American Idol Ladies Show for March 7, 2006

For some reason Blogger has been giving me trouble with this site. We'll see if it works today...

Last night was the final ladies performance show for American Idol before the final 6 of their gender are chosen. I can figure one of the ladies who probably won't make it: Kaniq. She was off-tune for much of her song - what the judges politely call 'off pitch'.

Other than her I'm not sure who'll be voted out, but one thing is sure: this year's crop will not be voted out for lack of talent, more for just not having enough votes.

I don't expect I'll be able to say the same for the guys. So far only 3 of them have impressed me.

Overdue Idol Catch-up

1. The mens performance show
   

   If Randy thought this would be the mens' competition to lose, then he must have felt foolish. Of the 12 performances, I can count only 3 that were really great. A few were downright awful. When Bobby performed Copacabana I thought Jackie Gleason had come back from the dead to perform. I agreed with Simon for once: it did feel like a cabaret performance!

   Even worse was the performance by Bucky Carlisle. To my ear it sounded as if he was just growling.

2. This week's results
   

   I was 75% right from my opinions this week: both the girls eliminated I picked... Becky looked great, but her singing was mediocre (apparently she and her twin sister are in Maxim magazine. She didn't lose out) and... I think her name was Stella. She was just too timid on stage.

   I was only half right on the men. As I expected, Bobby was eliminated... but I expected Bucky to get the axe, only Patrick did instead.

   One thing really surprised me here: there were no histrionics among those cut. They all took it calmly. At least this time we didn't have a lifeless performance by a disappointed contestant. Mind you, that's always been something I don't like in theirshow format: "You just lost... so perform for us one more time!"

The first 12 Idols Sang

I was surprised by the judges on American Idol tonight: it took Simon more than 50 minutes to act nasty!

The ladies mostly either gave strong performances or at least earned another week. I really don't like the girl from New York (Brenna? I don't remember any of the names yet) but two of them stood out as the weakest: the third lady was very attractive to me but was an underwhelming singer, and the fifth one (she did a Josh Groban song) just came off sounding timid.

Tags: American Idol, Simon Cowell.

The Twins are out

Tonight was the final cuts for this year's American Idol... and neither Terell or Derell Britnam were chosen. The fact that one was already arrested and the other soon would as well (for forgery, in fact) definitely contributed... but just their full-of-themselves attitudes did it for me. Saying to the camera that they had conducted themselves as perfect gentlemen after one brother had acted like a prima donna, the other narced out his group... they came off as complete jerks.

One of the jazz crooners made the cut. I'll be rooting for him to make it to the final 10 (or 12. I don't remember if they said what it would be).

Today's American Idol show is done, and my first thought: as much as I like the Britnam twins voices, their drama queen petulance is really grating on my nerves.

The 'Brokenote Mountain' bit was a chuckler. The trio were all cut, but the way they sounded hurt my ears, so I won't lie and say it is a shame.

Tags: American Idol, Britnam twins, Brokenote Mountain.

I posted stuff for another blog here, so it's the least I can do to honor the ping here to make some new content here as well!

Year 5 has begun, meaning American Idol is back.

In very quick fashion, Simon Cowell has earned my ire: he always makes fun at the expense of the plus-size contestants.

I remember him in past years criticizing body image, but this is too much! Yes, some of these people want to lose their weight -- but it has nothing to do with their vocal talent (or lack thereof).

I'm taking the advice from George in the comments in my last post... I'm currently using Napster 2.0 to listen to the latest album by Polar Bear, Dim Lit.

The tunes are good, but I have one small criticism: the songs on the album don't seem to have a unifying theme to me. Maybe I'm missing it, but it just feels like a collection of disassociated tunes.

Tags: jazz, Polar Bear, Dim Lit, Napster 2.0

I'm listening to a collection I downloaded from Emusic awhile ago: The Early Years Volume 2, Tom Waits

Anyone who thinks he can't be melodic should definitely hear this. He's famous for the fact of sounding like a singer who has had far too many cigarrettes and whisky. He often sounds like a barely alive critter, a wailing banshee. I think these recordings were from before he achieved that state.

You may be asking, "Jeff, what does this have to do with jazz?" Well, Holly Cole recorded a fantastic album of covers of his songs, Temptation.

Tags: Emusic, Tom Waits, Holly Cole.

He wasn't involved in jazz (as far as I know, anyway), and I can only think of one song I've ever heard from him (You'll never find), but soulful smooth R&B lost a legend in Lou Rawls today at the age of 72.

Tags: R&B, Lou Rawls.

I'm sorry this blog has been down for most of the weekend. My Webspace provider just wasn't on top of it.

I'm taking steps to solve this.

I learned yesterday that CBC Radio 2 has a jazz show. Unfortunately it doesn't play all day.

Still I may well track it down. If my radio reception for it is good and steady, I may well change my radio to it.

For those of you who listen through Sirius Sattelite radio, it airs there as well.

Tags: sattelite radio, CBC Radio 2.

Now that we're in-between Christmas and New Year's Eve, there aren't many specifically themed songs that I know in the realm of jazz... so I'm just listening to more general holiday-themed songs.

Holly Cole (who I've mentioned here a lot lately) practically made her career on Christmas music. I count at least 2, maybe 3 holiday albums by her. After all her first album was Christmas music!

The other singer I can think of who fits the theme - he's often featured on CoolTV so he may well be a jazz singer - is Nat King Cole. I take any opportunity possible to listen to him, not just the holidays!

Tags: Holly Cole, jazz, CoolTV, Nat King Cole.

Last week on CoolTV I saw an older interview with the late Ray Charles. I was very dismayed to see that, like many other musicians, he was a smoker.

I now suspect the cigarrettes may have contributed to his death.

Tags: Cool TV, Ray Charles, jazz, cigarettes.

Here I am in the waning hours of Xmas Eve. On Boxing Day this year, the 8 days of Hannukah begin.

I'm right now jazzed because I got an awesom gift for this year, a color laser printer. My dad and my brother-in-law couldn't understand why I needed one, but I explained to dad my need for heavy-duty, frequent printing, as a writer and electronically published.

To all the rest of you, I hope the holidays bring you similar great cheer.

Tags: Christmas, printer, Hannukah.

Me in 2003 

When I went to my meal service Christmas Brunch, my driver thought Temptation was the first album by Holly Cole.

I knew there we more before - in fact, I own some of them - but looking at her discography, I'm realizing that I only own 2 of 5. The list (with what I own in bold):

• Christmas Blues (1989)


• Girl Talk (1990)


• Blame It On My Youth (1991)


• Don't Smoke In Bed (1993)


• It Happened One Night (1995)


• Finally Temptation (1995)

With one of my friends we own everything she put out between us, and I want to get more myself (althoughj I've heard nearly everything), but it was still interesting to read.

Tags: Holly Cole.

Coming into the X-Mas holidays, you would think Holiday carols would all I'd be listening to, right?

You would be wrong.

I'll listen to jazz any day of the year, but there's also a fantastic Christmas album by the divine Holly Cole. That's an album I can listen to at any chance.

Holly Cole and Jimmy Stewart in "It's a Wonderful Lfe". My two holiday traditions.

Tags: Holly Cole, Jimmy Stewart, It's a Wonderful Life, jazz.

The better part of today I've been listening to the soundtrack to the musical Rent via Napster 2.0. Yes, I'm also a fan of musicals - and I'm hetrosexual, so that stereotype is wrong.

I've also been using it to hear a lot of Django Reinhardt's music. He was a jazz pioneer, and I've heard his name, but none of his music until now.

I also found out today that a Woody Allen film about a jazzman a few years ago was actually about Django. I've only seen a few minutes of the film (I don't even remember its name. I'll have to look it up on IMDB), but now I want to track it down.

Tags: Rent, Django Reinhardt, Woody Allen, IMDB.

I've been using Napster 2.0's Daily Playlist feature a lot now.

As more recent pop singers fill my Library I end up with folks I don't really have an interest in... but I've also been able to load up on favorites like Django Reinhardt, Oscar Peterson, Miles Davis and Sonny Rollins. I've also been able to discover new potential favorites like Eric Dolphy and Idris Ackamoor, so it all balances out.

Tags: Django Reinhardt, Oscar Peterson, Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, Eric Dolphy, Idris Ackamoor.

I'm taking my 1-week trial of Napster 2.0 right now. It is now available on Canada, so I gave it a try.

I don't plan to continue after my trial, but I've enjoyed downloading Miles Davis albums that I don't yet have, as well as Holly Cole material.

At the moment I'm lidtening to an album of the Best of Miles. I didn't know he recorded a musical version of Cindi Lauper's, Time After Time

Tags: Miles Davis, Holly Cole, Napster 2.0, Cindi Lauper.