American Idol-Week 1

Season 9. And quite possibly the last season. As Simon prepares to leave and the contestants are no where’s near the caliber they have been in the past, I worry about the future of this show. Perhaps I should explain my affinity with this show. Idol began in the summer of 2002. That was the worst summer of my life. I was studying for the NY bar exam which is one of the toughest exams in the country. I chose to study for it closer to home, away from all my law school friends to prevent me from being Kim-meaning gossiping and talking Kathy into going on yet another Starbucks run. I was living in the apartment I rented in Westchester with my ex husband. My day started at 8, class from 9-12:30, study until 8 or 9 (three hours of the subject we just learned, plus essay questions and Multistate multiple choice questions….EVERY SINGLE DAY from Memorial Day until July 20-something. It was awful. And one night I heard my ex turn on the TV and I heard some guy sing, “Silent Night…I said a Silent Night” in the most monotone voice ever. And I was hooked. The one thing in my life that has stayed really consistent is Idol being on every season. My marriage-ended in divorce, my ideal pregnancy-turned on its head at 34-ish weeks, I moved to another state, waived into another jurisdiction and practiced a new type of law…but Idol was there. I have watched every Idol crowned (minus David Cook due to my selfish brother getting married out of the country that year *wink wink*) and watched every dreadful audition from William Hung to the guy that loved the Hoff. Now it’s Season 9 and Paula is gone, Kara unfortunately is still on the show and my love Simon is departing. With a heavy heart, I bring you…my Idol blog.

Couple of housekeeping items:

1) I am opening up Guest blogging. Should you love Idol the way I do, message me on Facebook or in the comment section if you would like to guest author with me this year. Yay for that right???

2) Who is with me that Fox needs to put an X on the floor for Kara’s chair, exactly one foot away from Simon’s chair? If I were Kara’s husband I would consider divorce. The longing in her eyes is akin to my longing for a neurosurgeon husband---that is pretty damn longing.

3) In keeping up with current movies, I declare “OFF WITH THEIR HANDS!” Seriously, enough with the dumb hand waving during a slow song, clapping during a fast one….enough audience participation!

Here is the recap of the Top 12

Big Mike- As my brother Chris says, “You gotta love Big Mike.” And I do. Except for the awful falsetto he insists on doing every week. If you can bench press a hemi, you can forgo the falsetto.

Didi- Didi is what would happen if Brooke White from a few seasons ago and Taylor Swift had a love child. And Didi sounds about as awful as Taylor Swift did at the Grammys. Randy, in his pun with the song title told her she was…”on fire.” I declare Randy, “on crack.” This was followed up by Kara telling her that she is finally declaring what type of artist she will be---I suppose a “sucky” one. And props to my friend Michele B. for pointing out that Kara called Ellen a guy, twice tonight. Glad Kara is agreeing with “the guys.” Someone make her shut up!

Casey- I am not really understanding the love with Casey. I think he is ok, but Derek Jeter he is not people! I did get teary a bit hearing how proud his mother was of him. I know I will never cry like that on an Idol-type show because as much as I love Preston and as cute as he was singing “Pants on the Ground” he has absolutely no voice whatsoever. I am ok with the fact that the Raab gene for singing has passed down to him. This is just more insurance for me to know he will go to medical school instead. Although right now his career of choice at age 4 is to drive a subway.

Lacey- She is so pretty, too bad her voice sounds like a cat on a stretching machine.

Andrew- I feel bad for this guy. If they mention the “Straight Up” performance one more time and how he will never “bring it” like that again, I may torture myself. This was also where Kara so astutely told him he did not connect with the song like Mick Jagger since the song was about Vietnam. Damn you Andrew for not connecting to a song about a war that ended ten years before you were an embryo!

Katie- Susan Boyle’s version was better. I agree with Randy-pitch problems.

Tim- Tim is going home tomorrow. He is one of ten kids, or almost half the Dugger clan. Can you imagine having 10 kids? Being pregnant for 90 months? NINETY MONTHS. Roughly SEVEN AND A HALF YEARS of your life? *Shudder* They want him to be good, but the problem is…he is so not. Even his friends thought he sucked. You could see them laughing at him and half clapping. They were like, “Dude that was so bad man.” In the words of Randy-he definitely did not, “blow it out the box.”

Siobhan-By far my favorite. She is so weird, but she is unreal. I peg her as a finalist. Ok and when Kara said she was like the female Adam Lambert I found myself actually agreeing with her. And I now will apologize to Bobbi for blasting Adam all last season. His song on the radio now is 100 times better than Kris Allen’s and I now can look back and realize Adam was pretty darn awesome. So I apologize to Adam Lambert fans. He is on my iPod. Kris isn’t.

Lee- My friend Matt from law school dubbed him a “poor man’s Daughtry.” I can definitely see the similarities but I really like him. I like his voice a lot, he’s decent to look at and I think he too will be around for quite awhile.

Paige-I thought she did really well. I thought she was pretty awful the past few weeks and was shocked to see her stay over the girl with the gray hair (what was with that hair)? My favorite line was said by Paige this year when asked why she sang a particular song after she sang it…not so well. “I just love that song so much. I really wanted to sing it.” Look Paige. I love the song “Whip It.” It doesn’t mean I would perform it on Idol.

Aaron-He found his passion for singing when he was nine years old….which was last year. I am starting to get nightmares of David Archuleta watching this kid.

Crystal-I like her voice. I do. But there are two things preventing me from liking her even more. One, the fact that her hair has not been washed in well over three years and second because her last name has the word “Sox” in it.

My Pick to Go Home: Tim