Quest Club of Arizona

First I want to say that two men are going off tomorrow night, and my guess is that it will be Kevin and Will. Now having said that it isn’t because they had bad performances, as a matter of fact, in my opinion, they did the best they have done. It’s because there are 5 men better then they are. Tonight Kevin sang Don McLeans Vincent, one of my favorite songs, and he did it very well. I liked it alot. What did Will sing? Can’t remember the name but he was equally as good. So it comes to this. Tomorrow should end 8 men and 4 women. The men as a group are just better. A women may win this, but I don’t think so.

That brings me to Bucky. I thought he would be one of the first to go. I couldn’t figure it out. So tonight I paid attention because I was curious. If you like country, you gotta like Bucky. He looks country, his voice is country, he is getting better, and no one else on the show is country. So who are the country fans going to vote for. Bucky. He is sort of growing on me, and he is getting better. more confident. I don’t think he’ll go deep unless he develops a large following.

So that brings me to the main group of five who will contest for the title. I really like Gideon. I like his singing. I like what he sings, and I love his attitude. When he is praised, say by Randy, he anwers “thank you, God bless.” This boy was raised right, and when he said why he sang “When a Man Loves a Women,” he answered that it was for the women in his life, his mother and grand mother. Look out Kelly Pickler. Big likability factor going here. And it is hard to believe he’s only seventeen.
I liked Chris better tonight then last week. I do not like hard rock, and he is a rocker. I would probably never buy anything he sings. He is a terrific performer with a great voice and he can win, but he wouldn’t be my first choice.

Ace Young is beautiful, sexy, he has a great voice, and HE KNOWS IT AND PLAYS IT FOR ALL HE’S WORTH. HE PROBABLY HAS EVERY WOMEN OVER 20, OR MAYBE OVER 16 IN LOVE WITH HIM. But he’s obviously not my kind of singer. Maybe he’ll sing something I like and be more sincere and universal…appeal to men too.

Now I saved Taylor Hicks and Elliot Yamin for last because I wanted to compare them because I think they are at opposite ends of the spectrum . Taylor is a spectacular showman, and I want to jump up and clap, and maybe dance around the room, and I feel good watching him. Elliot is quiet and reserved, and hardly moves when he sings, but he has a gift from somewhere that is beyond the rest for me. I would buy everything he sings. He may not win because he doesn’t attract a following like say Chris would because of his personality, but he should win this, but I’m doubtful. But I am not doubtful about either one of them and their futures. And to think Taylor was almost not picked because of his gray hair. What a shame that would have been, and I liked his dancing. He reminds me of someone. Does Rod Stewart do that crazy dancing and throwing himself around the stage like Taylor, or is it someone else?

Well there it is for me. I like everyone tonight, and the men were awesome. The winner has to come from this group, but when the public can vote who knows. So what do you think? Who will make your final 12?

Mandisa, Mandisa, Mandisa…home run. Finally someone hit one out of the park. First time I got even remotely excited about anything I’ve heard. I know she won’t win, but she has an awesome voice. Too bad, but Ruben won and I didn’t think that was possible, but Ruben is a man. Hmmmm Pretty sexist, I guess, but true.

I’m with Simon on this one. I really like Kelly Pickler. She is picking exactly the right songs. She is not great, but she is playing it 100% right. I think she’s more then safe for the top 6.

The teen agers are safe too. They are really talented, and I am waiting for Lisa Tucker to hit a big one. I know I haven’t heard it yet. Paris is terrific although I don’t like Gloria Estaban’s music that well, so they move on without any trouble I think.

That brings me to Katherine McPhee. She might have the best voice, but there is something about her that puts me off. I think Simon would call it the likeability factor. She seems put on to me, fake, phoney. If I just watch her sing I really like her, and I liked the song she sang this week, but then the song stops and she starts….I don’t know. It’s like people who are trying too hard, trying to be cute, trying to be profound…she ain’t Kelly Clarkson or Carrie Underwood even though she sings like they do, they were authentic, she’s not.

Ayla will probably survive even though she was ordinary this week. So that leaves Kinnik and Melissa. I like Melissa, but she wasn’t very good this week, and she has been on the bubble in my opinion. I think Kinnik has a really good voice, but she doesn’t perform very well. Way off this week.

So that’s my take, what’s yours?

Now I might as well confess since I inadvertently sent out an attachment to women’s wrestling web site that I am a closet fan. This needs a little explanation since I would consider women’s wrestling an underground sport, where only a few people are aware of it. I stumbled on this while surfing around the web, and since I am a long time coach of women athletes I was curious.

First I noticed most of the women were very attractive, athletic, fit, and sort of mean. Why would women who looked like this and who were very good athletes choose such a sport. Why not one of the more acceptable sports like ice skating, gymnastics, volleyball, or ballet (is that a sport). However, women in increasing numbers have entered more combative sports like boxiing, wrestling, and martial arts. And some might include the more physical sports like soccer, where there is a lot of body contact. Some girls even want to play football with the boys. What’s going on here? Most American’s do not want their daughters in combative activities because it’s not lady like, and doesn’t fit the stereotypes of good little girls we see for our children, and besides it’s dangerous. And that may be part of the answer. We see women flying fighter planes and helicopters in Iraq, and at least one babe driving indy race cars and several others in formula 1 racing. So what’s the attraction.

I think one of the main attractions is risk. We have boys and girls who have high risk personalities. The are looking for risk. Some of them love contact sports, some like rock climbing, and jumping off bridges and out of planes, and a few love combative activities. They like to beat people up in socially acceptable ways. Boys get to do it all the time in football.
On the internet I ran into a young man who lives in Michigan who is involved in women’s wrestling, and as a matter of fact , he manages and promotes one of the lady wrestlers. He is the web master of her web site, goes to most of her matches, is her photographer, and general golfer. He is also a school teacher, plays in a band, and is a major Steelers fan. So have had many conversations in which I let him know I train female athletes and wondered how these ladies train. His athlete is a former collegiate basketball player with a degree in finance and works full time as a legal secretary. Then she trains in the evening and has matches on the weekend. She claims though she liked basketball she always wanted to be a wrestler. Now I still find that strange.

These ladies do not make much money and all have to have full time jobs to support themselves. Lady X I’ll call her, has wrestled in Mexico, Korea, Japan, and all over the US. They do suffer serious injury and X has had at least one serious surgery to a knee. It appears now that most of the money is generated by selling videos and DVD’s of custom matches commissioned by fans. There is little money generated by attendence which is small, several hundred in some small gym or hotel, mostly in the midwest. Men’s wrestling through clever promotion is one of the biggest sports in America and very profitable. But it is big on TV and women’s wrestling has no chance. There have been two or three attempts and all have failed. They didn’t draw enough, and couldn’t sign big sponsors. My belief is that it is unacceptable to too may Americans who would not support women in combative sports to develop a large fan base. Three women boxers probably made a lot of money, Latitia Ali, Christy Martin, and Mia St John. Ali is the best fighter in the world and has a magic name that can be promoted. Martin was the first to reach the stature where she could fight on men’s cards without embarrassing herself (she fights other women), and Mia St John because of a Playboy spread she did which gave her name recognition recognition. I doubt if anyone else made much if any.
So why do women compete in these sports. Because they love it. Don’t ask me why, but they do. A few ex wrestlers seem to be doing well financially by having a stable of wrestlers and promoting video and DVD sales. I think the shows, which are mostly pretty cheesy, are put on to build a fan base to buy product. But it is obvious to me that it will never achieve enough strength where the competitors can make a living. I’m glad I found it. It’s fun to follow and educate myself on something I will probably never understand.

So what would you say if one day your daughter came up and said she wanted to be a wrestler, or a boxer, or a martial artist, or a football player? Interesting question?

One of the funniest shows on TV these days is a program called My Name is Earl starring Jason Lee as Earl and a great cast of odd ball characters including Jamie Pressley as his conniving ex wife. The basic premise of the show is that Earl has been a bad person all his life, a junenile deliquent growing up, a thief, a con man, etc. One day he wakes up and decides that he wants to change and become a good person. But the only way he thinks he can do this is to make up for all the bad things he’s done. So Earl makes a list of everything he can think of that he has done that he needs to make up for. His list has 64 things on it. So Earl sets off to make good and to scratch off his list everything he has ever done bad that he has atoned for.

This week, as an example, Earl calculated that he had cheated the govenment out of $500.00 in taxes, and so he sets out to try and pay the money back, which leads him to a series of whacky adventures . This ain’t high brow intellectual comedy, but more like the Marx Bros. Try it, you might like it. If you need a feel good comedy after watching the news; this might be perfect.

Brian Colangelo resigned as general manager of the Phoenix Suns this week in what seemed like strange circumstances. Supposedly he was contacted by the Toronto Raptors about their vacant President and General Managers job with permission from the Suns. First question: why would the Suns give the Raptors permission to talk to Colangelo during the stretch run of the current season when the team is going so good? Why jeopardize the chemistry at such a crucial juncture of the season? This is the time when teams make rapid decisions that effect their playoff runs. Owner Robert Sarver said he didn’t want to get in Colangelo’s way if that’s what he really wanted. All strange and unbelievable.

Colangelo who was named NBA executive of the year last year was in the middle of negotiations with the Suns for a contract extension which would have included a sizable salary increase on his $1 million/year contract. It is reported that Toronto offered Colangelo $3 million per year and apparently the Suns would not match the Raptors offer, so Colangelo resigned. Or was he forced out?
To me this smacks a lot like the turmoil around the Joe Johnson negotiations last summer, and right in the middle of all of this is new Suns owner Robert Sarver, who has begun to speak for the Suns administration more and more this season. I am speculating that Sarver has been clearing the field so he can have more to say on player personnel decisions. He has indicated they would look within the organization for Bryan’s replacement and they were in no hurry to replace him. Where does this leave Coach Mike D’Antoni, and who in the front officie is qualified to be GM? Rex Chapman? Mark West? Who? How about Sarver himself….

It is beginning to look like the Suns have their own version of Mark Cuban, loud and obnixious owner of the Dallas Mavaricks. Yuck!!! This does not bode well for the Suns future.

What’s your idea of what’s really going on here?

It was the moment of decision. Who stays and who goes, and I think this time the voters got it exactly right. The men lost Jose and David, and the women lost Heather and Brenna. The only little hiccup in my opinion was the near elimination of Kevin. I would have thought by this time he had a solid following. I guess I was wrong. On the other side Cody seems to have some backers and he may turn into the dark horse of this contest.

Next week we start seeing some of the good talent eliminated. Time to get hot if you want to make the top 12, and that’s important since you make the concert tour group.

Boys night: I thought three of the performers were the best of the bunch: Chris Daughtry (liked the singer but didn’t like the song), Elliott Yamin, and Gideon McKinney. Then another group of good singers who could win, but not as talented: Ace Young (he is too pretty for my taste) who has a pretty good voice, Taylor Hicks who makes me feel good, who is original, Kevin Y…….the kid, who also makes me feel good. Kevin actually has a really nice voice, and is a good performer. I also like Will Makar who sings the old fashioned stuff I like, and has a nice sound.

That leaves the bottom three with Jose Sway Penada, who may have just been off tonight. He sounded off key to me. Cody Witherspoon, a Bo Bice clone without the charisma and voice, and David “Sinatra” Bradford. I actually like David but he seems limited to me.

I think that Simon and maybe all the judges like Elliott to win, but I think Chris has more charisma and that may separate the two. But the underdog may be Gideon. Million dollar smile, very confident and a great voice.

So that’s my take, what’s yours?

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