Monthly Archives: February 2008

Another four bite the dust

Feb. 28, 20088:56 p.m.

So, let me make sure I’ve got this straight.

People are actually voting for Amanda Overmyer. They’re actually picking up their telephones and dialing those 11 numbers, repeatedly if necessary. Not only are they volunteering to listen to her butcher another song next week, but they’re willing to do whatever it takes to make it happen.

This has to be fixed, right?

Well, I’m sorry to be so sarcastic, but I just can’t understand why she’s still there, especially over Alaina Whitaker, who — although not a stellar talent — at least hit a couple of notes during her brief ‘Idol’ tenure. Poor thing — her 17-year-old ego could barely take the surprise ejection, and can you blame her? She’ll probably be listed in the high school yearbook as “Most Likely to Lose National Singing Competition To Funky Haired Growling Nurse.”

The rest of the ejections weren’t so surprising. Dreadful but dear Jason Yeager is gone, as is promising but unlucky Alexandrea Lushington. I’m slightly surprised about Robbie Carrico, but only because I thought Luke Menard would go first.

Looks like he’s next.

Tune in next week to see of Amanda Overmyer finds a fit, if Ramiele Malubay finds a facial expression other than tearful, if David Archuleta finds a single thing he can do to displease the judges and who exactly will be in the top 12.

By Denise | Filed under C-ya | Comments (10)

Baby, they’re no good

Feb. 27, 200810:41 p.m.

OvermyerI think Kristy Lee Cook put it best tonight with her unintentionally appropriate song. “You’re no good, you’re no good, you’re no good, baby you’re no good.”

Was I just cranky, or were those girls perfectly awful? I kept waiting, waiting for just one breathtaking, show stopping performance. But not even the judges could muster up much more than, “Well, you were no good TODAY, but we think we like you IN GENERAL” for any of the female contestants.

What gives? Is this normal this early in the season? We keep hearing how this year’s Idols are so much better vocally than last year’s. But I can’t remember a single night when either LaKisha or Melinda wasn’t AT LEAST on key throughout her song.

I hope this isn’t a sign of things to come. Otherwise, it’s going to be a long and painful season.

You know it’s bad when the standout performance of the night comes from Brooke White, who I actually like but can admit is a tad vanilla. I liked the hoarse quality to her voice on her cover of “Your So Vain,” even though her non-committal guitar playing was a tad distracting. She’s playing! She’s pausing! She’s strumming! Now she’s stopping…

And although I wasn’t crazy on Carly Smithson’s show-opening “Crazy On You,” compared to what followed her, I had to amend that opinion. Something about her just bugs me. Her voice is strong, but really the only thing interesting about her is her Irish accent.

On Wednesday, though, strong and clear voices were hard to come by, and the rest of the girls varied from boring to just plain bad.

Let’s start with the interchangeable blondies, who without the aid of my notepad, I’d be unable to keep straight.

Blondie #1 is Kristy Lee Cook, a.k.a. Shania Barbie. Her Elaine-esque dance moves were only slightly less awkward than her delivery of “You’re No Good,” which in turn was only slightly less awkward than her bright red tongue, clearly coated with a pre-performance lozenge.

Blondie #2 is Alaina Whitaker, a judge favorite whose “Hopelessly Devoted” was hopelessly off-tune. And now we find she’s hopelessly OCD, unable to function should her egg roll make contact with her spaghetti. Um, thanks for sharing?

And Blondie #3 is Kady Malloy, who is apparently a wonderful singer and a magnetic personality — as long as she’s NOT standing on the “American Idol” stage. Her “Magic Man” was so hard to watch, my finger was magically drawn to the fast forward button.

Meanwhile, the brunettes were stumbling just as badly. Syesha Mercado’s “Me and Mr(s). Jones” was dull. Ramiele Malubay’s “Don’t Leave Me This Way” was robotic. Alexandra Lushington’s “If You Leave Me Now” was… wow, I can’t even remember what it was beyond not so good. And Asia’h Epperson’s “All By Myself” was out of her league.

And now, please allow me a short Amanda Overmyer rant. COME ON PEOPLE! I absolutely do not get her or what the heck she is doing on “American Idol.” She was so bad on her butchering of “Carry On Wayward Son” that I’m almost speechless. Not to mention that she looked like she was just tossed out of a dress rehearsal for “Cats,” and who can blame them after all that howling? I’m sure she’s nice, and I know she’s different. But when different can’t sing, different needs to go. Thank you.

So after two rounds of singing, it looks like David “Aw Shucks” Archuleta is still firmly in the lead, and the ladies didn’t do anything to challenge his position.

What do you think? Were they girls as bad as I thought they were? Is the trouble the singers or the stupid genre? And who (Amanda Overmyer) is going to be sent home (Amanda Overmyer) on Thursday (Amanda Overmyer Amanda Overmyer Amanda Overmyer)?

By Denise | Filed under The women | Comments (9)

THIS… is Archuleta Idol

Feb. 26, 200810:26 p.m.

Apparently, we all are wasting our time with “American Idol” this season, and not just because we’re all — deep down in our hearts — just a tad bit sick and tired of it.

No, the reason we are wasting our time is because, according to the judges, sweet little David Archuleta has it all wrapped up. His show-closing performance of “Imagine” was so dern moving, Randy summonsed the fire department, Simon declared it all but over, and a weepy, visibly snotty Paula wondered aloud if she could possibly “squish you, squeeze your head off and dangle you from my rear-view mirror.” Yes, aloud.

Sweetie Pie’s rendition of (the third verse of) “Imagine” was quite nice, I’ll admit, and though it didn’t make me want to squish, squeeze, or dangle anything, it was certainly the best of the night. The kid’s got a future, even if it’s a Josh Groban kind of future. Plus, he entertains me. I love that little “aw shucks aw geeze aw golly” thing he does when he’s being showered with praise. It seems genuine, and it’s cute. And squishy.

As for the rest of the male finalists, well…

Really only a few stood out on Tuesday, and they were kind of surprises. After boring us to death last week, David Hernandez cartwheeled his way to the front of the pack with an entertaining and in-control version of “Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone.” Who WAS that guy, and where was he last week? Also fairly awesome was good ole Chikezie, who helped his cause with a casually cool outfit and a song that guarantees Simon won’t be calling him jacuzzi again anytime soon. Or Stevie.

I wasn’t as offended by Jason Castro’s performance of “I Just Want to Be Your Everything” as the judges were. But he’s going to have to find a solution for his interview awkwardness… and fast. I’ll also admit that Danny Noriega was much better than last week, though I still have a little trouble taking him seriously. He’s just so, so, HELLo!

The rest of the guys were unremarkable, even last week’s leader and established pro Michael Johns, who delivered an uninspired and slightly off key version of “Go Your Own Way.” The guy looks totally blazing hot quite nice doing it though, so, carry on.

And now for the dudes I don’t care if I ever see again, and really sort of wish I didn’t have to because this thing would sure get moving a lot more quickly: Luke Menard (too flimsy), Robbie Carrico (too distracting), Jason Yeager (too earnest, and also too awful) and David Cook (too vocab geek.)

So what do you think? Was David Archuleta really all that? Do we need to deduct points for his embarrassing hotel lobby vocal assault of Kelly Clarkson? And which of these two doods needs to be shown the door on Thursday?

By Denise | Filed under Archuleta worship, The men | Comments (12)

And then there were… 20?!?!?!

Feb. 21, 20088:47 p.m.

We shed some “Idols” tonight, but sheesh, we’ve still got a ways to go, don’t we?

Can’t say I’m happy about all the banishments. But I’m so happy with one in particular that I can live with the other three. I guess I wasn’t the only “Idol” viewer who found Garrett Haley hard to watch because Ryan Seacrest did the country’s bidding quickly, giving the permy mullett man the ax before the opening credits had even finished.

“What IS that?” my 3-year-old asked.

Not sure, sweetie. Not sure.

I was, however, indifferent about Amy Davis. Though not offensive, she wasn’t so good, which she proved with a farewell performance of “Where the Boys Are” that was so off-tune, she seemed surprised by her own awfulness. Poor Amy. Christmas is over.

And I was certainly surprised to find myself sorry to see Colton Berry go. Though not a huge fan, I at least thought the little guy deserved a few more weeks of on-stage goofiness. There were definitely fellows who deserved to go before he did, maybe even Newtonian-of-a-year Chickeze. And Colton certainly didn’t deserve that awful dream-bashing speech Simon delivered as he stood helpless and crushed on stage. AWKward.

I ‘m most upset about the dismissal of Joanne Borgella. After a second run-through of her song, I realized she wasn’t all that good after all, but I liked her. Something about her face pleased me. But she’s gone, and a sniveling bunch of pre-teens who weep like they’ve just lost their grandmas are all we have left. Seriously, weren’t those teary on-stage dramatics a bit MUCH this early in the season?

I will leave you until next Tuesday to ponder this question. Was it my imagination, or was Paula’s video NOT THAT BAD??

Things that make you go, hmmmmm……

By Denise | Filed under C-ya | Comments (5)

You go, girls

Feb. 20, 200810:26 p.m.

It’s hard to get too excited about the first few nights of “American Idol.”

For one, the contestants are virtual strangers to us. We don’t yet really know who they are, what they can do or whether the reason they just butchered that song was more due to bronchitis, nerves or just good old fashioned suckitude. That’s where I sort of am with the top 12 girls, who performed on Wednesday night.

Some of them were good to partly brilliant. But most of them were just kind of. . . blah. There were some decent moments, but no LaKisha, belting out that Jennifer Hudson number. “AND YOU! AND YOU! AND YOU!”

That said, at least there are no truly yukkos among the ladies, so Wednesday was already an improvement over Tuesday’s often icky buffet of boys.

Let’s break them down into categories like we did the guys.

JUDGES FAVORITES: Randy and Paula loved ‘em all, of course, but only a few female contestants earned unanimous endorsements.

The judges were pretty enthusiastic about 16-year-old Alaina Whitaker, who was perky and cute and fresh. But in my opinion, she was good only compared with the two snoozers who preceded her.

They also liked grieving singer Asia’h Epperson, who lost her father to an accident right before her audition. Thank goodness Asia’h nailed her delivery of “Take Another Little Piece of My Heart” because how painfully awkward would it have been to watch the judges rip her? For her sake and ours, it’s time to leave her personal tragedy behind — at least on the show. (I’m also rooting for her, btw, because she’s from my parents’ homeland — Joplin, Mo. Go Four-States!)

Also getting praise was Ramiele Malubay, who sang “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me.” Well, I know that, but I will anyway. I love her, and let me count the ways. 1. She’s adorable. 2. She makes Ryan Seacrest look positively tall. 3. Great singer. 4. Knows what’s important about her idol experience. “Hair and makeup!”

The judges were also into Syesha Mercado, who was energetic and on-tune during her performance. But “Tobacco Road?” Didn’t Phil Stacey JUST sing that song last season? Are there so few good songs from the 60s that we’re repeating already? Don’t answer that.
JUDGES FAVORITES BUT I DON’T GET IT: Amanda Overmyer. Really? I mean, REALLY? I don’t get this girl, from her little blond bangs to her big Lisa Maria Presley snarl. And if you ask me, her singing is a garbled, unintentionally funny mess. But for some reason, the judges are into it. I think I’m gonna have to suffer through a lot more of Little Miss Rocker Pants.

I’m also not that into Alexandrea Lushington, who sang “Spinning Wheel.” Simon wasn’t as excited as his colleagues, and I could see why. She was a little off tune and a lot boring.

JUDGES DON’T LIKE HER AND I DON’T GET IT: Brooke White is, I admit, a little too sweet and sugary. But in the land of “American Idol,” we are whatever The Clip Editors say we are. I like her, I liked her throaty yet playful take on “So Happy Together,” and I predict she’ll do better with the judges in coming weeks.

Same goes for Joanne Borgella, the sassy plus-sized model who seemed paralyzed by fear on Wednesday but who I hope will emerge from that fear and at least MOVE her feet a little.

BORING PRETTY GIRLS: Appearing to suffer from the Antonella Barba curse (though no nekkid pics, so far) were Kristy Lee Cook, Amy Davis and Kady Malloy. I predict that one if not two of them are toast on Thursday.

CARLY SMITHSON: Not sure how to feel about her. The tattooed one took quite a beating this week when it was discovered that she’d had a major record contract in her teen years. Now, fair or not fair, she’s enduring more scrutiny than any of the other contestants. (And apparently has bronchitis.) Frankly, I thought she was boring and a little hard to watch. Her own hype might just do her in, if her compromised air passages don’t get her first.

So what did you think? Was Simon particularly cranky on Wednesday night? Was Paula particularly incoherent? Were the girls better than the guys? And who will get the high heeled boot on Thursday?

Discuss.

By Denise | Filed under The women | Comments (1)

I’m baaaa-aaaack

Feb. 19, 200810:46 p.m.

And if you think you’re happy, you should just see me, sitting here in my pajamas at 10:03 p.m. on Tuesday night, about to launch into another season of “American Idol” recaps, knowing that once I hit “publish,” there’s no turning back, no escaping the weeks of “comments,” the months of ups, downs and pitchy notes, the dizzying complication of trying to juggle “Idol,” “Big Brother,” and, pretty soon, “Dancing With the Stars,” too.

But enough about me. We are here to discuss “American Idol,” and that’s exactly what we’ll do after every night’s episode. I’ll try to have my brief thoughts posted by 10:30 at the latest each night that the show’s on, and then you can chime in, adding your own critiques of the show, and probably of me and the Eagle and the City Council and Hilary Clinton and Wichita drivers and whatever other off-topic is bothering you today. Although I’d prefer if we could limit our discussion to “Idol.”

Now that we have those ground rules out of the way, let’s get to it. Tuesday night was the first night of real competition, when “Idol” rolled out its top 12 guys. Over the next three loooong weeks, they’ll pare it down to six. Girls start singing tomorrow, and the same rules apply.

Did you know we have another local guy on “Idol?” Well, sort of. Those who thought Phil Stacey’s ties to Wichita were tenuous are gonna hate Chickeze. (Google wonders, “Did you mean chicken?) No, Google, I mean Chickeze, formerly Chickeze Eze, though he seems to have recently misplaced his last name. Chickeze went to Bethel in Newton for a whole year, back in 2004/2005. So even though he’s from California, he’s the closest we’ve got to a hometown guy. And he played the lead in Bethel’s “Faust.” Opera!

Sadly, Chickeze did not impress the judges, either with his killer orange suit or his rendition of “I Love You More Today Than Yesterday.” We might have him around for a while, though, because the guy is lippy and appears ready to antagonize Simon all season. Can you blame him? The Britwit did call him “Jacuzzi” on live television. I’d stick with “Chicken.”

As for the rest of the top 12, they all fit neatly into a few easy-to-remember categories.

FAVORITES: There’s no denying that they’re good. So it’s too bad that both baby-faced David Archuleta and Aussie-turned-Atlantan Michael Johns are two of the semi-pros “Idol” fans are complaining about this week. Their experience was hard to miss and really set them apart. Others who earned their votes on night one: Popper-turned-rocker Robbie Carrico and adorable sparkly eyed dread lock boy Jason Castro. Those are my four favorites so far.

TOO OLD: I have a hard, hard time believing some of these guys are really under 29. Luke Menard? David Cook? Class of ‘89, much?

TOO CREEPY: I’m sorry, but a few of these guys are just hard to watch. The leader on that list has to be Garrett Haley, whose crunchy 70s mane is only slightly less yucky than his upper lip fuzz, lilty voice and overall pastiness. I’m also quite creeped out by Danny Noriega, who’s enthusiastic to the point of unwatchable. And although I’m only 49 percent creeped out by Colton Berry, he didn’t do himself any favors by pointing out his own resemblance to Ellen. (Kinda dances like her, too.)

ALL THE REST: Can’t remember a thing about them, even when I consult my notes. Not a good sign.

On Wednesday night, the girls sing, then we’ll lose four contestants on Thursday.

So what do you think? Who were the standout men? Who whitens Jason Yeager’s teeth? Is Chickeze more chicken or jacuzzi? And who will be the first two to go?

Gotta go. “Nip/Tuck” is on, and I’m hungry for fruit cake.

By Denise | Filed under The men | Comments (6)

Check back late tonight!

Feb. 19, 20086:39 p.m.

Much like last year, Wichita Eagle entertainment columnist Denise Neil is following “American Idol” and offering her thoughts every night that it’s on. So check back later tonight, maybe about an hour after the show, and she’ll be posting here.

By Nick Jungman | Filed under About the blog | Comments (2)