America’s Got Talent show taping in Chicago

Stage and the famous table

Tons of people showed up at the Rosemont Theatre for the taping of America's Got Talent Chicago.  And by tons, I mean thousands.  The tickets were free, yes free, and the crowd was psyched to see Heidi Klum, Scary Spice Girl Mel B., Howie Mandel, and of course, Howard Stern.

They taped two shows for three days.  I went on Thursday and was lucky to get a seat in the first row behind the judges table about twelve feet from Heidi Klum.  Yes, Heidi is a total lady.

The season's premiere is set for June 4th on NBC but we had a chance to see all the great and not so great performances live!

The biggest surprise was a black guy with dreads who was about the sing.  Everyone expected some modern cover song or some rapping but the guy actually performed "Granada" opera song.  And he was fantastic!

Howie Mandel had the best comment, “You have performed like a black Pavarotti, a Blackarotti!” Needless to say, the guy advanced.

The other surprise was a group of dancers who juggled and tossed wooden rifles ten feet into the air.  Perfection and precision was rewarded and they advanced as well.  The dancers wore very tight and revealing black spandex costumes with long capes so it was no surprise that Howie cracked another comment, “The performance had the perfect combination of difficulty, skill, and even a slight touch of camel toe!”  The ladies in the group automatically covered their groin area, it was hilarious.

Then, there was this wedding singer aka standup comedian whose performance sucked proverbial tea bags.  The whole theater booed him ten seconds into his lame routine.  The guy just didn't want to clear the stage.  The audience was just annoyed and even Howie couldn't put down the fire.  The guy was axed but Howard Stern really took his time explaining why the jokes sucked and perhaps sticking to the weddings was the best outlet for the guy.  The lesbian group labia majora aficionado actually kept it professional.  Keep it cool Howard!

Another fail was some Chi-town drag queen with his two minions dressed in black spandex.  Btw, what's up with the black spandex lately?  It's unflattering to the ladies and over bulging for the guys.  The skit totally blew.  What kind of a drag queen are you if you can't dance and sing?  Birdcage anyone?  Rejected.

By then, everyone was ready for some electrifying performance.  The next crew looked awesome: two guys in Halo armor with compressed air rifles, one on stilts, four girls with hard hats, metal chest and groin plates, welding goggles, swinging metal grinders.  What’s not to like?  Wrong.  The idea was great for an industrial rave party but not really worth a million dollars grand prize.  Rejected.

Finally, the act worth watching involved juggling and a Molotov’s cocktail on a balloon.  It was impressive and the juggler advanced.  The table was amazed.

There were some others but you will have to watch the show on TV to find out who passed and who failed.

Overall, America’s Got Talent was a total blast.  Everyone had a great time and we had a chance to see and talk to some interesting celebrities.  If AGT tapes in your city don’t miss it, you will have a great time.  Check out some of the pics from the show.  Comment on your favorite performer.

Heidi from behind

Table getting ready for a break

Howie, Mel B, and Heidi

Some makeup at the table

Mel B with Heidi Klum

Scary Spice – Mel B

People waiting before the show

Rosemont Theatre

Dead giveaway by Charles Ramsey

You can always count on Cleveland for a good story.  America was shocked by the discovery of three missing women found allegedly enslaved in one of the houses in Cleveland by three Puerto Rican Castro brothers.  Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight are free now thanks to a new American hero: Charles Ramsey.

Charles Ramsey deserves a lot of credit for being a concern fella in the neighborhood of who-cares-if-there-are-chained-naked-women-in-that-house.  Bill Gates, this is your guy!  How about rewarding Mr. Ramsey for his cojones.

 

Werewolf and department store discounts

The Twilight Saga movies became something comparable to the Star Wars Saga or Lord of the Rings Saga. Story about Bella and her adventures with the blood thirsty vampires and cuddly werewolves are here to stay.

One big question remains: Do werewolves get discounts on clothes at department stores?

After Jacob Black rips his clothes up eight times a day to turn into a werewolf, where does he get his new outfit? Does he have a Macy's baggie stashed away in the woods to quickly pop on some jeans and a cotton v-necks?

Perhaps, local Kohl's sponsors his escapades by providing seventy five matching sets of khakis and flannel shirts?

Or, he just visits a second hand store to save some money.  But wait, Jacob Black looks like a GAP commercial so it must be the discounts for werewolves.  BTW, is there a discount on chewing toys at the pet shops?  Because that would fall into the young werewolf category as well.

PSY is a true Korean gentleman

After the worldwide sensation "Gangnam Style", PSY cooked up another hit titled "Gentleman".  Yes, there are new moves associated with the song.  No choice but to learn a new dance after becoming proficient in "Gangnam Style".  Wedding DJs will be psyched. Pun absolutely intended.

Will the new song ease the tensions between North Korea and South Korea?  Perhaps Kim Jong-un could bust a move instead of busing a nuke?  Or, maybe North Koreans finally revolt against their butterball leader after realizing how much fun they've been missing all those years.

Undeniably, the song is a hit already.  At the time of this post, there are 6,901,112 YouTube hits already.  Go PSY!

UPDATE : 4/18/13   As of today, the video was watched 152,511,885 times! WOW!

UPDATE: on May 8th, 2013, PSY received 300,526,367 hits!

Kapooya, kapooya!

Michelle Clark is becoming an instant YouTube celebrity with her hilarious "Kapooya. Kapooya!" line describing the hail storm.  It didn't take long for the YouTubers to come up with a song remix.

 

As expected, someone has already registered the kapooya.com and kapooyakapooya.com websites.  I just love American entrepreneurship!

Registered through: Cheap-DomainRegistration.com
Domain Name: KAPOOYA.COM
Created on: 21-Mar-13
Expires on: 21-Mar-15
Last Updated on: 21-Mar-13

Registered through: GoDaddy.com, LLC (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: KAPOOYAKAPOOYA.COM
Created on: 25-Mar-13
Expires on: 25-Mar-14
Last Updated on: 25-Mar-13

Dominican Republic immigrant claims $338 million Powerball lottery jackpot

We have another happy lottery winner!  The fourth-largest jackpot in the Powerball history was claimed by a 44-year-old immigrant from the Dominican Republic living in Passaic County, NJ.  Good for dude, your life won't ever be the same.  Snooki will be happy to party with you.

So how much will he take home?  If he decides to take lump sum payout, and who wouldn't, the winnings go down to $221 million.  Don't forget the tax.  The final sum would be around $152 million.  So, pretty much, the lottery and the state take half of his money.  Great.

It's still a lot of money and hopefully it will be used for good.

Eagle Liquor store where ticket was purchased, will receive $10,000 bonus cut.  That's all.  However, Pravin Mankodia who actually sold the ticket, is very happy for the customer.

Some interesting Twitter posts about the jackpot:

Paul R. La Monica ‏@LaMonicaBuzz7h

Okay. I'll 'fess up. I was in Jersey Saturday. I won #Powerball. Donating my winnings to Russian depositors in Cypriot banks. #sarcasm Ciao!

SI Girl Problems ‏@SIgirlproblem9 Mar

If I win #powerball, Dunkin Donuts better be delivering whatever size I want to my bedroom door.

NorthJerseybrk ‏@NorthJerseybrk8h

#POWERBALL WINNER: Congratulations to Pedro Quesada of #Passaic | More: (Photo by Monsy Alvarado / Staff) pic.twitter.com/llpbAknKdl

"Obama 2.0: The Road Ahead" at Viper Alley in suburban Lincolnshire

On March 14, 2013, Viper Alley in suburban Lincolnshire, IL, held a reception and a panel discussion titled: "Obama 2.0: The Road Ahead", sponsored by Chicago's AM560 The Answer  radio station.

The panel was hosted by the AM560 radio host Steve Cochrane, featuring former U.S. Representative, Joe Walsh, Illinois Policy Institute chairman, John Tillman, and talk radio host, Michael Medved.  The discussion was split into several parts addressing the questions of President Obama's policy during his second term in the office.

Cochrane, Medved, Tillman, Walsh

The highlights of the conversation are as follows:

On the immigration and the borders - Walsh's priority is to secure the borders before taking any action regarding the immigration reform.

On the Dream Act - Walsh accepts a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants only through a service in the military.  Tillman and Medved agree about the positive impact of the Dream Act.  Medved added that expelling young, college educated people who lived here since their childhood would be unfair and unwise, since America needs more educated people.  Tillman also confirmed that immigration was and is a huge part of the American life and success.

On the money - Cochrane brought up a common believe among middle class Americans that rich people hate poor people.  This misconception is slowly eating away the traditional thinking that anyone can succeed and become rich, achieving the American Dream.  Another strong point by Cochrane was to fix the tax code so the people can file their taxes in 10 minutes on one piece of paper.  Tillman argued that the middle class is being forced into dependence on the government because of taxes.  More taxed one pays, less money can be put away for a self-dependence later.  Medved was for a simple, flat tax with no loopholes.

On the guns - Tillman pointed out that since the federal government took over the mental health care from the states, the quality of the care dropped significantly allowing the patients to fall through the cracks and have access to firearms.  Medved added that the United States has about 1/10 of mental hospital beds comparing to the number in 1950s forcing the hospitals to release patients without a clear plan of a systemic mental care.

On energy - Medved wants the market to dictate which forms of the renewable energy will become a new standard.  Artificial government subsidies create too much dependence on hand outs.

On Obamacare - Walsh wants to repeal Obamacare entirely.  Tillman pointed out that voters and their representatives should not give up the fight because the options are still on the table.  Per Tillman, Obamacare is actually hurting the lower class citizens since it forces employers to limit the work hours to 30 hours a week to avoid the penalties, consequently forcing people to look for another part time job to make up the difference in pay.  Medved added that the best way to remove Obamacare is to limit the funding.

On foreign policy - Tillman asked where is the anti-war movement lately?  Medved added that Obama's foreign policy exposes a weak president.  Walsh pointed out that President Obama hasn't acquired the negotiation skills needed to maneuver in the international politics.

On 2016 presidential candidate - Couple names came up.  John Kerry or Joe Biden on the Democratic side.  Tillman and Walsh: Scott Walker.  Medved: Marco Rubio.

The panel took one question from the audience regarding a fair or consumption tax initiative.  Walsh and Medved are for flat tax.

Joe Walsh also announced starting his own radio show on AM560, right after Steve Cochrane's show.  Fans had a chance to sign Michael Medved's book.

So that's the short and sweet main points from the event.  If you have comments, I'd like to read it.  Thanks.

Michael Medved signing books.