deja vu?

I think the simplest way to describe how I'm feeling right now is:

It's been one of those years,

again.

Actually, it was worse than that. There was only one panti-throwing moment all season long and not enough moments that made me go SQUWEEE to cover for the lack of those moments (and if I recall that one moment did NOT come from one of my faves!).

There are only a couple things that I can say about this season. First of all, we weren't socked with a crappy rainbow fluffy puppies poopin pots of gold shit for a coronation song. Nope, they were too lazy to go there so they had the kids pick out their own coronation song which will be a cover of some other artist's work. Great, not even something of their very own. Thanks Idol. I'm not sure what's worse. Well, actually the covers will have been tried and true (ish) so that might actually be marginally better. They should have let them pick one of the songs they'd already written for themselves. That would have been the truest test as to who the real artist is. Secondly, the season went fast. I cannot BELIEVE how fast we've gotten to the finale. Unfortunately, it was fairly predictable the entire way through. It was much like reading a novel for the 3rd or 4th time, you're not going to find too much more that surprises you. The entire season feels like it was more or less a warm up for a Lee/Crystal finale and I will not be surprised if it hit the lowest ratings (lower than last year) ever.

This year was so bad and so predictable that the betting sites that I visit for the odds pretty much quit giving odds on everyone weeks ago and had only had the one event available, Crystal Bowersox for the win. For weeks they'd been calling a female winner and that it would be her. That is until last week, when Lee pulled out a couple of amazing performances. The very next day, the event closed on the one site and went to a Lee DeWyze for the win event. Was I shocked when it happened? Nope. Not even slightly. Let me remind you:

To say that I was surprised, is a complete understatement. He surpassed expectations and then some. In fact, in my opinion, he edged out Crystal and won the night. Damn I hated having to admit that but ya know, I'd rather have to admit that with my other favorite than the one I want to see gone. The judges SUTAed him good and proper.

To show you what kind of year we had, ZabaSearch didn't even BOTHER tracking things and as at this point not posted their predictions.

Here's the way the winner's Map looked as of this posting. I think Hawaii and Alaska are still voting, however I don't think either are going to make much of a difference at this point.

Crystal has a 22 state win with an 18 state loss while Lee's numbers are reversed. This really does not mean a bloody thing at all as we saw what happened last year when Adam was 8 states in the lead. Plus the Maps have been wrong before.

As you recall, last year I said the Chart was absolutely accurate from season 4 on as to whom the winner would be. This is the way this year's chart looks. According to this Lee's won the whole thing.

At this point, the only way I see Crystal winning this (even though she had the superior performances this week, in my honest opinion) is if the Idol machine decides that there is no way in hell that they want a Caucasian male winning this for a 3rd year in a row.

On today's Ellen

Jim Cantiello's 60 Seconds and some other good stuff

Jim Cantiello's 60 Seconds:

MTV Shows

Link to this week's Something Pitchy show. (ok guys, why bother giving a code to embed and not have available to all regions??)


Bonus! This year's Top 2:

Double Bonus! Check out the cameo by Nigel Barker (America's Next Top Model judge and photographer):

A somewhat redeeming night

Is it me or did there seem to be fewer fans in the hometown visit clips this year? The last few years the crowds were humongous. We got to see the family, the parade, meeting the mayor, ballgames, etc. This year it feels like the producers just want to get it done and over with. Yeah I know it's been a pretty lame year, but do you really have to rush them off like that? The only thing I can think of is maybe that since this has been such a lack luster year, that it's highly possible that there WASN'T the crowds as per usual and the editors simply didn't have enough to cut together a decent enough package for each of them. Then again, maybe they're just saving the primo stuff for Results night filler. It's possible, as they only have 2 guests that they announced for the week. Gotta have SOMETHING to kill the hour with.

The Map and the Charts (as well as the Dial Idol Hard Graphs, something I don't normally bother posting) are all in agreement this week, which is an oddity in and of itself. If the results go according to these sources (as well as the Vegas odds), there shouldn't be any surprise at all this week and we'll be having the finale that everyone has been seeing coming for weeks. However, this is Idol and we all know that sometimes they skew things just a tad.

I'm going to lump both performances for each contestant into one entry, just to make it easy on me. I'm kind of under the weather and not really feeling like writing this in the first place, but I know I'll feel bad about not posting something if I just crawl into bed without doing it. I mean, I've managed to write all season for goodness sakes and I'm not about to let a silly little cold keep me from getting this done.

Casey
(Ok It's Alright With Me by Eric Hutchinson) I wasn't familiar with the song at showtime. I thought he did an ok job with it. Nothing to really write home about. The nice short notes pretty much hid that vibrato of his. Upon finding a copy of the original, I'd have to say he just phoned this one in. Shoot, he didn't even bother phoning it... he texted it in. It completely lacked the energy of the original. To be honest, Lee would have done better justice to this song. The judges tossed Casey under the bus for this one.

(Daughters by John Mayer) This was judges choice picked by Kara and Randy. I'm not a John Mayer fan. Never have been and doubt I ever will be so I'm not even going to fake liking this one. Nope. Not at all. It's pretty bad that the judges all but admit they picked it because it has a limited range and it "fit like a glove". Ok. It was the better choice, but I still didn't like it. The judges, for the majority, liked him better for the second song.

This week Casey had 3 wins and 18 losses for a total of -15. This is down 15 states from last week. He is the ONLY contestant listed in red. Third spot. Last on the list. Dial Idol is that sure that he's gone this week. If you recall, they haven't listed a contestant in red all season. Singing first and practically smoke signalling in his performances didn't help matters. I'm wondering if he realizes that he doesn't really want to win this thing. Then again, I suspect the next one up is feeling the same.

Crystal

(Come to My Window by Melissa Etheridge) This one was ok for her voice, but something was a tad off. I don't know if it was the vocal or the arrangement. It may have helped her if she'd just sang it straight as written. Even Kara was marginally correct in that she should have just done it as an acoustic. I know that the judges harp on originality, but something needed tweaking there. The judges liked her but didn't exactly love her this time around.

(Maybe I'm Amazed by Paul McCartney) Can someone explain to me why in God's green earth the best judge's pick this time around was made by the judge who has nothing to do with the music industry????? She's not a producer, singer, arranger, writer or any kind of musician... yet she made the most amazing choice for her charge. Kudos for no instrument as well as not changing the lyric to make it more gender appropriate. Kudos for not compromising, much. I can't wait for the studio version of this one. The judges really liked her, but again didn't love her.

This week she won 12 states and lost 3 for a total of 9 states. Crystal slipped 3 states from last week. She's listed on the chart as a solid 2 and in green. By all rights, she shouldn't be leaving this week at all. However, if the judges want a sausagefest (which I'm pretty sure they don't because we've had 2 years of that) then she'll be the one kicked to the curb. Why her? Because she wasn't in the pimp spot and her performance was just the same ol same ol Crystal. Like I told a friend of mine in Facebook, it's hard to improve something that needs little if no improvement. This makes it hard on Crystal because she has nowhere to really go at this point and as a result can't show progress or growth of any kind, she's already as good as she'll get. Maybe, she's realized that she doesn't want to win nearly as bad as she thought?

Lee

(Simple Man by Lynyrd Skynyrd) This was a brilliant pick for his voice. All these weeks and I still don't think we've seen the best he has to give us yet. I will not be shocked if that moment comes right on finale night. One or all of the songs he'll be doing will be just that. He got a hella lotta SUTA from the judges but it was pretty much deserved so you won't hear me argue. Then again both of my faves make up 2/3 of the Top 3 so either way I've at least picked one finale placer for the year. Can't complain with that.

(Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen) When I saw this choice, my heart fell. Why? Because I did not believe Lee could pull this one off. I was cursing Simon for a terrible choice because surely this would trip Lee up and put Casey into the finale. The best rendition of this song that was ever performed on that stage was done by Jason Castro. I even told Chicagolady that Lee was going to have to really surprise me with this one because I wasn't really holding out any hope that the pimp spot was going to save him even with a good first performance. To say that I was surprised, is a complete understatement. He surpassed expectations and then some. In fact, in my opinion, he edged out Crystal and won the night. Damn I hated having to admit that but ya know, I'd rather have to admit that with my other favorite than the one I want to see gone. The judges SUTAed him good and proper.

Lee won a staggering 22 states this week and lost 2 for a total of 20. This is up 8 states over last week. As much as I suspect a good many of those votes are due to the pimp spot, I suspect he would have pulled almost as many if he'd sung in any of the other positions. He is listed firmly in a first place green position on the Chart. There is no way in hell he's going anywhere this week. If he is sent home, it'll be an absolute shock.

So who goes home?

The judges have been calling it a girl's year all season long. Yet we only have one girl left. Assume that she's the shoe in for a finale position as that's what we've been steered herded towards this entire time. This leaves a fight for the last remaining spot between the two guys and Lee had an amazing night while Casey was thrown to the wolves. This gives Lee that last spot and Casey sent home. However, let's assume Lee ain't going anywhere because of the pimp spot and performances. This means the last spot is a toss up between Casey and Crystal. Although this wasn't her absolute best night, she still sang rings around Casey easily with one lung tied behind her back. The odds are still calling Crystal the winner of it all (as of yesterday at least, they've closed the pages out like they do every Tuesday and won't reopen them until later this morning so I'm not certain how Tuesday's performances factor in yet). The Maps show her in firm second and the Chart backs it up. What if they're all wrong and VFTW actually DID their job? What if they managed to break up what everyone's been saying is the unavoidable finale match up? If they call Casey safe first, we'll know we lost Crystal and it's yet another sausagefest.

A couple of interesting items:

01) Simon has the rights to that Leonard Cohen song. Rumor is he acquired them shortly after Jason performed Hallelujah on the show.

02) According to the Maps, not one of the kids won their home state this week in the voting. Crystal won Lee's state, Lee won Casey's and Casey won Crystal's.

EDIT 8:16PM: The site where I usually get the odds for the kids has changed its event. For the last several weeks, it stopped putting all the odds up and simply had a Crystal to win event. This has been changed to a Lee to win event . His odds which were listed at a +236 in the beginning of May (payout of $236 for every hundred you put down on him), have now risen thanks to this week's performances. It's no longer viable to put money down on him as you'd need to put down $225 to break even. On another site, Crystal's odds fell and now she's just breaking even. Casey's odds are the lowest he's ever had. Vegas is basically saying Casey doesn't have a chance in hell at making the finale. However, if you have money to burn... drop a C-note on him because if he wins anyhow the payout will be over $3000 if you move now.

Jim Cantiello's 60 Seconds and Something Pitchy

Sorry for the delay, I'd been waiting for 60 seconds to show up as a link on Rickey's blog and it never arrived this past week. I checked 3 times and never saw it so I had to do some digging.

Jim Cantiello's 60 Seconds

MTV Shows

Something Pitchy. Sorry about the link but the video says it's not available for me to embed in this region. *sigh* This just aint my week. Odd because it's been allowed before....

demand a refund!

I'm seriously at a loss for words. It's pretty bad when the duets outshine most of the solo acts.

Matinee only, no drink/no snacks, dont bother waiting on the ending credits and definitely don't go back again.

What was that? It's part of my rating system. This week's theme was songs from the movies and I have a rating system for movies which I feel is appropriate to apply to the performances. If it's a good movie, I may rate it "evening rates, drinks only". Awesome movies are "evening rates, drinks and snacks AND I'd go back to see it again with the same rates". In other words, they're damn well worth the money of the ticket and all the trappings. If I declare a movie "matinee only", it's okay. Just not really all that and I could have waited for it to drop on DVD. Well, you get the idea. Now apply that to that rating and you'll have my thoughts of the Top4 performances. Hey, at least I didn't rate it the same as I did Mars Attacks ( that was "holy cow I'm glad I didn't waste my money never again will I watch it please for God's sake someone burn my eyes out and pierce my eardrums" ). Yeah, I thought that movie was THAT bad.

The first list that came out was a rather limited selection of songs but they ended up opening it up to several more really great tunes. Do you think anyone could pick a decent song and have a break out performance? Nope. Don't get me wrong, there was a couple songs that had the potential for being "Moments" for the contestant that was singing them, but they just did not step up enough.

Only one is in the green this week. A couple are neck and neck in the Maps. You can see who had the better performances. I forgot to check the odds this week, mostly because they're really slow getting them posted these days so I'm not certain where anyone stands at this point. Most days they simply have the wagers up as to whether or not Crystal will win. Surely the season isn't THAT predictable, is it? EDITED 05/12/2010 @ 8:13pm : They're still only putting up the one set of odds, whether or not Crystal will win. At this point you need to put up $158 to just break even. If you bet AGAINST her, $100 will get you $135.

Lee (Kiss From a Rose by Seal): Good choice, should have worked, but didn't. It was a meh performance, definitely not squeal-worthy. I certainly hope Mr Foxx took that artist t-shirt away from him because this was definitely not all that. He was definitely off key almost as often as he was on. Top things all off, he sang first. This is usually the kiss of death. Randy was right, Lee really needed to rock this out. I don't think he could handle Bon Jovi, but then I'm really particular as to how Bon Jovi is covered because I ~love~ his music. Bryan Adams would have been an awesome choice for him. This week he won 12 states, and lost none. He's the only one who didn't lose any states. He slipped 2 states from last week. Not really bad considering he was in the pimp spot last week and opened this week. I really don't believe he's in danger this time around, to be honest. I think we all know who more than likely is going to hit the B2 this time around. If he ends up in B2, it'll be because that damned site pulled Casey outta the fire again.

Mike (Will You Be There by Michael Jackson): Perfect choice and again, should have worked. However, those lower notes simply weren't there for him. I'm really surprised Mr Foxx didn't ask him to take it up a half to a full step to help adjust it to a better part of Mike's range. Then the higher notes would have fallen into his falsetto and we would have had a "Moment". Even with the 6 voice choir behind him, I felt nothing for this song. It's a real shame because usually it gives me chills. Mike won 2 states and lost 6 for a total of -4 this week, down 3 states from last week. He's definitely in danger this time around too.

Crystal/Lee Duet (Falling Slowly by the Frames): This was my favorite performance of the night. Still nothing to squeal over, because the song itself was dreadfully dull. I thought the same about the song last year when Kris sang it. The duetting kinda saves the piece. Lee's singing was much better in this song than in his solo and I think this is what may have helped him get the numbers that he did.

Casey (Mrs Robinson by Simon and Garfunkel): Dear heavens. They keep going on about cougars liking him and it's taken this long for Kara to get it so everyone's not hassling her about her behavior at his audition.... and he picks THIS SONG??? *face palm* (repeat as necessary) Simon was right, this song lacked the substance necessary for this stage of the game. I'm surprised they didn't harp on the vibrato again this week. He won 2 states, lost 2 and dropped 7 states from last week. He's in danger this week too.

Crystal (I'm All Right by Kenny Loggins): Good choice. It actually made me laugh because she took a fun song, roughed it up and made it into a big ol FU to the judges and her critics. I'm diggin this version for sure. They pointed out her boyfriend's dancing (and the people on the Idol cameras didn't think to get a shot of it???? Shame on you guys!!). Wanna bet it looked alot like this?

He strikes me as the kinda guy to dance just that way. For that matter, I bet she does too. What would have been funnier (although I'm sure it would have lost her a bunch of votes because the choice would have seemed extremely presumptuous) is if she performed Queen's Gimme the Prize from the movie Highlander. She won 13 states but lost 1 so she's tied with Lee with 12 states won. She's up one state from last week and is the only one listed in green on the Chart. Her performance is the only reason why we stayed through the whole movie and didn't add a "better yet, leave early... demand a refund AND report them to the BBB" to the rating.

Casey/Mike duet (Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman by Bryan Adams): Good, not great. My 3rd favorite performance this week behind Crystal's solo and her duet with Lee.

Ranking the performances, I'd have to say they went like this (well for me):

Crystal

Crystal/Lee duet: By the barest margin because it's a dull song AND I love the FU vibe she gave her solo number

Casey/Mike duet

Lee

Mike

Casey (these last two a distant distant 5th and 6th)

So who belongs in the B2?

What? It aint obvious?

Casey: A blah performance with subject matter that he shouldn't have touched with a 50 foot pole considering who is on the judging panel. He should have been gone last week.

Mike: A performance that should have been one of his best that ended up leaving many cold. This one should have been gone weeks ago. Only thing that may save him is that duet on the end in the pimp spot.

However, remember what happened last year. We had 2 really great performers do a friggin AWESOME performance. Totally knocked it out of the park... homerunsville. The other group, not so hot. Their performance really kinda sucked. The one of this grouping had a bad solo performance too. Who went home? One out of the awesome duet.... one of the ones we were SURE was going to make it to at least Top3, if not Top2. This has me a trifle worried to say the least. If one of the ones I picked for B2 go home, it won't be so much of a shock. However, if that same thing from last year happens this year.... we may lose a favorite. Worst yet will be if we end up with another sausagefest for a third year running.

Jim Cantiello's 60 Seconds and other stuff

Jim Cantiello's 60 Seconds

MTV Shows

Normund Gentle on the Wendy Williams show

normund 5 @ Yahoo! Video

3 Adults, a kid and a goat

This should have been a good night for all of them. I mean we're dipping into Frank Sinatra's catalog for goodness sakes! Not saying that his stuff is easy, because some of it isn't. However, there are a good number of songs that are singable by anyone that can sustain a decent note. Well we certainly found out tonight who can and who cannot accomplish this.

This week's mentor was Harry Connick Jr., an accomplished crooner in his own right. No, there aren't too many songs of his that I actually enjoy but I cannot deny that he has a beautiful voice and I would happily sit and listen to him sing all night so long as he remembered to sing A Wink and a Smile at the end of the night. *swoons briefly*

Not only did Harry mentor this week, but he also accompanied them on stage as their piano player. Top things all off, he wrote "supportive arrangements". What this tells me is that all that the kids really did this week is pick the songs and learn what they were told. They were practically HANDED decent performances. All they had to do is learn it and work on stage presence. Do you think they accomplished this? Some, not all.

This week the Chart's a bit funky so we'll just leave the screen cap of it off and save the room (I've saved it incase DI decides to pull some of their usual stuff and mark the chart after the program). All are listed at 1-5 in yellow but not one of them has a B3 notation. The Maps were a mess too, but not so bad. A couple surprises on the loser Map. I'd like to say the winner Map had a surprise too, but I read some other sites out there before coming in here so it's not so much a shock to me as it will be to the casual viewer.

Aaron (Fly Me to the Moon): I wanna know exactly what show Ellen was listening to tonight? I'm sorry, but in certain parts of the song his country sound was bloody obvious. This was not as good as they said it was. He did try, but that's about it. His odds are up substantially from last week, this is only due to his strong showing from last week. I won't be surprised to see them dip again this week. He had 3 wins and 2 losses for a total of 1 state won. This is up 3 states from last week but I don't think this will be enough to keep him out of the B3 this week. He's listed 3rd on the chart.

Casey (Blue Skies): This wasn't good. Not at all. His voice just cannot handle this genre. He did not own this even in the slightest and unfortunately the nerves just magnified the vibratto that diehard fans have been hearing all year long. Let's just put it this way, this performance was so dreadful that that nefarious site changed its posterchild by the time he was finished singing (they HAD picked Mike after last week's elimination due to his cheese factor). They must have been really voting their fingers off, or the Casey Cougars went into overdrive because he managed to grab 7 wins and NO losses (the ONLY contestant to not lose any on the one Map) putting him up 2 states over last week. The Chart has him listed dead last though. His odds have slightly risen this week which is a surprise because we knew what the theme was going to be before the show ended last week and this definitely isn't in his wheelhouse.

Crystal (Summer Wind): My goodness she cleans up nice. That was a lovely gown on her! Loved the little interaction between her and Harry at the piano. So very playful and really set the mood for the song. This was very nicely done, although not one of her stronger performances. I'm gonna slap Randy if he uses "it's too sleepy" on a number whose original was rather sleepy too. Stupid shit. Kara had this one nailed correctly. She had spark, sass, and the swing necessary to carry the song. As for Simon, she needed to sing the arrangement as it was given. If Harry jazzed it up, it's not Crystal's fault. Ok, so it wasn't a great pick. Don't harp on something she had no control over. They are right though. This is two weeks with standard Crystal performances. She's gonna need to wow us next week if she wants to win this. This week she had 12 wins and 1 loss for a total of 11. This is down one state from last week. Her odds have been drooping a little since last week. I'm wondering if Vegas is still seeing a girl as the winner or if they are thinking that we'll have another darkhorse winner. She's listed in 4th on the chart. Although she's listed so low, I do not believe she's actually in danger due to the number of states won. I would not be surprised if they split them in 2 groups of 2 and have her pick who belongs in the same group as her. Gosh I hope I'm wrong.

Mike (The Way You Look Tonight): Damn. This song was perfect for his voice. If he doesn't go into R&B after this, then he certainly NEEDS to go into the standards and follow Harry's footsteps because this was awesome. Everyone knows who my faves are this year and it kills me to have to say this, but Mike out sang one of them and almost got the other as well. This was his moment. the judges loved him. Now for the bad news and there's quite a bit. His odds dropped from last week (which was odd because if any of them would have a great night, it'd be Mike). The nefarious site dropped him like a hot rock as their posterchild right after Casey sang. Why? Because Casey was that bad and they felt Mike was too boring. Top things all off, he won only 1 state and lost 2 for a total of -1. The good news? He's up 2 states from last week and he's listed in 2nd on the Chart. He's in danger this week and it really sucks because this was one of his best performances to date IMHO.

Lee (That's Life): Ahh Lee. My second favorite of the season. Holy shit that was HAWT! There haven't been too many moments this season where I got into fangirly-squealing mode. This was one of them. I was so into the performance, I didn't even notice Harry's organ until well after the performance was done. Go figure it was hanging out in plain sight and I never bloody noticed. Oh lookit that.... you need 2 hands for that organ too. It took 4 times through the video to notice that. I am looking forward to the studio version of this one. I hope he put just a touch more growl to a few of the notes. *fans self* Although I loved Mike's performance, it didn't get me the way Lee's did. His odds have been slipping a bit but I don't think Vegas anticipated Lee taking off with this genre at all. He's listed first on the Chart. There were 15 states won and one loss putting him at 14 states won for the week, up 11 states from last week. The real test will come next week as we all know that Lee only seems to get these numbers on the nights he has the pimp spot. If he can hang on to 1/2 to 3/4 of those states next week when he may be singing mid-pack, we may have a definite contender.

This is how I'd rate them this week:

Lee
Mike
Crystal (shocked that I put her here? I am!)
Aaron
Casey

So who goes home?

Aaron: If he goes it's because his youth couldnt carry the genre believably. His vocal wasn't atrocious, but it wasn't great either. Singing in first didn't help him. If he squeaks by, we can thank Rickey dot org for their work on his Vote for the First program which tries to help those singing in the deadly first spot get through another week.

Casey: According to the Maps, Casey won't be here. I'm just placing him here because based upon performance this week he DESERVES to be here and DESERVES to be eliminated.

However, I'm afraid his place will be taken by:

Mike: Why? He lost support of a group that, like it or not, does manage to make a difference in the vote numbers. Top things off, he's over stayed his welcome. It won't make a bloody bit of difference that this was one of his best performances to date.