2nd Season of America’s Got Talent ends

and the winner is … the dude who’s circled below.

All 4 finalists had to do a duet with someone famous.

It all started with Butterscotch (the chick on 2nd to the left) who also is a beatboxer. So she had Sean Kingston and they sang his hit “Beautiful Girl” which could easily have been named SUICIDE or the SUICIDAL song. Nice song but Mr Kingston was doing a poor lip sync job. Ruined it. Her grandma endorsed her after the song. Butterscotch was in tears. Don’t ask me.

Then Terry Fator (who I thought was Terry Vader or Fader) the ventriloquist had Kermit for a duet on his song. Some old song I can’t remember the name (Everybody Needs A Friend? or You Got A Friend) but it was pretty good. There were puppet chickens jumping out behind the haystack Kermit was sitting on and they started to squawk and sing along too. Hilarious. And who would come out to endorse Fator? Why who else than Miss Piggy herself.

After Fator, Julienne Irwin or the girl who sings in her bedroom came out with some 17-year-old supposedly famous female country singer. Sleepy and boring song. The 17-year-old had too much make-up on. Sorry to lay it out like this but she looked like a hooker and not some conservative country singer. Ironic. Martina McBride said something corny…

Finally, Cas Haley the reggae/ska singer got on board. UB40 joined him and they sang Red Red Wine. Simply awesome. Thought he was gonna win.

So then after much pause and waiting, they booted off the 14-year old Julienne. She had an average voice so no biggie. Ads and commercials flew by and next thing you know, the place turned into a drag show. It was bad in a bad way. Made the “America’s Got Talent” show transformed into a nightmare circus show instead of the finale to a highly rated NBC talent show.

Then they booted off Butterscotch. WTF? What’s going on here? They jus booted her off like that. They didn’t make everybody sing again. So she was off. Aright. Now what? Oh ok. More commercials. Aright. Back to the show and the final. More commercials. What is going on here? Jerry Springer looks around and pauses and then gives out the name of the winner – Terry Fator.

The ventriloquist wins the event. He was a talented person but Cas Haley’s reggae/ska songs were more fun. But it takes more talent to sing through a puppet so the better person won.

As the show was ending, I opened up Wiki to look up “America’s Got Talent” and surprisingly enough, someone had time to update the page with the winners and losers.

First Place
• Terry Fator – ventriloquist/impressionist/singer from Dallas, Texas

Second Place
• Cas Haley – singer/guitarist from Dallas, Texas

Third Place
• Butterscotch – beatboxer/singer from Davis, California

Fourth Place
• Julienne Irwin – 14-year old singer from Bel Air, Harford County, Maryland

So, does America have talent? I’d like to think so. A 14-year-old reaching the finals is an amazing feat. An entertaining fat dude who sings reggae/ska music. A beatboxer from the streets, and a singing ventriloquist. Hope the next finale to that show does not feature that weird drag show with off-tune singing again.

Good Night!

New muffler for the old ride

So had a new muffler and pipe installed on my old Civic. Set me back only $105 which was surprising. The muffler installation on my old Probe GT cost me $250 so this took me back. And without hesitation, had the old holey muffler and pipe removed/sawed-off. The new one had to be ordered, took 15 mins and when it got here, the guys at MG Exhaust Service (on Lincoln) did a great job of getting the correct length of the end tailpipe and welding everything together along with the screws.

Boy did I get a deal. $75 for the muffler, tailpipe, and mmm over axel pipe? and $25 for labor. All’s good!

Logged on eBay to look up somethings and noticed a seller selling a muffler for my Honda. WTF! It’s only 30 bucks after shipping. Holy shit! It was one of those after-market cool-looking ricer stuff. Feel kinda dumb now. If only I’d bought it on eBay and had the muffler guys fix it. I’d even pay them 50 bucks for labor. Oh well. I know what to do for my next car. And hope you don’t make my mistake!

Bitter sweet moment with Car and Driver

So yesterday afternoon, I finally got my August’s issue of Car and Driver magazine. It was August 20 but usually, it’s expected to get here before it hits the stands. Not quite this time. I guess I can’t complain since I got my subscribed copy or should I? When I slowly pulled it out of my mail box, I noticed it was crumpled, torn, and all worn out with water damage. To make it worse, it looked like one of Jack the Ripper’s victims … all stabbed with needles or something along those lines. In short, it looked like it’d been used like a 2-bit whore. WTF?

Talked to the delivery guy and he said there was nothing he could do. Probably got damaged due to poor handling by other ppl. I’m almost paranoid that as I flick the pages, there might be some “stuck” pages due to some rather sick/perverted mail room clerks.

That’s a pic of what my mag looks like. Brand new. Just sad. Almost looks like that fantastic M3 on the cover’s got a damaged left-fender. Bitter sweet moment.

And Car N Driver, DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT post any more articles on the new BMW 1-series. They (128i/135i) look absolutely hideous and all the turbos and six-cylinder standard options can’t make me shift my judgment. The 1-series look just as shitty as the upcoming Honda Accord which I posted below. All those lines on the sides. WTF were they thinking? Looks like a German Pontiac with the side ribbed cladding.