I didn't watch "American Idol" last night. I just didn't care. But today, I got home from work, and making dinner and pouring a glass of wine, I put on the TiVo and scrolled through the thing. By the time I get to the end, the results show will be on, so maybe this is an efficient way for a nonvoter to watch.
Some random notes:
1. The theme was Diana Ross. After weeks of saying the "boys" are worse than the "girls," they finally combined the "girls" and "boys" and forced them to sing girl songs. What's the sense of that? [CORRECTION MADE: I had "boys" and "girls" reversed in the part about who they were saying was worse, as anyone who knows the show -- or, really, anyone who assumes I'm rational -- would realize.]
2. Ross seemed highly scripted. At the very beginning, her speech was weird, as if she may have ill-fitting false teeth. In the individual sessions, she was gracious and helpful, but I had the feeling that she had people helping her and intensely managing her image. She's a good enough actress to take direction. And I think she had direction and took it. Clearly, she did not wander into the show unprepared and did not fall into the trap of believing in her own divahood.
3. Melinda Doolittle is giving off an "Ugly Betty" vibe.
4. Chris Sligh was sunk by a terrible arrangement. He tried to call attention to the problem, but they tried to hang it on him. It's not fair when the music is at odds with the vocal choices. Especially when the instrumentation is awful. Chris and Diana have a hair moment together. He conceded that his doesn't go out like hers. She revealed the secret: You've got to tease it. I make a mental note to tease my hair tomorrow. (I remember back in the early 60s when teasing your hair was a moral issue. You'd try to secretly tease it. People would say you teased it, and you'd lie and say you didn't. And it was a health issue. Anti-teasers were always sounding the alarm. Your hair will fall out! You'll go bald!)
5. LaKisha Jones ("Kiki") was profound and elegant singing "God Bless the Child." I'm not a sucker for LaKisha, but... that made me cry.
6. Phillip. I like him!
7. Sanjaya. Hair recurled. Still 17. Fan favorite. Bad, but we'll keep him. Every year, there's a young guy that we embrace and keep beyond his talent level. This year, that guy is Sanjaya. I like the way he appears to understand what's happening, and he's riding his ride to the end, with a sweet, happy attitude.
8. Blake. He's my favorite. And I don't even understand the current trends. But there's something sharp and knowing about him. There's humor and lightness. There's style. We don't need to be generous or empathic to like him. It's pop music. Right there. That means something.
9. There were others. I'm not writing about them because I don't wanna.
10. Oh. A word about Simon. A few weeks ago, he amused me by saying to somebody -- no one cares who anymore -- "You sang through your nose! And halfway through you looked like you'd been boiled." Well, last night, he looked like he'd been boiled. Seriously, you'd think he'd have people helping him with his image. If he fell asleep under a sunlamp, don't they have makeup for that?
UPDATE: Brandon. Phil! In the bottom three. Commercial. Diana. Who's the other? Hayley or Sanjaya, but they string it out. Another commercial. It's Sanjaya! I think Brandon will be leaving. And Phil is sent back. So it's Brandon or Sanjaya. C'mon! It's Brandon, right? Yeah. It's Brandon, who's nice and good, but just didn't throw himself out there.
March 14, 2007
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
18 comments:
Blake is my favorite, too. He's quite talented. But, so are a lot of them. He's got some charisma, loads of style and a some originality that set him apart, for me.
But what did you think of Miss Ross? The entrance, the dress, the running across the stage -- I felt lucky to have seen that.
Well, frankly I don't care either way. But, I think Brandon has a better chance than Sanjaya to pull something great out of his hat next week. So, I'm hoping it's Sanjaya.
Blake has some intrique and like you I don't really understand why I sense that.
"God Bless the Child" is a nearly sacred song and she performed it well, as if she understood at a deeper level. We'll see what happens.
Anyway guys doing Diana songs was a bad theme, kinda like girls doing Queen songs.
Oh, dern. I read you wrong. It *is* Brandon, huh? Oh well. Nice but boring.
You will photoblog or vlog the teasing won't you? Won't you?!
You TEASE!
[Thanks for the AI blogging. I know your heart wasn't in it. But all's right with the world.]
Off topic:
Do you really believe all that stuff on this site:
www.postsecret.com
I think it's all made up. Are people that lurid and twisted?
Peace, Maxine
HaHaHa! Resistance to Idol is futile!
Yeah, I've thought Blake is the best of the boys from early on, and I like that he's dabbled in everything from Britpop, reggae, to electronic music so far. Plus, he seems very comfortable in his own skin and has some charisma going on.
I don't think he's gonna win it, but he's gonna do fine for himself.
Brandon was sooo disappointing! I just know he could've done so much better. He probably wasn't ready yet.
I just visited some relatives out of state and found out they are suckers for AI too. I no longer feel guilty.
And I want Melinda to win--her song made me cry. Love to see Blake in a club, too.
This really cracks me up. 12 paragraphs on "American Fucking Idol," and not a word on the corruption rotting the Justice Department. Typical moronic brownshirt fuck weaseling.
Luckily for you, Gonzales will most likely be history by the end of the week, so you won't have to worry about "resisting" the story anymore.
Gosh, Dave. Good thing you've 'trademarked' and 'copyrighted' your everpresent MBF brilliance. There's little doubt every poster here was prepping to jump on your linguistic bandwagon.
Maxine: I write about Postsecret back here. It's a very interesting old post, because the guy who does the site shows right up and defends it against my assertion that most of the confessions are "quite ordinary" and the suspicion that they are either fake or rewritten.
You like to think that you're immune to the stuff, oh yeah
It's closer to the truth to say you can't get enough
You know you're gonna have to face it you're addicted to Idol
I picture Maxine and Ruth Anne as the guitarists.
After weeks of saying the "girls" are worse than the "boys" ....
This is backwards. They've spent the last several weeks raving about the "girls" and telling the "boys" how disappointing they've been.
I thought Chris Sligh's piece was actually good. He made me listen to a song that I generally hate in a new way.
Lakishi's rendition of "God Bless the Child", on the other hand, was mediocre. I didn't think she was into it at all, other than as a vocal exercise.
Icepick: Thanks for the correction. I think I could have reread that a hundred times without noticing I did that. Sorry. Corrected.
Ann, I think you must have missed the bit before Chris Sligh's performance where he explained that he changed the chords for his song to modernize it. Which is to say, the terrible arrangement was his fault.
I agree that Blake is the most talented of the boys, but I have yet to like a single song he's sung.
I think Lakisha is by far the best singer of the competition this year, and you could really hear that when they were singing the group number Wednesday. As my wife pointed out, the rest of them sound like they are trying to be singers; Lakisha sounds like she is one.
SF: I didn't miss that. I think the overall musical arrangement was horrible in a way that wasn't about the changed chords and was completely at odds with the way he was trying to sing.
Post a Comment