Tuesday, May 06, 2008

American Idol: Top 4 Perform


Look at that picture kids. Which grin looks the creepiest? Did you guess the one with his eyes closed? Yeah, me too! Anyway! Unfortunately, he's the same one that wow'd the judges and some unknown number of million people this week as he went to take some steam away from the other favorite. Meanwhile, the battle between the ones that won't win got a little heated as well. I think I'm starting to agree with some of the complaints of this season. I have been so determined to enjoy Idol this season after the horrendous disaster of season 6, that I haven't been watching Season 7 deteriorate before our eyes! Yeah, I'm still rooting for D.C. but I dunno, I think I'm just tired of the whole Idol Scene! Apparently they're in the works of revamping the show yet again for next season. And they will try to win us back YET again! All it is though is a 7 year old show that is finally showing some cracks in the armor! We enter this TOP 4 week with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Songbook open to the contestants. Sounds great on paper!
But you know, I'm starting to get the feeling that these contestants do not put an equal amount of time into BOTH songs when they get down to these final rounds and have to choose 2 songs! I'm sure they only record one for the iTunes download. Some of those round 1 songs were just disastrous! Anyway, I'm rambling how about this for a mystery? Ryan said that 3 of the contestants remaining were voted #1 at one time during their run. Well, David and David obvious right? Who's the other? Castro? Somewhere Over the Rainbow week would be the only time I could think it possible (or Semi-Finals Hallelujah week). The only other possibility is Syesha on Andrew Lloyd Webber week. Sure they had her in the bottom 2, but she did TOP the Dialidol charts, if you buy into that stuff! Oh well, who cares???

Like I said, I've given up on trying to pick an eliminated contestant, and I'm positive that this is what's going to help me get it right this week! But I'm just going to pick the person that deserves to go home. No drama, no suspense! But Ryan did remind us (as did I last week) that this is the very same week when Chris Daughtry went home, Tamyra Gray went home. Anything can happen. But it doesn't give me a warm fuzzy feeling that Cook went first and wasn't too good on song #1!

Speaking of which! Let's dive in!
(The Flyers are in the Eastern Conference Finals by the way!!!! Woo hoo!!!!)

1.) David Cook
Song 1: Hungry Like the Wolf - Duran Duran
Song 2: Baba O'Reilly - The Who
Well, in David's defense, "Hungry Like the Wolf" was a fun song back in the 80's but it is tough to sing and make exciting! Trust me, I've tried!!!! Okay, confession time! Back in the ancient days of the Playstation 2 (oh yes, I'm on to bigger and better things with Rock Band for the PS3!), there was this crazy American Idol Karaoke Game. The very important lady in my life made me buy this crazy game and sing into a TV! While I got past the embarrassment of doing this, I then had to answer to those crazy judges! Simon was not too pleased with me!!!! I sure rocked on Extreme's "More than Words" though! Anyway, that's not the point. I just don't know why David picked it! It was just a "karaoke" performance as Simon said. There's not much you can do with it! I'm convinced he just wanted to spend more time on his cover of Baba O'Reilly. Because THAT was good stuff! Sure...stuff we've all heard before from Cook. But I'm sorry...I'll take that any day over being serenaded by a 17 year old who can't keep his tongue behind his teeth when saying his L's! I do worry though with Cook going first. But come on! Look at the competition! It happened in season 5 though. Daughtry was the vocal favorite, but there is no Taylor Hicks this season! Unless you count the Artichoke (senseless fans who are just mesmerized by the spectacle and don't really judge the performances beyond that!) Oh well, we may just have to end the blog this week if that happens!

2.) Syesha Mercado

Song 1: Proud Mary - Tina Turner
Song 2: A Change is Gonna Come
Someone has developed their own little hot streak haven't they? Sure, "Proud Mary" was a little bit too much like Syesha was performing "TINA TURNER - THE BROADWAY MUSICAL" with her mimicky dance moves and identical musical performance (except that she's not Tina!). But it was still vocally pretty much on and it WAS entertaining. And again, I still think they put a larger emphasis on song #2. So she turned in a pretty respectable number. But "A Change is Gonna Gome" wow....now that was a powerhouse vocal! I was actually quite impressed with her. Thinking about how many times she's fled that bottom 3 or 2 and survived to tell the tale. And here she is, bound for the TOP 3 now. Insane! The only thing I couldn't stand was that the pre-performance clip already told about her research she did about the civil rights movement and then how she identified with the song personally for changing over the season. And then she said the EXACT same thing on stage! But I just credit that to being lost for words. She was truly touched by Paula Abdul's comments. And that my friends...is a miracle in itself! And to have Simon side with Paula over Randy was a good time too. She deserved some praise for a very good performance. And I think she may be able to avoid that elimination this week!

3.) Jason Castro
Song 1: I Shot the Sheriff - Bob Marley
Song 2: Hey Mr. Tamborine Man - Bob Dylan
....................
Oh right...I guess I have to talk about Castro. Look, I think I've forgotten why I ever liked this guy. I guess in the beginning it was just a shocker that he played the guitar and sounded unique compared to everyone else. But now he is just biding his time until fans get sick of voting for him! Sure he seemed really into "I Shot the Sheriff" but it was NOT that good! I mean come on, picking a song because you both have dreads? Or is it because you both were stoned? I couldn't tell the difference! But Bob is a Legend, Jason Castro? just has legendary hair on American Idol...that's about it! And then the disastrous, redundant Bob Dylan tune to follow. Sure, give him credit for not stopping when he forgot the words and just laughed and hummed along calling attention to it! And then realizing that while Bob Dylan wrote some captivating lyrics for his tunes, that song doesn't really have much of a melody to captivate Idol voters! But what WILL captivate voters is when the judges all express their disgust for the performance. But I'm not playing any mental games this week! Castro deserves to go home and I'm picking him! No surprises! No tricks up my sleeve! No one else deserves to go home! I will not tolerate it unless it's the ARCH-MEISTER!
4.) David Archuleta
Song 1: Inspirational Tune that I Adlib to tell girls they are beautiful - Stand By Me - Lieber, Stoller, and King
Song 2: I want to romance these girls now that I have their attention with my ridiculous improv skils at the end of a song - Love Me Tender - Elvis Presley

So was anyone else creeped out when ol' Agriculture (yeah running out of nicknames although I hear there is some close translation of his name that comes out to being "pork chop!" niiiice) told us that he used to sing "Stand By Me" to himself in his room? Don't need any more visuals thank you very much. But I don't doubt for one second that it's true. It's the ultimate Inspirational Tune of Inspirational Tunes! ARCHIE has come home! Ugh....well I can't deny that he sang well. But I can revisit this whole "singing of the L's" that I mentioned before. Last season, you may recall me getting on Lakithsha Jonesths's and Christh SThligh's case about their increasingly annoying listhps! And one of my most famous comments was that I had speech therapy in 1st grade to cure me from my faulty S's. Well, the hidden secret is that I ALSO had issues with my L's! (keep in mind...i was 7 or 8 years old. 10 years Archie's Junior!!!) I was taught that the tongue must touch the roof of your mouth right behind your front teeth. Try it with me everyone!! "L" "L!" "EL!" "EEEEEELLLLLLLL!" Ahhhh soooo soothing to say it correctly isn't it? Now, try your L's by sticking your tongue out of your mouth and chomping your teeth! Where's your tongue? yep licking your upper lip! I've solved life's greatest mystery IDOL ENTHUSIASTS! David Goldenarchiebunker-puke-a has a speech impediment! Now try and watch him and enjoy his performances! I was irking my way through BOTH songs! And then when he goes off into his "ALL YOU BEAUTIFUL WOMEN!!!!!!" when he was singing...wait "STAND BY ME?" A song about friendship? He's singing about beautiful women???? I sooooo know he also sang that line in there when he was singing to himself in his room. Hoping one day...to be on a grand stage where he could WOO the ladies with that one! Who knew that those ladies would one day turn out to be 12 year old girls??? Ahhh good times. And don't get me started on him not ever having heard "Love Me Tender" by the legendary Elvis Presley! Or that he looked up other versions and just when I was worried he was going to pull out the Amy Grant version from the movie Honeymoon in Vegas...well spoiler alert....HE DID!!! No, he didn't mention it! But it sure sounded like it. Well, until he went off into his "LISTEN TO MY AMAZING VOICE AS I ADLIB FOR YOU ONCE AGAIN!" runs at the end of the song. And then singing his version of a crackling Dog Whistle to end the tune! Ahhhh the soothing sounds of David Archaawful now playing on a Disney Channel near you! And come on Randy! Get your crazy head out of the kid's rear end! And say something constructive! Not that the other judges were any better. At least Simon noted some faults in performance number 1. Regardless, Archie won the night on a pretty lousy night of Idol. (Could you tell by my glowing review???)
Yeah, if I wasn't so unimpressed with the performances as a whole tonight, I'd express that I might be a little nervous of what might go down Wednesday night. But we all know who should go home. And I don't think there's been a week yet in the top 12 where I've picked the same contestant 2 weeks in a row to go home. I think this is one of my faults this season! Here we go!

Bottom 2: David Cook (to scare us), Jason Castro Wildcard: Syesha Mercado
Elimination Pick: Jason Castro - Dude, just go get HIGH already! We're done with you!

Well, I hope you can make sense out of all my ramblings! I felt like I was on one long stream-of-consciousness ramble! Heads up on tomorrow night. I will be out of town and can't make any promises of when the blog will be posted! But if you don't see a blog, go ahead and post your thoughts in this one until one is up!

What did you all think of last night's show? Are we in for a shocking elimination Wednesday night? Or is it time to trim the Non-David Fat from this show? (and trim some Dreadlocks too?) See you sometime after the Results!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can't believe you blamed that PlayStation karaoke purchase on me! ;-)

I wasn't too excited about tonight either, except Syesha. This girl really brought her A game! She has been so boring throughout the competition, but I loved her tonight. Crazy stuff!

I don't think there is any way on Earth that Castro will stay, but I've been wrong before. I read an article last week that quoted him saying he's ready to go home. It's been fun but he's over it....or something like that. So, maybe that's why he sucked so bad tonight!

Anonymous said...

Everyone seemed so nervous tonight. Jason's demeanor even seemed a little sad before his first performance (maybe he know's he's going home?). I had to hide my face during I Shot the Sheriff, it was so horrible. When he forgot the words to Mr Tambourine Man, that just ruined it for me. Yes, although he's tres cute, I'm ready for him to go home.
David's Hungry Like the Wolf may not have been that great, but I still enjoyed his little sexy looks. Rock on DC!

Ian said...

I think Jason is toast. Even DialIdol has him being eliminated.

I seem to be in the minority with my opinion once again that David Cook's first song was better than his second. I agree that "Hungry Like the Wolf" wasn't incredibly original, but his new arrangement of "Baba O'Riley" just didn't work at all to me.

I wouldn't worry about David Cook if I were you. Unless he screws up big time I honestly don't think there's any way he can lose at this point. Archuleta appeals to the young girls and the old ladies (well OK, I think he's all right too, but I'm not planning to buy his album when it comes out) and Cook seems to appeal to just about everyone else. I don't think Archie has a chance of winning anymore.

Congrats again to your Flyers, but I'm not sure if they're good enough to beat the Penguins. We'll see though.

Anonymous said...

Flyers in 7 - Stars in 7

We'll have a Cup Final with the #6 an #5 seeds of the conferences this year.

Oh yeah - Idol. If Castro isn't going home, I don't think I'll be watching next week. This is almost as bad as watching Sanjaya at this point (try and imagine HIM in the Top 3 last year).