Dio, mjsbigblog.com had two of Crystal’s original songs posted over the weekend. They were a bit better than Jewel. I particularly liked “Holy Toledo.”
Geez, you got a lot of hate in you, don’t ya? Dude, I’m just sad for you and your hate-fueled imagination.
Crystal and Siob were the best of the night, with Crystal far and away the better of the two. Everyone else was either stupefied or stupefying.
Goodbye only black girl in the comp this year. Man, I miss those big Jennifer Hudson/NoNeck/Mandisa voices AI usually has up to week 3.
As an aside, does anyone know who I’m talking about when I say No Neck? She was a background singer with self-confidence problems, a big voice and absolutely no neck whatsoever. If anyone remembers here name. . …
Melinda Doolittle?
Yes! Thank you. I wanna look up what she’s been up to.
Precisely, and singing Tracy Chapman was (to steal Simon’s word) indulgent.
Does anyone else get the feeling that Dio was lured into a dark alley by a girl with a lip ring? Where here neck-tatted boyfriend lay in waiting?
HA! That gave me the best laugh I’ve had all day.
I’m happy as a pig in shit. No reason to feel sad for me. My life is perfect.
I’ve got nothing against Neck Tat.
Yeah, I know. I was remembering another contestant who you didn’t like because of her “filthy tattoos”, which lead me to believe you don’t like tattoos.
And I don’t care what anyone says, that girl (last year? Year before that?) had a tat of herself on her upper arm. And I think her husband may have had a tattoo of her whole body tattoo’ed all over his body. That shit was funny.
Yeah, everyone is right. Idol used to be a lot more fun.
Crystal and Lilly are still the class of the field. Crystal sang her song better than Lilly, but Lilly gets more difficulty and style points. It’s a toss-up between them.
And Diogenes, I don’t think Crystal is another proto-Jewel at all. If you think so, you’re misreading her horribly. I think she’s far more cynical than that. I don’t see her writing books of poetry with little hearts dotting the i’s, if you know what I mean. She’s more likely to write a song about stabbing the guy who did her wrong.
Next is Siobhan, for vocal talent, interestingness and quirkitude. She’ll be around for a while. She’ll be weird forever.
Didi wasn’t bad. I’d give her the next spot on the ‘least likely to put me into a coma - but just barely’ list.
Katelyn, you managed to tone down Carole King. Next week, maybe you can try to be sleepier than James Taylor on a heroin mellow. However, I have to give you points for playing the Wurlitzer 200. Quick story: I was with my wife at a garage sale one day, and there was an old electric piano with about foot of dust on it and a sign that said, “Old electric piano. Works well except for one broken key. $5.” It was a Wurlitzer 200, which is the piano Katelyn was playing. They haven’t been made since the 60’s, and they’re still in demand for their unique sound, so I knew it was valuable and I just hoped I could restore it. I bought it, took it home, and cleaned it up. With the dust off, it looked brand new.
The broken key turned out to be a missing reed, so I ordered one from a Wurlitzer dealer for $12, installed it, filed it down to tune it properly, and put the piano on eBay. I got $800 for it. Score! So Katelyn gets bonus points for triggering Sam Stone happy memories, even though she sang the song like a ‘V’ trying to pass itself off as human.
Lacey. That was the first time I’ve even remotely enjoyed anything she sang. So she gets some surprise points for that. That’s as far as I’ll go.
Paige and Katie: You go home now. You have become tiresome and boring. Or rather, more tiresome and boring than the rest.
Tomorrow: The boys show up to prove that, no matter how boring the girls are, they’re capable of less. I was thinking of scheduling a dental extraction during the show to save some money on novocaine.
Dio, I don’t know who you’re watching because Crystal is, IMO, a very large step above all the other contestants this year. She has a fantastic voice, she knows exactly what her style is, and does it extremely well. She’s one of the VERY few AI contestants I’ve ever seen where I want to buy her album.
Siobhan has potential (loved the opening to her song, was less impressed the further she got into it, as her voice became somewhat thinner in tonal complexity, though still in tune and with good power).
Lacey sounds exactly like Jewel’s ‘soft voice’ to me. It’s nice and everything, I just wouldn’t want to listen to it that often.
I like Didi’s voice, but she’s not going to win.
The rest bore the snot out of me.
I just read on another board, someone said that the problem with Lilly is that she’s has taken four very different songs and made them sound exactly the same.
While I’ve been rooting for Lilly I realize this is what bothers me about her. She’s got a voice with character and seems a cool gal, but listening to her “Lilly-ize” a new song every week is going to get boring real fast.
After that snoozefest, whoever survives had better find a way to make next week interesting, and hope that the guys continue their parade of suck, if they want to have any viewers left to vote for them in May.
Katie Stevens - “Breakaway” - Oh, bad. So bad. Pitchy doesn’t cover it - mopey, pitchy, just plain painful. I think she hit about 50% of the notes she was aiming for.
Ryan - “What notes were trying to work with?” Oh, he was talking about written notes - it made me snort when he asked that. 
Siobhan Magnus - “House of the Rising Sun” - Full props to her for not screwing around with the pronouns. Wow. I would have never expected that song on AI, and she knocked it out of the park. I loved it. “Captivating” was the right word. She’s unique and different alright - 19 should beat that out of her soon enough if she wins. 
(Siobhan, please ignore Simon this week - he’s completely talking out of his ass. Oh noes, she sang “House of the Rising Sun” dark - you massive wanker.)
Lacey Brown - “The Story” - well, she did an okay job with that. Pitchy in spots - no hair on my arms standing up.
Katelyn Epperly - “I Felt The Earth Move” - Bo-ring. Stupid song choice, and it did nothing for her. Very karaoke. Bleah. Less corny? Seriously? I don’t think she could have been more corny if she’d tried.
Didi Benami - “Rihannon” - She went to the same place as Siobhan, and I loved her performance, too. It was a little sleepier than it should have been, I think. Another Lilly Allen soundalike (her and Lacey).
Paige Miles - “Smile” - Ouch. Well, she almost hit the notes she was aiming for. That was a bit of a hot mess - bad, bad song choice for her. The casio rinky-dink percussion beats didn’t help much. 2/10. I have to agree with the judges - bad choice. Yeah, you love the song - too bad. Choose one that makes people want to vote for you, not one that makes people want you to just stop singing!
Crystal Bowersox - “Give Me One Reason” - Okay, much as I don’t like her personality, that rocked. Are they even allowed to do bluesy riffs on this show? 
Lilly Scott - “I Fall To Pieces” - I think the song title says it all. Bad, bad song choice. Another painful performance. I don’t know what the judges were hearing, but that was BAD.
I’ll toss in two dollars. Once for Neil Patrick Harris to replace Kara, and another for the Red Green character to replace Ellen. To paraphrase: “If you are going to be useless, you may as well at least be entertaining.”
That’s 2 weeks in a row, that Crystal sang one of my favorite songs and nailed it.
I was distracted by Lilly’s earrings. Are crocheted kitchen scrubbies the new trend in jewelry? I think I have that same yarn in my stash.
No! He’s being “street-smart”!
I liked Siobhan the most, although I don’t think she’s making the best song choices. They’ll let her get away with it a while longer.
I liked Didi the least, for her Shatner-ization of Rhiannon.
I don’t like Crystal and I don’t like Tracy Chapman either, but it’s plain Crystal’s damn good.
Everyone else…well, let’s not bother hashing all that out. High point of the night to me was Ellen’s, “Is that a guitar?”
Regarding Melinda Doolittle…
Not doing too well, career-wise.
When we watch Idol here we get local ads multiple times each night advertising her appearing as the narrator in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at a Christian theatre in Pigeon Forge, TN.
To give an idea of how insignificant this is professionally, Miracle Theatre normally just does musicals about fighting angels and whatever and never has anyone actual real name stars. It’s a tourist trap area best known for having Dollywood.
I’m now an official Siobhan fan, mainly because her “geeky-but-cute” thing seems to be genuine – it doesn’t seem like a fake persona she’s using just to distinguish herself. I really don’t think she realizes how goofy she is, and that’s endearing. Also she has a cool name. And oh yeah, she can sing. Forgot about that.
Second favorite is Crystal – when I heard she was doing Tracy Chapman, I immediately knew which song it would be and that she would have no problem getting into the Top 12. But ugh, those teeth of hers are still an eyesore (though I think she had some work on them since the original auditions). That alone might be enough to keep her from winning the whole thing, because, ugh.
Lilly’s got a good voice (and horrific earrings), but I wish she wouldn’t have done the Patsy Cline song. It just sounded weird. Of course, I generally think singers should avoid Patsy Cline, just because her voice was so unique that any cover is going to suffer in comparison.
My guesses for the lowest vote-getters: Katie, Katelyn, and Paige. Two of those three will be gone tomorrow, or at least they should be.