ROCK N Rollin’ good times! There were some highlights, but there were also some low moments (especially one in particular), but overall a pretty interesting show! I actually enjoyed the pair-ups and thought that the Glambert/Allison combo worked like magic! That would be an interesting single and I’d actually consider buying that.
I never knew Slash was such a mellow, well-spoken dude. Always thought those crazy rocker types would slur their speech for stylistic or drug-addiction reasons but Slash actually sounded pretty smooth. Don’t know why that’s important but it stuck out to me… that along with his patented hairstyle. Is that thing a wig?
This week, I’ll do something different by ranking the remaining 4 according to my preferences (like always) but in parantheses, I will display their “true rank” which is where they should be ranked based on last night.
It’s going to be really interesting who goes home tonight because a couple of the major frontrunners really flopped! I don’t know what’s going to happen anymore! I’m confused! The world is in turmoil and it’s being reflected on American Idol! Aahhhh!!!
So what does your fav five look like? Don’t even get cute by putting Charles Barkley and Dwyane Wade in the mix.
It was a very good show last night, if not the best of the season, with the theme being songs from the Rat Pack era. I thought everyone stepped it up in a big way, including the ever-too-consistent Danny Gokey; he reached new heights this week and it was actually very refreshing to hear.
Let’s hear it for my boy Matt Giraud who managed to stave off elimination last week! I’m not so sure the news will be as good for him this week…. (spoiler alert)
As you could tell from previous weeks, I normally don’t care for the celebrity mentors they bring in to coach these young artists but MAN, Jamie Foxx was on FIRE was he not? I knew he could sing but I underestimated his ability to speak into people and bring out the best in others. I don’t know if it’s because he’s coming off the high of the release of the Soloist but my goodness, I want him to be my vocal coach! He was feeling the music, stared intently into the eyes of the artists, and challenged them to be better singers and at this stage of the game, he was exactly what everyone needed! I feel like I became a better singer by simply watching Jamie coach!
Finally, a little something on Simon Cowell. I have a new nickname for him and it’s “Swing Vote Cowell”. No matter what the other judges say, it’s what Simon says that sways the votes of the American public. The in-studio audience can boo him all they want but America listens to him. This is nothing new, of course, but I’m realizing that this show is very easy to rig because of Simon’s clout with the public. As long as Simon pimps Adam Lambert like he does every week, Adam will win. On the other side of that, because the producers would like to see Allison go next, he unfairly declared that she was in danger last night. Bogus stuff.
In any case, I’m getting excited about the finish line that’s approaching. I think it may be safe to say that this is the best final 5 that Idol has ever had. Would you agree? Now to my rankings…
Every once in a while, I come across a talented and somewhat accomplished musician who proudly proclaims that they hate Coldplay; some of these people are actually my friends. There’s even a scene in the “40 Year Old Virgin” when they imply that anyone who listens to Coldplay is “gay” (their words, not mine!).
You probably heard this song on the Slum Dog Millionaire commercials and felt a sudden desire to watch/buy this film (crank your speakers or headphones up and listen):
you all know how disapproving (to say the least) I am of partially-blind singer Scott MacIntyre’s enduring run in this season’s American Idol competition. He is currently in the top 8 and to my weekly dismay, it seems like he may last in the competition a while longer. I’ve been ripping him in all of my posts, ranked him last in just about every one of my power rankings, and even heartlessly made fun of the way he looks despite his visual disability (totally jacked up, i know). well apparently, he is a piano prodigy and I found this interesting article on him from a few years back. He definitely is a good pianist and I give him props for that but he’s still a very, very below average singer with a very outdated, irrelevant sound. I think he should just focus on piano because a blind person who plays piano at a high level is wayyy more impressive than a blind singer… and that’s a known fact. (btw, who’s been voting “yes” in my poll?!? he has 10 votes so far!)
CRISIS was averted last week. What in the world was America thinking?!? MATT GIRAUD in the bottom 3?!? I just about had a stroke. Let it be known today: if Matt doesn’t make it to the top 4 (ATLEAST) of this competition, I will stop updating my power rankings and I may even stop watching the show altogether… forever. Ok, that’s a lie. New season in ’10, new attitude, I’m there. In any case, I decided I would rock the vote for the first time this season and I texted in my “VOTE” to 5706 and I am also announcing that I am going to be trying out for American Idol in 2010. It’s time to take matters into my own hands…and it’s time you performed your constitutional right by voting for your favorite idol. I hope it’s Matt because he deserves this. The good news in all of this? MICHAEL SARVER has been eliminated! YES!!! Before we move on, let’s take a quick time out for this poll:
Healthy living is a very interesting thing. On one hand, you have a movement of people who are striving to live a healthier lifestyle by eating right, exercising, and reading up on every trendy diet that seems to emerge every few months. On the other hand, you have a majority of people who just don’t give a crap. You see the convergence of these two groups at a friendly “healthy” destination named “Souplantation” (check your local Yellow Pages for the location nearest you). If you go to Souplantation on any given day you will see the 2 distinct groups of people I mentioned above with a sad 3rd group I will spend most of this entry talking about: those who pretend to be healthy and continuously defeat (or basically destroy) the purpose of eating at Souplantion.
Note: You may want to read my introon this topic first.
Disney Pixar films are generally enjoyable, excellent, and… ethereal (I needed to keep on with the alliteration). That being said, I think “Cars” is one of the more underrated of the Pixar collection, probably because it it is not only an animated feature (which almost always brings the “maturity” and credibility factor down in adult’s eyes) but also it is a movie about talking cars… how very unrealistic! So imagine my surprise when this movie jacked me up as I watched it on one of my international flights. I almost needed to break down in my seat but I have this commitment to never cry in movies which I have kept except on a couple occasions, but I’ll share more on that later. This movie has so many great lessons and easily overlooked principles, it puts Mr. Miyagi to shame!
So it looks like I’ll try to update this weekly after every Tuesday show. Thanks for keeping up with this and leaving your thoughts and making this a group effort of sorts! You may want to take a look at my first round of power rankings to get a better idea of what this is about.
This show was very interesting, was it not? First of all, the Country (Grand Ol Oprey) genre really jacked a few people up to the point that their standing has been affected (some really badly) in this week’s rankings. I still feel that last week’s rankings should be the true order of rank in the ideal world but since we’re a not part of that galaxy, the rankings are what they are today. Secondly, did anyone else notice that Randy Travis’ takes on the contestants all started with something to the effect of “when so-and-so first told me they were going to sing this song, I had my doubts… but then they started singing it and I was blown away. I think this will be their best performance yet…” No joke! Go back to your DVRs and listen to him do this for virtually all 11 contestants! It’s sort of like that one Chinese judge on the recent world-dance show who would give everyone a “bbah… EIGHT!” score, every time! Lastly, if I had to rank the judges in order of best performance to worst, I’d go with 1) Simon, 2) Randy, 3) Kara, and 997) Paula. Seriously, somebody get Paula out of there… please. She contributes nothing to the show except the constant on-screen bickering with Simon (who dogs on her every bumbling word), and a false sense of “you did great” to every bad performance. She is on crack cocaine and needs to go to rehab. Thank God for DVR so that I can skip all of her empty, awkward, uncomfortable, stuttering, and heartless comments. Phew… I really needed to get that out of my system… thanks.
Well, without further ado, I’ll dive into the updated rankings, starting with this week’s #1 all the way down to #11 (with farewells to 12 and 13). Keep in mind, these rankings are more cumulative and not so much based on this week’s performances, although they were taken into full account and some have fallen (or risen) mightily. I’m interested to hear your takes as well.
A good friend, Alex Gee, once called Adam Sandler one of the greatest modern-day prophets of our time. Though this may sound like an absurd statement to most of you, the more I dig in to the depth of overlooked profundity in Sandler’s films, the more I agree with Alex! Don’t let the “abby doobees” and the silly singing fool you. . . this boy is a genius. Besides, his movies provide the most quotable quotes outside of “Dumb and Dumber” for me and my group of buddies!
“Click,” for me, was one of those movies that left me in my seat for an extra minute as the credits rolled up because I had to let my brain catch up to what my heart was feeling. It was that profound and it had a pretty big impact on me. If you’re a busy person, you need to watch this movie. Seriously. Stop reading this blog and watch this movie… especially if you’re one of those super-driven pastor types who struggle with priorities, this Bud’s for you. . .
what you may have liked about it: Jack Black plays a Jesuit Priest named Ignacio (aka, Nacho), who has aspirations of stardom as a wrestler (Luchador) in the Mexican underground Lucha Libre circuit. He speaks in a very inconsistent and bogus Mexican accent throughout the movie and has a malnourished sidekick aptly named Esqueleto. It’s freakin hilarious and hits a comedic and memorable peak when Nacho pens a song for his love interest, “Encarnacion”– pure genious. (more…)
Some of you know that my wife and I spent nearly 2 glorious years in Bangkok,Thailand from 2003 to 2005 to help start a Newsong there. Unlike Charles Dickens in A Tale of Two Cities, this period for us was the best of times, and again, was the best of times. We experienced a little bit of heaven on earth and it was as if we went through the wardrobe to experience Narnia. (Wow, those are 2 more literary references than I was originally planning on alluding to…I sound smart.) Part of the reason our experience there was so great is because of the ways that we viewed the world, God, and spirituality had changed in a major way. We no longer viewed things in boxes but acquired a broader scope and lens to see things in a new light!
One of the major things that changed for me is how I see movies and I credit this in large part to one of my best friends in the whole world, Dave Brubaker. Y’all gotta get to know him some day. He’s one of the world’s best-kept secrets, and a guy who’s changing the world, one person at a time… seriously. He taught me how to meet Jesus in movies and that’s no joke. Every time I see a movie now, I expect to be spoken to in a fresh, meaningful and spiritual way… unless it’s one of those stupid “Not Another (insert genre here) Movie” flicks in which case I just come out of the movie feeling like I wasted my life and decent brain cells. ”House Bunny” was one of the worst films in the history of cinema and don’t ask me how or why I saw it.
So I wanted to highlight 5 MOVIES YOU MUST SEE WITH A NEW LENS and because of the length of these “reviews”, I will space them out over a few days. These are movies that most people have probably seen already but for one reason or another have “discounted” or even shrugged off (benignly but a careless move nonetheless) as just 1) an overly-hyped but really good movie (Slum Dog Millionaire), 2) a cool modern Batman adaptation, acted-well-by-Heath-Ledger-film (Dark Knight), 3) a cute, “kids’” movie (Cars), 4) another typical Adam Sandler flick (Click), and finally, 5) a hilarious movie where Jack Black plays a hispanic wannabe wrestler (Nacho Libre). My contention is that these movies contain a message a little deeper than the general public perceived or the makers even intended! My takes may seem like a stretch but keep an open mind and be ready to go to “church” with me on these!
So there’s my outline for you. The 5 movies I will talk about are:
So I’m a pretty avid sports fan and I check in with ESPN about once a day. For those of you who have that in common with me, you’re probably familiar with the concept of Power Rankings, where the author of the article ranks the teams of a particular sport in order based upon their performance the previous week while taking into account their overall performance throughout the season. For instance, the Lakers are number 1 right now on Marc Stein’s weekly power rankings on ESPN– and rightly so! The Clippers (big surprise) are number 30, dead last. Even if the Clippers win all their games in one week, you won’t see them climb up the rankings chart all that much because their overall performance throughout the season has been poor. The rankings are very much cumulative in that regard. Keep that in mind as you read on…
I’m also a pretty big watcher of American Idol in case you couldn’t tell from my previous post regarding Scott MacIntyre. It’s a show that I often love to hate, given that so many deserving people were not put through to this round of 13 while other subpar singers (like the aforementioned MacIntyre) were given a shot. In any case, the top 13 just performed and I felt that it was time I put together my own power rankings, starting with 1 (the one who’s headed toward winning the next crown of American Idol), all the way down to 13 (whom I feel will, or should, be eliminated first). Keep in mind, I am taking into account several things: 1) The first impression – the initial audition leaves a pretty indelible mark and it’s pretty much carried my opinion of most of these artists; 2) The total package factor – do they have the voice, the look, the charisma, and confidence? 3) Would I buy their album?
So without further ado, here’s my first stab at the American Idol power rankings!
1. Matt Giraud
The dueling piano singer. Perhaps this surprises some of you but I’m telling you, Matt’s got the total package: a killer voice, ridiculous chops on the piano, he’s pretty good-looking, not to mention he’s just got that intangible swagger about him. Reminds me of Justin Timberlake and that’s gotta be a good thing, right? The judges got it right when they brought him back through the wildcard and he’s only going to be better with each week. The key question of would I buy his album? Yes, I believe I would– especially if I had itunes credit sitting in my account.
For those of you who know me, you are aware that Bono, lead-singer of U2, is one of my top living heroes (along with Kobe Bryant–the topic of many entries in the future, for sure), and it is one of my lifelong goals to meet him on earth before we meet in heaven. It’ll probably be easier to meet up in heaven anyway… we probably just have to think of who we want to hang with and BLAM! there we are having a glass of glorious wine together!
Unless I suddenly become super important, famous and/or influential, I will probably never have the chance to gain an audience with him. I am confident, however, that if I had the opportunity to hang with him for just ONE hour, we would be the best of friends. Well, since this is my blog, I got to have this opportunity and what a grand conversation it was! Bono is not only one of the most influential frontmen in Rock and Roll history, he is also one of the leading voices in the movement to end poverty and relieve the AIDS crisis in Africa. He has used his immense platform to impact and influence millions– that’s why he’s one of the top 2 people I’d like to meet before I die! I think what Bono has to say will astound, inspire, shake, and move you. Here’s the interview:
Have you ever thought about how funny and illogical it is that people tend to give more credit to BLIND singers? Think about this for a moment with me. . . what does SINGING have anything to do with SEEING? ”Wow… that’s amazing! He’s blind but he sings so well!” Singing and seeing are stand-alone abilities that don’t require the help of the other. Blind people should be given props for their resiliency in life and their overcoming the odds within the flow of society, but when it comes to singing? Please.
On the other hand, if a person is born with a hole in their throat and is able to somehow do a perfect rendition of “You Raise Me Up,” operatically– now, that’s impressive! That’s something we can marvel at and say, “Wow! Dude is missing part of his larynx but he’s still killin’ it!” Now that’s overcoming odds!
Now, there are GREAT singers who also happen to be blind like Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles. However, it is pretty safe to say that even if they had the ability to see like everyone else, they would still be given the same amount of respect and notoriety because they are great singers. Plain and simple. You ever try to sing “Superstitious” or “Georgia” at the Karaoke bar? You sounded pretty ridiculous, right?
Show me a blind pilot or a blind doctor. I may not choose to give myself over to their care but I will surely give that person props. A blind singer? Their lack of sight has nothing to do with pitch, tone, or phrasing!
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