Major dude

First new column in a week: Gerald McRaney talks about playing smilin' George Hearst on "Deadwood."

It was a Mark Burnett double-feature for me last night, albeit a time-shifted one. The "Rock Star" results show continues to put the hour-long "Idol" version to great shame. Sure, there's still some padding, and Brooke Burke makes Seacrest look like Johnny Carson, but we get three new performances (with Jill's "Alone" being the best), an encore of the previous night's best (Ryan's still a dick, and that's still a great performance), plus real conversation between the judges and the contestants about what they're doing right and wrong. Much as I like Patrice (she was one of my favorites in the first episode, and has been at least solid throughout), I think the guys would have been justified in dumping her; if people still don't care enough to vote for her when she's being backed by the band's biggest star, why will they care if she's their new singer? But Dana was never going to win, despite having one of the best two or three voices of anyone this season, so you may as well let a veteran like Patrice stick around to see if she can make some headway once the songwriting begins.

Also caught my first "Contender" in a few weeks (I missed the Balletto/Torres episode while in Cali). I know some people have complained that the fights are more sloppily-edited this year, but I thought this one was clearly told. Walter just had a much longer reach and quicker hands, and so long as he was willing to press that advantage, Andre didn't have a chance. Narrative deck was definitely stacked in favor of Aaron, though: tough to root for the guy who just wants to show how good he is (even if he's clearly better) versus the scrappy underdog who cries with his brother and gets K-9 to read to him from the Book of Job. I will admit that, without the padding provided by the challenges, all the talk of "We've gotta win back the right to choose!" can get really repetitive; I'd rather spend more time getting to know some of the fighters who may not be competing for weeks. So far, K-9 is the only really strong personality we've got. And one question: if you're Jeff Fraza, why the hell aren't you pushing to fight as soon as possible before you get struck down with the mumps or roseola or something?

Elton John Called

He said butch up a little bit.

Obviously Jeter has supreme confidence in his masculinity, but no. Even Tom Brady wouldn't do anything this fruity. This just doesn't work. No. No. No.

Train kept a'rolling all night long

In preparing my "Why The Wire is the greatest thing since sliced bread" column for this Sunday's paper, I listened to a few of the commentaries on the season three DVD set (it comes out on Tuesday). During one of those famous McNulty and Bunk drinking on the train tracks scenes, David Simon marvels that not a single critic has bothered to analyze the symbolism behind that recurring visual motif, and challenged anyone listening to give it a shot before season four begins.

So dared, I gave it a lot of thought, but the best I've come up with is the idea of Jimmy constantly getting in front of oncoming trains (i.e., the Burrell and Rawls administration). He may think he's strong or smart enough to stop them, but the train's just gonna keep on coming.

But that's just my theory. I figure I'd open it up to the room; if your theory makes its way into a column, I'll be sure to credit you, and I'll definitely send Simon a link to all the responses.

Fire away.