Paula Abdul

The BEST PAULA GOOF EVER....



awesome... just friggin awesome...

"oh my god.. i thought you sang twice..."

just awesome.

btw... David Cook is the man.. he had better not be in the bottom 2-3 tonite or I'm going to have to actually start voting!

I missed it!

At 8pm last night (Idol night), I was (this is tmi) sitting in the bathroom at a steak restaurant texting shiela telling her that we HAD to buy tivo because i was STILL working and was going to miss the ENTIRE show. I sent the message, put my work-face back on, and pretended that it wasn't like being stuck with flaming needles. (more on that later)

David A can really do no wrong.. he's just too cute for words. I have to say that I sort of agree about his eyes.. I had just started to get a bit irritated by how he always had his eyes half-shut when he was singing.. it just didn't seem natural.. or it didn't seem like it changed with the song.. and i can't imagine that one has the same feelings when they are sing "dancing queen" and "the theme from ice castles".. but i'm fairly sure that if you turned the audio off on those two performances (which haven't happened, but I surely think should, then you'd have a hard time telling which was which. That is, unless he wore his leather pants again. Still.. loved the song.. it didn't give me chills, but it was still good.



David Cook, if you haven't noticed yet.. is my favorite of the season. He can do no wrong. I thought his performance was brilliant. Not my classic "david with the les paul".. but still awesome. Definite chills when he hit the gravel ridden high note.. very nice. I would have liked it if he goth'd it up a bit and made it a bit more like manson's version of the eurithmics "sweet dreams".. but what do I know. At a minimum it needed a bit of a White Stripes feel. But it does show that he's well rounded because while that performance wouldn't have flown on broadway, it would have rocked the house in a high school musical.. (just kidding.. i love you david). Paula said he has a beautiful instrument. What more could be said?



As a quick aside: I'm watching these clips and blogging while sitting in the Orlando International Airport.. already peaved that I missed the earlier flight back to Boston that would have allowed me to hug my son before his bedtime.. *sniffle* To rub it in, there is the most annoying 8 year old girl sitting like 200 feet from me (i moved) and i can still hear her cranking about being bored and how her parents suck and her parents constant bickering trying to duct tape her mouth without it coming across as child abuse.

ok.. now back to idol...

now.. jason castro. jason.. seriously. please.. you should have just packed your bags and signed an independant contract after you sang Hallelujah. Memory? first of all.. this triggers all sorts of memories of my sister tormenting me when i was 10 years old and practicing this song for our chorus performance at school. I still haven't lived it down.. and I think that I actually outsang Jason this time around.. and I SUCK.



Carley Smithson. Hands down.. best of the night.. most improved of the night. absolutely great performance.. finally she dislodged the stick up her butt and actually performed instead of yelling at us with scary eyes.. loved it. Randy is a moron.



Can't wait to get home to watch the results show (all i can say after THIS trip is that my flight had BETTER arrive on time! i'm ready to be home!)

Ryan Seacrest watch out....

Ben has stolen your hairstyle... Benjamin got his very first "fauxhawk" today. Basically it's just buzzed short on the sides and a bit longer on top so you can spike it up a bit.. i'm in the process of uploading some pics. without the hair gel, it looks like a normal short haircut.. but he's still too cute for words!

While I'm waiting for the photos to upload.. I'll give a general update on the big guy. He went in for his 15 month well visit today (he turns 16 mos tomorrow). Unfortunately he needed two shots. Other than that, everything went great. He's 26lbs 12oz and is 33 inches tall.. that makes him in the 68th percentile for weight and 88th for height. All of his parts checked out fine and the doctor noted that his vocabulary was very advanced for his age (they count the english, spanish and signing) and his fine and gross motor skills are right on. Ben performed like a champ and did a great job, even with the shots, even thought it was his naptime.

We had a nice talk with the doctor about autism. We've had the panic in the back of our heads like most parents of boys these days that have any clue of the statistics. Given the seizures and what I had been concerned about with his progress of development (when he walked/crawled/etc.).. we had both entertained the "what if" thoughts. Our doctor, who rocks by the way, was amazing and assured us that not only is ben definitely NOT autistic now, but he's not showing any symptoms of being at risk for autism in the future.

We also talked more about the seizures and are both fairly comfortable with the concept that he will likely have more seizures until he grows out of this childhood seizure "disorder". *cross fingers* that he will not have any more "complex" seizures like his first one (that lasted an hour)... but we're pretty confident that we can deal with (emotionally) the short duration "typical" seizures.

here we go:

More Idol Chatter

Ok.. so aside from the sob-fest that vaguely reminded me of the old commercials with sally struthers where she put on about 20 lbs between each commercial filming about starving children in Africa.. the Idol Gives Back show had some really cool performances. I was a little put off by the heavy hand of Hannah Montana.. but oh well. The best part of the night?



Ann and Nancy Wilson. It doesn't get much better in my book. I could take or leave Fergie, but I know that they were trying to bridge some generations as most of the kids out there probably had no clue who those women were and why Barracuda is one of THE classic songs of all time.

Nancy Wilson, in particular, has always been a hero of mine. She's an absolutely inCREDIBLE guitarist and rocks out. There are very few well known GOOD female guitarists and while Lita Ford was "fun".. no one compares to Nancy Wilson in my book. Here is a perfect example of why:



seriously.. no one comes close.

Idol guys

I have to say.. there isn't a single female contestant that I'd be upset to see leave the show (I'm back on my American Idol commentary). This year there just wasn't anyone who grabbed my attention. I really WANT to like the irish girl.. especially after seeing that her husband is a work of art (literally).. but she just doesn't have "it". I enjoy seeing some of them perform.. but when I close my eyes.. it's rare that I hear something that would keep me from hitting the "scan" button on my car stereo if their song was on.

The guys however.. rock. I'm thinking that by the top 5, we'll be down to all guys. I still love the dreads guy and David A.. but they both have to kick things up a notch and make things their own (god, I sound like Simon).. I judge music by whether a performance captures me and triggers an emotion.. last night.. only two performances lived up to that "requirement"..

I'll start with David Cook because I think he's friggin awesome and his performance had my jaw on the ground. I missed Ryan's (we're on a first name basis now) intro where he said that it was based on a version of Billy Jean done by Chris Cornell (one of my vocal heroes... he was a cornerstone in the grunge movement but was strong and talented enough to keep it together after that "fad" faded. Anyway.. Thanks to snickollet for doing some research and for finding these clips.. saved me some time searching youtube. The first is David's version from last night. The second is a montage of photos of Chris with his acoustic version of the song in the background. I have to say that I'm a bit disappointed that the entire arrangement wasn't thought up by David.. unlike Blake's version of Shot Through The Heart last year.. but I still think he rocked it out and I would purchase the song if it was released today. I probably just wouldn't give him quite so many brownie points for being a trailblazer.

here we go:



and now Chris Cornell's version:



discuss amongst yourselves.

The other guy that I have to say is my #2 at this point is Michael Johns.. although I don't quite get where the quasi-Australian accent comes from given that he was born in Georgia. He's quite the hottie I have to say...



Now.. as a side note.. while he managed to pull off a Queen song and still give me chills.. I was still skeptical given some of his past performances. That was until I found info on some of his previous recordings and I think he's really got it. I almost hope that neither of these guys (Michael and David C.) win so that they can avoid singing the ultimate cheese song that Idol always has their winner release as their initial single.

Here is a clip of Michael's performance last night:



Here is a clip of Michael singing a song called "Q" with his old band Film:



and no.. I have no idea what the chick on stage was doing...

Here is the song "Cradle" when he had long hair with his most recent band "The Rising".

Idol night -- a much needed mindless activity

I'm not embarrassed to admit that I look forward to Tuesday nights with a level of anticipation that is hard to explain without sounding like a pre-teen. Tonight is Beatles night.. take 2. Last week sorta sucked.. but I'm hoping that this week is better. The first chick just sang and she scares me so I don't even know her name.. I usually like the rocker girls.. but not this time around. She doesn't scare me as much as Hillary, but it's a close call. (but that's for a different blog).

I have a few other stories/updates to blog about.. our first family dinner at the dinner table a few days ago.. complete with photos..

Ok.. no typing... idol is back on. cowgirl chick is on.. so I need to sip my diet coke to brace for this. as an aside.. i can't believe these people are so young/naive to be able to honestly say "i heard this song for the first time today..".. WHAT? it's the friggin beatles! ok.. i thought it had a shot because the arrangement was good.. but lord she was boring.

YAY.. it's my boy. David A. The Long and Winding Road.. good song. *hope* good job.. no chills, but he's back and he's here for the long run. i just wish he'd do whatever it is that gave me chills when he sang Imagine a few weeks ago.

Ryan Seacrest is such a geek.. I sorta like his hair. I told shiela that i was going to get a fauxhawk or go drastic with my hair and she expressed her opinion that she thought I'd have a nervous breakdown if I were to take away my security blanket (my hair).

Ok.. it's back on.. Michael Johns singing A day in the Life. .. already good.. this guy is going to go far.. i didn't like him much at first but he's growing on me like a chia pet.

It's 8:45 and Ben is still awake.

Ben is the other subject I need to blog about. He gets his ear tubes in two days.. and we see his neurologist next Thursday for our follow-up consult. The new info on the subject is that he's been flipping his eyes back and occasionally shivering. We talked to his pedi about it last night and we're now logging it and have daycare logging each "episode". Since last night at about 7 when we talked to his pedi, he has done it 14 times that we've seen. Shiela found some medical studies that link severe middle ear infections with ocular events (the eyes rolling) and even the shivering and freakishly.. events that mimic seizures and have even been labeled "complex partial seizure" which is what he had in February. There's no doubt in my mind that he had a full blown seizure in Feb.. but I'm hoping that these current episodes are related to his mega double ear infection that he's now on his second round of antibiotics for (just like what happened before his seizure). His surgery for his tubes is Thursday.

ok... back to idol. it's hippy chick. i like her.. i'm not sure if i like it .. maybe it's because i'm getting udgy.

Simon just said that the song was "wet".. huh?

David Cook is next.. he's one of my favs now.. i just need to get near his head with a set of clippers..

Ben is laughing in his room instead of sleeping.

ok.. david cook pulled out the talk box.. he gets extra points for potentially rattling his teeth out of his head... *clap* *clap* again.. you can't fault a guy with a les paul.

god i'm tired.. you hit 9pm and i'm useless. hey snick.. i may bring my jammies when we watch the show together next week. i promise i won't bring my laptop.

ok... i'm signing out.. i'll finish my editorial of the show tomorrow when I get to work.. like I'm supposed to. :)

Ok.. first off.. I'm thankful for YouTube and all of the people that post clips from idol performances when they aren't supposed to. I'm sure iTunes will have that stopped by the end of the season and see that some clips have already been pulled.. but that didn't stop me from being able to see what I missed last night when we got home at 8:20!!!

Ok.. first of all.. David Archuleta is still my favorite.. he just is. There's something about this kid and while I wasn't particularly overjoyed with his performance last night.. it was still great. Here is a picture of the cutie.



Now.. I have to say that without a question in my mind.. Jason Castro was the best of the night. I've liked him from the start.. I think his personality is honestly humble and he's got a great voice. I'm glad he stepped away from his guitar this week to prove that he's really got what it takes. He sang Hallelujah, which was covered by Jeff Buckley in the early 90's (Jeff Buckley, btw, died of a freak drowning accident when he went swimming in the Mississippi River in 97 fully clothed.. it supposedly wasn't suicide.. but sheesh.. what a way to go.. at least plane crashes are more consistent with the demise of other folk/rock legends.) Anyway.. here is a clip.. at least until YouTube pulls it from their site:



Ok.. now while I can't stand David Cook.. I have to say that he was my #2 man last night. I just wish he'd buzz his hair.. it's such a dorky look to have it all pulled into his face like that.. but maybe I'm just getting old. I am, remember, going to a Bon Jovi (and Chris Daughtry!) concert on Friday... and I'd take Jon Bon in his spandex and long floofy hair any day over the kids these days.. *grin* Anyway.. back to David Cook. He did Hello by Lionel Richie and I think really pulled it off and I agreed with the judges that it would be a hit if it were on the radio right now. I also like his guitar.. it's hard to hate a guy with a les paul.