Hello again,
My last blog ended with my review of Keith Urban and Kris Allen's duet. Next Jasmine Murray, Megan Joy, Lil Rounds, Alexis Grace and Allison Iraheta all took the stage singing Fergie's "Glamorous". That segued into Fergie taking the stage singing "Big Girls Don't Cry". Fergie was looking amazing and that led to the reformed Black Eyed Peas taking the stage. They sang their new song "Boom Boom Pow". I had heard a lot of good things about this song, but had never actually heard this song. Honestly I was sort of bored by it. I'm a big Black Eyed Peas fan, but definitely not a fan of that song.
Next was another one of those lame Golden Idol Awards, this award was for Best Attitude. And the "winner" was Katrina Darrell aka Bikini Girl. (How many girls will we see wearing bikinis next season, including some girls who shouldn't be wearing bikinis.) Again another contrived producer's excuse to get her back on the stage in her bikini. She doesn't have the prettiest face ever but her body is near perfect. She started singing "Vision Of Love", sounding okay. Then out of nowhere Kara D. took the stage joining her in a sort of duet. There's some speculation whether this was a surprise to Darrell or not. In the end it doesn't really matter. Two interesting things about this performance, the first is Kara has a pretty amazing body as well. Even more amazing is that Kara can sing. That last thing was a revelation. She should use her exposure to get her singing career going. That would be a favor to all "AI" fans. She isn't that good of a songwriter and she's a terrible judge.
Next up was one of the many highlights of the night. Cyndi Lauper, looking amazing at 55, and Allison Iraheta sang a new arrangement of Lauper's "Time After Time". That cool new arrangement could be a hit today. Two great singers singing one of the classic 80's songs. That led into Lionel Richie and Danny Gokey taking the stage for a two song duet. They first sang a song "I Just Wanna Go" (or something like that) and that was an okay song. Then thankfully Richie and Gokey sang one of Richie's classics "All Night Long". That was great at least Lionel's part. Unfortunately Gokey stunk up the place with his less than vocals and his horrible white boy dancing. (Right now on Idolatry", Michael Slezak has a five part interview with Gokey. I could only watch about the first half of the first episode. Gokey is really annoying and he has a really off putting personality.)
Next up was Adam's journey. It seemed like the crowd response was louder for his journey than for Kris Allen's. That led into two great performances. Adam took the stage and sang a very good version of Peter Criss's "Beth". Although I was wondering why Lambert was wearing the "Edward Scissorhands" look. Kiss then joined him on stage and did fantastic versions of "Detroit Rock City" and "Rock N' Roll All Night". That was extremely cool. Although Adam your patented screech has got to go, it's so annoying. It only detracts from your performances. Later Gene Simmons was questioning Lambert's rock credentials, I think he's nuts. Lambert is a great rock singer, even though he doesn't fit that prototypical rocker look.
It was so good to see some true rock and roll on the Idol stage. There was more rock and roll yet to come. Next up was guitar virtuoso Carlos Santana. He played the guitar part on his hit "Black Magic Woman" like the master he is as the Idols sang. That led into Matt Giraud singing some of Rob Thomas's "Smooth". Another song that Santana had rocked with his guitar. That was very cool and the rock and roll wasn't done yet. Next it was the final Ford video, thank goodness for the DVR.
Steve Martin then took the stage with Megan Joy and Michael Sarver. Martin played the banjo and Sarver and Joy sang his original composition "Pretty Flowers". I wasn't expecting much from that collaboration but it turned out to be very cool. Ryan asked Steve Martin who he thought was going to win. Martin had the line of the night with, "I know it's a long shot, but I hope I do".
Next the Top 13 Idols sang Rod Stewart's "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" which led to the 64 year old Rod Stewart taking the stage. He sang one of his classics, and in my opinion probably his best song, "Maggie May". That is a very, very cool song and he still has the pipes to sing it. He wasn't like some of those old disco singers "AI" had dug up for disco week.
Speaking of dug up, we then had to put up with the return of Tatiana Del Torture. She's so damn annoying. The Top 13 returned to the stage singing Queen's "We Are The Champions" with Queen. (Rumors swirl that Queen would like to work with Adam Lambert, but my question does he want to work with them?)
At the 2:00 hour mark we are about to find out who the winner is. For me a very anticlimactic finish after all those great performances. I could care less who wins once the most talented of the bunch, Allison Iraheta, was voted off. In a fairly big upset Kris Allen is the winner. Please Kris Allen use some of your winnings to buy your Mom a dress and please burn that nasty red thing she was wearing. Kris Allen then was punished for winning by being forced to perform "No Boundaries" again. I'm sure Lambert was happy he didn't have to sing that janky song again.
So ends another season of "Idol". I'm glad that it's over, it's so nice to have my Tuesdays and Wednesdays back again. Although when it starts getting cold I'll be hankering for Season 9 of "AI" to begin. Hopefully the producers will make some big and productive changes before then. Kara has got to go. We need judges that know the difference between what "early Aerosmith" is and what it isn't. All the time they cut from the mostly lame judge critiques can go to giving the singers more time to sing. (Imagine that the singers having more time to sing on a singing competition. "AI" producers that is why us fans tune in. We don't tune in for Simon Cowell, Ryan Seacrest or the seemingly never ending torrent of filler.) I'd actually like the Idols to sing the full song, no matter how the long the song is. They can always expand the show. We really don't need the judges telling us what to think.
Also the producers need to find a good song for the winning Idol to sing. Maybe even recycle a song that has been around for awhile. I can't think of an artist that hasn't done at least one cover in their career. I know they won't but it would be nice to get rid of the Ford video. I would also like to have to see the Idols have more time so they can prepare more for their songs.
Hopefully soon I'll find some time to write my No Doubt and Paramore full review. Let me give you a quick heads up. My wife and I watched "Seven Pounds" last night. Whatever you do skip that movie. It's too long and so slow moving. It's a very boring, winding and pointless movie. It tries to tap your emotions but it just bored me.
themusicaddict
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Friday, May 29, 2009
Thursday, May 28, 2009
"AI" Season Finale Part 2
Hello,
I'm sorry it has taken so long to get to this part of my review of the "AI" season finale. Right now I'm in the middle of five straight days, being gone from my house for 11 hours each day. Thankfully I have lunches and breaks when I write quick mobile blogs. Tonight I actually went in and expanded some of my mobile blogs. I just get to the point where I really want to expand on a point, but with only 160 characters I can't.
On with the review of results night for the finals: Ryan Seacrest called this show The Final Showdown and also "one of the biggest nights on television". The hype machine known as "American Idol" continues to be as subtle as a sledgehammer. There were just under 100 million votes for the finale. Don't get me wrong I love "Idol" but by the end of the season I'm ready for it to be over, especially with this season's less than exciting three. It was so nice to come home this week and not have to worry about watching "AI" this week. I'll have to open up some time for TV when the excellent "Mad Men" starts up again soon.
Next was a segment of the show where Randy Jackson was ruthlessly mocked for his stupid "for me, for me" phrase. The way that video was cut was pretty funny. That is one of the 7 phrases he now says, that's up from the five phrases he was using last year. Can we just get rid of him? You'd think the producers would watch that film clip and realize how little Jackson adds to the show. Yeah, I know they won't. He'll be around as long as he wants.
The other judge clips mocked Kara in how she breaks bad news to contestants, usually attached to the word "sweetie". Then Ryan said Paula had the biggest vocabulary. One of the biggest ditzes on TV has the "biggest vocabulary"? Those words must come from her word of the day desk calender. Rereading those last two paragraphs I keep on thinking to myself why do they keep those three judges. The producers lack of changes is what is going to drive this show into the ground. I'd be very surprised if this show survives to it's 11th season. It it survives to it's 11th season it would probably be on the WB.
The Top 13 took the stage in matching white outfits singing Pink's "So What". That actually sounded pretty good. I was thinking please let the camera stay on the gorgeous Megan. She is such a fine looking woman and she now has blond hair. I'm anxious to see what kind of careers she, Allison Iraheta and Alexis Grace will have. I'm not really caring about what kind of career Kris Allen has. For Danny Gokey all I'm hoping is that he fades into obscurity as quickly as possible. My opinion recently dropped even lower of him when I found out he's trying to finangle a spot on "Dancing With The Stars". "Stars" apparently now has a pretty loose definition. Since when did coming in third on a reality show make one a "star"?
Last season's winner, David Cook, then took the stage and sung his new song, "Permanent". Now like Carrie Underwood, he's a true star. It's always good to see him back on the "Idol" stage. I'm so happy that he defeated David Archuleta last season. "AI" made that song available on iTunes to raise money in honor of Cook's brother, who recently died.
Ryan then announced the first of three Golden Idol Awards, this one honoring Nick Mitchell aka Norman Gentle. He won the award for outstanding male performance. That led to his performing "And I'm Telling You I'm Not Going" for the fourth time this season. He has sung that a lot of times, but I still laughed as much as I did the first time he did it. He's such a breath of fresh air and I still think he should be on "AI" every week. He could be a co-host. He's such a breath of fresh air for such a heavily structured show.
Next it was time for this season's jankiest female personality, Lil Rounds. She sang "Cue The Rain" with Queen Latifah. The song was okay. If that is the last time that I ever see Rounds that would be fine with me. She never lived up to all her early season promise. She was one of the biggest disappointments of the season. That led into the next performance when Anoop Desai and Alexis Grace sang "I'm Yours" with Jason Mraz. That was okay, but I'm not sure why that song is so popular. I don't even know if that is one of his 10 best songs.
We then had to see a torture worse that water boarding, Kris Allen's "Idol" journey. I took that as a perfect opportunity for a bathroom break. The part I saw though, I kept on thinking he really won? His "Heartless" performance was fantastic but for me, that was his only highlight of the season. That led into his performance of "Kiss You Now" with Keith Urban. Keith Urban looked like a true star and he overwhelmed Kris Allen so much in star quality. Sometimes when the Idols sing with a much more experienced singer, you remember how much these Idols have to learn.
Part 3 will hopefully be coming this weekend. Also coming up reviews of Green Day's "21st Century Breakdown" and the No Doubt and Paramore concert. themusicaddict
I'm sorry it has taken so long to get to this part of my review of the "AI" season finale. Right now I'm in the middle of five straight days, being gone from my house for 11 hours each day. Thankfully I have lunches and breaks when I write quick mobile blogs. Tonight I actually went in and expanded some of my mobile blogs. I just get to the point where I really want to expand on a point, but with only 160 characters I can't.
On with the review of results night for the finals: Ryan Seacrest called this show The Final Showdown and also "one of the biggest nights on television". The hype machine known as "American Idol" continues to be as subtle as a sledgehammer. There were just under 100 million votes for the finale. Don't get me wrong I love "Idol" but by the end of the season I'm ready for it to be over, especially with this season's less than exciting three. It was so nice to come home this week and not have to worry about watching "AI" this week. I'll have to open up some time for TV when the excellent "Mad Men" starts up again soon.
Next was a segment of the show where Randy Jackson was ruthlessly mocked for his stupid "for me, for me" phrase. The way that video was cut was pretty funny. That is one of the 7 phrases he now says, that's up from the five phrases he was using last year. Can we just get rid of him? You'd think the producers would watch that film clip and realize how little Jackson adds to the show. Yeah, I know they won't. He'll be around as long as he wants.
The other judge clips mocked Kara in how she breaks bad news to contestants, usually attached to the word "sweetie". Then Ryan said Paula had the biggest vocabulary. One of the biggest ditzes on TV has the "biggest vocabulary"? Those words must come from her word of the day desk calender. Rereading those last two paragraphs I keep on thinking to myself why do they keep those three judges. The producers lack of changes is what is going to drive this show into the ground. I'd be very surprised if this show survives to it's 11th season. It it survives to it's 11th season it would probably be on the WB.
The Top 13 took the stage in matching white outfits singing Pink's "So What". That actually sounded pretty good. I was thinking please let the camera stay on the gorgeous Megan. She is such a fine looking woman and she now has blond hair. I'm anxious to see what kind of careers she, Allison Iraheta and Alexis Grace will have. I'm not really caring about what kind of career Kris Allen has. For Danny Gokey all I'm hoping is that he fades into obscurity as quickly as possible. My opinion recently dropped even lower of him when I found out he's trying to finangle a spot on "Dancing With The Stars". "Stars" apparently now has a pretty loose definition. Since when did coming in third on a reality show make one a "star"?
Last season's winner, David Cook, then took the stage and sung his new song, "Permanent". Now like Carrie Underwood, he's a true star. It's always good to see him back on the "Idol" stage. I'm so happy that he defeated David Archuleta last season. "AI" made that song available on iTunes to raise money in honor of Cook's brother, who recently died.
Ryan then announced the first of three Golden Idol Awards, this one honoring Nick Mitchell aka Norman Gentle. He won the award for outstanding male performance. That led to his performing "And I'm Telling You I'm Not Going" for the fourth time this season. He has sung that a lot of times, but I still laughed as much as I did the first time he did it. He's such a breath of fresh air and I still think he should be on "AI" every week. He could be a co-host. He's such a breath of fresh air for such a heavily structured show.
Next it was time for this season's jankiest female personality, Lil Rounds. She sang "Cue The Rain" with Queen Latifah. The song was okay. If that is the last time that I ever see Rounds that would be fine with me. She never lived up to all her early season promise. She was one of the biggest disappointments of the season. That led into the next performance when Anoop Desai and Alexis Grace sang "I'm Yours" with Jason Mraz. That was okay, but I'm not sure why that song is so popular. I don't even know if that is one of his 10 best songs.
We then had to see a torture worse that water boarding, Kris Allen's "Idol" journey. I took that as a perfect opportunity for a bathroom break. The part I saw though, I kept on thinking he really won? His "Heartless" performance was fantastic but for me, that was his only highlight of the season. That led into his performance of "Kiss You Now" with Keith Urban. Keith Urban looked like a true star and he overwhelmed Kris Allen so much in star quality. Sometimes when the Idols sing with a much more experienced singer, you remember how much these Idols have to learn.
Part 3 will hopefully be coming this weekend. Also coming up reviews of Green Day's "21st Century Breakdown" and the No Doubt and Paramore concert. themusicaddict
Hello,
Out of all of No Doubt's CDs I think the best one is "Rock Steady". It has "Hella Good", "Hey Baby", "Making Out", "In My Head", "Detective" and many other solid songs. Tragic Kingdom is also a great CD. No Doubt is trying to use the tour to stir up their creative juices. They plan on making a new CD, once their 55 city tour is over. That new CD should be out in 2010. themusicaddict
Out of all of No Doubt's CDs I think the best one is "Rock Steady". It has "Hella Good", "Hey Baby", "Making Out", "In My Head", "Detective" and many other solid songs. Tragic Kingdom is also a great CD. No Doubt is trying to use the tour to stir up their creative juices. They plan on making a new CD, once their 55 city tour is over. That new CD should be out in 2010. themusicaddict
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
"Terminator Salvation" was pretty cool. I thought it was a lot better than most critics thought. The story was good, the effects were fantastic and I liked the end. If you are wondering the Governor of California, Arnold Schwartznegger made a virtual appearance. He was portraying a Skynet ran Terminator. Was the movie perfect, no but it was pretty darn good. It's a great summer movie. themusicaddict
Monday, May 25, 2009
Hello,
The E Center parking situation sucks. $10 to park at the E Center itself. What a rip! $20 to park across the street. $35 for a shirt, $5 for a popcorn, $3 for a 20 ounce bottled water. What recession? Of course these were the same tickets that were buy one, get one free. That is the way to do it though, get people to buy tickets. Then you can make a lot of money on the back end. There were long lines to buy No Doubt shirts not bad for a band that hasn't toured in several years. Thankfully we found a place to park free. A full review of that great concert is forthcoming soon.
themusicaddict
The E Center parking situation sucks. $10 to park at the E Center itself. What a rip! $20 to park across the street. $35 for a shirt, $5 for a popcorn, $3 for a 20 ounce bottled water. What recession? Of course these were the same tickets that were buy one, get one free. That is the way to do it though, get people to buy tickets. Then you can make a lot of money on the back end. There were long lines to buy No Doubt shirts not bad for a band that hasn't toured in several years. Thankfully we found a place to park free. A full review of that great concert is forthcoming soon.
themusicaddict
"AI" Season Finale Part 1
Hello,
I finally got around to watching this past week's "American Idol" last night. I'll get to that in a moment. We watched "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" last night as a family activity. The best thing I can say about that movie is that it's only 90 minutes long. It's an okay movie and it fits the definition of what is called a "video movie". I'm also going to see "Terminator: Salvation" today. I'm a little nervous as it's only getting a C+ grade from the critics. I'm trying to lessen my expectations. It would be cool to be as blown away as when I saw "Terminator 2" for the first time.
Back to the "AI" season finale: Tuesday night's performance show was one of the most boring episodes of this season. As usual this episode was full of filler and hype, two things I desperately hate. The first performance didn't start until 7:08 and it wasn't until 7:19 when the second performance was over. Four minutes of singing in 19 minutes of airtime. For me this season a very uninteresting Top Three. (Again I cannot emphasize enough how little I want to go see the "AI" tour. I have a feeling the highlights are going to be few and far between.) In the finals I have no rooting interest in either Kris Allen or Adam Lambert. I'm neutral on both. I think Adam will be a star, but will he ever sing anything that interests me I just don't know. Then I have 0 expectations that Kris Allen is ever going to do anything worthy of my hard earned money. I think "Heartless" may be the only exception. If he turns into a superstar that's fine. I have a feeling he could be another Taylor Hicks.
Again tuesday night's show was absolutely boring. First of all why are the singers forced to sing a song from earlier in the season. Adam Lambert does a pretty good version of "Mad World". However did I want to see it again this soon? NO! As usual the judges are drooling all over themselves. They are just robots, repeating what the producers want them to say. Simon is probably the exception to that rule. The lame Kara said that Adam "changed up the competition for every other contestant". I'm so sick of the hype from her. Paula said that she was "proud" of Adam. (Cue pukefest!) Grade: A-. Buy? No.
Kris Allen also was forced to sing a song from earlier in the season, he sang "Ain't No Sunshine". He has the advantage over Adam with this song, because Danny also sang this song this season. So anything Kris does with it, he'll be a hero. Can I just say I'm not a big fan of his parents. Seriously why didn't someone say to his Mom, do not wear that red dress. His Dad looked great, his Mom not so much. Again I'm just not impressed with Allen's wimpy voice. He seems like a nice guy but he just doesn't do anything musically for me. I want to be entertained and made happy and some rocking wouldn't hurt. Kara gave another one of her lame critiques, she said if Allen's performance "doesn't move you, there's something wrong with you". There is nothing wrong with me, Kris Allen is just Mr. Vanilla. My wife says he is "too boyish". Maybe after he has more life experiences, he'll be a more interesting artist. Paula gave one of her new age critiques that Allen "awakens the spirit in all of us". It's time for Paula and her non-sensical critiques to leave. Grade: B. Buy? No!
At 7:25 Adam Lambert sings "A Change Is Gonna Come". The Sam Cooke is great, it's a very moving song. I've heard some people say that that song comes to fruition with Barack Obama. Lambert unleashed his patented and tiresome screech on this song. He also took all the heart and the soul out of this song with the janky arrangement. Randy gave one of his (sarcasm alert) insightful critiques when he said Lambert "can sing his face off". What does that mean anyway? Although it's good to see Randy has improved to 7 critiques in his arsenal. (I loved Wednesday's montage of his "for me, for you".) Who cares what Kara's critique was, she's so damn annoying. Paula was being loopy tonight and called Lambert "iconic". I don't think coming in second in a reality TV show makes you iconic. Simon's critiques was hilarious in it's stupidity. He said "Lambert was back in the game". Really I didn't know he was ever out of the game. Grade: B-. Buy? No.
The fourth performance of the night was Kris Allen singing "What's Going On". Again another performance that isn't worthy of the original. This was another boring performance on a very boring night. Also he has that weak facial hair. Dude if you can't look masculine, don't grow it. Weak facial hair makes you look wussy. Yet another stupid Kara critique on this performance, you "make them think, make them feel, make them change". Paula is in charge of the loopy, new agey critiques Kara. Kara also told him that he was "true to himself". Grade: C+. Buy: ick.
Now on to that song, the very boring, Kara co-written "No Boundaries". Seriously can't they give the "AI" winner a good song ever. This might be the worst of them all. Hopefully this will be last of Kara defilement of "American Idol". How can they even consider bringing her back. She has been terrible all season and please let this be the last injustice. Please get a real song next season. This show has begin to fade into being cancelled. Terrible judges and horrible songs is making this show spiral towards the end.
Adam Lambert had the chore of tackling that janky song first. Randy: "dude you can sing anything". Kara: its "amazing for you to sing a song we've written". It's amazing that anyone sings a song that Kara has written. She has written some of the crappiest songs of this era. Paula: "adjectives can't express what you've brought to this show". Yet another puketastic critique. Simon said he was going to be a "worldwide star". That might be true but not with songs like that. Grade: C-. Buy? No!
Then it was Kris Allen's turn to be penalized and forced to sing that song. He sang a very wimpy version of that very bad song. Randy then was reading from Paula's new age book. (BTW: That book is for sale at amazon.com. The title is, "How To Be Really Crappy At Your Job In One Easy Step". It's currently the least selling book on amazon.com. It's right behind Dick Cheney's "How To Be A Great Leader".) He said, "you should be very proud." Not of that song. Kara: you "have come into your own". Paula: "amazing job". Simon: the "first song was highlight". Grade: D. Buy? No. Although to show how popular Kris Allen is, this song went to #1 on iTunes. Hopefully the songs on his debut CD are a lot better, how could they be worse?
My DVR cut off the gorgeous Carrie Underwood singing "Home Sweet Home". That was the best performance of the night. A great singer and a great song. Carrie Underwood is a real "American Idol".
Happy Memorial Day, themusicaddict
I finally got around to watching this past week's "American Idol" last night. I'll get to that in a moment. We watched "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" last night as a family activity. The best thing I can say about that movie is that it's only 90 minutes long. It's an okay movie and it fits the definition of what is called a "video movie". I'm also going to see "Terminator: Salvation" today. I'm a little nervous as it's only getting a C+ grade from the critics. I'm trying to lessen my expectations. It would be cool to be as blown away as when I saw "Terminator 2" for the first time.
Back to the "AI" season finale: Tuesday night's performance show was one of the most boring episodes of this season. As usual this episode was full of filler and hype, two things I desperately hate. The first performance didn't start until 7:08 and it wasn't until 7:19 when the second performance was over. Four minutes of singing in 19 minutes of airtime. For me this season a very uninteresting Top Three. (Again I cannot emphasize enough how little I want to go see the "AI" tour. I have a feeling the highlights are going to be few and far between.) In the finals I have no rooting interest in either Kris Allen or Adam Lambert. I'm neutral on both. I think Adam will be a star, but will he ever sing anything that interests me I just don't know. Then I have 0 expectations that Kris Allen is ever going to do anything worthy of my hard earned money. I think "Heartless" may be the only exception. If he turns into a superstar that's fine. I have a feeling he could be another Taylor Hicks.
Again tuesday night's show was absolutely boring. First of all why are the singers forced to sing a song from earlier in the season. Adam Lambert does a pretty good version of "Mad World". However did I want to see it again this soon? NO! As usual the judges are drooling all over themselves. They are just robots, repeating what the producers want them to say. Simon is probably the exception to that rule. The lame Kara said that Adam "changed up the competition for every other contestant". I'm so sick of the hype from her. Paula said that she was "proud" of Adam. (Cue pukefest!) Grade: A-. Buy? No.
Kris Allen also was forced to sing a song from earlier in the season, he sang "Ain't No Sunshine". He has the advantage over Adam with this song, because Danny also sang this song this season. So anything Kris does with it, he'll be a hero. Can I just say I'm not a big fan of his parents. Seriously why didn't someone say to his Mom, do not wear that red dress. His Dad looked great, his Mom not so much. Again I'm just not impressed with Allen's wimpy voice. He seems like a nice guy but he just doesn't do anything musically for me. I want to be entertained and made happy and some rocking wouldn't hurt. Kara gave another one of her lame critiques, she said if Allen's performance "doesn't move you, there's something wrong with you". There is nothing wrong with me, Kris Allen is just Mr. Vanilla. My wife says he is "too boyish". Maybe after he has more life experiences, he'll be a more interesting artist. Paula gave one of her new age critiques that Allen "awakens the spirit in all of us". It's time for Paula and her non-sensical critiques to leave. Grade: B. Buy? No!
At 7:25 Adam Lambert sings "A Change Is Gonna Come". The Sam Cooke is great, it's a very moving song. I've heard some people say that that song comes to fruition with Barack Obama. Lambert unleashed his patented and tiresome screech on this song. He also took all the heart and the soul out of this song with the janky arrangement. Randy gave one of his (sarcasm alert) insightful critiques when he said Lambert "can sing his face off". What does that mean anyway? Although it's good to see Randy has improved to 7 critiques in his arsenal. (I loved Wednesday's montage of his "for me, for you".) Who cares what Kara's critique was, she's so damn annoying. Paula was being loopy tonight and called Lambert "iconic". I don't think coming in second in a reality TV show makes you iconic. Simon's critiques was hilarious in it's stupidity. He said "Lambert was back in the game". Really I didn't know he was ever out of the game. Grade: B-. Buy? No.
The fourth performance of the night was Kris Allen singing "What's Going On". Again another performance that isn't worthy of the original. This was another boring performance on a very boring night. Also he has that weak facial hair. Dude if you can't look masculine, don't grow it. Weak facial hair makes you look wussy. Yet another stupid Kara critique on this performance, you "make them think, make them feel, make them change". Paula is in charge of the loopy, new agey critiques Kara. Kara also told him that he was "true to himself". Grade: C+. Buy: ick.
Now on to that song, the very boring, Kara co-written "No Boundaries". Seriously can't they give the "AI" winner a good song ever. This might be the worst of them all. Hopefully this will be last of Kara defilement of "American Idol". How can they even consider bringing her back. She has been terrible all season and please let this be the last injustice. Please get a real song next season. This show has begin to fade into being cancelled. Terrible judges and horrible songs is making this show spiral towards the end.
Adam Lambert had the chore of tackling that janky song first. Randy: "dude you can sing anything". Kara: its "amazing for you to sing a song we've written". It's amazing that anyone sings a song that Kara has written. She has written some of the crappiest songs of this era. Paula: "adjectives can't express what you've brought to this show". Yet another puketastic critique. Simon said he was going to be a "worldwide star". That might be true but not with songs like that. Grade: C-. Buy? No!
Then it was Kris Allen's turn to be penalized and forced to sing that song. He sang a very wimpy version of that very bad song. Randy then was reading from Paula's new age book. (BTW: That book is for sale at amazon.com. The title is, "How To Be Really Crappy At Your Job In One Easy Step". It's currently the least selling book on amazon.com. It's right behind Dick Cheney's "How To Be A Great Leader".) He said, "you should be very proud." Not of that song. Kara: you "have come into your own". Paula: "amazing job". Simon: the "first song was highlight". Grade: D. Buy? No. Although to show how popular Kris Allen is, this song went to #1 on iTunes. Hopefully the songs on his debut CD are a lot better, how could they be worse?
My DVR cut off the gorgeous Carrie Underwood singing "Home Sweet Home". That was the best performance of the night. A great singer and a great song. Carrie Underwood is a real "American Idol".
Happy Memorial Day, themusicaddict
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Random musings
Hello,
Adam Lambert thinks he lost "AI" because he's gay. I hope not as it was a singing competition. (I know what you're thinking, then how did Danny Gokey get so far?) Sexual orientation shouldn't matter to people anymore. If people are going to be prejudiced against him because he's gay do you realize how stupid that is? Using that rational, they also shouldn't like Queen, Elton John, George Michael, Tennessee Williams, Judas Priest, Wanda Sykes, Cynthia Nixon, Ellen DeGeneres, Melissa Etheridge (I would mention Clay Aiken but who would claim him? Also it makes me laugh that Clay Aiken is calling out Adam Lambert. Please! I'm not even a fan of Lambert but Aiken doesn't even have one-tenth of his talent on a good day.)
My son is very excited about the No Doubt and Paramore concert we are going tomorrow night. It will be his first concert. I hope to take him to several more over those next several years. I'm as excited as he is and I'm looking forward to seeing both Paramore and No Doubt. I hope Paramore plays about a hour and I've read that No Doubt plays a 90 minute set.
I recently bought Nickelback's "Dark Horse". It's half-decent if not a little derivative. Apparently they only have one thing on their mind. It's "S.E.X." which conveniently is one of their song titles on that CD. It's not for everyone but it's definitely worth a listen. Check it out! After listening to this CD I'm still of the opinion that Nickelback is an alright band. Would I go see them live? Only if I got in free.
I haven't written a blog, other than mobile blogs, in almost a week. The reason why is because 55 of my hours each week is spent in travel time and actual time at Verizon Wireless. When I get home I have about 4 hours of time. I can do fun things but I also have kids to help take care of and other responsibilities around the house. This week I was working on a project with iTunes. I recently added my son's copy of "21st Century Breakdown" (review forthcoming) to my iTunes. Even though I recently got a new used computer I still have problems adding new music to iTunes. (If you are experiencing the same problem, here's a tip that mostly works for me. Only download one song at a time, for me a much higher majority of those songs play correctly for me.) Some of the songs play fine, but some don't. I also bought $24 worth of new music from the iTunes music store and again some songs played fine but some didn't. I've been deleting and re-adding songs all week trying to get them all to play. It's a very time consuming process, even though I know it doesn't sound like it would be. I've been working with DeLisa at iTunes music store who has been helping me with all the songs that I bought through them. Even after all our hard work I still can't get two of the songs to play right. I'm just giving up on those two songs, I'll just live without them.
Upcoming: reviews of Green Day's "21st Century Breakdown" and the No Doubt and Paramore concert tomorrow night. (Also be looking for mobile blogs tomorrow night.) I might try and see "Terminator: Salvation" tomorrow also. Have a good week, themusicaddict
Adam Lambert thinks he lost "AI" because he's gay. I hope not as it was a singing competition. (I know what you're thinking, then how did Danny Gokey get so far?) Sexual orientation shouldn't matter to people anymore. If people are going to be prejudiced against him because he's gay do you realize how stupid that is? Using that rational, they also shouldn't like Queen, Elton John, George Michael, Tennessee Williams, Judas Priest, Wanda Sykes, Cynthia Nixon, Ellen DeGeneres, Melissa Etheridge (I would mention Clay Aiken but who would claim him? Also it makes me laugh that Clay Aiken is calling out Adam Lambert. Please! I'm not even a fan of Lambert but Aiken doesn't even have one-tenth of his talent on a good day.)
My son is very excited about the No Doubt and Paramore concert we are going tomorrow night. It will be his first concert. I hope to take him to several more over those next several years. I'm as excited as he is and I'm looking forward to seeing both Paramore and No Doubt. I hope Paramore plays about a hour and I've read that No Doubt plays a 90 minute set.
I recently bought Nickelback's "Dark Horse". It's half-decent if not a little derivative. Apparently they only have one thing on their mind. It's "S.E.X." which conveniently is one of their song titles on that CD. It's not for everyone but it's definitely worth a listen. Check it out! After listening to this CD I'm still of the opinion that Nickelback is an alright band. Would I go see them live? Only if I got in free.
I haven't written a blog, other than mobile blogs, in almost a week. The reason why is because 55 of my hours each week is spent in travel time and actual time at Verizon Wireless. When I get home I have about 4 hours of time. I can do fun things but I also have kids to help take care of and other responsibilities around the house. This week I was working on a project with iTunes. I recently added my son's copy of "21st Century Breakdown" (review forthcoming) to my iTunes. Even though I recently got a new used computer I still have problems adding new music to iTunes. (If you are experiencing the same problem, here's a tip that mostly works for me. Only download one song at a time, for me a much higher majority of those songs play correctly for me.) Some of the songs play fine, but some don't. I also bought $24 worth of new music from the iTunes music store and again some songs played fine but some didn't. I've been deleting and re-adding songs all week trying to get them all to play. It's a very time consuming process, even though I know it doesn't sound like it would be. I've been working with DeLisa at iTunes music store who has been helping me with all the songs that I bought through them. Even after all our hard work I still can't get two of the songs to play right. I'm just giving up on those two songs, I'll just live without them.
Upcoming: reviews of Green Day's "21st Century Breakdown" and the No Doubt and Paramore concert tomorrow night. (Also be looking for mobile blogs tomorrow night.) I might try and see "Terminator: Salvation" tomorrow also. Have a good week, themusicaddict
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Hello,
This is my final Top ? list for "AI" this season as this week is the season finale. This list is pretty much the same as it was last week, with only a few minor changes. Thankfully Danny Gokey was voted off and he's no longer on this list.
10) Scott MacIntyre (LW: 9) The blind balladeer from Arizona who left the competition after playing guitar and singing Survivor's "The Search Is Over".
9) Anoop Desai (LW: 8) The Chapel Hill, North Carolina singer who fought his way to a co sixth place finish with Lil Rounds. Anoop should have lasted longer than the uninspiring and argumentative Rounds. Rounds was probably the most over hyped and under performing singer in this competition. Danny Gokey was pretty close though.
8) Kris Allen (LW: 10) He moved up on the strength of his fantastic performance of "Heartless". His version is so good and I'm going to be buying it soon. mjsbigblog has the rumor that he'll be singing with Keith Urban on "AI". He and Lambert will also be singing three times on Tuesday night. This week's three themes are The Contestants Favorite, Simon Fuller's pick and The Winner's song. That is the coronation song, and rumors have it being written by Kara Diaguardia. So it will be yet another janky coronation song. Let's hope this week is the last we'll ever hear of Miss Diagurdia.
7) Mishavonna Henson (LW: 7) One of the performances of this season that I bought was her "Drops of Jupiter".
6) Felicia Barton (LW: 6) She was the one that got the second chance when Joanna Pacitti was cut for having too close of ties with "AI" reps. I hope she has a chance to do something in the future.
5) Matt Giraud (LW: 5) If you haven't checked out his "Idolatry" interview videos, check them out. They're pretty entertaining. He was the beneficiary of the judges save this season. However he didn't have a strong enough fan base to move on much further.
4) Megan Corkrey (LW: 4) One of my favorite singers this season. She could have lasted longer but she made a poor choice when she sang that Bob Marley and Lauryn Hill song. Those are two artists who I love a lot but her version of that song was awful. Megan on the "AI" tour I highly recommend you don't sing that song. Although you should definitely sing "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree".
3) Alexis Grace (LW: 3) Every time I think about her, I'm still in a state of shock that she didn't even make the "AI" tour. Hopefully this is just the beginning of her career. When her first CD comes out I'm going to go buy it. She also has a few songs that are worthy of purchase from iTunes. Remember these songs will only be available for a limited time. I think her "Billie Jean" is the best of her songs.
2) Allison Iraheta (LW: 2) Another one of my favorite singers from this season. I would have loved Alexis Grace to made it further in this competition. She would have pushed Allison and that competition would have only made Allison better. Allison should be a superstar soon. According to mjsbigblog.com she's going to be singing a duet with Cyndi Lauper this week. That should be interesting. Also check out Michael Slezak's 5 part interview with her on "Idolatry". Both Slezak and I love the Iraheta flame throwing singer.
1) Adam Lambert (LW: 1) In about 85 hours from when I'm writing this blog he'll be the Season 8 winner of "American Idol". Rumors are that "AI" is trying to get David Bowie to sing a duet with Lambert. That would be interesting. Some early numbers I'm seeing is that Kris Allen is giving him a run for his money. I still think Lambert is going to win. I also think his debut CD is going to be decent. I still can't figure out what really bothers me about him. My Mom suggested it might be because he really loves himself. I don't get that sense though.
Apparently "AI" is going to try and get all the past winner's to appear on this week's episodes. Carrie Underwood and David Cook are already confirmed as two who'll be appearing. Other musicians set to appear include Carlos Santana, Lionel Richie and Black Eyed Peas. Can we also have Alicia Keys appear again? She's so gorgeous but let's have her sing this week. I suggest she could sing "Samsonite Man". This week is the finale of "American Idol" and I'm sort of glad it's going to be over. I need to take an "AI" break and I'm sure you do to. According to statcounter.com I've had 6 returning visitors. I would like to thank everyone for reading my blog, especially you six returning visitors. I've only had statcounter.com set up for a month.
Have a great week, themusicaddict
This is my final Top ? list for "AI" this season as this week is the season finale. This list is pretty much the same as it was last week, with only a few minor changes. Thankfully Danny Gokey was voted off and he's no longer on this list.
10) Scott MacIntyre (LW: 9) The blind balladeer from Arizona who left the competition after playing guitar and singing Survivor's "The Search Is Over".
9) Anoop Desai (LW: 8) The Chapel Hill, North Carolina singer who fought his way to a co sixth place finish with Lil Rounds. Anoop should have lasted longer than the uninspiring and argumentative Rounds. Rounds was probably the most over hyped and under performing singer in this competition. Danny Gokey was pretty close though.
8) Kris Allen (LW: 10) He moved up on the strength of his fantastic performance of "Heartless". His version is so good and I'm going to be buying it soon. mjsbigblog has the rumor that he'll be singing with Keith Urban on "AI". He and Lambert will also be singing three times on Tuesday night. This week's three themes are The Contestants Favorite, Simon Fuller's pick and The Winner's song. That is the coronation song, and rumors have it being written by Kara Diaguardia. So it will be yet another janky coronation song. Let's hope this week is the last we'll ever hear of Miss Diagurdia.
7) Mishavonna Henson (LW: 7) One of the performances of this season that I bought was her "Drops of Jupiter".
6) Felicia Barton (LW: 6) She was the one that got the second chance when Joanna Pacitti was cut for having too close of ties with "AI" reps. I hope she has a chance to do something in the future.
5) Matt Giraud (LW: 5) If you haven't checked out his "Idolatry" interview videos, check them out. They're pretty entertaining. He was the beneficiary of the judges save this season. However he didn't have a strong enough fan base to move on much further.
4) Megan Corkrey (LW: 4) One of my favorite singers this season. She could have lasted longer but she made a poor choice when she sang that Bob Marley and Lauryn Hill song. Those are two artists who I love a lot but her version of that song was awful. Megan on the "AI" tour I highly recommend you don't sing that song. Although you should definitely sing "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree".
3) Alexis Grace (LW: 3) Every time I think about her, I'm still in a state of shock that she didn't even make the "AI" tour. Hopefully this is just the beginning of her career. When her first CD comes out I'm going to go buy it. She also has a few songs that are worthy of purchase from iTunes. Remember these songs will only be available for a limited time. I think her "Billie Jean" is the best of her songs.
2) Allison Iraheta (LW: 2) Another one of my favorite singers from this season. I would have loved Alexis Grace to made it further in this competition. She would have pushed Allison and that competition would have only made Allison better. Allison should be a superstar soon. According to mjsbigblog.com she's going to be singing a duet with Cyndi Lauper this week. That should be interesting. Also check out Michael Slezak's 5 part interview with her on "Idolatry". Both Slezak and I love the Iraheta flame throwing singer.
1) Adam Lambert (LW: 1) In about 85 hours from when I'm writing this blog he'll be the Season 8 winner of "American Idol". Rumors are that "AI" is trying to get David Bowie to sing a duet with Lambert. That would be interesting. Some early numbers I'm seeing is that Kris Allen is giving him a run for his money. I still think Lambert is going to win. I also think his debut CD is going to be decent. I still can't figure out what really bothers me about him. My Mom suggested it might be because he really loves himself. I don't get that sense though.
Apparently "AI" is going to try and get all the past winner's to appear on this week's episodes. Carrie Underwood and David Cook are already confirmed as two who'll be appearing. Other musicians set to appear include Carlos Santana, Lionel Richie and Black Eyed Peas. Can we also have Alicia Keys appear again? She's so gorgeous but let's have her sing this week. I suggest she could sing "Samsonite Man". This week is the finale of "American Idol" and I'm sort of glad it's going to be over. I need to take an "AI" break and I'm sure you do to. According to statcounter.com I've had 6 returning visitors. I would like to thank everyone for reading my blog, especially you six returning visitors. I've only had statcounter.com set up for a month.
Have a great week, themusicaddict
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Friday, May 15, 2009
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
The "AI" Top Three May 12, 2009 part 3
Hello,
Thankfully the reign of Gokey is over. Of the three hometown visits, his was the sappiest. Did you see that poor, desperate lady chasing his motorcade? If she caught up with his motorcade what was she hoping to do. That was one of the saddest things I've even seen. Gokey is just a contestant on a reality show. Other than extreme sappiness and a pop song he has nothing to offer you.
I enjoy this show but it also has a lot of flaws. Last night's episode highlighted a lot of those flaws. Extreme pimping of anyone that pays them money, excessive filler, misguided judges, extreme sappiness. Over the next few weeks I'm going to be writing a blog about things "AI" can do to regain it's former glory. Right now the show is going downhill fast, at this point it will be lucky if it has two more years in it.
I ended my last blog talking about Kris Allen's amazing performance of "Heartless" on Tuesday night. He did that song better than the original, in fact he did it a lot better. I've thought about it, I'm going to buy his version of "Heartless". That was the best performance of the night and it led to the second best performance of the night.
Tuesday night's sixth performance was Adam Lambert singing Aerosmith's "Cryin" or as Kara Diaguardia calls it, "early Aerosmith". I cannot conceive of any rational reason she comes back. That was the second best performance of the night on an extremely weak night. All the judges liked it. As for me I thought it was "aight", but nothing more. Grade C+. Buy: no. It was better than his "One", but it's still not worthy of my hard earned money.
Last night was the results show and there were a lot more lowlights than highlights. First, we had pimping for "Night At The Museum 2", a movie I have no desire to see. Is it just my imagination or is Jonah Hill looking freakishly weird? They still have stylists in Hollywood don't they?
Ryan Seacrest then said something like, "if you think you know what is going to happen, you are wrong". Over 88 million people voted and there's only 1 million votes seperating the top two. I'm guessing Adam Lambert had about 33 million votes, Kris Allen had about 32 million votes and Gokey got the rest. Next was the lame Ford video. That would be one of the things "AI" could do to improve the show, get rid of that shameless pimping. I know they would lose money. The positive side the contestants would have more time to rest and then their performances would be better. They could fill that time with longer performances from those contestants. It was time for one of the few highlights of the night, the gorgeous Alicia Keys took the stage. Wow, what a babe!
>
Keys introduced Noah from Rwanda and talked about how Noah learned to sing that song in English in one week. I was impressed by that until I realized the song has only three lines. Apparently "AI" has decided at this late point to try and do some "Idol Gives Back". Noah's story was inspiring but his performance was boring. I'm not quite sure what the point of that was. Then Ryan talked about more dates that have been added to the "AI" tour. Good I was getting worried that the "AI" franchise was running out of money. They do need to find enough money to keep Simon around. As Oprah said they are going to offer him "stupid money" to stay additional seasons.
Then it was time for the pukefest known as Danny Gokey's hometown visit. Seriously that was extremely painful. People were crying, the aforementioned lady chasing his motorcade and "my boy Jamarr". I'm so glad Jamarr didn't make the Top 36, one preacher was enough for me. Gokey's whole hometown visit was manipulative, insincere and did you see his fake crying. He also talked about his journey from "tragedy to triumph". Although that was stomach churning, I've made a vow I'm not going to blog about him anymore. This will now be a relatively Gokey free blog. I've probably been too harsh on him and his 15 minutes is about up. I'm nauseous that he used his wife's death to propel himself to "AI" success. That heart shape he makes with his fingers is exploitative. I'm sad that he lost his wife. As I've mentioned in the past, my brother-in-law lost his wife in a very similar situation. What did my brother-in-law do? Although he was grieving he handled the situation with complete class. The funeral was all about her life and the impact she had on other people. Danny that's a suggestion for you going forward. Honor her memory don't use it to propel yourself.
Kris Allen's hometown visit was nearly as bad. It was unbelievably sad, sappy and unbearable. I did find it funny though that the ceremony where Kris Allen was welcomed home took place in Simon Park.
Next Jordin Sparks took the stage and sang her rockin' new tune, "Battlefield". Although I can do without seeing that guy from One Republic ever again. Then it was time for the least sappy hometown visit of the night, Adam Lambert. His had a sappy quotient as well, at least it was broken up by a streaker. Sorry honey he doesn't like girls. Lambert handled that with class though. I'm not sure why but there is just something about him that bothers me. I can't put my finger on it. He's a good singer, and he seems to a genuinely nice guy but there's something about him that bothers me. No it's not because of the rumors that he's gay, I could care less. Of course he doesn't need my endorsement, he's going to be a huge superstar.
Katy Perry next took the stage, her choice for "Idol" clearly located on the back of her cape: "Adam Lambert". She should've left that cape on as that outfit didn't flatter her figure. Wonder Woman called, she wants her outfit back. You need to have a perfect body to look good in that outfit Katy. Although I did like her rocking song "Waking Up In Vegas". At least two of the guest performances were good tonight. Her performance was very interesting to say the least. That song is on her excellent debut CD, "One of The Guys".
Finally it's time to find out who is going to be in the finale. A mild shocker that Danny isn't, but no surprise at all that Adam is. I predict he wins by more votes than David Cook did last season. For the record Cook won by more than 8 million votes. Although once Allison was eliminated I stopped caring who won, as long as it wasn't Gokey.
A couple of other notes. When I get home from work tomorrow I'm taking my oldest boy to get the new Green Day CD. He's a big Green Day fan and that CD is coming out on his birthday. He's been looking forward to their new CD with high expectations for several months now. There will be a review coming forth soon on that CD. All I've heard so far are glowing reviews about "21st Century Breakdown".
Other news Jeff Ament, the excellent Pearl Jam guitarist, was held up in a violent robbery in Atlanta a couple of nights ago. My thoughts and prayers go out to him and his family and the entire Pearl Jam family. Pearl Jam is in Atlanta working on their 9th CD. That is the most recent update I've found.
I'm not sure when I'll be back. Have a great weekend, themusicaddict
Thankfully the reign of Gokey is over. Of the three hometown visits, his was the sappiest. Did you see that poor, desperate lady chasing his motorcade? If she caught up with his motorcade what was she hoping to do. That was one of the saddest things I've even seen. Gokey is just a contestant on a reality show. Other than extreme sappiness and a pop song he has nothing to offer you.
I enjoy this show but it also has a lot of flaws. Last night's episode highlighted a lot of those flaws. Extreme pimping of anyone that pays them money, excessive filler, misguided judges, extreme sappiness. Over the next few weeks I'm going to be writing a blog about things "AI" can do to regain it's former glory. Right now the show is going downhill fast, at this point it will be lucky if it has two more years in it.
I ended my last blog talking about Kris Allen's amazing performance of "Heartless" on Tuesday night. He did that song better than the original, in fact he did it a lot better. I've thought about it, I'm going to buy his version of "Heartless". That was the best performance of the night and it led to the second best performance of the night.
Tuesday night's sixth performance was Adam Lambert singing Aerosmith's "Cryin" or as Kara Diaguardia calls it, "early Aerosmith". I cannot conceive of any rational reason she comes back. That was the second best performance of the night on an extremely weak night. All the judges liked it. As for me I thought it was "aight", but nothing more. Grade C+. Buy: no. It was better than his "One", but it's still not worthy of my hard earned money.
Last night was the results show and there were a lot more lowlights than highlights. First, we had pimping for "Night At The Museum 2", a movie I have no desire to see. Is it just my imagination or is Jonah Hill looking freakishly weird? They still have stylists in Hollywood don't they?
Ryan Seacrest then said something like, "if you think you know what is going to happen, you are wrong". Over 88 million people voted and there's only 1 million votes seperating the top two. I'm guessing Adam Lambert had about 33 million votes, Kris Allen had about 32 million votes and Gokey got the rest. Next was the lame Ford video. That would be one of the things "AI" could do to improve the show, get rid of that shameless pimping. I know they would lose money. The positive side the contestants would have more time to rest and then their performances would be better. They could fill that time with longer performances from those contestants. It was time for one of the few highlights of the night, the gorgeous Alicia Keys took the stage. Wow, what a babe!
>
Keys introduced Noah from Rwanda and talked about how Noah learned to sing that song in English in one week. I was impressed by that until I realized the song has only three lines. Apparently "AI" has decided at this late point to try and do some "Idol Gives Back". Noah's story was inspiring but his performance was boring. I'm not quite sure what the point of that was. Then Ryan talked about more dates that have been added to the "AI" tour. Good I was getting worried that the "AI" franchise was running out of money. They do need to find enough money to keep Simon around. As Oprah said they are going to offer him "stupid money" to stay additional seasons.
Then it was time for the pukefest known as Danny Gokey's hometown visit. Seriously that was extremely painful. People were crying, the aforementioned lady chasing his motorcade and "my boy Jamarr". I'm so glad Jamarr didn't make the Top 36, one preacher was enough for me. Gokey's whole hometown visit was manipulative, insincere and did you see his fake crying. He also talked about his journey from "tragedy to triumph". Although that was stomach churning, I've made a vow I'm not going to blog about him anymore. This will now be a relatively Gokey free blog. I've probably been too harsh on him and his 15 minutes is about up. I'm nauseous that he used his wife's death to propel himself to "AI" success. That heart shape he makes with his fingers is exploitative. I'm sad that he lost his wife. As I've mentioned in the past, my brother-in-law lost his wife in a very similar situation. What did my brother-in-law do? Although he was grieving he handled the situation with complete class. The funeral was all about her life and the impact she had on other people. Danny that's a suggestion for you going forward. Honor her memory don't use it to propel yourself.
Kris Allen's hometown visit was nearly as bad. It was unbelievably sad, sappy and unbearable. I did find it funny though that the ceremony where Kris Allen was welcomed home took place in Simon Park.
Next Jordin Sparks took the stage and sang her rockin' new tune, "Battlefield". Although I can do without seeing that guy from One Republic ever again. Then it was time for the least sappy hometown visit of the night, Adam Lambert. His had a sappy quotient as well, at least it was broken up by a streaker. Sorry honey he doesn't like girls. Lambert handled that with class though. I'm not sure why but there is just something about him that bothers me. I can't put my finger on it. He's a good singer, and he seems to a genuinely nice guy but there's something about him that bothers me. No it's not because of the rumors that he's gay, I could care less. Of course he doesn't need my endorsement, he's going to be a huge superstar.
Katy Perry next took the stage, her choice for "Idol" clearly located on the back of her cape: "Adam Lambert". She should've left that cape on as that outfit didn't flatter her figure. Wonder Woman called, she wants her outfit back. You need to have a perfect body to look good in that outfit Katy. Although I did like her rocking song "Waking Up In Vegas". At least two of the guest performances were good tonight. Her performance was very interesting to say the least. That song is on her excellent debut CD, "One of The Guys".
Finally it's time to find out who is going to be in the finale. A mild shocker that Danny isn't, but no surprise at all that Adam is. I predict he wins by more votes than David Cook did last season. For the record Cook won by more than 8 million votes. Although once Allison was eliminated I stopped caring who won, as long as it wasn't Gokey.
A couple of other notes. When I get home from work tomorrow I'm taking my oldest boy to get the new Green Day CD. He's a big Green Day fan and that CD is coming out on his birthday. He's been looking forward to their new CD with high expectations for several months now. There will be a review coming forth soon on that CD. All I've heard so far are glowing reviews about "21st Century Breakdown".
Other news Jeff Ament, the excellent Pearl Jam guitarist, was held up in a violent robbery in Atlanta a couple of nights ago. My thoughts and prayers go out to him and his family and the entire Pearl Jam family. Pearl Jam is in Atlanta working on their 9th CD. That is the most recent update I've found.
I'm not sure when I'll be back. Have a great weekend, themusicaddict
The "AI" Top Three May 12, 2009 part 2
Hello,
Again only time for another short blog. I'm hoping to hear soon that Danny Gokey is finally going home. The competition last night was just not the same without the fiery Allison Iraheta. If last night was a meal, it would be something very bland like a piece of bread. If Allison was around she'd be the flavor on that bread. Without her the show is just not the same. In fact this has sort of been a disappointing season.
Tuesday night's Top 3 show continued: After the third straight mediocre performance of the night it was time for "AI" to pat itself on the back. I'm all for mosquito nets in poor African countries, but seriously "AI" doesn't have the budget to fly Carrie Underwood over to Angola by itself. It really has to leach off an oil company to pay for that? Although it was good to see Carrie Underwood, she is one of the hottest Idols ever. That's even when she wasn't going for the glamour last night. I think the other two hottest Idols has to be Katherine McPhee and Megan Joy. Oh yeah how could I forget Casey Carlson and Haley Scarnato? The first three are the most talented.
4) I'm running out of time I better get going. The fourth performance was Danny Gokey. It was announced that he was singing "You Are So Beautiful" and I thought to myself this might be a song he can sing well. Sorry no. First of all he talked about his mentors helping him arrange the song. Danny I wouldn't rely on them anymore as that was a terrible arrangement. The judges then overpraised him again, I don't even know if that was a mediocre performance. I don't know if it was that good. What are the judges thinking? Kara said he was "stunning" and "amazing". Paula then made me puke in my mouth when she said that Gokey did "magic to it". Oh he did something to it alright, but I don't think any magic was involved.
Thinking about it now logically, I think I finally understand Gokey's strong support. His bad dancing hypnotizes the judges, it's so obvious now. That's the most rational reason I can come up with. To prove I'm right Simon called his performance a "vocal master class". Only a hypnotized person would say that. Another piece of proof it is said the weak minded are the easiest to be hypnotized. Hmm! Randy, Kara and Paula being hypnotized, it's so obvious now. Then Danny had to make it even worse when he said he wanted to sing the song with "a fresh mind and a fresh heart". Seriously that is what he said? Performance: D. Personality: F. Buy: NO!!!!!
5) They say the third time is the charm, not tonight. Tonight the fifth time was the charm. In the fifth performance Kris Allen sang "Heartless" and to be honest I was expecting absolutely nothing. No one was more shocked than me when he sang that song so well. That's definitely one of the best performances of this season of any contestant. He nailed that! It was better than Kanye's version by a long way, not that Kanye is anything special. Paula got the laugh of the night when she said Allen was "brave" for singing a "song about Simon Cowell". All the judges liked the performance and this was easily the highlight of the night. (For the record I picked Kris Allen going home on the ew.com/predictify contest. Maybe I'll be wrong and I'd be fine with that.) Grade: B+. My grade would have been higher but his performance kind of tailed off at the end. Buy: I just might, I'd never buy Kanye's brainless "Heartless".
It's almost time for tonight's "AI". I'm going to enjoy me some Katy Perry, Jordin Sparks and hopefully Danny Gokey going home.
themusicaddict
Again only time for another short blog. I'm hoping to hear soon that Danny Gokey is finally going home. The competition last night was just not the same without the fiery Allison Iraheta. If last night was a meal, it would be something very bland like a piece of bread. If Allison was around she'd be the flavor on that bread. Without her the show is just not the same. In fact this has sort of been a disappointing season.
Tuesday night's Top 3 show continued: After the third straight mediocre performance of the night it was time for "AI" to pat itself on the back. I'm all for mosquito nets in poor African countries, but seriously "AI" doesn't have the budget to fly Carrie Underwood over to Angola by itself. It really has to leach off an oil company to pay for that? Although it was good to see Carrie Underwood, she is one of the hottest Idols ever. That's even when she wasn't going for the glamour last night. I think the other two hottest Idols has to be Katherine McPhee and Megan Joy. Oh yeah how could I forget Casey Carlson and Haley Scarnato? The first three are the most talented.
4) I'm running out of time I better get going. The fourth performance was Danny Gokey. It was announced that he was singing "You Are So Beautiful" and I thought to myself this might be a song he can sing well. Sorry no. First of all he talked about his mentors helping him arrange the song. Danny I wouldn't rely on them anymore as that was a terrible arrangement. The judges then overpraised him again, I don't even know if that was a mediocre performance. I don't know if it was that good. What are the judges thinking? Kara said he was "stunning" and "amazing". Paula then made me puke in my mouth when she said that Gokey did "magic to it". Oh he did something to it alright, but I don't think any magic was involved.
Thinking about it now logically, I think I finally understand Gokey's strong support. His bad dancing hypnotizes the judges, it's so obvious now. That's the most rational reason I can come up with. To prove I'm right Simon called his performance a "vocal master class". Only a hypnotized person would say that. Another piece of proof it is said the weak minded are the easiest to be hypnotized. Hmm! Randy, Kara and Paula being hypnotized, it's so obvious now. Then Danny had to make it even worse when he said he wanted to sing the song with "a fresh mind and a fresh heart". Seriously that is what he said? Performance: D. Personality: F. Buy: NO!!!!!
5) They say the third time is the charm, not tonight. Tonight the fifth time was the charm. In the fifth performance Kris Allen sang "Heartless" and to be honest I was expecting absolutely nothing. No one was more shocked than me when he sang that song so well. That's definitely one of the best performances of this season of any contestant. He nailed that! It was better than Kanye's version by a long way, not that Kanye is anything special. Paula got the laugh of the night when she said Allen was "brave" for singing a "song about Simon Cowell". All the judges liked the performance and this was easily the highlight of the night. (For the record I picked Kris Allen going home on the ew.com/predictify contest. Maybe I'll be wrong and I'd be fine with that.) Grade: B+. My grade would have been higher but his performance kind of tailed off at the end. Buy: I just might, I'd never buy Kanye's brainless "Heartless".
It's almost time for tonight's "AI". I'm going to enjoy me some Katy Perry, Jordin Sparks and hopefully Danny Gokey going home.
themusicaddict
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
The "AI" Top Three May 12, 2009
Hello,
I just have time for a quick note. For themusicaddict's mental health, please do not vote for Danny Gokey. I cannot handle his smarmy personality or mediocre talent anymore. I don't know who is more annoying him or David Archuleta. He's not a terrible singer but he's not a fantastic singer either. I'm so sick of the judges overpraising him. I remember the judges talking about Adam Lambert and Kris Allen and their music futures, but I didn't hear them talk much about Danny Gokey's music future. I'm sure that wasn't intentional, but I do think it speaks volumes. I don't think he's going to have much of a music future. We have enough adult contemporary artists and he'd bring nothing to the music scene.
Tonight was suppose to showcase the three finalists for this season of "American Idol". Unfortunately that didn't happen, there was one janky performance after the next janky performance. I was really surprised by who gave the best performance of the night and he really kicked butt. I really missed have a woman competitor though. With only guys remaining, that added another level of boredom to an episode that had too much of that already. It would've been nice to have Allison still there and Gokey go home. Allison rules!
1) Danny Gokey took the stage and started off the show with a terrible song. You can't blame him for the song choice, this is Paula's pick. However you can blame Gokey for that mediocre performance. First of all, Gokey has no right singing Terance Trent D'arby's "Dance Little Sister". (Here I would like to pause and give a shout out to my brother. He was the first one I knew that was into TTD back in the day. Darby's first CD is pretty good.) That song is too funky for him. As usual the judges overpraised him. What am I missing? I just don't get what they see in him. Is it seeing him live that makes his performances so much better? I just don't get it, what I see is one mediocre performance after another every week. (My ears are still recovering from that 8 second screech on "Dream On" The only good thing about that screech is it probably has eradicated the H1N virus.) Ryan talked to him after the performance. Danny uttered probably the biggest cliche in "AI" history. He said he wanted to "come out and have fun". Again how did he make it to the top three? Grade: C-. Buy: No!
2) Kris Allen next sang One Republic's "Apologize". In this one performance Allen combined the night's two themes. Those themes being mediocre performances and janky arrangements. This is the song Randy and Kara picked and it showed. If done right this song could be good. However Allen gave it a terrible arrangement and yet again it was another very mediocre performance. The judges were mixed on his performance. We then didn't see it but Paula and Simon engaged in some judge stupidity. It seems there were three themes of the night, the third theme being stupidity of the judges. Anyway Mr. Vanilla lived up to his nickname on this performance. Grade D+. Buy?: No.
3) After those two mediocre performances I really expected Adam to kick butt. That's especially since he was singing U2's "One". Unfortunately it was the third straight mediocre performance. It was also another bad arrangement. I know the judges want the contestants to show their versatility by arranging songs. However a song this classic is nearly perfect. I don't know if you can give this song an arrangement that would make it better. Lambert certainly didn't it make it better. I could barely recognize the elements in his version that make this song so classic. This was by far the best of the judges picks. Of course, the judges praised it like crazy. The three certainties in life: death, taxes and the judges loving everything Adam Lambert does. Grade: D. Buy: No, it looks like I'll keep my Adam Lambert purchases to one.
A very disappointing first half of "AI" tonight.
I also would like to make one clarification. I mentioned in one of my recent blogs that No Doubt tickets were on sale for half price of what they were originally. Let me rephrase that. What I said is true, however I was meaning the Salt Lake market only. I have no idea about prices in other cities. I also don't know how long that half-price deal is going for. In addition I'm a little nervous that the show may be cancelled if they are that desperate to sell tickets.
Please don't vote for Danny Gokey! themusicaddict
I just have time for a quick note. For themusicaddict's mental health, please do not vote for Danny Gokey. I cannot handle his smarmy personality or mediocre talent anymore. I don't know who is more annoying him or David Archuleta. He's not a terrible singer but he's not a fantastic singer either. I'm so sick of the judges overpraising him. I remember the judges talking about Adam Lambert and Kris Allen and their music futures, but I didn't hear them talk much about Danny Gokey's music future. I'm sure that wasn't intentional, but I do think it speaks volumes. I don't think he's going to have much of a music future. We have enough adult contemporary artists and he'd bring nothing to the music scene.
Tonight was suppose to showcase the three finalists for this season of "American Idol". Unfortunately that didn't happen, there was one janky performance after the next janky performance. I was really surprised by who gave the best performance of the night and he really kicked butt. I really missed have a woman competitor though. With only guys remaining, that added another level of boredom to an episode that had too much of that already. It would've been nice to have Allison still there and Gokey go home. Allison rules!
1) Danny Gokey took the stage and started off the show with a terrible song. You can't blame him for the song choice, this is Paula's pick. However you can blame Gokey for that mediocre performance. First of all, Gokey has no right singing Terance Trent D'arby's "Dance Little Sister". (Here I would like to pause and give a shout out to my brother. He was the first one I knew that was into TTD back in the day. Darby's first CD is pretty good.) That song is too funky for him. As usual the judges overpraised him. What am I missing? I just don't get what they see in him. Is it seeing him live that makes his performances so much better? I just don't get it, what I see is one mediocre performance after another every week. (My ears are still recovering from that 8 second screech on "Dream On" The only good thing about that screech is it probably has eradicated the H1N virus.) Ryan talked to him after the performance. Danny uttered probably the biggest cliche in "AI" history. He said he wanted to "come out and have fun". Again how did he make it to the top three? Grade: C-. Buy: No!
2) Kris Allen next sang One Republic's "Apologize". In this one performance Allen combined the night's two themes. Those themes being mediocre performances and janky arrangements. This is the song Randy and Kara picked and it showed. If done right this song could be good. However Allen gave it a terrible arrangement and yet again it was another very mediocre performance. The judges were mixed on his performance. We then didn't see it but Paula and Simon engaged in some judge stupidity. It seems there were three themes of the night, the third theme being stupidity of the judges. Anyway Mr. Vanilla lived up to his nickname on this performance. Grade D+. Buy?: No.
3) After those two mediocre performances I really expected Adam to kick butt. That's especially since he was singing U2's "One". Unfortunately it was the third straight mediocre performance. It was also another bad arrangement. I know the judges want the contestants to show their versatility by arranging songs. However a song this classic is nearly perfect. I don't know if you can give this song an arrangement that would make it better. Lambert certainly didn't it make it better. I could barely recognize the elements in his version that make this song so classic. This was by far the best of the judges picks. Of course, the judges praised it like crazy. The three certainties in life: death, taxes and the judges loving everything Adam Lambert does. Grade: D. Buy: No, it looks like I'll keep my Adam Lambert purchases to one.
A very disappointing first half of "AI" tonight.
I also would like to make one clarification. I mentioned in one of my recent blogs that No Doubt tickets were on sale for half price of what they were originally. Let me rephrase that. What I said is true, however I was meaning the Salt Lake market only. I have no idea about prices in other cities. I also don't know how long that half-price deal is going for. In addition I'm a little nervous that the show may be cancelled if they are that desperate to sell tickets.
Please don't vote for Danny Gokey! themusicaddict
Monday, May 11, 2009
Random Notes
Hello,
According to the premier "American Idol" website , mjsbigblog.com, here are the three judge's choice songs for the final three contestants. BTW, each contestant will be singing two songs this week. Paula went really obscure and picked Terence Trent D'arby's "Dance Little Sister" for Danny. I've never heard this song but I am familiar with D'arby's music. He had big hits back in the 90's with "Wishing Well" and "Sign Your Name", those two songs were his peak. He's probably unloading boxes for Fed Ex now. Darby's music would much better fit Lambert. If I hadn't watched Paula fawn over Danny Gokey all season, I'd think she was trying to sabotage him. I think he's going to struggle this week, although hopefully just not as much as "Dream On" last week.
Randy, the whitest black man in showbiz, picked One Republic's "Apologize" for Kris Allen. This song was performed on stage on "AI's" finale last year. David Archuleta sang it with the singer of One Republic. This song and Kris Allen both go together. Both are inoffensive, mellow and aren't that exciting. It's not the best song in the world sung by not the best singer in the world. I think Kris will do well with this song, although this song is sort of forgettable so who cares? (BTW David Cook sang with a special guest last season as well. He sang with ZZ Topp. I would say both of last year's song selections were appropriate.)
This week should just be the finale because Adam Lambert is clearly the class of the three remaining contestants. I just think at this point who is going to win is a foregone conclusion. The other two aren't even in Lambert's league. Simon is picking the judge's choice song for him. Of those three judges he's the most musical astute. There seems to be confusion which song Simon picked for Adam. He either picked U2's "One" or Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game". Both songs perfectly match Lambert's vocal abilities and I see him doing very well with either song.
Other music news: My son is turning 13 this Friday. (Happy birthday Big Boy!) For his birthday he really wanted to go see Green Day in concert. They are coming to Salt Lake on a Sunday. For religious reasons I told him we can't go. He doesn't like it, but that is the way it is. For the record I have missed many great concerts because they have been on Sundays, including Pearl Jam and the Rolling Stones.
I suggested instead we go the No Doubt/ Paramore concert coming on Memorial Day. I suggested it because he's a big Paramore fan. This will be his first concert and I think he will really like it. I just hope Gwen Stefani is a lot better that night than she was on "AI" last week. Of course he needs someone to take him and I'll be taking him. If you are interested in going to this concert, you certainly should go. Tickets are selling for buy one get one free and there are still pretty good tickets left. Our tickets are about halfway up the lower bowl in about middle of the stadium. I went through with him the whole process of finding where the tickets will be and where the best place to sit at concerts are.
This should be a pretty good concert. No Doubt is a great and really rocking band and Paramore is one of the best up and coming bands. They are coming with a third band that I'm not real familiar with, The Sounds. It should be a rocking night. I have loaded my iPod up with all the Paramore songs I have. I'm certain I'm more excited about going to this concert than my son is. I still remember my first real rock concert. I saw AC/DC on their "For Those About To Rock" tour, the tour where they had cannons shoot. That was a great concert. I still tell people how the first band came on the stage and played about 6 or 7 songs. For some reason I thought that band was AC/DC and the concert was over. I got up to leave and my friend had to tell me that was just the opening act. I bought an AC/DC poster at that concert and had that poster on my bedroom wall for several years.
I don't know if you have seen this yet but this is Wanda Sykes appearing at a White House Correspondents Association Dinner. She's absolutely hilarious and poking fun at people who have earned it. She makes fun of Dick Cheney, the self-righteous Rush Limbaugh and Republican apologist Sean Hannity. This is very funny no matter who you voted for in the last election. themusicaddict is a very strong independent, I don't need someone to tell me who to vote for.
In TV news, hopefully last night was not the series finale for the excellent "Cold Case". Rumors are circulating that it's too expensive to produce and this might be it's last season. I certainly hope not as that is a great show that both my wife and I love. This was the second of a two part series and both parts featured songs from Pearl Jam's "Ten" Deluxe version. It's a commemorative of the classic original CD that came out in 1991. I think all shows should have Pearl Jam as their background music.
Also last night was the season finale of "Celebrity Apprentice", it came down to a battle between not the two nicest people ever. Unlike last year when the arrogant and annoying Piers Morgan won, at least the person that I wanted to win this year won. Joan Rivers defeated Annie Duke. I only watched about 10 minutes of last night's episode. I was busy with so many other things I wanted to do.
I'm listening to Guns N' Roses "Chinese Democracy" in my car. I have close to a hour drive each way to work. I'm going to listen to it a few times. One of my first blogs I wrote about the impending release of that CD and how I couldn't wait. "Chinese Democracy" was released and it received a critical drubbing. I thought it was a lot better than what the critics thought. I haven't listened to it in awhile so I pulled it out to give it a fresh listen. In a few days I'll give a full review.
I'm almost done with Stephen King's "The Cell". It's been a pretty intense novel and I'll give a full review when I finish reading it in the next little while.
I'm not sure when I will be back. Have a great week, themusicaddict
According to the premier "American Idol" website , mjsbigblog.com, here are the three judge's choice songs for the final three contestants. BTW, each contestant will be singing two songs this week. Paula went really obscure and picked Terence Trent D'arby's "Dance Little Sister" for Danny. I've never heard this song but I am familiar with D'arby's music. He had big hits back in the 90's with "Wishing Well" and "Sign Your Name", those two songs were his peak. He's probably unloading boxes for Fed Ex now. Darby's music would much better fit Lambert. If I hadn't watched Paula fawn over Danny Gokey all season, I'd think she was trying to sabotage him. I think he's going to struggle this week, although hopefully just not as much as "Dream On" last week.
Randy, the whitest black man in showbiz, picked One Republic's "Apologize" for Kris Allen. This song was performed on stage on "AI's" finale last year. David Archuleta sang it with the singer of One Republic. This song and Kris Allen both go together. Both are inoffensive, mellow and aren't that exciting. It's not the best song in the world sung by not the best singer in the world. I think Kris will do well with this song, although this song is sort of forgettable so who cares? (BTW David Cook sang with a special guest last season as well. He sang with ZZ Topp. I would say both of last year's song selections were appropriate.)
This week should just be the finale because Adam Lambert is clearly the class of the three remaining contestants. I just think at this point who is going to win is a foregone conclusion. The other two aren't even in Lambert's league. Simon is picking the judge's choice song for him. Of those three judges he's the most musical astute. There seems to be confusion which song Simon picked for Adam. He either picked U2's "One" or Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game". Both songs perfectly match Lambert's vocal abilities and I see him doing very well with either song.
Other music news: My son is turning 13 this Friday. (Happy birthday Big Boy!) For his birthday he really wanted to go see Green Day in concert. They are coming to Salt Lake on a Sunday. For religious reasons I told him we can't go. He doesn't like it, but that is the way it is. For the record I have missed many great concerts because they have been on Sundays, including Pearl Jam and the Rolling Stones.
I suggested instead we go the No Doubt/ Paramore concert coming on Memorial Day. I suggested it because he's a big Paramore fan. This will be his first concert and I think he will really like it. I just hope Gwen Stefani is a lot better that night than she was on "AI" last week. Of course he needs someone to take him and I'll be taking him. If you are interested in going to this concert, you certainly should go. Tickets are selling for buy one get one free and there are still pretty good tickets left. Our tickets are about halfway up the lower bowl in about middle of the stadium. I went through with him the whole process of finding where the tickets will be and where the best place to sit at concerts are.
This should be a pretty good concert. No Doubt is a great and really rocking band and Paramore is one of the best up and coming bands. They are coming with a third band that I'm not real familiar with, The Sounds. It should be a rocking night. I have loaded my iPod up with all the Paramore songs I have. I'm certain I'm more excited about going to this concert than my son is. I still remember my first real rock concert. I saw AC/DC on their "For Those About To Rock" tour, the tour where they had cannons shoot. That was a great concert. I still tell people how the first band came on the stage and played about 6 or 7 songs. For some reason I thought that band was AC/DC and the concert was over. I got up to leave and my friend had to tell me that was just the opening act. I bought an AC/DC poster at that concert and had that poster on my bedroom wall for several years.
I don't know if you have seen this yet but this is Wanda Sykes appearing at a White House Correspondents Association Dinner. She's absolutely hilarious and poking fun at people who have earned it. She makes fun of Dick Cheney, the self-righteous Rush Limbaugh and Republican apologist Sean Hannity. This is very funny no matter who you voted for in the last election. themusicaddict is a very strong independent, I don't need someone to tell me who to vote for.
In TV news, hopefully last night was not the series finale for the excellent "Cold Case". Rumors are circulating that it's too expensive to produce and this might be it's last season. I certainly hope not as that is a great show that both my wife and I love. This was the second of a two part series and both parts featured songs from Pearl Jam's "Ten" Deluxe version. It's a commemorative of the classic original CD that came out in 1991. I think all shows should have Pearl Jam as their background music.
Also last night was the season finale of "Celebrity Apprentice", it came down to a battle between not the two nicest people ever. Unlike last year when the arrogant and annoying Piers Morgan won, at least the person that I wanted to win this year won. Joan Rivers defeated Annie Duke. I only watched about 10 minutes of last night's episode. I was busy with so many other things I wanted to do.
I'm listening to Guns N' Roses "Chinese Democracy" in my car. I have close to a hour drive each way to work. I'm going to listen to it a few times. One of my first blogs I wrote about the impending release of that CD and how I couldn't wait. "Chinese Democracy" was released and it received a critical drubbing. I thought it was a lot better than what the critics thought. I haven't listened to it in awhile so I pulled it out to give it a fresh listen. In a few days I'll give a full review.
I'm almost done with Stephen King's "The Cell". It's been a pretty intense novel and I'll give a full review when I finish reading it in the next little while.
I'm not sure when I will be back. Have a great week, themusicaddict
Sunday, May 10, 2009
American Idol Top 10 5/10/2009
Hello, (Updated 8:07 PM MST)
I hope everyone is having a happy Mother's day.
Here's my Top 10 for "American Idol" on this beautiful Spring day, at least in Utah. I told you I was going to be shaking up my list. Frankly I'm not real pleased either Kris Allen or Danny Gokey made it to the top three. Danny Gokey is just a like a cockroach in many ways, but namely in that nothing can kill him. He gave a barely mediocre version of "Dream On" Tuesday night and he's still in the competition? Not only that but the judges gave him props for trying. I thought this was a singing competition, not a trying competition. Of course with him still in it, it's very trying for me to have to hear him sing. If you haven't already, go to ew.com and check out the latest "Idolatry" with the always funny Kristin Baldwin and Michael Slezak.
On to the countdown, again in reverse order.
* Danny Gokey (LW: 4). I just don't have the heart to put him anywhere in my Top 10. The fact that we have to hear him sing twice this week makes me depressed.
10) Kris Allen (LW: 3) I don't get the appeal of him. He's not a great song arranger, he has no rock credibility, has a very limited vocal range and his charisma and stage presence is almost non-existent. Again that just goes to show this show has very little to do with talent, it's all about how big your voting base is. At least he isn't as smarmy and doesn't applaud himself like Danny Gokey. I don't expect to hear much from him or Gokey within a year from now.
9) Scott MacIntyre, he's really another lightweight vocally. However he has a great sense-of-humor, a never say die attitude and he's an excellent pianist. I don't think he'll have much of a career, but he'd be someone you'd want to hang out with. The only reason a person would want to hang out with Gokey is if he is family or it gave you a chance to tell him to shut up.
8) Anoop Desai: Michael Slezak was suitably impressed with him that he had a five part interview with him on "Idolatry". He usually only has 3 part interviews with the recently evicted contestant. Desai had some fantastic performances this season. Again I don't know if he's going to be a big star, but for him it's not going to matter. He's clearly very smart and will go a long way in whatever he decides to do.
7) Mishavonna Henson: I just wish she would have had more chance to show what she can do. She's a great singer and we could have used more estrogen in this year's "AI", especially in the final five. (I sort of wonder how Joanna Pacitti would have done if she had been allowed to compete.)
6) Felicia Barton: See above.
5) Matt Giraud: I could see him going far in his career, it could go either way with him. He seemingly never got his groove going. He seemingly alternated between great and terrible performances. No more Coldplay or The Fray songs that's for sure. Although he definitely should have out lasted Mr. Vanilla and Gokey.
4) Megan Corkrey: I'm listening to her excellent "Rockin' Robin" now. She's so unique. Again I don't know if she'll ever be a big star. I sort of think she could have an Amy Winehouse like career, but hopefully without the craziness. It's people like her that almost makes me want to go see the "AI" tour. Then I remember I would have to put up with some of the lame contestants as well. Before iTunes stops selling it go and buy Megan Joy's "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree". Her version of that song is fantastic.
3) Alexis Grace: She came in 11th place, seriously? She didn't even make the tour and was beaten out by such lightweights as Michael Sarver, Scott MacIntyre, Kris Allen and Danny Gokey. Really? I just can't get over the fact that she didn't go much further in the concert. Once the "AI" tour is over and you have made your record Alexis go on tour with Megan and Allison and I'll come and see you. That would have three times the entertainment value as the actual "AI" tour.
2) Allison Iraheta: Since she no longer is on the show, I couldn't make her number one on my list. I like her more than the three remaining contestants combined. She could be a superstar if she gets with the right producers and song writers. Definitely buy her "Papa Was A Rolling Stone", "I Can't Make You Love Me" and "Someone To Watch Over Me".
1) Adam Lambert: The current EW cover boy and probable winner of Season 8 of "American Idol". Again he's not my favorite contestant, but I have to give him some serious props for his outstanding performance of Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love".
Have the rest of a good day, I'm not sure when I'll be back next.
I hope everyone is having a happy Mother's day.
Here's my Top 10 for "American Idol" on this beautiful Spring day, at least in Utah. I told you I was going to be shaking up my list. Frankly I'm not real pleased either Kris Allen or Danny Gokey made it to the top three. Danny Gokey is just a like a cockroach in many ways, but namely in that nothing can kill him. He gave a barely mediocre version of "Dream On" Tuesday night and he's still in the competition? Not only that but the judges gave him props for trying. I thought this was a singing competition, not a trying competition. Of course with him still in it, it's very trying for me to have to hear him sing. If you haven't already, go to ew.com and check out the latest "Idolatry" with the always funny Kristin Baldwin and Michael Slezak.
On to the countdown, again in reverse order.
* Danny Gokey (LW: 4). I just don't have the heart to put him anywhere in my Top 10. The fact that we have to hear him sing twice this week makes me depressed.
10) Kris Allen (LW: 3) I don't get the appeal of him. He's not a great song arranger, he has no rock credibility, has a very limited vocal range and his charisma and stage presence is almost non-existent. Again that just goes to show this show has very little to do with talent, it's all about how big your voting base is. At least he isn't as smarmy and doesn't applaud himself like Danny Gokey. I don't expect to hear much from him or Gokey within a year from now.
9) Scott MacIntyre, he's really another lightweight vocally. However he has a great sense-of-humor, a never say die attitude and he's an excellent pianist. I don't think he'll have much of a career, but he'd be someone you'd want to hang out with. The only reason a person would want to hang out with Gokey is if he is family or it gave you a chance to tell him to shut up.
8) Anoop Desai: Michael Slezak was suitably impressed with him that he had a five part interview with him on "Idolatry". He usually only has 3 part interviews with the recently evicted contestant. Desai had some fantastic performances this season. Again I don't know if he's going to be a big star, but for him it's not going to matter. He's clearly very smart and will go a long way in whatever he decides to do.
7) Mishavonna Henson: I just wish she would have had more chance to show what she can do. She's a great singer and we could have used more estrogen in this year's "AI", especially in the final five. (I sort of wonder how Joanna Pacitti would have done if she had been allowed to compete.)
6) Felicia Barton: See above.
5) Matt Giraud: I could see him going far in his career, it could go either way with him. He seemingly never got his groove going. He seemingly alternated between great and terrible performances. No more Coldplay or The Fray songs that's for sure. Although he definitely should have out lasted Mr. Vanilla and Gokey.
4) Megan Corkrey: I'm listening to her excellent "Rockin' Robin" now. She's so unique. Again I don't know if she'll ever be a big star. I sort of think she could have an Amy Winehouse like career, but hopefully without the craziness. It's people like her that almost makes me want to go see the "AI" tour. Then I remember I would have to put up with some of the lame contestants as well. Before iTunes stops selling it go and buy Megan Joy's "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree". Her version of that song is fantastic.
3) Alexis Grace: She came in 11th place, seriously? She didn't even make the tour and was beaten out by such lightweights as Michael Sarver, Scott MacIntyre, Kris Allen and Danny Gokey. Really? I just can't get over the fact that she didn't go much further in the concert. Once the "AI" tour is over and you have made your record Alexis go on tour with Megan and Allison and I'll come and see you. That would have three times the entertainment value as the actual "AI" tour.
2) Allison Iraheta: Since she no longer is on the show, I couldn't make her number one on my list. I like her more than the three remaining contestants combined. She could be a superstar if she gets with the right producers and song writers. Definitely buy her "Papa Was A Rolling Stone", "I Can't Make You Love Me" and "Someone To Watch Over Me".
1) Adam Lambert: The current EW cover boy and probable winner of Season 8 of "American Idol". Again he's not my favorite contestant, but I have to give him some serious props for his outstanding performance of Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love".
Have the rest of a good day, I'm not sure when I'll be back next.
Mother's tribute, Black Label Society Review
Hello,
Happy Mother's Day! I would personally like to thank my Mom for being such a great mother and helping my family and I through many tough times, especially financially. I love you Mom. I would also like to thank my wife for bringing our four kids into the world. She went through a lot to do that. She had severe morning sickness with our first kid. She then carried our three other kids to full term and all the hard work that goes with that. Then our last child provided excitement. First of all my wife was pregnant with him through a hot summer, then that same child was anxious to come into the world. He was born in a bathtub on Halloween morning. Both have been stalwart mothers through the years. I love you Stefanie. Thanks to both again and all those great mothers who have made our world what it is.
On Tuesday, May 5th thanks to my brother we went to the Black Label Society/ Dope/ Cycle of Pain concert.
The concert was suppose to start at 8:00. My brother and I left for the venue about 6:30, we were in no hurry. We drove to the Gateway and went and ate at the Skybox, a sports themed restaurant. We then wandered over to the Depot, where the concert is at. We got into the venue about 7:45 and Cycle of Pain was already playing. I can't say I was too sad that I missed part of their set. The two opening bands were both living the heavy metal stereotype to the letter. Just like any other thing the heavy metal community is all about conformity. It's just that the conformity is to the heavy metal lifestyle. I'll tell you in advance that I'm not very familiar with the music of any of these bands. I don't have a lot of song titles, I'm doing what I can to identify the songs though. Please excuse my ignorance if I write something that is incorrect.
Cycle of Pain is a 6 man band with a black keyboardist that looks like Darius Rucker. Okay so that's a stereotype that they broke. We only caught two of the songs they sang. They sang the very funny "Do My Work High" which was actually a half decent song. It's a rock song with a funky vibe. They closed out their short set by talking about their new CD that was released this past week. Apparently it is #18 on the metal charts, I hadn't even realized there were metal charts. They closed out their set with a song centered around the lyric "What You Sew Is What You Get". That is a very definitive heavy metal theme.
A few minutes later the band Dope took the stage, a very apt named band. They are a bunch of dopes. I call them the f band, because their favorite word is a certain four letter f word. As my brother said they are lyrical midgets. Their short set still had a couple of highlights. Dope is a four man band from Chicago. As I'm not familiar with their music sometimes I couldn't tell where one song ended and another began.
Dope played for about 35 minutes which was perfect. They opened up their set with a song that I could barely understand. After that unintelligible song they sang one of their f songs "F- Tomorrow". They urged people not to go to work tomorrow, like that's an option. They got the Depot rocking by covering Billy Idol's "Rebel Yell", they added another layer of rock toughness to an already rocking song. That song is one of the highlights of their set, two of the three highlights are covers. Then the lyrical midgets went with another one of their obscenely titled songs, "Die - Die". This is a pretty good song, other than it needs a lyrical face lift. The song lasted about 10 minutes and it includes the line, "When the sound goes boom". I listened a little bit to Dope on Rhapsody before going to the concert. I stopped after awhile because of their excess use of the f bomb.
Dope closed out their short set with "F- Tha Police" and then another cover song. They sang the classic 80's Dead or Alive song "You Spin Me Round", a song they called "the stupidest song". You may think it's a stupid song but it's one of the highlights of your set. Their last song of the night is, I think, an original song. It repeats the refrain, "Cocaine, Heroin, Alcohol and Vicodin". As near as I can tell the song is titled "She's My Addiction". That is a pretty cool song. After playing that song they thankfully left the stage.
Dope's set list:
1) Unintelligible. I have no idea what that song is.
2) "$%#@ Tomorrow"
3) Billy Idol's "Rebel Yell"
4) "Die Mother- Die" This is the song with the line "When the sound goes boom".
5) "- The Police"
6) "You Spin Me 'Round"
7) "She's My Addiction".
We then had a 55 minute wait until Zack and the Boys took the stage. While waiting the pa system played some Alice in Chains and Patsy Cline's "Crazy".
Finally at 9:55 Black Label Society, which should be known as the Zakk Wylde Band, took the stage for a 13 song set. Again I'm not familiar with their music so the song titles are as close to being accurate as possible.
Black Label Society played from 9:55 to 11:30. Black Label Society finally took the stage at 9:55. BLS is led by the hand clapping, chest bumping, heaven pointing, band member hugging and spitting Zack Wylde. I'm going to use a medical term to describe the first 5 songs of their set, blunt force trauma. It was about 25 minutes of straight forward, butt kicking heavy metal. After the fifth song Zakk took a few minutes to introduce, harass and mock his fellow band members. He does have a pretty tight band behind him.
For the sixth and seventh song Zakk Wylde played the keyboards. The sixth song they performed is "Damage Is Done" a song "dedicated to the troops". This is the very melodic rock that BLS does so well. The 7th song I think is called "Devil's Dime". It's a tribute to Dimebag Darrell of Pantera fame. He was killed while performing in concert by a deranged madman. Pictures of Darrell dropped from two stacks of speakers and then taken down after that song was performed.
The next three songs I couldn't catch much of what Zakk was singing. In the midst of these songs there was a brutally long Zakk guitar solo. It's all about Zakk, no doubt. The set closing three songs all were good. Concrete Jungle" came with an extended jam. Again it's all about Zakk. Following "Here For You", the band had a farewell bow accompanied by extended feedback.
I thought it was interesting as we were leaving the show we saw some of the band members come out of the Depot and pile into the tour bus. Meanwhile Zakk was taken to a van going back to a hotel.
Overall a half decent set by Black Label Society.
Black Label Society's set list:
1) "Heroin"
2) "Reality"
3) "Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!"
4) "Suicide Decider" followed by a Zack led "BLS" chant.
5) "Respect Through Fear"
Zack then introduced the Salt Lake Chapter of the the Black Label Society club to his fellow band members.
6) "Damage is Done"
7) "Devil's Dime" (I think) A tribute to Pantera's Dimebag Darrell.
8) "Coming Back"
9) "Honesty" Zakk performed an extra long guitar solo. He threw in a snippet of "The Star Spangled Banner" immortalized by Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock.
10) ?
11) "Blessed Hellride"
12) "Concrete Jungle"/ extended jam
13) "Here For You"
I'll either be back later today or tomorrow morning with my Top ? list for "AI". Be nice to your Moms today.
Happy Mother's Day! I would personally like to thank my Mom for being such a great mother and helping my family and I through many tough times, especially financially. I love you Mom. I would also like to thank my wife for bringing our four kids into the world. She went through a lot to do that. She had severe morning sickness with our first kid. She then carried our three other kids to full term and all the hard work that goes with that. Then our last child provided excitement. First of all my wife was pregnant with him through a hot summer, then that same child was anxious to come into the world. He was born in a bathtub on Halloween morning. Both have been stalwart mothers through the years. I love you Stefanie. Thanks to both again and all those great mothers who have made our world what it is.
On Tuesday, May 5th thanks to my brother we went to the Black Label Society/ Dope/ Cycle of Pain concert.
The concert was suppose to start at 8:00. My brother and I left for the venue about 6:30, we were in no hurry. We drove to the Gateway and went and ate at the Skybox, a sports themed restaurant. We then wandered over to the Depot, where the concert is at. We got into the venue about 7:45 and Cycle of Pain was already playing. I can't say I was too sad that I missed part of their set. The two opening bands were both living the heavy metal stereotype to the letter. Just like any other thing the heavy metal community is all about conformity. It's just that the conformity is to the heavy metal lifestyle. I'll tell you in advance that I'm not very familiar with the music of any of these bands. I don't have a lot of song titles, I'm doing what I can to identify the songs though. Please excuse my ignorance if I write something that is incorrect.
Cycle of Pain is a 6 man band with a black keyboardist that looks like Darius Rucker. Okay so that's a stereotype that they broke. We only caught two of the songs they sang. They sang the very funny "Do My Work High" which was actually a half decent song. It's a rock song with a funky vibe. They closed out their short set by talking about their new CD that was released this past week. Apparently it is #18 on the metal charts, I hadn't even realized there were metal charts. They closed out their set with a song centered around the lyric "What You Sew Is What You Get". That is a very definitive heavy metal theme.
A few minutes later the band Dope took the stage, a very apt named band. They are a bunch of dopes. I call them the f band, because their favorite word is a certain four letter f word. As my brother said they are lyrical midgets. Their short set still had a couple of highlights. Dope is a four man band from Chicago. As I'm not familiar with their music sometimes I couldn't tell where one song ended and another began.
Dope played for about 35 minutes which was perfect. They opened up their set with a song that I could barely understand. After that unintelligible song they sang one of their f songs "F- Tomorrow". They urged people not to go to work tomorrow, like that's an option. They got the Depot rocking by covering Billy Idol's "Rebel Yell", they added another layer of rock toughness to an already rocking song. That song is one of the highlights of their set, two of the three highlights are covers. Then the lyrical midgets went with another one of their obscenely titled songs, "Die - Die". This is a pretty good song, other than it needs a lyrical face lift. The song lasted about 10 minutes and it includes the line, "When the sound goes boom". I listened a little bit to Dope on Rhapsody before going to the concert. I stopped after awhile because of their excess use of the f bomb.
Dope closed out their short set with "F- Tha Police" and then another cover song. They sang the classic 80's Dead or Alive song "You Spin Me Round", a song they called "the stupidest song". You may think it's a stupid song but it's one of the highlights of your set. Their last song of the night is, I think, an original song. It repeats the refrain, "Cocaine, Heroin, Alcohol and Vicodin". As near as I can tell the song is titled "She's My Addiction". That is a pretty cool song. After playing that song they thankfully left the stage.
Dope's set list:
1) Unintelligible. I have no idea what that song is.
2) "$%#@ Tomorrow"
3) Billy Idol's "Rebel Yell"
4) "Die Mother- Die" This is the song with the line "When the sound goes boom".
5) "- The Police"
6) "You Spin Me 'Round"
7) "She's My Addiction".
We then had a 55 minute wait until Zack and the Boys took the stage. While waiting the pa system played some Alice in Chains and Patsy Cline's "Crazy".
Finally at 9:55 Black Label Society, which should be known as the Zakk Wylde Band, took the stage for a 13 song set. Again I'm not familiar with their music so the song titles are as close to being accurate as possible.
Black Label Society played from 9:55 to 11:30. Black Label Society finally took the stage at 9:55. BLS is led by the hand clapping, chest bumping, heaven pointing, band member hugging and spitting Zack Wylde. I'm going to use a medical term to describe the first 5 songs of their set, blunt force trauma. It was about 25 minutes of straight forward, butt kicking heavy metal. After the fifth song Zakk took a few minutes to introduce, harass and mock his fellow band members. He does have a pretty tight band behind him.
For the sixth and seventh song Zakk Wylde played the keyboards. The sixth song they performed is "Damage Is Done" a song "dedicated to the troops". This is the very melodic rock that BLS does so well. The 7th song I think is called "Devil's Dime". It's a tribute to Dimebag Darrell of Pantera fame. He was killed while performing in concert by a deranged madman. Pictures of Darrell dropped from two stacks of speakers and then taken down after that song was performed.
The next three songs I couldn't catch much of what Zakk was singing. In the midst of these songs there was a brutally long Zakk guitar solo. It's all about Zakk, no doubt. The set closing three songs all were good. Concrete Jungle" came with an extended jam. Again it's all about Zakk. Following "Here For You", the band had a farewell bow accompanied by extended feedback.
I thought it was interesting as we were leaving the show we saw some of the band members come out of the Depot and pile into the tour bus. Meanwhile Zakk was taken to a van going back to a hotel.
Overall a half decent set by Black Label Society.
Black Label Society's set list:
1) "Heroin"
2) "Reality"
3) "Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!"
4) "Suicide Decider" followed by a Zack led "BLS" chant.
5) "Respect Through Fear"
Zack then introduced the Salt Lake Chapter of the the Black Label Society club to his fellow band members.
6) "Damage is Done"
7) "Devil's Dime" (I think) A tribute to Pantera's Dimebag Darrell.
8) "Coming Back"
9) "Honesty" Zakk performed an extra long guitar solo. He threw in a snippet of "The Star Spangled Banner" immortalized by Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock.
10) ?
11) "Blessed Hellride"
12) "Concrete Jungle"/ extended jam
13) "Here For You"
I'll either be back later today or tomorrow morning with my Top ? list for "AI". Be nice to your Moms today.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
"AI" Week 10 May 5th and 6th part 1
Hello,
You probably have noticed my two shorter blogs from earlier today. When possible I like to send out a thought or two on breaks and lunches. I'll continue doing that over the next little while. I reviewed Adam Lambert's excellent Led Zeppelin performance in yesterday's blog.
2) Allison Iraheta took the stage and sang Janis Joplin's "Cry Baby". Slash said that she needs to "get past the fear part". Anyway simply another outstanding performance by Allison, although not her best. After that great performance we then had to put up with the lame Randy Jackson and his horrible, nonsensical critique. Randy said all of the following "so check it", "sing your face off", "didn't love this", "you can sing anything" and my personal favorite "trying to keep it real". Why is that last statement my favorite, it's because it's so patently false. Randy you are on a contrived reality show, just exactly how are you "keeping it real"? I wish I could be as bad in my job as Randy is in his and still not get fired. Randy and Kara must go, bring over that hot blond judge from "Britain's Got Talent". I digress. Grade: A. A great performance but I probably won't buy it.
3) Kris and Danny then sang "Renegade" by Styx. Danny doesn't look comfortable singing that song. The judges were mixed and Simon said that "Danny was better than Kris". Obviously both those singers were way out of their element but they gave it a fight. Grade: C+. Buy: no thanks. I don't want to break my streak of not buying any songs by Kris and Danny the whole season. That goes double for them singing together.
4) Kris Allen next sang the Beatles "Come Together". The "AI" band rocked that song and Kris rocked the song to the extent of his ability. The band really kicked butt the whole night. The judges opinions were mixed and Simon made his infamous critique that it was "like eating ice for lunch". That's how I feel about nearly all of his performances, but I actually thought he was pretty good Tuesday night. The first three solo performances were all pretty good. Grade: B+. Buy? No, I already have Carly Smithson's rocking version from last season.
5) Danny Gokey then performed and some people consider his "Dream On" one of the worst performances in "AI" history. (I don't think so, at least Danny Gokey can sing. Remember this is the same show that had Haley Scarnato and Sanjaya sing several times on it's stage.) Slash said Gokey's performance would all come down to the final scream, the scream that Steven Tyler immortalized. Gokey strangled "Dream On" to death in front of millions of witnesses. Randy, continuing the judges pimping, gave him an "A+ for effort". Also Kara showed off her continued lack of music knowledge by saying something about how he should have sang "early Aerosmith" like "Cryin" and "Crazy". Kara let's do some educating, "Dream On" was released in 1973 and "Cryin" and "Crazy" were both released in 1993. You may remember those last two videos for featuring Alicia Silverstone. Kara and Randy continue to be janky judges. Simon said Gokey's "last note was like watching a horror movie. One of Simon's most accurate critiques of all-time. I thought most of his performance was "aight" but that last 8 seconds was definitely painful. Grade: C, maybe that's too high. Buy? what do you think?
6) The two powerhouses of Season 8 joined together to rock out Foghat's "Slow Ride". Adam and Allison rocked that performance with a lot of skill and power. Then in a miraculous change of pace, Randy and Kara actually had intelligent comments. Randy said they sang that "like two seasoned rock stars". Kara said they were "pushing each other to be better". She nailed that right on the head. Can we fire her now so she can end on a good note? Grade: B+. Buy? No!
Now on to an extremely disappointing results tonight. Over 64 million people voted. On tonight's results show we finally have some very good performers. Thankfully no disco night reruns and no lame rappers. (Flo Rida was one of the worst performances in "Idol" history. I'd rather listen to Danny Gokey sing "Dream On" again.)
First Slash, his band and the Idols tore through an all-out rocking version of Alice Cooper's "Schools Out". Again Danny looked lost. Gokey singing rock is as awkward as Rosie appearing in the SI swimsuit edition. Kara just to let you know that truly is early Alice Cooper. We then had Paula Abdul take the stage to lip synch her new song, "I'm Just Here For The Music". Although it doesn't sound like a Rihanna song I certainly thought of her as Abdul performed. I thought that was funny that Ryan called her "an international superstar". Maybe 20 years ago, but not now. Kara that song is later Paula Abdul.
No Doubt took the stage and rocked out "Just A Girl". The boys rocked that song but Gwen Stefani's vocals seemed to be a bit off. I was disappointed by her performance. (I still would love to see them and Paramore in concert though.) Then Daughtry took the stage and sang his/their new song, "No Surprise". That's another great song from the fourth place finisher of "AI" 3 years ago.
Speaking of fourth place finishers, unfortunately the fantastic Allison Iraheta went home this week. Allison take heart from Daughtry rocking the stage Wednesday night. I can't even remember who even won Season 5 of "AI". What does that tell you Allison? Tell 19 Entertainment to piss off and sign with a label who will let you rock to your heart's content. Maybe you can sign with Daughtry's people.
Here are the results: Kris is first safe and Ryan is telling us this is in random order. Kris is safe! Really? The second person that's safe is Adam Lambert. I'm okay with that because he has been one of the best performers of the whole season. That means who is going home is between Danny and Allison. Danny is safe. He has a humongous voting base behind him. Apparently they are loyal even when he murdered an Aerosmith song live on stage. If there was a trial, that would be an open and shut case.
Allison closed out the show with another great performance and class. Danny you might figure out what class is and try to get some. You'll need it when you lose. He's going to lose soon right? Allison you are now free to rock without the limiting constraints of "AI". When you tour by yourself, please come to Salt Lake.
I'm sure those are things that Michael Slezak and his guest will talk about in the newest "Idolatry" that's suppose to be out anytime today. The episodes of "Idolatry" are always good for a few laughs. Also he dislikes Danny Gokey as much as me. Slezak is a wise man.
In other news: Happy Birthday to the Piano Man, Billy Joel turns 60 today. I've seen him in concert many times and he always puts on an amazing show. Best wishes go out to you. Thanks for all the great memories.
I'll be back tomorrow with a review of the Black Label Society concert and my top whatever in "AI". I'll be mixing it up. themusicaddict
You probably have noticed my two shorter blogs from earlier today. When possible I like to send out a thought or two on breaks and lunches. I'll continue doing that over the next little while. I reviewed Adam Lambert's excellent Led Zeppelin performance in yesterday's blog.
2) Allison Iraheta took the stage and sang Janis Joplin's "Cry Baby". Slash said that she needs to "get past the fear part". Anyway simply another outstanding performance by Allison, although not her best. After that great performance we then had to put up with the lame Randy Jackson and his horrible, nonsensical critique. Randy said all of the following "so check it", "sing your face off", "didn't love this", "you can sing anything" and my personal favorite "trying to keep it real". Why is that last statement my favorite, it's because it's so patently false. Randy you are on a contrived reality show, just exactly how are you "keeping it real"? I wish I could be as bad in my job as Randy is in his and still not get fired. Randy and Kara must go, bring over that hot blond judge from "Britain's Got Talent". I digress. Grade: A. A great performance but I probably won't buy it.
3) Kris and Danny then sang "Renegade" by Styx. Danny doesn't look comfortable singing that song. The judges were mixed and Simon said that "Danny was better than Kris". Obviously both those singers were way out of their element but they gave it a fight. Grade: C+. Buy: no thanks. I don't want to break my streak of not buying any songs by Kris and Danny the whole season. That goes double for them singing together.
4) Kris Allen next sang the Beatles "Come Together". The "AI" band rocked that song and Kris rocked the song to the extent of his ability. The band really kicked butt the whole night. The judges opinions were mixed and Simon made his infamous critique that it was "like eating ice for lunch". That's how I feel about nearly all of his performances, but I actually thought he was pretty good Tuesday night. The first three solo performances were all pretty good. Grade: B+. Buy? No, I already have Carly Smithson's rocking version from last season.
5) Danny Gokey then performed and some people consider his "Dream On" one of the worst performances in "AI" history. (I don't think so, at least Danny Gokey can sing. Remember this is the same show that had Haley Scarnato and Sanjaya sing several times on it's stage.) Slash said Gokey's performance would all come down to the final scream, the scream that Steven Tyler immortalized. Gokey strangled "Dream On" to death in front of millions of witnesses. Randy, continuing the judges pimping, gave him an "A+ for effort". Also Kara showed off her continued lack of music knowledge by saying something about how he should have sang "early Aerosmith" like "Cryin" and "Crazy". Kara let's do some educating, "Dream On" was released in 1973 and "Cryin" and "Crazy" were both released in 1993. You may remember those last two videos for featuring Alicia Silverstone. Kara and Randy continue to be janky judges. Simon said Gokey's "last note was like watching a horror movie. One of Simon's most accurate critiques of all-time. I thought most of his performance was "aight" but that last 8 seconds was definitely painful. Grade: C, maybe that's too high. Buy? what do you think?
6) The two powerhouses of Season 8 joined together to rock out Foghat's "Slow Ride". Adam and Allison rocked that performance with a lot of skill and power. Then in a miraculous change of pace, Randy and Kara actually had intelligent comments. Randy said they sang that "like two seasoned rock stars". Kara said they were "pushing each other to be better". She nailed that right on the head. Can we fire her now so she can end on a good note? Grade: B+. Buy? No!
Now on to an extremely disappointing results tonight. Over 64 million people voted. On tonight's results show we finally have some very good performers. Thankfully no disco night reruns and no lame rappers. (Flo Rida was one of the worst performances in "Idol" history. I'd rather listen to Danny Gokey sing "Dream On" again.)
First Slash, his band and the Idols tore through an all-out rocking version of Alice Cooper's "Schools Out". Again Danny looked lost. Gokey singing rock is as awkward as Rosie appearing in the SI swimsuit edition. Kara just to let you know that truly is early Alice Cooper. We then had Paula Abdul take the stage to lip synch her new song, "I'm Just Here For The Music". Although it doesn't sound like a Rihanna song I certainly thought of her as Abdul performed. I thought that was funny that Ryan called her "an international superstar". Maybe 20 years ago, but not now. Kara that song is later Paula Abdul.
No Doubt took the stage and rocked out "Just A Girl". The boys rocked that song but Gwen Stefani's vocals seemed to be a bit off. I was disappointed by her performance. (I still would love to see them and Paramore in concert though.) Then Daughtry took the stage and sang his/their new song, "No Surprise". That's another great song from the fourth place finisher of "AI" 3 years ago.
Speaking of fourth place finishers, unfortunately the fantastic Allison Iraheta went home this week. Allison take heart from Daughtry rocking the stage Wednesday night. I can't even remember who even won Season 5 of "AI". What does that tell you Allison? Tell 19 Entertainment to piss off and sign with a label who will let you rock to your heart's content. Maybe you can sign with Daughtry's people.
Here are the results: Kris is first safe and Ryan is telling us this is in random order. Kris is safe! Really? The second person that's safe is Adam Lambert. I'm okay with that because he has been one of the best performers of the whole season. That means who is going home is between Danny and Allison. Danny is safe. He has a humongous voting base behind him. Apparently they are loyal even when he murdered an Aerosmith song live on stage. If there was a trial, that would be an open and shut case.
Allison closed out the show with another great performance and class. Danny you might figure out what class is and try to get some. You'll need it when you lose. He's going to lose soon right? Allison you are now free to rock without the limiting constraints of "AI". When you tour by yourself, please come to Salt Lake.
I'm sure those are things that Michael Slezak and his guest will talk about in the newest "Idolatry" that's suppose to be out anytime today. The episodes of "Idolatry" are always good for a few laughs. Also he dislikes Danny Gokey as much as me. Slezak is a wise man.
In other news: Happy Birthday to the Piano Man, Billy Joel turns 60 today. I've seen him in concert many times and he always puts on an amazing show. Best wishes go out to you. Thanks for all the great memories.
I'll be back tomorrow with a review of the Black Label Society concert and my top whatever in "AI". I'll be mixing it up. themusicaddict
One week from yesterday the new Green Day CD comes out. Are you excited? As of yesterday you could stream the whole CD via rollingstone.com. Give it a listen.
Friday, May 8, 2009
"AI" Week 10 May 5th and 6th part 1
Hello,
I'm blogging from lunch. I have a hour lunch break at Verizon Wireless while I'm in training. It only takes a few minutes to eat so I usually have about 40 minutes of dead time. You may be wondering what I'm blogging from. VZW is pretty strict about computer use at work but is allowing my training group to use the Blackberry Curve while we are in training. I quickly figured out how to mobile blog with that, blogspot.com makes it very easy. I had to set it up and then to post a blog all I have to do is text what I blogged to a phone number. Seconds later it's posted to this blog. Very cool technology. I hoped to have a longer blog tonight, here it is.
Here's my longer blog although I don't have a lot of time. I have to go to bed in about 45 minutes. I'm not real excited about "AI" Season 8's final three of Adam, Danny and Kris. I understand why Adam is there. But Danny? Seriously! He sucks and what kind of CD would he make. I don't even think his CD would be as hip as David Archuleta's CD. I don't even think Danny Gokey will be able to open for Demi Lovato. Adam will win easily, I'm predicting he'll win in a blowout. Although I wasn't real excited about getting home and Lambert is on the cover of the latest Entertainment Weekly. I don't have anything against him and he's by far the best remaining contestant.
Before I get to the meat of this blog just a little preview of upcoming blogs. I'll be writing Part 2 of this blog, also a review of the Black Label Society concert and coming on Sunday my Top ? countdown for "American Idol". It should be obvious who'll be my number one. However I'm very dissatisfied with Danny and Kris making the Top 3 so I'm going to mix things up a bit.
This was a very disappointing week. I wish rock week was every week and I wish Slash was the mentor every week. BTW his new CD sounds like it's going to rock. He and his band will be backing up some of the biggest rock singers of all-time. (Although I'm guessing former band mates Axl Rose or Scott Weiland won't be singing on it.) It sounds like a very intriguing CD. I was fortunate to see both Slash and Zakk Wylde, two true rock gods play, though Slash was on TV. Kara D. those two are true rock gods.
1) Tuesday's performances show got off with a bang. Adam Lambert ripped through one of the best rock songs of all-time. That song being Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love", the first time a Led Zeppelin song has been performed on the "AI" stage. That was an excellent performance, although it was funny to hear a rumored gay man to sing those lyrics. He definitely had the best performance of the night. Grade: A+. Buy: No. That's no offense to Adam. I already have the original and it can't be topped. Adam is no slouch but no one can compare to the incomparable Robert Plant. He truly is the greatest singer of all-time.
Part 2 coming soon.
Have a great weekend and remember your Moms on Sunday, themusicaddict
I'm blogging from lunch. I have a hour lunch break at Verizon Wireless while I'm in training. It only takes a few minutes to eat so I usually have about 40 minutes of dead time. You may be wondering what I'm blogging from. VZW is pretty strict about computer use at work but is allowing my training group to use the Blackberry Curve while we are in training. I quickly figured out how to mobile blog with that, blogspot.com makes it very easy. I had to set it up and then to post a blog all I have to do is text what I blogged to a phone number. Seconds later it's posted to this blog. Very cool technology. I hoped to have a longer blog tonight, here it is.
Here's my longer blog although I don't have a lot of time. I have to go to bed in about 45 minutes. I'm not real excited about "AI" Season 8's final three of Adam, Danny and Kris. I understand why Adam is there. But Danny? Seriously! He sucks and what kind of CD would he make. I don't even think his CD would be as hip as David Archuleta's CD. I don't even think Danny Gokey will be able to open for Demi Lovato. Adam will win easily, I'm predicting he'll win in a blowout. Although I wasn't real excited about getting home and Lambert is on the cover of the latest Entertainment Weekly. I don't have anything against him and he's by far the best remaining contestant.
Before I get to the meat of this blog just a little preview of upcoming blogs. I'll be writing Part 2 of this blog, also a review of the Black Label Society concert and coming on Sunday my Top ? countdown for "American Idol". It should be obvious who'll be my number one. However I'm very dissatisfied with Danny and Kris making the Top 3 so I'm going to mix things up a bit.
This was a very disappointing week. I wish rock week was every week and I wish Slash was the mentor every week. BTW his new CD sounds like it's going to rock. He and his band will be backing up some of the biggest rock singers of all-time. (Although I'm guessing former band mates Axl Rose or Scott Weiland won't be singing on it.) It sounds like a very intriguing CD. I was fortunate to see both Slash and Zakk Wylde, two true rock gods play, though Slash was on TV. Kara D. those two are true rock gods.
1) Tuesday's performances show got off with a bang. Adam Lambert ripped through one of the best rock songs of all-time. That song being Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love", the first time a Led Zeppelin song has been performed on the "AI" stage. That was an excellent performance, although it was funny to hear a rumored gay man to sing those lyrics. He definitely had the best performance of the night. Grade: A+. Buy: No. That's no offense to Adam. I already have the original and it can't be topped. Adam is no slouch but no one can compare to the incomparable Robert Plant. He truly is the greatest singer of all-time.
Part 2 coming soon.
Have a great weekend and remember your Moms on Sunday, themusicaddict
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Monday, May 4, 2009
Sunday, May 3, 2009
I'm trying out the mobile blogging. I probably will try to blog at the black label society concert tuesday. My condolences to David Cook.
His brother died today.
Addition from my computer.
He died after a valiant 10 year battle with brain cancer. You may remember the initials AC on David Cook's guitar on "AI" last year. That was a tribute to his brother who unknowingly was coming to the end of his battle with cancer. David Cook handled that whole situation with so much aplomb last year.
Mobile blogging is really cool and it appeals to my inner geek. However I can only type up to 160 characters per message. I also am still getting used to the Blackberry Curve keyboard. It's not a querty keyboard so there's a bit of a learning curve. (No pun intended.)
themusicaddict
His brother died today.
Addition from my computer.
He died after a valiant 10 year battle with brain cancer. You may remember the initials AC on David Cook's guitar on "AI" last year. That was a tribute to his brother who unknowingly was coming to the end of his battle with cancer. David Cook handled that whole situation with so much aplomb last year.
Mobile blogging is really cool and it appeals to my inner geek. However I can only type up to 160 characters per message. I also am still getting used to the Blackberry Curve keyboard. It's not a querty keyboard so there's a bit of a learning curve. (No pun intended.)
themusicaddict
Top 4 for "AI" 5/03/09
Hello,
Here's my top four for season 8 of "American Idol".
4) Danny Gokey (LW:3) How is it that of out of all the contestants that he is the only one who has not been in the bottom 3? Does "AI" really want him to win? Do they really want a "winner" who fizzles out as quickly as Taylor Hicks or Ruben Studdard. As they say in corporate America, how will that help the brand? (corporate America is so loathsome.) I don't think he's going to handle rock week very well, I'm hoping that Slash punches him. Let's hope that doesn't happen because then he would get sympathy votes with all his regular votes.
3) Kris Allen (LW: 4) I feel the same way with a lot of things about him that I feel about Danny Gokey. I know he's really popular now, but he doesn't have lasting power. In the next couple of years maybe he'll be opening for the Disney star of the month. (Yes I'm talking about you David A.) He's not going to do well with rock week either. I'm still reeling from his awful, "All She Wants To Do Is Dance". That's not a 100% rock song, so it makes me nervous what he would do with a 100% rock song.
2) Adam Lambert (LW: 5) He's a yo-yo on my list. He seems to alternate between good and bad performances. He sang "Feeling Good" last week. That's not a song I necessarily like but he sang it very well. After his fantastic "Born To Be Wild" I think he's going to do well with rock week. It'll also be interesting to see the interaction between him and Slash. Lambert is not my favorite contestant, but he's a hell of lot more interesting musically than either Allen or Gokey.
1) Allison Iraheta (LW: 1) Allison was born for rock week. I'm excited to see her performance from Tuesday night. She needs an A+ performance to move to the next week though, she just does not have a strong enough voting base. She has to galvanize her fans to vote and take fans from the other three. She's lucky she's still in the competition. Also I'm lucky she's still in the competition.
Other news the Black Label Society concert is on May 5th, Cinco De Mayo. I'm looking forward to that. Although the downside of that is that I'll have to see "American Idol" later and I'll be very tired the next day at work. The concert should rock and I'm so glad I'm able to go to another concert.
I have completed 2 of the 7+ weeks of training at Verizon Wireless. It has been a very good experience so far, although there is a lot to learn. A very cool thing about the VZW training program is that we can use a Blackberry free of charge for 5 weeks. That's another way we can know more about our job for when we take calls. We can call and text all we want. I sent my first text ever last night to my wife. I also downloaded the Green Day "American Idiot" extended CD. Now all I have to do is to figure out to move it to my Crackberry. Two of my kids have played with the Crackberry a lot as well. When I have to give it back it's going to be hard for us. I'm taking it to the concert Tuesday night, I'm going to try and figure out mobile blogging. If I can figure that out, maybe that'll be my next blog.
I'm not sure when I'll be back. Have a great week, themusicaddict
Here's my top four for season 8 of "American Idol".
4) Danny Gokey (LW:3) How is it that of out of all the contestants that he is the only one who has not been in the bottom 3? Does "AI" really want him to win? Do they really want a "winner" who fizzles out as quickly as Taylor Hicks or Ruben Studdard. As they say in corporate America, how will that help the brand? (corporate America is so loathsome.) I don't think he's going to handle rock week very well, I'm hoping that Slash punches him. Let's hope that doesn't happen because then he would get sympathy votes with all his regular votes.
3) Kris Allen (LW: 4) I feel the same way with a lot of things about him that I feel about Danny Gokey. I know he's really popular now, but he doesn't have lasting power. In the next couple of years maybe he'll be opening for the Disney star of the month. (Yes I'm talking about you David A.) He's not going to do well with rock week either. I'm still reeling from his awful, "All She Wants To Do Is Dance". That's not a 100% rock song, so it makes me nervous what he would do with a 100% rock song.
2) Adam Lambert (LW: 5) He's a yo-yo on my list. He seems to alternate between good and bad performances. He sang "Feeling Good" last week. That's not a song I necessarily like but he sang it very well. After his fantastic "Born To Be Wild" I think he's going to do well with rock week. It'll also be interesting to see the interaction between him and Slash. Lambert is not my favorite contestant, but he's a hell of lot more interesting musically than either Allen or Gokey.
1) Allison Iraheta (LW: 1) Allison was born for rock week. I'm excited to see her performance from Tuesday night. She needs an A+ performance to move to the next week though, she just does not have a strong enough voting base. She has to galvanize her fans to vote and take fans from the other three. She's lucky she's still in the competition. Also I'm lucky she's still in the competition.
Other news the Black Label Society concert is on May 5th, Cinco De Mayo. I'm looking forward to that. Although the downside of that is that I'll have to see "American Idol" later and I'll be very tired the next day at work. The concert should rock and I'm so glad I'm able to go to another concert.
I have completed 2 of the 7+ weeks of training at Verizon Wireless. It has been a very good experience so far, although there is a lot to learn. A very cool thing about the VZW training program is that we can use a Blackberry free of charge for 5 weeks. That's another way we can know more about our job for when we take calls. We can call and text all we want. I sent my first text ever last night to my wife. I also downloaded the Green Day "American Idiot" extended CD. Now all I have to do is to figure out to move it to my Crackberry. Two of my kids have played with the Crackberry a lot as well. When I have to give it back it's going to be hard for us. I'm taking it to the concert Tuesday night, I'm going to try and figure out mobile blogging. If I can figure that out, maybe that'll be my next blog.
I'm not sure when I'll be back. Have a great week, themusicaddict
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