I haven't talked about TV in forever. I still watch it. Last night was the end of an era. I've talked about LOST quite a few times on here.
It was at the very top of my list. I started watching it at the beginning: September 22, 2004. I was 23 years old. We weren't married. I lived in Fort Worth. We got married. We lived in Texarkana. We live in Arkansas. I got Jon to start watching around season 4. Now we watched it together.
This was October 2006 for the season 3 premiere. I watched it at Sarah's house because Jon wasn't watching yet. That shirt doesn't fit anymore. Jake wore it back in February.
Bye, LOST! What a great six years.
The other show...
I pick Lee. Jake likes Crystal. They were both my favorites from the beginning. At least the best two made it to the end!
A local boy named Kris Allen has made it to the top three contestants on a popular television program called "American Idol". As a reward for making it to this stage of the competition, he is allowed to go visit his hometown and be honored for a day. I went to this such event. I was off of work that day so Jake and I went with my friend Sarah and her 5 year old niece. We decided that, since so many people here are fans of this Kris Allen kid and would want to show up to this event, we would park on the opposite side of the river of where he was performing and walk across the pedestrian bridge directly to his location. Well, after a not-long-but-not-short walk to said bridge and after starting to cross it, we were told it was closed and we would have to take the next bridge down the river. Hmph. So after a not-long-but-very-long walk to the next bridge, across the bridge, back down to the pedestrian bridge's location, and Sarah's plastic flip-flop wearing niece proclaiming "I think this is the end of my life," we finally made it to the concert location.
On the side of the river we started on, we saw his ride. Not bad.
On the way across the bridge, we saw this "person" lying in the middle of this grassy area, hopefully still alive. It was about 112% humidity that day. Sarah's niece said "Today is not a good day for a nap."
The Chamber of Commerce is voting for Kris.
A lot of people showed up.
Jake loved it!
And me.
He sang three songs. And by "songs" I mean "minute and a half version of songs like they sing on the show."
After the show we went inside a nearby venue to eat. Jake liked the lights.
After our two mile walk to get from our car to the show, we decided to shell out the dollar and ride the trolley back over the river. Here you see Jake's first trolley ride and Sarah giving a T for trolley.
Did anyone else notice this Creepy Weird Guy in the audience at American Idol tonight? He was just sitting there motionless, not smiling and not clapping. They showed him more than once and it was weird enough for me to think that maybe he's some kind of marketing for a new show or movie? It was just too weird. And for those of you dying to know who my Idol favorites are this year, since I have a complete lack of posts about the topic, they are as follows. My favorites are Allison, Adam, and Kris. I like Danny, but I'm just kind of over the hype about his greatness. Scott and Anoop are my least favorites and I don't really care for Matt either. I liked Lil a lot at the beginning and actually proclaimed her the winner, but she's just not doing that great, which is sad. So that's my opinion, for what it's worth, which I'm guessing is really not much. Go Allison, Adam and Kris!
American Idol starts again tomorrow! Woo! I promise not to go overboard with the AI talk this year like I did last year. I'll wait until Top 24 time to really talk about who I like. That whole writing-down-everyone-who-comes-on-screen business last year wore me out. Although it did get me a lot of blog visitors. Unfortunately there are still three weeks aka 6 episodes aka WAY too many hours of audition episodes, but there will be two weeks of Hollywood Week, which leads up to the announcement of the Top 24, which is great. We'll also see what everyone thinks of this new chick judge. It could be nice to have a sober female judge on the show. For anyone who has joined me since last year, or for those of you who need a refresher, I will point you to my Top Ten Pieces of Advice For Auditioners of American Idol that I posted last year. It pretty much all still holds true. Enjoy the first few weeks!
Yes! Such a wonderful surprise! I didn't think it could happen, but it did! David Cook won American Idol Season Seven! I have loved this guy pretty much the whole season. I'm so proud of him! The other best moment of the night:
Carly and Michael were a-mazing together. They should just get married and make beautiful little babies with incredible singing talent. They could be the next von Trapps. Anyway, they should have easily made it to top three, if not final two, with Carly, of course, winning. Cleary the producers agreed about Michael based on how much screen time and how many solos he had. I didn't complain. I can't wait to see what they, as well as David Cook, come out with. I'll be buying. Until then, I'm off to iTunes, which I finally got working on my computer again, to buy some more of this year's singles from those three artists. I'll be back next January for Season 8 of American Idol!
And on a completely unrelated note, do any of you girls in Little Rock watch Grey's Anatomy and want to invite me over to watch the finale with you tomorrow night? Thanks and thanks.
It's what everyone is talking about right now. Or at least me. Here are my thoughts about the whole American Idol Season Seven finale, voting, and such. First, that opening with the boxing business was ridiculous. Did you notice, though, that they said they were fighting for a title reserved only for the best then showed Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, and Chris Daughtry?! In case you missed it, he came in FOURTH place. That was pretty weird. I've been a fan of David Cook's since the beginning. Since my girl Carly left, I've been voting for him every week, as I did last night. I think he's just a better overall performer than David Archuleta. Now I've never said that I don't think Archie sings well, because he does. He has a great voice, but he is just SO boring! It's the same slow ballad every week. The one time he tried to sing an upbeat song (last week: My Boo) he failed miserably. David Cook rocks my socks off. He's a better interviewee. He has more personality. He's bold. He has self confidence. I can't say any of that about David "Aw, Shucks" Archuleta. Good kid. Great voice. Not great performer. David Cook SHOULD win, but I really think that David Archuleta WILL win. And here's why. I've been going back and forth about how I think voting is going to go. Based on the fact that two weeks ago, ol' Ryan told us that when there were four people left, the top three (Davids and Syesha) were only one million apart each. Jason's votes seemed to probably be split between the Davids (since Syesha went home), with (I'm guessing) more toward Cook. Now the determining factor, you would think, would be where Syesha's votes would go. I think Syesha's fans are more likely to vote for Cook, making him come out on top. Archie's fans are clearly preteens and grandmas. I thought that it would also help Cook that his demographic (probably around 18-40 year olds) is so large and have been watching American Idol for a while. Something big hit me last night, though. As I was calling in to vote, I was getting a busy signal quite a bit. Somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 of my calls were going through, so much of my time was spent with votes that don't count. However, based on what I know about teengers, the 12-17 year old voters all have unlimited texting on their phones. That means every one of their votes counts, because there's no busy signal on texts. I think that fact alone may push Archuleta to win. Hopefully not, but that's what I'm thinking. It really may be better for Cook not to win though, because then he won't be forced to sing the horrible stuff Idol makes their winners sing for the first year. He will be allowed to sing whatever he wants, and make him more likely to be successful (see: Daughtry). Either way, I think he'll have the most mainstream success of this year's contestants. Hopefully Carly too. Who do you pick?
Tonight was kind of a weird surreal night of reality tv. A bunch of strange things seemed to go on. I watched American Idol top 5 performance show, then Dancing With the Stars top 6 results show. Here are my observations:
American Idol: 1. I miss Carly. 2. How drunk was Paula tonight? Thinking Jason had sung two songs after just one? This is how she looked at that particular moment. And here is the story and video of the blessed event on the Entertainment Weekly website.(I happened to be watching tv with my camera tonight.)
3. Ah, Jason. So mellow. I like his eyes a lot. He's not the best on the show, but I still like him. Something I hate however is that group of creeps who insist on swaying their arms back and forth during every song, no matter how fast or slow. A-like-so:
I frequently want to chop their arms off. Especially when they are between me and the performer. They don't have any rhythm. They're annoying. They're distracting. That group should be eliminated completely. I even saw an interview somewhere with Simon saying he hates the mosh pit too. Hopefully they won't be back next year. 4. Now that my precious Carly is gone, I love David Cook the most. He should win. His voice is so great. 5. I was nervous both times Brooke got up there after last week's debacle. Luckily, she did alright. That first song was ridiculous though. I agree with whoever said that it just makes me think of the horribleness that is Shrek. I think it was these guys. (If you have time, you should watch their videos. So funny!) 6. David Archuleta makes me want to throw up. I'm sick of him. He's good. Whatever. I'm tired of his boringness. 7. Syesha just keeps getting better. I loved her at the beginning, then she started to not do as well, but she's back! 8. My final three would be David Cook, Jason, and Syesha. Goodness knows that will never happen though. Unfortunately, I, along with the rest of the universe, am predicting an all-David top two. 9. My rankings. Your problem: (Carly), David Cook, (Michael), Jason/Syesha, David A., Brooke It makes me really sad to put Brooke there, but I think it's her time to go. She's done well, but she just looks like she's going to pass out the whole time she's singing. 10. The whole don't-comment-after-songs and cram-ten-songs-into-an-hour business made for a very awkward episode. 11. Why does it have to run several minutes over time every single week?
Dancing With The Stars: 1. I was forced to watch this show live this week since Big Brother is now over. I enjoy taping it and watching the whole show in about 15 minutes. Live is excruciating. 2. Samantha looked like she stepped out into 100% humidity right before the show tonight. My camera couldn't quite capture her hair's full glory. 3. Def Leppard? Probably 100 years old. Good music. Really old guys. 4. Christian is having arm surgery and is continuing on the show? He should have just quit and let him be the person out for the week, letting everyone else continue. Jon said injuries like that put football players out the rest of the season. 5. Speaking of football players, I love Jason and Edyta. I'd like for them to win. 6. The Kenny, Jerry, and Len commentary thing was a lot funnier last season, but it was still pretty good. 7. I was sad to see Shannon and Derek go. I liked her because she was trying so hard. She really wanted it. Plus they were really cute together. 8. I'm dreading this 100th Episode business next week. I think I'll definitely be recording it and watching it in the fast forward.
In honor of us being home from the hospital for a whole week, I offer this:
Top Ten Signs I Was At The Hospital With The Husb Too Long
10. I recognized that Jon's doctor got a haircut. 9. I knew to warn people when the elevator stopped at the 2nd floor going down that it was not the 1st floor because someone almost always tries to get off there. 8. I recognized someone I had come in contact with almost every time I walked into the lobby or cafeteria. 7. I walked around nightly in my pajamas, sitting on gurneys and wheelchairs in the hallways to talk with my mom on the phone. 6. I mastered the art of making the chair bed I had to sleep on relatively comfortable. 5. I not only know the hours of the cafeteria (6:00am - 7:30pm), but also the 30 minutes that they are closed to switch the food from breakfast to rest of the day (10:00 - 10:30am). 4. I know the busy hours of the parking garage. 3. I have Jon's doctor's personal cell phone number memorized. 2. I was aware of the fact that the water in the 5th floor showers is significantly hotter than the water in the 3rd floor showers, and used this information to get a hot shower on the 5th floor from our nurses from the week before. 1. I was giving directions around the hospital to people in the elevator.
~~~
On a completely unrelated note... I am thrilled to know that America finally came to its senses last night! Kristy Lee Cook, the girl who I have placed near or at the bottom of my American Idol talent list every week since Top 24, was FINALLY voted off! Let's see the talent shine! (I still love David Cook and Carly and was pretty near heartbroken last week when Michael went home.)
I haven't talked about American Idol in weeks and weeks! It's about time I share my current rankings. They've stayed about the same the whole time. I know that my rankings are definitely not with a lot of yours, but let me know who you like. I'll listen and not be too judgmental.
1. Carly Smithson 2. David Cook 3. Michael Johns* 4. Brooke White* 5. Jason Castro* ^ 6. David Archuleta** 7. Syesha Mercado 8. Ramiele Malubay 9. Kristy Lee Cook
*These three routinely rotate among these three spots, but they're always really close to each other in rankings. Some weeks are better than others for each of them. This was their ranking this particular week.
**Ok. The kid's good. He's just not my favorite. Or top 5 favorite.
It was pretty much the coolest thing that I've ever done. My BFF Erin and I had gone to the American Idol concert tour after Season 2 in the fall of 2003. It was our first year out of college and first year of teaching. We decided that night that it would be so fun to go to LA in the spring and try to go to a taping of American Idol. So we planned it all out and made our way there during the third week of March in 2004, during our Spring Break. We spent the whole week just going to TV show tapings (The Wayne Brady Show, On Air With Ryan Seacrest (twice), The Tonight Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live, and Less Than Perfect), which, by the way, are all free. Wednesday, though, was the best day of the week. We had our tickets which told us that they did not guarantee us seats, so we got there early to get in line. We showed up around noon and didn't see a line yet and were told we could come back at 3:00 and park in the studio parking lots. We went back around 2:30 and saw that there was already a line so we parked in the neighborhood across the street and got in line. Around 4:00 the line moved inside the studio gates. (We were out on the sidewalk along the street before.) We were lined up outside the building, watching as friends and family of the contestants walked by and went in. They took in the first group of fans to fill in the available seats that weren't taken by friends and family. (It's a REALLY small studio.) Around 4:30, they pulled the next small section of the line, including us, into a small area with four rows of benches outside of the building. There were pages walking through the crowd asking who everyone was a fan of and they were clearly listening for specific names. We just shouted everyone's names. They pulled a few people in and were on the row behind us looking for the next group to take in. The lady asked how many people one girl had with her and they said "Four" and we turned around and stuck our hands out holding up two fingers and shouted "TWO! TWO!" "Great. Come with me." Yes! They led us inside and I only wish someone had a video of me walking into that room. My jaw dropped as I walked into the studio. It's just like it looks like on TV! (Except WAY smaller.) They took us to our seats and said that we were going to pretend to be friends of Camile Velasco. (Yeah. Who, right?) They did say that if her friends and family showed up, we would have to leave though. We were sitting right between Jasmine Trias' cousin and Matt Rogers' brother. We had great seats! We ended up being right behind and to the right of Randy Jackson. The show started at 5:00 and it was the first elimination night during the top 12, so we got to see all 12. It would have been better to be there Tuesday for the performance night, but we were lucky to even get tickets in the first place. (I had actually written to the website where you sign up for tickets saying we would just be in town for the week and the president of the website sent me the tickets. That wouldn't happen now with how big American Idol is these days.) It was an hour long show that went super fast. It was fun to see what goes on during the commercials. They let the audience ask questions to the contestants. We found out the Fantasia got her clothes from Goodwill... she means Bebe... and that George Huff can't frown even if he tries. The craziest part, though, was that we actually got on camera during the first segment of the show...
I'm the third person in the row past Jasmine's cousin and Erin.
Here's the screen shot. And a few things we saw at the show (from pictures on the Fox website)...
Here are the 12 that we saw.
Although we missed individual performances, we did get to see one of those horrible group numbers.
Clay Aiken performed.
And Jennifer Hudson (You know, the one who won the Oscar?) was in the bottom three. The girl on the left was the one who went home.
The craziest thing, though, was that two weeks later, when we were back at home, I was watching Fox one night and a commercial for the show came on and we were on the commercial! There had been 5 episodes since we were there and they somehow picked that clip of us clapping as the one to put on the commercial! We're right after Paula talks right at the beginning...
CRAZY!
So that was one of my favorite days ever. March 17, 2004.
We're almost to the top 12! Here are my rankings for the American Idol Season 7 Top 16. The boys change rankings each week but the girls seem to be staying pretty consistent.
Top Guys: Michael Johns, David Cook, Jason Castro, David Archuleta (Still not into that guy.)
Middle Guys: David Hernandez, Chikezie Eze
Bottom Guys: Danny Noriega, Luke Menard (noticing a trend with this guy?)
Top Girls: Carly Smithson, Brooke White, Syesha Mercado, Asia'h Epperson
Middle Girls: Ramiele Malubay, Kristy Lee Cook
Bottom Girls: Amanda Overmyer, Kady Malloy (noticing a trend with both of these?)
Unfortunately, votefortheworst.com is championing Danny Noriega and Amanda Overmyer. Looks like those two will probably be around for a while. Boo. I'm very excited about getting the guys and the girls together for the top 12 and Idol only being on twice a week, but not excited about the resurgence of the two hour episodes.
My quick rankings of American Idol's Season 7 Top 20. My opinions of some of these kids seem to be very different from a lot of other people. Oh well. There were several that did manage to change in my rankings quite a bit since last week. The boys did do a lot better this week. Here they are in some semblance of my order from best to worst:
Top Guys: David Hernandez, David Cook, Michael Johns, Jason Castro, David Archuleta (I don't love him as much as the rest of America. Sorry.)
Middle Guys: Robbie Carrico, Chikezie Eze, Danny Noriega
Bottom Guys: Luke Menard, Jason Yeager
Top Girls: Brooke White, Carly Smithson, Syesha Mercado, Alaina Whitaker
I'll keep this short. Here are my groups of the American Idol season 7 top 24 singers as I've placed them in three different groups and have listed them from best to worst within their group. Feel free to argue for your favorite or completely ignore this because you don't watch the show. It's just my opinion so don't attack me. (I feel like I have to say that these days.)
Top Guys: Michael Johns, Jason Castro
Middle Guys: Robbie Carrico, David Archuleta (those two are close to the top for me), David Cook, Colton Berry
Bottom Guys: Danny Noriega (almost in the middle), Jason Yeager, Chikezie Eze, David Hernandez, Garrett Haley, Luke Menard
Middle Girls: Brooke White, Kady Malloy, Alexandrea Lushington, Ramiele Malubay (All of these girls are about even for me and could all switch to my top list with minimal effort.)
Bottom Girls: Kristy Lee Cook (I want her in the middle!), JoAnne Borgella, Amanda Overmyer, Amy Davis
I obviously liked the girls WAY better than the boys. I'd be happy if there were 8 girls and 4 boys in the top 12, but unfortunately it doesn't work that way.
I got a comment on my last post about someone putting a link to my poll somewhere so that everyone would vote for Taylor Hicks. I found out where. It's at the Taylor Hicks fan site. They've been coming and voting for him. I'm going to leave the poll up though because a bunch of people have come by that agree with me and have voted for others. So we'll just see where this goes...
If you have watched American Idol for any time at all, I hope that you would agree with me that Taylor Hicks is easily the worst of the six winners so far. I never liked him from the time his big gray head walked into the auditions. His dancing, if you could call it that rather than seizing, is awkward and hard to watch and his voice just isn't that great. I have no idea how he managed to pull in enough votes to beat Katharine McPhee in season 6. Apparently some producers somewhere have decided that they agree with me because Taylor no longer appears in the opening credits. During the opening credits of the show, they show performances of the past winners in the background of the animation. The jerky awkward clip of the Taylor was shown at the very end of the credits last season (Season 6). Now that season 7 has started and they have a new winner, Jordin Sparks appears at the end and Taylor Hicks is missing. That's fine by me. He was horrible. When he should be shown you can see his body seizing up on the screen, but they don't show his face. (It's hard to tell on this video, but you can notice if you watch it on the tv.) I taped the credits and showed them at regular speed, then I slowed it down to show you where each person is and where Taylor isn't. Waste of time? Yes. Interesting? Maybe. Do you care? Probably not.
You probably didn't notice this either, but during all of the auditions with all of the backgrounds that have the former idol winners on it, they never showed Taylor's picture. Again, fine by me.
Also: New poll about American Idol on the side. Looks like the last poll had the most people liking reality shows, but ready for real tv to come back. Luckily the strike is over and we can all rejoice. :)
It looks like it's going to be a great season. From the looks of it, I think the girls are going to be quite a bit better than the boys this year. This seems to generally be true though. The girls who have won the show (Kelly, sort of Fantasia, Carrie, and Jordin) have done much better than the guys who have won (Ruben and *shudder* Taylor.) Of the 27 names that I put out there the other day, 15 of them were chosen for the top 24. However, half of the guys chosen have never been seen before, except for just a few seconds. The producers really seem to give certain people great advantages over others with how much they show them. It sure works for me! But when the voting starts, I always listen to everyone, whether or not I've heard them before. So here we go. AI Season 7 Top 24:
The Girls: ♥ Kristy Lee Cook - Amazing Grace girl ♥ Brooke White - The nanny who plays the piano and completely adorable Alaina Whitaker - Only 16 years old Kady Malloy - Did the impressions of Britney and Carrie Underwood in auditions ♥ Carly Smithson - Irish tattoo girl Ramiele Malubay - Tiny asian girl
Amanda Overmyer - Rock 'n' roll nurse - I don't really care for this one Amy Davis - I didn't like her in her audition
The Guys: ♥ Michael Johns - Australian guy
♥ David Archuleta - 16 year old kid whose vocal cords had been paralyzed
David Cook - Kind of sounds like Chris Daughtry Chikezie Eze - Had auditioned in the past Danny Noriega - Effeminate guy with pretty cool hair Jason Castro - first time we've seen this guy Luke Menard - Who? Robbie Carrico - I wrote "pretty good, rockish" during his audition Garrett Haley - Eh? Jason Yeager - Who's this guy? David Hernandez - Good not great Colton Berry - I don't know
These are my thoughts based on not very much. The hearts are obviously for people that I already love. Those opinions generally don't change, but I'll let you know. I'll keep the AI posts shorter from now on. They should consist of People Who Need To Leave Now and People Who Should Be In The Finale. Happy (end of) Valentines Day!
This is cute, but at the same time I wish I hadn't seen it because I totally recognize some of that hair. I'm one of those people who don't like to be spoiled at all about the future happenings on shows. Oh well. Hollywood round should still be very exciting! It will be on tonight (Tuesday) from 7-9 on FOX.
By the way, also coming back tonight... an incredibly awesome show that was canceled and brought back under the demand of the fans (Jericho! - 10/9pm on CBS) and my most guilty pleasure that I've watched since the first season (Big Brother 9! - 9/8pm on CBS)
Oops. It's been since January 23rd that I've posted about American Idol. Writing down everything that happened just wore me out, so I'm going to do this last audition post differently. Here is a list of the people I really liked from all of the auditions that I hope do well in Hollywood and a little description to help you remember them. Look for exclamation points at the end of people I really really like. Philadelphia: Junot Joiner - His mom took off her shoes. :) Angela Martin - Looks like she sang at weddings Kristy Lee Cook - Cagefighter - this girl was A-mazing!! Chris Watson - I don't remember anything about him. Brooke White - the nanny! Dallas: Alaina Whitaker - I don't remember anything about her. Kady Malloy - did impressions of Britney and Carrie Drew Poppelreiter - the farmer kid - He was excellent! Nina Shaw - sang Whitney, from Burleson San Diego: Perrie Cataldo - the single dad of the boy with long hair - Very good! Michael Johns - the Australian guy - Very VERY good! Carly Smithson - disqualified two years ago for being a foreigner :) David Archuleta - his vocal cords had been paralyzed Charleston: Jeffrey Lampkin - came with his sister and wore a tie on his head London Weidberg - stopped singing to take care of her sick dad - Wonderful! Omaha: Samantha Sidley - Ryan came in and judged her and she sang Norah Jones David Cook - sang Living On a Prayer, sounds like Chris Daughtry - pretty good! Leo Marlowe - homecoming "queen" - feminine guy Miami: Brittany Wescott - 1/2 of the big girlfriends who came together, sang My Guy - good! Ramiele Malubay - the tiny little Asian girl - She had a great voice! Syesha Mercado - beautiful smile and big hair - sang Think and was great! Atlanta: Alexandrea Lushington - great-grandma was there with her - She was excellent! Asia'h Epp... - her dad had just died - she sounded like she was straining but could be very good I didn't get the end of her name because THIS was on the screen the whole show:
Etc. Auditions: Cardin Lee McKinney - sang Dreamgirls - Simon didn't like her but I did JoAnne Borgella - sang at Madison Square Garden - I liked her! Chikezie Eze - has audtioned before Danny Noriega - kind of feminine, but smooth good voice
And to wrap it up, one of the funnier things from this year's auditions:
1. Apparently the Holy Spirit's name is also Ashley 2. Her voice is more maturing. 3. Her vocal lessons have taught her some amazing skillz in making her scales sound like an ambulance siren.
Coming this week... My favorite: Hollywood week! Bring on the good stuff, baby!
Time for some San Diego and Charleston American Idol auditions!
January 22 - San Diego Auditions Tetiana "Long Blonde Girl" Ostapowych - I think Paula died at one point during this girl's audition. She was pretty good and made it through, but I don't think she'll last long.
Perrie "My Son Looks Like A Daughter" Cataldo - Just cut that kid's hair please. This was the single dad of an adorable little boy with ridiculously long hair. He was very good. One of the best guys I've seen so far.
Michael "Australia" Johns - Wait, this guy's even better than Perrie! I'm always amazed how foreign accents don't really come through in song. This guy is going to go far, I'm sure.
Valerie "Not Mariah Carey" Reyes - She sounded like she was honking during this horrible Mariah impersonation. Then there was that last screech, I mean note.
Monique "Three People Dressed Me" Gibson - She's not Whitney Houston
Christopher "I Came With Monique" Baker - Too many bad singers believe that children are our future. Singing it over and over will not make it better. I think that's one of my rules.
Samantha "I Love Simon" Musa - Sang Aretha and was actually pretty good at it. I'm surprised Simon let her crazy friend sit on his lap.
Blake "Statue of Liberty" Boshnack - If only he'd come as a human 10 times ago, maybe he would have found out that he's not that great and wouldn't have had to waste all that time and money continuing to audition. These people are so delusional.
Alberto "Biggest American Idol FAN" Hurtado - First, his long fingernails really bothered me. Second, his hair/sideburns really bothered me. Third, his spinning Barbie amused me. Fourth, his heart on his sleeve was funny.
David "Vocal Cord Paralysis" Archuleta - The way he sounded when talking made me think he wouldn't be good, but he was. Not as good as Perrie and Michael though.
Carly "Disqualified Two Years Ago" Smithson - I'm glad this girl came back. I don't really remember her, but she's pretty good.
January 23 - Charleston Auditions
Ray "Black Clay Aiken" Henderson - I will admit he did sound a lot like Clay, but the way he was moving around and showboating made me a little dizzy.
DeAnna "With a Capital A" Prevatte - She's not Kellie Pickler. And please put your tank top strap back up on your shoulder, darlin'.
After yet another crowd of 10,000 people trying to say something completely indistinguishable together, we're back.
Randy Stark and Crystal Ortiz - Aw. They met on the American Idol message boards. How adorable. They should have stayed there. How does it go? "I'm so much cooler online?"
Michelle and Jeffrey "We're Not Married" Lampkin - I was on the phone when they came on and thought they were married. Nope. Siblings. After replaying it, I noticed, before Simon said the same thing, that Jeffrey is way better than Michelle. And funnier.
Ah, another good montage of people singing a song by a former American Idol. This time Carrie Underwood's Before He Cheats. Nice.
Amy Catherine "I Just Want To Put Her In My Little Pocket" Flynn - This was the girl who gives speeches about abstinence. She was just adorable. I'm glad that she sang well because I want to see her for a while. She has such a soft voice though, so she needs to work on building up her power before Hollywood (which I know has actually already happened) to last longer.
London "Excellent" Weidberg - She stopped singing to take care of her sick dad and now she's back! She sang Billie Holiday and I wrote down the same word that Randy used: excellent.
On Day 2, I have no idea what Paula was wearing, but it was horrible. Possibly socks for sleeves?
Lyndsey "I Fly Huge Planes" Goodman - I thought this girl was pretty good, but the judges didn't ask my opinion unfortunately.
Aretha "Not Aretha" Codner - There's some boobs. And some belt. She tried Whitney and failed. She thought she could argue her way in, but it just didn't work.
Joshua "My Talent Is Too Big For This Competition" Boson - Other nickname possibilities: "Not Jennifer Hudson," "The Judges Sucks," or "The Next WORLD Idol"
Oliver "This Is My Twelve Hour Old Baby" Highman - That was a great story to show through the whole episode since it happened and all, but I was upset that he ended up not being good enough to make it. I liked him, but again, I wasn't asked.
Three more audition episodes left: Omaha, Miami, and Atlanta. See you then!
So here I am with my recap of the first two night of American Idol 7. To quote Randy Jackson: "Season 7 - what?!" I decided that I would take notes (I don't know how long this will last.) so I can accurately make fun of these people. Please tell me if you read this. I won't waste my time next week if nobody read it. Or I'll just make it a lot shorter. 8 of my 10 rules were broken in the first two nights. Numbers 3 and 5 haven't been broken. Yet. Here we go...
January 15 - Philadelphia Auditions
First things first. There's Paula's white bra.
Joey "I Lost 204 Pounds" Catalano - They started with someone good! His voice is nice and smooth.
After commercial break we get a "Welcome to Philadelphia" from a guy that is probably the creepy Ben Franklin from the episode of The Office aptly named "Ben Franklin". Oogey.
Alaa "I Want to Love a Girl From Hair to Her Nipple" Youakeem - Gross.
Melanie Nyema - Taylor Hicks' back-up singer. I already know she's better than him.
James "Crash Test Dummies" Lewis - I heard this guy singing "Let My People Go" on the radio recap this morning and was laughing so hard. He and his weird twisted tongue were hilarious.
Junot Joiner - You gotta love a guy whose mom is so excited she takes off her shoes. He and the two other guys that they showed with him were all really good.
Temptress "This Girl Really Scares Me" Brown - I felt sorry for her because she WAS sweet, but she was the first one they showed to break my rule #4. Jennifer Hudson is not someone you want to try to imitate.
Mark "Cricket Noises" Hayes - It always cracks me up when someone sings a Christmas song. And badly.
Udgeet "Can You Explain?" Sampat - Sang Frank Sinatra's My Way. I also heard this on the radio this morning and couldn't stop laughing. It was even funnier watching it.
During the montage of people singing "I Love Rock N Roll" someone broke rule #10. They had their lyrics on a piece of paper.
Alexis "I Can't Pick a Nickname There Are So Many" Cohen - Possibilities: "I'm like a pirate." "I'm going for actressing." "If I could legally moon ya, I would." "Willem Dafoe" "Builds up anger"...
Angela "Not the One from The Office" Martin - This girl was great. She just needs to "de-weddingize". I agree. The moving and snapping bothered me.
End of day one: We find out that Simon has no feelings for other people and can't celebrate with others. Hmph.
Alyse "Really Long Last Name" W. - I'd like my eardrums unburst, please.
Milo "Old Guy" Turk - No sex allowed! I already thought "creepy" before Simon even said it. I liked the line "Sex is weak. Love is strong."
Kristy Lee Cook - I'm putting my money on this girl. And I love that she's a cagefighter.
Paul "Creepiest Audition Ever" Marturano - What the... stalker? I will be having nightmares about this guy. I hope Paula hired a bodyguard for the rest of her time in Philly.
Beth "Little Liz" Stalker - I like this girl alot more than the judges did. I'm glad she made it through.
Then there was the bikini wearing hairy dancing guy. He broke all rules ever written, but my rules #1 and #7 - Costumes and Dancing
Chris "When I'm Witchu" Watson - This guy was really good but I don't remember anything else about him.
Christina "Leia... duh" Tolisano - Removable hair buns. Hm.
Brooke White - As a fellow nanny, I adore this girl. I was proud of her for ignoring Simon while he was being dirty. She is super cute and has an excellent voice.
January 16 - Dallas Auditions
First things first here - When they came back from the first commercial and showed cattle walking down the street, that was a shot from Fort Worth, not Dallas. Get it right. They are not the same. I was hoping to see someone I knew somewhere in these crowds, but I didn't.
The second guy up broke rule #4 again. They just don't listen.
Beth "Not Kelly Clarkson" Maddox - Just the first of many tonight.
Alaina Whitaker - She was really good, but I again don't remember anything else about her.
Bruce "Key Necklace" Dickson - His voice was just ok but he made anyway. I was more creeped out that his dad held his heart until he gave it to his future wife. That's more of a mom kind of thing. However, what made the whole piece was the background music of "Right Here Waiting." So funny!
Zpia - I only got this mohawked girl's nickname. She wasn't good but somehow made it anyway. Simon referred to past background vocalists coming in acting like "whipped donkeys". Is that what he thought of the amazing Melinda Dolittle?
Brandon "Bag O' Fingernails" Green - GROSS! Despite this digustingness he still made it. I hope I don't have to look at that again in Hollywood.
Kayla Hatfield - The girl was in an accident when she was 18 and now wears yellow clothes and smiles a lot. Her voice was horrible but she made it. I don't see her making it past the first day in Hollywood.
Kady "I Do Impressions" Malloy - She was good at all of the voices she did. She broke rule #2 by singing Unchained Melody, but it was forgiven because she did well. She'll go far, I hope.
Douglas "Can I Warm Up" Davidson - Broke rule #9 - Once you're bad, you're always bad. And nobody should sing Bon Jovi either.
Angela "Just Married" Reilly - She didn't seem to excited about her husband. Her husband seemed pretty excited about her, though.
Kyle "Governor of Oklahoma" Ensley - One of those you're suprised that they had a good voice. Way to go, kid.
Tammy "Boring" Tuzinski - Broke rule #6 - You are not Celine Dion.
Colton "Shouting" Swon - He sounded like Rascal Flatts to me. He made it, but we'll see.
Drew "Farmer Cutie" Poppelreiter - Sang the George Strait song and rocked it. I hope he goes far.
Kyle "Guyliner" Reinneck - He creeped me out. He also, along with half of the audtioners, attempted Kelly Clarkson. He also did one of my two favorite things that audtioners do: Held up the fake microphone. (The other would be holding the fake earpiece.)
Oh, the Kelly Clarkson montage. Good ol' rule #4.
Nina "Rules Were Made To Be Broken" Shaw - The Burleson girl who sang Whitney Houston and was really good.
And the best guy of the night... Renaldo "I Am Your Brother" Lupuz/Lapuz/Something - Golden piece of comedy right there. I was rolling. Especially at the end when Paula started dancing in front of him. Loved it.
One week down. Eighteen weeks to go. I love this show.
It was at the very top of my list.
This was October 2006 for the season 3 premiere.
Bye, LOST! What a great six years.
I pick Lee. Jake likes Crystal.
