American Idol- Top 7 Performances

I know I’ve been slacking on my American Idol posts, but does last night really deserve a lot of attention? You would think that getting rid of deadweight would result in a show jam packed with great performances. Ok, since we’re talking about Season 9, I would have been happy with mostly pleasant performances. Instead, I found myself covering my ears to Aaron and Tim, bored to tears by Casey, Siobhan, and Michael, and perplexed by the overreaction to Lee. Only Crystal delivered something positive last night. If it is possible to make up for six mild to horrible performances with one song, Crystal is the one to do it.

I’ll once again voice my disbelief that Siobhan has turned into a boring singer who tries to wow us with her technical skills instead of just delivering wow performances. Yes, she can hit notes others may not be able to hit. Yes, she can scream at the top of her lungs and occasionally make it sound like something we’d want to hear. But strangely she has lost almost all of the quirkiness that made her cool. Where did that punk girl go? Oh Siobhan, no.

Bottom three tonight can be anyone besides Crystal and Lee. I’m guessing it will consist of Aaron, Casey, and Michael. I’m thinking it’s the end of the road for Aaron.

My 20 Favorite Beatles Songs

I have so many childhood stories that somehow involve The Beatles. One such memory is brainstorming writing ideas for my 4th grade class. One of my favorite ideas was compiling a list of my 20 favorite Beatle songs. This is a significant memory. To my best recollection, this was the beginning of my love for making lists. The timeline makes perfect sense. It was around this time I was glued to the book Billboard’s Hot 100 which was just a collection of different music lists. This is where I learned that “Bette Davis Eyes” was the most successful song to mention a body part in its title. Anyway, the idea was to not only compile a list of my 20 favorite Beatle songs, but to redo the list several months later to see how the two lists compared. I wanted to track how my personal preferences changed over time; I’m still fascinated how “Greatest of all-time lists change over time to reflect a cultural shift. Sadly, I did not continue my list of 20 Beatles songs after the first edition. I’m going to begin rectifying this horrible mistake right now.

I’d love to see everyone else’s ranking of favorite Beatles songs. Here’s a huge confession: On two separate occasions, I set out to collect top 10 Beatle songs lists from 100 random people claiming to be Beatles fans. I would give each song a point value depending on how high it ranked on the list. Then I’d create the ultimate top 10 Beatles songs list based on these results. I was fascinated by how different these lists would be. Some lists consisted of only early Beatles songs; some others leaned heavily towards songs written by George Harrison (especially when I tried doing this after his death). The fact is The Beatles are one of the few artists who could invite such a variety of favorite songs.

Here is my list of my 20 favorite Beatles songs. I provided quick notes for a few of them. Some songs are obvious selections, some have always been personal favorites. When it comes to the Beatles, it’s hard to have a bad choice. The Beatles are so good that this is the type of list that can change constantly.

1. Hey Jude- The first half of the song is remarkable for McCartney’s compassionate, comforting vocals and the tightness of the band. The second half is incredible for its ability to hypnotize instead of bore. Some songs transcend analysis. This is one of them.

American Idol Contest- Double Elimination

Since Andrew was the first person sent home tonight, I'm going to assume he finished in 9th place, and Katie finished in 8th place. I didn't get to comment on last night's episode, but I keep thinking about how American Idol's Top 12 is like the baseball season. It's a marathon and not a sprint. The same way Blue Jays fans shouldn't get too excited after great Aprils, I shouldn't get too excited after great early performances from Siobhan Magnus. I can't believe I'm starting to like Tim Urban as much as I am. The more the show tries to sabatoge his credibility, the more I root for him. Ryan dancing with Michael Sarver during Tim's performance was distracting and rude. Thanks to the double elimination, there is plenty of movement in the contest. I wish I could change my Siobhan Magnus pick. It's nice to see the Pollocks dominating the standings!

1. Libre Pollock- 40 points
2. Matt Pollock- 35 points
3. Ross Pollock- 30 points
3. Justine Barbato- 30 points
5. Mitch Pollock- 25 points
5. Sheila Pollock- 25 points
7. Mike Podhorzer- 20 points
7. Ricarda Pollock- 20 points
7. Konstantina Barkas- 20 points
7. Liz Kaplan- 20 points
7. Diana Lorenzo- 20 points
12. Christina Maffa- 10 points
13. Kathy Dragonetti- 5 points

Lost Episode 12: Everybody Loves Hugo

Even though it usually take me a while to put up these posts, tonight I just feel like putting something up because the episode was so insane. What is going on?!

Lost Episode 11: Happily Ever After

Before I talk about this episode, one thing I just want to say about this season is that I love how the Lost writers are bringing back so many characters from past seasons who played even just minor roles.  Obviously it was wonderful to see Charlie and Daniel Faraday and Eloise Hawking, but it was also really cool to see George Minkowski come back.  He was the guy in “The Constant” who helped Desmond realize what was happening to him, and here he is helping Desmond again.  I’m looking forward to seeing who else is going to pop up throughout the rest of the episodes.

American Idol- Top 9 Performances

Here’s something you may not know about me. I really like the Beatles. Ok, that’s a bit of an understatement. I’m infatuated with them. So while part of me cringes at the thought of semi-talented singers covering some of the greatest songs ever, a larger part of me looks forward to hearing the greatest melodies ever created. That’s the beauty of the Beatles songs. It’s really hard to give a bad performance as long as you stick to the melody. That’s why Tim sounded strong tonight. He didn’t take a Lennon-McCartney song and turn it into a reggae performance. By sticking to the script and staying in tune, he proved that any average singer can sound good covering the Beatles.

American Idol Contest- Week 3

As I had a feeling yesterday, Didi sadly got voted off tonight. Not too many people saw this one coming before the top 12 started..

1. Matt Pollock- 20 points
1. Libre Pollock- 20 points
1. Justine Barbato- 20 points
4. Ross Pollock- 15 points
4. Mike Podhorzer- 15 points
4. Konstantina Barkas- 15 points
7. Diana Lorenzo- 10 points
7. Mitch Pollock- 10 points
7. Christina Maffa- 10 points
7. Liz Kaplan- 10 points
7. Sheila Pollock- 10 points
7. Ricarda Pollock- 10 points
13.Kathy Dragonetti- 5 points

Lost Episode 10: The Package

I’m enjoying some of these double and triple meaning titles that the writers of Lost are coming up with. Last night’s episode was titled, “The Package”. Now there were two clear references to a “package” in the episode. There was the package of money Jin was supposed to deliver to Keamy and never did, and there was the package being held on the ship which we find out to be Desmond. However there is also another possibly more important “package”. There has been speculation about which of the Kwon’s is the one written on the cave wall, signifying their candidacy. But maybe it isn’t one, maybe it’s both, maybe they’re a “package deal”. Kind of corny, but wouldn’t that make sense?

American Idol- Top Ten Performances

We’re headed for a very interesting results show tomorrow night. If Tim Urban survives, as Simon predicted tonight, then who will be sent home. We’re going to start seeing just how strong certain fan bases are. I’m also getting the feeling that the judges save will be put to use tomorrow night. Instead of giving my detailed reaction to tonight’s performances I’m going to just give each a letter grade along with their chances of getting the least amount of votes and the chances the judges will use a save on them.


Siobhan Magnus:
Tonight: C
Chance at being lowest vote getter: No chance
Will the judges use a save on her? Absolutely

Not a step in the right direction for Siobhan. Based on her reputation, there is no way she is going tonight even if she did get the lowest amount of votes.

Lost: Halfway through the Season

I know I’ve been slacking on my Lost posts, so instead of doing an episode post for the previous episode (and I’ll really try to take those up again starting this week), I’m going to assess where we are at the middle of the season.  While we have been presented with a few more glaring questions this season, last week’s episode, “Ab Aeterno” was instrumental in giving the season and the series purpose.

From what we saw in that episode, I believe the MIB is a devil-like figure, but not necessarily with the purpose to tempt people to do wrong—he tempts people to do his bidding, so he can get off the Island.  The Island is Hell in the sense that it is a holding place for the devil, but not in the sense that being there is a punishment.  In fact, as we’ve seen for many of the characters, being there was actually a blessing.  It gave them a chance to be better people, and most of them did—Jack, Sawyer, Sun and Jin, Charlie, even Ben (eventually).