Summer realities

I've been watching both Big Brother: All Stars and Rock Star: Supernova this summer. I enjoy Supernova because it's a showcase for extremely talented rock singers. Each of them is good enough to be a recording star; luck is what they need to make it now. My favorite has been Ryan Star (not the same Ryan Starr who was on American Idol a few years back), who did an amazing version of Losing My Religion a few weeks ago. It doesn't hurt that it's one of my favorite songs. He has other great performances and so when they cut him last week, my interest in the show has really dropped. The lead singer is going to be either Dilana or Lukas, who have been the front runners since week one. I enjoyed Dilana in the beginning just for the sheer novelty of her wacked out acid high performances, but now she's getting old. Plus her rendition of Harry Chapin's Cats in the Cradle still makes me cringe. (Of course, I have no idea why that song was even on the song list. It was almost as bad an addition as I Will Survive.) Lukas can be good when he listens to Jason whatever his name is from whatever famous group he was part of. Jason has told him many times to actually, you know, sing instead of screech and scream. He says it a little nicer - "Open up your voice" - but that's what it amounts to. Still just like last year, with Rock Star: INXS, it's more about enjoying the performances each week than caring who gets to be lead singer.

Onto Big Brother... what the heck is Evil Dr. Will still doing there? Oh yeah, he's easily the best reality TV player in history. The man is born manipulator. He came into the house with a perfect plan. He has one strong alliance with Mike Boogie and then he makes alliance after alliance with everyone else. They all think they're using him when really he is manipulating every one of them. He's also the master of knowing when someone is about turn on him and removing that person. James and Danielle are excellent examples of that. If Will makes it to the Final 2, it would be impossible to vote for anyone else. No one came into the game with the least chance to win and no one made the amazing moves that he did to survive.

And it's set up perfectly for him to win. The only flaw in the plan is if Erica goes on a HOH or POV streak. She'll choose Boogie over Will. But Will still have Boogie and Janelle on his side, so he's put himself in just about the best position he could.

I have to say Big Brother: All Stars is probably my favorite season because the game play has been great. Everyone still around is playing the game and playing it hard. I kind of hope this is the last season because there's no way any season could be better than this one.