David, You'll Be an Idol Soon.

[jlh]

But which David, is the question.

Ryan in the back of a station wagon is some serious LOVE. And wow, did he earn his money tonight!

1. Jason
   • "Forever in Blue Jeans."
   So it was fine? But he didn't really do anything with it. It was cute.
   
2. "September Morn." Look, you can't stand up dramatically mid-song if you're going to then stand around doofily. I'm also not sure you can sell this song anymore, the whole "I haven't seen you in a long time and then we fucked all night and now I won't see you for a long time again." And also Paula and Simon was right.
   
3. D.Cook
   • "I'm Alive."
   It went by a little fast, didn't it? But I thought he was very good.
   
4. "All I Really Need Is You." As Paula said, he very smartly chose two less well known songs, and he did great things with them.
   
5. Brooke
   • "I'm a Believer."
   Wow, this was in the wrong key, wasn't it? And not full of energy, either.
   
6. "I Am I Said." So sure, it was better, and it was more Brooke-ish, but I'm sort of over it, and that makes me really sad.
   
7. small David
   • "Sweet Caroline."
   Again, did anything really happen there, other than David actually singing about a girl?
   
8. "America." Okay, look. I fucking love this song, because there is nothing more ridiculous. And he didn't really embrace the real insanity of it. Like, go big or go home, man.
   
9. Syesha
   • "Hello Again."
   So, she was sharp through the entire bridge, almost painfully so, and I don't know why they didn't pick up on that.
   
10. "Thank the Lord for the Night Time." That was perfectly nice. And I continue to not care. Though as Randy said, at least Syesha is being true to who she is.

[Poll #1180043]

I voted for dCook, and a little for Jason.

Comments

[dreamerren.livejournal.com]

And wow, did he earn his money tonight!
That was my thought too. Ryan is VERY good at what he does and I wish more people appreciated that. *huggles the Ryan*

[consumedbywords.livejournal.com]

Poor Ryan was having a minor panic attack when Paula turned into Miss Cleo. He looked exhausted tonight.

[locumtenens.livejournal.com]

God, how weird was that?! It made *me* have a serious 'WTF' moment with a slight reality-twist.

Put down the drugs and walk away, Paula! :)

[eilujspark.livejournal.com]

I feel a little better after this from TMZ : http://www.tmz.com/2008/04/29/ryan-aint-no-dunkelman/

So there's a story floating around that "Idol" honchos are thinking of 86'ing Ryan Seacrest because ratings are down.

In case you don't know, we have spies! We're told producers are privately laughing at the stories because the ratings are still through the roof and "Idol" pulls in a s**tload of money. And so does Ryan Seacrest, who ain't going nowhere.

Bloodbaths are reserved for contestants only. No parking please.

And WOW! Paula....dude..

[jlh.livejournal.com]

Thanks for linking me to that! and yeah, oh Paula …

[locumtenens.livejournal.com]

I'm really tired of Randy's seeming tireless praise of D.Arch. What is WITH that?!

Also, I think Jason's relaxed 'attitude' is bringing about the end of him.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

I was definitely less charmed by him this week. Last week he got a "bye" because I mean, ALW, and everyone kinda sucked. This week, you know, I'm with Simon, like, dude, at least TRY. And there were a lot of things he could have done with those songs. But I'm not sure Brooke was trying all that much, either. At least Syesha was trying!

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

I have not seen any of the performances yet but I am sad that America wasn't as OTT as it should be.

What happened with Paula and Ryan?

[jlh.livejournal.com]

Ryan had to get 10 songs in an hour, which is tough. So what they did is, they didn't judge as they went along, but just went from song to song in the first half. Then they tried to do a quick wrap-up of the first half but predictably Paula got discombobulated. Ryan was mostly talking very fast and moving everyone along. Then before dCook's first song, he told some story about being in the back of his mother's station wagon and singing Neil Diamond songs to the people in the car behind them.

Seriously, my love for this man, it is deep and pure and true and also ridiculous.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

OMG, that's just about the best story I've ever heard. It's better than last week's kiss for the slash factor.

[mahoni.livejournal.com]

Um, since you're my only real AI resource, can I ask - what was up with that thing Paula did? Do the judges maybe get to see the performances and then script their responses before the show actually airs somehow, but then play it like it's all brand new? And that's how she knew what she thought about the song Jason hadn't sung yet?

I'm wondering because I was reading this article the other day which I thought was really funny and was all about how the producers and judges do this, that and the other thing to sink performers who they think have made it too far in the competition while supporting the performers they want to win zomg ebil conspiracy!! I thought, hahahaha tinhats are teh funneh! But then Paula did what she did tonight, so now I'm all O_o.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

No. I mean, I could talk about what the producers sometimes do, but it's much more subtle than that, more like song choice restrictions and stuff. Paula merely got confused, with thinking her note on dcook's song was jason's second song.

Also, there's a dress rehearsal, with audience but without judges, about two hours beforehand. That's how TMZ finds out what songs everyone is going to sing before the show airs. Simon never attends dress but sometimes listens from his trailer, I know that, but Paula might have been there and then got confused that way. They don't script their responses because of course someone could be great in dress and lousy on the actual show.

[mahoni.livejournal.com]

Paula getting confused is just so strangely plausible. :))

The conspiracy article was the first thing that came to mind for me probably because they were making the case that Jason Castro is this year's producers-hate-him guy, and then that weird flub involved him. But I strongly dislike conspiracy theories, so I thought there had to be a reasonable explanation.

(Although, yeah, the article did actually mention how producers will try to hobble performers by messing with their song choices and whatnot. Which...that kind of sucks, if that's true.)

[ziggy1278.livejournal.com]

If Paula is not on lots and lots of pain killers every night I will eat my left shoe. That was the most awesome part of the show... because, like... it's live. Where have you been? Are you building a lego castle under the judge's table or something? It was great.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

You know, I used to think she was on a lot of drugs, and then she had that reality show on Bravo, and it was clear that she's just crazy and full of drama and on the verge of tears almost all the time and she focuses enough to get shit done but yells at her staff about not correctly going through her voice mail or something. It was insane.

That said, that moment was exactly what you don't want to do with Paula, which Ryan knows, and when he has to get something fast and coherent out of her he tends to tense up for like, segments before that because he hates managing her, and she's just so easily confused. Like, the run down that Simon did, or even the summary that Randy gave, Paula's completely incapable of doing that. She can't boil it down to 1-2 words.

[annearchy.livejournal.com]

Eh, 15 or so votes from me for DCook. Jason's slacker shtick has worn out its welcome; he should just go on tour opening for Jack Johnson or someone else whose music usually puts me to sleep.

[locumtenens.livejournal.com]

I'm with Simon, like, dude, at least TRY

Exactly. It's a bit insulting to the competition, otherwise.

At least Syesha was trying!

Too true.

[friendsofjunius.livejournal.com]

i thought brooke finally relaxed a little, that was nice to see. maybe i will try silver pants the next time i feel crazed. HATED little david tonight. and, i don't think the backup girls like Syesha, either.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

She did, but I'm a Believer was still sort of a mess. I Am I Said was fine, though we were listening to the originals after and she just did NOTHING to either song, not even vocally.

[amyamy.livejournal.com]

Ok, am I totally off base or was Simon attempting to stack the vote in Syesha's favor with that 'I think you'll be voted off' comment at the end? It just seemed so heavy handed, like he was waving a big ol' sign; "vote for her if you don't want her gone!" Because she did do way better than Castro on the last song, but not really good enough over all to pull votes (in that 'good enough everybody will assume she's through' range, without being in the 'omg, you have to vote for her even if you're not a fan just because she's so good' range. If that makes sense.)

[ziggy1278.livejournal.com]

I am with you on this. I felt the same way. But I think it's good... because I think Jason is bad.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

Well, if dialidol is any indication, and they were right about Carly but spectacularly wrong about KLC, Syesha is well safe and ahead of dCook in the voting.

I think it was less that people thought she'd be good enough and more that she was somewhat forgettable, as she almost always is no matter what she does.

Castro, I don't know. Even Ali didn't vote for him.

[ziggy1278.livejournal.com]

This was awful. My least favorite episode hands down. It was like they thought because they were doing these songs they had a license to get Karaoke with everything. ALL of the arrangements were bad and cheesy - the band sounded like it was inside of a drum machine. Nobody made it modern or took it to an even remotely interesting place. Seriously. This is top five? They looked like a bunch of limp fish. Ugh.

Jason looked to me like he was just giving up. He didn't even try his cheesy Jack Johnson arrangement trick. Oh and have I mentioned he is creepy looking? I have? Right.

Brooke was godawful in that first song, and then she had some of that stupid Michael Johns arrogance about it instead of just shutting up. Ugh. The green. It was terrrrrible.

Small David pissed me of for the zillionth time in a row with his song choice. I just want him to sing ONE song about slapping a bitch or gin and juice or something. Just one. His simple mind makes me hate him. Do I know 17 year olds with layers? No. But still.

David Cook needs to win this competition. He is a falsely-modest, big-headed dude and I would never buy one of his inevitable Nickleback albums, but he seriously needs to win or I'll be pissed.

Why did you do this to me Clio?

[jlh.livejournal.com]

This was worse than last week, or week 2 of Beatles? Seriously? I mean, I'm willing to concede that my intense love of Neil Diamond, which I didn't even realize for myself until last night, carried me through a lot, but still. Last week was a horrific train wreck of perverse song choices. This week was just simultaneously low energy and frenetic. I love House but I wish they'd had an extra half hour because the first half judging thing really didn't work at all.

Daughtry is making Nickelback albums. dCook will make Our Lady Peace albums, or maybe Incubus albums. I thought, as Simon said that he did a good job modernizing the second song. The larger problem is that none of the rest of the finalists are even interested in sounding modern—Brooke's off on that "I'm Carly Simon" thing and Syesha is really Broadway and Castro wants to play guitar sweetly and small David, as Joe R said, is busy doing Up with Archuleta.

I think small David has a lot of layers, and he is flat-out terrified that we will see any of them. I think that's why he pings people as gay. Whether he is or not, he certainly does not want us to know any of his sexual thoughts, or his thoughts on almost anything else. And there are age-appropriate ways for him to do that; last year you had the sense that Jordin had crushes and boys she liked and it was cute. I don't know any 17-year-olds period right now, but I know 18 and 19-year-olds with layers because I'm teaching them.

I've been thinking about this season and I think the sequence of themes, which was lousy, and the themed semis very efficiently got rid of almost anyone who was doing anything interesting (like Chikezie). This show clearly needs divas to balance the rockers, and that's the judges' fault because they didn't put enough of them through to the semis, but instead had a lot of cutesy little pop girls, and to be honest I don't know why they keep doing that because this show has never done well for cutesy little pop girls—even Carrie and Kelly aren't really that.

[axis2cluster-b.livejournal.com]

I told Ally, "Well, of COURSE Brooke did I'm a Believer, because how predictable is that?"

And I think that wee!David is holding onto sanity by his wee little fingernails at this point. He looks sort of desperate and grasping and panicky to me. I feel for the kid.