I don’t know if 15 minutes is enough time to chat about Idol, but that’s all the time i have this morning. I am parked in Atlanta Bread Company having some coffee and killing time till i have to be at the radio station to promote our upcoming 1st Annual Band Reunion! more on that later….
WOW…was all i can say about last night’s performances. Everyone definitly seems to be rising to the challenge of these final weeks.
I missed the first performer, Kris. Which i dearly hate because he is one of my favorites…because he is not predictable. You never quiet know what Kris is going to do with a song. I’m sure it was good.
Allison “Someone to Watch Over Me.” She got great advice from Jamie Foxx…..he was right on. He told her to think of her family when she sang….in other words…sing what you know. If you pretend to sing about some man you are hoping will watch over you, it won’t ring true…cause she just turned 17 and hasn’t had that yet. But she DOES know what it is like to be watched over and cared for by her family. Why does it make a difference to really know what you’re singing about? it’s like the difference between night and day in a performance. Knd of like what happened to Matt….
Matt sang “My Funny Valentine” and i didn’t feel it at all. it’s like he wasn’t visualizing anyone at all in that roll, he was just performing a song. thinking about the way he delivered it. but you can’t do that when you’re singing, because that is what comes across. Matt may be headed towards elimination tonight.
Then there was Danny.
His performance was amazing. He sang “Come Rain or Come Shine”. He owned that song. They had a full orchestra on stage for everyone last night and i felt like when Danny was singing….he was using the orchestra. They didn’t just back him up….he took them with him on the ride. They responded to what he was doing. He took control of the stage and the moment. He believed it. He tasted what he was singing and i swallowed it hook, line and sinker!
Adam. He sang “Feelin Good”. What can i say about Adam? He has great showmanship. Who has an entrance like that? They pulled out the big stair case, draped it in red carpet and Adam stood at the top in a white satin suit. It was pretty cool. And his voice matched the moment. It was draped in satin and velvety smooth. He came down the staircase and the intensity increased. His performance was spot on.
Danny was my favorite of the night though. I think he delivered the song in just the right way. Sometimes because of Adam’s showmanship…he seems a little fake to me. Danny was all real last night. and all right!
….i’m feeling much better today. on Wednesday it started with some sneezing and by Wednesday night i was feeling yucky. i took all the medicine i could and lasted most of the day at work on Thursday, but finally had to come home. i was running a little temp, so B. picked me up some strong medicine and i took that and vegged out on the couch all night. i think it’s just a little sinus infection. i already feel better except for my ears being stopped up. what did you say?
….we’re having revival at church. of course it started Wednesday, so i’ve already missed two services. hopefully i can make it tonight. K. went last name and came home and said the service was great. they spent 45 minutes around the altar at the end of the service!
….i tried to google the Dove Awards today to see who won on Wednesday night. so doveawards.com doesn’t even have the listing up yet. what’s with that? guess i’ll hit some blogs and see what i can find out
….if they can broadcast live on major stations, the Latin Awards…why can’t they broadcast the Doves?
….K & C came home from TNT at Trevecca with a first place trophy! They won for their instrumental duet, Cannon in D!
….i’m getting excited about our Reunion Banquet. I’m not sure if i told you,but the band boosters are planning the First Annual Marchin’ Cat Band Reunion! It’s going to be a the Rainwater Convention Center. Today the ad starts running on the big, electronic billboard by the mall. I can’t wait to drive by and see it!
….tomorrow i’ve got big plans…..chill out by the pool and finish this awesome book i’m reading!!
What is a little rain around here? All of the sudden mediacom can’t handle it?
Last night i settled in to watch Idol. I went ahead and put my pj’s on, plugged in my laptop to take notes and found my favorite spot on the couch. A gentle breeze was blowing and a few raindrops began to fall. Nothing like a major storm at all.
I watched Lil’ sing “I’m Every Woman” and heard the judges give her the boot. I actually thought she did a fairly decent job on it….but no, it wasn’t original. And yes, i’m ready for her to go home (as i stated last week on facebook). Then watched Kris sing an amazing version of “She Works Hard for the Money” (yes, you heard right. he sang a Donna Summer song) But i have to say that Kris knows what he is doing. It was a smart arrangement and it was perfect with him playing acoustic guitar and the band members on the stage with him playing bongos and that washboard thing…whatever that was…that just fit perfectly.
After that….the screen went dark.
It came back on briefly….long enough for us to catch a little of Danny Gokey and Anoop. But not enough of either to really know how i’d vote on them.
So, i decided to take my pj’s back off and put my running shorts on. Cause by this time, the rain had stopped, even though the cable didn’t work.
But, by the time i found my ipod and got my socks and shoes on, the rain had started again.
These are two voices that i love! They were at Wild Adventures Saturday night and i did something i’ve never done…i paid for reserved seating.
If you’ve been to WA you know that you can just bring out your lawn chairs and set them around anywhere and no one moves them. The park opens at 10:00 A.M. There’s always a slew of people who show up to take their lawn chairs out to the pavillion. The reserved seating is under the pavilion surrounded by a chain link fence. But after that, you’re free to put your chair anywhere outside of that area. It’s a great view from most anywhere. Plus, at the new pavillion they built, they installed two large screens, so that you can see the performers close up and in action…even if you’re sitting out i the boonies.
The only “plus” about having reserved seating, is that you can actually walk up to the stage and get pictures. and if they toss a guitar pick out, you have a chance of catching it!
I was sorry that i didn’t get reserved seating for Keith Urban, cause he was having a lot of interaction with that up close audience. of course he was talking to the rest of us too….but just made me wish i was close enough to see the sweat drip of his chin!
So when i found out Amy & Vince were coming….i got online and got those seats.
It was great…but different.
It was the most low key concert i’ve ever been too.
When it was time for Vince to come out, he just walked out with the rest of the band. No one even announced him. Usually a radio station DJ is there or someone from Wild Adventures to talk about upcoming concerts and then announce the opening act. But nope. Vince just walked out and picked up a guitar and said, “are ya’ll ready for some country music?”….and then proceeded to jam.
When we were waiting for the concert, we noticed the average age of the audience was probably 55ish. Ben said, “i wonder how Vince and Amy feel playing to the silver haired foxes”…and then we noticed that all of the band that came out on the stage had gray hair. “seasoned performers” i guess you’d call them.
So this was the first concert i attended where everyone remained seated….throughout the whole thing! That never happens. At the end of the concert, Amy thanked everyone for being “attentive”. Wonder if we bored her to tears?
The most excitement came at the end of the concert. They both left the stage and we all kept clapping and they came back. That’s when people started coming up to take pictures and they remained standing up front for the last two songs. I was surprised at the enthusiasm…….but Vince and Amy were worth it.
He opened up first with about six songs. His voice is amazing. Truly.
Then Amy came out and grabbed her guitar and started singing.
The best treat of the night for me was that Amy sang two new songs she’d just written.
She said she’s been home since December, something she never does, and has been focusing on writing. As far as i’m concerned, the two songs she sang were some of the best i’ve ever heard.
The band didn’t even know them, so it was just Amy on her guitar. She did tell them at the beginning that if they felt like “jumping in” anywhere…they could. On the first song, the pianist and Vince played a little. On the second song, i guess they all started feeling the groove, because by the second verse of the song, they were all playing…bass, drums, steel guitar, girl on bongs, piano, acoustic guitar and organ.
As soon as i find the lyrics, i will share them. Just amazing. Pictures to come……
this was the winner of the night as far as i was concerned.
The theme last night was “songs from movies”. So the door was wide open to pick some great songs.
Allison kicked the night off with “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing”. Why did it seem like she was screaming? It was like she couldn’t wait to get passed the tender verse so she could blare it out on the chorus…or should i say “yell it out”? Okay Allison, we know you’ve got that ”gruff” thing you can do with your voice…you are definitely a rocker chick, but how about showing some feeling in the song and not just volume?
Anoop sang “Everything I Do”. I don’t know what it is about Anoop. when i watch him sing i just want to laugh. His voice is good. There’s no denying that. And he hit every note almost flawlessy last night. But when he finishes his song and looks in the camera as he’s singing….”everything i do, i do it for you”….i just want to giggle. Maybe it’s because he still looks like he’s 15. He’ll probably make it through again because of his great rendition though.
Adam sang “Born to be Wild”. It was just what you imagine. Lots of screaming/singing, but no one can scream/sing like Adam. I think he ended the night singing a high G. He worked the crowd tonight and the band. There is no denying that he is at home on the stage. He continues to be a serious contender. I like him, in spite of not really wanting too.
Matt sang “When You Love a Woman” and it made me think that Matt must have never loved a woman yet….because i didn’t hear any of that in his performance. He sat and played from the piano, so i thought it was going to be a beautiful, tender ballad feel. But it really wasn’t. When Bryan Adams sings that song, it is amazing. You can hear the passion coming out of the radio sitting at a red light listening to that song. I don’t know what Matt was thinking about when he was singing last night, but it was not a woman. The judges liked his performance though.
Danny Gokey sang…wow….i can’t even remember. he performed it spot on, but it felt emotionaless for me. Why am i all about that now? Becuase that’s what a true performer does…he/she makes you remember what they sang…they make you embrace it. Danny does seem passionate, but it is almost like passion at a distant. like he knows how to turn it on, but i still feel like he’s holding back…he’s still performaing, not embracing the song.
Chris came out and changed everthing. He sang the song from the movie Once, called “Falling Slowly”. It didn’t showcase his voice, it showcased his talent. There’s something different between performing a song and sitting on a stool singing like you feel every word you are saying. It was believable. It gave me chill bumps. I was mesmorized. That’s what an aritst does for you. They take you and grab you and draw you into their performance. Here’s what EW said:
During last night’s American Idol, we heard our final seven perform plenty of ho-hum tunes from the likes of Bryan Adams, Bette Midler and Steppenwolf for Songs from the Movies night. (Really, Adam? You couldn’t do my personal choice for you, Alanis Morissette’s “Uninvited”? Really?) Thankfully, season 8’s doe-eyed underdog delivered the goods with “Falling Slowly,” a beautiful song from indie darling Once that, might I add, is not at all “obscure,” thankyouverymuch Kara. It won an Oscar.
And though Randy didn’t have kind words for Kris, audiences seemed to be impressed by the performance: The film and lyrics to the song were popular search terms on Google this morning. Can we expect Kris’ unique song choice to boost sales and rentals of the film? I certainly hope so — it would be nice to see Idol promote a quality film and album for once, rather than just the latest pop song that’s already No. 1 on the charts. (The film’s album is already charting at No. 26 on iTunes’ top album downloads list.)
I heard the song performed on the Oscars. I like Kris’ version much much better!
Ben fixed the most delicious coconut cake for our Easter Sunday dessert. It was three heavenly layers of cake, seperated by lemon custard and topped with the best icing you can imagine.
I really wanted to put the picture that I took on here, but i can make anything fairly uncomplicated….complicated.
Ben bought a new camera for All State Weekend in Savannah. I took pictures with that camera today. I found the chord and plugged it into the computer. Nothing happened. Okay…so i’m thinking i need to find the CD that comes with the camera to load the program that will read and recognize the camera is hooked up and waiting to have its pictures downloaded.
let me just say here that i hate installing programs for every little thing you want to do. We also bought a video camera (our first actually….always borrowed one from nana before) and it comes with….you guessed it….a CD to load onto your computer to tell it what to do with your camera. COME ON. It’s 2009….do we have to tell these computers how to do EVERYTHING?
So back to my original fussing. I found the CD for the camera and tried to install it. It said there was an error and it wouldn’t finish. It suggested i go to the internet and download one for free. Great idea. I did. It started installing and i was sure that in just a few minutes i’d be downloaded the cake picture as well as our family picture (to up load to my blog and facebook). It installed, and kept installing and kept installing and then guess what? It stopped. Just like that. The little number percentages that were changing stopped changing. The little line that tells you how far you’ve got to go stopped moving…i mean it just froze.
So i did what any computer loving girl would do…i hit cancel.
it’s almost my bed time and i have no energy left to figure this out. so i googled a coconut cake and it looks pretty much like the one i had sitting on my plate today (though not for long). It may have been the best slice of cake (that’s not chocolate, cause really, there is nothing better than chocolate) that i’ve put into my mouth in a long time.
I really didn’t mean for this to be all about the cake.
We had a great service today. The choir outdid themselves. We sang Sovereign Lord, that my friend Phil Mehrens wrote. That made it doubly cool. And i didn’t make any terrible directing errors…except the one time i tried to take Karlee’s mic from her when she still had another verse of her solo to sing.
Ben taped the whole thing on our new video camera. We came home and watched it on our tv. That was pretty cool.
The rest of the day was spent laying out by the pool. Ahhh…the first days of summer. Well, it’s not technically summer, but when i start grabbing the suit and heading poolside, it’s summer time for me baby!
This video is a rough one….but you can still tell that when Adam performs, he is serious about what he is doing. Would he be a great American Idol, or a great Broadway Performer??
Tonight it was Scott’s turn to watch all the clips of his time on Idol, and then head home.
I liked Scott, i really did. He was passionate about everything he did. He seemed comfortable in his own skin. The judges never had to ask Scott to tell them who he was….in fact Simon said out of all the faces on Idol this season, he knew that Scott would stand out.
Scott’s performance last night did not stand out…according to the judges.
And i had to agree with them.
I had Anoop and Scott in the bottom two after their performances last night. Although the judges prasied Anoop for his performance, i think Anoop is missing that “something” that performers need. He’s missing that magic, that charisma, that command of the stage you need. Anoop has a great voice, no doubt. But this isn’t just a voice competition….you have to have the whole package.
Scott had more charisma, but Scott seemed a little limited in his vocal abilities. He seemed to approach every song the same way. His singing almost sounded old fashioned to me.
I have no doubt that Scott will go on to do great things. He would be a great motivational speaker/singer guy….he inspires so many people.
When it came down to it, even the judges hated to see him go. You know that have that “save vote” thingee they are doing this year. Each week when a contestant is voted out of the group, they have a chance to sing for the judges and the judges can choose to “save” them over the public vote. The only thing is, the judges only have ONE save vote they can use, ALL season. So they have to consider that.
Scott sang for them tonight and was told two of the judges wanted to use the save vote, and two didn’t. Ryan Seacrest told them to keep talking and he continued to interview Scott to give them time. Ryan told the judges they needed to come up with a verdict. Simon said he guessed someone had to speak up and he told Scott this was the “end of the road.”
At the very last seconds of the show, while the credits were rolling, Paula gave a personal word of thanks to Scott on behalf of the judges. She talked about how inspirational he was and even told him, “God Bless You”. I think she was ready to cry.
They all gave him a standing ovation (i guess Ryan told Scott that) and it was indeed, the end of the road.
But hey, there is always the Idol Tour this summer!
….shared this video with you before. But i love this song. I wish i’d written it! And no…i’m not tempting the weather to bring on more rain…..i guess it’s odd that i chose this song today…but i still love the message of the song.
It’s about living LIFE….no matter what it brings your way. I choose to enjoy it and yes, sometimes just plain survive it because i know the author of my life.
These are two voices that i love! They were at Wild Adventures Saturday night and i did something i’ve never done…i paid for reserved seating.
this was the winner of the night as far as i was concerned.
Ben fixed the most delicious coconut cake for our Easter Sunday dessert. It was three heavenly layers of cake, seperated by lemon custard and topped with the best icing you can imagine.
I liked Scott, i really did. He was passionate about everything he did. He seemed comfortable in his own skin. The judges never had to ask Scott to tell them who he was….in fact Simon said out of all the faces on Idol this season, he knew that Scott would stand out.