Ding, dong. The witch is dead.

Ryan's comments about Kellie were sophomoric, but they cracked me up.

What a great night. Carly in the bottom 3 AND Amanda goes home.

The real winners are the people who will be buying tickets to the tour. No Amanda.

I thought Carly's reaction when Ryan told her she could have a seat was enormously instructive. That is a girl with serious self-esteem issues. Having her "next teen sensation" experience may have been the worst possible thing that could have happened to her from a development standpoint.

And to boggle you further, I have to say this: I really can't stand country music as a genre, but I was startled by how believable Kellie Pickler was as a performing artist. It almost makes me begin to suspect that these American Idol people know what they're doing when they winnow the contestants down to the final 24.

I'm on tape delay here, watching Tuesday performances right now... I can't believe Simon didn't like Carly's performance, I thought that right there put her head and shoulders above everybody.

My wife and I both thought Pickles was trying to sound like Dolly Parton, instead of like herself. But then again, most country singers try to add some sort of forced infliction to their voice, which is one of the reasons I can't stand that type of music.

I can say this, having sat through a LeeAnn Rimes concert - she may not have Rimes' voice, but at least she doesn't stand dead still for 45 minutes and pass it off as a "concert performance." LeeAnn Rimes makes Kristy Lee Cook look like Tina Turner by comparison.

I'm trying to picture you at a LeeAnn Rimes concert without giggling.

Hold on.

Nope, still no luck.

Man, I suck. Just can't do it.

Carry on.

I think this explains it best:

She's really let herself go. I used to think she just had fat thighs, but now she looks like a dude, I swear!

;)

It was the tour she did with Bryan White. My wife was a big Bryan White fan for some reason. I bought her tickets for Christmas. Rimes' band was awesome, actually, which made her performance all the more bizarre. They were energetic, running around the stage, and she literally did not move one time from where the techs placed her mic stand.

I've also seen Debbie Gibson in concert, for a high school girlfriend. That one was worth it, too, but in a far shorter-term way...

Hell, I'd have gone to see Debbie Gibson in concert in high school. I probably would have licked the polish off her toenails if I could have gotten close enough to the stage.

dola...

That was right before the period in which I realized that an even greater fantasy was to have Axl Rose drip his whiskey sweat all over me.

In a completely hardcore, heavy metal, heterosexual way, I mean.

BTW, the opening song medley was soooo bad. Multiple terrible vocals, Ramiele's mic apparently didn't work, someone bumped a cameraman, and I'm pretty sure Amanda's mic was turned off until she sang that last part. She was hardly trying to lip sync through most of it.

It isn't showing off so much as it is "just wearing a sleeveless top"

When you have something that ugly and prominent on your arm, continuing to wear sleeveless shirts/blouses is the same as making a conscious decision to show off your tattoo.

Anyway, I'm glad she was in the bottom 3. It's one of those things where you wonder if this was done to prompt a sudden surge of fans for her, but who knows. Unless she completely bombs, I expect her to not be in the bottom 3 next week thanks to a flood of fans calling to "rescue" her. But no one aside from David A has built a decent fan base, so it may just be that she has a big enough base to get her into the top 8-10, but in the bigger picture, there aren't THAT many people who want to see her succeed. I reacted negatively to her attempt to twist her industry history into a sympathy ploy; perhaps voters did, too.

The whole Kellie Pickler appearance pissed me off. The only reason to look forward to her performance was boobs, and you couldn't see shit with that dress of hers. I'm done with American Idol. I'm done. Unless they can promise Kathy Griffin on "Idol Gives Back" or whatever it's called, I'll never watch again.

Oh, wait. It'll still be on my TV twice a week because I think my wife wants to snuggle Jason Castro.

"my wife"

That would be called Idol Gives Up.

Hey, you can have her. Just be ready for some hot hot four-way action with her, Jason Castro, and a blonde nurse who doubles as an Arena Football cheerleader.

OK NOW THAT JUST HURTS

Idol Throws Back?

Idol Throws Up?

I'm trying my best to work with what you're giving me...

I am so fucking done.

THIS.....


is American Gargoyle!

pretty much strangling myself now etc

Taking a break from Pumpy abuse...

I might have missed the official announcement since I was FFing through most of last night, but the 4 mentors this year are Mariah Carey, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Dolly Parton, and Neil Diamond. I'm thinking perhaps songs from Ringo Starr's solo career might be preferable to some of those.

EDIT: I guess Mariah isn't next week. It's songs from the year the contestants were born. And Kimberly Locke will be singing on the results show. Hopefully she'll do In-a-gadda-da-vida so they won't have time for the Ford commercial and call in segments of the show.

On that list, I'd put him at #1.

Seeing Amanda perform during Broadway Week would have been GOLD, dammit.. :(

Ksyrup, I think you are cuckoo about Carly. Just sayin'.

You know, if they can get Neil Diamond, why hasn't there been a Billy Joel week?

That is an excellent question.

I suppose it could be because he's gone bald and gained like 500 lbs.

Man I was hoping that one of those live calls would be someone saying "Bababooey, Bababooey!"

Then I relized they probably weren't really live.

Oh, I know she's good. I just don't like her.

You can hear them reacting to the answers. Seems live to me...

I must have missed the reactions. The first two just asked questions and were never heard from again. Then I threw up and changed the channel.

Cause didn't they have one last season or two seasons ago?

I think they may have done an episode of songs written by Billy Joel awhile ago. I seem to recall him being on the show (via video, not live), but it was before the current "mentor" format.

I checked wikipedia to make sure I wasn't crazy and found that there was a Billy Joel week during Season 2.




I remember this season pretty well because it was right after my wife and I got married and we had a ton of snow that winter, so we watched way more TV than we should have.

Snowed-in newlyweds spending all that time watching TV? Say it isn't so...

After seeing the list of contestants who did the Billy Joel week (I didn't watch that season at all), I'm starting to wonder who decides which contestants get to go by a single name throughout the competition. Apparently, that season had a Trenyce, and that was followed by Fantasia. Two seasons later, there's Mandisa. Now, there's Chikezie. It's not like any of these people had last names that were hard to pronounce, and only Chikezie's could be considered exotic at all.

I wish I was young enough to be on the show. I'd want them to just call me Pumpy.

Thanks for doing that research, Swaggs. I didn't really start watching Idol until Season 5, so it looks like (horribile dictu!) I missed it.

If that's what you kids call it these days...

Me too

Ah, now I remember the Billy Joel week very well. That was when Kimberley Locke had just an amazing performance and I think that was the first time any one saw her as challenging for the title (though I think people thought no way was she going to catch Ruben and Clay).

Sucks for her...

That list says Kimberly was voted off, but there were two of them.

I think we picked up watching this show sporadically during Season 2. But I don't remember this week, even if I saw it.

Maybe Archuletta will do "Baby Got Back" from 1992.

Gotcha...

If he does, I will do my own video mimicking his performance, and I'll post it on YouTube.

Make it happen.

He was born in 1990 (AFAICT).

Funny thing is, they've unintentionally turned next week into 80s week, Part 2. According to the list I've seen, only David A (1990) and Michael Johns (1978) were NOT born in the 80s.

"Poison" by Bell Biv Devoe is 1990.

OK, this is a big spoiler that you may not want to read. It affects an upcoming show, but not the competition:

This is the list of years born, although I haven't bothered to verify any of them:

Brooke White (1983)
David Archuleta (1990)
Carly Smithson (1983)
David Cook (1982)
Ramiele Malubay(1987)
Chikezie (1985)
Syesha Mercado (1987)
Jason Castro (1987)
Kristy Lee Cook (1984)
Michael Johns (1978)

As pointed out Kim Caldwell was the suckier one (the "rock" chick). Kim Locke went on to finish 3rd, IIRC.

"Ice Ice Baby" is 1990!

OK, change my idea to this. If Archuleta sings it, I'll mimic the performance and post on YouTube.

Brooke White (1983) - Straight From The Heart, Bryan Adams
David Archuleta (1990) - Vogue, Madonna
Carly Smithson (1983) - Total Eclipse Of The Heart, Bonnie Tyler
David Cook (1982) - Eye Of The Tiger, Survivor
Ramiele Malubay(1987)
Chikezie (1985) - I Feel For You, Chaka Khan
Syesha Mercado (1987) - I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me), Whitney Houston
Jason Castro (1987) - C'est La Vie, Robbie Nevil
Kristy Lee Cook (1984) - Somebody's Watching Me, Rockwell
Michael Johns (1978) - We Are The Champions/We Will Rock You, Queen

Sucks for David Cook that he was born a couple years too early to take advantage of all the hard rock of the mid-to-late 80s. 1982...he's stuck with REO Speedwagon, Loverboy, Styx, Journey, etc. Although as I recall, most of those bands had releases in 80, 81 or 83 (at least albums, maybe some singles were released into 1982).

Maybe he can cover Don't Tell Me You Love Me by Night Ranger.

That works. Although that song has not aged well, IMO.

She's so forgettable you either forgot to give her a song, or can't come up with the 1987 music equivalent to a shrug.

Songs that David A. will probably pick

1. Nothing Compares 2 U
2. How Am I Supposed To Live Without You
3 Don't Know Much
4 I Wish It Would Rain Down


The song that I would have thought he'd take - Another Day In Paradise, he already sang.

867-5309 (Jenny), Tommy Tutone


1982!


(Oh) Pretty Woman, Van Halen 1982.

Oh shi.


Head To Toe, Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam


It will be a short song.

Your pick for Brooke was actually very astute. I could very easily see her nailing that one or "Total Eclipse of the Heart" (which you gave to Carly).

I'm pulling for some Chaka Kahn. I think there's a harmonica sounding part in that one.

I've seen Survivor (or what's left of them) impromptu-play in a small bar that contained at max 5 people.

I think Survivor is one of those bands that has split into different fragments, so there are many versions running around (like Foreigner). We saw Survivor back around 1998 I think, and it was basically the second singer (Jamison, the one who joined after Eye of the Tiger) with a young, energetic band, and they were really good. Dude couldn't hit the high notes anymore, though, so one of the other guys would pick up in mid-line to sing parts Jamison couldn't. That was pretty sad. But the show wasn't bad at all. 10 years later, not sure how I'd feel about seeing them.

The first Survivor singer does the Real Men of Genius commercials.

All joking aside about Amanda, it's too bad her talent didn't match her down-to-earthiness.

Song she would have performed next week for “Birth Year”, “On the Dark Side” by John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band.

When Simon told her “You can smile now”, That particular day I had caught the bug that everyone else had already. I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to sound like, ”Oh, woe is me. I am sick.” Now that I’m off the show, I can tell you I just didn’t feel good and wanted to get off the stage as quick as I could.

Does she think the spat with Simon hurt her? I was just being honest with him. With Simon, the only thing with him is he’s a male and men have huge egos and pride and they gotta have the last word, but he didn’t get the last word. I did. I didn’t consider that an argument. I was just being honest when I said it’s fine if I’m selling 50 tickets in a bar in Lafayette.

Would she ever go back to being a nurse? I might have to. You never know. Number 11 is still pretty far down there on the food chain. Hopefully I created enough attention that somebody wants to pick me up and let me do something with music. But chances are they won’t and I might end up right back where I started. I’ll probably give it a good six months or so and beat the pavement. If this ends up being my 15 minutes of fame I will gracefully bow out and move on to do something different. This will not be the unicorn I will chase for the rest of my life.

OH HOW DOWN TO EARTH!! SHE HAS A GOOD HEAD ON HER SHOULDERS SHE SHOULD GO FAR

:rolleyes:

edited to add: good riddance

she's generally right

No, she isn't. :)

Heh.

It's "down to earth" in the sense that she wasn't being politically correct, she just tells it like she sees it. And with Simon, she's dead on.

dammit i wanted the last word :(


GOOD RIDDANCE AGAIN!

oh that simon, he's just so rude and mean. boooo simon.

It's not that he's rude and mean, but his ego. I could tell that by his reaction to David Cook - twice he's called him out for being smug. Sounds to me like someone feels threatened by another Alpha Male in the room.

I'm being serious. Is that really what it sounds like to you?

It sounds like that to me. I'm agree with Ksyrup.

I think you are taking schtick entirely too seriously.

His shtick is being mean and rude. Ego is part of it, too, of course, but I see no reason for him to have reacted like he did to David C. Particularly the first time, when the dude said something back to him and Simon immediately went back at him. That was off-the-cuff, that was not shtick. And he purposefully brought up the "smug" thing again this week after the guy's performance. "I don't think you were as good as you thought you were."

I think he likes him as a contestant, but they are too similar personality-wise for Simon to like him. Randy's too goofy to pose a threat to Simon. This guy...it's like having two BMOC QBs on the same team.

wow, i'm in a whole new league of analysis.

I defer to the experts on this one.

I think Simon likes David C. and is trying to help him. David comes off as cocky and contestants have been voted off earlier than their talent would indicate for a bad attitude before. I think he is trying to give him genuinely useful advice to improve his chances on surviving.

That's not what "they" would have you believe.


Sounds like a good point. What other reason is that fidget still on the show other than how nice she is.

I take the comments as being too personal. Repeating the same comments like that says to the audience that he doesn't get it. I don't think that's helping him. But who knows. I just sensed a little something more to it in the way Simon acted.

I think this is correct.

What's she have to do with Simon?

On Amanda:

What I said to my fiance last night - I bet she picks up with a band and is able to make a living off of music for some period of time (say 5 years). I doubt she's ever big or anything, but enough to tour small venues as an opening act, etc.

As much as we all dig on her - she was pretty good at what she does. A band and style of music that fits her and she will appeal strongly to a niche audience.

if you theorize that the niceness factor translates to more votes then simon is helping DC

and I just like to say "fidget"

I think even his comments about the popularity contest vs talent contest were calculated to help David Cook and to remind the audience that they shouldn't hold his personality against him.

Edit: While also being a subtle reminder to David that he might want to moderate his personality.

He's not, though. So he's shooting himself in the foot, because DC is doing well and will probably make the top 6. Simon likes DC to the extent that he has a chance to do well and sell albums.

A couple of weeks ago, when asked who he thought had a chance to win, DC was not in Simon's top 5. Last week, he was, and Carly and Michael Johns were not. You know why? His top 5 matched the top 5 sellers on itunes. DC made the list, therefore Simon thinks he can win. But that doesn't mean he has to like him on a personal level. And pointing out a personality trait many people find off-putting isn't being helpful. He's the "resident rocker" on this year's show; in order to pull that off, I think he has to show a bit of ego.

Which seems backwards to begin with. I much rather my rock stars and entertainers be cocky than the shrinking little 4 foot person or the little vunerable cute kid.

G-Dam America. Learn how to vote for the right people.

I didn't get that at all. I took that as a comment to the voters that even though David A has overwhelming fan support (among others), the outcome isn't (or shouldn't be) a foregone conclusion because there are other talented people in the competition.

Exactly.

I agree with that. However, I think past year's voting patterns have shown that the majority of idol viewers do not.

I'd rather not listen to entertainers talk at all. Play your music, and I'll decide whether it belongs on my mp3 player.

Learning about them as people only detracts from the music. Learning about their political opinions only makes me feel negatively toward them.

I suppose one could say the same about game developers. Oops.

It's amazing to me some of the people that are left.

Who exactly is voting for Ramielle? Baffling.

Castro? That guy is a grade a weirdo with zero personality. Ok, maybe he can sing a little but that dude is creepy.

Harmonica boy?

Just the fact none of them were even in the bottom 3 is mezmorizing.

Regardless of her opinions, Amanda does NOT belong on my MP3 player.