Some good news. According to an article in Forbes, both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines may offer years-long protection against COVID-19, including variants. Even mixing the two--one dose each--should be equivalently good. There could be other vaccines with similar immunity power, but the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was not expected to be as durable.
One more tidbit:
is Kim Jong-un on a diet or seriously ill? At one time he was supposed to be 5'6" tall and more than 300 pounds. When he took control nearly a decade ago at the age of 27, he was less than 200 pounds. He proceeded to gain 14 pounds/year. Not anymore. He is said to be emaciated, putting his followers in despair. Who will replace him? Children too young. He does have an older brother, and, of course, a sister, who is a lot more prominent, but said to be scared for her life.
America's Got Talent is well-into its
16th season. One of my favorites this year is Jimmie Herrod, who while auditioning was told by Simon Cowell that he hated that song, and would recommend that Jimmy sing another one. Sheepishly, Herrod essentially said that this was the only song he knew. What a performance!
He got a golden buzzer for Tomorrow. This will become one of the most memorable performances ever for AGT.
I urge you to click on that link. Sophia Vergara sits next to Cowell, and she bestowed this honor.
It then occurred to me that there are similar spinoffs throughout the world, and what would a top ten look like. Way back in 2005 Simon Cowell arranged for Britain Got Talent to be produced. However, there was a dispute, so he came to the U.S. and put on his first show as America's Got Talent in 2006. The difference with the earlier American Idol is that the presentations are not limited to singing: any talent and any age.
Thus was created the
Got Talent franchise, with shows in Africa, Albania, Arab world, Argentina, Armenia, Asia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, Central Asia, Chile, China, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, East Africa, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kazakstan, Lithuania, Malta, Mexico, Mongolia, Moldova, Myanmar, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, UAE, United Kingdom, Uruguay and Vietnam. Whew! Many of them continue to today. Then there are Kids/Planets/World Got Talent shows and various Champions productions.
Thus, you would think that the two
America's Got Talent Champions seasons would result in the top two performers ever, for there were two seasons (
2019 and 2020), and the
competitors were the best from throughout the world. Each had seven episodes and the grand champions were magician Shin Lim in 2019 and an acrobatic dance group V.Unbeatable in 2020. There will be no third season, at least not until they get a sufficient list of new international winners.
- #1 Terry Fator (Season 2): in 2018 this ventriloquist was in the top ten of highest-paid comedians.
- #2 Jackie Evancho (right photo, Season 5, who came in second): became the youngest solo singer to go platinum.
- #3 Lindsey Stirling (also Season 5, and only made it to the quarterfinals): a dancing violinist, has 12 million subscribers on YouTube, goes on tour and finished second on Dancing with the Stars.
- #4 Darci Lynne Farmer (Season 12 winner): ventriloquist (singing impressionist) has gone on tour and came in second to Shin Lim in the first champions show.
Don't understand why, but Shin Lim, winner of Season 13, was listed only at #8, although he continues to have his own Vegas show. #7 Grace VanterWaal (11), #6 Mat Franco (9) and #5 Melissa Villasenor (6). But those are only American talents. What about the world?
Can't find anything of noteworthiness. Here is a compilation of the
best auditions of the past decade from the world over that was put together late in 2019. However, the first one was not particularly fabulous to me. The second was Kodi Lee, the blind autistic singer/pianist who won in season 14.
I won't pick a favorite, but here are my three most memorable auditions:
- Susan Boyle (by the way, if you watched this video, you would have heard her mention she wanted to be like Elaine Paige...well, here is Paige singing Memories from Cats...and the first few moments are silent, so keep watching--and here they are more recently)
- Jackie Evancho (that's her today in the above photo)
The fifth session of season 16 is on NBC tonight.
If you went to Google today you would have wondered why this doodle:
Nothing to do with Chinese New Year or when I was born
(I'm a dragon). The graphic celebrates the 115th birthday (
he was born on June 29) of Mexican artist Pedro Linares Lopez. While this particular papier-mache' creation was by doodler Emily Barrera, the concept relates to a feverish dream Linares had in 1945 of a mythical creature.
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Some good news. According to an article in Forbes, both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines may offer years-long protection against COVID-19, including variants. Even mixing the two--one dose each--should be equivalently good. There could be other vaccines with similar immunity power, but the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was not expected to be as durable.
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