American Idol : The Final Three

Tonight the contestants will sing three songs each: one of the judges choosing, one of the producers choosing, and one of their own choosing.

first is jordin singing 'wishing on a star' a boring song that simon chose and nobody has ever heard before, but jordin again proves that she could make just about anything sound good. not a bad start but it was almost as though simon chose that song to slow jordin down, all sabotage like. i think he wants goodtwoshoes doolittle to win, just so he can tap into the christian record market.

paula abdul chooses the first song for blake, and its 'roxanne' - an absolutley brutal choice. it is at this point i realize that the contestants are surely cursing the judges for their indulgent and 'expert' picks. all season long we hear about how important song choice is and this is what the judges choose for the final three?! roxanne is a classic song and all, but there is just not much that can be done with a song that everyone has heard a million times and is probably a little annoyed by. nontheless blake does all he can to make it interesting and mercifully he does not attempt to sing it all high and crazy sting etyle, or to add crazy vocal turntablisms.

melinda doolittle gets a whitney houston song from randy jackson, but its one that no one is familiar with and of course its a snoozer. she sang it well, but its like, so what? randy compliments her on it but i think he just wants to make it sound like he picked a winning song. all about the judges egos this round i guess.

will the 'producers choice' round be as much of a failure as the judges round?

jordin gets 'she works hard for the money' and all signs point to yes, it will be at least as bad as the first round. what kind of choice is this for a sweet innocent 17 year old girl? she looks like she is not very interested in singing this particular song but will do so anyway, because she has to. it was ok, but simply not jordin's style. rough.

blake gets to sing maroon 5's first smash hit 'this love' which is probably the best thing he could have hoped for from the producers. it fits his style and he rocks a song that doesnt rock. he could totally have a number one single with this kind of bland pop stuff, even tho hopefully he will come up with something much cooler when he stars recording.

melinda gets 'nutbush city limits', an ike and tina turner joint, and it may well be her best performance ever. its as though she watched some old videos of tina turner after being compared to the legend several times this season and took some pointers from her. she seems more confident onstage, moves around with more ease and clearly knows that she can get down with this song. the second solid performance from melinda tonight but i think shes gonna have to up the ante for the last song if she wants to make it to the finale next week.

contestants choice round, and this may be the most important song choice of the season, for it will be te last thing people remember when they cast their votes after the show.

jordin picks 'i who have nothing', a song she did earlier in the season that blew everyone away. a safe choice, something she could be sure would amaze everyone. she was right about that, but it would have been nice to see someting new and shocking from her.

blake goes for something more adventueous and different, no surprise there, and good for him. robin thickes 'when i get you alone'. a fantastic choice for blake, as it provides ample beatboxing opportunities in appropriate places within the song and he gets to showcase his vocals too. this was an impressive song that reminded the audience how innovative and stylish blake is. just what he needed to do.

melinda goes back to the old and trusty 'i am a woman' that she did earlier in the season. its also a great song to show off her vocals, but it seemed tired, and all i can think is 'we've heard this before, what else u got??' not bad but it certainly didnt blow me away.

so considering all three songs from each contestant,
jordin had two duds and one spectacular performance

blake did excellent on the last two songs, while the first one sucked,

melinda had, of course, three solid, good performances. she is consistently good, but in my opinion never all that great or entertaining, and that is why i think we will say goodbye to melinda this week. then again, anything can happen, and she may even take home the trophy. i sure hope not tho.

American Idol : The Results 5/9

Only four left and this is when it gets tough to see people go home. Everyone who has made it this far has obvously worked very hard and sacrificed a lot to be here. Of course, anyone who has made it this far can pretty much bank on a record deal and not having to ever work a regular job again.

Before we find out whos going home we need to hear Barry Gibb sing. He is old now, and just cant sing the way he used to. His song is not exciting disco era shake yo money maker style groovy at all, in fact its quite boring. He is far past his prime, but at least he had nice things to say about the contestants and was an adequate celebrity mentor for the final four.

a medley of non-beegees barry gibb songs follows, and it is equally painful to watch as the man himself. disco just aint the same without the drugs i guess.

also pink is performing tonight? man i have always hated her. why is she even still calling herself pink? that was an obnoxious name even when she had pink hair. her song is terrible, its totally overproduced and sounds like it was created entirely by machines.

the contestants form a tight group hug when its the moment of truth, refusing to speculate on who may be going home and refusing to part from eachother, but as seacrest begins his scripted goodbye, they let loose a bit and show themselves to the cameras. jordin and melinda are the first to learn they are safe, and then...

lakisha is named the one who will go tonight. Tough break, but she had an outstanding run. she was a fun contestant to watch, but just was not consistently good enough to compete with the others. its sad to see her go, but she and her 3 year old daughter will be ok, for there is a nice record contract around the corner for her. im sure there are producers waiting outside the stage door to offer her lots of money. on her way out, lakisha belts out stayin alive again, this time with more force and conviction and some of the old unstoppable soul power that we all loved lakisha for some weeks back. "I think people have more confidence in Kisha than Kisha has in herself" she says in the montage showing her rise to idol prominence. thats too bad, she was (is) really talented and its sad when people lack self confidence like that. i would definitely buy a record from 'kisha long before any of the other idols from this season. we'll miss you lakisha



like the infamous paula abdul said, "youre still a champ"

next week there are three and we will bid farewell to melinda. thats right- im calling it a week in advance yo.

American Idol : The Top Four

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the beegees were the most recognizable band in disco and made the saturday night fever soundtrack the best selling movie soundtrack in the history of this funky universe. barry gibb was the pimary songwriter for the beegees, and is also the most successful songwriting partner ever, having temaed with barbara striesand, destinys child, diana ross, dionne wawick and kenny rogers. tonight, each contestant will get two chances to conquer beegees tunes. lets hope they have disco fever

melinda doolittle is first up, and 'love you inside and out' is her choice, barry was a little skeptical but seems to think she could pull it off. i thought it was boring. the judges werent really impressed and already i am concerned that this may be another failed theme week.

blake is singing 'you should be dancing' like a beegees cover band lead singer on ecstacy. he cant quite hit the notes like the gibb brothers, but hes sure tryin. like a wierd discoteque in some foriegn country, says randy, paula is babblin on about unique and simon was unimpressed as well.

stayin alive is lakishas song and it actually sounds kinda cool, a little slowed down and funked up. judges dont go for it but i thought it was ok.

jordin sparks is still in high school, getting a's and b's. "i know a couple hundred people that have sung this song but i have never heard a better version", says the man behind millions of record sold. as soon as the song starts you know jordin is the one to beat tonight, and possibly for the season. i would put money on jspark to win this whole thing now.

doolittles secong attempt at beegees falls as short as the first one. its a slow yawner but the judges seem to think it was good.

thats a bit of a shock says barry gibb when blake announces hes going to sing 'this is where i came in' 'the contemporary rebel' says a wasted paula, simon didnt like it and thinks he had a bad night. i thought it was great, he kept his style as much as possible but this is s tough theme this week, and nobody seems to be doing very well.

'simon cowells evil twin', according to seacrest, is judge judy and she makes an unwarranted visit to the show. splendid.

lakisha sings 'run to me', an interesting choice that will be a challenge says the gibbster. it wasnt bad but it was pretty boring and the best thing she hears from the judges is that was better than the first and "youre still a champ". simon thinks lakisha doesnt deserve a kiss tonight and unfortunately we may be seeing the last of lakisha tonight.

jodin 'is going to be one of our greatest female recording artists' says an admiring barry gibb. i thought it was an absolutely fantastic performance, blew everyone else away. i loved it, but stunningly the judges did not like it. they are all whacked out on something, because that was outstanding.

so nobody really had disco fever, and whoever makes it to next week besides jordin will be lucky.

Arctic Monkeys : Pop Idols Extraordinaire

its been years since i was at a sausage party of this magnitude. really surprising, i thought, seeing as how the lads have to be among the biggest heartthrobs in europe right about now. perhaps the american women simply havent caught on to what hundreds of blokes seem to know: he actic monkeys fucking rock. that was without question one of the coolest shows i have ever seen. ever. that is not something i say often, or without good reason. the band had so much energy, alex turner, the lead singer, ripped through his quick tonguetwisting lyrics at breakneck speed, changing up his delivery of lyrics a bit now and then, i then just for his own amusement. they tore through song after song, alternating between the new record and the first. all but one of the songs in their hour or so set were from one of their major releases. i recall at one point thinking that ive had enough of the old stuff (stuff that was released less than a year and a half ago- not so old i guess) and that i wanted to hear them play the new record (like two or three times) buti needed to hear several songs from that first record: get on your dancing shoes, i bet you look good on the dancefloor, still take you home, view from the afternoon and certain romance, of course. the english rugby team was about 60 deep in red shirts, some the size of alex t, some the size of my cousin that used to be a bodybuilder. across the street at the irish pub, odonovans, i was a bit startled to see so many football hooligans, they are an intimidating bunch. you see several dozen of them at the local irish pub and you take notice. if youre smart, you take cover. there were 'undreds of blokes in attendance, and the rugby team seemed as though it was itching for a rowdy brawl. i knew i was not the only one who was slightly discomforted by their presence when i heard a young american dude (again-total sausage party) say "those brits are gonna get mean tonight". as it turns out the blokes behaved themselves, save for the occasional show of force when moving in packs of about six to the middle of the vry crowded dancefloor. i suspect they were intentionally bumping yanks out of their way, and i was glad that none of us americans got in therir way too much.

anyhow it was a spectacular show, the lads being very business like and having fun at the same time. noone appeared drunk, although it was the drummer's 21st birthday and they are one of the most popular bands in the entire world right now, so it seems only natural that they would be ingesting that rockstar lifestyle in the form of party favors.

Enter the Arctic Monkeys Phase Two

Tonight the Arctic Monkeys play FIrst Avenue. Their first time in Minneapolis falls on the 21st birthday of drummer Matt Helders, and also the day when Queen Elizabeth visits the U.S.and A for the firt time in like 15 years. It will be quite a show. They are scheduled to headline one of the biggest festivals in the world, Glastonbury, this summer, and are the bigggest band in England right now, so seeing them at First Avenue will be unbeleivable. The show sold out afterall, no doubt after this excellent piece of writing hit the streets.

http://www.citypages.com/alist/detail.asp?EID=155363

The first record was absolutely brilliant, and this second record, which came out 13 days ago and which i have listed to probably two or three dozen times, is flat out astonishing. I do not recall being more into a new record in...i dont know how long. I wake up with alex turners clever, infectious lyrics in my head and that just dont stop. All day long i'm hearing those wicked heavy giutar riffs and pounding drums. This is the most excited I have been for a show in some time, and it is definitely the biggest mismatch of a band/venue i have ever witnessed in my life. This band could sell out any venue in Europe within minutes, yet it took weeks, maybe even months, to sell out First Avenue. This will be one for the record books indeed.

American Idol : The Results 5/2

Due to an unfortunate DVR malfunction, I was unable to watch last nights episode, so I promptly went online to determine which two of our remaining six got the boot. The two young guns, Phil Stacey and Chrid Richardson, were the two lowest vote getters over the last two weeks, and must head on home. I guess that soundtrack wasnt as popular as Bon Jovi's other material, like that smash single 'have a nice day'.

If only they could have combined their talents into one supercontestant: A military man with a pretty good voice who missed his daughters birth due to the competition who looked like Chris Richardson would have been difficult for anyone to beat and may have gone all the way. A nasally singing gollum, on the other hand, certainly would not have made it past the auditions.

That leaves Blake and the 3 ladies. This will be interesting.

American Idol : The Top Six / Bon Jovi

Please, if you are going to force our poor contestants to sing Bon Jovi songs, let's call it Bon Jovi night, and not 'rock night'. That said, lets get this travesty going. its double elimination this week, so eveeryone better have their game face on.

Phil's first, and he predictably picks 'blaze of glory'. not a bad rendition, but i just dont beleive phil as an outlaw cowboy badass for one second, even tho he has been practicing the song for fifteen years. (he says he was the kid in front of the mirror singing with the brush. i wonder how long ao he stopped that)randy cant help but mention that he played bass on the studio recording of the song, and simon thinks phil may indeed be going out in a blaze of glory.


jordin goes for 'livin on a prayer', all glammed up like. jon bon thinks its a tough song, indicating he is scared for her, and when she begins singing, she seems a bit defeated, like shes knows it aint going so well. the judges express doubts about the performance and jordin agress, it was rough. not my favorite song from jordin but she did allright i guess.

Lakisha is amart and picks a deep track that nobody has heard of, 'this aint a love song'. just because you have to sing bon jovi doesnt mean you have to sing a song everyone knows and loves and/or hates. she absolutely nailed it it was one of the most powerful performances by her ever. simon is so moved that he says he could kiss her. seacrest, of course being the excellent imporivsor he is, brings lakisha to the judges table and makes it happen. is there any such thing as impartiality from the judges at this point?

blake picks 'you give love a bad name' and jon bon jovi seems skeptical of the crazy way blake is going to sing it. he will no doubt blake-ify the song and it makes jon a bit nervous. people like it the original way, he warns. but when he gets going, damn- blake is a master of innovation and the chance he took really paid off. it was outstanding and really entertaining. my prediction: that is his first single. top performance of the night, what style that dude has.


chris richardson takes on 'dead or alive', after seacrest calls him justin timberlake. chris looks pissed and is clearly fearing for his competitive life as he stumbles through a 'i just try to have fun' moment when seacrest asks himn what he thinks about before going onstage. he acknowlages that he has his work cut out for him after chris daughtry performed the same song last season to stellar reviews. hard to top daughtry, yo. nonetheless it was one of c-rich's stronger performances and he gets some due praise from the judges.


doolittle picks (what else) 'have a nice day' and tries to look serious as a rocker. jon bon tells her in ausitions that he'll teach her how to rock but instead tells her to 'testfy' and makes a couple other vaguely offensive remarks. i totally predicted that she would pick that song, simply for the title-what a square. she sang it ok but hopefully america has grown weary of her non-rocking ways. the judges seem to have enjoyed it, randy and simon even comparing her to tina turner. what a crock.

for as lame as jon bon jovi is, this wasnt a bad night. nobody did poorly, so its anyones guess whos going home. it just wont be blake or lakisha.

oh yeah, and george and laura bush invaded my favorite show to thank countless americans for donating countless dollars to a cause that the president should be addressing more effectively than ryan fucking seacrest, but sadly our president has done for the poor except make them more poor.