4 posts tagged “american idol”

Noel

This article claims that it was his appearance on Oprah's "Favorite Things" show that drove Josh Groban's Noel to number 1.

I thought it was my mention in my Holiday Music Gift Guide that did it.  ;-)

"Christmas albums can be found in every style of music under the sun so I won't recount the plethora of choices out there.  I'll just point you to a new one that is selling like hotcakes this year: Noel by Josh Groban.  The poperatic twenty-something crooner also has guest turns from Brian McKnight (R&B) and Faith Hill (Country) so it really has something for almost everybody."

As shows arrive back after being gone for the holidays I'm finding I'm not feeling as fond of them as I did before.

How I Met Your Mother on Monday was OK but not great.  Which is fine because good-not-great for them is better than most sitcoms.  The Ted office scenes with Bryan Cranston as his boss where meh, but I did enjoy Barney begging Lily to paint him nude after finding her painting of Marshall.  Especially when she gave him the "Ken doll" and didn't paint his "barnana."

Studio 60 on the other hand was practically unbearable.  I doubt I can continue to keep watching heavy handed, preachy characters I feel no emotional engagement with.  I don't care about the Matt/Harriet relationship, the Danny stalking Jordan and her having to beg him to stop storyline was creepy, I just can't buy multiple women vying for Tom and the Darius/Simon "massa" conversation didn't feel bold and enlightening but rather unsettling.

On Tuesday the Gilmore Girls returned but it just felt wrong.  Chris and Lorelei were great when the alternative was Max.  But at least it seems like they are moving Luke and Lorelei closer towards understanding and forgiving each other and it's clear the Chris doesn't fit into Stars Hollow or Lorelei's life.  The Lane pregnancy story is just awful and ridiculous and sad.  And where were Miss Patty and Babette and Kirk...?  Why wasn't Sookie knocking sense into Lor?  I'll ride the wave to this once great show's sad end but it makes me sadder with every passing episode.

Top Chef is on tonight but after that over-the-top head shaving episode where Chef Tom wanted to send everyone but Marcel packing and declare him the winner without a final cookoff, put the nail in the coffin to me caring who wins this hot mess.  Top Design can't get here fast enough.

Lost is coming back next week and I am surprisingly not that excited about diving back into the Jack-Sawyer-Kate love triangle.  Please get back to the mysteries of the Island!

Armed and Fabulous and Beauty and the Geek are your alternatives to the unpleasantly mean American Idol auditions which apparently virtually everybody in America hates but is watching anyway and the critically adored Friday Night Lights.  I encourage watching one episode of Armed and Fabulous as it is funnier and sweeter than expected and not in a train wreck way.  However one episode will be enough for me, I think.  I'm going to watch Beauty and the Geek again tonight but I'm not really enjoying the Beauties that much this season - they don't seem to be learning their lessons very well - but once AI is out of it's cruel debut I'll switch over.

Happy viewing!

Team Britney or Team K-Fed... who are you voting for?

George Lucas comes to the dark side, forsaking film for TV... welcome, George, welcome!

Check this out so you can be prepared should Chris and Snoop come calling, or if you just want to check out some happening Baltimore club music.

Virginia Heffernan has a good look at the post-ASP era Gilmore Girls.  Some of her analysis I think overreaches such as this: "In their purest incarnations, Lorelai and Rory shared the witty woman’s challenge: to architect a wall of words so high and so thick that no silence, no stares, no intimations of mortality or even love could penetrate it."  However, I think most of her observations such as about Lorelai and her self-imposed loneliness are dead on and she illustrates well why David Rosenthal's touch seems not quite right.  I'll stick it out until the end, nevertheless.  In part because of this... "Ms. Graham is still the show’s power forward, playing as hard as she can, giving all she’s got to proving that a woman’s sensibility can comprise The New Yorker and Us Weekly. A modest goal — but not a toxic one."  A respectful portrayal of a smart woman's high - low taste in the arts is one that I must support.

And what does Faith Hill's (mock) tantrum over Carrie Underwood beating her out for the female vocalist Country Music Award tell us about pop culture?  I believe Faith's explanation that the anger was in jest (much like how Regis and Kelly and the hosts of The View jokingly practice their losing faces and outbursts every year) but what if she was pissed - not about losing, but rather about an American Idol contestent winning.  Is there something unworthy or less deserving about performers who find success after competing in a talent show or contest?  Or because the talent show is television entertainment and judged by millions of teenage girls armed with cell phones and unlimited minutes rather than private judging by "experts?"

I think there is some perception that somehow AI contestents are just lucky overnight successes and haven't paid their dues.  All artists who have recording contracts have been blessed by some degree of luck.  And AI contestants don't take up singing just to audition for the show.  So I'm sort of perplexed by this whole thing.  Things like the CMAs are just as much popular culture forms of entertainment as American Idol.  Perhaps Carrie Underwood was the most deserving for precisely this reason.