AI - Goodbye Jason Castro - It Was Nice Knowing You

After this week's performance, I guess it was a foregone conclusion that Jason would go home.

Jason has been my "quirky favorite" all season. Not my actual favorite (as readers know), but I was still kind of pulling for him to go far. As far as memorable performances, only David Cook was his equal. I've already pretty much forgotten everyone else.

And then last week, there was all the hype about him "wanting to go home". When I read that article, I was torn between feeling sorry for him and being mad at him for not seeing it through.

Then, when he messed up on both songs Tuesday night, I really began to wonder if he wasn't deliberately sabotaging himself. I actually was so embarrassed for him when he forgot the lyrics to Mr. Tambourine Man that I pushed the mute button on my TV.

But, hindsight is a good thing. In his Idol exit interview on EW, he cleared up the "wanting to go home" statement:

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Jason, I hear you're upset that I printed the quote you gave to me about wanting to go home. Do we need to make peace?

JASON CASTRO: I'm not upset about it. It's cool. I said it.

I'm glad you're standing by what you said. We got a lot of angry mail about that piece.

The fact of the matter that day was I was in a bad mood. I was frustrated with a lot of things. Then I got on the phone with you. I was just not in a good mood. I couldn't find a quiet place to talk to you and I kept walking around. I couldn't focus while we were talking. I don't even remember much of what I said. There are some days that are just like that. You just don't want to do what you are doing.

And he also dispelled my "sabotage" theory:

So, set the record straight. You weren't sabotaging yourself? You didn't want to go home?

I did not want to go home. But at the same time, now that it happened, I'm kind of glad. It all worked out like it was supposed to. I was reaching the point where I couldn't do it anymore. I wasn't able to keep up and it all caught up with me.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: So what happened with ''Mr. Tambourine Man''? How on earth do you forget the lyrics to that song?

JASON CASTRO: You know, that day I was just scattered. Right before I went on I was just sitting down and adjusting the microphone. I wasn't even settled in when I started. I just forgot where I was. I couldn't believe I forgot those words. Those words are so written on your heart. But I just laughed it off. I don't ever take myself too seriously. I'm still just human. I do wish I hadn't done that, but whatever. It happened for a reason. I think I'm right where I'm supposed to be.

Did you perhaps not want to win so you didn't have to be known as an American Idol winner?

Totally not. I really wanted to make the top three. I just really think the inexperience caught up to me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To be fair (which the judges generally were not), Jason had to contend with one judge who obviously didn't like him (RJ), one judge who was so eager to criticize him that she had to do it before he actually sang (NB - "Nut Bag"), and one judge who, thankfully, generally gave an honest critique, good or bad.

So, one of the two interesting remaining contestants is now gone. And look what
we're stuck with. Obviously, there is only one person who deserves to win.

And before we leave the Jason topic, a lot was made of his "goofiness", and some of the vague statements he made throughout the season.

However, isn't this a double standard?

Here, in a nutshell is how David Archuleta answers every question:

RYAN: David, what did you think of the judges' statements?

ARCHIE: Well, gee, I don't know.....I just........well, I just don't know. Aw shucks.

(sounds of girls screaming)

RYAN: Okay, great. What do you think has been your biggest challenge thus far in the competition?

ARCHIE: Well, gee, I don't know.....I just........well, I just don't know. Aw shucks.

(sounds of girls screaming)

I guess girls nowadays like their "men" inarticulate.

And I don't want to keep bashing little Archie (okay, I really kinda do), but he could choose any of the 500 songs that shaped rock & roll, and he chose "Love Me Tender"? Oh, I bet David Cook took his song choice, "Hungry Like The Wolf" - ha ha!

And I've said it before, but I will say it again: STOP changing the melody of the songs! Is he incapable of following a simple melody? What the.....?

I really think that the remaining two weeks (is it?) of the season would have been much more interesting with a different top three lineup. Say, for example, David Cook, Jason Castro, Brooke White. Or David Cook, Jason Castro, Michael Johns. Or David Cook, a lamp, and a potholder.

So, we await next week, when Syesha will go home. Then on to the BIG FINALE, when, if there is any justice, David Cook will win. But I'm not betting on it.

I leave you with a Jason Castro performance. It was kind of hard to choose, but I thought it might be good to feature one that I haven't already included in my blog:

JASON CASTRO - HALLELUJAH - "Absolutely Brilliant" ~ Simon Cowell


Okay, just one more. I happened to really enjoy this one:

JASON CASTRO - FOREVER IN BLUE JEANS

AI - Inspirational Week

I don't want to rain on anybody's parade of hopes and dreams, but this week's episode of American Idol didn't leave me very inspired. Really, the only thing it inspired me to do was to quickly get up off the couch and delete the program from my DVR.

I do feel bad for Michael Johns, though. It wasn't his turn to leave. And the fact that Ryan tortured him didn't help. I think what happened to Michael is that he drew the short straw, and had to sing first. (Not that they actually draw straws; the whole setup is a bit more diabolical than that.)

The first slot in the show is a killer, because it's really easy to forget. In fact, about halfway through watching the show (even knowing that Michael would be sent home, since I did see the results episode first), I started to wonder what song he actually sang. Then it hit me - "Dream On".

Now, I'm no Aerosmith aficionado, I'll admit. Therefore, I didn't realize that "Dream On" is an inspirational song. I thought he was saying, "dream on"; like "yea right, dream on". Duh. Well, with all the falsetto stuff going on, I couldn't ever really make out the words.

So, Michael got sent home, cruelly.

But, really, anyone could have, and should have, gone home this week. This was probably the worst performance week ever.

Even my favorite, Cookie, did a really lousy job. I am not familiar with the song, but I thought it sucked. He started off singing really low and sort of non-melodically, and, while the song did improve from there, it didn't improve enough to save it. I thought it was just awful.

I also didn't find anything to get excited about in Little Archie's performance. It was just boring.

And my pick for most desperate contestant this week goes to - ta DA! - Brooke. It's a really tough one to call, since Carly has been consistently desperate. But, to be honest, Brooke is really starting to get on my nerves. She's a good enough singer, albeit not very exciting, but her manner is getting to me.

I used to work with someone like her. Someone who could never STOP TALKING. It's nervous energy or low self-esteem or a combination of both. And they're always bobbing and weaving, unable to stand still. Give them an inch, and they'll talk on and on and on and on, until you just want to swallow some cyanide capsules.

It sort of goes like this:

RYAN: Thank you, Brooke.

BROOKE: You're welcome, Ryan.

RYAN: Nice job.

BROOKE: Do you really think so? Because I really thought I could have done better. I really looked kind of dorky, and I messed up that one line, and if I could just do it over again, I promise I'd do it way better. You know the line in the second verse? Well, I should have said, "the", but I said "a". I'm so embarrassed. What do you think of my dress? I'm not sure if it was the right dress to wear. I had two dresses picked out, but I went with the pink one. Do you think the yellow one would have been better?

RYAN: We need to go to a break now.

BROOKE: Can I just say one more thing? I really want to apologize to everyone in the audience, and in fact, to everyone in the whole world, for messing up that song so badly. If I could just sing it over again.........

RYAN: And we're out of time. Goodnight, everyone!


Our second runner-up, Carly, always looks so INTENSE when she's singing. It's really kinda scary. I think the reason she ended up in the bottom three is because everyone was so worn out from her INTENSITY that they were too tired to dial the phone. And, c'mon, they really want her to go. She's just spooky.

As for the other bottom-three dweller, well, I never saw anything in Syesha from day one. She completely bores me.

The only two that I semi-enjoyed this week were Jason Castro and, surprise! Kristy Lee Cook. I'm kind of starting to feel sorry for Kristy, so it was nice for her that she didn't end up in the bottom three this week.

And one more note about "inspirational week". Yes, I know that this was tied into "Idol Gives Back", but one has to admit, it's all kind of fakey. I don't doubt that Little Archie and Babbling Brooke really felt their songs. They're kind of the soft-hearted type. But the others.....They were just looking for "big" performances. I don't think being "inspirational" was upper-most in their minds. Unless by "inspirational", we mean, "hanging on for at least one more week".

It's virtually impossible for me, in good conscience, to include a video from this week.

Therefore, despite the fact that Michael Johns bugged me with his imitation of "Jim Morrison grasping the mic", I will leave you with Michael's performance from Dolly Parton week. This was the one of his that I enjoyed the most.

American Idol - Time's A'Wastin'!

Wow, did this week's show seem rushed? Usually, the show is waaay too long (with, of course, too many commercials), but this one seemed like there was a fire alarm going off in the building or something. Poor Michael Johns. He barely got a, "I think you did a g......". And then it was on to Hell's Kitchen, or whatever was on next.

It would have been nice to see Dolly actually working with the contestants. Which I'm sure she did. But in the editing, it seemed like they each sang a couple of lines, she hugged them, and then it was on to the next contestant! That would have been kind of a let-down for them, if it had really transpired that way. (For some reason, I'm reminded here of Andrea Bocelli - I think? -a couple of seasons back, making poor Chris Daughtry lie on the floor and sing - ha ha ha!)

As for the performances themselves, well, Dolly is a great songwriter, but I don't know what happened. Most of the contestants were boring.

Again, I must (begrudgingly) give the nod to Little Archie for probably the best performance of the night. I (don't think) I'd ever heard that Dolly Parton song before, but it makes me kind of want to search it out, to see if I might want to download it. Arch sang it with a lot of feeling, so good job, Little Archie!

The others that are even worth mentioning were David Cook ("Cookie" - you GO, Cookie!), Jason Castro, who I think did a fine job with the song he chose, and it was an excellent choice for him, regardless of the judges' comments. What was he supposed to sing? "Love Is Like A Butterfly"?? For pete's sake. Also, I liked Carly's rendition of, "Here You Come Again", and I'm no Carly fan.

I'll stop here to mention the fact, however, that Simon was reading my mind. As Carly was prancing around the stage, I thought, ick, her ensemble is pretty bad! I mean, c'mon! They must have some sort of clothing budget on that show. If she's really hard up, I could maybe dig through my closet and find something to lend her that looks way better than what she was wearing. And believe me, my clothes are nothing to write home about.



















And, if you're thinking about going into Show Bizzz, you might want to get a tattoo that's a little less conspicuous. But I suppose she's competing with her husband's face.

I also thought Michael Johns was really goo........Oops! We're out of time! Anyway, I like the blues and I thought that he did a really good job with the song. (I wrote that really fast.)

As far as who goes, I don't really give a rip if it's Ramiele, Syesha, or Kristy. They're all really boring, but at least watching Kristy is like watching a train wreck. You don't want to miss whatever really bad thing is going to happen.

But all is well that will end well with Kristy, whether she goes this week or the next. I'm sure some record label in Nashville will sign her, because she has "the look". And that's all you need, really. Either "the look" or "the personality". Kellie Pickler has "the personality"; Kristy has "the look". We'll worry about "the voice" some other time.

A.I. - Yi! Yi! Yi!

Hey, I thought the contestants were supposed to get better over time!

What the hell happened this week?? Granted, they had to choose songs from the year they were born. And I guess it's not their fault that they were born in crappy years. Still.....

But then, who am I to talk? If I had to sing a song from the year I was born, it would be, apparently, either:

The Yellow Rose Of Texas
Autumn Leaves
Rock Around The Clock
Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing

or my two favorites:

The Ballad Of Davy Crockett
and
Sixteen Tons
"You load sixteen tons; whaddya get? Another year older and deeper in debt"

Yea, let's do that one!

And in a Tennessee Ernie Ford deep bass voice. With, of course, the finger-snapping.

So, in retrospect, I guess the songs they sang this week weren't that crappy after all.

But I digress.

I'm not going to give a rundown of each performanzzzzzzz..............Oops! Because, most of them were snoozers.

But let me highlight a few things that I noticed this week.....

Jason, Jason, Jason........You gotta step it up, kid! What the heck? Did you take some Nytol before your big number? I was afraid you were gonna slide off that stool; you were so sleepy.

I like Jason as much as the next person. I think he's got a goofy, Vinny Barbarino-type personality. You be the judge:





But, c'mon, Jason! You can do better, so DO BETTER!

And now a word about Kristy Lee Cook. Yes, Simon was right; she did make a very clever song choice. Hey, if you're on the ropes, go patriotic! However, she frankly didn't do a very good job on the song. I think, to sing that song well, you need to have some power in your voice. She didn't, really.

Compare:






The other thing that was impossible to miss, during the show, were the BLINDING WHITE LIGHTS!!! while Michael Johns was performing (!)



My eyesight still hasn't quite returned to normal.

So, I guess they were really pushing Michael this week, you think? YIKES! But, to me, while he sang on key and everything, he seemed to be saying, "See what a good singer I am?" I'm reminded of the line that Simon used awhile back, addressing a different contestant; "You're not as good as you think you are."

Which leads me to..........DAVID COOK!!! Give it up!! I pegged it awhile back, before all the hype and hoopla, so props to me! I'm glad others have come to realize how good he is!

In conclusion, the best performance this week occurred during the results show.

I didn't know anything about this artist, because I did not watch Season 2 of AI, but I was mightily impressed.

Here's Kimberley Locke:



(P.S. This could be recorded as a modern country song.)

EDIT: Oops, I guess it HAS been recorded as a country song. What do I know? I don't listen to the radio. Sorry.