sharp dressed man

i was chuffed that david cook won american idol b/c i picked emo boy weeks ago (there he is in an AP photo, overcome with emotion after taking the crown). as 00soul has to watch the show for his USAtoday gig, i always get sucked into it -- despite my best attempts to resist. it might have been cook's perf of "billie jean" (yeah, ripped from chris cornell -- so?) that won me over. but also, he just had a certain ... something that his alleged rival, david "basket of puppies" archuleta, totally lacked. to me, at least within the game-show parameters of this program, cook just felt like an "idol." i also really liked syesha mercado and thought she played the game very well -- but, as 00soul said, the producers clearly didn't want her in the finale, since they threw her under a bus during her last week by picking that frickin' song from happy feet for her.

as we were driving back from the finale party one of his fellow coaches threw on wednesday night, we discussed how the finalists this year were all very niche-y, and how that really reflected the state of pop music these days. i snarked during the broadcast that making the top 6 girls do donna summer's ho medley ("hot stuff," "she works hard for the money," etc.) -- while wearing RED, no less -- also was a perfect reflection of the state of WOMEN in pop right now. anyway, although i did deeply fear that david archuleta was going to win, meme and i agreed that the little girls had to stop texting and go to bed while their moms hit the phones. cougars 4 cook! w00t!

in other news, it was officially announced this week, as long expected, that russell t. davies won't be the showrunner on doctor who starting with the 2010 season. he'll oversee the four 2009 specials, and then writer steven moffat will take over. moffat's penned such excellent, scary, beautiful, and fun eps as "the empty child"/"the doctor dances" and the award-winning "blink." so he's a great choice of successor, and i hope this means the series will still be wonderful. but, although people have been speculating practically since david tennant stepped into the role that he's gonna quit, some say this showrunner shift makes it more likely that he won't remain as the tenth doctor past '09. much as i hate to say it, i have a strong feeling he won't.



i was thinking about the drag of that, b/c tennant is so good as the doctor (and so good in a tux, as above). but last night i pulled out my DVDs of the first season of the revived series and watched christopher eccleston in "the unquiet dead" -- the one where nine and rose meet charles dickens (which features eve myles, gwen on torchwood, as a different character, but named gwyneth, funnily enough). eccleston made a great doctor too. the doctor is such a fine character, and such a deeply rooted part of brit pop culture, that a lot of actors could do well with him. and i think that, when tennant leaves, moffat and co. will pick a good replacement. maybe even a doctor of color or, gasp!, a woman? (for a good giggle, google "next doctor who" and check out all the crazy stories proclaiming different people as the new who over the last few years: jennifer saunders, eddie izzard, robert carlyle, james nesbitt, etc.)

anyway, today's my birthday, and it is a dreary, windswept afternoon. but i'm not feeling blue. i got some good presents, and 00soul's taking me to dinner tonight. tomorrow i'm getting together with my friends for a drink. and in a week i'm leaving for paris!