American Idol March 13-14

Cafe Society
121

Not having read the thread, my reaction to the show: Brandon was the worst of the night, but neither he nor Sanjaya–nor Hayley–are gonna get anywhere near the top 3, so any of them can go home as far as I’m concerned. The guys pretty much all sucked again tonight. Blake’s was an interesting effort, to do a Diana Ross/Coldplay mashup, then drone the vocal like a trance track. Horrid, but interesting.

Melinda was great, of course. Sabrina sucked, I think. Just not good. Jordin was OK, but what a terrible song. Lakisha did not do a great job with that song, I think. She built up to the break, and was leading us to a closing climax–and then did the final chorus back in the quiet basement. If she had done that final chorus up an octave, it would’ve rocked; specially because she led me to expect it, and the dip back down was very anticlimactic.

They should give Melinda the next three months off, and let her return for the final night; she’s just tormenting the rest of them. Or, even better, just send everybody else home, and change the title officially to “The Melinda Doolittle Show.”

122

Open letter to Sinjaya…

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Dear Sir or Madam,

You already know it. I’ve seen it on your face. You’re way over your head here, and there’s some sort of dynamic afoot that is keeping you in there. Not just in there, but ahead of some very good singers.

You see these people going out week after week. You always seem amazed (as well you should be) that you escaped banishment. I don’t know whether it’s Vote For The Worst or just mindless little girls with cell phones. But either way, you know and I know that it just ain’t right.

You’re becoming the George Bush of Idol — getting your votes by some mysterious means. Look, you’re a good kid and yada-yada. But PLEASE. In the name of God and all that his holy, PLEASE… Just leave. Just take the mic from Ryan’s hand and say, “Ryan, there’s no way that I should be here instead of [insert tonight’s loser]. I’m dropping out.”

There’ll be some controversy. Some people will scream bloody murder. (A lot of people will cheer.) But by next week, you’ll have been mercifully forgotten. By next year, we’ll all be saying “that guy that dropped out last year”. Do it. You know you need to. Do it now.

123

Sanjaya’s problem is that he’s not got oomph. He actually has quite a good voice, but he is far too timid and MJ-y However, lots of people love MJ so he may stay a long time. Brandon, OTOH, didn’t hit one note right. He’s out. He’s not been great any night and he was simply awful last night.

Really, it’s the Melinda and Lakisha show. Jordin, Gina, and Stephanie add interest, but the only reason I turn it on is to hear Melinda and Lakisha.

I just can’t get over the judges; picks after screening all those thousands of people. This may bode poorly for future AI seasons since if this is the best they could come up with, I guess the American talent pool is pretty much exhausted.

124

No shit. That song totally blew chunks. But she did sound great.

125

Aside from the fact that the dress was butt-ugly, she almost flashed cooter when she did that awkward bent-knee-squat thing she does when she’s trying to belt out a note. And speaking of dresses, LaKisha’s was hideous, too.

LaKisha’s voice was great, but I’ve gotta say I wasn’t nuts about the arrangement of her song (which is one of my favorites). And I found myself wishing Melinda had done it, instead.

Loved Jordin tonight. She’s in my top four.

I was pleasantly surprised by Diana Ross. I thought she offered good advice and she was warm and observant. Good job, in my opinion (I generally hate the mentor segments).

126

I’ve been saying that every week since his audition, and yet he hangs on like a dingleberry on the ass of entertainment. I think there must be a lot of women out there who want to adopt him or something. He whispered half the song, fercrissakes. I’ve never seen a contestant with less self-awareness, nor a voting public in such need of a clubbing with a clue-by-four.

127

At least he was in tune. A shocking number of them were way off in many places and Brandon was way off in most.

128

Agreed. The cut wasn’t bad, but a woman that size should not wear that much white, especially not on TV. It just makes her look huge.

129

Um…?

130

Not only too much white, but I thought it was way too drapey for a woman her size. Cleaner lines would have trimmed her down a bit. She sure is pretty, though. I’d kill for flawless skin like that.

131

I liked her as well, and as I mentioned earlier, I loved her hair – it is fabulous. It should have its own ZIP code, it’s so big and huge and amazing. She looks great, too. But anyway, I appreciated the way some of the contestants called her “Miss Ross” in a “respect your elders” sort of way, as opposed to the “kowtow to the diva” kind of way many alleged so-called adults speak of her. And her advice was both positive and constructive, which is so much more useful than saying, for example, that someone’s singing is “ear delicious,” whatever the hell that means.

132

One thing I couldn’t figure out though…when she was with Gina, going on about the pronunciate thing (but if I could just reach through my TV screen and slap her one), she went off on a “blah, blah, garble, blah, blah” thing. Was she “for instancing” Gina or actually mocking her?

As for Diana’s hair last night, I didn’t hate it, but I’ve seen her with way more bettah hair (and it does qualify for its own zip code!). She looks like she dropped a few pounds since her DUI incident, too! Sucky outfit, though.

133

LaKisha: Better than Melinda tonight, and her dress actually fit instead of looking like a sausage casing.

Melinda: She’ll win.

Jordin: I liked her performance, mostly for song choice.

Gina: I like rock; I like women rockers; I hate Gina. Go figure. I think somewhere along the line I got the idea she’s not really a very nice person.

Phil: Phreak! Singing light bulb may leave now.

Haley: Singing…poor. I didn’t hate the dress as much as some, but I did think she needed more support in the chestal area.

Blake: He’s my favorite, though he’s not the best. Even so, that performance was a travesty.

Chris S.: I like you, Chris…and that was real bad. You know what I hate? When people sing a song and they keep the words but seem to think the melody is optional. There was a commercial on during the show last night that did the same thing, utilizing some patriotic song like America the Beautiful, I think.

Stephanie, Chris R., Brandon, Sanjaya: Fodder.

134

That’s hilarious! Someone needs to tell him that not all men can wear bald.

135

Thanks, Kalhoun! I got a good giggle out of “dingleberry on the ass of entertainment.” :slight_smile:

136

Brandon: Terrible. People must really hate Sundance, if Brandon got voted in and Sundance did not. That leg-twitch was not quite as ridiculous as Clay’s hip-twitching during “Grease”, but it was darned close.

Chris S.: I love his voice. I love the texture of it. Didn’t quite dig the arrangement, though. And Simon’s right: put the specs back on. I love his voice though.

Melinda: I want to take her, a Hershey bar, and two graham crackers and eat her like a S’more. She is definitely the most into this – I’m convinced that’s why she was crying, because she had to come out of her trance – and it pays off. Then again, I was this much in favor of Taylor, and look how that turned out. (Notice he was not shown or mentioned at all in that opening montage?)

Gina: I like her voice too.

Sanjaya: Put it this way. When they were giving the numbers at the end of the show, I saw this skinny girl in jeans and said, “Oh, please go.” Then realized it was Gina, not Sanjaya. Simon was giving a farewell speech. They’re not always on-target, but I’ve never known them to be wrong in the first week of finals. He always calls that one. (And please let Sanjaya leave this week or next. Don’t let him make the tour.)

Haley: I think I could get used to her. She seems to have come into her own.

Blake: Best technical voice, but I can’t get into him. Dunno why; just neutral.

Chris R.: First to go out into the audience. He seems like a shrewd fella. He may get as far as top 6.

Stephanie, Lakisha, Phil: Not much impression. Although I do remember Phil being loud.

Jordin: Good as always, but nothing that made me sit up and take notice, as with some of the others.

137

I haven’t gotten a chance to see the women very much since auditions (Wed night bowling league), so, with a fresh perspective on them, I’ll say, it was ridiculous how good Lakisha sounded to me. Wow.

It was funny when Ross said to her, “what’s your mama call you?”

Trunk: “whaaa?”

Lakisha: “Kiki, and it’s a black thing, Trunk, you wouldn’t understand”.

Every boy should be voted off before a single girl is voted off. I keep waiting for Sanjaya to to do some MJ type song, and show a little soul/pop thing but he just keeps sucking week after week.

I think that India must be getting up early and voting for him.

I haven’t seen Haley much, but she didn’t sound that bad to me last night. And, I didn’t realize she forgot lyrics.

138

Chris murdered Endless Love. His vocals were very good, but the arrangement had me like this… :confused: and a little of this… :dubious:

Sanjaya didn’t sound bad. The song was wrong for him, he’s not ready for this competition and his voice has no power. But he didn’t sing badly. I’m not sure why the judges went for the jugular last night. I felt so bad for him. Yes, he needs to go home, but don’t humiliate him like that. Even HE knows he shouldn’t be there. Go a LITTLE easy on him. It’s almost like they want voting drama, so they are giving him the pity vote by skewering him like that.

Hey! How dare you call me a nerd-o! It’s not nerdy to know the year every song from the 80s was on the charts…is it?

139

His stage presence is just so pathetic. He always looks like someone who was goofin’ for his family after dad got a new video camera for Christmas.

140

It was said/alluded to upthread, but it bears repeating: it’s the Melinda and Lakisha show, and the rest are (at best) halftime entertainment.

I understand that it’s a singing competition, but I have to say that Haley has perfect cleavage. In 30 years those puppies will be down at her knees, but for now girl, if by some miracle you make it back after last night, wear outfits that show the cleavage. It’s your best feature.

Light-bulb head- I can’t stand you, you don’t belong there. You Forrest Gumped your way onto the show and into the top 12, now it’s time to go.

Stephanie- pretty, nice voice. Stephanie who?

Sanjaya- need we go through this again?