OOH! A computer crash not only prevented me from liveblogging the start of AI tonite, but because I use my Media Center PC as my "TiVo", I missed at least the first performer. Sorry about that.
I'll be back in a few minutes with more from Dallas.
8:20 PM [real time]: My MCPC keeps track of the "air time" of the programs it records, so I'll be able to associate my posts with "air time", even though it will take me a few minutes to catch up to "real time".
So, I guess you could say I'll be "tape-delay-blogging" for a bit.
8:05 PM: Some woman named Jessica, presumably the first woman named Jessica on tonite's show, is very excited to get the Golden Ticket To Hollywood. I didn't get to see/hear her, so, well, there it is.
8:06 PM: Next up is Paul Stafford. He is singing "Wait For You" by...wait for it...Elliott Yamin.
He is singing it very badly.
But he likes roller coasters! So he gets my vote!
But not the judges' votes.
b-bye
Paul: Simon didn't go down on me like I thought he would, but that's good, 'cuz he goes down on just about everybody.
Uh...
8:14 PM: A commercial for the United States Marine Corps.
IM ON YUR IDOLZ, MISING MY RECRUTING TARGETZ!!1!1
Last year, AI was charging $750K for a 30-second spot.
Your tax dollars at work.
Just sayin'.
8:16 PM: Next up is Beth Maddocks. She is singing "Beautiful Disaster" by...wait for it...Kelly Clarkson.
I'm not feelin' it. And neither are the judges.
Randy makes the painfully obvious "beautiful disaster" joke.
b-bye
8:18 PM: We're treated to a medley of "disaster auditions"...Esteban Deanda...
Simon: It was atrocious
Victoria Metz...
Randy: [shakes head and smiles]
Drucilla Wideman...
Randy: [looks away as if he feels the pain of "irregularity"]
8:18 PM: Next up is Alaina Whitaker. Alaina is singing "Stronger" by Faith Hill. Regular readers of this blog [all three imaginary regular readers -- Ed.] will recall that this is one of my favorite Faith tracks from her best album, Cry.
Wow, that was as good as the rendition performed last year by Baylie Brown [what is it with Texas-and-Oklahoma parents and the way they spell their daughters' names??? -- Ed.]. Baylie was more Faith-esque, while Alaina was more Carrie-Underwood-inspired.
Not surprisingly, the judges wave her through easily.
8:26 PM: Another round of "whaaa???"...Gregory & Mia Tobias...
Judges: [silent]
8:28 PM: Next up is 19-year-old Bruce Dickson. Bruce has never been "intimate" with a woman -- he's never even kissed a woman "on purpose". Bruce even made a "promise" with his father -- complete with a "key" -- that he would remain pure until his wedding day, so his first "kiss" with a woman would be "special", and the "key" would represent the "key" to his heart.
AWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!
Bruce sings "Ain't No Sunshine" by Bill Withers.
It's a nice performance, but not good enough for Hollywood.
8:30 PM: Next up is Pia "Zpia" Easley. Pia is another "backup singer". She sings "My Imagination" by Gladys Knight & The Pips.
She nails it.
And she's through to Hollywood.
8:38 PM: Next up is Brandon Green, who says he wants to be a "role model", "not like Britney Spears or Paris Hilton or some of these people". Brandon sings "Rich Girl" by Hall & Oates.
Simon calls it forgettable. Paula loves him, because she loves everyone. So, once again, Randy gets the tie-break vote, and Brandon is through to Hollywood.
8:43 PM: Next up is Kayla Hatfield, who is singing "Piece Of My Heart" by Janis Joplin [actually, Big Brother & The Holding Company, but who are "they"??? -- Ed.]. Kayla has a mousy speaking voice...
...and a HUGE singing voice...
...but it's not good enough...
...or is it???
It's one of the rare instances where Simon says "yes" and Paula says "no", and Randy breaks the tie in her favor.
Wow, were the Dallas rounds really that bad???
8:51 PM: Time for another "these people really suck" segment...Erick Mauldin...
Charles Markham...
Tristan Clements...who is channeling everything about Clay Aiken except his vocal abilities...
8:52 PM: Now comes the last audition of the first day. Kady Malloy specializes in doing celebrity "singing impressions". Her Britney is scary-on.
Finally, she sings "Unchained Melody" by the Righteous Brothers.
Simon calls it "the best so far" of all the contestants the judges have seen.
She is easily through to Hollywood.
8:55 PM: Ryan tells us that 12 people made it through on Dallas Day 1.
[times approximate from here on out -- Ed.]
9:01 PM: Next up is Douglas Davidson. Douglas idolizes Xtina Aguilera. Anyways, he sings "Livin' On A Prayer" by Billy Joel Bon Jovi.
It's terrible. But the judges give him another chance.
I have no idea what this, and I don't care.
He's terrible -- he's sweating, and talking to himself, he's drinking water.
Then he breaks into "Livin' On A Prayer" again.
Simon: no one in a million years is going to pay to hear you sing.
Please go away.
9:05 PM: Next up is Angela Reilly. Angela is accompanied by her husband Chad. These two are the "Heidi & Spencer" of AI.
Angela sings "Baby Love" by The Supremes. She's spirited but horrible.
The judges give her another chance. She sings "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" by Pat Benatar. She kills that too.
b-bye
9:09 PM: Next up is Kyle Ensley. Kyle is a politician who wants us to "vote for [him]" to be the next American Idol. Kyle sings "Somebody To Love" by Queen, and it's quite good.
Simon loves it, Paula loves him, and Randy calls it "glee club". Paula wants to know if he wants this more than being President. Simon wants to know if he'll turn into Clay Aiken. I guess that means Simon thinks Kyle is gay.
Kyle says things that are maybe close to what Simon and Paula want to her, but Dallas has clearly been hell to them, so he's through to Hollywood.
9:13 PM: Next up is Tammy Tuzinski. Tammy tells the judges she will be singing "The Power Of Love" by Celine Dion, to which their response is "big song". Maybe that scared her, or maybe she's stupid -- nah, she's just stupid -- because Tammy actually sings "If You Asked Me To".
She's terrible.
The judges stop her, and she asks if she can start again. The judges point out that she's singing a different song. They ask her which song she wants to sing, and she says "If You Asked Me To". It's a very awkward moment.
She starts over, and again, it's very painful.
Even Randy calls it "awful".
9:17 PM: Next up is Colton Swon. He sings "Boondocks" by Little Big Town. Wow, are they the go-to "country" artist this season?
He's alright, with a lot of heart and effort.
All of the judges are borderline, but, clearly Dallas has been rough for them, so they let him through.
9:21 PM: Funny or cruel? Ryan introduces a "Texas -- where men are men" segment that highlights several transvestites and effeminate men. None are identified by name.
9:23 PM: Next up is Drew Poppelreiter. Drew sings "Check Yes Or No" by George Strait, and he's practically a voice-ringer for George Strait.
Very right-down-the-middle-but-smooth country crooning.
It's not Simon's thing, but Randy digs it, and Paula's on the verge of agreeing with SIMON, until Simon calls her out, and Drew calls her "ma'am", and she changes her mind. So Drew's through.
[hour 2 is very heavy on the back stories. Dallas musta been REALLY BAD -- Ed.]
9:27 PM: Next up is Kyle Reinneck, who is a camp counselor for K-2 kids. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But he still has creepy eyes.
Kyle sings "Never Again" by...wait for it...KELLY CLARKSON...which means there's no way in hell Clive's letting him get anywhere NEAR the finals.
Kyle strikes me as being Clay-esque, except more intense, and creepier.
Also, he can't sing.
Simon: it was a very disturbing, demonic audition.
Randy and Paula both agree that his "face" was wrong, what with the "guyliner" and the whatnot.
b-bye
9:32 PM: Hey! Does anyone remember Kelly Clarkson??? Wasn't she the one who got kicked off AI a few years ago for posing nude years earlier for a website or something? Anyway, we're back in her hometown, and we're treated to a montage of people who collectively butcher "Since You've Been Gone".
Simon: okay, I now officially hate that song!
9:35 PM: Next up is Nina Shaw. Nina is from Kelly's home town of Burleson, TX, and her appearance leads Randy and Paula to reminisce about how they knew that Kelly "had it" way back when, and how mean-ole poopy-headed Simon "didn't get her".
Nina also is abso-freakin'-lutely gorgeous, in a Rihanna-esque way. Which is to say, in an "abso-freakin'-lutely gorgeous" way.
Nina is singing "Run To You" by Whitney Houston.
Why??? Why do Idol contestants insist on taking on Whitney???
Simon calls it "old-fashioned". Paula calls it "pageant-like". The judges give her "two seconds" (Randy) for one more chance.
Nina goes retro-jazzy. Randy gets the first Amy Winehouse name-drop of the season. He likes it. Simon hates it. But Paula likes it, so she's through.
9:42 PM: The last contestant in Dallas is Ronaldo "Birdman" Lapuz. He's dressed up Liberace-style in a cape and furry hat. He sings a song that appears to be an original composition, "We're Brothers Forever".
The performance is a classic auditions-round trainwreck.
The song's lyrics are simple and repetitive, and Randy and Paula -- clearly happy to be entertained after a brutal Dallas stopover -- join Ronaldo on-stage while Simon just laughs.
Guess what the verdict was?
b-bye, but Thnks Fr Th Mmrs.
The segment seems to go on forever.
Prior to 10:00 PM-ish: Ryan tells us that 24 people made it through to Hollywood from the Dallas auditions.
Tune in tomorrow for the San Diego auditions!
xoxo
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
This Week In Tonight In American Idol [16 January 2008]
Thursday, February 15, 2007
This Week In American Idol: Post-Hollywood Meta Edition
I suffered some unfortunate problem with my internets last week, and then some other business got in the way of posting about American Idol's last audition show from 7 February. Although I did take some notes about that show, it would seem a tad outdated to post them now, what with Hollywood Week already over and everything. 'Tis a shame really, because I actually found a whole bunch of people out there in the MySpace and such.
I took some notes about Hollywood Week, nite 1 [Tuesday 13 February], but my efforts at noting last nite's show were thwarted by Idol's let's-hurry-up-and-get-this-over-already attitude.
So instead of partial notes about old shows, I've decided to do a meta post wrapping up some of the recent developments in the AI-verse.
* Breaking: Maybe J.Hud really was a good choice for that whole "My Grammy Moment" thing after all:
In my recent Grammy wrap-up [scroll down], I commented that it seemed odd that the Grammy producers had AI3 seventh-place finisher [oh, yeah, and Oscar-nominee] Jennifer Hudson present the winner of Grammy's AI-style "My Grammy Moment" contest [wherein the winner got to perform onstage with Justin Timberlake], especially considering that there was an actual AI [and Grammy] winner in the house in the person of Carrie Underwood. [N.B.: I should also note the real possibility that CBS had leaned on the Grammy producers to select Jennifer Hudson for this duty as a way to pimp the upcoming CBS telecast of the Oscars.] I might not have been bugged so much by this if Jennifer Hudson's stumbling intro had not been anti-climacticized by her talk of "second chances" for the non-winners [Jennifer, why don't you brush that chip off your shoulder???].
[N.B.: I should also note here -- keep reading -- that this entire contest, except for the "final" voting done via AI-style text message, was conducted online at Yahoo! Music. Oh, yeah -- also, the winner of the contest, in addition to getting to sing with Justin Timberlake, was to win a Chevy vehicle. Unlike, say, on Idol, where the winner gets a Ford vehicle.]
Here's the video of J.Hud's poorly-executed introduction and winner Robyn Troup's excellent good performance.
But maybe J.Hud was the "right" choice for this after all. As her words were more prescient than the viewers realized.
Undisclosed to the voters viewers -- apparently for NDA reasons -- was the fact that contestant Robyn Troup had auditioned for American Idol this season and was one of only 172 contestants who made it to the Hollywood round. Robyn was shown performing on Tuesday nite's AI during the "group performances" stage in a group that included eventual semi-finalist Sundance Head. As far as I can tell, this was the first time Idol had identified Robyn Troup in the contest this season. She was cut in this stage, as the field was being winnowed to the top 136.
Here's Robyn's group performance from Tuesday:
The Hollywood round of AI had been filmed, and the cuts had been made, prior to Sunday's Grammy telecast. Or, in other words, at least Robyn already knew that she had been booted from Idol before she won the "My Grammy Moment" contest.
Sorry to get all Jack Shafer up in everyone's grill and shit, but I have a few questions here:
1) As far as I'm aware, Robyn could not be NDA'd from discussing anything that had already aired on American Idol -- though she had not personally been identified on any of the Idol episodes that had aired by Sunday, she was free to tell people she had made it to Hollywood [N.B.: after her victory, she would only confirm to MSNBC.com that she had auditioned for Idol]. There are lots of competing big media [and car] companies potentially involved in something not-completely-transparent here. What, if anything, did the Grammy producers and/or CBS and/or Yahoo! and/or GM/Chevy know about Robyn's involvement in Idol [on News Corp.-owned Fox]?
2) If Grammy et al. knew that Robyn had made it to Hollywood -- or had even auditioned for Idol -- why wasn't this disclosed to the viewers?
3) If Grammy et al. knew about this, did they also know Robyn had already been booted from AI?
4) How can we be confident Grammy et al. didn't engage in a little vote-tally manipulation hanky-panky -- and News Corp./Fox & Ford nose-tweaking -- to ensure the AI castoff would win this "contest"?
Do you think this is all a little too inside-baseball??? Am I being a little too tin-foil-hat about all this???
And yes, I can GUARAN-DAMN-TEE you that Fox saw this and went back and re-edited Tuesday's episode of AI to highlight Robyn Troup's performance. This could have been either to say, "hey, we had her first, and she wasn't good enough for us", or just to subtly raise these questions in the minds of people like me. AND I HAVE ABSOULTELY NO PROBLEM WITH THAT, as Robyn had already been booted -- that result did not change.
Regardless of all of this, "congratulations" to Robyn Troup for "winning" the "My Grammy Moment" "contest". Robyn also has "won" the right to say to all of the other Idol contestants -- except for the 6-or-so who will get contracts and release actual CDs -- "Bitches, I got my contract and my car, and I got to sing with Justin Timberlake. So suck it!!!"
* Breaking: Nigel Lythgoe <3's Baylie Brown too:
In the same recent media relations teleconference in which Idol Executive Producer Nigel Lythgoe all-but-spilled the beans about an upcoming "Michael Jackson event episode" of Idol, he made cryptic statements about a contestant that had been booted:
" During a recent media conference call, Nigel Lythgoe revealed that his favorite had been cut from the competition. Lythgoe said “There is one young lady in Hollywood who I would have said would have been in the top five this year that got cut purely and simply because she couldn’t remember her lyrics in a group. She just “Ma, Ma, Ma,” for the whole of the song. It broke my heart. But they have to have reasons to cut you, and that was the reason that this young lady will disappear off the show.”
" When asked to reveal who his favorite was, Lythgoe replied “I can’t name my favorite. It is a girl; I’ve got to be honest with you. Hopefully, she’ll come back next year. I certainly don’t want to compromise her with anybody else if she comes back in further years. ‘Wasn’t that Nigel’s favorite? If she gets through It’ll be she gets through because she’s Nigel’s favorite.’ So I wouldn’t do that.”
" When Baylie Brown was mentioned and Lythgoe was asked if his favorite contestant was from Texas, Lythgoe said “Hmm. I really hope that -– please trust me when I say that I don’t want to say anything regarding an individual, or name somebody, because it could affect them in the competition should they return.” "
[source]
These comments went unreported at the time, as most AI watchers viewed the Jackson story as the big takeaway from the presser. But after Baylie Brown was booted from Hollywood in the Tuesday 13 February episode, everyone returned to these comments and read them in a whole new light.
I also really liked Baylie Brown -- she was easily one of the "top five" [thanks, Nigel -- Ed.] in the audition rounds, and she absolutely nailed Faith Hill's "Stronger", a favorite of mine. As I wrote in my last episode update:
" Simon commented that Baylie was exactly what the record labels were looking for in new talent, by which I think he meant that she's a great singer, she's very attractive, and she has a nice personality [Simon also told Baylie she was "'commercial' with a capital 'c'" -- Ed.]. Baylie Brown will go far in this competition. Write that down. [*cough* Carrie Underwood *cough*] "
I didn't say she would go far this season [ahem].
In any event, there seems to have sprung up a "Bring Back Baylie" movement on the internets. Most people seem to want her back either because she's very talented or cute-as-a-baby-kitten-playing-with-rainbow-colored-yarn, or possibly both. Plus, there's that whole "she got screwed by being grouped up with the mean girls" thing. But there is a substantial minority of people who point out, well, she flubbed the lyrics.
Got an opinion???
* Breaking: Long-haired no-good-niks ain't got no chance on no American Idol no-how:
Sean Michel, the "Fidel Castro of American Idol 6", was sent home in the Tuesday episode of Idol. There was a rumor floating on the internets ahead of Tuesday that Sean had been cut because he refused to cut his hair and beard. Do you believe that?
* Odds & Sods -- AI Meta Edition:
* Here are the top 24.
* Idolator has already made its predictions on the final 12.
* What song will Idol use this year when it whacks contestants [last year, it was Daniel Powter's "Bad Day"]? Leave a note in the comments if you have a good idea.
* Just because...
This has nothing to do with Idol, but....Here's the super-awesome Cat Power [Chan Marshall] doing an excellent cover of Grammy Record Of The Year winner nominee "Crazy" in Berlin in late 2006. Enjoy!
Cat Power - Crazy [mp3, via YSI]
Cat Power - Crazy [mp3, via zShare]
