wasn't a problem this week), part is that I've been really uninspired by the cast this season, and part of it is that Fienberg has always been much, much better at writing about "Idol" (here's his review of tonight's show). When I was a solo act, it made sense for me to carve out time to do these weekly write-ups; when I'm at a place where another guy does it and does it better than me (and cares more than I do), it makes sense to focus time and energy elsewhere. I'm sure I'll weigh in from time to time, and maybe even do a weekly post where I link to Dan and invite you to comment, but at least until the finals, I'm out of the "Idol" reviewing game.

What did everybody else think?

Lost: You (still) want answers?

Tonight's "Lost" is the only repeat of the season ("Ab Aeterno," the Richard episode), so I figured I'd use the opportunity to re-ask a question from the start of the season: which mysteries will you be most disappointed if they aren't answered by season's end?

And to that I'd now add this: based on how this season has gone, and how some mysteries like the whispers have been explained, have your expectations for the final episodes changed?

Christina Aguilera Gets Dirty In New “Not Myself Tonight” Music Video

Christina Aguilera unveiled the second preview clip of her new single, “Not Myself Tonight,” the first song from her upcoming album, Bionic, due out in stores on June 8th.

In this new ten-second clip released on her official website today, the 29-year-old singer can be seen wearing lingerie and dancing with a shirtless back-up dancer inside a church!

The full music video is due to premiere online this coming Friday (May 1). Here is the sneak peek video and check it out below:

So Close...Yet So Far Away

There were no tears on Saturday night when the Sens' season came to an abrupt end as the Penguins' Pascal scored on our Pascal in OT to finish us off in 6 games.

Maybe it's a sign that I'm growing up. Or maybe it's a sign that I was already resigned to the fact that the Sens weren't going to survive this series.

But I'd like to think it was because, despite the sadness of watching my team lose in the first round of the playoffs again, I was more proud of them than anything. After going down 3-1 in the series, nobody was giving us a shot against the defending Stanley Cup Champs.

I was proud of my team for battling back, and the fact that they went down fighting allowed me to admire them in defeat.

Who knows what would have happened this Spring if the Sens had a healthy line-up? I really didn't think much about Alex Kovalev, Milan Michalek, or Filip Kuba during our run against Pittsburgh, but the fact is, the Sens were playing without two of their top-6 forwards, and one of their top-4 defencemen.

Who knows what might have happened if Daniel Alfredsson hadn't been suffering from a sports hernia, an abdominal pain that he fought through, and will require surgery for in the coming week? From the first puck-drop in this series, we could tell that the Captain was not at 100%. However, he laced 'em up anyways - like a true leader, like a true warrior - and in fact stood out as one of the best forwards in the final two games of the series, as Ottawa battled for their playoff lives. He finished tied with Matt Cullen for the most points by a Senator in 6 games, notching two goals and six assists. Imagine what a healthy Alfie could have done?

Who knows what could have been, had Cory Clouston chosen to go with Pascal Leclaire in nets earlier in the series, or even from the get-go? Leclaire's first appearance in the playoffs was a strong one, and quite different from the dismal season he had here in Ottawa, losing his #1 goalie status to Brian Elliott. And honestly, I didn't blame Clouston for going with Elliott, as he was the one between the pipes during the best times this season, while Leclaire battled injuries and major slumps. I was actually somewhat surprised that he turned to him after the Game 4 debacle (still SO thrilled that that was the game I had tickets for...) But Leclaire proved his worth in Game 5, turning in one of the best performances by a goaltender thus far in the 2010 playoffs, stopping 56 shots through three overtime periods. It also wasn't his fault in Game 6. Let's hope he can carry this into next season.

What might have happened if Mike Fisher's goal late in the second period of Game 6, which would have made the score 4-1, had counted? After a lengthy review, the officials deemed the net was off its moorings, though from the replays I saw, it was far from conclusive. That goal, had it counted, might have killed the Penguins comeback and swung momentum back in our favour. Instead, the Pens continued to chip away at our lead, and then finished us off in OT. We were that close to pushing this to a Game 7...

Who knows? But these are the twists and turns that make up a playoff series. The momentum swings, the ups and downs, the shoulda-coulda-wouldas... If anyone knew the right answers beforehand, then we'd be marching on to the second round.

Instead, another early summer. But gratification in knowing my guys fought hard to get into the playoffs after missing them last season, and then gave the Penguins, who were the last to hoist the Cup, a good run for their money. Memories of one of the most exciting goals in franchise history, when local boy Matty Carkner fired home the game winner in triple-OT last Thursday and force a Game 6. Smiles when I think of the fans at Scotiabank Place, louder than they have been since our run to the Cup Finals in '07, and a sea of waving white rally towels.

It was a good time, while it lasted. No tears at all.

And hope springs eternal that we get the chance to dance again next year.