AI OD: A farewell to David Archuleta
Poor Archie, he fell victim to a Clarkson-style assault. In Season One of American Idol, Justin Guarini was picked as the early favorite to run all the way to the finals and win the whole thing. Meanwhile, nobody even noticed the nondescript little waitress from Texas in there midst until Kelly Clarkson just kept growing and growing through the competition and ran away with the whole thing.
Sure, David Cook was good, but virtually nobody saw him as an early favorite to take the title, and the ’50s theme in week one didn’t do anything to light him up. Then Archuleta let loose with “Imagine” the following week and pretty much sealed the deal as the front-runner. He even encored with the number in the finale, knowing that it had been his season’s high point.
In the exit interview with David Archuleta, he said that Cook “just proved week after week that he deserved to be the ’American Idol’ … My main priority wasn’t to win the competition … just to do my best. We both gave it our all. To make it to the top two, I don’t think there’s any reason to be disappointed with that.”
As for specific future plans, David was quick to say, “I’d like to keep trying to do school while I work on music … I think school is really important. It was my main priority before this, because I wasn’t sure if I was going to get anywhere with music. Even if music does turn out to go somewhere for me, you’ll never know how long it can last so I just want to have something that can back me up on that. I’m still looking at options and careers I’d be interested in the future.” It’s actually refreshing and a bit surprising to hear someone who’s just wowed the nation with his singing and come in second on Idol to say that he’s still looking at various career options and isn’t sure how long a music career can last.
But then again, when you look at the struggles some Idol alumni have had in keeping a career afloat, it’s a very intelligent thing to say. At seventeen years old, Archie is showing that he’s kept some wits about him in all the chaos of the show. So if singing doesn’t work out, what then? “Lately I find the ear/nose/throat doctor really interesting. It would take a lot of education but it’s something that really interests me. It’s something that helps people who’ve had the same problems as me. I’ve had so many issues with that stuff so it would be great to study into that more and be able to help out with all those problems.” Maybe someday, if music doesn’t work out, it’ll be Dr. Archuleta helping you out with your nasty ear infection.
As for future plans musically and romantically (David is single) he said, “I so do not want to deal with the drama [of a relationship] right now. I just want to focus on music.” I love this answer as he goes on to explain how dramatic it is when his friends are devastated at relationships ending. He feels, like most of us who are older do, that they’re just teenagers. “You’re 17!,” he thinks in those situations. “What are you talking about?,” he says. I like how down to earth Archuleta is, and I think that grounding will help him in the industry.
As for those allegations against Papa Archuleta, David reiterated his earlier statements, avoiding specific examples except for one about him being denied water, and just praising his familial support system. It’s an incredibly awkward position to put a kid that age in. Even if he feels his dad is heavy-handed at times, he has to live under his roof and abide by his rules still so what is he supposed to say. “Yeah, my Dad’s a dick. Man, I hate him … Okay, are you ready to drive me home, Dad?” Whatever’s going on there, David seems to be a great kid with smarts and realistic expectations of the industry. That’s better than most aspiring musicians twice his age, so he should do just fine in whatever he winds up doing.
DAVID’S AMERICAN IDOL JOURNEY IN VIDEOS:
Finale - “Apologize,” One Republic (performed by David Archuleta & One Republic)
Top 2 (3) - “Imagine,” John Lennon (encore)
Top 2 (2) - “In This Moment,” Ryan Gillmor (writer)
Top 2 (1) - “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me,” Elton John
Top 3 (3) - “Longer,” Dan Fogelberg
Top 3 (2) - With You,” Chris Brown
Top 3 (1) - “And So It Goes,” Billy Joel
Top 4 (2) - “Love Me Tender,” Elvis Presley
Top 4 (1) - “Stand By Me,” Ben E. King
Top 5 (2) - “America,” Neil Diamond
Top 5 (1) - “Sweet Caroline,” Neil Diamond
Top 6 - “Think of Me,” The Phantom of the Opera
Top 7 - “When You Believe,” Mariah Carey & Whitney Houston
Top 8 - “Angels,” Robbie Williams
Top 9 - “Smoky Mountain Memories,” Dolly Parton
Top 10 - “You’re the Voice,” John Farnham
Top 11 - “The Long and Winding Road,” The Beatles
Top 12 - “We Can Work It Out,” The Beatles
Top 16 - “Another Day in Paradise,” Phil Collins
Top 20 - “Imagine,” John Lennon
Top 24 - “Shop Around,” The Miracles
Hollywood week
Initial audition:
IDOL SEASON 7 FAREWELLS
#3 - Syesha Mercado
#4 - Jason Castro
#5 - Brooke White
#6 - Carly Smithson
#7 - Kristy Lee Cook
#8 - Michael Johns
#9 - Ramiele Malubay
#10 - Chikezie
#11 - Amanda Overmyer
#12 - David Hernandez
#13 - Danny Noriega
#14 - Asia’h Epperson
#15 - Luke Menard
#16 - Kady Malloy
#17 - Robbie Carrico
#18 - Alaina Whitaker
#19 - Alexandrea Lushington
#20 - Jason Yeager
#21 - Colton Berry
#22 - Joanne Borgella
#23 - Amy Davis
#24 - Garrett Haley
Gossip Girl: Woman on the Verge
(S01E17) “We’re here to help Serena no matter what the problem is.” - Blair
After a “wow” episode last week, expectations (at least mine) for this week were pretty high. I had loads of questions about the video and hoped that answers would be giving in “Woman on the Verge.” The episode definitely met my expectations and set the scene for what could be an action and drama packed season finale next week.
What I liked most about this week’s episode is the “no matter what” friendship seen between Chuck, Nate, Blair and Serena. They were able to put their problems aside and work together. As the saying says, “A friend in need is a friend indeed.” The quartet definitely proved that saying this week.
Blair stood out of the pack when she faced Lily and told her that sending Serena away was not the answer. I’m glad Lily was told the complete story because it was time for an adult to intervene. Even if what happened in the hotel room was terrible, Serena was not the reason why Peter died and she needed to understand that.
I’m a tad disappointed at the complete storyline now that we got the answers. Serena has been really freaking out about this story so I actually expected her to have killed someone willingly (maybe as a dare or something) or accidentally but being the official cause for it (maybe while playing with a gun and a bullet gets shot). So having Pete OD on drugs he brought in the room was a tiny let down. There was a huge build up last week and we’ve been wondering about the secret since the season premiere so the revelation fell a bit flat. Blair pretending she didn’t know what the secret was (okay, she didn’t know the details but she knew about the “I killed someone” part) made the scenes of her saying that Serena could trust them, that they did worse things than she did, a bit weird. Since the secret brought the gang back together, I’m willing to forgive the writers.
Georgina continued to show how evil and twisted she is. That girl will need to fall hard and pay the consequences of her acts if she ever wants to go back on the right path. I was almost clapping when Vanessa confronted Georgina as I thought the latter would finally start to pay. But Dan being Dan, he believed Georgina’s crocodile tears and story about an ex-boyfriend who stalked her. Dan is too gullible at times and I’m afraid he’ll get corrupted by Georgina. I truly wish Serena finds a way to show him who Georgina really is. Maybe having him watch the video will be the answer. Plus, it’ll allow Serena to finally be truthful to him, which will help them patch things up.
My memories of the first episode are a bit iffy so you guys can help me here. Didn’t Dan say he had a crush on Serena for years? So why doesn’t he know Georgina? Serena and Georgina used to hang out together before they both skipped town. One could assume that Dan saw them together at one point, no?
Other tidbits of interest:
- Lily and Rufus kissing. Those two are made for each other. But I believe Lily will do the right thing and marry Bart since Serena asked her not to hook up with Rufus because it would be weird with Dan.
- Rufus’ band wasn’t that bad. It was nice to see Lisa Loeb in the episode and hear her perform.
- “None of us are saints.” - Nate
- “I’m Chuck Bass.” - Chuck summing up the bad deeds he did.
AI OD: A farewell to Jason Castro
Despite a few amazing performances through his run on American Idol, Jason Castro seemed to be really running out of fuel by the end here. On the show he even said that he felt his inexperience was really starting to hurt him. He could barely handle trying to prepare two songs each week, along with the required group number choreography and those awesome Ford commercial shoots and flying to Vegas to help promote Cirque du Soleil, and was really sweating having to try and handle three more for next week.
It’s easy to forget that Jason’s only been singing a year or so, so unlike most of these other contestants who’ve been doing this for years in one capacity or another, he’s not only new to singing competitions and performing, but new to the discipline of singing altogether. In Jason Castro’s exit interview, he said he came into the competition just to see where it would go and didn’t even consider the possibility of him winning until more recently.
Considering the criticism he took in earlier rounds for not taking it seriously enough and not practicing as hard or diligently as he should have, this fits. Jason is clearly a laid-back guy and he was just on the show having fun and seeing how far he could get. When it suddenly became even fractionally possible he could win, he started to take things more seriously, which in some ways seems to have affected his performances negatively. Maybe the nerves and anxiety kicked in. Of his departure he said, “I would have liked to go farther but I don’t think I could have handled it,” which I believe is the first time a contestant has come right out and said that they’d gone far enough.
When the judges started saying that it felt like they weren’t getting the same Jason Castro they’d first put through into the competition, Jason felt he had to agree with them. “I was just feeling me losing that power,” he said, ” just because I couldn’t connect with the songs. I really had a hard time when we picked it up to two songs. I wasn’t committing to either one and I couldn’t connect. You need time for that.”
Jason also commented of his inexperience that “I just showed enough potential that I could potentially be somebody … I’m very much what the show was originally about. I’m kind of as raw as it gets.” These comments are especially telling in a season when the show has been criticized for the professional pedigree some contestants like Kristy Lee Cook and Carly Smithson have brought with them. At one time I believe contestants were scrutinized to ensure they’d never been signed to recording contracts, as the show was truly seeking undiscovered talent. In an attempt to bolster ratings maybe, those rules have changed to where they simply cannot be currently under contract.
These rules opened up the doors for all kinds of recording industry failures to creep into the audition rooms. And so when you have a truly new voice to the industry in Jason, and someone who is awkward in interviews and just completely not used to the spotlight and competition, as contestants like David Archuleta definitely are, they’re going to resonate with the viewers at home. This is someone they can relate to because he’s just a regular guy. He’s overwhelmed by this whole experience, but he’s embracing it and enjoying every moment. And Jason’s going to keep on enjoying his ride however far it may take him.
Jason’s Journey in Video (with a few bonuses at the end):
Elimination:
Top 4 (1) “I Shot the Sheriff”, Bob Marley:
Top 4 (2) “Mr. Tambourine Man,” Bob Dylan:
Top 5 (1) “Forever in Blue Jeans,” Neil Diamond:
Top 5 (2) “September Morn,” Neil Diamond:
Top 6 “Memory,” Cats:
Top 7 “I Don’t Wanna Cry,” Mariah Carey:
Top 8 “Over the Rainbow,” Israel Kamakawiwo’ole:
Top 9 “Travelin’ Thru,” Dolly Parton:
Top 10 “Fragile,” Sting:
Top 11 “Michelle,” The Beatles:
Top 12 “If I Fell,” The Beatles:
Top 16 “Hallelujah,” Leonard Cohen:
Top 20 “I Just Want To Be Your Everything,” Andy Gibb:
Top 24 “Daydream,” The Lovin’ Spoonful:
American Idol was infamously not allowed to show Jason’s Hollywood performance of Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy,” so here’s an earlier live version of it:
Jason also wanted to sing Sublime’s “Santeria” but couldn’t get it cleared, but here’s what that might have sounded like:
And who can forget that Jason Castro appeared on the MTV reality show Cheyenne about the title character’s attempts to make it famous. Jason was just one of the guys hanging around (with shorter dreads):
IDOL SEASON 7 FAREWELLS
#5 - Brooke White
#6 - Carly Smithson
#7 - Kristy Lee Cook
#8 - Michael Johns
#9 - Ramiele Malubay
#10 - Chikezie
#11 - Amanda Overmyer
#12 - David Hernandez
#13 - Danny Noriega
#14 - Asia’h Epperson
#15 - Luke Menard
#16 - Kady Malloy
#17 - Robbie Carrico
#18 - Alaina Whitaker
#19 - Alexandrea Lushington
#20 - Jason Yeager
#21 - Colton Berry
#22 - Joanne Borgella
#23 - Amy Davis
#24 - Garrett Haley
AI OD: A farewell to Michael Johns
As much as Michael Johns’ elimination from American Idol was a shocker, at the same time it really wasn’t. Sure, I expected the likes of Syesha and Kristy Lee Cook to go before him, but if you really think about it, what kind of impact has he had on you? I’m not going to say the man wasn’t an amazing vocalist, but he wasn’t a consistently amazing vocalist. In sifting through the archives of his past performances, there were several weeks where he wasn’t very good at all.
Michael Johns is an incredibly talented vocalist. I even think I remember hearing him on the radio several years back when he was lead vocalist for The Rising. But for some reason, when it came to American Idol, he had at least as many off weeks as he did on. In Michael Johns’ exit interview, AOL reports that Michael felt that his past three weeks had been his strongest and that he fully didn’t expect to be eliminated.
We’ve reached that magically strange part of the competition where each year popularity seems to overtake talent for awhile, and I think Michael may have fallen victim to that. He certainly didn’t help himself throughout his run with several less than inspiring performances and virtually no compelling personality traits save the fact that he’s handsome. Show some charisma and give the fans something besides your singing to remember and like you for.
As with many past contestants, Michael’s encore performance of “Dream On” was far better than his initial performance, which was pretty good on its own. I think it’s fair to say, based on the live audience reaction and the faces of almost everyone in attendance, that this was the most unexpected elimination of the season so far. If the Davids go next, the FOX network might just crack in half:
Here’s his Top 8 performance of “Dream On”:
Top 9 “It’s All Wrong, But It’s All Right”:
Michael seemed to have better nights when he was performing Queen, as here on Top 10 week with “We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions”:
I wasn’t too impressed with Michael’s second foray into The Beatles during Top 11 week with “A Day in the Life”:
It was a wonky arrangement but it showed tremendous range and was an improvement for the Aussie by my book. Top 12 “Across the Universe”:
Top 16 “Don’t You (Forget About Me)”:
Top 20 “Go Your Own Way”:
Top 24 “Light My Fire”:
Unfortunately for Michael, in the eyes of many he peaked here in Hollywood week with “Bohemian Rhapsody.” I won’t go that far, but I will say that this performance absolutely blew me away:
The beautiful soulful singer we were treated to in his initial audition never really and fully resurfaced after Hollywood week ended. I’m not sure what kind of a singer Michael wanted to portray on the show, but this guy here was pretty damned special:
Before he got up on the Idol stage, Michael Johns went by the moniker Michael (Mike) Lee and was front man for a band called The Rising. They released an album under the Maverick label and even got a bit of national air play. You can catch samples from their album at The Rising’s MySpace page. And it looks like you can pick up The Rising’s Future Unknown CD for rock bottom prices at Amazon right now! Here’s their video for “Cradle” where you can check out Michael with long hair!:
Back when Michael was a true unknown, he was with an outfit named Film. This is them with “Q”:
And again performing “Get Away”:
Michael’s gotten calls of support from the likes of fellow Aussies Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman, and has even received word that his own Idol Dolly Parton was disappointed he’d been eliminated. More importantly, she indicated she’d love to write for him and even do a duet with him. That doesn’t sound like someone who’s on the fast path to obscurity. So Michael is set to make a go of this whole singing career thing. And if the responses I’ve seen here are any indication, he already has a passionate built-in audience to help him be a success.
IDOL SEASON 7 FAREWELLS
#9 - Ramiele Malubay
#10 - Chikezie
#11 - Amanda Overmyer
#12 - David Hernandez
#13 - Danny Noriega
#14 - Asia’h Epperson
#15 - Luke Menard
#16 - Kady Malloy
#17 - Robbie Carrico
#18 - Alaina Whitaker
#19 - Alexandrea Lushington
#20 - Jason Yeager
#21 - Colton Berry
#22 - Joanne Borgella
#23 - Amy Davis
#24 - Garrett Haley