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Kudos to Elic B, and TJ Friesen, as well as our talented actor Chris Heller for this video that was highly successful this weekend. We get a lot of play on our comic videos, and for good reason. But it's good to see that we can do "drama" too. Good stuff on finding freedom.
Okay, we're back to the regular schedule. The satellite dish is working, and I'm ready for American Idol - are you ready? As per usual, my comments come before the judges - should be a great night!
Since brevity is the soul of wit, I'll try to be succinct. "The year you were born" is the theme, which is automatically going to make me feel old.
Ramiele - 1987 - Alone - sharp and flat simultaneously, going home tomorrow...
Jason - 1987 - fragile - he continues to pick songs that have almost no melody, how can anyone know if he can sing or not?
Syesha - 1987 - If I were your woman - really close to pulling this very difficult song off.
Chikezie - 1985 - If Only For One Night - he captures this sound well enough, but this sound bores me.
Brooke - 1983 - Every Breathe You Take - It bugs me that she doesn't look up at all while she's playing the piano. We're over here!
Michael - 1978 - we will rock you/we are the champions - great pick for him, ran out of gas at the end a bit, but still very strong.
Carly - 1983 - Total eclipse of the heart - great pick for her. won't be in the bottom three this week.
David A - 1990 - You're the Voice - doesn't he know to wait to sing this crappy song until it gets re-written for the finale?
Kristy - 1984 - God Bless the USA - just hearing the song selection sends me into laughter. She's going for the redneck vote, but can they use touchtone phones?
David C - 1982 - Billie Jean - Great great version - great voice as long as I don't have to look at his combover. They can't imbed those into mp3s can they?
Random notes: I think Paula has called everyone in this competition at some point the "dark horse." Which besides the fact that she's using the phrase wrong, it's impossible that all of them could be it. What was Paula babbling at the end to Michael? Is David Archuletta's dad Danny Bonaduce?
Community Christian, we need you! Help us decide the topics for our next series, "Life's Toughest Questions," by clicking here and giving us a suggestion for a topic. What is a "tough question" that you'd like us to try and answer, from a biblical perpective? Each week we'll be tabulating the results and the questions that get the most play will make it into the "top 3" and will become the foundation for our series.
And no, it's not like American Idol. The questions will not have to sing. But... the answers will probably include music...
Hey all - Happy Easter! Here's the first installment of our series video for the Losing My Religion series which started this Easter Weekend. I think that we may have found our niche in the parody category - but we'll let you be the judge...
If you didn't see it last weekend, here it is - the third and final installment of the Prom King and Queen interview collage - this week, Sven shows us why he should be on American Idol...
Well, The satellite dish got replaced yesterday, giving me time to see the results from American Idol. Which were not too terribly suprising. All things being equal, Kristy Lee is going to stay around one more week because prettier beats grittier. And again, Amanda switching the gender for Back in the USSR just does not make sense. Singing to a guy "Take me to your Daddy's Farm?" Huh? The whole song is a satire of the Beach Boys, not the Beach girls.
I realize that puts the girls in two weeks of Beatles songs in a difficult position. Since the Beatles didn't sing songs to guys. But hey, Tiffany pulled it off in the 80s, right? It just takes the right song.
I only saw a few of the full performances on youtube, and then saw the highlights last night. I was very impressed by Syesha, and I agreed with Wimon on Carly, and I was glad that David A. was back. He did a great job, that is his sweet spot. Chekizie is running out of ideas, but he still has more going on in his eyes than Kristy could ever hope for.
But no more time for that - I'm in Minneapolis meeting with Efrem Smith from Sanctuary Covenant Church. He's rockin' awesome and we're having a good time getting to know each other. One good reason to be non-denominational? He just had to step out of our meeting for a mandatory denominational conference call that he didn't know about, and so I've got a half hour to get back to what's really important. Blogging about AI!
So why am I meeting with Efrem, you might ask? Well, he and I are co-hosting the Exponential Conference, that I am producing. (He's the REAL host. I'm the WACKY host.) Dave Ferguson is the President, and it's coming up faster than I would rather it do so, but it's coming nonetheless. I've got to get ready for it, and connecting with Efrem about our bits and schtick is very important in making the conference successful.
So, left my house at 4:30am, and will be back by supper. Fun commute!
Monday during the day tree trimmers were next door, and innocently asked me if they could access our backyard for trimming the tree that extends over our yard. Of course, I said yes. Who wouldn't want the tree trimmed over their roof when it needs it?
Around that same time (mysteriously?) my satellite coverage for my Direct TV mysteriously disappeared. After eight hours, I checked my connections, went up on the roof to look and see if I had any obvious fender benders with my satellite (with no clear conclusions) and double checked cables. Still nothing.
Finally called Direct TV and the earliest service call was for Wednesday afternoon. All of this to say, that currently, American Idol has happened, and I have been unable to view it. I am crushed, as I'm sure you are as well. My brother is DVR recording it for me, and I will eventually get my fix. But alas, it will not be tonight.
Good news though on the Phoenix Suns NBA League pass front. It turns out that my subscription enables me to view the video feed online - so I'm enjoying a late night Suns game after small group. Go Suns!
From what I can tell so far... hulu.com is pretty great. The new youtube-ish website offers ad-sponsored videoclips from television shows, movies, commercials, sports, you name it. It's not like youtube in that it's all protected content from the original sources, so people are getting paid (the writer's strike made sure of that).
But it is like youtube, in that it's user friendly and much more interactive. For example, you can embed entire episodes, entire films onto your own website via hulu.com - but if you want to clip it - you can do that too. It's very easy and ridiculously cool. Much more interesting to me than facebook. I mean, where else can I show you this single piece of comedy from THE OFFICE? (I edited the clip myself, and after it runs, it gives you the user options for checking out more. Very cool. Me likey. You too?
Here's the second installment in the Prom King and Queen video series for Crazy Little Thing Called Love:
Here are my thoughts. Taking a little bit more time now that we're in the top 12 - so hold onto your wigs, THIS, is American Idol!
Yay a new set. Huh?
Yay Lennon and McCartney!
Syesha Mercado: Got To Get You Into My Life: Doing basically an Earth Wind and Fire version. Rough start, and I don't like her hair like that. How do you do an arrangement of this song with horns and NOT do the horn riff at least slightly as originally recorded? She has turned it into kind of a boring version. Lost the melody of it for me by singing too much "up" the melody line in a riff mode.
Chikezie: She's a Woman: Still hate the one name thing. He's no Cher. Props for the bluegrass tip. Boo for changing it and pretending that he's in the 80's band Living Colour. Should have stayed with the bluegrass. Obviously he can sing but it really seemed artificial to me.
Ramiele Mandalay: In My Life: The stairs just never work for me in this environment. It's like a gymnast move - like I get special points for walking and singing at the same time. The audience swaying their hands need to be disciplined. Could she take this song any slower? Could her lip gloss get glittery-er? Another one of those where it's a good voice, but doesn't have the heart, or guts, or something to really move me. Kinda milktoast.
Jason Castro: If I Fell: At this point, for some reason my tivo'd show on the HD channel thru Direct TV was losing sync between audio and video. So that was a bit distracting. (I don't know if that was universal or just me) Nonetheless, again, he's good but not with anything that is so earth shattering. He's just a cutie-pie that will get a lot of votes.
Carly Smithson: Come Together: These lyrics just never sound right to me unless John Lennon himself is spouting them. Hearing her correctly and Irishly enunciate "Ju Ju Eyeball" just doesn't work. For me. But she's the closest thing to heartfelt we've seen so far.
David Cook: Eleanor Rigby: His reverse iron-on comb-over is getting a little unruly. Emo Rigby via Nickelback. He means it more than anyone else, but I think he's still kind of a poser. But that was pretty good. But if I'm comparing him to Daughtry, he's not even close.
Brooke White: Let It Be: She's the one that I have started to like more and more every week, but I still can't remember her name. I just call her the Carly Simon-ish girl. More slings and arrows for the waving arms in the front, please... Good version, simple and clear, not her best, but I still like her a lot.
David Hernandez: I Saw Her Standing There: I saw HER standing there? Really? Changing the lyric to "the way she looked was FAR beyond compare" instead of WAY beyond compare totally missed the irony and the playfulness of the song. He just doesn't seem to mean it - wonder why. For some reason too, it kind of creeps me out that she was just seventeen (you know what I mean?)... Let's go boooooring. I have more to say about the song than his performance.
Amanda Overmyer: You Can't Do That: Never admit that you don't know a Beatles song. Never. Lie if you have to. Great pick from the moment the riff started. Bad choice with the backing vocals arrangement. She's hot tonight. When she stays in her pocket, she can't be touched, and this to me is the biggest difference between her and David Cook's versions of Rock out. I totally believe her - I mean, who else on this stage can say that "her whole family rides." And she means motorcycles, not roller coasters. Loved it.
Michael Johns: Across the Universe: Great, heartfelt, but like Come Together, when he gets to the "ohm" chorus, it's weird when it's not Lennon singing it. But still, he kept it moving and drove the song when it needed it, and I liked the arrangement except for the last notes, which seemed like a "star search" ending to me.
Kristy Lee Cook: 8 Days a Week: This style definitely fits her better, and it's the best she can possibly be, but in the end she's like Kellie Pickler without the spunk, and that's not going to make the boys vote for her long enough to keep her in the competition, no matter how torn her jeans end up by the end.
David Archuletta: We Can Work It Out: I can't wait for Randy to say that he "worked it out" Arghghhgh More stairs!!! Oh no, he just went up! Looks like he's human after all. Wow, I've never seen such a high fall in one week. He's gonna get through because of the fan base, but man, he just completely fell apart. Remember when he was good? I'm trying to...
Them's my thoughts. I think Hernandez is going home to his job as a pizza guy. Right.
