Hollywood Episode 1

I'm not gonna lie to you. My heart just isn't in this recap. Just got off another thrillride of a Lost episode and my mind is racing on how I'm going to write up that one. Let's be honest. There's not much to talk about here. We're just whittling down the talent (and one non-talent) here to the cream of the crop. Tonight we went from 175 to 99. Yay...glad they're not going to keep these episodes going as long as possible (Olympics competition anyone??). And I have been saying that we're going to have a top 25....well that was just silly folks...it's just the top 24! Makes more sense since they'll be eliminating 2 guys and 2 girls a week for 3 weeks......but let's not get ahead of ourselves. We have 2 more sessions of Hollywood to get through! Here's a list of who's made it past the 1st round in Hollywood:

• Kellie Pickler - Awww things aren't looking too good for our girl. She's never played with a band making her timing all over the place and well she was a bit nervous too. Don't fear...they're just trying to build up a nice sob story to get people to root for her once they put her in that top 24. Can't deny she has pipes....she'll make it. Will she win it all? Well...I dunno. I'm sure they'll be pushing something new this year. And like I said before, she makes us reminisce of a hybrid of Carrie and Kelly. But that's why I like her!
  
  (Speaking of Kelly...anyone see her win the Grammy tonight?? (how could you? it was airing against Idol! god bless TiVo!) She was so sincere....and emotional. I'm not going to lie and say I didn't get caught up in it. I'm so proud of that girl!)
  
• Patrick Hall - In the words of Simon he's "Clay Aiken, but likeable." I agree. This guy has a really nice voice. Hit some quality high notes.
• Lisa Tucker - This girl has to be a shoe-in for the top 12. She's one of the outstanding 16 year olds.
• Paris Bennett - She must've had a b-day, cause she's 17 now. She claims that there is "nobody this small with a voice as big as mine." I'm not going to argue. She's very short...and has some huge pipes and a grand range of vocals. It's no surprise that she's already a front-runner to win it all. But I'm going to need a little more selling.
• Taylor Hicks - aka Joshua Jackson Deniro - I really like this guy. He's just so unique. Simon says he looks like someone's father. I'm sure he's going to have to dye his hair eventually. But he's just got that curious factor that makes people want to see more. I'm onboard!
• Megan Zeigart - Lost her voice - Not a good 2nd audition...but the judges sympathized and let her through. Sounds like she has potential.
• Brittenum Twins - This guys are really good, but what's the point of talking about them? They're already kicked off the show. And they talked trash on multi-platinum selling Carrie Underwood. They're not on my "Favorite People" list anymore.
• Garrett Johnson - The Cowboy - I just don't know if this guy has what it takes. He didn't have a good 2nd audition, but we're gonna follow him into the next hollywood round. They invested a lot of air-time on this guy....so we'll see.
• And a slew of others made it through: Gina, Brett somebody, Kevin Covais (little guy with glasses), Chris Daughtery (Crazy Rocker now sideburnless), Mandisa Hundley (We need a bigger stage girl), Katharine McPhee (I think this is the singing teacher's daughter)

And, of course, we got to see Crazy Dave Hoover again. And he whipped out some Meat Loaf "Bat Out of Hell." (I don't think that was on the 12 songs to choose from...They must've done a custom job). He earned some credit back from me just because he knew that Meatloaf song. But the whole concept of him being in Hollywood is still ridiculous! And that is why Simon got rid of him.

Next week I guess we move onto the Group Competitions. I did mention Olympics competition, but I think Idol is just on fire and will burn any competition it has. That's all I got. See you next week!