HouseFrau

American Idol: May 19, 2009

So we witnessed Idol history...Actually, we just watched it on TV.  My friends Melissa and Stephanie saw it live. 

I can't wait to hear their POV.  From here in the 'cheap seats,' the judges' praise for Adam seemed a little forced. 

I thought Kris took Round One, just lost Round Two (Steve thinks Kris even won that), and was 100 times better singing that tripe Kara Digigiwhat calls a song. (Though Simon has no right to criticize. Simon, you can start dissing cheesy songs when you apologize for giving us Il Divo, OK?)

Still by the end of Kris' night-- after a performance of the Digigiwhat song that sounded much more like a saleable single than Adam's version-- the judges were giving him the don't-let-the-door-hit-you-on-the-way-out speech about how he and his parents should be proud.  If you really wanna take away an aspiring rocker's cool vibe, be sure to mention that his parents are proud of him. 

Paula was the worst in terms of the backhanded 'compliments' to Kris. (Apparently, she got into a fight with her spray tanning assistant.) But all the judges were pretty bad about the Adam-Is-A-Star-You're-a-Nice-Kid thing.   You'd think they would have figured out that this kind of "persuasion" backfires.  They're behavior last week assured Kris' place in the finals. Have they assured his victory tonight? Remember last year's finals? Simon went on and on about how David A won the night-- in retrospect, he must have realized that his talk would give David Cook the win.  Still, it's hard to imagine that they're orchestrating a stealth victory for Kris.

I don't have any comments about the specific performances. Both these guys are great, and I don't have a problem with either of these guys winning. I do think, however, that Adam somehow lost the Eye of the Tiger, whereas Kris showed himself to be a never-say-die competitor. 

Maybe every Idol contestant is better off being the Underdog. (I think Carrie Underwood (and maybe Fantasia) are the only obvious 'favorites' who actually won Idol.) David Cook was always an Underdog.  Taylor Hicks was always an Underdog (with Simon hating you, you get Underdog status no matter how many fans you have).  Jordin was an Underdog (and by the time she wasn't, she was up against Blake Lewis so that doesn't count).  Adam was an Underdog (to Danny) until the Entertainment Weekly cover.  And that's just about the time he started losing his edge. 

Kris, on the other hand, remains a true Underdog: No professional or quasi-professional music career behind him.  Unnoticed by most of us until well into the Top 10. Always underappreciated by the judges.  (Did Randy and Kara Digigiwhat really say they didn't like his cover of "Falling Slowly"?! The week Simon was not allowed to speak?!) No magazine covers. No nicknames.

The more I think about it, the more convinced I am that Kris Allen should be our next American Idol.  For reasons I explained last week, Adam Lambert might be better off if he comes in second anyway.  But Kris needs the win. 

In a way, it's like Kris is Paul, and Adam is John.  Paul was the one with the innate talent-- by far the most musical of the boys from Liverpool. But John had the charsima, the edge, the je-ne-sais-qua. Neither of them would have been who they became without the other. But John probably would have done something to make his mark. Paul would probably still be in Liverpool.

Funny....I always thought I was a John person...Until tonight.

American Idol: May 13, 2009

Preface...This is usually my favorite episode of the year. Obviously, nothing will compare to Elliot Yamin's hometown visit to Va. with Mom. But there's always some great stuff. 

And now...My Top 12.

First...What was your feeling on Noah from Rwanda? I thought it was kind of cute. Steve thought it was embarrassing. I thought the back up singers were cringe-worthy but Noah was OK.

Second...Danny.  Was anyone else concerned by the apparently balmy weather in Wisconsin?  Danny's visit was poignant. When he referred to his visit to Milwaukee as "bittersweet," it was the first time in a long time (ever?) that I felt the pain this guy has been going through.

Third...Kris. I'm torn. So tired of the Red State Idol thing. Yet, Kris is pretty darn good. And he's cool as a cucumber.  We all marveled at Alison's poise for a 17 year old. But this guy is only 23, and he seems like a seasoned pro. Nothing can rattle this guy. Not even the "lose-lose-lose" Paula mutters under her breath everytime she looks at him.

Fourth...Jordin Sparks. I said it with Taylor, and I'll say it with Jordin. You can tell me she won American Idol but I don't have to believe you. In retrospect, it's amazing that any of us stuck with Idol through the dismal Jordin-Blake season. And it's a credit to David Cook and Adam Lambert that I actually care about the show again.

Fifth...Adam Lambert. Didn't we think he was from LA? I read today that his mom lives in San Francisco.  (Which explains why there was no family shown. On that note, why wasn't Danny's family shown?)  I feel like Adam may have had a somewhat rootless childhood experience. I think that explains a lot about him-- his self-possession, his fearlessness and ability to win people over.  Still, however it may have helped him as an artist, it made his San Diego visit a little underwhelming. 

Sixth...Did anyone else (in addition to Steve) notice that every contestant held a rally in front of an att store?

Seventh...Did anyone else (in addition to Steve and me) see the denim-clad carpenter walk on and off stage quickly before Katy Perry sang. 

Eighth...Does Katy Perry write her own songs? If not, how did she luck into two of the catchiest songs in the last few years ("I Kissed a Girl" and "Hot & Cold")? I think her luck has run out with this one.  And I'm not sure she did Adam any favors with the cape.

Ninth...How horrified did Paula look when Kris was the first to get to the finals?  The Idol folks assured his ascent by shamelessly throwing him under the bus.

Tenth... I don't know how to feel about Danny's departure. I never understood who was voting for him so I don't know why they didn't show up for him last night.  But am I right to have sensed a little relief from him? And, with his last song, the EMOTIONAL POWER that I'd been waiting for all season long?!

Eleventh... what does a "Ding Dong" mean? (I'm assuming Simon didn't mean the chocolate cupcakey treat.) 

Twelfth... The best two made it into the finals. I'm looking forward to next week. 

American Idol: May 12, 2009

When the three finalists came out, it hit me: This is all about the dudes, dudes.  Normally, I'm not a big fan of the ladies on Idol (I loved Melinda Doolittle at first, but otherwise I've never loved a woman Idol contestant). Still, the lack of a woman on the stage disappointed me.  This is, as Steve put it, a sausage fest. A *white* sausage fest.

One more disappointment: We don't get any of the great hometown stuff until tomorrow.  Tonight, we just sit through the singing.

Now, about the singing....

Danny (Round 1):  I remember thinking this last year, but are we really to think that Paula Abdul chose this relatively obscure TTD song?  This was sort of a weird choice.  I'm all for a TTD song...but how about "Wishing Well" or "Sign Your Name"? I thought this was kind of awkward.  It feels like we're treating Danny with kid gloves.  We can't give him a song that has any real emotion because--not sure if you know this--but he recently lost his wife. So we have him sing a generic song about dancing with a sister. It just felt empty.

Kris (Round 1):  You all know I didn't like Kris initially. I still don't love him. But I'm outraged how the fix is in for this dude.  He gets the middle slot.  He's criticized by the judges for the song they picked for him.  He's dubbed the "darkhorse." I didn't love this performance. I was glad Kris got to play the piano, but the orchestration behind seemed a little weird. He probably should have just done this as guy-and-his-piano thing. Still, it was not as bad as the judges wanted us to believe. 

    Meanwhile, are we to believe that at this point in the competition, the rules are not ironed out so that Simon thinks he could help Adam with his arrangements and Kara/Randy did not know they could do the same for Kris?!  At this point, the deck is so stacked in favor of Adam, it's starting to annoy me.  More on that later...

Adam (Round 2): (I guess this is a question for tomorrow, but why did Adam go to San Diego? Isn't he an LA guy? Was this because everyone knows the LA contestants (Katharine McPhee) fare poorly on this leg?)  I love Adam.  I love this song.  So why did I want to throw up when I heard this?  I think Bono was throwing up too.  This was an unmitigated disaster. I would rather have had Blake from '07 beatbox his way through this song than listen to this tripe.  Do we blame Simon for this?  Did he tell Adam to take one of the best rock songs ever and make it into a cover by Take That? And for the record, Adam and Simon, Bono does not think this song has beautiful lyrics. He thinks it's a song about how people in "love" hurt each other. 

    OK, it wasn't David Cook playing baseball with barefoot kids in the DR, but I was still glad to see Carrie Underwood in Africa for an 'Idol Gives Back' update.  Carrie wins my award for most improved Idol. I really disliked her during her season on Idol. She had a great voice but she seemed like a cold fish.  Now, she's light, funny, and-- as always-- great looking with a great voice.

Danny (Round 2): Did I mention that I can't emotionally connect with this guy?  This song was more meaningless than "Dance Little Sister."  I know it's too much to expect Danny to sing "Missing You," but at this point I need an honest moment from him. Vocally, he nailed it (as always). But there's no there there.  If I felt like Danny didn't have it in him (e.g., if he had the dead eyes of Kellie Pickler), I wouldn't mind the emotional wall so much. But I know he's got the emotion there.  (We glimpsed it with "Deam On" last week.) Until he does it "once more with feeling," Danny's not gonna be my Idol.

Kris (Round 2):  I'm so glad this guy will not die-- despite Paula's best efforts.  This was the best performance of the night. By far. I seriously hope Kris makes it into the finals. At this point, I don't care whose place he takes.

Adam (Round 2): Late Aerosmith?! You have thousands of songs and you pick late Aerosmith?! What was going on with Adam tonight?! I felt like he did not show up tonight.  Did the Entertainment Weekly cover go to his head? Is the 'come out of the closet' pressure getting to him?  After some thought, I think I've figured it out:  Adam knows he'll be better off if he loses Idol. Let's consider the Idol contestants who have musical credibility-- Melinda Doolittle, Elliott Yamin, Chris Daughtry.  Let's consider the contestants who do not have musical credibility-- Taylor Hicks, Jordin Sparks, Ruben Studdard. (I admit David Cook is the wildcard.)  At this point, Adam has secured his record deal.  He's been on the cover of magazines. He's been deemed "Idol's most exciting contestant in years."  If he loses tomorrow, he has all of that plus the cred of not being the "American Idol," and the outrage of America that he got unfairly voted off.  Consciously, or unconsciously, Adam knows this.  That's why Adam's Eye of the Tiger was gone tonight.  He doesn't need it. He's not even sure he wants it.  The judges sure want it for him. And their extreme praise (i.e., begging for votes) tonight might be enough to put him over the top. But I'm not sure.

I can't begin to predict who goes tomorrow. Will the judges prevail on America to put Danny and Adam in the finals? I'm not so sure...Nobody's buying the Fox agenda these days, are they?

American Idol: May 5, 2009

Steve had some choice comments early in the competition tonight. When they announced the contestants would sing duets, Steve succinctly said, "Eewww."  When Ryan introduced Randy Jackson as "The Staple," Steve wondered if that was a reference to the Dawg's stomach surgery. (I don't know what the nickname was in reference to-- was it the fact that every other judge (and Ryan) is considering leaving the show next season?)

Tonight's show left me a little befuddled.  I don't know what to make of Slash's presence on Idol. Are we really to believe that it was this season's crop of contenders that made him want to do this?  Which means the offer was outstanding and Slash was watching past seasons, but wasn't impressed enough to become a mentor? Slash was OK. No Quentin Tarentino, but OK.

I also don't know what to make of tonight's theme. I consider myself a fan of rock. So why don't I like any of the songs performed? I hate Janis Joplin.  I like a lot of Zeppelin but not "Whole Lotta Love." "Come Together" is one of my least favorite Beatles songs.  I've always hated "Slow Ride."  (I guess I liked 'Renegade' and 'Dream On' the first 2000 times I heard them.)  I also disagreed with the judges on virtually every performance except Adam.  Given that Simon thought "Somebody to Love" was by Queen, I feel pretty good about that fact.

The bottom line is American Idol and hard rock are a contradiction in terms. And that's the way it should be.  Without Adam, tonight would have been a humiliating disaster.  Some sick part of me inside wishes Scott was still on the show so we could have seen him perfom tonight.

Adam:  If you closed your eyes (not that you'd want to), you could believe a young Robert Plant was on stage. The growl wasn't there and he didn't sound like Plant when he hit the high notes.  But Slash was right-- when Adam was singing (in the 'lower' register), he sounded like Robert Plant singing.  For what it is worth, I didn't like the hair (or the heavy eyeliner). But that is so at the margins. This dude rocks.

Alison: Fabria is not good, for Adam or Alison. I didn't enjoy this, which doesn't mean it wasn't a faithful rendition of Janis Joplin. I do give Alison props for 'talking back' to the judges in a way that did not make her loathesome. As for doing the Joplin biopic, those of us familiar with '30 Rock' will know that the rights for the Joplin story are very difficult to acquire. 

The Kris/Danny Duet:  De Young and James got nothing on these guys. They worked well as a team.  When they sang their individual parts, they suffered. It wasn't awful. But both of them looked absolutely miserable when they stood there waiting for the judges' comments. 

Kris: The producers-- ahem, fates-- were against Kris tonight. Middle of the line-up going right after his duet, not getting his song cleared. I almost want him to stay just b/c it was so obvious the show is strategizing for his exit.  It was OK. What was he supposed to do? If he'd done anything softer, he would have been criticized for copping out.  If he'd gone harder, he would have failed miserably and embarrassed himself.  Kris might be in trouble tonight, but this wasn't a fair fight, was it?

Danny: Why did I like Danny so much more tonight than I usually do?  He didn't command the stage like Adam, obviously.  The vocals were sometimes screechy.  But I liked Danny tonight because he was finally able to have a little emotional release-- to show some anger and to let it all hang out.  Maybe that is what this dude has needed all along.  This performance made Danny seem real again and made me like him again. For real.

Adam/Alison: As I predicted, Alison -- and especially Adam -- are not capable of dueting.  Not that this means they should not be American Idols. As Steve noted with his initial comment, this is an inane drill to put the Idols through. But I felt like I was watching a split screen of two individual performances. When they put their heads together to sing at the end, I felt like I was watching Patty Duke and her twin.  Or Celine Dion and Elvis.  It didn't work for me on any level.

So...who goes? If all goes to plan, it will be Kris.  But apparently tonight didn't go to plan, so perhaps we are in for a surprise.