Black bear captured in Petersburg

In a Petersburg (Virginia) neighborhood, authorities bring down a black bear from a tree yesterday. They don’t know if it’s the same bear spotted in Chesterfield County last week. (Read more – WWBT)

AI: Gokey Goes Home (includes poll)

After 88 million votes, Danny Gokey from Milwaukee, WI was voted off “American Idol” last night. I thought he’s gonna go all the way to the season finale (Did you?). That means we have a Kris/Adam finale! It will be a two-parter live from the Nokia Theatre-L.A. Live. Who will win? Here’s our poll…

I decided…

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…to come back to Facebook. You’re probably wondering, “Why”? Change of heart. If you’re a regular visitor to this blog, you know that I’ve posted about leaving Facebook a few months ago after the Terms of Use controversy. Now everything’s alright. Came back to the site and signed up. I’ll get used to the new layout, shoot.

See ya later. Bye.

American Idol Top 3 – RECAP

American Idol logo. (c) FOX and FremantleMedia.

The final three performed last night on “American Idol”. Here we go…

Round 1 – Judges’ Choice

• Danny Gokey sang “Dance Little Sister” (Paula’s choice). Randy Jackson said it was dope. Kara DioGuardi said the dancing was a bit gyrating. Paula Abdul said he did really good. Simon Cowell said Danny did very good vocally. I thought it was pretty good, but I disagree with Kara on the dancing.
• Kris Allen sang “Apologize” (Randy and Kara’s choice). Randy said it was very nice. Kara said he needs to take more chances. Paula said there was a bum note there that was loud. Does anybody know what a “bum note” mean? Simon said it was a competent version of an original. Me? I agree with Randy.
• Adam Lambert sang “One” (Simon’s choice). Randy said he’s definitely still in the zone. Kara said he’s an amazing strategist. Paula said it was superb. Simon said it was a brilliant song choice and a brilliant performance. I agree with all four judges. That was awesome!

Round 2 – Personal Choice

• Danny Gokey sang “You Are So Beautiful”. Randy said he has mad vocals. Kara said it was stunning. Paula said he nailed it. Simon said it was vocal master class. I thought it was the bomb.
• Kris Allen sang the Kanye West song “Heartless”. I thought “I hope he don’t rap”. But I thought he did a good job. Randy said it’s better than Kanye’s version. Hope Mr. West isn’t watching, Randy. Kara said it was bold, brave and fearless. Paula said this is what keeps him relevant. Simon said he would’ve written out of this performance until this one.
• Adam Lambert sang “Crying”. Another awesome performance from him. Randy said he’s one of the best we ever had in this competition. Kara said the performance was amazing. Paula said he set the bar high into the sky. Simon said America’s vote is based on talent.

Who will go home tonight? And will we see a Danny/Kris or a Kris/Adam or a Adam/Danny finale next week? Find out at 9pm/ET.

Later.

P-I: Demolition begins at former SRMC

Southside Regional Medical Center was located on Adams Street in Petersburg until it moved to Medical Park Boulevard in 2008. Photo was taken on November 2007. (c) Me.

The Progress-Index reported today that work has already begun to remove the former Southside Regional Medical Center from its site on Adams Street. The building will be razed. Read more…

After 64 million votes…

Allison Iraheta was voted off “American Idol” last night. I thought Danny will be going home, so I was wrong. Anyway, I like Paula’s (performed “I’m Just Here For The Music”) and Chris Daughtry’s (performed “No Surprise”) performances. I’m not crazy about No Doubt’s. I’m sorry, No Doubt fans!

Next week, it’s the judges’ choice of song and the contestants’ personal pick. And we get to visit San Diego (Adam’s hometown), Milwaukee (Danny’s) and Conway, Arkansas (Kris’).

Later.

American Idol Top 4 – ABBREVIATED RECAP

American Idol logo. (c) FOX and FremantleMedia.

Note from the Admin.: I missed the majority of the first half of “American Idol” because we were at the laundromat. So this recap will be short. I think this is the first time that I’ve done an abbreviated recap…

 

 

The theme is rock. The mentor was Slash, former guitarist for Guns & Roses. Here we go…

• Kris Allen and Danny Gokey sang “Renegade”. Randy Jackson said he really liked the harmonics. Kara DioGuardi said it was united and strong. Paula Abdul said it was powerful and compelling. Simon Cowell said “Danny better than Kris”. I thought it was pretty good.
• Kris Allen sang “Come Together”. Randy enjoyed it. But Kara said it’s not a great performance. Paula said it’s risky to do a Beatles song, but he needs to have a little more energy. Simon said it was like eating ice for lunch. To me, it was good. I’m not saying it in a bad way…
• Danny Gokey sang “Dream On”. Randy said he gives Danny an ”A” for effort. Kara said she would like to see growth and risk. Paula said it’s not the right choice for him. Simon said it was a little bit over the top. It was good, but the end was OK.
• Although I missed Allison Iraheta’s and Adam Lambert’s individual performances, but I saw their duet. They sang “Slow Ride”. That was awesome!! Randy said it was the bomb. I agree. Kara loved it. Paula said they should do a duet on the albums. Simon said they won the battle of the duets.

Bottom two?: Kris and Danny

Who will go home tonight? Danny. I thought that he will go all the way to the final, but I think he’ll be going home.

Later.

Hurricane predictions and retired names

I know it’s old news, but Dr. William Gray from Colorado State University has predicted 12 named storms, six hurricanes and two major hurricanes (category-3 or higher) for 2009.

Meanwhile, the names Gustav, Ike and Paloma (from the Atlantic) are now retired. Alma (from the Pacific) is retired, too.

One down, four to go…

Matt Girard was voted off  “American Idol” after 47 million votes, the highest of the season. I was shocked that Adam Lambert in the bottom three! Wow. Are you friggin’ kidding me?!?! The dude can sing! I hate to sound like a broken record, but America, what were you thinking?!

Next week, it’s rock ‘n roll. Later.

Did You Know? #32

The Daily News-Miner of Fairbanks, Alaska is the farthest north daily newspaper in the United States and one of the farthest north in the world.