Books, Movies, Music & Entertainment - American Idol 2009

I looked at last night's show with both high expectations and dread.
dread? yes, dread, how many times have we seen 'hard rock' send someone
packing. How bad could it get? think Danny last night, Simon was right the last scream
in Dream On was like a horror show, and not in a good way.
Adam, brilliant. Vocals were spot on as ever and he could I believe hold his own with
Robert Plant. Now that Mr. Plant has stated no more Led Zep its all Allison duets, Mr Page
should call Adam for the next tour.
Allison channeled Janis nicely, very nicely. I like this kid, she is gutsy and brash and can
sing her face off. I was reminded of last year and Amanda the biker nurse chick also doing
Janis and it being horrible. This was really good, not greatness but close enough for AI.
Kris. . . Beatles? okay. but Come Together has been covered too well by Aerosmith and Joe Cocker
(movie Across the universe, I love this version in all it's sleazyness). It was safe, it was stylistically
ok but left me cold.
Danny. You have that wonderful growl in your voice, can really power a song and you picked probably
the worst showcase for it. I would have been much happier with you singing Whipping Post.
The duets were fun in a bizarre dancing with the stars team dance off kind of way.
Bottom 2. Kris and Danny. Could be something of an upset if all the Gokoids forget to vote.
but I think Kris is going home.

marty

I have this strange feeling that the night that Adam wins AI, the set is going to go all Matrix green, with strings of code running everywhere. Then Adam will pull off his face mask to reveal that he is in actuallity the human embodiement of Neo and he will fly off the stage and into the ether, never to be seen again. Simon will be Morpheus and Randy will bake cookies.

I have this strange feeling that the night that Adam wins AI, the set is going to go all Matrix green, with strings of code running everywhere. Then Adam will pull off his face mask to reveal that he is in actuallity the human embodiement of Neo and he will fly off the stage and into the ether, never to be seen again. Simon will be Morpheus and Randy will bake cookies.
You, sir, have really baked my noodle.

You have to admit that my ending is better than Adam looking all surprised and goth and singing some song that they wrote for the winner.

Adam and his tongue should be safe.

:lol:

I am seriously bummed. I thought Allison was much better than
Kris or Danny, and she absolutely slayed Cry Baby last night.
On the whole I thought it quite ironic that Daughtry performed last night.

Her second performance was better than her first, perhaps because the emotion made it more real and less sound alike.

She too will go on to have a great career as a singer, so the Daughtry appearance is quite apropos me thinks.

Alison has it hard in that she is not a Disney/Nickelodeon teen pop diva. Kris gets the teen girl vote for male hotness. Alison not so much. AI is an almost equal blend of singing show/popularity contest. Alison does not fit into the popularity contest genre as easily as any of the three males, hence her regrettable early departure.

Good Bye Alison, I enjoyed watching you grow over the last few months. Please do not go gentle into that dark night.

That? Stunk. The whole thing. Okay, not Slash. Slash is awesome. But that was the dumbest show in the history of this show, and I’m including the idiot moment that Taylor Hicks won. What the hell is going on? It’s like the Fortress of Solitude is crumbling to pieces because Superman gave up his powers to become human. Or if Batman decided to chuck it all and open up an off-shore bank in the Caymans. WTF? Not good. Not good at all.

I love Paula. Probably more than I should. Watching that was painful.

Danny, Danny, Danny. You watched it back. You knew you hosed it. But you couldn’t bring yourself to admit you were wrong. It was funny! Your aunt - a family member, blood, kin – had to hit the mute button it was so bad, and that was funny? And then you babbled like an idiot about it for about nine hours and no one cared. I appreciate that you can laugh at yourself, because I wasn’t sure you had it in you. But when you’re wrong, admit it, promise to do better, and move on. That’s all we were looking for.

And No Doubt? For the first few minutes I was like, this is cool. And then it went on and on and on and on and on and Gwen did push-ups and tried to turn a 15-year old song into a girl-power anthem (and maybe 15-years ago it was), except the girls who she was antheming to weren’t born when that song came out.

And we revisit the hilarious moment when Daughtry got voted out. And the shock in his face. And I remembered instantly why I thought it was great, because I was so overwhelmingly tired of him. And then he sang. And it was not good.

And Allison. I was entertaining thoughts (however hopeless and fleeting) of an Adam/Allison final, and then we let her go. She sang out beautifully, and I will miss her because she is great.

Tomorrow is Danny Gokey’s day here. He will throw out the first pitch and give a concert and… yay? Too bad Adam isn’t from Milwaukee.

Wow! :(

Where's that stupid "save" when you really need it? :notamused:

The kids go home. Then they come back. We’re down to the final three. It’s anybody’s game. Except it so totally isn’t. Except maybe it is. Oh, no it’s not. And then it is! And then it isn’t. Is that Sting in the audience? The judges pick really stupid songs (except Paula, who picks the perfect song for Taylor Hicks or David Archuleta, and Simon, who picks a perfectly brilliant song and then goes and arranges it out of any reality that I’m aware of). This! Is American Idol.

Round One. Ding. Ding. Ding.

The Gah! –

Danny Gokey comes out swinging with a Taylor-Hicksian performance of “Dance Little Sister”. Not a song I was aware of. Not a song I’m going to care about after this season is over. Vocally, Danny was great… except for the riffing with the sax player, which only reminded me of all the notes that he can’t hit. That was a little pointless. The dancing, which Simon called “desperate”, but I’d like to think of it as more cartoonish than anything else. Overall, I was entertained.

The Meh –

Kris Allen with “Apologize”, which is a song I am aware of. I don’t like this song, mostly because it wanders off into a world inhabited by The Frey and James Blunt and The Plain White T’s. It’s pretty, but it’s sort of this non-song thing about how it’s too late to apologize. Which? Okey-doke. Nothing to see here, folks. Let’s keep moving. But we don’t keep moving, we just keep hearing about how it’s too late to apologize. Kris didn’t really do anything with it except sing it very nicely, as if he were apologizing for it being to late to apologize. And I was bored.

The WTH? –

Adam Lambert with Simon’s version of “One” by U2. Simon is not a musical genius. Simon is a money genius. He’s a genius genius. Simon knows that the only thing better than good is what sells. And he finds people who are good who will also make him money. Like Il Divo. I happen to think Il Divo is utter drivel, but I’m not the target audience for Il Divo.

However, this is a song that actually means something. “Dance Little Sister” doesn’t mean anything. It’s a nice song, a fun song, I liked Danny’s performance. But it is not a song that has any semantic weight.

“One” means something. And up until now, Adam has done a brilliant job with songs that mean something. “Mad World”, “Tracks of my Tears”, “Whole Lot of Love” (and yes, WLL is only about one thing, but it’s a pretty important thing). “One” needs to be supported by the music. And the genius of U2 and Bono is that the music is deceptively simple, dark-yet-hopeful, and often runs counter to the lyrics, which are about shame, humiliation, passion, co-dependence, worship, and the darker side of loving someone fully.

It can also be interpreted as a rejection of faith and submission to God and turning to human beings for love and support because we’re all we have. Whether there is no God, or there is and we reject Him because of all the pain and suffering in the world, is a pretty harrowing thought. But then there are people, and we have to turn to each other and carry each other because we’re all we have. And the One love should be us, not God. That’s the song, in case you needed that. And you probably didn’t.

But what Simon did, and maybe it is genius - I’m not sure - is take all the meaning out of it and turn it into emotion. Sort of like turning “Ash Wednesday” by T.S. Eliot into a light shade of blue. Emotions are what they are. They don’t mean anything. And people don’t buy thoughts. They buy emotion. So, I don’t know. I honestly don’t.

I had to rewatch Adam’s performance. I didn’t like it at first. I thought he tried to do way too much with it. And then I watched again and liked it. I hated the arrangement, but I liked Adam’s performance.

Round Two:

Danny with “You are so Beautiful”. Loved it. Sweet. Beautiful. Brilliantly done.

Kris with a Kanye West song that I hadn’t heard before. Ballsy performance, just him up there with his guitar. Loved it. He friggin’ killed it. Sadly the judges were pantsing around while he was getting positive feedback from Simon, and they really should’ve given Kris the respect he deserves, because he’s been good from day one.

Adam Lambert with “Cryin’” by Aerosmith, presumably to resurrect all the notes that Danny destroyed last week. I enjoyed the hell out of this.


So there’s your top 3? Who is going forward? Does this come down to the inevitable battle between Adam and Danny that we’ve been expecting since what seems like the dawn of the universe? I voted like a maniac for Adam last night and I could barely get through. I hope Kris makes it. I like Danny the least, but he’s still fairly deserving of this.

Adam's tongue scared me last night.

Danny's rhythmic jerking frightened me.

Kris I found to be the least threatening of the three, and I think he has a good chance of winning, or at least making the finals against Adam DeathTongue.

Awesome. Simply awesome.

I love the world again.

Good bye Danny :(
you are so beautiful to me still.

Now Im stuck watching Adam's evil tongue and Kris mouth going sideways.

Awesome. Simply awesome.

I love the world again.

and the world loves you back.

I don't believe it!!!

Tension! Suspense! Drama! Katy Perry! Jordin “Steampunk” Sparks! Noah, a kid from Africa! Alicia Keyes! Hometown visits with mayors and big dad hugs and running in unfortunate plaid pants! Oh! And Ben Friggin’ Stiller! And that guy from SNL that I like! And that guy from the Simpsons! And the cast of every Seth Rogan movie! This! Has been going on too! Damn! Long!

Wow!

Pimpmercial – Meh.

Okay, so I feel like a weight has been lifted. Like the entire season has been basically about Danny Gokey and his dead wife. That’s what they led with, and that’s what it’s come down to almost every performance. That’s why Paula gave him an idiot softball of a song to hit out of the park (and he even screwed that up with his idiot dancing and the scat/sax duet). And that’s why he came back and did great with “You are so Beautiful”. And every other song he sang was about her. And that’s something I can’t take and can’t be responsible for and can’t process because it just sat there for me the whole season – a big, sad, horrible, pile of sad. And I don’t blame Danny, I blame the show.

Remember when I jokingly called Murray, Utah the ‘whitest place on earth’. Hm…. yeah.

Milwaukee. Vitamin D deficient since 1843.

I’m astonished that they didn’t lead with the theme song from “Laverne and Shirley”. Obviously you didn’t get to see squat of our fair city, except for a bit of the FOX 6 studio, some of the Summerfest Grounds (if you are in the area during the late part of June into July, come to Summerfest – it is fantastic), some random AT&T store, a bit of Wisconsin Avenue, a glimpse of the awesome Miller Park, and Danny’s face taking it all in. Which was pretty cool.

The only people you got to see besides the lovely Nicole Coglin (the reporter with the short, black hair at the beginning of the clip) were the die-hard Danny Gokey fans, including the crazy creepy woman with the “This Cougar Loves Danny” sign. Ew. “Cougar” is like the grossest meme ever, not that old people are gross (I’m rapidly becoming 40, which is friggin’ ancient), but that the idea of “old” has become like the idea of “leprosy”, so much so that it’s just cool to flaunt how desperately you hate yourself for being old. And then throw the sex in there… it’s just really disgusting. Women or men. Doesn’t matter. The “Cougar” meme is gross. And the fact that it exists says to me that all this mediation has ultimately made us hate ourselves, and that makes me sad.

Our mayor, Tom Barrett, was probably the most worked up I’ve ever seen him. Usually he’s got kind of a deer-in-headlights look about him – he’s really smart, actually, but he always looks surprised and a little stunned to be wherever he is.

And then Danny threw out the first pitch and saw Jamal and Danny was Danny some more and it was over.

Did Milwaukee come across as desperate? Yeah, I thought so too.

Kris’s trip home was probably the coolest of the three. Hugs from Dad kind of always choke me up. Arkansas seems like a pretty happy place to be.

Adam’s trip home was a little weird, but it’s San Diego and it’s Adam so there’s that. The high school thing seemed a little forced, but whatever. The visit with the theater kids was touching. And I choked up a bit and got goosebumps when he sang the National Anthem at the Marine Base. Adam makes me glad to be an American.

The radiant awesome that is Alicia Keyes. And Noah. That made me uncomfortable. And not in a good, ‘stirring my social conscious’ way. More in a ‘I’m not sure, but I think this is racist, but Alicia Keyes is here so I’m probably supposed to overlook that’ kind of a way. And why don’t the proceeds from that little misguided bit of nonsense go to Noah?

Jordin Sparks. Wow. That was… a song. Something about armor and a battlefield and going to war over love or in love and the song sounded a bit like that “I can ride a bike with no handlebars” song mixed with “Love is a Battlefield” mixed with the movie “Gladiator”. Awesome.

The couches! Danny just wants to get it over with and would rather we speed things up. And I don’t think he’s kidding. I think he would rather just be excused from the table so that he can go be disruptive while the grownups are trying to talk. Not that the rest of them are grownups, other than Simon.

Adam was awesome with, “But I want to hear Katy Perry”.

Katy Perry was awesome with her Adam cape. I don’t like Katy Perry. Her singing was pretty terrible last night. And I’m not in love with her pretentious faux edgy thing and her complete lack of a sense of humor. When did life get so serious and dark? Okay, there are a number of answers to that. I meant for her. Was it when she got famous and rich?

Is there no one out there enjoying themselves? Is no one having fun?

Kris Allen is. Awesome. His performance of “Heartless” last night was effing brilliant and he deserved it.

And so we bid farewell to Danny. Thanks, Danny. Seriously. You are a fantastic singer. I think you’ve been nothing but open and honest about who you are and what your story is. Millions of people love you, and that’s a good thing.


On to the finals. Finally. Kris is going to win this thing. It won’t even be close.

Nooo....I think it will be Adam.

But then I've been so wrong so far.

I still love Danny...and Allison.

I like Kris, but he's never really excited me like the other three...

Heartless was good, but...

Oh well, difference in taste...

Nooo....I think it will be Adam.

But then I've been so wrong so far.

I still love Danny...and Allison.

I like Kris, but he's never really exited me like the other three...

Heartless was good, but...

Oh well, difference in taste...
Oh, I want Adam to win. But I think Danny's fans, if they vote at all, will be more likely to vote for Kris than they will Adam.

And don't forget "Falling Slowly".

But I think Danny's fans, if they vote at all, will be more likely to vote for Kris than they will Adam.


I want Adam to win too, but you have a good point. Kris and Danny are similar - they are both clean-cut, God-fearing types that appeal to the same type of audience. With his makeup, nail polish and sassy fashion sensibilities, Adam is definitely much edgier. The face-off almost looks like last year - Cook vs. Archuleta - where the fresh-faced youngster is squaring off against the snarly rock-n-roller. This will be good.

Oh, I want Adam to win. But I think Danny's fans, if they vote at all, will be more likely to vote for Kris than they will Adam.

And don't forget "Falling Slowly".


This is sooo close, I'm biting my nails...

Does Kris seem to be in the lead in most voters minds? I think so...

I really want Adam to win...

That? Was beautiful. A final competition between artists and friends.

And you know who wins? We win. Everybody wins. When's the last time anyone heard that? Fantastic.

It actually felt more like a concert than a competition, and I completely loved it. It was a beautiful show all the way around. Well, except for the last ‘song’, but I’ll get to that in a second. The judges were radiant. The audience was magic. The whole night reminded me of a concert I went to after graduation from high school - a warm night with music that stirred memory and emotion and the crap of high school fading away in to a warm glow and the hope for a wonderful future. A great way to say goodbye to some dear friends.

And Sir Anthony Hopkins??? Holy crap. Like I don’t know how to process that. Does he have a movie coming out? Is he in “Transformers 2” or something? Or “Glee”? That would be awesome if he was in “Glee”. (Sadly, Sir Anthony Hopkins is not in “Glee”.)

I have to say that I’m really proud of the two finalists. I know that sounds absolutely ridiculous, but all season long these two guys brought it. Adam more so than Kris. But then again, Adam is a bigger presence. I went into this hoping Adam would win, and I voted like crazy for him, but I don’t really care anymore. This was the best final in a long time. Maybe ever.

“Mad World” and “Ain’t no Sunshine”. Perfect. Kris a little more so than Adam. I liked the coat and fog. Did anyone else notice that Kris’ voice is made of crystal? Wow. Both of them.

Simon Fuller chose two excellent songs. Adam completely crushed “Change Gonna Come”. That was probably my favorite version of it since Sam Cooke. Kris did a nice-but-light job with “What’s Going On”.

“No Boundaries”. Okay, they got the theme right. Awesome. But wtf was that song? These are professional songwriters. They do this for a living. Kara - you watched these guys struggle to be awesome, and actually achieve awesome, for like a million years now. How do you churn out that nonsense and walk around feeling good about yourself the next day? Idiot lyrics and music that would make even Celine Dion wince. It was in a key that made no sense. It had notes that even Adam couldn’t hit. “No Boundaries”! Now with extra hurricanes! Nice.

Yes, Kara et al had a song performed on the biggest stage in human history. Yes, it will make a lot of money. But so did junk bonds and mortgage-backed securities.

Why? Why do that to these guys? Why do that to us? We all deserve better than this.

Good on Simon for not judging either Adam or Kris on that.

This season has gone on forever. From 3 billion to 6000 to Norman Gentle and Tatiana del Friggin’ Toro to 13 to 2. It was a long ride. Often it was pointless and boring. It was hard for me to get a handle on it because I thought we were playing by last year’s rules, and we weren’t. But I was assuming an Adam/Danny final.

But something different and completely brilliant happened. Adam and Kris rewrote the rules. Actually, there’s just one rule now: Strive to be awesome. As best you can at whatever it is you do. The rest will work itself out.

That's what we saw last night.

What could be more wonderful?

Unbeknownst to all but her closest friends is the secret behind Kara's writing partners. One is a cave dwelling bat, named One, who wrote the echo locating portion of Without Boundaries and the other is a sentient being from the Planet Q, named ForMe, where everything is slightly off key and a bit pitchy for me, dawg.

Randy has a vacation home on Q and that is where he and Kara met, at the Vanilla Fondue Springs of Albathia.

No Boundaries - Kara's Song

Seconds hours so many days
You know what you want but how long can you wait
Every moment last forever if you feel you’ve lost your way
What if your chances are already gone
Started believing that I could be wrong
But you give me one good reason
to fight and never walk away

Coz hear I am — still holding on!

Every step you climb another mountain
Every breathe its harder to believe

You’ll make it through the pain (or through all your aches and pains)
Weather the hurricane
To get to that one thing

When you think the road is going nowhere
Just when you’ve almost gave up on your dreams
Then take it by the hand and show you that you can

You can go higher
You can go deeper
There are no boundaries
Above and beneath you
B-reak every rule coz there’s nothing between you
and your dreams

Every step you climb another mountain
Every breathe its harder to believe

Versus Cromulent's AI Song from last year

Believe in yourself.
Believe in your dreams.
Your time is now.
Your time to shine.
Your journey begins.
To soar on high
High on eagles wings.
High on eagles wings.
To the rainbow's end.
To the end of the rainbow.
Your time is now.
Your time is now.

Chorus:
When we sing, when we believe,
It's a brand new day.
To start again, in a whole new world.
A brand new song, for a whole new world.

There's no looking back.
Take the love in your heart.
And hold it close.
Close to your dreams.
There's always a choice.
There's always a chance,
To start again.
Your time is now.
My time is now.
Our time is now.

(Chorus)

So here we are.
At the journey's end.
Our time is now.
Your time was then.
Turn your iPod up loud,
Use Garage Band on your Mac,
Drive a Ford till your dreams come home to you.
And drink a Coke,
Have a Coke with your dreams.
Once we found ourselves lost.
But we found ourselves again.
And now that we have, our hearts will soar
Our hearts will roar.

(Chorus)
(Chorus)
(Chorus)
(Chorus)
(Chorus)

Cheezy cliche-ridden lyrics done intentionally = funny. Cheezy cliche-ridden lyrics written with sincerity = suckitude. As if the lyrics weren't bad enough, the music was equally horrendous. Kara should be removed as a judge for writing this steaming pile.

Both guys are ubertalented singers - no doubt about that. One thing that's bothered me about Kris all season - he's too ... what's the word ... boring. Every thing about him (except for his voice) seems so ordinary. His clothes, his hair, his family, his personality - all so completely ordinary. There's absolutely nothing wrong with ordinary - I'm pretty ordinary and I'm fine with that.

But if you are a stage performer, a pop star or a musical "idol", ordinary is not good. Adam is not ordinary - I hope Adam wins.

MMMMM


tween girl power for the win!!

Steve Martin had every right to beat those two to death with his banjo. That was excruciatingly bad, even for yodel girl.

I seriously don’t know what to say about this show anymore. I loved every single minute of it – the grotesque, the weird, random, the beautiful, Steve Martin and his banjo, the Danny Gokey, the Adam, the Kris, David Cook, Carrie Underwood in the audience looking mysterious and radiant and unattainable like cold fusion, Rod Stewart, Allison Iraheta and Cyndi Lauper, Queen, Norman Gentle being completely adorkable (like, when did I find this entertaining? Oh, exactly now), Kara singing her heart out and looking hotter than the damn sun. Even the final song didn’t annoy me, and I found myself enjoying it, even though it sounds really close to a Miley Cyrus song, but whatever. It doesn’t matter.

It wasn’t even like they were just throwing stuff at us out of nowhere like it sometimes does. It wasn’t even like the grand finale of a fireworks show where they just launch billions of big loud bright explody things. It was like it all made sense. It all made sense to me, anyway. Not that I could explain how it makes sense to me. Jsharr had it almost right, but instead of Adam being Neo, we’re all Neo. We all get to see the Matrix, and we all get to know kung-fu and stop bullets and fly and save ourselves and remake the world as we want.

Congratulations, Kris.

Adam… thank you. You are brilliant. Beyond brilliant. You are like someone inventing a Warp Drive for real and then going out to space and discovering that the universe is indeed filled with life and civilizations and awesome.

It’s been one hell of a season I’ve been bored, annoyed, moved, astounded, overjoyed. But when we got there, man did we get there.

Where does one go to get the Neo black leather overcoat and ginormous buttload of muntions? Seeing as how I am now Neo and Adam Deathtounge morphed into the love child of the Electric Cowboy and Gene Simmons, I think that the endgame draws near and I do not want to face it without full auto weapons and lots of them.

the matrix weapons program. . . geez didn't you watch the first movie?
and remember 'there is no spoon'

marf(t)y

Second year* in a row that the contestant that I was absolutely certain was going to win didn't. (*edit: actually third year in a row. Melinda Doolittle, David Archuleta, and Adam.) Oh well...

That said, I'm still a huge fan of the show and will likely remain a huge fan as long as the show is on. How incredibly cool is it to see someone plucked from obscurity, then in the course of a few short months, they're singing alongside music legends and entertaining millions of people at home?

And every season, I discover or rediscover some very cool songs that I add to my music library. I just got through downloading "Cue the Rain" that Queen Latifah and Lil Rounds sang last night. Nice song.

Well, with both AI and LOST now over for the year, I guess I'll have more time to ride my bike. Have a great summer, y'all.

LOL...yeah I'm free again on Tuesday night...

So now we get to see what happens next. It's fun to see what direction their careers take. Both these guys have nice, humble personalities...no prima donna stuff...


I'm going on a bike ride tonight...:)