A week after the guys were so terrible that even Paula was struggling for compliments, someone backstage obviously reminds Ryan and the judges of the whole mandatory gender-split thing, leading to an entire evening of declaring the men much-improved, whether they are or not.
Ryan congratulates Jennifer Hudson on her Oscar and says "It really validates the talent our judges discover." He does not add "and it really validates what a poor judge of talent the audience is. I mean, John Stevens outlasted her. C'mon! John Stevens!"
To read the song-by-song breakdown, go over to NJ.com, but feel free to comment here.
Alan, I'm surprised you don't know "Virtual Insanity" -- here's the video. It was my favorite performance of the night, noted here.
ReplyDeleteWTF is that Jason Mraz song?
The John Stevens Memorial Vote-- I like it. The thing is, though, Stevens was able to deliver at least one or two performances the judges liked. This performance may have been a bigger trainwreck for me than Antonella last week.
ReplyDeleteAnd I thought Simon was mostly dead-on and wonderfully pitiless tonight. His response to Brandon's shameless dedications ("It's my mother's birthday in six months" and my favorite, "I like puppies") was a thing of beauty.
Oh, and apropos of nothing, see ZODIAC at your earliest convenience. As an appreciator of detailed procedurals like THE WIRE, this should hit all the right buttons. It's a masterpiece, I think.
Absolutely nothing to do with Idol (which I'll get around to watching later in the day) but I thought this would be interesting.
ReplyDeleteCliff notes version, David Simon and Ed Burns will adapt the book "Generation Kills" (focusing on the real story of Marines fighting in the Iraq war) into a 7-hour scripted miniseries for HBO.
Excellent.
(While being not on subject: one vote for Zodiac, here. Been expecting this one for something like 5 years.)
Yeah, Davesboa, I think Sanjaya is probably going to be their new favorite.
ReplyDeleteI think VFTW is probably statistically negligible once we get into the finals, but at this stage with this many contestants, they have enough pull to push someone over the top into staying.
I missed it. Did they mention or allude to Ms. Barba's recent troubles or was that left unaddressed?
ReplyDeleteUnaddressed. If it's going to come up (and I suspect it won't), it'll come up tonight before Antonella performs.
ReplyDeleteRyan: So, um, Antonella...
ReplyDeleteAntonella: Yeah, Ryan?
Ryan: This week must have, um, sucked for you.
Antonella: Sucked, Ryan?
Ryan: Yeah. It must have, um, blown...
Antontella: I don't follow...
Ryan: The, um, scandal... You must have felt like a, um, boob.
Antonella: Oh, you mean the raunchy pictures of me on the Internet? Well, my friends and family and fellow Jersey girls know who I truly am and that's all that matters. That and that I'm a fantastic singer.
Ryan: BOOBIES!!!! Next up is Melinda.
Last night was my first look at this new batch... I started watching too early. But I was truly impressed by the out-of-left-field "vocal turntablism" of that cat Blake, who's vying for this year's Elliot Yamin Memorial White Negro Award... and I mean that in a good way.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing about that vocal-scratching technique is... I hope he's got some other tricks, because he can only use that one twice, no more than that. He got everybody's attention with it, now he should put it in his back pocket until he totally needs that firepower.
UBM, if this is the first time you've watched this season, you missed the early "Sure, Blake can beat-box, but can he sing?" subplot, in which the producers went out of their way to only show him doing his gimmick. So last week, he deliberately chose a Keane ballad that would allow him to showcase his pure singing ability (which is very good, by the standards of "Idol" season 6 guys) without the need of the beat-boxing or the vocal turntablism, or whatever. Then, he either felt he had made his point or he got so scared by how much better the women were that he brought back the gimmick at the earliest opportunity.
ReplyDeleteGood to know he can sing without it, Alan... But it was a slick, slick move, no question. I hope he can resist using it as a crutch.
ReplyDelete