Time for another grueling round of "American Idol." The theme is announced: “70s dance music.” It makes Constantine say: “Let’s boogie.” It makes Chris (here at home) say: “Why don’t they just say disco?” I say, “I think they are counting something beyond disco.” Seacrest gave Earth, Wind & Fire as a clue (along with Bee Gees and Donna Summer), so I think they can do disco or (let’s hope) funk.
Funk ≠ disco.
Constantine Maroulis: proving he’s into the whole cheesiness of Idol, he goes with the Bee Gees. “Nights On Broadway.” He’s gotten his hair streaked with blond, and I’m seeing eyeliner. He hams it up a lot. Paula: “Everything about you in the last few weeks is oh-my-God.” Simon: “Akin to a waiter in some ghastly Spanish restaurant.” In the Seacrest interview, we get a nice closeup. His hair is super-shiny, and there’s not just eyeliner, there’s golden eyeshadow. And it looks great!
Carrie Underwood: she’s doing “MacArthur Park.” Huh? You know, the Donna Summer one. She’s going for a Stevie Nicks look, but Stevie Nicks in 80s “Dynasty” makeup. She’d look better if someone left her out in the rain and let the sweet green icing flow down. The song ends with a long, dragged out “Oh, no” – like “ooooohhhhhh noooooo” – and that’s my thought exactly. Randy loves it. Paula (she’s cringing, but she’ll lie): “Wow on that last note, you held it out for the longest I think any Idol’s ever held a note.” Yikes! What passes for good. Simon comments on the look: “It’s like Barbie meets the Stepford Wives.” Nothing about the music.
Scott Savol: “Seventies ain’t my thing.” But he is dancing and moving about under a mirror ball. So there’s a fun side of Scott. Actually, it’s rather amusing. The song is “Everlasting Love.” Nice! They want him to leave though, so let’s see how they try to kill him. Randy: “just the right song… it was hot.” Paula uses her turn to harass Simon about how he probably never danced. Simon admits he’s never danced and Randy quotes the phrase “the dead don’t dance.” Simon’s looking for a theory why Scott has squeaked by thus far: “You are Ordinary Guy who is doing quite well” – basically karaoke. Scott aces the Seacrest interview, asking God to bless Simon and saying happy birthday to his mom. Why is that acing? Because it will bring in the votes he needs. Watch him avoid the bottom three this week. America will keep Ordinary Guy afloat.
Anthony Fedorov: boy, is he looking dewy fresh! He’s figured out what he has that the other guys lack: sheer youth. “Don’t Take Away the Music.” Ooh, I hate this song. Oh, but he’s ending well. Those high notes. Randy, Paula: they love it. Simon: “pleasant, safe, and a little insipid – so it’s sort of a compliment.”
Vonzell Solomon: doing Chaka Khan’s “I’m Every Woman.” She’s got a cool 60s hairdo: the huge bump with a long fall. But you’re not supposed to remember the decades straight. It’s just some nostalgic old crap. I guess she’s good, but by now I’m in full “I hate disco” mode. Randy: “you worked it out.” Paula: “best performance so far tonight.” Simon: “one of the most difficult songs… your personality can carry a song like that.. and I think you did get away with that.” So they pretty much all said it was on the edge of a horror, but we love you anyway.
Anwar Robinson: “September” – Earth, Wind & Fire. Is this funk? Just seems like more disco. Arrrggghhh! That was painful. Randy: “great… good.” Paula: “awesome.” Simon: like a “seventies revue musical.” In the interview, he phonily claims he “just wanted to have fun tonight.” I’m predicting him as the loser.
They’ve saved Bo Bice for last. Clearly, they want to help him (after he landed in the bottom three last week). They already singled him out in the show’s intro. Don’t forget to help Bo! “Vehicle” is his song. Never heard of it. I tried to hide from disco. Everyone I knew hated disco. Oh, wait. I know this song. “I’m your vehicle, woman/I’ll take you anywhere you want to go.” He just wants to be used. Please think of me as a car. Kind of a rich, old geezer’s desperate line to a beautiful, young woman, isn’t it? Simon thinks this is his “only authentically good performance.”
Okay. I hate disco, and I did not enjoy any of that. But it’s over now, so I'll settle down. What’s going to happen in the vote? I think Constantine, Bo, and Vonzell are secure. I think Anwar is in the biggest trouble. But who will the other two in the bottom three be? You know I want Carrie in the bottom three, so I’ll just predict her. And Anthony. Scott will survive.
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Lee: Anwar seems to be an extemely nice person. I'm sure everyone who knows him loves him. He's got an excellent voice too. But someone has to go, and I think he's missing something that's needed to make it to the end. It's not necessarily something you'd want to have...
I'm just disappointed because they've been singing 70s music for, like, 4 weeks now. Last year at this time, we had seen country night, Barry Manilow night, Motown night, even Miami Sound Machine night. This year, the contestants have not been so rigorously challenged. Are the producers reluctant to make things too difficult for Bo and Carrie?
As to Carrie -- her whole persona in the early episodes was innocent country girl, so who was that person we saw tonight? What was that supposed to be? It was a sort of Jon Benet Ramsey look. Just inexplicable. And she admits she has no idea what she's singing. The words are meaningless, just some sounds to make while hitting notes loud and long. That made "MacArthur Park" the perfect song for her. What a horror!
Low marks yesterday for CSN&Y, diss'n Disco today......what next? You'll be telling us that you don't like Rap?
Actually, at the time, I thought Disco was pretty pathetic, but looking back on it, it does have a certain sewerlike charm. I even enjoy listening to some of it now while wearing my polyester jumpsuit.
Craig: I was very familar with the song, once I heard it. For some reason, the single-word title just didn't call it to mind. And yeah, I hate when you can tell they are just trying to help their favorites, but I think it often backfires. It's amazing how accurate the voting has been.
Anonymous: I had a Chevy Impala when I was a teenager. A 1961 convertible. Anyway, I know I was really fortunate to grow up with the best of music. I remember the original rock and roll of the 50s, with parents making fun of Elvis and everything, too. I got to be 13 when the Beatles came out. The sad thing was having the flow of greatness come to an end. We believed the middle of each decade would bring some great new thing. In that light, consider how crushing disco felt. And people my age did at least feel sorry for those stuck having the 70s be their music. There were some okay genres at the time though, but it was hard to dodge the disco.
Register: I hate the expression "I'm so proud of you." Unless it's said by a parent or a very close teacher, it doesn't make sense. It seems to take credit for the performance. I think what Paula's doing is something of an act. Falling all over Simon and having him sit there like a rock -- it's mildly funny. In the first season, she tried to be a serious judge and was just dumb.
And as to Carrie: that's not a real person expressing herself, experimenting with a new persona. Or if it is, something has gone horribly wrong. That is someone's crazy idea of how to glam her up.
I'm not stuck in any particular musical era, but that was not good music for my taste then or now. As for Bo singing "Vehicle", I don't remember it in the same group as the other songs last night. It was a hit in 1970, did it reappear like McArthur Park as a disco song? Hard to know who's good when that's what they sing. I think Anwar is vulnerable this week.
Constantine's smarmy act reeks of fakery far more than Carrie's does
It reeks of fakery, but that's the brilliance of it. He knows he's a 30-year-old guy trying to break it big on a television show looking for a pop star. He knows that compared to Bo, he's no "rocker", so instead he's giving people the insincere, smarmy gestures of a lounge singer, because a whole lot of people want to be eye-fucked like that. And it works a lot better than Bo trying to be a "rocker" backed by an orchestra on a Fox reality sho.w
As someone who follows country music a bit more than other types, I think that at this point, there's no doubt that Carrie will get a fat recording contract. I mean, if Josh "I can't sing, but gosh I'm trying hard" Gracin can get a country stick, and be mildly successful (up to this point), Carrie sure as hell can. I know you dislike her (and in fact, I hate what they've done to her too), but it's a done deal at this point.
"Disco will never be over -- it will always live in our minds and hearts. Something like this, that was this big and this important and this great, will never die. Oh, for a few years, maybe many years it will be considered passé and ridiculous. It will be misrepresented in caricature and sneered at. Or worse, completely ignored. People will laugh about John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, white polyester suits and platform shoes and going like this. [does John Travolta's Saturday Night Fever pose]
Well, we had nothing to do with those things and still loved Disco. Those who didn't understand will never understand; Disco was much more, and much better than all that. Disco was too great and too much fun to be gone forever, it's got to come back some day. I just hope it will be in our life times."
-- The Last Days of Disco
I don't know about disco, but I highly recommend the movie.
I enjoy seeing how the show deals with Anwar's ga... er... effeminate physicality. They kept moving up and away from his lower body in a way that reminds me of how they used to not show Elvis's pelvis.
Last night was great, I thought. All good performances, except for Vonzell, who made up for her lack with booty, not personality, imho.
And I have to agree about Paula being high or drunk on every episode, but I hope they don't get rid of her. That's entertainment!
Adam: that's what I love about Constantine. He's got perspective. He knows he's in a ridiculous but kind of cool predicament. He needs to laugh at himself and play at it. The others are all serious about themselves. As a result, it is ONLY Constantine that I take seriously. When he did "I Think I Love You," he distinguished himself as the only one there with a brain and with real nerve -- and humor.
"When he did "I Think I Love You," he distinguished himself as the only one there with a brain and with real nerve -- and humor."
That's a really excellent point, although I don't think his schtik translates into somebody being a pop-star... A reality show star, yeah, but not a pop star. And there is no million dollar prize for winning American Idol, I mean it is a means not an end.
I've got a theory working that Deadwood is based on American Idol. Swearengen is Cowell, Dan is Randy, Johnny is Paula, Mr. Wu or EB Farnum is Seacrest. I've worked it out and you'd be surprised at how these shows parallel each other.
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