AGT: More reality show than talent show

I know it's been forever since my last post, but the work of an executor is never done. But...after spending the past three days going back and forth to my realtor, and signing my name (and my parents' names) about a thousand times, an offer has been made and accepted on the condo that has been sitting empty for the past seven months. Well, it wasn't empty seven months ago. There was crap all over the place, and I mean that literally, not just in terms of the usual clutter. But after throwing out lots of stuff, holding an estate sale, and then throwing out whatever was left from that, and then cleaning and painting the place, replacing all of the carpeting and linoleum, and most of the appliances, I was finally able to list the property. Of course it didn't sell, so I had to lower the price by $50,000, which by the way enraged the homeowners association, but now if there are no further complications, I will finally be rid of the place.

The last surviving holdouts of totalitarian communism are Cuba, North Korea, and homeowners associations. But I don't want to get started on that.

I mentioned some time ago that one of my few guilty pleasures is watching Britain's Got Talent. Now the American version is airing, and there is no doubt that America has more talent. Perhaps the British tend to appreciate novelty acts more than we do, but the American version seems to have overall much better singers and dancers than the one across the pond.

The only problem I have with AGT (and BGT) is that a lot of it is fake, i.e staged as a production. For instance, one of the singers who recently auditioned on AGT was...well...plain-looking. Not horrifically ugly, but she had a cleft palate, and even after surgery, she isn't much to look at. But she has an amazing voice, and she should be a star. But given our society's infatuation with style over substance, she didn't even make it to the quarter-finals. This is a person who needs and really deserves a break, and they brought her to Las Vegas, only to tell her she was going home. She didn't even make it out of the airport. No explanation was given, and they didn't interview her, as they did so many other performers.

However...in the promo for next week, the three judges are shown on their private jet, receiving a call from Simon Cowell, telling them that there is a big problem. If I were a betting man (which I am, if the stock market counts) I would bet anything he is going to tell them to put that singer through to the next round. Earlier, the judges had the choice of putting either one or two dance acts through, and they only picked one, so now there are only 39 contestants left, when they have room for 40. All of this seems orchestrated to have left a spot open for her.

Or maybe this is just me being paranoid, but it all seems to fit together. I don't blame the performers for getting involved in this elaborate charade, because they really don't have a choice. It's not like the old days when there were variety shows which performers could use to showcase their talents. In this day and age, if they want any exposure, they have to do what the producers of AGT or American Idol tell them.

As far as the stock market is concerned, all is well for precious metals and resource stocks, although there is one special situation that should be mentioned. A small exploration company called Noront (NOT-V) found a huge nickel deposit two years ago in the Ring of Fire. It was a penny stock that soared to $7, and then crashed back to 0.60 when the market melted down. In the past two months, the stock has tripled on no news, which means (to me, anyway) that they have hit something. The stock has run from 60 cents to $2 on trading volume as high as 15-20 million shares, so someone must know something. Do your own due diligence, as some of the board members (Patrick Anderson et al) are shady characters.