American Idol S09 - Top 11

The top 11 are here to perform "Billboard's #1's". Which means just about every song they want, as there have been thousands of #1's, in all the various categories, and with AI's famous wriggling of the "rules", the contestants can just pick a song, and they'll get to sing it. Basically.

A video about all kind of music stuff, and Billboard stuff, and Miley Cyrus is the "mentor" for the week.

Lee's first, and he's going to sing "The Letter" by the Box Tops. And he doesn't change it one bit. His phrasing was just plain weird at places. And he looks REALLY uncomfortable without a guitar. He kept moving his left hand around, to show he's not just standing there, I guess, but that was just odd. Overall, ignoring the visual aspect of it, it was a good performance. Not great, but not bad either. Somewhere in the middle. Oh, and Ellen's still trying to hard to make people laugh. And Kara's hallucinating. How exactly did he look comfortable?

Paige's next. She's going to give us yet ANOTHER FREAKING VERSION OF "Against All Odds". Go to hell. She makes breathy noises throughout. And if pitchy was an actual word, it wouldn't have been enough to describe this performance. Terrible. Just terrible. Seriously, awful. And she looked so happy when it ended... My GOD she sucked. And the worst comment yet? "I know you're PROBABLY better than this".

Tim's doing Queen's "Crazy Little Thing Called Love". When did they tell him he's boring? I'm too tired to remember anything right now... He's going to "move around the stage", and he starts by standing with a mic stand. Ha. Then he walks to one side. And back to the middle. And then he SLIDES!!! to the other side! Cool! But no. It was just not good enough vocally. Style of substance, cheesy, wedding band-y, whatever. It's not that I didn't enjoy it. It was fun. But as Simon loves saying, it has no meaning in the real world, and there's no way it would be a hit right now. Kara's bringing him down for being cool. Shut up. Simon's comments were funny AND spot on!

Aaron's going to give us yet ANOTHER version of "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing". And again, the phrasing is throwing me off for a spin. Just weird. He didn't do anything to the song, didn't change it ANYWHERE, not one little bit. His singing was good, not great, and no where close to Steven Tyler. It was just OK. A little less, because of the "rocker" look. And that weak-ass smile at the end. And Simon suggested he give Miley a kiss (I think, couldn't hear), and Ryan called him, jokingly, David Archuleta. *FACEPALM*

Crystal's doing "Me and Bobby McGee" by Janis Joplin. And it's exactly how you thought it was going to be. Good, but predictable. Other than the fast part, which was a nice change, it was yet another one in a line of Bowersox-performed songs. Completely interchangeable with pretty much everything we've ever heard from her. And that's not going to be enough to win this thing. She was getting predictable, fast, and that last part wasn't enough to change that feeling. Good. Best yet. But she's been better, and I didn't love it. Whatever. And in case you haven't figured it out, she's a Chosen One. She's standing on a carpet! WTF? And then she and Ryan sit down.

Mike's singing Percy Sledge's "When a Man Loves a Woman". Miley loves him. And it's the third performance of his that's basically exactly the same, only with varying levels of good singing. This is good. Not great. A little boring. Quite predictable. I like this dude. I do NOT like this song, or the rut he's sliding into. Whatever II: Electric Boogaloo.

Andrew says "He Heard it Through the Grapevine". AGAIN. ANOTHER version of this song. His accent is really weird on all the non-Straight-Up-like songs. And his voice isn't big enough, I think, not by Idol standards. But it was a nice performance. A not-so-great performance. Not a terrible one. Even with the hand gestures and all. And if it means I won't have to hear another weird accented song from him, I'm OK with him going. I don't think he will, but there's that. When Simon gave him his criticism, he looked ready to pull his piece out and put a cap in his ass!

Katie's next, and I'm about to fall asleep. She's singing Fergie's "Big Girls Don't Cry". And for the first time EVAH! We see the Katie one Kara proclaimed "could possibly be someone that can win this". It can still be better. Better song choice, better singing, better performing, but it was pretty good! I liked it! Way to go! Kara's a "Musical Psychic" - Pop with R&B leanings. "Mad pitch issues". Go to hell.

Next is Casey. He's singing the "Rocker Anthem" "The Power of Love" by Huey Lewis and the News. His voice is just not that pleasant, to me at least. That hoarseness/odd vibrato is so distracting. And I don't think Miley meant he should STARE at people. It was a'ight. He's another one of the predictable bunch. Every wee, it's him and the guitar. I LOVE the guitar. I don't love the voice. And BOY did Ellen and Kara speak out of their asses. WHAT are they listening to? Kara said "if you had 10 hit songs, you could make an album". ANYONE who can get 10 hit songs can make an album, you moron!

DiDi's up, and some say her name's written Didi! She's doing "You're No Good" by Linda Ronstadt. And Ryan EFFED UP her last named. HA! It was a good performance. A very good one, but the way she looked at people was scary, at times. I'm bored, though. Nothing else to say about the performance.

Siobhan looks SO WEIRD when she meets Miley. She's singing Stevie's "Superstition". What happened to her hair?!?!? The good thing's her vocals don't suffer from the hair, she's rocking it. Bets tonight, even with a scream or two at the end, and weird faces throughout. And it's not even close.

1. Siobhan

2. Crystal

3. DiDi (Didi?)

4. Casey

5. Lee

6. Katie

7. Mike

8. Aaron

9. Andrew

10. Tim

11. Paige

American Idol S09 - Top 12 Results

One's going home tonight. Who? we'll find out soon enough...

A weird retrospective is up first, then some banter and a re-introduction of the "Judges' Save". Whatever... DC is back, singing the AWESOME!!!! Jumping Jack Flash. One word? AWESOME!!! Definitely won't be voted out. Oh, right, he's not competing anymore. Never mind, then. The lead guitarist dude was amazing. Freaking amazing.

The return of the Ford music video's alright. Not great. Not exciting. A great song, but nothing much other than that. Another Ford commercial's next. really boring. And they're all super lame. Well, maybe not all. But definitely most.

Paige's up. And down to the bottom 3. Lee's up. And safe. Siobhan's next. And safe. Aaron's up. Safe too. Andrew and Tim stand up. Tim's bottom 3. Andrew's safe.

Now a performance by someone I don't know. Orianthi, apparently. Singing "According to You", apparently. She rocks the guitar, apparently. And she was going to be MJ's guitarist in his tour. Apparently.

DiDi's up. And safe. Crystal's up. And safe. Katie's up. And she too, is safe. Big Mike's up. Big Mike's safe. Big Mike's big, BTW. Casey and Lacey (ha) are up. Casey's safe. Lacey's bottom 3.

Now to the bottom 3. Tim's safe, and we have ourselves a bottom 2 (maybe, Ryan didn't say that...).

Ke$ha feat. 3OH!3 sings Blah Blah Blah. And that's my queue to go get something to drink. Not my cup of tea. She's trying to be weirder than Lady GaGa, but in a different style. Whatever. That sucked.

Lacey and Paige are up. And Paige's safe. Lacey's going to Sing For Her Life! (TM). She's SOOO not going to be saved. And she's not, and she's outta here. THANK YOU, America, for saving me the trouble of hearing her again. Seeya!

American Idol S09 - Top 12! The Rolling Stones!

OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! It's the top 12! And they're going to perform songs by the Rolling Stones! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG!

OK, glad I got that out of my system, phew!

First we get some blabbering from Ryan, about superstars, and stages, and judges. We see the top 12, just in case America forgot who they stupidly chose to put through. Next a Rolling Stones video! WOOHOO!!!! I LOVE THE STONES!!!!!! These next two hours are probably gooing to be filled with butcherings of my fave songs. Aw shucks!

Big Mike's first, and we get to see his sob-story. And when I say sob-story, I mean no disrespect, it's just a vote-getting tool, and I do mean to disrespect that. So there. He's singing Miss You (Fun Fact #1: The longest version of this song is 8 and a half minutes long!). Great song choice for him. And he does a great job with it. Well, maybe not great, but he didn't destroy it, and I like that, and he sang well, and I liked it. So yeah, great job. the judges judge, and Ryan gets some much needed face time with Simon.

DiDi's next. And her sob-story. She's singing Play With Fire (FF#2: This B-Side reached #96 on the Hot 100). Despite angry faces, she does a really great job. The arrangement was different enough to be original, without destroying the song. And even though she had some iffy spots, both vocally, and singing-the-words-ly, she did a great job. A really great job. Not a good job, but it was great, like Mike. Just great job. I think she said Siobhan's getting off on rubbing against her. I THINK. Not sure.

Casey's sob-story's next. Oh, yeah, he's also going to sing It's All Over Now (FF#3: This hit the top of the charts in the UK between the Animals' House of the Rising Sun, and the Beatles' A Hard Day's Night). Or, to be precise, he's going to play the slide-guitar, AWESOMELY, while singing mediocrely at the same time. He's got a twang in his voice, sort of like a vibrato, but that sucks. It was very nice, but not so much because of the singing, in my books. Still very nice.

If I were to be a contestant, you can talk about how I fell from the see-saw when i was young. It really hurt. The kid that played doctor in my kindergarten thought I might die. I turned out fine a minute later. It was the longest minute of my life. :'(.

Lacey's going to make you cry next, with her well-thought-out sob-story. Right... She's singing Ruby Tuesday. Oh, no. She's ruining it! AW HECK! I love this song. LOVE IT, LOVE IT, LOVE IT. And she's killing it! My ears are bleeding! Someone, PLEASE, stop her! The arrangement, was terrible, especially the quick "Still I'm gonna miss you", but her singing was even worse! STOP IT! PLEASE! (FF#4: At LEAST 9 artist have successfully covered at least some of this song, without destroying it completely. That list remaind unchanged after this performance).

Andrew's well-known sob-story gets some more TV time. He's going to rock (fingers crossed) Gimme Shelter (FF#5: Scorsese (you know who I mean) has made this song into a theme of his gangster movies, appearing in Goodfellas, Casino and The Departed). His voice doesn't really fit the "just a shout away" parts, but it's spot on for the rest of it. So overall, a solid song choice. And a more than solid performance. His best of the competition, and the reason for that, I think, is that he didn't try and out do his Straight Up. He just did the song.

Katie's next, and we're not going to hear a sob-story for her. Just kidding! Gotcha! She's singing the awesome Wild Horses (FF#6: This was Susan Boyle's debut single, and it's been covered by about a million different artists). I LOVE THAT SONG! The BackLight of Inspiration (C) is fully on, as she begins the song weirdly, to say the least. But, as she gets in groove in the chorus, the light's off, and we can concentrate on the well sung song. Not greatly sung, but well sung. I knew I wouldn't be crazy about the singing this week, but this is getting a bit much, don't you think?

Tim's up. But not before a little sob-story! He's doing the mysogonistic (is that right?) Under My Thumb (Not So FF#7: It was during a performance of this song that Meredith Hunter was killed, in that Stones concert in Altamont), in a weird reggae influenced arrangement. Which sucks. Or maybe not. I don't know. I'm kind of on the fence on whether or not I liked it. I don't think I did. But maybe I did. I don't know. The vocals were there, but, I don't know.

Siobhan gets a sob-story. She sings Paint It Black (FF#8: Not an original Stones' song, it was covered by more than 100 different artist). The beginning is way off base. Just plain weird. But as she gets into the fast-er parts, she gets back to earth, and does a very good version, of an awesome song. Not much else I've got to say about it. The judges exaggerate. But htey tend to do that.

Lee's next, and he can't tell his colors. And he's shy. Sob. He's rocking on an original twist on Beast of Burden (FF#9: Bette Middler covered it! Right... I got nothing). AWESOME! YEAH! I love the arrangement, and he performs it well. I really do love this version! Not as good as the original, OBVIOUSLY, but as close as anyone's been so far in this performance episode. Awesome!

Paige too has a sob-story. Believe it... or not! She covers (yeah, covers) Honky Tonk Women (FF#10: Was inspired by Brazilian Gauchos. I know, I'm grasping...). NOTHING original about the version, other than the gender reversal thing, which was nice, but to be expected. Her voice wasn't any good on it. The song rocks. This version rocks. She doesn't. She's sick, BTW, and they say that explains some stuff. Whatevs...

Aaron's got a sob story! Shocker! He's singing Angie (FF#11: The german cover of this single is AWESOME!), with spikey hair. He's actually does a good, not in any way original, job on this classic. He doesn't do the whispers, so that sucks. But everything else was good.

Crystal's in the pimp-spot. She, too, unbelieveably, has a sob-story. She's doing You Can't Always Get What You Want (FF#12: It was mentioned in House (the TV show... duh...) 7 times!). I EFFING LOVE THIS SONG!!!! My ABSOLUTELY fave Stones song, EVAH!!! The arrangement threw me off at the beginning, but got back on track after the first "You can't always get what you want". Overall? AWESOME! I don't always get her, and I'm not yet on the Bowersox wagon, but this was great. And she has had a string of great performances. Great!

Final rankings for the night:

1) Lee

2) DiDi

3) Crystal

4) Andrew

5) Siobhan

6) Aaron

7) Katie

8) Mike

9) Casey

10) Paige

11) Tim

12) Lacey

Either Lacey or Tim have GOT to get gots! and get outta here. PLEASE... PLEASE let it be Lacey.

American Idol S09 - Top 12 Revealed!

Let's find out who's going to be in the top 12, and of who we'll finally get rid of.

But before we get down and dirty, a group song that sucks, and the theme of the first week of the finals is announced - The Rolling Stones! First off, AWESOME! I LOVE the Stones. Second of all - I'm going to hate all these kids after they massacre some of the best songs ever... SIGH...

And now, the reason we came here - Let's find out who's in the top 12, and who'll be serving you fries next Friday.

DiDi's first, and through. Hey, I called that! Siobhan's next, and is through too. Hey, I called that too! Paige and Katelyn are called to centerstage, and Katelyn's through! Which, by the way, I called, and Paige's outta here! Which, in case you were wondering, I also called. Oh. Wait. It's the other way around. I did NOT call that... Way to go America! Keep a sucky one over a better one...

Tim, Todrick, Lee and Casey are called to join Ryan in the middle of the stage. Casey's through (called it), Tim's through (called it), Lee's through (called it) and Todrick's outta here (called it).

Crystal's through (yeah, I did call it), Big Mike's through (I think I called this, didn't I?), Lacey's through (HUH???? WHY????), which means either Lilly or Katie are outta here... But before that, Aaron's through (SERIOUSLY???), and that means either Andrew or Alex are gone. Andrew's through, and Alex's out... Awwww.... :(

Katie and Lilly are up next, Katie's through (which I called) and Lilly's outta here (which I didn't see coming). So that's it. Seeya next time!

American Idol S09 - Top 8 Guys

8 guys, 6 move through, sexual innuendos will be plenty. Will we be interested? Let's hope so...

THIS! is AAAAMMMerican Idol!

Lee's singing some song I don't know. Everything's fine and all, except for the smiley faces, and some feelling I have. It's like singer-in-a-coffee-shop thing. It was a good singer-in-a-coffee-shop, definitely. But not a singing-competition-"look-how-good-I-am" performance. But he'll go through, no doubt about it.

Alex gives us yet another version of LaMontagne's Trouble on Idol. And it's not the best version. It's an OK version. It's not bad, not really good. Just OK. And I found myself uninterested. It was there. And it made that minute and a half more pleasant. But nothing more than that. Should be safe, would be safe? We'll see. The judges called him a stiff, cocky banana. HUH??? And a promise to see Randy in a bikini next week, should Alex still be here. Yay? Nay?

Tim's going to butcher Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah by attempting Jeff Buckley's version. You want to know what it was? it was a vanilla-fied, "let's make this a fun pop song", PPPPP filled performance of one of the best performances of one of the best songs ever. Technically sufficient, maybe, but with that song, it's so much beyond all of that bull-crap. I don't know what the judges are talking about. Sure, he sang Hallalujah. That's not enough to win this thing, and shouldn't be enough for them to declare him "in this". It was his best performance yet, but it should have been so much better.

What's with EVERYONE playing the guitar tonight? Andrew's doing an original twist on Xtina's Genie in a Bottle. And it works. Is it just me, or are everyone going for the same spot on the top 12? Everyone tonight are sounding interchangeable. It's not a good thing. They all just jumble up, and, come decision time, some will be left out, just because they sound similar to someone else in the competition. This, for me, for him, for me, for my grandma, for the sound tech, for me, worked. It was a very nice rendition.

Hey look! Casey's got a surprise for us! He's going to play the guitar! And it's another, white, OK, not too shabby, not too great, performance, exactly the same as all the ones that went before him. I hate this shit. The guys have to stop trying to copy each other. Be original. Be yourselves. Don't be vanilla.

And, the first guy out not in the top 12, Aaron, makes his first mistake by not playing the guitar. But seriously, how is he still there? He just bugs me... Go do your homework, kiddo. His hipthrusts are chicken-little-funny. And the "look how bad I am" smile at the end was awful. I really couldn't care less about this performance. Get him off my TV. NOW!

Next! Todrick's going to destroy a Queen song! Can't wait! And the second guy not to get into the top 12 - Todrick! The arrangement was beyond terrible, the beginning just plain bad, the ending even worse, and everything in the middle was a mish-mash of not great and mediocre. Give me a break. Get HIM off my TV.

Mike starts REALLY high. And if that wasn't good enough, he goes out and BLASTS it! Best performance, not tonight, not of his, not of a guy, but BEST PERFORMANCE THIS SEASON. DUDE! WOW! I mean, I knew he's good, but seriously? Are you kidding me? WOW! Kara's over-reacting, but WOW!

So, yeah, Aaron and Todrick should get outta here. Hopefully. Seeya!

American Idol S09 - Top 8 Girls

Shouldn't they move this show to a later timeslot? What's with all the groping and sex talk they've gotten into this?

Anyway, a certain "talented 16 years old" starts us off with a bad song choice, and a mediocre performance. It started out not so good, improved towards the end, but never really got anyway. She was 8(!!!) When Kelly won the show!!! WOW... Anyway, she sucked enough for people to want to try and save her, but didn't suck so bad that no one will vote for her. And she got some encouragement from Simon. She should be safe. I hope she'll be safe. I think she could do a whole lot better.

Siobhan will sing "House of the Rising Sun"! I love this song!! She better not screw it up... I didn't care for the arrangement, AT ALL. But... She didn't scrw it up, so... WOOHOO!! AWESOME!!! No idea what the judges talk about. I can say she didn't miss a note (a bold claim from a tone-deaf-ish guy like myself), and it was an overall very good performance. It was quite dark, but still. By the way, I didn't comment on her previous performance, which was great. One other thing is I hate it when people sing songs in a different accent than the original. It just sounds weird as heck. So when she sang "She sowed" and I got it, it was very odd. Like Michelle (I think), singing "With Arms Wide Open" last time around, actually saying "Open" and not "Opan".

Lacey's next, and I hate her vibratto-filled voice. I just want to close the TV. Can you please throw her out? Pretty please? It's not even interesting... You can sing badly, but still have people want you to stick around. That's not the case with her. Everything about her sucks. And that high note - my ears were about to start bleeding... Get her outta here. Please. What are the judges talking about??? And Kara - "In and out of your register"? I don't think so... Just sit, shut up, and look slightly pretty, will you?

Katelyn's song choice is terrible. I was actually a fan of both her previous performances, but this was a wedding-band performance. It wasn't bad, technically, but there wasn't anything great about it. Just some background music. Too bad, because we've seen that she can do better. She should be safe. And Ellen, while she has some funny moments, is trying to hard to make people laugh. But she really does have funny moments!

DiDi, our resident Jew, chooses a great Fleetwood Mac song, Rhiannon, and does a very good job with it. Me likey! Until the chorus, that is. That wasn't great. But everything else was very, very good. I was interested. I wanted to hear more. I want to hear more of her. Not only because she's Jewish, if that's what you're thinking. I like her, and I think we'll hear more of her. Or, at least hope so.

Paige chooses the great Smile by Mr. Chaplin. But I wasn't I had a straight face on. A bit of a frown. If "pitchy" was an actual word, it wouldn't have been enough to describe this performance. It blew. I hate her. Just about the same amount that she hates our ears.

I didn't get Crystal. Not really during the audition episodes, or Hollywood week, or the first two performances. But the beginning of this one was AWESOME. She can actually play the guitar! Like REALLY play! The beginning was the best part of it, and it got a bit more mediocre as it went on, but it was still great. The judges all love her. Except for Simon, who actually has to spend money on the winner, and wants her to mainstream-ize her self a bit more.

Lilly's next. I really dislike her voice. And the faces she makes freak me out. It probably was pretty good. I don't know. All I do know is, while trying to ignore her, I did notice that was one small guitar-looking instrument! Judging from people's, and judges', reaction, she was very good. I don't know. I don't care.

Going home, in what should be a forgone conclusion, are Paige and Lacey. I REALLY hope they both leave. Everyone else were a lot better. Everyone else should get into the top 12. One can only hope.

A Comment, A Confession, and CSI Miami

1) I got a comment! And not a childish stupid "you suck one"! So, dear commenter, thank you for reading! About your comment - "You suck!". Just kidding. You might have been right. Siobhan might have been better than i thought. But truth is, I don't really care this season... Which leads me to...

2) I have a conffesion to make about this current season of AI. I don't get the hype. I usually don't. The contastants are on average not great. And to say the girls are better than the boys - I don't see it. There were 2 interesting guys, Big Mike and Fattish Latino Gokey, aka Andrew, when the top 24 started. They were the only ones, in the whole top 24 I wanted to see how they would do. And now Casey and Lee have generated some interest in my part. But not a whole lot of. Oh, and Lambert seems like a nice guy. Girls wise - 1 Jewish, 1 sort of interesting with a lot of hype around her, and one talented 16 years old. I could care less about the rest of 'em, but it'll be hard for me. So for those reasons I wasn't really paying much attention to the performances. BUT! Now that I know that someone read it, I'll work harder! And suck less!

3) CSI: Miami. My, oh my, how giants have fallen. It used to be good - it IS a CSI show. It used to be interesting. then, after the 2nd episode or so of the first season, I realised it doesn't. It's basically about H's Miami Mafia, with the highlight of every ep being that stupid sentence he says at the start, immidiately after which the intro starts. Like this week's "Murder's hard." H: "Harder........ than people think". YEAH!!!!!!!!!!! We won't get fooled again! Won't get fooled again! No no! The rest of the episode focuses on jumping to the most extreme conclusions they can based on what little evidence they have, and worse yet accusing people of murder, left and right. Either that, or "cool" bits where "groovy" music is playing, and the CSIs are doing some "cool" technical work, in split screen! And the plots SUCK, this week's ep's in particular. And the sideplots, you ask? From Speedle dying, to Eric almost dying, to Eric's dad's Russian mafia connections, to flying to Brazil to hunt down whoever killed H's wife, which is Eric's sis, to Eric and Calaeigh's relationship, to H calling everyone younger than him "son", being a pedophile, and having EVERY kid trust him, or to him being the secret desire of every girl on the planet. COME ON! This show sucks. BIG TIME.

Some smaller things, but no less important -

House this week - rocked. I laughed so much...

I met someone. Someone great. Maybe one day I'll tell you about her. Unlikely, but maybe...

I have a lot of tests coming up, and that blows...

That's it...