Yeah, I know; I know. But my feelings towards JS aren’t romantic; they’re motherly or sisterly.
I think this ties in to the fact that it’s becoming more and more obvious that I will never be able to have children. I haven’t been to a doctor to confirm this, because I’ve heard too many stories about people being told “It’ll never happen”, getting all depressed, and then zing!
Anyway, I channel my maternal instincts towards kids IRL or in the media. There’s no need to call the authorities. Right now, I’m being a mother hen to the girls on the JS fan forums. I’m giving them constructive advice (this is a real heartbreak for them!) and I think I’m helping. I see nothing wrong with that!
I was thinking the same thing. Stevens really can’t sing for shit; his entire schtick has been sounding different, but as a singer he’s brutal, does nothing well. But the nature of competition is that people tend to adopt the same strategies. Everyone else on AI sounds the same. He may suck, but it’s a different kind of sucking, and it appealed to people.
Everyone thought “next week, he’ll be good.” Well, next week came several times, and he just can’t sing. He’s not going to be any better in the studio, and he’s probably not going to be any better when he gets older, unless he gets proper training and REALLY works on it. Time to accept it.
Paula was talking about John on Entertainment Tonight and it was mentioned that he was talking to the rest of the group abouth the death threats he recieved (and yes, Paula CONFIRMED that he recieved death threats, but Paula thought it was in jest… yeah right). Probably what happened is that the rest of the group had a special affection for him because of all he was going through.
According to his interview on Ryan’s show, that’s because he has been teased and picked on his whole short life. He was a pudgy, red-headed kid with glasses and unfortunately none of the perfect little children with oodles of friends make friends with kids like him. There is absolutely nothing bizarre about playing Yahtzee with his grandparents on Saturday night. Odds are that they were not sneaking booze, talking girls into screwing, vandalizing neighborhood property, or buying drugs. I think it’s a good thing. And I love his singing.
In addition, I would say that the proof is in the pudding. He is a gracious young man with a good head on his shoulders and a steady moral compass. Whatever his family did, it was right.
Except for not getting him a good singing coach. :smack:
Meh, the kid sucked like a Hoover. I can’t believe so many people are entranced by him. It’s as if they missed the Clay Aiken phenomenon and are trying to recreate the magic with yet another red-headed geek. Problem is, Clay had actual talent and stage presence in addition to being a nice, funny guy, and kept improving throughout the competition. This John kid seems to have had a decent audition, allegedly*, but then went down a vortex of suck and dwelt there forever.
I say allegedly because I just do not hear anything whatsoever special in his voice and thus don’t know where this stellar audition could have come from. Do I sound harsh? I probably am. Guys, he made me miss Josh Gracin. NO ONE gets forgiven for THAT!
Which reminds me … FWIW, I seriously doubt the death threat story. I think 19 Entertainment concocted the whole thing to generate some publicity in a competition that lacks any major standouts. I mean seriously … no one deserved an envelope filled with suspicious powder more than Carmen or Josh, but they escaped scot-free!
Not all kids that have a very healthy social life outside of their immediate family are degenerates, you know. Developing a child’s social skills is as important as teaching them how to read, it’s the skills they learn at school *as well as at home * that take them through life. If John couldn’t hack it at school it’s no wonder why he was teased, his family molly-coddled him some more and now he is a one-dimensional character, and he may never develop a fully rounded personality. Bet you he’s aces at Yahtzee though!
If a kid is bullied at school, it doesn’t mean he/she lacks social skills… it means the bullies lack basic respect skills. I hope you don’t work with kids, since you’re disposed to blame the victim, do half-assed psycho-analysis, continue the shaming and name-calling, and tell the kid they’ve got no chance of becoming a full person.
Not true. I just don’t subscribe to the idea of blaming everyone else for someones or one’s own shortcomings. That’s the easy way out, the more courageous thing to do is take responsiblity for your actions and stop being a victim. I’ve made mistakes in my life and could easily share the blame around but I choose not to. And BTW, my own children are the happiest, most confident, friendly and well adjusted children you could ever wish to have.
What “shortcomings” of Master Stevens are actually shortcomings rather than your own (poorly supported) value judgments and assumptions? He likes his grandparents, so there must be something wrong with him, and it’s his parents fault! That’s YOUR opinion. I haven’t heard anyone in his family state that there is a problem, much less blame it on anyone… unless you mean the Stevens mom complaining about the deejay threatening to “take John out,” which is obviously HIS fault. After all, he entered a singing competition and made it far into the final round. I understand that when people resent you for being successful, it often is because you were raised by doting parents. :roll:
Yes, I do know. Did you know that fat kids with red hair and glasses are picked on by other kids and don’t form relationships easily? I cannot imagine a better adjusted, kinder, and more mature 16-year-old young man than John Stevens. All this snarling about how he’s close to his family, as though it were a bad thing, is just… bizarre.
I’ll entertain any word that better describes the utterly dysfunctional weirdness of being put-off by his beautiful and healthy relationship with his family.
He isn’t passive, much less pathologically so. Taking criticism like a man isn’t passive; it’s mature. In his interviews, he is in fact assertive and eloquent, but polite. Even Simon understands this boy’s moral character and strength of will. And I don’t even know what to make of the notion that there might be something wrong with a boy singing a love song to his grandmother.
Obviously you really like John Stevens, that’s great. But he’s a bland kid. I think a lot of people are close with their family and still have friends and a life. That’s too bad if he got picked on, but I don’t know anyone who wasn’t picked on at least a bit. You can’t use that as his excuse forever.
Some people may find him interesting, but most of us do not. He’s vanilla and has a bizarre attachment to his grandparents. That ain’t normal for a kid his age.
Has America’s youth so overwhelmingly lost respect for its elders that it is now seen as dysfunctional for a kid to say gasp in public gasp again that he loves his Grammy?
Ha. I used John Stevens and Grammy in the same sentence and the world didn’t screech to a halt.
I eagerly await the evidence that JS has no friends and no life. His entire school would have parties and root for him. Seems like his peers respect him. He just ended a stint on national television, has several websites where teenaged girls rave about him, was contacted by the family of his idol with well wishes, is being interviewed on major news shows, and may get a record deal at age 16.
Gee, I wonder what kind of life you all had at age 16 that makes you feel sorry for a kid with all that going for him.
As for vanilla, it’s a delicious flavoring from a rare exotic plant that blooms only once a year and is harvested by hand. It’s special stuff, which is why it’s the favorite flavor in the world.
Last night some progran showed clips of where he goes to High School, and it looked like he has friends and they’re very supportive of his participation on AI.
Saying you’re singing a song to your grandmother on national television is really a mark of an honest and decent guy. He didn’t pretend he was singing it to a girl at school, or to “all of his fans.”
Take the cornball song “You light Up My Life” – please. :Rim shot:
That song was played at every wedding I went to in the late 70s, and it was the bride and grooms song. A love song to each other. Well that’s nice, but Debbie Boone was singing it to God.
I don’t think we should make too much out of who he choose to sing the song to.
Well I looked up the lyrics to the song this afternoon and I don’t see the big deal about his dedicating it to his grandmother. It’s a love song, but it’s not about the physical love between lovers.