Idol ramblings

So, again, the television industry has forced me to watch American Idol this year. Why do I blame the industry? Because every other single channel is so afraid of putting anything up against the juggernaut that is Idol that if you are watching TV, it is the only thing on. Don't get me wrong, I am not taping it or anything...but if it's on, I watch it.

It is not all that fascinating this year. There are to clear contenders. The first is Melinda Doolittle. Honestly, she is too polished and talented to even be in this glorified karaoke (pronounced care-a-oh-ka not care-a-oh-kee as tolyo lola has told me numerous times) show. Honestly, they should shut down this years contest and just declare her the winner. She is that good. But she is bizarre looking. She either has no neck or some mild osteoporosis that forces her to hunch her head out and make it look like she has no neck. Plus she has this false modesty reaction after she sings like she is shocked by the adulation. Lady, you're a good singer. You know it and I know it. This act is wearing thin.

Her biggest competition is from Lakisha Jones. She is almost as good of a singer as Doolittle without the act. Though her performance of Diamonds Are Forever this week was not great. Anyway, I think these two singers may cancel each other out and pave the way for the person I think will win...Gina Glocksen. She has great rock and roll name and has been choosing songs that best show off her talents. A couple of weeks ago, she chose to sing a Pat Benatar song. But she didn't do the obvious Hit Me With Your Best Shot. She chose Heartbreaker. This song may not be Benatar's most popular which actually helped. Do we really need to hear these 20 somethings sing songs recorded before they were born that the rest of us have already heard a million times?

Top 5 Pat Benatar songs
1. Heartbreaker
2. We Belong
3. Shadows Of The Night
4. Love Is A Battlefield
5. All Fired Up

This Idol season has not been without its interesting characters. The first is Antonella Barba. She did make it relatively far with an average singing voice. But what was really interesting was her backstory. After she first started appearing on Idol, racy pictures of her popped up on the internet. The first were ones were she was simply topless but other pictures soon popped including one where she is performing fellatio. The matter became moot as she was soon kicked off. More likely it was her complete destroyal of Corinne Bailey Rae's Put Another Record On, than it was the pictures.

The other interesting storyline is the ongoing success of Sanjaya Malakar. First off, his hair is ridiculous. It looks like Farrah Fawcett's circa 1978. Secondly, he is a horrible singer. He is currently still among the top 10 and is easily the worst of all the contestants. My sister, who is a huge fan of the show and has always watched it faithfully. Her theory is that each season there is always one person every year that people feel sorry for and they end up staying longer than they should out of sympathy. Other theories are that shock jock Howard Stern is imploring his listeners to continue voting for Malakar. There is also the website Votefortheworst.com. Since 2004 they have picked one weak performer and advised people to continue voting for that person. They do this to make the show entertaining but if you read the "about us" section of their website. They sound a little bitter. But still it is a pretty funny website.

The website I talked about earlier this week the Lefsetz Letter has a pretty funny posting about American Idol.

Speaking of television, if you watched the show How I Met Your Mother this week, you saw the scene just before the credits where Barney does his best David Letterman impression and gives a top 10 list of nicknames for a moving truck he was using to try and pick up women with. The list was pretty funny and a little racy for network tv. What you didn't see is him giving the names that didn't make the top 10 list as they never would have been allowed to be said at 8 pm on Monday night. Here is a link to that extended scene.