Dancing With the Stars 2012-Tragedy-Motown Icon Sent Packing on Motown Night

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The Legend Is Sent Home

Gladys Knight did an admirable job during her stint with Dancing With the Stars. She the eldest of this season's competitors but she held up as well as the youngest. I don't suppose anybody meant for her to win this thing but she was personable and undaunted, a joy to watch. Kudos to Gladys Knight!

Below is the over-view of the most recent performance round as of this writing,



Taking a look at the score grids, we note that Jaleel is making a move to the front of the pack. This past performance round he scored 29 points from the judges, tied at the top of the leader board with the unbeatable and beautiful Katherine Jenkins. Jaleel did dance a charming cha-cha and he picked up an extra 8 points from the group dance.

Roshon danced a Rumba and I dunno, I must suppose he was trying to look sexy, to throw off that image he has as just a kid. And therein is the problem, he IS just a kid, a Disney star in fact. Roshon's move's during that dance might have been fine for an older fellow but by him they looked awkward and out of place. The judges were extremely mean to Roshon and, indeed, he was the second lowest on the leader board. America too gave Roshon a thumbs down in that he and Gladys were the bottom two for the night.

We have two females that are worth a closer and more serious eye at this point in the contest. Maria Memounos and Katherine Jenkins are the top scorers per the to-date scores given by the judges. Maria is partnered with Derek Hough and this is an advantage. Derek has the highest win/place rate of all the celebrity dancers. He's good at his craft, he's tough, he's likable.





Katherine Jenkins, however, no doubt about it, is fluid. She's got Maria beat by almost a full 20 points on the to-date scores. Can Maria, or Melissa even, catch up to her? It's doubtful in my book.

William Levy performed a sexy rumba and frankly I agree with Len's assessment, it was just plain raunchy. At one point I could swear that Levy touched his partner's breast. Len lapsed into a hilarious mock of a sexy dance, too bad I couldn't find a video clip of it. At any rate, William Levy is definitely a contender to win this thing but it's in poor taste if he uses children's viewing hour x-rated behavior to win it.


I did enjoy the dance marathon on this Motown week. The high scorers on this marathon pretty much followed the to-date high scorers.

Katherine-10
William-9
Jaleel-8
Donald-7
Melissa-6
Roshon-5
Maria-4
Gladys-3

There's now seven left and for now, bank on Katherine Jenkins ending in the top two.

Time to pay closer attention now that the contenders have some practice under their belt along with some more confidence in their moves.


Dancing With the Stars Spring 2012-Celebrities Announced, Thoughts, Pics and Opinions

Dancing With the Stars Spring 2012 Begins-Some Early Observations. Some Tongue In Cheek

Dancing With Stars 2012-First Ousted Celeb Dancer No Surprise

Sob stories abound but celeb dancers ousted anyway. Foxtrots and Rumbas.

Top 9 Heading Toward Top 5 Heading to Winner on Dancing With the Stars 2012

Dancing With the Stars 2012-Latin Dances and an Old Pal Sent Home

Performance round airs Mondays, ABC, 8pm
Elimination round airs Tuesdays, ABC, 9pm

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The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Colleagues Solve a Murder

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I don't know whether to praise this book to the heavens or warn yon reader not to touch with a ten foot pole.

But I jest.

First off, this book was selected by another member of my book club. I doubt such a title, or subject, would even pass my mental eyeballs should I see upon a browse of the library.

It's a story of a murderer loose in mid-19th century Boston. The intrigue comes by the group so involved with solving the murder as well as the fact that the murders are all horrific and follow the hard-to-overlook methodology of Dante Alighieri. Yes that's Dante of Heaven and Hell fame and for some reason his musing poetry is still celebrated today.

As I argued the night of our book club discussion, Stephen King could just as easily write a story of murdering a man by burying him face down into the earth then lighting fire to his feet that jutted above the surface and there'd be no need to call up some Italian poet from 1200 or so..

Dante had a thing for effecting long cruel deaths on people it would seem.




The best part of this book, which is well-written for the most part, is the group of poets, get this, assigned to find just who was murdering people all over the place in mid-19th century Boston.

As an aside, while the book was well written, by a graduate of Harvard no less, the plot of this thing was all over the place until my mind felt like an errant pinball was setting off bells in my weary brain. The author had no less than five endings to the thing.

It was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow who led the august group of poets (I still giggle at the thought of poets looking for murderers), Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes (father of the famous Supreme Court Justice), James Russell Lowell, poet, publisher J.T. Fields and historian, George Washington Greene. If you can imagine such a motley crew investigating a strange series of murders, throw in a mulatto detective, some evil Harvard "corporate" types and finally, the murderer, not anyone the reader would expect in any fashion whatsoever.

Only the group of poets, so skilled at finding murderers and the like, did NOT find the murderer so much that the murderer found THEM. At some point it looked like the whole lot of them would die buried alive in ice or via some other horrific method.

It was an intriguing read, yes it was. I quite enjoyed the close look at Longfellow, the most beloved poet America's ever introduced, the sub-story of Harvard, the academics versus the literati , yes, even the ending that lasted a lifetime.

I think this would be a terrific book for a college student to read, perhaps a student set to study Dante. I'd certainly consider putting this book on the syllabus to my students about to learn about American Literature and the names that preceded this era of the Internet.

Oh yes, for good measure the author throws in some Edgar Allen Poe and Daniel Webster.

It's a name-dropping murder mystery happening trip to the world of literature.

Who woulda thunk?

Fashion Star Continues On To The Top Five-Some Predictions

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I continue to assert that I've quite enjoyed NBC's new fashion show offering, Fashion Star  . It does not have the angst and drama emitted from the drama queens of Lifetime's Project Runway. NBC's offering is about fashion mostly, with some pathos but not so much as to glaze eyeballs as does Project Runway.

The reality show features three mentors who guide the would-be fashion stars on their quest. There are also three representatives from three department stores: Saks, Macy's and H and M, who bid on the fashion then being offered. The viewing audience, or so goes the hype, can purchase the bid upon fashion offering the very next day after it is introduced!

Not that I'd ever do such a thing, can't imagine doing such a thing, I can see a happening young woman phoning up to order a frock designed by Nikki that tis same young woman can be cooler than cool on her next date.

The contenders are eliminated per Project Runway. All of the designers on one episode who did not get a bid from one of the buyers is eligible to be eliminated. The buyers chose who is to be eliminated while the mentors are allowed to save one from those who didn't receive bids.


Design by Ronnie

As of this writing, Kara, Ross, Nzmiro, Nikki, Luciano, Orly and Ronnie are left to continue seeking fashion stardom.

Each of these remaining seven bring a certain style and flair to their designs. Right now I would point out that the fashions featured on this show are not the stuff of foreign runways and would never be considered "avant garde" or even "fashion forward". The idea is to sell to mostly average Americans who enjoy a new look once in a while but aren't necessarily into way-out fashion that shocks the eyeballs.



The most recent episode had the designers creating fashion on command from their assigned mentors. The mentors, as was the plan, were to push the designers away from their own tried and true to new heights of their talent.

Nzmiro, thus, usually designs menswear but on the mentor-challenge episode he had to create a business suit.



By Kara

Kara is the most interesting of the remaining designers. Kara is a self-admitted lesbian who's designs reflect a sort of unisex, cross-gender boundaries type of look. Kara has a love of tuxedos and has presented tuxedo type pants and tuxedo tops. She does have a nice hand at it and has gotten plenty of offers over the weeks.



A Luciano Design

Luciana's claim to fame is being the first contender to get an offer and sell to all three of the representative buyers. Her designs are young, fresh and pretty.

Nikki likes fashion on the long side, her offerings being long dresses, bathing suit cover-ups or retro glam.

Nzimiro designs men's wear and his designs are most ordinary. He has a lot of episodes where he gets no offers and yet he's still in there, I don't know why.



An Orly Design

Orly has a bit of an exception with designing dual purpose fashion. She might have long dresses that, by a quick zip, become short skirts, or a maxi dress that converts to a mini. Orly has received the highest offer of all the contenders when she hits a home rum and send out a winner to the runway.

Ronnie is a fairly good designer who maybe gets an offer half of the time. He was saved once b y the mentors but he's had a couple of weeks with no offers and was in danger of elimination.

Ross Bennett is about on a par with Ronnie in terms of cool fashion and offers. He's had a few weeks with no offers and was saved once by the judges.

I see this series as a show down between Kara and Luciana with Orly possibly coming up the home stretch.

Below, other posts on this Blog about NBC's Fashion Star:

NBC's Fashion Star Surpasses Project Runway a Thousand Fold

-NBC's Fashion Star-Finally the Big Networks Discover Fashion and Take on Lifetime

Airs on Tuesdays, NBC, 10:00 pm.

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American Idol 2012-Queen Songs and It's Down to the Top Five

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Goodness it took about forever to get Elise out of there.

Not that, but of course, she wasn't a good singer. All of the singers about this time are good, every one of them are better than any EVER on "The Voice". But Elise had been on the bottom for so long.

Using that standard this should mean that Hollie and Joshua will likely be going home soon. As of this writing, the only remaining contender who hasn't been in the bottom three at least once is the fellow with the two names: Phillip Phillips.

The most recent performance round had the contenders singing a Queen tune as well as a song of their choice.

As for the stellar fashion of Randy Jackson, get a load of those shoes!

Jessica sang "Bohemian Rhapsody", a difficult tune I'd think for a girl to sing. But sing it she did so good on her.

Joshua sang "A Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and by me it was cruise shippy. However Joshua landed in the top two that week so America must have liked it.

Hollie sang "Save Me". Phillip sang "Fat Bottomed Girls" and Elise sang "I Want It All". I didn't recognize Hollie 's song as a Queen song but I did recognize that I liked it. I thought Phillip's performance was ho-hum, which is pretty much what I think of all of his performances. Elise, well it don't matter, she's gone.

Jessica sang a beautiful song "Dance With My Father" and she did it well. Skylar sang a song right up her alley "Tattoos on This Town". Steve Tyler had some nasty to say and sure enough Skylar was in the bottom two the following night. Skylar has been in the bottom tier once before so it wasn't a first. Still I can't help but think those judges are rigging this show for a Jessica win. And while I think Jessica's good enough to win it with her talent, it irks that she's getting such a nudge I don't think she deserves any more than anyone else.

Hollie sang "The Climb", which is a pretty song and she did it well. Alas, Hollie is not resonating with much of anyone else but me.

Joshua, well hey I predicted he could win this thing and I still think so. But he got so mercurial in terms of songs chosen and manner of singing that his singing began to blur in my ears.

As for the kid with two names, I don't think he's an American Idol. BUT he's good at his genre and he's been right in the running during this show's entire run. I see Phillip as belonging in a niche music market, a rock and roll Dave Matthews type of genre.

I would like for Hollie to win though this is doubtful. She's a little unsteady from time to time so far as her singing goes along but she's cute and does have a big voice.

As for Skylar, well it certainly wouldn't upset me if she won. She's pure country girl but I must remind once again, last year we had TWO singers of that same genre in the number one and two slot. Of course there's no rule that a country singer can't win American Idol every year but as Americans tend to do, they look beyond the recent for variety and diversity to the human ear. Thus I think Skylar has some strikes against her.

For now, I'm sticking with a Jessica win, a Joshua or Phillip second placer, Skyler somewhere in that top ten and maybe Hollie sneaks into the top five.

Other American Idol 2012 www.americanidol.com  Posts Below

American Idol 2012 Top 24 Announced, Lists, Photos, Some Predictions

Can "American Idol" 2012 Outshine The "X Factor", "The Voice" and "America's Got Talent"? Some Gossip & Snark

American Idol 2012-Critiques and Already Some Predictions

American Idol 2012 Catch Up As Top Ten Begins Going Down

American Idol 2012 Continues With Eight Left; Top Five Predictions

Duets and Songs of the Eighties; More Randy Jackson Fashion

Songs from 2010 Till Current-Top 7 American Idol 2012 Singing Home Town Hearts Out

American Idol 2012 Contenders Sing Old & New; Thank God Jessica Is Saved

Click here to go to this Blog's main menu and see what other TV series we're covering.

Nights aired, various…..FOX….now Weds, Thurs, repeat on Sunday


Click here to go to this Blog's main menu and see what other TV series we're covering.

The Voice 2012 Bores On; Contenders Can't Sing and Not Looking Too Good Either

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So there's eight contenders left on The Voice which, I suspect, is only being watched by me and a few others. The remaining contenders are:

Chris Mann -Christina
Lindsey Pavao- Christina
Erin Willett- Blake
Jermaine Paul- Blake
Jamar Rogers -Cee Lo
Juliet Simms- Cee Lo
Katrina Parker- Adam
Tony Lucca -Adam

I was kind of leaning towards Pip to win this thing as he's young and cute and might have garnered a teeny bopper type of vote at the least.

Because frankly folks, the singers on this series are not that good and I whisper, they're not even all that good looking. Now I understand that the ersatz notion behind "The Voice" is that the contender is beloved based only on his or her voice and the blind auditions tend to lend credibility to this nice notion.

Katrina Parker's been hanging on by a thread. Twice she's had to sing against another to remain in contention. Twice she's won, pulled through by Adam. Adam's other contender, Tony Lucca, twice came in on top in the voting by America so he's liked by the viewers.


Christina's two final contenders are Chris Mann, who sang one of my favorite tunes: "When I Ruled the World", and who is an opera singer with a tendency to lose his grip on the note from time to time. But he's got talent and could carry this contest.

Lindsey Pavao was saved once by Christina and my notes indicate she's just average.

As for Blake's contenders, Erin was saved once by Blake. She's performed admirably well during this contest considering she's gone through the illness and death of her father. Jermaine's held his own and should not be ruled out.

Ceelo's Jamar Rogers is a crowd favorite and I'd give him even odds to win this thing. He's twice came in the top and for one of his duels he sang a great big "I Want To Know What Life Is". As for Juliet Simms , she's got a Janis Joplin type of growling voice, she's different, that's for sure. She was voted to the top for one week but I'd be real surprised if she wins this thing.

For now, I see two winners: CeeLo's Jamar Rogers and Christina's Chris Mann.

I shall watch the finish to this series and finally will have a grip on how it works.

Other posts on this Blog re The Voice 2012:
The Voice 2012-Battle Rounds an Intriguing Way to Cull Down the Competition

The Voice-Another Singing Competitive Reality Series Begins Its Run Against American Idol

Few Good Voices on The Voice 2012; Lots of Celebrity Squabbles

The Voice Performance round airs on NBC Monday 8pm/the elimination on Tuesday at 8pm.


Click here to go to this Blog's main menu and see what other TV series we're covering.

Celebrity Apprentice 2012 Winding Down to Top Five & Contenders Get Testy

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Looks Like Best Being Sent Home!

By this point in Celebrity Apprentice 2012 http://www.nbc.com/the-apprentice/ viewers normally have some clue of who seems to be headed to a win as well as the strengths, weaknesses and personalities of the celebrated contenders.

As of this writing there are six contenders left on this competitive reality show. They are:

Arsenio Hall
Aubrey O'Day
Clay Aiken
Dayana Mendoza
Lisa Lampanelli
Teresa Giudice

Aresenio Hall has always been an affable guy, former talk show host, face always wearing a big smile. Arsenio has shown some nastiness during this series, when required. But no matter his solo vignettes that sometimes had him snarling and growling over this contender or another, for the most part Arsenio keeps a low profile and tends to stay in the background during all tasks. So far Arsenio has only been on one losing team and his one time as Project Manager he led his team to victory. So while one might view him as lackluster, he is very much still in the competition.

Aubrey gets ripped every episode, complained about by her team mates and Project Managers. Aubrey has been on FOUR losing teams. She was Project Manager on the losing team for the challenge to create a living wall for Crystal Lite and was winning Project Manager for the most recent challenge as of this writing of producing a n in-store display for Macy's for Trumps new men's cologne called, what else? SUCCESS! I do not see Aubrey as winning this thing as her record's pretty spotty, not the stuff of winners and leaders.

Clay Aiken openly admits he is gay on almost every episode of Celebrity Apprentice. Which makes me smile because I remember when Aiken was a contender for American Idol and all the speculation about his sexual orientation. Not that it matters much who he sleeps with but it sure is a sign of how schizophrenic we are in America about this sort of thing.

Clay has been on a winning team eight times, a losing team three times. He's been Project Manager twice, once for a winning team, once for a losing team. Clay could win this thing in that his skills are close enough. HE did come so close to being outta there during the Trump cologne challenge but for reasons that are murky to me, Trump fired Penn Jillette.

Dayana is beautiful. She's been on the losing team eight times, she's been a Project Manager twice, once a winner, once a loser. More importantly, she's been in the boardroom, called back in by her team mates, almost as many times. She is depicted through the scripting and pathos as having one major good point to bring to the challenges and that is: she is beautiful.

Lisa has a mixed relationship with Dayana, alternately loving and hating her. The Donald is smitten with Dayana, as The Donald often is with beautiful women. There's no reason in the world why Dayana is still hanging in there when much better than her have been sent home.

Teresa is a good contender. She's been on a losing team six times our of eleven, she's been a Project Manager for both a winning and losing team. Teresa has not stood out during the competition in any major manner but she hasn't been brought into that Board room all that often and seems like a team player.

Lisa Lampanelli is the contender I see to win that thing. I base this prediction mostly on the strength of her personality. People with strong personalities tend to win these things. Whether this is planned or unplanned I don't know. If ever there was a forceful in-your-face brutally honest personality, it is Lisa. Lisa too openly proclaims her homosexuality and by this time I really just wish people would shut up about it because, who cares, really?

Lisa's been on seven losing teams so she's not running away with this thing. She's only been a Project Manager one time, as of this writing, and that's interesting. Lisa is seldom brought back into the board room. This is mostly because Lisa is very smart and a forceful leader and most challenges, win or lose, involve her greatly.

The surprising thing to me is the ejection of two contenders that I saw on a path to win. One was Pal Teutul, who was ejected for being Project Manager of a losing task involving creating a puppet show.

The bigger surprise was the ejection of Penn Jillette. Penn is always touted as a great contributor by his team mates, has never been brought back into the boardroom save by Clay Aiken after losing the Trump cologne task. By me Aiken should have been ejected as he was the Project Manager of the task, Project Manager of a challenge that had his team making some serious mistakes.

It was, yes, Penn who came up with the slogan for the store display of Trump's cologne that the Macy's people so hated. Penn came up with "You Earned It" and the Macy's team hated it. Even The Donald didn't think it was such a bad slogan. Further, I think it's L'Oriel hair color for women that has a similar type slogan…"because you're worth it".

Clay's team also came up with a good picture of Dayanna loving some guy but the Macy's people thought the picture was way too big and overpowered the display.

I believe that once you get a bunch of missteps in a task the fault lies with the Project Manager, as opposed to one player who made one contribution to the overall effort, however misguided. And again, I really thought Penn's slogan was a pretty good one, never mind the taste of the Macy's people.

But Trump fired Jillette and so it is.

For the top three, I predict
1-Lisa Lampanelli
2-Teresa Giudice
3-Arsenio Hall

Earlier posts on this Blog about Celebrity Apprentice 2012 below.
Celebrity Apprentice 2012 Begins-An Intro, Some Snark, The Celebrity Contenders

Celebrity Apprentice 2012 Continues, Women Bicker, Men Stay Strong, It Becomes a Hoot

Celebrity Apprentice 2012 Begins-An Intro, Some Snark, The Celebrity Contenders

Celebrity Apprentice airs on NBC on Sunday nights at 9pm.

Click here to go to this Blog's main menu and see what other TV series we're covering.

Survivor One World-Ice Cream, Pizza, Beer and Men Being Sent Off Like Flies

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What the Hell Happened to the Men?

There are eight contenders left in this competitive reality show . Six of them are women, two are men!

Say what?

When this show began there were 18 contenders, half men and half women. In fact, the first two tribes began with their composition being all same sex, something that was new to Survivor, at least as was my understanding.

For I am a newish kind of viewer to this show and there still are things I don't understand. Things that as I ponder, why don't the producers make it all clearer. Don't they want more viewers?

Let's get out this truth right now. I think this show is very boring. Okay, let's get my bona fides out of the way. I am a competitive reality show Blogger and I watch plenty of competitive reality shows. I know they come in all shapes and sizes, some involving talent, some involving various contests, some even involving romance.

I like "Big Brother", a reality show much like Survivor I'd argue. "Love in the Wild" is a kind of Survivor type reality show, complete with living and surviving in less than ideal circumstances.

It's not like some of these shows following the pro forma of Survivor don't appeal to me. "Big Brother" has contests that allow the contenders various and sundry goodies denied them during the filming. This show has an elimination round like Survivor that often involves some kind of silly and very physical contest. Contenders get squirted with paint and whipped cream, must climb fake mountains or endure physical torment till only one is left standing.

There is, of course, the political intrigue of the contenders as they struggle to come together to eject one of their members in an orderly and common sense manner that would benefit most contenders at the time.

This is only the second Survivor series I've watched, the other being last season's #23.

In both cases I watched the show, I enjoyed the challenges, but I was lost as to the dynamics of it all.
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I don't feel like the viewers get comfortable with the contenders like they do with the contenders on "Big Brother". Perhaps it the outside factor. Big Brother takes place inside a home. Contenders can retire to a private room to discuss strategy whereas on Survivor the whispers are always muted by the sounds of sea gulls and a pounding surf.

With Big Brother I feel like I know the contenders. This gets me, a viewer, more interested in the drama and pathos of the contenders, more involved with who gets ejected and who stays. With Survivor so far this season I've cared not a whit nor did I even understand why those who were thrown off were thrown off.

This past episode as of this writing on 4/19/12, little Leif was thrown off and for God's sake I got to wonder why? He's just a little thing who didn't do a thing of note for all of the episodes up to now. At least the fellows thrown off the couple of weeks prior were kind of big strapping types that could be perceived as a threat.

What's most amazing about this Survivor series is how the men are dropping off like flies! Goodness, isn't this a show about, eh, SURVIVING? I mean Kat, come on, she's small and she's dumb, yet she keeps hanging around.



Here's my question: what kind of shelter are these people allowed? What kinds of food do they eat? Via the reward contests I gather they are denied some luxuries. Earlier this season there was a big contest for the tribes to win a tarp so what….do they live out in the elements? I've seen video clips of one contender or another capturing a fish to great joy. Must they capture their own food? Are they provided water to drink, the elixir of life?

My questions are rhetorical, or course. The fact that it is still not clear how this all works, after almost two full seasons of viewing, tells me something about the show. Why isn't this all explained, perhaps early in the show, so that any new viewer "gets" it?

"Contenders to win the million dollar prize must live on a deserted locale, given no shelter save the rough ones they hew with their own hands. There are plentiful fish and game in the surround as the contenders are given no foodstuffs. It's about SURVIVING and our contenders must survive, both by finding for their basic life needs and beating their fellow contenders in the grueling elimination challenges. Those luxuries of life we all take for granted can only be obtained by our Survivor contenders via difficult reward challenges."

The above, or something akin, is what I envision should be stated at the beginning of each episode. After all this time, I still don't know the guidelines of the series.

As for honing in on a possible winner for this series, I'm kind of leaning toward the doctor fellow who calls himself Troyzan. He's 50 years old according to the web site so he's the oldest. He's also the wisest and I've seen him work with his younger compatriots very effectively. In fact, I'm not sure they see him as a threat to win at all and that could be the downfall of all the younger ones.

Beyond Troyzan, well hey, Kat seems to have staying power. I give her a chance to win, if for no other reason than God blesses Englishmen and fools.


-Survivor One World-Men versus Women Continues and the Women Were Doing Okay. Now It All Changes

Survivor One World-Now One Tribe and the Nasty One Is Gone

Survivor One World-It Begins With Some Really Strange Contenders

Survivor airs on CBS, Wednesdays, at 8 pm.

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American Idol 2012 Contenders Sing Old & New; Thank God Jessica Is Saved

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Couple of miscellany clean up items here. First, for all yon readers who might be interested in trying out for the X Factor, got some information in my Ebox and thought I'd pass it along.

AUDITION IN PERSON
Greensboro, NC at Coliseum:
Registration: April 29-30
Audition: May 1

Providence, RI at Dunkin' Donuts Center:
Registration: May 9
Audition: May 10


AUDITON AT MYSTUDIO HD Recording Studios Locations Across America
Aiei, HI: Pearlridge Center (open now)
Los Angeles, CA: Westfield Culver City Mall
Las Vegas, NV: Planet Hollywood
Tempe, AZ: Arizona Mills Mall
Franklin, TN: Coolsprings Galleria
Paramus, NJ: Garden State Plaza
Mashantucket, CT: Foxwoods Resort Casino

You can also audition online:

Submit your audition online at TheXFactorUSA.com

This year we have opened THE X FACTOR auditions up to artists who already have representation.

If you, or any of your friends have THE X FACTOR go to www.thexfactorusa.com to sign-up and get audition details and eligibility requirements NOW!

THE X FACTOR Season 1 discovered such diverse recording artists as winner Melanie Amaro, and finalists Astro, Chris Rene, Josh Krajcik, Marcus Canty and Rachel Crow, who have all signed major deals with Sony Music.

Got to laugh at that reference to Astro being a finalist. Well I suppose he was in the top 500 or so but he was basically a little brat, little-talented snot burger but whatever.

Also seems there's an entire web site devoted to Randy Jackson and his silly American Idol attire.

On performance night of 4/18/12, the then remaining 7 contenders sang two songs each, one from the past and one more recent. The song choices and singer for the "NOW" were:

“No One” - Alicia Keys-Elise
“I Believe” - Fantasia -Joshua
“Rolling In The Deep” - Adele-Hollie
“U Got It Bad” - Usher-Phillip
“Fallin’” - Alicia Keys-Jessica
“Bad Romance” - Lady Gaga -Colton
Born This Way” - Lady Gaga -Skylar

The song choices and singer for the "THEN" were:

“In The Midnight Hour” - Wilson Pickett-Phillip
“A Change Is Gonna Come” - Sam Cooke=Joshua
“September” - Earth Wind & Fire=Colton
“Son Of A Precher Man” - Dusty Springfield-Hollie
“Try A Little Tenderness” - Otis Redding-Jessica.
“Heard It Through The Grapevine” - Marvin Gaye-Skylar
“Let’s Get It On” - Marvin Gaye-Elise.

Hollie is my favorite this year but she's repeatedly been in the bottom three so I doubt she'll be around long. Hollie gave two great performances. Her Dusty Springfield "Son of a Preacher Man" was a rousing rendition full of vim and vigor. Hollie also did an Adele song, always a cautious action as is the warning. I think Hollie sounded every bit as good as Jessica.

Speaking of...Jessica was not booted off, my goodness thank God. For the judges love this child to the point of chastising us, the silly American voters who dial our phones for contenders besides their beloved Jessica. Make no mistake, Jessica is a fine singer and she seems nice enough. I don't think she should have been booted off. But Kelly Clarkson landed in the bottom three during her contest as have a few others who eventually went on to win. I don't recall the judges of any prior year getting all in a tizzy when a contender got voted off, I don't think Simon Cowell would have had anything to do with the hysteria of these three judges over Jessica Sanchez.

Phillip continues to sing the same tune. It's a good song but he needs to croon or rap or something else.

Elise continues to not impress, continues to be in the bottom three, continues to somehow hang in there. Anybody thinks Elise is going to be the next American Idol I got a bridge to sell, cheap.

Joshua is a great singer, I'm serious. But his song renditions are sometimes so over the top that he seems to lack a genre and lyrical home. I really believe he has it to win this thing but, alas, along with Hollie and Colton, he was in the bottom three.


It was Colton who finally got the boot in this year's American Idol and it was his time. He wasn't the next American Idol but he was a very good singer and entertainer. May he have a fine future in music in some form and fashion.

Skylar will not likely win this thing but she's cute, knows her genre, does it well and has a great smile.

Speaking of dress, dear Lord I know they got a famous fashion guy in there revamping the contenders but I think he does a horrid job. That thing he put on Skylar this past week, see picture below, was perfectly awful, very wrong for that child. And what the hey with the orange trash bag on Elise? Give Phillip credit, he can always be found in gray sweater and jeans and some things do not change.

My predictions for now:
1-Jessica
2-Skylar
3-Phillip
4-Joshua
5-Hollie

Other American Idol 2012 Posts Below
American Idol 2012 Top 24 Announced, Lists, Photos, Some Predictions
Can "American Idol" 2012 Outshine The "X Factor", "The Voice" and "America's Got Talent"? Some Gossip & Snark
American Idol 2012-Critiques and Already Some Predictions
American Idol 2012 Catch Up As Top Ten Begins Going Down
American Idol 2012 Continues With Eight Left; Top Five Predictions
Duets and Songs of the Eighties; More Randy Jackson Fashion
Songs from 2010 Till Current-Top 7 American Idol 2012 Singing Home Town Hearts Out

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