March 12, 2009

Speaking of Robin...

"'Rockin' Robin,' even with the little dances [Megan Corkrey] does, I hate to death. She looks like she's having an emotional fear breakdown in the middle of things, I think she forgets some words, the little dances stop looking funny and weird and just look stupid, and her voice goes from weird and intriguing to shrieky and horrible and desperate. That sucks, I was really looking forward to her doing something cool and then she did the dumbest fucking thing she could think of. Oh my goodness it sounds terrible, man. And then at the end she goes, 'Caw! Caw!' like just to let you know she meant it to sound horrible. It's gloriously WTF and almost earns back my respect. What on earth is she thinking? Kara's like, 'Well, I guess that is your personality, which is nice.'"

And yet it was Jasmine that America sent home this week. Jasmine and Jorge, the persons of color, will be dismissed first this year, and Megan — per Paula — "is pretty enough to be safe this week." Anoop too must be dismissed, and soon will have just li'l Lil and all those white people.

Sorry, to play the race card on "American Idol." (Argue with me and I will dig in and stand my ground.)

But Jasmine did suck and so did Jorge and Anoop. Worse than Megan, really, because Megan — beautiful white girl though she is — has found an original and bizarre way to be bad and that's entertaining. (Watch it here.) How astounding that a girl that pretty thinks she needs to find a new way to amuse us. Kudos to Megan!

So: The race problem this season is not caused by America's failure to vote for the nonwhite contestants. It is caused by the judges' fear of an excessively white final 12 and their consequent padding of the final group — expanded to 13 — with persons of color who just plain didn't deserve it.

58 comments:

The Dude said...

The "caw" sounded more crowish, or perhaps raveny, obviously just a shout out to her black bird friends, as a way of compensating for her painful whiteness, blondness and blandness.

Never heard a robin caw, that's for sure.

Man, those are several wasted minutes I will never get back...

John Henry said...

I think playing the race card is easy here, but not really fair to the viewers. Wasn't it two seasons ago that there were three black females in the top 5?

Ann Althouse said...

"but not really fair to the viewers"

Please read the post and take that back.

John Henry said...

Should not have skipped the last two lines of the post...I retract.

TMink said...

"It is caused by the judges' fear of an excessively white final 12 and their consequent padding of the final group — expanded to 13 — with persons of color who just plain didn't deserve it."

And that is indeed racism.

Trey

ricpic said...

I just got my LL Bean catalog. There's a poisen of colah in every friggin group picture. Marshmallow roast on the beach? Poisen of colah. Backpacking on a mountain trek? Poisen of colah. Swimmin' at the ol' swimmin' hole? Poisen of colah. It made me feel so goood about Amurricah. But is it enuf, I ask myself. No. It is not enuf. It will only be enuf when every group picture will contain only one poisen of white! Then and only then will evil Amerika be forgiven by its holier than thous.

EnigmatiCore said...

"Sorry, to play the race card on "American Idol." (Argue with me and I will dig in and stand my ground.)

But Jasmine did suck and so did Jorge and Anoop. Worse than Megan, really"

Why would we argue with you, especially since you immediately argued with yourself? And you won, to boot!

PJ said...

At least the judges' fear wasn't so excessive that they used their new "save" power to keep one of these contestants on.

And speaking of the "save" power, since it can't be used in the final five (just because TPTB say so), it couldn't have helped Tamyra or Daughtry, right? It's just a Jenny rule.

Trooper York said...

The rule is there to save Adam. He is by far the best but he might get in a situation where everyone thinks everyone else voted for him. So if he is bumped they can get him back in.

Sometimes the voters have favorites they want to pump up and neglect other people who are deserving of a vote.

The odd thing about this season is that there is not one contestant who seems to be a tween favorite like Archuleta last season and Sanjaya and others before them. This year they seem to skew older.

Trooper York said...

The red headed step child could be that favorite but it is usually a non-threatening boy.

Trooper York said...

The sick thing this season is the tragedy pimping.

Dead wife vs. dead eyeballs.

Trooper York said...

I was digging Kelly Clakeson last night. She has moved into my size range. Lookin' good Kelly.

Trooper York said...

I thought Anup-dog should have done a Bolly-wood arrangement. Indian is hot now. He could have been Anup-dog millionaire.

Anonymous said...

I haven't been keeping up with AI this year, but what's with the new "save power"? It sounds like AI judges are acting like their counterparts in the law: grabbing more power on their own say-so, to make the show more just in case the ignorant public (jury) doesn't agree with the correct opinion.

Unknown said...

What about Allison Iraheta?

Trooper York said...

The idol has been berry berry good for me guy should have sung half the song in Spanish. He just couldn't hack it in english.

MadisonMan said...

Love the red hair. She can sing. But there's no one this year that makes me think Woah! They can sing!

MayBee said...

Megan is kind of like Duffy, especially the Duffy from Saturday Night Live.
The girl that should have gone home last night was the blonde and pink girl.

I don't agree with you about the judges padding the panel- Anoop was good the night they saved him. He was as deserving of that 12th spot as most of the other panelists.

Trooper York said...

Hey I hope Paula didn't give the spanish dude her email. Because he is going to be drinking bud nips all night and emailing her fifty or sixty times while he is watching the show.

I think that is the custom in Spanish speaking countries. Or is that just in the Dominican?

Trooper York said...

I hate women who have tats going up one arm. It looks like a freakin' snake is eating her.

Trooper York said...

That's Kelly Clarkson. Sorry.

How soon they forget.

Trooper York said...

Is it me or did Paula have a boob job?

I mean even the blind guy said "Nice tits Paula."

Unknown said...

Yes, Allison's family is from El Salvador, as I learned from the Pity Fest Recap on each contestant.

I love her. I just hope she doesn't say, "I just want to prove that Salvadorans can do this, too."

Scott is still there, speaking of pity. So doesn't a blind guy with zero charisma trump Jasmine and Jorge? Poor Jorge--they wanted a Hispanic and then told him to clean up his accent! I hope he rediscovers who he is.

Trooper York said...

Did Seacrest ask the oil rigger guy if he could see his pipe?

Trooper York said...

Hey can they use that new rule in the next Republican Presidential primary season.?

Trooper York said...

The blonde girl at the end tried to sex it up but she is kinda tiny to be a sex pot. I mean she was trying but she looked like a munckin hooker.

Trooper York said...

They told Anup that he has to be relevant to today’s music scene.

So he went out and beat the shit out of Rhianna

Michael in Fort Worth said...

Megan? Gah. If you got Jenny McCarthy drunk, threw her on stage and forced her to sing, that's what it'd look like.

knox said...

What about Allison Iraheta?

I'm not a fan. I don't like that "Melissa Etheridge" style of singing, where you just belt everything out to the point where it sounds like you've damaged your voice.

MadisonMan said...

I didn't like that they subtitled Allison's Dad. I mean, he was speaking English! What do they need subtitles for?

Trooper York said...

They should subtitle Paula. I don't speak batshit crazy.

Unknown said...

I don't know what the Judges were thinking this season. If they wanted to keep people of color, why didn't they keep Ju'Not, a black guy, who had an amazing voice? Or Jamal, the friend of Danny Gokey, who they didn't even let in the top 36, and yet was better than at least half of this top 13? It's utterly bizarre and this may be my last year watching the show.

Trooper York said...

Well he was Ju'not good enough.

They kept Jasmine because they also needed more girls so she was a twofer as they say.

And they kept the Idol was berry berry good for me guy because you always need somebody for the Trini Lopez role. I mean he had to know he was the first one out. Didn't he ever see the Dirty Dozen?

MadisonMan said...

You know who Adam reminds me of? Amanda Oversinger.

If he doesn't sing something restrained, he'll be out in the next couple weeks. One Trick Pony so far.

Trooper York said...

Well he has a lot more talent. And a lot more experiance. But I agree that he is peaking way to early. A lot like Bo Bice did. I think his acting is also what makes him so popular. He is "acting" like a rock star, like Mick Jagger or more aptly like Steven Tyler a Jagger imitator. So far it is far and away superior to everyone else. Let's see if people get tired of his act like they did with Archuleta and someone else sinks in.

Trooper York said...

I just wish there were more hot chicks. Lil Rounds is about all we got to hold on to, you know what I am saying?

William said...

I don't know about now, but back in the eighties all the asbestos clean-up crews I knew were Polish immigrants. I always thought it was a shame that you never saw women or people of color breaking into this lucrative field. I feel the same sense of muted shame for the apartheid on this year's American Idol.

MayBee said...

Megan:Or Jamal, the friend of Danny Gokey, who they didn't even let in the top 36, and yet was better than at least half of this top 13?

Yes! I've not gotten over that.

Zachary Sire said...

Adam should win the whole thing, and like Trooper said, the new rule is to save him, or possibly the redheaded Latina, who is also very good.

Megan is lame, plus she's probably a Mormon, so she needs to go (sorry to play the religion card, if you even consider Mormonism a religion).

Kris is the hottest contestant to ever be on the show, and he should perform shirtless, or without any clothes at all, in the future. God he is pretty.

That guy with the glasses and the raspy voice is this year's Taylor Hicks and he makes me want to vomit. Horrid.

There's a couple of other pasty white kids who should be gone soon, thankfully, and that Anoop idiot is an arrogant bastard. Watch his reactions to the judges next week and you'll see, if you haven't already. Send him back to the "slums" where he can learn a little graciousness.

There's a black girl too, but there's nothing special about her. Dime a dozen.

Chris Althouse Cohen said...

I actually thought Megan sang very well and did a really good job. She just picked a really goofy song.

MnMark said...

This is part of the future of this country: endless counting of how many people of each race are represented in every public thing - contests, newspaper and magazine advertisements, jobs, catalogs, reality shows, tv commercials, music videos, tv show casts, school boards, police departments, fire departments, Congress, neighborhoods, business ownerships, law firms, poverty statistics, crime statistics, out-of-wedlock birth statistics, test scores, and on and on and on and on and on and on.

A homogenous country doesn't have to hassle with all that. But then I guess we're compensated with all the blessings of "diversity", like....uh.....ethnic restaurants and different music styles. Oh wait, we don't need diversity to have those things. Well I'm sure there's SOME sort of diversity blessing to make it all worthwhile, right?

Oh yeah, I remember - so liberals can feel morally virtuous.

Chris Althouse Cohen said...

By the way, Adam is now my all-time favorite American Idol contestant.

MayBee said...

A homogenous country doesn't have to hassle with all that. But then I guess we're compensated with all the blessings of "diversity",

I disagree a little bit, at least with regards to American Idol.
They are not concerned with diversity so much as demographics.
They do enough research to know who watches the show, which performers get the calls, who calls in for which performers, and who ultimately buys the music.

Keeping the right contestants = good audience maintenance = ratings success.

Trooper York said...

I think MayBee is right. That's why the oil rigger guy is there in the early rounds. For the straight working man vote and the people in the South. Country music fans.

Of course the way he was hugging and squeezing the red headed step child little girl was making his wife make faces. That's a future country song coming up right there.

MnMark said...

Zachary Paul Sire: There's a couple of other pasty white kids who should be gone soon.

Do you refer to the black people on the show as "dusky black kids"?

I suppose you refer to white men as "white boys" too?

You're apparently comfortable with making casual racist comments and assuming everyone feels the same. Or is that only when they're directed towards white people?

And if you're white yourself, I have a message for you: non-whites will not think you're cool just because you insult your own kind in a way you'd never insult another race. It just makes you a pathetic, approval-seeking ass-kisser.

Zachary Sire said...

Hey Mark, eat a dick.

Trooper York said...

That's the Freddie Mercury song that Adam is going to sing next week.

RR Ryan said...

The Rockin Robin performance was a little lackluster. Who does the arrangements? I'm curious because the musical director is an old friend(haven't seen him in years, but Michael, Linda says Hi!) and generally he's a vocalist's best friend.

Swifty Quick said...

Trooper said: "He is "acting" like a rock star, like Mick Jagger or more aptly like Steven Tyler a Jagger imitator.

Me, watching Adam's up-close face shots while he's performing, I sometimes see a little bit of Elvis in there too.

michael farris said...

I got over Idol years ago but out of curiosity i watched the link and I don't get the hate from some quarters.

It wasn't art or even that good (how can one be good singing Rockin' Robin?) but it was entertaining enough.

She spared the audience the usual painful first seconds as the singers try to find their key and projection level, she just dove right in and had a good sense of rhythm (even if the tempo was a bit pokey) and she wasn't pitchy at all (one of the benefits of a limited range). She didn't gospelize or go for ear-splitting high notes and if her voice isn't memorable or pleasant she didn't push it beyond the audience's comfort zone.
Yeah, I'm mostly praising things she didn't do but with Idol that's often enough.

The less said about the spazzy mannerisms the better but overall she has a nice unforced stage presence and if there were an American market niche for big blondes who look comfortable on stage and good in short skirts (as there is in Italy and Latin America) she would have a real career.

Trooper York said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Trooper York said...

The reason why everyone hates Meghan is that she already got a tag and poor garage mahal does not.

I mean the guy has been spreading commie propaganda here for years and gets no recognition.

Instead a dorky dancing blonde bimbo with ugly tats gets a tag.

Attention must be paid.

SteveR said...

Hey they were all better than Kanye.

When Jorge was singing out, "Never Can Say Goodbye", my 11 year old snarked, "well you're going to have to cause you're leaving". American Idol, bringing families together to watch train wrecks.

Unknown said...

Every time I see Adam I think "Cats revival."

Methadras said...

Zachary Paul Sire said...

Hey Mark, eat a dick.


It always has to be about you doesn't it?

Zachary Sire said...

It always has to be about you doesn't it?

It always has to be about you being obsessed with me, doesn't it?

Daryl said...

Argue with me and I will dig in and stand my ground.

Well, duh. You were a law professor, the last time I checked.

lowercase said...

Belinda Carlisle, Jr. anyone?