I guess we’re agnostics then.
I volunteer to do the Kris votes next week.
I had my doubts about “rock week”. Most folks on AI sound a little like Pat Boone trying to rock. . .just stilted. The performances this week were pretty much like that, except for Adam, who “showtuned” a Zep song. He brought excellent vocal chops, but not so much rock. It was still the best of the night, followed by Allison.
Allison, on performance night, was Ai’ght. Allison, on sing-off night, kicked much, much ass. Emotion, ladies and gentlemen, is what made it great. The cliche is real.
Hat’s off to Allison - the remaining finals will be less entertaining without her - unless Gokey goes for another Aerosmith scream. Speaking of that, I wonder if we could start hearing that everywhere like the “Wilhelm scream”.
I think I actually threw up in my mouth a little when I heard that Gokey was staying.
Can anyone wildly speculate about who would vote for Gokey (other than the VFTW type)? I refuse to believe that the voting audience is really stupid enough to be swayed by the judges’ scripted critiques (what can I say, I see the glass as half full).
I think there’s a demographic that actually likes Danny.
I wish her well. <sob> She definitely has a successful career ahead of her.
Gokey - BLECH! I can’t believe that the Christian demographic is THAT tone-deaf.
Why would we have No Doubt and Pauler on ROCK NIGHT of all times? Gwen doing pushups was quite bizarre. They weren’t very well done, either, as far as I could tell. Not that I can even do one mane’s pushup! 
They should have had Paula on a different genre night. Or not at all. Bad back, my ass…
I got zero points in the pool. Wah! 
Taylor Hicks - Fun + Jesus = Gokey
Somebody please save me from the hell that is Danny Gokey Homecoming Week in Milwaukee.
Actually, I thought the Gokey was much like this scream on this youtube link.
Reportedly, he gets a lot of support from Christians – especially since his primary competitor is openly gay.
but Kris is a Christian worship leader too. Can’t fundies vote for a nice guy who can sing decently???
I think some of you are overthinking the appeal of the contestants (perhaps from hanging around Great Debates too much). Religion and sexual preference have very little to do with it. It’s that AI is about as cutting edge as the Lawrence Welk Show.
Gokey & Kris are nice, middle-of-the-road clean-cut boys, who appeal to the broad demographic of middle-America and teenage girls. And Gokey gets some sympathy, too – although his late wife hasn’t been mentioned since he auditioned.
Adam is waaay too Out There for America’s taste. It’s not that he’s flaming gay; no more so than Clay Aiken. It’s all the leather and the eye liner.
That’s why Gokey is gonna win. Get used to it.
While Adam is gay, I don’t think that he comes across as amoral or depraved in a way that gets the dander up of Christian fundies, who prolly don’t watch the show. No, it’s more likely that some people genuinely like Gokey’s non-pop-star persona; they think he’s “adorkable” and feel compassion for his back story and think he has clumsy charm. Without the “worship leader” bit, he migh have tapped the same sort of fan as Elliot did a few years ago, the mensch vote. I don’t expect Gokey to win, though. He’s got too many people voting against him, especially now.
It’s actually hard to say what he’s done that makes him so unlikable to those who don’t like him – despite what people say, he rarely talks about his faith or his late wife. Mind you, I dislike him myself, I’m just saying I can’t quite explain why. (Well, yes, he picks crappy songs and/or does a crappy job with them, but that alone shouldn’t make anyone dislike him as a person.)
I have a buddy that works at the Fox station in Milwaukee where Gokey is supposed to stop by tomorrow morning as part of “Danny Gokey Day”.
I’ve asked him to punch him the face for me, so fingers crossed.
I know that a lot of the way people react to reality show personalities is subjctive, knee jerk, often irrational, and probably usually exaggerated, but the thing about Gokey that rubs me the wrong way (aside from just recognizing the smarmy, worship leader “type”…a vibe that Kris does NOT give off, by the way, even if he is a worship leader too), is that (in my subjective opinion), he always comes off as affected and phoney, and VERY self-impressed. Look at the clueless way he was celebrating and reveling in his shitty Aerosmith performance, for instance – running to the band, thumping his chest, pumping his fist like he was Tiger Woods draining a 50 putt for eagle. Then he refused to believe the judges when they told him his screeching sucked. He said he would have to watch it himself to see for sure, and then said “I doubt it, though.” He just assumes that everything he does is awesome. He’s not self-aware enough to know when he sucks. I don’t know this for sure, but I would bet that Adam, by contrast, is probably hyper self-critical in evaluating his own performances. The meticulous amount of prep he puts into every one of them (even the duet with Allsion showed the difference between his prep habits and the rest of them) show the halmarks of a perfectionist, and perfectionists are never satisfied with themselves. I think Adam takes every bit of criticism and advice to heart. I think that Danny just assumes they’re wrong.
I think Danny is phony in other ways too. Even his crying when he talked about his ife in the first episode seemed “performed” to me. There was another time in the Hollywood rounds when some buddy of his didn’t get through (I no longer remember who it was), and Gokey did this big, overacted, emotional shock routine for the cameras. and he’s ALWAYS aware of the cameras. Adam is too, obviously, but I never see Adam trying to craft some kind of fake, off-stage “personality” the way Gokey does. I don’t think Adam is too worried about howhe looks when he’s not on stage. My impression of him is that his offstage personality is essentially that of a workaholic. I think once he gets done with a performance, all he wants to do is start prepping for the next one.
This is a fantastic read of the two personalities, and I agree completely. You can’t get any more authentic than Adam, and it’s clear he works his ass off, every time.
Danny, OTOH - he seems to have been the kind of guy who smoothes by on his charm, but while it works in a charismastic church, it doesn’t fly on the stage, and he comes off as a phoney. He seems shocked that not everyone loves him, and he’s not putting in the effort to be good.
I think that’s probably an accurate assessment of both, and I like the “draining a 50-foot putt for eagle” simile.
Awww, I liked Allison.
I’m not a huge Danny fan, but the Danny hatred is a a little over the top. He actually can sing. Not Aerosmith, apparently, but he’s got a bluesy quality to his voice that is appealing. Much more appealing that Taylor Hicks, FWIW.
And, no I didn’t vote for him. In fact, I haven’t picked up the phone once this entire season.
Brilliantly said, Dio.
From Danny’s “confessional” on the topic of Judges via the iPhone app:
(Except when he criticizes you, apparently.)
From Adam, same topic: