Hollywood Week

I had the WORST catastrophe last night. All the kids were settled in for a long winter's nap. I then ran downstairs to sit down on my couch to watch my show. Well, I grabbed my little remote to go to menu on the DVR and found American Idol. I clicked 'select' and nothing happened!! The DVR did not record the episode I have been waiting for all season!!! It was like a horrible horrible joke someone was playing on me. Our DVR has never done anything this ridiculous and of course, it happened on the ONE show I've been wanting to watch....... grrrr

Luckily a blog I read about Idol had videos posted and a description of all the action. Phew... so I watched last night's show on my laptop, didn't catch everything, but it's better than nothing. I'll be checking tonight's episode the minute it starts to see if the DVR works this time.

So onto the talent. Now this is the first season that they filmed Hollywood week this late in the season. The filmed it within the last month, so there was no time to push the people who would really be good in the audition episodes. Case in point - the 'good' singers they focused on with their back story's and what not, disappointed the judges during the first round of Hollywood auditions. The country girl with the horrible accent - GONE, the missionary who survived cancer - GONE, (and he even made it to group rounds in season 8) the 16 year old with the down syndrome brother's, - GONE!! for a few examples. The ding bat Skiboskii is thankfully gone. I don't know why they even sent him to Hollywoood. Oh, and the splits pants guy..

• Loved Andrew Garcia! He sang Straight Up - Paula Abdul, with a guitar! I liked his 'musicality' (word used frequently by the judges,,, is that a real word?)
• Loved Janell Wheeler who strapped on that guitar and sang very well. She's cute too.
• Haley Vaughn (African American Country girl) - not a fan, but they'll push it because she's different.
• Mary Powers the rocker mom, again, not a huge fan.
• Lilly Scott - who we didn't see audition, finally gets to wow us during this episode. She sang Ella Fitzgerald's "Lullaby of Birdland" and did a really good job. I was impressed.
• Miky Lynche- big body builder who's wife went into labor right before he sang - meh,, still did not like his voice or style. His higher notes were squeezed if felt like to me.
• Casey James- the poor sucka who had to take his shirt off during his audition, is REALLY good. He has a soulful raspy thing going on and he wailed on the guitar. The auditioners were all into his performance too. Much better audition than his original one.
• Didi Behnami - this girl I liked during the auditions, a lot.... and I still REALLY like her. She can sing man! She went with 'Terrified' which was written by Kara, not a bad song, Katherine McPhee is singing it now.
• Crystal Bowersox with the dreds and majorly yellow teeth, sang 'Natural Woman' with the guitar and man she has it. Very good stage presence, got the crowd in it, and the judges were impressed. I like her.

It seemed we have a lot more girls this year that they are focusing on, since Randy says a girl will win this season.... hmmm. But if they are doing the same format this year as previous,, Top 6 boys and 6 girls will comprise the 12 on the big stage, then it's up to the voters. Tonight is the Group rounds, which I really really hate..... American Idol is not about singing in a group, it is a solo act, so they shouldn't stick people in with a bunch of fools who have totally different singing styles. Just my opinion. And did we like Ellen? I like that she adds humor after something serious, it lightens up the room a bit. I think she is not going to take any of Simon's B.S. like Paula did. I like her already....