American Idol Commentary - Bring On Hollywood!

Tonight we sat through our last night of auditions, and even the show itself called the episode "Best of the Rest," meaning they knew they didn't have the most entertainment value, although of everyone that was left, they were the best of it. They were scraped off the cutting room floor, and organized into lessons in how to audition for American Idol. Forget about all that, though. Let's just focus on the talent they think didn't measure up to the others, both good and bad.

First the good. We were shown a few more really good female sings and one more male. I'm not sure exactly what they're trying to say. The girls calling themselves the Frisco Carhops tried to bring us three females at once, but only two of three made it. Heather was good, but not even in the ballpark. Ashley was a little better, and made it despite committing a major sin. In the future, you out there that are thinking of trying out, never insult Paula Abdul when you're waiting for her to vote you in.

When Paula complimented Ashley and told her she was so beautiful that she didn't need to wear so much makeup, Ashley thanked her for the "motherly advice." Is Paula old enough to be her mother? Yes. So am I. My son is only four years younger than Ashley. But geez, don't tell her that. I wouldn't have been able to look past the slam, but Paula did, and was the deciding vote on this girl going to Hollywood, as Simon said no. Her friend, Ebony, didn't insult Paula, but it wouldn't have mattered, as she had more talent than the other . Reminding me of a young Whitney Houston, in voice and look, I'm hoping to see her in the finals.

Another interesting talent is Tami, a penny cab driver. Not only did she sing Whipping Post, a song done to near perfection by Bo Bice in season four, she also was unique, fresh, and new, just like he was that year. American Idol took him and turned him into something else in their machine. I'm hoping that won't happen to Tami. It'll be interesting to see if they change up her look if she makes it, just like people are wondering about Sean Michel, the Fidel Castro lookalike. I say leave them be. That's what makes them more interesting.

Gina has been here before, auditioning two other times, and making it to Hollywood last year, only to be sent home. She sings a great rendition of Black Velvet (this song should definitely be on a list to be retired from the show). What makes her interesting is her undying love for Simon, yet it doesn't seem to be as creepy as that of Sparkles from last week. He is a nice-looking man; you have to give him that. What makes Gina especially interesting to me is that she's from nearby Naperville, Illinois. It would be nice to have our area be represented on a reality show other than Beauty and the Geek.

Another great fresh talent is young mother Lakisha. She wants to do this for her daughter. She sings a little Aretha for us, and is great. The judges liked her as well. After she makes it through with everyone across the board loving her, she sits and cries with her daughter. Just another one of those ways the show likes to pull at our heart strings, and call me weak, but it always works on me.

Paul compares himself to William Hung, and it's kind of sad, as it's the only Asian singer he can think of. Listening to Paul sing, I think if William Hung can be a millionaire, than Paul is certainly deserving. He's wasting his talent as a pool cleaner, or by the PC term he used, pool technician. Guest judge that week, Olivia Newton-John, pointed out his unique powerfully smoky voice. For some odd reason, despite the fact Simon likes him, he keeps giving Paula crap, not letting her give Paul a compliment. Up to his old tricks, I guess, as this is stuff we've seen from him in years' past.

Now for the not so good. At least we don't have any of the outrageousness, just severely disillusioned. Well, I take that back. Christa is in outrageous clothes, but she's disillusioned about her look and talent. Wearing black and white checkered pedal pushers, yes pedal pushers, a bustier in black, a red wrap, huge red heels, and black hat that looks like she stole it off a very old recent widow. After blowing her audition, Paula comments on her shoes, and that's what makes Christa cry.

Paula is treated to two delusional fans. The first, Edward, I think he knew he couldn't sing, but wanted to come meet Paula. He just keeps talking about how hot she is. He does get a hug and a kiss from her as Randy and Simon make cracks about them being the same size. Honestly, why is he put through the pre-auditions for this. There isn't much entertainment value to watching a future stalker. The other, Alexander, sings Air Supply, and says he doesn't have money to take singing lessons. That's not all it takes, though, buddy. You have to start with some talent somewhere. And that dancing he was doing that he said he adapted from Paula's videos, even she didn't recognize it.

WES prefers to be referred to in this acronym of his name, and his songwriting isn't much better. His original song fails miserably, and I'm pretty sure he would have still failed singing something that wasn't original. I'm interested to see how this songwriting contest for American Idol is going to work. Most assuredly we'll get to vote on them in some way or another. And that's a good thing. Those original songs that are turned into hits by the American Idol winners leave a lot to be desired.

We'll go to Hollywood with 172 people. One that will be missing, that I was looking forward to hearing again, is Akron, the cousin from last night's show. He received a call a few days before he was to leave for Hollywood saying he was uninvited, but they wouldn't tell him why. It's being assumed that it was because of a past misdemeanor offense of possession of marijuana, but Akron claims he filled them in on that before he auditioned, and that it was okay. That's too bad. I was so looking for ward to watching his cousin William cheer him on from the audience.

Now, bring on Hollywood!

For more on American Idol, see Reality Shack

For more American Idol information, see SirLinksalot: American Idol

American Idol Commentary - Out of the Mouths of Babes

Tonight a young girl challenged us to question just what was so noteworthy about someone going to Hollywood. "So?" she said. She has a point. Many people have gotten that Golden Ticket, and gone on to never have anything come from it. She's right, that little girl. When you look at the outcome of usually approximately 100 people, at the end of the series one of them winning a million dollar contract, and a few of the others getting a recording contract as well, what does one person making it to Hollywood really matter?

That golden ticket hung in the balance, though, for quite some time for Ashlyn Carr. She's got a good voice, and we could all tell that, but geez, she makes some weird facial expressions. Just like the Buggles sang, video killed the radio star. It's not okay to do things like that anymore, especially not when you're such a pretty girl to start out with. Half the time her mouth looked like Sammy Davis, Jr., and the other half, she looked like Clutch Cargo. But, like Jackson Browne sang, that girl could sing.

Ashlyn was given a rare chance to try again after Simon insisted she was good despite the facial expressions, and Paula and Randy had quickly dismissed her. She sang another tune, and it sounded possibly even better than the first time, but you could tell she wasn't even aware she was doing this facial thing. Simon and Randy put her through, and Paula told her too watch herself in the mirror and try to fix the expressions. Well, they were after Clay Aiken about his facial expressions, and how far did he get in the competition?

Kind of in the opposite direction is Sandie Chavez. She comes in talking of her years of experience, and especially proud of the day she sang for the mayor of Houston. But singing Blue Velvet, it's just weird. The tone isn't too bad, but she ends the words really oddly. She enunciates the fact that she's not enunciating, if that makes any sense. Plus, assumably for effect, she holds her hand cupped over her ear, so that we'll think this is something she's really serious about. The judges are equally unimpressed, and Paula goes on an on about seeing in her notes she's a teacher, and tells her to be grateful she has something like that in her life.

It's kind of odd, like telling someone be grateful to have a job, because they suck at everything else. And the funny thing is, she glossed over the fact, or didn't notice, that Sandie is a music teacher. Doesn't it make you wonder why no one has told her before she doesn't sound good? Even if her students are kids, kids are cruel, and I can easily see them saying, hey man, you suck. And I'm still trying to figure out why cupping her hand over her ear makes it sound better, and makes her think she doesn't need to end her words. Just another one to add to the delusional pile.

Also delusional is Brian Kyrish who thinks he sounds like Billy Idol, Ozzie and AC/DC, and isn't that good, despite the fact he's won a mock American Idol. Now, one thing he left out. How "mock" was this mock? Was it a joke? Was it just a local version of the show? Etc. Regardless, he was left with the impression he could sing, and he couldn't. Although for some odd reason, he wanted Ryan to sing Beauty and the Beast with him, this guy who thinks he's the next Billy Idol. That one could leave me with nightmares.

Then we have the girl, Baylie Brown, who lives on a farm and talks about how she's afraid of horses. Come ... on! That's the biggest load of crap. She's grown up around them. She wants to paint herself, literally, like some city girl with a certain air about her. But she's just a young girl that is looking to escape the small town life, and dreams of life in the big city ... with no animals. They talk about how she dresses so sophisticated and un-farm like, but I don't even see that. It looks normal. It's not like everyone on a farm dresses in overalls and carries a pitchfork. She sings nicely, though, and moves ahead. She needs a makeup lesson, though. Her eyes are way too dark for her natural look and blonde hair.

Haley Scarnato thinks she's all sophisticated, but Paula asks her if her dress is from the "Hoochie Mama" store. Well, that's a little rude. It seemed like they thought she wasn't going to be good, as Randy asked Haley when she walked in if she'd met Paula Abdul. Right, they most likely hang in the same circles or something. Or maybe he thinks Paula shops in the Hoochie Mama store too; I don't know. She surprises then with her talent, and is put through. It will be interesting to see if she takes the hint and wears entirely different things in Hollywood, or if because she's in Hollywood, she finds and even better place to buy the hoochie mama clothing.

Jasmine Holland isn't very good, and what's worse is her mom talked her into this. She's not good, and seems very shy, until she's told she isn't good, then bursts out of her shell slamming them for being negative, and especially slamming Randy for being a nobody in the music business. Her mom, though, thinks it all lies with Simon and wants him to go back to wherever he came from, as if Simon is the source of all immigration problems in the US. She also wants to send him back to France, believing that's where he came from. It's this family, though, speaking in French on the way out the door, telling the judges to kiss their ass. Yep, that will make them regret sending you home.

The most fun of the night was the two cousins, Akron Watson and William Green. William wasn't seriously auditioning, and seems to have just come along for the ride with Akron. Akron's family took him in when he was 14, so it's nice to see he wants to pay him back with support. When he doesn't make it, William tries to save face walking out the door, and tells the judges he's going to talk a little trash, despite the fact he understands, and tells them loudly to not make him come in there again. Akron just barely makes it through to Hollywood, and I like to think William did his part, lightening up the judges for him.

Jimmy McNeal is very likable, everyone agrees, and is even compared to Ruben Studdard, and it's never bad to be compared to a past Idol. He makes it through easily, and it's someone in his group that is the little girl to utter the words, "So?" Hopefully after Hollywood we can answer that question, but until then have to suffer through one more day of auditions, ones that are so uninspiring, they didn't even make the cut to be on the previous seven shows.. What I'm most interested to see, though, from the previews is the guy in the Alvin and the Chipmunks t-shirt. He just might be fun.

For more on American Idol, see Reality Shack

For more American Idol information, see SirLinksalot: American Idol

AI Commentary - From Season One to Season Six

I am not in a good mood today. To start off with, we're freezing here in the Midwest. I do not want to hear anything more for quite some time about global warming. With a temperature this morning of -11F, and that's without a windchill, as with the windchill, it's about -35F, I'm thinking it's a load of hooey. The horn on my minivan sounds ill, as it's so cold it can't even get up the muster to call attention to itself.

So I pop onto my blog, thinking I'll listen to some of my music here, but it's just not helping today. I need some new music on here. Well, not necessarily news, but something new to the blog. Because it's just not cuttin' it this morning. And if there's one thing I definitely don't want to hear again for a long, long time is the Super Bowl Shuffle. The hype is done, my team lost, and I'm over it. My beloved Bears looks like they were stuck up here in the cold weather. They got a good start, then died, just like my minivan sounded like it was going to do.

I think I need some American Idol music on here, especially if I'm trying to cheer myself up and life the ol' spirits. And still, after five full seasons, and starting the sixth, nothing says American Idol to me more than the original, Kelly Clarkson. I've liked many of the winners and runners-up to come out of the show, but to me, they just never compare to Kelly. She's the one that got me interested and excited about watching the show.

Missing the auditions of season one, because I thought the show would be not very interesting, I found myself changing my tune once I first heard Kelly sing. I only turned it on towards the end of the Hollywood round because I could not find anything else on that night, and my kids were quite insistent that it would be a good show. It was okay enough to turn it on again the next week, and that's when I heard Kelly sing Natural Woman and got chills. Week after week she was amazing, and when she sang Stuff Like That There, I thought, this girl has something special.

I would really love to see those old performances again, but I don't know if American Idol Rewind is ever going to get there. In 2006, yes, last year, the first season went into syndication, with the promises we would see it all again. But here we are after several months, and all we've seen are the auditions and Hollywood rounds. I want semi-finals and finals! I want to see it all over again. It's syndicated different, it seems, wherever you watch it, as some I know got to watch the first semi-final group this week, but Ii ended up seeing the final thirty to come out of Hollywood ... again.

So far this season I haven't seen anyone that has excited me like that, but that could certainly change once we see them in Hollywood or semi-finals when they really get a chance to shine, more than just a few bars of a song. Watching the trios sing in Hollywood from season one this week, I thought, that two people I'm really interested in seeing in that round are the two backup singers, Melinda and Brandon. Especially with Melinda, it's going to make or break her, to see if she has what it takes to step out in front of two other singers and be the lead, commanding everyone's attention.

We still have some people we haven't seen yet, too. Tuesday night we have auditions in San Antonio, Texas, and then on Wednesday we have "Rest of the Best," whatever that means. I'm assuming it means we get to see some of the people that made it through to Hollywood that we haven't seen yet, because they've been busy showing us the truly outrageous. And I do have to say that was one of the most refreshing things of the season one auditions, the lack of outrageous costumes, acts, and otherwise delusional people. Then again they stretch out the auditions so far now that four weeks of just good, really good, and no so good really wouldn't be as exciting as four weeks of outrageousness.

I'm ready for both of them to pick it up now. I'm ready for season six to get to Hollywood, so we can explore the talent of the people that made it through, and I'm exciting for season one to get to the finals, so I can remember all over again why I became a fan of the show in the first place. I'm also ready for some warmer weather, but it doesn't look like we'll get getting it any time soon.

For more on American Idol, see Reality Shack

For more American Idol information, see SirLinksalot: American Idol