Theme Update

The theme for this week is Billy Joel.  I can only imagine what some of them will do with this one! 

Pitcher Migraine = Lauren Alaina's Mama

These two parents have some weird draw that makes the cameraperson forget the CHILD is actually performing and spend entirely too much time zooming in on the adult.  

I know I talked bad about Shannon from the beginning, and her "sing for your life" performance showed that she really did deserve to go, but she seems like a nice girl.  $100 says she gets a modeling or TV gig out of this.

Daughtry was there.  Demi Lovato was there.  

On another note - You can't really call yourself a blogger until somebody has called you insecure and told you to grow up.  

Auntee and I LOVE to read your comments!  If you disagree with us, we (unlike those *other* Idol boards - where Auntee will no longer be welcome in a few short weeks) do respect others' opinions.  

So comment away!  

(It's only 80% likely that we'll make fun of your comments at a later date.)

 

I Told You So

Well, KK told us so.  She nailed the bottom three.  I'm glad she was wrong about Erika, but I must say, I was a little sad to see Migraine go.  I know I didn't like her from the get go but she has worn me down with her sweet ways and I figured out tonight, as she was singing her swan song, that the person in the Migraine family I really don't like is her mother...who is always singing along with Shannon whenever she sings.   By rights, it should have been HeJun and Hair sitting on the bottom 3 stools with her and one of them should have gone home. 

The judges actually might have saved Elise, which would have brought on all sorts of hatred on the boards as she has been targeted by the *attitude police* for not being overjoyed when she is placed in the bottom three and not hugging the winner when she is named a potential loser.

Shannon was just in over her head.  Pushy parents just couldn't wait another year or two for her to mature.  

Readers will not be surprised that I am persona non grata to some of the posters on the AI forum boards.  Seems tee70 called Colton's performance a bs, fake, self-indulgent pile of doo doo.  This very astute critique engendered an indignant response about my level of maturity (I guess I should have said feces or excrement instead) and a lecture from another poster on respecting other's opinions.  I'm wondering why he didn't respect MY opinion.  I would have responded but its a little early in the season for me to be banned...I'm sure it will happen sooner or later (it never fails).

Have no idea what the theme is next week, but they better get some life in this show.  For the most part, the last 2 weeks have been snooze-fests with the occasional rude awakening.

Idol gossip:  It looks like HeJun and Phillip(s) are buddies.  

  

 

And Idol has sucked me right back in ...

Best to Worst:

Jermaine's speaking voice.  It's higher than mine!  And he has a lisp!  Funniest criminal ever.  Ba Bye.

Joshua!!  He was amazing from the minute he sucked the brain out of the crawfish, to calling his Mama "maam", to wanting to sing in church but being too misbehaved, to Oh. My. God. When a Man Loves a Woman just turned me into a big pile of mush.  Were those tears in his eyes?!?  There were in my eyes, for sure.  I'm with JLo, "I can't stop saying Wow".

Hollie - I don't know why I doubted a girl that might weigh all of 80 lbs might not belt Celine's Power of Love, and we're all wondering where in the hell she keeps that gumption, but she's ridiculous.  And I'll just say it, she's better than Jessica.  Plus, how adorable was it when her Dad broke down and then blamed the sun?

Elise - Even Will.I.Am wanted a smile out of her.  Look, Elise, I love your voice.  I think you're unique and awesome.  I love your song choice of Lets Stay Together, and you were great.  The attitude thing might not stand in the way of an actual career in music, but when you're pining for the votes of American tweens, you need to drop it.  

Skylar Laine - Was a headbanging baby?  Awesome!  This wasn't my favorite performance of hers, but I love that she stuck to her country guns and opted for Bonnie Raitt instead of Coolio (Coolio, Will.I.Am? Really?) She's adorable, her parents are adorable.  Now, Skylar, get back in my pocket where you belong.

Here's a Tie between Heejun and Erika -

I give Erika the edge because she, as a baby, reminds me (as Auntee hinted) of another LOUD toddler I know and love - Heaven is a beautiful song.  Is it weird that I totally understood and agreed with everything Stephen Tyler said?  She put in too much.  Too many runs, too much vibrato, too many extra notes.  She didn't butcher it, by any means, but I think she's in trouble this week.  

Heejun's mother is awesome - "I think he gets his humor from me".  They seem like the kind of family that I'd like to hang out with, because they're just sort of silly and fun.  Heejun's Right Here Waiting fell right into his pattern of singing corny 80's ballads.  (Note: I find it interesting that he mentioned how his accent is a struggle, and I wonder if it's gotten more and more noticeable to others, like it has for me?)

Jessica Sanchez - Was advised by her stage parents to do "up beat" as to not fall into the "ballad trap" (which leads to untimely demises ala Pia)  She claims the song list was tiny (I doubt her parents even let her see the list), and the judges poo-pooed that later in the show by noting there's probably 20,000 songs/year to choose from. 

Migraine - She didn't slaughter One Sweet Day, but I owned that casette tape, played it on repeat, wanted to BE Mariah, and wanted to MARRY Boys II Men, and she didn't do it justice either.  Plus, how many times do we have to be reminded that her Dad was a pitcher?  Yawn. 

Phillip Phillips - Was apparently named that on purpose.  I thought maybe he'd been adopted or something.  Mean.  I guess his stones explain why it looks like he's in pain when he's singing?  Hard to Handle, was in deed.

Colton Dixson - Everybody else is all over this kid's nuts (even Daughtry, apparently.  shame on you, Daughtry.)  He's down this low for 2 reasons: (1) his song sucked, and (2) BABY OF THE WEEK?!?  Not only did he steal his sister's Idol audition, he probably stole her Idol spot, he was the star pitcher, and he was born baby of the week.  His poor sister can never compete with baby of the week.

Hair - I actually think Endless Love was a better choice than Lion King's Can You Feel the Love.  But both would've been filled with lots of annoying vibrato and hair tossing.  Plus, the suit alone put him at the bottom. 

 
Bottom 3:  Shannon, Erika, and Elise

Going home:  Erika

*Somewhere Out There....

beneath the Philly sky , the cops are waiting for me, as I say goodbye.* I must mention that Mr. Auntee, who is from Philly, was not at all surprised to learn that Jermaine was from his neck of the woods. 

Talk about drama!  Jermaine turns out to be a garden variety thug and not the Gentle Giant.  I doubt we will ever know the real reason Idol decided to seek the *cooperation of law enforcement* which led to Jermaine's untimely exit.  Some gossip sites are saying he was acting aggressive behind the scenes, yelling at wardrobe people, and losing his temper.  Or maybe it was the conflicting stories he and his long lost father were putting forth in their press battle for public sympathy.  We certainly saw a small bit of entitlement on his part last week but I must admit I was not as astute as KK and chalked that all up to nerves on his part.  

I wasn't too happy with how Idol handled the situation  tonight.  There was no need   to build the *suspense* for the audience for 3/4 of the show.  It doesn't really bother me that he was publicly humiliated but I think making it a part of the show was unfair to the other contestants.   Still.. showing him sing *Somewhere Out There* was pricelessly ironic. 


As for the actual show tonight, for me it was just *meh* with 2 or 3 exceptions.  


Since Phillip Phillips, the *original* is favored so highly, they give him the poop spot figuring he will be safe.  We get a bid for sympathy due to his kidney stones and hear that he almost died as an infant because part of his bowel was dead.  Entirely too much information about his elimination processes past and present as far as I'm concerned, even if this is the poop spot performance.  I don't know what song he sang.  It sounded like every other performance of his and every other growly male singer I've heard. Nice kid, I'm sorry he has potty problems, but he is not one to get my vote. 

Up next is Jessica, our little Miss Perfect, who I'm sure you were surprised to learn, was a Diva as a baby.  She makes an odd choice of *Turn the Beat Around* and all I can think of is the margarine commercial and *Turn the Tub Around*.  She does a good job with it if you like that sort of thing although that little *ready for it* in the middle was cheese on toast.  She didn't get a standing ovation which appeared to surprise her.  And the judges did not slobber on her as usual.  She explained that there were not a lot of songs to choose from in 1995 (well in her mind, probably not a lot of songs that were worthy of her voice).  My guess is that she chose an upbeat song thinking it was going to show the world that *I can sing the phonebook yoo dawg* and it backfired. 

HeJun is likeable as usual but had a perfectly dreadful performance of *Right Here Waiting For You* (or whatever the song title is).  Good song, but he blew it.  I think he is safe because he has lots of fans who love him for his personality and really don't care if he can sing well or not. 

Elise is out for redemption and nails her song (why did I not write down all the song titles?).  I was caught up in her performance and wishing her well as she took a lot of abuse on the American Idol Fan Boards for having a *bad attitude* last week.  She did great I thought but it may be too late.  

Diandre got bad reviews for his song (another one I cannot remember the name of) but I actually liked him better tonight than at any other time except he had to ruin it by adding that stupid falsetto at the end. Surprisingly, the judges were hard on him too tonight. 

Up next is Migraine and I told you she would sing about love and hope this week and redeem herself.  I didn't think her vocals were all that great but there was love and hope and for good measure heaven involved and the judges seemed to want to give her a pass.  We note that she was a cute little girl and Daddy has to make sure we know he was *somebody* once so we get pictures of him pitching. 

Colton, of course, chooses an obscure song filled with emo.   We learn that Daughtry is a fan so now Colton is a rocker and not an emo piano singer.  The little girls will go crazy as they imagine they can cure the broken heart he sang about.  Steven saw through the bs, bless his heart and gave him a scathing review with a look of disgust on his face.  Steven has figured out this guy is a poser.  Randy and JLo are still in love with him. 

Erika lets loose on her song and follows Jimmy's advice on the arrangement.  For two weeks they have been telling her to let loose but THIS is the week she was supposed to hold back.  Will I Am tells the audience she will go home.  Nice.  She probably will if only because Will told the audience she would.  I thought she did great and didn't take too many notes because I was enjoying the performance.  I will note, however, that she was one beautiful baby who reminded me of another beautiful baby I know who sings a lot of songs to her mother.  Of course both JLo and Randy give her the kiss of death by telling her she looks beautiful (meaning..you don't look as fat tonight...even though she is not fat she's only not anorexic). 

I'm pretty bored by now so I guess its time to bring on the Jermaine drama.  He didn't seem too upset when they tell him its over or maybe they had ten security men standing just out of camera range. 
I'm not sorry he got caught in his lies. 

Skylar comes on and sings Bonnie Riatt's *Love Sneaking Up on You* which is not a song I'm familiar with.  She does a good performance but because I didn't really love the song, I didn't love her as much as I normally do. 

Thank the Lord and his momma and daddy for Josh LeDet because thus far, apart from Jermaine, this show has been pretty much of a snoozer.  What woman doesn't melt at *When A Man Loves A Woman?* (I bet even lesbians melt at that song).  I tend to agree with JLo that this is the best performance I have seen on American Idol or at least one of the top 4 or 5.  Plus he's such a nice guy!  I even forgive the cheesy taking off his suit jacket because its sort of a retro Motown move.  A great comeback from a so/so performance last week and I hope he gets a lot of votes.  Now...if he can avoid turning into Jacob...I'll look forward to him every week until he gets booted off for the WGWG or Little Miss Perfect. 

Hollie takes on The Power of Love by Celine Dion and I maybe am only imagining this is her answer to Little Miss Perfect who grabbed THE song last week.  Hollie is not to be underestimated.  She looks fragile but I sense she is pretty cool, calculating, and can go for the jugular if pushed.  I like that about her because I think she will use her power for good and not evil!  She did not quite have a *moment* (following Joshua didn't help) but did a great job.

I'm afraid Will I Am may be right and Erika is going home.  I'm sorry because I want to see her sing more.  He Jun should go home..but not likely. 
 

Fugitive

 

Unfortunately, the Gentle Giant went running scared.  

The rumors were that AI would show video of the "confrontation" between producers and Jermaine, and that he'd be kicked off the show tonight, in front of God and country.

Looks like that's no longer the case.  

Boo, because that would've made for some great TV!

Gentle Giant lands in Philly