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Home Archives for American Idol

Two More Weeks!

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No, the groundhog didn’t see his shadow. You get six weeks for that, anyhow. The title refers to the fact that we’re getting down to the short strokes with American Idol’s eight season. This week, we eliminate Danny, and next week we watch the anticlimactic face-off between Kris and Adam, and guess who will win?

Or maybe not.

American Idol’s “voting public” has shown itself to be a fickle aggregation in the past. They tend to do irrational, childish things, because they tend to be irrational children. One year, like lemmings, they let themselves be led over the cliff by over-the-hill shock jock Howard Stern, voting for Sanjaya Malaker as a joke that kept his talentless ministrations on the screen for far too long. Another year, they dumped Jennifer Hudson, who has since won an Oscar.  Somehow, they also managed to create “idols” like Ruben Studdard (over Clay Aiken), Taylor Hicks (over Katharine McPhee), and Jordin Sparks (over Blake Lewis). Who knows what goes through their minds?

I’ve caught a lot of chatter about people disliking Adam Lambert because he’s too cute, too feminine, too slick, whatever. If these nine-to-seventeen year-old voters get something in their mind, they could very well turn the tide of what seems to be an Adam Lambert juggernaut. I guess that’s a good reason to stick with it for the next two weeks, as otherwise, the conclusion is foregone.

Last week, little Allison Iraheta was eliminated. She kind of looked like an orangutan with dyed red hair, and seemed to be trying to perform material that was older than she. Don’t get me wrong — her voice, if not her looks, has potential. However, for now, it often appeared that we were watching a high school presentation. Many people said that the wrong person was eliminated. Oh, yeah? Well, who was the right person, wise guys?

See? I told you you were full of crap!

Tonight, we get to see Adam, Danny, and Kris in all their glory.  If you want to know the truth, I wouldn’t pay good money to see any of them or to listen to their recordings. In fact, there are few among the seven past Idols I could actually say I’ve spent money on. I could count them on both hands (if I don’t count the individual fingers). Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood. That’s it. It doesn’t matter, though. At this stage, they all can count on getting a recording contract for at least a couple of bucks. I have a feeling that Adam might piss a few people off with what he does tonight, so go ahead and watch. I’ll be there.

Home Stretch for the Idols

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After having given us the requisite scare last week, the 100,000 9-14 year-olds who vote in this American Idol thing cast 45 million votes (while somehow forgetting to vote for Adam Lambert) managed to get it right, dumping Matt and leaving us with Adam, Allison, Danny, and Kris.

Everybody’s front runner, Lambert, actually wound up in the bottom two. It’s getting down to the time when the best of the bunch could actually be eliminated by a stroke of voting stupidity, much as Jennifer Hudson and Chris Daughtry were dumped in their respective seasons.

I suppose it doesn’t really matter to me whether Adam leaves the competition early. He’s achieved the visibility he needs to move on and do well in the music business. In fact, if he were to go, it might restore some of my lost interest. The actual competition once again would be meaningful, instead of being a foregone conclusion. But that probably won’t happen, so I probably won’t dwell on it. Maybe. Perhaps.

Matt was the weakest of the pretenders, and he deserved to go. I don’t know why the judges wasted their ridiculous “save” on him. They would have been in a big jam last week were Adam indeed eliminated and they had no capability for saving him.  In an earlier post, I told you that judicious use of the judges’ save would be an important strategic consideration. It appears to this Mouse that they used it prematurely.

This week is rock & roll week. Unfortunately, it’s still got a two hour slot, which probably means that we’ll be subjected to two songs from each semi-finalist, most of the aggregation of which will be lame. Nevertheless, it’s rock, so all should do well, and the show might even wind up being entertaining.

It goes without saying that contestants will need to choose the right songs in order to best showcase their individual talent. The so-called judges will be all full of stupid advice centering around “at this stage in the competition…” — except for Paula, that is. She’ll be all full of love for the contestants and full of vapid utterances for the contestants, whom she’ll call “Honey.” I can hardly wait.

Roll Over, Frankie!

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This just in: American Idol tonight will feature “Rat Pack Standards” — which is, this Mouse assumes, a tribute to the 50s and 60s era songs of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis, Jr.  Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford were also members of the Las Vegas Rat Pack, but they didn’t sing.

Look for another Adam Lambert coup. From him, I would expect a new take on an old song, which I can envision him doing in his Wayne Newtonesque, slicked-back look.

From the rest, I would expect boredom. Danny wearing a fedora with his tie undone droning out the plaintive lament of Angel Eyes? I think not. Kris in a Dean Martin tuxedo doing Come Back to Napoli? Gimme a break! Matt donning an eye patch and singing What Kind of Fool Am I? Nahhhh! And Allison — good old Allison — what the hell can she do with an old standard? She’s more Nancy Sinatra than Frank.

This one is liable to hurt my ears and offend my aging ideals.

One thing crossed my mind. Instead of a guest mentor this week, they’ll have to bring in a ghost mentor! Joey, Sammy, Peter, Dean, and Frank are all dead. Several women were associated with the Rat Pack, including Lauren Bacall, Angie Dickinson, Judy Garland, Joey Heatherton, Shirley MacLaine, Marilyn Monroe, and Juliet Prowse. Perhaps they’ll get one of the broads who is still living, which would be any of them but Garland, Monroe, and Prowse. Otherwise, they’ll indeed have to resort to a “ghost mentor.”