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Friday, June 13, 2008

Even the Romans played Dungeons and Dragons

Christie's is auctioning off an ancient d20 -- said to be from the second century AD. It's kind of nice, too! If only I had enough money that 18 grand was nothing to me, I'd buy this and keep it in my dice pouch. Does anyone know how to say "natural 20!" in Latin? Did they play with paper and pencil or was it all stone tablets? I'd make a joke about rolling up some Visigoth characters, but I'm pretty sure the Barbarian player class hadn't been invented yet.

I could go on all day, folks, but I'm pretty sure that nobody else thinks this is funny.

Friday, May 23, 2008

Irony

I finally have a referral to see an expert about ADHD-related problems. I got that referral two weeks ago. I haven't gotten around to calling yet. I think that's irony.

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Idol is broken

Apparently, American Idol ratings are down, and execs are freaking out. If you ask me, this is no surprise and is directly traceable to production decisions made this year:

1) Theme nights -- the last two weeks have been Neil Diamond and Andrew Lloyd Webber theme nights. Dolly Parton was a couple weeks back. Really? We're surprised that these themes didn't ensnare more viewers? If the demographic for the show were 45-60 year old gay men, then sure, these would have worked. And yes, these are all highly accomplished and wonderful musicians and composers, but very few people want to hear their songs, and only their songs, sung by amateurs for an hour or two.

2) The contestants -- obviously the contestants are not necessarily the best singers that showed up to auditions. There have to be hundreds, if not thousands, who audition and are on par with most of the finalists (but not necessarily the top couple). This year's crop are boring to watch, are not developing and growing over the course of the show (possibly because they were too good to begin with), and people don't care about them. I'm sure you can't always predict who will turn out to be the next McPhee or even Clay Aiken, but man, they went 0-for-24 this year.

Out of the final five, we have two who belong in a coffeeshop, one who should be making crappy Nickelback-sounding records, and two talented backup singers. That's the problem.

Anyway, if they really want to improve, the key is not changing up the format, or the judges, it's getting them to sing better and more relevant songs. Do away with most of the theme nights, or go with something looser. Instead of restricting them to one artist's songs, pick a genre, or do the decade thing again. And please, make the themes fit the contestants -- the Queen theme night was the only one where most of them looked comfortable, and there have been weeks where none of them knew what the hell to do.

It was awesome, though, when Paula Abdul gave Jason C comments on a performance he had not yet given, then tried to pass them off as her notes on David C's performance, and then said David C was her favorite even though the comments alleged to apply to him were fairly unflattering. That was good times.

Friday, April 25, 2008

Hillary Clinton fails math

No wonder American kids can't do math so good: one of the main contenders to be elected President is completely wrong about how to round numbers. Read more here.

The math breaks down like this (granted, some votes are still trickling in, but not enough to change the basic math): Clinton got 1,260,208 votes in the PA primary, and Obama got 1,045,444, for a difference of 214,764 out of 2,305,652 votes counted (so far). Go ahead and plug those two numbers into a calculator, just in case you don't buy my math, but you'll see that 214,764 divided by 2,305,652 is actually 9.31% (rounded to two decimals, sure).

If you can find a second grader nearby, ask them to round 9.31 to the nearest number (or give them 9.3, same thing). They will tell you that it rounds to 9. They are correct. They will then glare at you to let you know this was a stupid question that you should have known the answer to. And yet according to the Clinton camp, this actually rounds to 10%, which is a double-digit victory.

The Clinton camp argument is that if you calculate each candidate's percentage of the vote, and round those to the nearest percent, you get 55% for Clinton (rounded up from 54.66%) and 45% for Obama (rounded down from 45.34%). The difference between those rounded numbers is 10%. It's magic!

Unfortunately, it's also completely wrong, deliberately misleading, and an insult to the intelligence of the American population. Yet many media outlets continue to report the 10% victory margin, which is 100% incorrect. It would be no less silly to round to the nearest 10% and say both candidates received 50% of the vote.

Maybe instead of No Child Left Behind, we need No Senator Left Behind?

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

AI Top 6: Are you trying to get me to stop watching?

What could the producers of American Idol have done to make me even less interested in this season? Oh, how about having an Andrew Lloyd Webber theme night. Yep, that ought to do the trick.

And yet, it was enough of a trainwreck that I feel compelled to share my thoughts with you, dear readers. (Really? Plural, readers? Not just reader? Whatever.)

I did a lot of musical theater through high school and part of college. But the weird thing is, I never really liked musicals. I just did them. Make sense? No. But hey, who said people make sense? I keep asking myself questions on a blog. Most of the musicals I could stand were the exact opposite of Webber, anyway -- his stuff has always seemed so schmaltzy and self-indulgent. But then again, I like listening to Heart and Journey, so ... hey.

Syesha did some song from Starlight Express, which is a musical that looks phenomenal on paper. I mean, it's about trains. Trains that live, and love, and sing. Played by strings of actors on roller skates. How is that not the greatest thing ever, a marvel of unintentional comedy? Well, based on this I bet part of the problem is that the music is kind of crappy. It sounded like a bad takeoff of 50s-60s rock, written by someone who was not into rock at the time. Only into musical theater. Syesha rolled around on the piano, which was kind of fun, and she hooted and hollered like usual, and was flat and yelly as usual. And as usual, the judges completely ignored her pitch problems, and loved her. Whatever, she's OK, but she's not great. Also the word "many" does not rhyme with the way Forrest Gump says "Jenny" (or so says Emily, anyway).

Jason Bongwater does "Memory", which, OK, his whole deal is to either take a really cool song (Hallelujah) and do his thing, or take a really random song and do his thing. Either way, he does his thing, which is the same thing every time. And it's not really an Idol kind of thing. So he does that, and the judges hate it, but some weeks they love it, and other weeks they're meh. Even though it's identical. I think they sit around backstage and use one of those second grade paper fortune teller thingies to decide how to react, even before he sings, because they know it'll be identical every week. You know, you put the thing over your fingers, open and close it according to some ritualized choices, and then finally open a flap that says "you suck" or "that was pitchy, dog" or whatever.

I missed Brooke apparently forgetting the words a full line into the song and making the band start over, because at the beginning of her video package I thought it would be as good a time as any to take out a garbage bag full of dirty diapers. Normally I would have been right, but because our DVR is broken and we have to watch TV live (which totally sucks), I missed this. Enter youtubes. Anyway, it was pretty tragically bad, wasn't it? She's kind of a train wreck. Then while receiving comments, she looked even more like a cocker spaniel getting a scolding than ever before, what with all the shaking and the peeing herself. Not good times.

D.A.V.D. sings a song I've never heard of and does exactly how he do. I'm so bored of him singing blandly uplifting songs, and then talking in his shy husky voice with which he can't even hold a conversation. I much preferred him as a geeky 12 year old in a dress shirt singing Whitney Houston on Star Search.

I enjoyed when Webber let Carly get like a line into All I Ask of You, and was like, uh-uh, girlfriend, you're singing Jesus Christ Superstar. And he was right. She sang it. And it was awesome. I may be biased because it's the only Webber show I can stand, but I thought this was pretty solid. I even liked her dress. This was the only stretch of time during which I was substantially entertained.

Emo David of course gets to close the show, and the video packages were almost redeemed by Webber insisting that David sing Music of the Night to him, as if he were the most beautiful 17 year old girl in the world, and why are you laughing because that's not funny! In his mind, he IS the most beautiful 17 year old girl in the world. If he hadn't specified the age, it would have been merely awkward, but bringing notional jailbait into the equation tipped the balance into the realm of super duper creepy (aka the land of awesome). So weirdly enough, David opts not to rearrange the song at all, but sings it totally straight. And it totally, thoroughly sucks. It's like how Simon always tells the girls to not sing Whitney songs and try to sound like Whitney, except if the girls sounded more like Wing. The whole time I was waiting for the distorted guitars to kick in and for him to be all, ha ha, that was a joke, that song sucks, let's rock it out! But alas, for those distorted guitars were my Godot.

So that sucked overall. Carly was good, Syesha and D.A.V.D. were passable in retrospect, Jason Bongwater was slightly painful, Brooke was a trainwreck, and Emo David was the exact opposite of a trainwreck, which you would think would be good, but a train slowly passing by while staying on its tracks is actually just boring. So who goes home? If it were me, it'd be Brooke by a mile, with Jason C and David C rounding out the bottom three. Maybe it'll motivate them to do better. But I am not America. I think America will send home either Brooke or Carly (the latter of which would be absurd given this week's performances, of course), and I think Syesha will fill out the bottom three with them. But it could possible be Jason C in that third-bottom spot. What do you think?

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Coachella by the numbers


Randall Roberts writes a comprehensive statistical look at Coachella 2008 for LA weekly. I particularly like this chart. I am resisting doing a similar over-the-top statistical analysis of Lollapalooza 08.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

One does not simply ROCK into Mordor!


Hee hee.

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Mets get Rickrolled

Here's a non-Idol post for all y'all:

The Mets got rickrolled. The whole stadium. Brilliant. That's the best video I could find, but it's not great. Apparently they had a contest on the internets to replace their late-game singalong of "Sweet Caroline" (which was totally lame because the Red Sox have been doing that for years). They included space for a write-in candidate, and so the internets took it and ran with it.

This seriously made my week.

AI Top 8: Inspirational, or just crappy?

So I skipped last week. It was kind of boring, and I just couldn't get into it. I suspect this is a sign of things to come this year. You see, I really think the contestants are tons better than in previous seasons -- but what was compelling before (I think) was to watch sort of ordinary people possibly develop into something special. These contestants already have it, and everyone knows it. There's no sense of discovery, or growth, and I'm just not that excited by anyone's personal style. I will say, though, that they're picking way more songs that I like this year. It's been all about Queen and Heart and so on and so forth ... out of the subset of music that I like that's great for a singing contest, they're picking well for me. It's not like anyone's going to bust out some Zeppelin or Sabbath, right? Actually, strike that, I can see David Cook doing Ozzy's Mama I'm Coming Home. But that's not Sabbath, it's Ozzy. Anyway.

So, inspirational music, huh? That's a pretty vague category, but should lead to some pretty schmaltzy stuff. Or at least that's what I thought initially. I wasn't totally wrong, but the selections were better than I would have guessed.

Boomer the Roo is up first, singing "Dream On", one of the very few Aerosmith songs I really like. And right off the bat, I think it sits nicely in his range, and he sounds great, avoiding the warbles that have plagued him in some weeks (they're like tribbles, but less fuzzy). I also think that a) there's no way he's going for that high note, and b) he doesn't need to go for that high note anyway. But then, proving once again that I have no idea what I'm talking about, he goes for it, hits it just fine, and then practically collapses onstage. I still don't think he needed to do that, but I'm impressed. His take didn't have much of an ending, but I actually thought this was pretty solid, and a great song choice for him. Simon disagrees, which is rare, because he's usually right inside my head.

Randy says something about how it was pitchy, and here's the thing with Randy and pitchiness, dog: I have a pretty good ear. I'd go so far as to say my ear is on par with a lot of professional musicians (hey, there are plenty of other things I lack, though). If I don't hear pitch problems at all, then they're either not there, or so slight that there's no point in mentioning them because nobody else watching will have noticed, except for like six old grizzled musicians. Or maybe one of those annoying people with perfect pitch. But then people are egregiously off pitch, and he says nothing. So I don't get it. And Paula starts off the incoherent topic du jour: chihuahuas. It didn't make much more sense in context.

Syesha is doing that terrible song that Fantasia sang in the finals of her American Idol season. Every single original song that's been on this show has been terrible, and this is no exception. So I'm not sure if it's sucking up to the judges, or Idol superfans, but I suspect she actually likes the song. Anyway, she's worse than Fantasia, who I didn't even really like but at least sounded interesting, and there are pitch problems, which of course go wholly unmentioned by Randy, dog. I wasn't mad at him though. This sure seems like the stereotypical Idol performance (over the top, screechy, not connecting with the song, but with plenty of vocal gymnastics and power notes), so I bet people liked it. And by people, I mean pre-teen girls who haven't yet developed an understanding of or appreciation for music or talent, but who vote a lot.

Jason Bongwater does ... wait for it ... "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", by that Hawaiian dude with the ukulele. Israel something. Who, you know, is a pretty incredible singer. And this song was literally everywhere when it came out, in like 4 movies, 8 TV shows and 4129 commercials all within a year. Yet Simon thinks he might have heard it once on the internets. Okay. the judges seem to love it, but he's going for the weird, quirky dude with a guitar thing (OK, in this case, a ukulele), which still makes me think coffeehouse. His spastic delivery is actually growing on me a little, as long as I don't watch him while he's singing. I don't know, I thought it was an obvious choice for him, and I thought it was solid, but very similar to the original.

We were certain that Kristy the Horsey Lady was going to do Amazing Grace. I'm sure some country singer has recorded it (LeAnn Rimes?). But no, it's "Anyway" by Martina McBride. Which, you know, is kind of one of my favorite transitions in this blog. Anyway. Simon rightfully points out that she looks good (or, as described by L, had all the trappings of Faith Hill), and Randy rightfully points out that there were pitch problems, yo. I think Paula said something about chihuahuas again, but I don't remember for sure. Neither does she, right afterwards. Kristy's bland, but not terrible, actually better than she had been for a while, but still a cut below most of the others on the show. Everyone knows it, her included (maybe not Paula, but I'm not sure she's aware of much). Anyway. (!)

Emo David continues to alienate me by flaunting his horrible taste in music, with "Innocent" by Our Lady Peace. I'm not sure I've ever heard it, but man, is this a bad song. Shades of Daughtry and his love for Fuel and bands of that ilk. I thought this was pretty bad, and I was just starting to really like him again. When he tried to sing with the gospel choir, they swallowed him right up. My theory is that his high notes are usually not quite in pitch -- which is a stylistic choice, not a flaw -- but he had to squeeze just a little harder to match their pitch, which left him thin and reedy, and since he was essentially singing with them, he got lost. They ate him right up. Then at the end of the song he gave Constantine eyes right into the camera and opened his hand, upon which was scrawled, "give back". Wow. What a douchebag.

Carly the Irish Lass continues to pick songs I like with Queen's "The Show Must Go On". Which is actually a freakishly depressing song, but sort of uplifting too, I guess. Except that, you know, he kind of died from the stuff he was singing about in this song. So there's that. And I don't know, it was fine, she was a little awkward, I still think she's 400% more of a rocker than Amanda the Rock and Roll Nurse, but she does seem almost too busy powering out notes to connect with audiences. It was fine, but I suspect people (and by "people", I mean ... see above) won't like it as much as I did. And I only sort of liked it. Plus, this has huge potential to be one of those awkwardly prophetic elimination sing-outs, doesn't it?

D.A.V.D. sings some song called "Angels" by Robbie Williams. Simon muses about why the song was never popular in the States. I don't know, because it's a terrible song with lyrics that sound like they were written by an 11-year-old dying of a rare disease? Wait, that would totally go over here. Yeah, I don't know. Anyway. (!) This is classic Idol claptrap, with faux sincerity and ready-made spots for "soulful" runs. It wasn't quite as sanctimonious as David C's handwritten note, but it was close, though I swear if Small Wonder had cried during the song I would have thrown up in my mouth but he would have been elected Jesus on the spot. So, uh ... yeah. Not his strongest, in my book, but this little man isn't going anywhere for a while, except for if the Rapture comes.

Brooke the Nanny does the original Carole King version of "You've Got a Friend". Which is a boring song barely made tolerable by James Taylor's freakishly weird voice (and, really, the cool arrangement behind it which is sorely lacking from this version). And it's exactly like you'd expect it to be from her. She's very good at what she does, but she has no range, and I can't see her being popular with anyone who doesn't listen to Lite FM. Plus, every week she doesn't get smothered with praise, you can see her mentally calculating how much skinnier she has to get so they'll like her the next week. That, combined with the way she shakes like a cocker spaniel onstage when they're talking to her, freaks me out. I just don't see how she's relevant to today's music, and I'd like to see her get some help rather than be held up as an example of beauty ... she is a beautiful woman, but not a healthy ideal for young girls. In my opinion. Not that that's really within the scope of this blog. Anyway. (!)

I think Carly's in trouble, I think Brooke's in trouble, and Syesha will fill out the bottom three with them. If it were up to me, maybe David C would get a bottom three appearance just to give him a kick in the ass for picking such a crappy song and looking like a douche on stage. Hey, it could happen. I think Kristy did enough to save herself again, and if this keeps up, Hillary Clinton is going to compare herself to Kristy Lee in another couple days. You guys, everyone thought she was out, and then she wasn't! But just like Rocky, and Hillary, she's not going to win. I'd send home Brooke at this point, but I think it's going to be Carly, if only because of the song (seriously folks, think about how your song's lyrics would sound if you were eliminated -- if it sounds like a good "I'm going home" song, you're done!).

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

AI Top 10: Songs from when they were born (and in some cases when I was already in my teens)

(extremely preliminary thoughts)

They abandoned the weird Miss America intros in favor of a group entry ... nice, like the Patriots a couple years ago when they decided against individual intros. I like. Paula is dressed like a five year old who got to play dress up in a 1980s-era expensive call girl's boudoir.

Ramiele obviously got the memo about needing to show some personality, and her intro package was better than before. Anyway, "Alone" by Heart apparently came out the year she was born. Wait, I know I'm a little old, but damn. I have a weakness for Heart. I'm man enough to admit that. Anyway, it was a little pitchy, dawg. Didn't Carly do this earlier in the season? (Note: Carly did Crazy On You a couple weeks ago, but she did Alone in Hollywood.) Ramiele, I like you, I really do ... but Carly just ate your lunch. From the past! Time traveling lunch eating. Nice. And I'm sorry, honey, the sick thing isn't an excuse, especially since it's been trotted multiple times this season already. I've sung my ass off when sick as a dog and been just as good as I am when healthy. Granted, I couldn't speak afterwards, but it's one song! Not even a whole song, at that! Push through it. Welcome to being a singer.

Jason Bongwater continues to take hits from the bong in his intro. I love his brother rocking the keytar though. I miss keytars. I don't miss "Fragile" by Sting. You know, I like the Police. I liked Sting in the Police. I do not like Sting on his own. I know he had a crapton of street cred from the Police, but he basically wrote wussy pop songs for years before anyone went ... hey, wait, his new stuff sort of sucks! No, all of his stuff kind of sucks! So when I say Jason's doing a respectable Sting, you should interpret it as a comparison to Sting's vocals -- which remain excellent -- and not necessarily the song. But he only looks at home sitting on stage and strumming an acoustic guitar. Not my image of an American Idol. He's good and all, but there's tons of dudes who can do that. What's special here?

Wow, is Syesha's mom not what you'd expect from a pretty girl's mom. Dammit, we have to hear her do the creepy baby cry again? That was lame the first time. It's not any cooler the second time around. She's singing "If I Was Your Woman". I don't know this song. Should I? It sounds like a Whitney Houston song, and it's actually rather good, but for me she's trying too hard to emote. She just is coming across as mildly schizo up there. Still, solidly better than the first two performances this week, and she really needed a strong performance after the last couple weeks. The judges are really pushing her on the audience, saying she's now a "dark horse". No, she used to be a favorite, and then she sucked for a while. That's different. Of course, she could have been shackled by the Beatles theme, but most of other contestants made it work for them. Is she one-dimensional? Although she's very good in that dimension, I haven't seen anything to dispute that claim.

Chikezie ignored everyone's advice and picked a song that really resonates with him ... yeah, because that always works out real well on this show. That is a sharp outfit though. Sounds like we're back in the Vandross mold, which, he's really pretty good at, but kind of bores me personally. His vocals have so much reverb on them that they just went back in time and stole Ramiele's lunch too. Here's the thing about Chikezie, for me -- he's really a very good singer, with a nice voice, so why don't I care? Is it his lack of personality? Is it that he looks like Carlton? I don't think it's Randy's idea that the style was too old school. Simon may have hit the nail on the head, though, in that it was kind of cheesy and boring. Maybe that's it. (Note: apparently this song is called "If Only For One Night". Again, never heard it.)

Next on Moment of Truth, somebody was totally unfaithful in some way! You'll be totally surprised! Usually the revelations on this show are about saving puppies and giving candy to homeless people.

Brooke the Nanny is going to do a Police song. Well, at least it's good Sting. Her mom says she's an awesome musician and can play by ear. My mom thinks I'm black. Moms think a lot of things. So "Every Breath You Take" -- or as she says, "Every Bre ... Every Breath You Take." Hahah! I think this is my problem with her, she always picks the most cliched, obvious song. Plus, despite her mom's claim, she's playing some really boring piano that's nothing like the original, just boring plonky chords, which ruins it. I'm not feeling this, even when the rest of the band comes in. Not even when she did her fake sincere, "yeah, I'm feeling this" nod at the end. She sucked me in for a couple weeks, but this was boring. My socks were not blown off. And nobody called her out on restarting the song! They would have nailed most of the contestants for that, but somehow, for her, it was a sign of her being a professional. Professionals always like to start a song on the wrong note, you know. As Jemaine from Flight of the Conchords would say, "It's just professional."

Boomer the Roo takes us into one of those awful family videos that people think you'll find hilarious, but you won't because you're not actually part of their immediate family. So "We Will Rock You", since Queen was his silver bullet last time. But wait, it's actually "We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions"! The whole medley. Which is smart, because We Will Rock You was just OK and would have gotten old fast. We Are the Champions is rather good actually, despite him wussing out on the high note. At least he knows it's not there, and worked around it well. So I kind of dug that in the end. It's right in my sweet spot, of course, so I may not be objective, but I think that was his best so far.

Carly's mom is apparently the sister of Xena the Warrior Princess, and named Carly after Carly Simon, who they make sound like some sort of obscure artist. "Total Eclipse of the Heart" is a tacky song that reminds me of drunk freshman girls standing in a circle on a dance floor and singing (badly but loudly). But it's right in her wheelhouse, although not apparently in the wheelhouse of the backup singers, who are usually fantastic. I'm liking the grit in her voice, but this is sort of what we know she can do. I thought it was pretty good, but the judges didn't seem to like it. I kind of feel like this is one where they'll come back tomorrow and say it sounded better on TV. Maybe. Not my favorite, but solid enough.

D.A.V.D. giggles to Seacrest that he is totally missing school dances to be on this show ... immediately resulting in tons of prom date offers. Seacrest thinks he has a crush on some girl sitting next to his dad. Man, I hope that's not his sister. Although is it incest if you're a robot? He does a song that I don't recognize from the year he was constructed. (Note: "You're the Voice" -- as if the title helps.) The song is pretty absurdly boring. The bloom's kind of off the rose for him, but it's not like he's not going to win, right? They say the song is by some dude from Australia I've never heard of. OK. He was fine, but he wasn't great. Meh. At least someone else might get a turn to get the most votes, which I'm sure he's done every week so far. Simon's comment about it sounding like a song at a theme park with animated animals is brilliant.

Oh, Kristy. I thought that singing Piano Man during Billy Joel week or Yesterday during Beatles week were the most obvious free passes, but "God Bless the USA" ... wow. The absolute apex of pandering. All we need is video of the US hockey team beating the USSR in 1980 and a crowd chanting "USA! USA!" The sad thing is that it's by far the best she's sounded on this show. It's not like she can pull out a song that's going to save her ass every week, but she did it for this week. It's devious gamesmanship to the point where I totally respect the choice. Well played, Kristy, well played. See how I talked myself into how brilliant that choice was? She absolutely bought herself another week.

Emo David is doing someone else's version of Billy Jean ... again, credit to the person who rearranged it. Good to hear them acknowledging that now. I think this is a very recent cover that I like a lot. It's great for his voice, even if he's still a little gloomy for my tastes. Let's not call him overly original like Randy says, because even though he's done innovative rearrangements nearly every week, they're almost all not his own creation. He is, however, making excellent and bold song choices, displaying a great knowledge of music and his own vocal and stylistic range, and singing extremely well. I'm pretty on board the David Cook wagon. I think that he takes the top spot from D.A.V.D. for this week, the first time anyone dethrones the champ.

This week is a little crazy because Syesha totally recaptured the magic, Kristy pulled a great performance (and brilliant, if gimmicky song choice) out of nowhere, and Brooke and David A kind of sucked. Plus Boomer the Roo finally found his potential. Just a lot of shaking up going on. I'm actually starting to legitimately like David C and I'm glad Boomer the Roo is bringing it.

If it were up to me, I think it's Ramiele's time to go. I like her, but she just hasn't been up to standards in a long time (since week 1, maybe). I'd put Chikezie and Jason C in the bottom three with her. That's right, Jason C. He's good, but I don't see what's so special here. There was a real good guitar player/singer dude in Potbelly's the last time I was in there, but nobody's pushing him on a path to stardom. I've heard that he's an excellent songwriter, and I totally believe that I'd like his original material, as I'm sure it's tailored to his (interesting, if limited) voice. I also think he's had enough exposure that if he went out of the competition now, he has enough steam to make it as a singer/songwriter. I think he has a far better shot at that than as an American Idol.

I actually think America's going to be with me on this, although it's a toss-up between Ramiele and Chikezie. I think the Davids are safe, the Aussie is safe, Kristy is safe (if not, the terrorists have won, right?), and Carly's probably still safe. I'm a little iffy on Brooke and Syesha, at this point, and they could be surprise bottom three choices (as would Jason C, for that matter). I'd actually like to see Brooke there because she could use a little bit of a spur. It's all been so samey from her so far. I still think it'll be Jason C in that third spot though.

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