Idol Note-by-Note: Finalists Go Three for Three
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Three finalists, three songs apieceyou do the math. Now we find out what exactly the judges are thinking when they inform an ambitious contestant he or she has chosen the wrong tune, and it's always fun to have an endless songbook to choose from to up the surprise factor.
Some are surprised Syesha is still here, others think David A.'s had it in the bag all along, while David C. continues to do his thing, be it authentic or a bit…similar from week to week.
We start off with the mayor of David Archuleta's hometown informing him that Paula has picked Billy Joel's 1983 ballad "And So It Goes"…
8:04 p.m.: And this is why judges' pick is greatthis tune is benefiting from David A.'s vocal range and Joel's storytelling prowess has finally forced the 17-year-old to stray from the Muzak path. His version of this song is suitable for recording and background music in the salon waiting room while you wait for your nails to dry.
8:06 p.m.: "Paula chose a dope song for you," Randy decides. "A pure and stunning performance," Paula adds, while Simon thinks it was well done, if a bit "predictable," as well.
8:12 p.m.: We were hoping Simon would be doing the honors for Syesha Mercado, considering he's rarely agreed with her song choice in the past, but instead Randy picks Alicia Keys' "If I Ain't Got You."
8:15 p.m.: Syesha, no stranger to the diva route, handles Keys' sultry tune with ease, sounding less copycat-ish than usual. Simon, of course, wishes Randy had picked a song that wouldn't automatically draw comparisons to the original, but Randy digs it and compliments Syesha on peaking at "just the right time in this competition."
8:16 p.m.: Interesting. Simon has chosen Roberta Flack's "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" for David Cook. The Brit is apparently looking to have the rocker lose the rasp at least once tonight.
8:19 p.m.: And it's awesome, a reminder that David C. can actually sing underneath the growl. However, Randy would have preferred some more rockin'. Simon calls it one of his best performances yet.
8:25 p.m.: Next up, David A. has chosen Chris Brown's "With You" for himself.
8:28 p.m.: And we're back in easy-listening territory thanks to an arrangement that screams boy-band member gone solo. "Like a Chihuahua trying to be a tiger," Simon says.
8:30 p.m.: Syesha tries on the classic "Fever," written by Little Willie John and memorably covered by Peggy Lee.
8:33 p.m.: And not so memorably covered by Syesha. First of all, she looks like she's still wearing her Tina Turner dress from last week, and Simon thinks she's going to regret her song choice, which ultimately resulted in a "lame cabaret performance."
8:39 p.m.: David C. speeds forward a few decades with Switchfoot's "Dare You to Move," returning to the alt-rock thing just in case the producers rip him out of his comfort zone again.
8:42 p.m.: "I think all three of you had an OK middle round," Simon says after David C. offers up his usual proficiency.
8:43 p.m.: Moving right along…Idol producers have selected "Longer" by Dan Fogelberg for David A. A wedding standard from 1980. OK.
8:45 p.m.: "I expect nothing more. It was just very lovely," Paula says. A compliment for sure, but also perhaps an unintentional hit-the-nail-on-the-head moment with regard to David A.'s versatility as an artist.
8:50 p.m.: The producers pick the sprightly "Hit Me Up" by Gia Farrell off the Happy Feet soundtrack for Syesha's final number.
8:53 p.m..: After again puzzling over the song choice (luckily not Syesha's fault this time, Paula says, "I don't know if it's good enough to get you into the finals of American Idol."
Wow, coming from Paula…
8:59 p.m.: David C. rips into Aerosmith's "I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing," not sounding entirely different than Steven Tyler but doing a, to quote Randy, "pretty OK" job.
9:00 p.m.: "Davidsee ya in the finals," Paula says, also pointing out songwriter Diane Warren, who penned the tune for the Armageddon soundtrack, sitting in the audience.
"And David Cook wins the night," Simon adds.
So, who do you want to see go larynx to larynx in next week's finals? (And feel free to dip into the what-could've-been and mention Michael Johns, Carly Smithson or Jason Castro, in case you feel their presences will be sorely missed.)
Venture Bros. third season starts June 1
Okay, okay. It’s been a while since we’ve had a solid update on the Venture Bros. and I suppose we’re due for another one. With no new episodes to fill that Venture-shaped void in your hearts, it’s cruel to deprive you all of this delicious information. We’ve got a lot of news to cover, from conventions to soundtracks to Adult Swim super-sneakiness, so let’s get started.
All right, best news first: The official premiere date for Season Three is June 1! It has been confirmed by Jackson Publick, so you know it’s good. The crew is about to get back to work and start Season Four, which means the wait for a new season won’t be quite as painful as usual.
Secondly, Jackson, Doc Hammer, James Urbaniak and Mike Sinterniklaas will be returning to the New York Comic-Con on April 19 for an afternoon Venture Bros. panel. It looks like Steven Ratazzi isn’t coming back to grace us with his Doc Orpheus-ness, but it has been announced that Quickstop Entertainment’s Ken Plume is moderating. I guess that’s sort of a replacement because it’ll be a bit like having a real-life Number 21 in the room. Anyway, as things stand now, I’ll be attending, so expect an excruciatingly detailed account of how things go once I calm down from the trip.
Thirdly, the world may be getting a Venture Bros. soundtrack! Yes, it’s looking more and more likely. Fans have been begging for a soundtrack of the show’s score for a really long time, but Jackson and Doc have always said that the music belongs to the composer, JG Thirlwell, so it’s up to him if he wants to do anything with it. I’ve already gotten a bunch of his albums in a desperate attempt to make myself feel better (Steroid Maximus’ “¡Quilombo!” is great background music for inking drawings, by the way), but it’s still not quite enough. In a recent interview with Popshifter, Thirlwell mentioned that he’s preparing a Venture Bros. soundtrack album. No additional details were provided but this brief news alone is incredibly exciting. I’m definitely going to pump up that soundtrack on my iPod when I go grocery shopping so that I can feel bad-ass when I’m purchasing produce.
And in case you didn’t know, on April Fools’ Day, Adult Swim aired a rough cut of first half of “The Doctor Is Sin”, a Season Three episode. I’d like to share what it was about or how it looked, but, umm, I missed it. In my defense, I — Actually, I don’t really have a good excuse. I was probably asleep or busy getting Rickrolled by YouTube that day. However, I feel like less of a bad fan knowing that Jackson and Doc, the brains behind the damn show, had no idea either and only found out after the rough cut had aired and people on the Internet started talking about it. Mantis-Eye Experiment has a few screencaps.
Lastly… I’m always looking out for my fellow fans. Every little bit of related information that will help soothe the twitchy withdrawal, I share. So, here’s the most pointless non-newsy piece of information ever: I’m pretty sure the season contains at least one Guitar Hero reference geared towards the Henchmen. I can’t remember where I heard about that. You know me, I’m too lazy to ever fact-check. I just cull this crap from all the blogs that I obsessively follow and then I let the tiny bits of information float around my oddly shaped head until I feel competent enough to regurgitate it to you guys. For all I know, the Venture Bros. may not be a cartoon and, to be quite honest, I’m not even that sure that it even exists. Anyway, watch the new season (of the cartoon that may or may not exist) and if they say some throwaway line about the Henchmen playing Guitar Hero, you can say, “Wow, Annie totally called that. I’m sure glad she warned me about the reference, otherwise I would have been too caught off-guard to continue watching the episode.” And if they don’t make the reference, it’s not a big deal either, because you probably will have forgotten by June.
Cashmere Mafia: Yours, Mine, and Hers
(S01E06) Cashmere Mafia is slowly but surely getting better. Let me digress quickly by saying that I lost a little respect for Kanye West last night. “Stronger” as the opening song for Cashmere Mafia? Did the producers really think that CM was cool enough to warrant that song as the background music for the opening scenes? I guess Kanye West had a momentary loss of self-respect when he agreed to that.
But enough complaining. I said the show is getting better and I’m prepared to explain myself. Let’s see what’s going on with the girls this week. A full review after the jump…
Zoe: Once again, Zoe has the most compelling story of the foursome even though last night her the length of her scenes were a little light. I wonder what Zoe will do now that she has quit her job. I think they’ve made it pretty clear that Eric doesn’t make nearly enough money to support the family in their current lifestyle. That said, do you think Zoe will be a stay-at-home mommy for long?
Caitlin: Caitlin’s story is still a little cliche–not the questioning her sexuality part of the story but the way that story is told. For example this week, Caitlin went from being “weirded out” about her pregnant girlfriend to seeing the baby’s heartbeat in the sonagram exam room and then buying loads of baby products. I think we’ve seen that change of heart before (no pun intended). The reluctant parent-to-be sees the grainy image of the little lemon-sized fetus and poof!, he/she is ready to take the plunge into baby responsibilities.
Of course, Olivia (Alicia’s ex-girlfriend) helped push Caitlin’s feelings along too. Olivia’s presence was yet another cliche. Now that Caitlin has competition for Alicia’s love, she really wants to give the relationship 100%. But you know what I didn’t see coming? Alicia dumping Caitlin at the end of last night’s episode. Did you predict that one (before Caitlin walked in and you saw Alicia’s face that is)?
Juliet: This was the first episode I was really rooting for her. Up until now, she’s been an even more uptight version of Brie Hodge from Desperate Housewives (if it’s possible to get more uptight). But now that her divorce isn’t going as smoothly as she planned, it’s interesting to see this usually very collected woman a little flustered. Some parts of last night’s episode were predictable though: Davis recanting in the hospital room after his “heart attack” and Davis ordering Juliet’s eviction the very next day after he found out it was just a panic attack after all.
Mia: Ahh, Mia. Still not over Jack…well, maybe now she is. Last night’s Mia-storyline was better than previous episodes. The boredom with the surgeon and reactionary make-out session in Zoe’s foyer with the manny was annoying. Although from the scenes for next week’s CM, it looks like the boring brain surgeon isn’t so boring after all. One sidenote about Mia: I loved loved LOVED her shredding the scarf worn by the “telepromptress.” Very funny.
Cashmere Quotables…
“Well, he’s not going to hand over 500 million dollars for mommy to take care of.” –Clayton to Zoe
“Cause if I were thinking about him, I would have sent him Scotch.” –Mia
“Oh my dear, that’s just not how we do things on 5th Avenue.” –Mrs. Albert to Juliet
“We’re having a Jack flashback. A Jackback.” –Caitlin
“And you just can’t admit that you’re the rebound girl. Enjoy the bounce.” –Mia to Jack’s new flame
“Tell your lawyers, I tried for 15 years to get something out of you and I finally realized, there’s nothing there.” –Juliet to Davis
Sunsilk: “Hair Icons”
So, this is what half a million dollars pays for during the Super Bowl, huh? A 30-second commercial about three hair icons (not to be confused with America’s Next Hair Icon): Madonna, Shakira and Marilyn Monroe. Nothing really spectacular, just some pop art images of those three with background music sung by each of them.
I’m trying to figure out who this commercial was targeted for. Obviously, they were aiming for all of the women who are watching the Super Bowl. But, with all of the testosterone flowing in these other commercials it seems like this ad got lost in the crowd. Plus, how many guys really know who Shakira is (other when there friends show them how hot she is). Frankly, Sunsilk’s commercial money could have been used better elsewhere.