I've decided to do this from time to time, but probably not every week.  Random comments, suggestions.

Lacey Brown said a slightly tearful goodbye to Ruby Tuesday.  She was boring, gave one really good performance, wore a lot of weird clothes and accessories, and had more hair product on than Donald Trump.  But she was kinda sweet.

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So instead of that Will Young goodbye song, we'll let the Harlem Globetrotters play in the background with their theme music, "Sweet Georgia Brown."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmXbTi5GjDE

Its now confirmed (MJ's Big Blog) that next week's theme is "Billboard No. 1 Hits".  Why they ditched "Teen Idols" in favor of "Billboard No. 1 Hits", we'll never know.  Was it turning into an absolute trainwreck, or was it something else?

That changes the landscape. The numbers of songs are too great to make any predictions.

Anway, moving right along, first, on Big Mike Lynche, some blogger said he dances like Barney The Dinosaur.  Hope he stops that, he looks silly.  Also, he's not here "for the people."  His fans probably can fit in a hotel conference room, not even a small bar.

A word to Lee DeWyze:  Since its Billboard No. 1 Hits, I hope he picks his song from here, which will have lots of No. 1s from the rock charts.  http://www.1019rxp.com/BroadcastHistory.aspx

"Use Somebody" would be a good choice.

Tim Urban has this dilemma, because he's more likely to win the lottery than Idol.  America, please let him know:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqH21LEmfbQ


Aaron Kelly, some bloggers suggest, has a shot at winning this thing, because he could be molded into a male Taylor Swift.  I'm not willing to go there, but this kid seems honest and straightforward, so I think he needs to spend a lot of time with the vocal coaches because "Angie" was his Peter Principle.
  

I don't have anything to say about Casey James now.  I do have something to say about Andrew Garcia, but I'm keeping it to myself, because people might get mad.


And now, to the ladies.

Unfortunately, the weak field of guys is what I think is pulling this season down.  If the women step up to the plate, they just might have a shot of proving all the poo-poohers wrong.  All five of the remaining women have enough talent to bring the house down this week and make this into a really tight competition -- if they are honest with themselves.

The weakest link among the women by far is Katie Stevens.  I don't understand what the heck she's been doing.  Andrew Garcia watches his You Tube videos, so why isn't Katie watching hers?  Besides singing very nicely and playing guitar on "The Climb" and "Bubbly", there's this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fbge0w4hFA&feature=related


Didi Benami can really make a competition of this if she expands her horizons.  Being cutesy little Ingrid Michaelson, Jr., singing about her sweater -- unless she covers Weezer -- isn't going to cut the needle and thread.  She needs to go for what the Stooges call "bigger" songs.

Besides, even Ingrid Michaelson isn't who Didi possibly thinks she is.  About 10 days ago, one of Ingrid Michaelson's concerts was aired on PBS's "Live From The Artists Den" and she definitely does not just sit there like a stick figure and sing.


Paige Miles may be in the same category.  She can move up in the pecking order with a great performance.  Last week was good, but it has to be better.  I saw an interview with Kara DioGuardi that aired on Friday on the local morning show "Good Day New York", and host Rosanna Scotto said that they should wheel Paige out on stage on a gurney with an oxygen tank, because she performs better when she's sick than when she's not.

Kara was in town because her dad, destined to lose, is running for the U.S. Senate here.

Let me tell you, Kara did a nice interview, because Rosanna Scotto is an Italian-American woman from New York, and so is Kara (Ok, she's really more of Albanian descent than Italian).  I think it was more than rookie jitters that hurt Kara last year.  I think its Ryan Seacrest.  I'd bet you that if Rosanna Scotto was the host of American Idol, Kara would become a kick-butt Stooge, and the show would get its mojo back.

http://mjsbigblog.com/kara-dioguradi.htm


Before I get to Crystal Bowersox, I'd like to talk about David Cook, Orianthi, and Kesha.  Sorry, not gonna give her that stupid dollar sign.

A lot of people liked Cookie's performance of "Jumpin Jack Flash."  Michael Slezak on ew.com was gushing.  Not your humble recrapper.  He was doing that gutteral scream he does all through the song.  The gutteral scream was why I didn't like "Light On" or "Come Back To Me".

Now when I was younger, when artists went on TV to sing, they did, unless it was "American Bandstand" where everything was lyp-synched.  Short of having Kelly Clarkson perform every week on Idol rather than the flavor of the month, like Orianthi, who might seriously want to think about replacing John Frusciante with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, in my day, female singers might do this, even with telephone numbers on the screen flying by them, with a song in the same category as "According To You":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MH6vH61KFws

I was thinking about how, if I had a webcam, I could sing "According To You" and post it here with just the title through the whole song.  Its that lack of artistic formula involving "hooks" and repeating the title of the song ad nauseum because that's the way a "pop" song is supposed to work.  Even better, I could make Jim Belushi laugh and just sing over and over again the words "According To Jim."

I don't have to say much about the abominable performance of Kesha. I get it -- in a horrible world, why not just have fun and dance to some girl running around a stage like a rat on a subway track saying "Blah Blah Blah."  We had plenty of bad stuff like that in the old days, too.  But let me tell you, when Cyndi Lauper sang Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, she sang her little butt off.  In the disco era, the musicians and singers cared about the music, too.  That's why a lot of those songs have become classics.


My thought after the show was -- here's why Katelyn Epperly and Lilly Scott didn't make the Top 12.  There's only so many people who consume music who want to hear a serious musician. 6,000,000 people, I suspect mainly young, mainly female, spent money to download "TiK ToK."  Close to 500,000 people have bought her album, Animal.  Whether its because the youth of America really want this kind of stuff, whether the suits in the music industry have duped gullible young people, or they're just dumb -- or maybe just happy, I don't know.  I'd like to think the music industry could sell meaningful music to young people today like it did to us.

Also, I wanted one of the Indians from "F Troop" to come on stage and deck her.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVwFADi4Y38

However, I suspect that the person who downloads "TiK ToK" doesn't have much use for meaningful music.  Or, as I said to my friend Miss Jones New York, this skank is getting rich while someone like Allison Iraheta is struggling.

Which brings me back to Crystal.  On the Entertainment Weekly website, reporter Adam Vary was at the results show.  Kesha's performance, obviously, was pre-taped, but when it was shown on the monitors, the only two contestants who "grooved" to it were Lee and Andrew.  The other ten didn't move a muscle.  Andrew doesn't surprise me, while Lee probably thought Kesha was hot.

I would have loved to have been on the couch with Crystal, who I think is an honest, straighforward musician who likes to think her music is meaningful, and ask her what she thought of Kesha, without the cameras rolling.  Because Crystal never watched the show before she auditioned, I wonder what she must have been thinking.  Was it along the lines of "what the hell am I doing here, is that what they are going to want from me if I win?"

The way Crystal reacted to Simon this week, I'm liking her more and more.  The pop music world could use someone like Crystal to make everyone come to their senses.  At this point, I'd be happy with either Crystal or Siobhan as the winner.
    
And now, to Siobhan:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AofzLsvTsM0  

Hey little sister what have you done?

Hey little sister shot gun!

It's a nice day to start again.


'Cause There is nothin' fair in this world
There is nothin' safe in this world
And there's nothin' sure in this world


Translation:  Continuing the drama queen shtick (and yes, its shtick) could easily backfire on her.  SHE might think its in the bag, but there's nothin' fair, safe, or sure in this world.  Do we want a female Adam Lambert?  I don't.  She had better be careful about using the screech.

Or, as I said to my friend, Miss Jones New York:  Siobhan has the voice, but she might be a little too calculating.  Someone needs to sit her down and tell her to just f***ing sing, and stop showing off.


Goodnight!

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