Straight Up Now Tell Me...

What a day for breaking pop culture news! Paula Abdul has announced via twitter that she is calling it quits as an American Idol judge. Apparently she couldn't reach a salary agreement with producers and therefore is moving on. I wish people would realize that not everyone can make my salary. I've been lobbying (among my friends) for her retirement from the show for years largely because she has yet to display an ability to speak in coherent complete sentences and also because she is straight up crazy. Yet now that it's here, I'm not sure how I feel about it. Is it really possible for Simon, Randy, and Kara D. to provide the same level of entertainment that was guaranteed to be provided by Paula when she tried to speak or when she became infatuated with a contestant (see picture above)? I'm skeptical.

I love these two Pop Watch articles (here and here) and think they really sum up how I am feeling about saying goodbye to crazy Paula. Although it sounds like she may not be gone from my TV for too long - there's already talk of others who are interested in hiring her. Are you thinking what I'm thinking? "The Celebrity Bachelorette: Crazy 90's Pop Star"

This is...The Twilight Zone

In my opinion I think they should rename last night's show to "American Idol Season 8 Results Finale: The Largest Compilation of Random Performances Ever" because I'm pretty sure that's what it was...which is why it felt like the twilight zone to me. I am thrilled and shocked that Kris Allen won but am still not quite sure what to think about the two hours of randomness that preceded the announcement. Performances by Jason Mraz, Keith Urban, Cyndi Lauper, Santana, Rod Stewart, KISS, Queen, Queen Latifah, Steve Martin, Lionel Richie, David Cook, Fergie, The Black Eyed Peas, and Kara D made me extremely thankful for the invention of DVR and the capability of pushing fast forward at any moment. I thought the best way to recap and provide my thoughts for anyone that cares (that's you mom!) would be through a list of moments

Moment I thought "who is that singing with Queen Latifah?": I honestly didn't recognize Lil Rounds. We fast forwarded through the intro and most of the song so we thought it was just Queen and some other famous person signing, I didn't realize it was Lil until I got to work this morning and my coworkers told me. Big improvement Lil, sorry I forgot about you girl!

Moment I was reminded of Janet Jackson's "malfunction" at the Superbowl halftime: Who knows what Fergie and/or the Black Eyed Peas were doing or saying that caused the cameras to cut away during part of their performance but props to Fox for thinking ahead and building in a slight delay to prevent another "malfunction". The Kara D "incident" was enough for me for one show, but more on that later.

Moment I was reminded my high school reunion is this year: Can anyone hear Cyndi Lauper's Time After Time and not think of Romy & Michelle's High School Reunion? It's just like every time I hear Girls Just Wanna Have Fun I immediately think of Dance TV and the movie with the same name as the song. Cyndi may be crazy and I think her and Paula could be bff's, but her duet with Allison was my favorite duet of the night.

Moment Kara D passed Paula to take the crown as my least favorite judge: Just when I thought Kara D might be slightly redeeming herself through actual singing ability she goes and rips off her dress. My roommates and I gasped and dropped some "What the? and No she didn't" phrases and definitely had some Jim Halpert faces. I have to give CC credit for stating what I think is the most accurate feeling after such a performance- violation. I also love anything that Kristen Baldwin at Entertainment Weekly writes about the fourth judge and she didn't disappoint last night; saying, "I think Kara's 'charity' is the National Bruised Ego Fund". I still feel like I'm in a state of bewilderment thanks to the annoyance that is Kara D so I'm just going to leave it at that.

Moment I was worried someone might seriously get injured: Bless Rod Stewart's heart, I admit I covered my eyes several times during his performance because I thought for sure he was going to take a nasty spill on the stairs or when he was twirling around. Definitely let out a sigh of relief when he made it through his performance injury free. Not quite sure I thought you were sexy then or ever Rod and I definitely didn't want your body, sorry.

Moment I thought for sure Adam Lambert was winning: During his performance with KISS, no question he fits that genre. And I think now that the voting was over he didn't feel the need to hold back or tone down any of his theatrics. Nope, with the metal/glass shoulder pads and huge platform shoes and glitter eyeliner he was letting his freak flag fly high for everyone. I don't necessarily mean that in a mean way, I truly admire his willingness to be himself out there. As many of my friends can attest to I have a special interest in some weird music/musicians/fans of musicians but Lambert is beyond my scope enjoyable music. I just never got into the hair metal rock bands and that is definitely who he is. He's a great entertainer and a respectable second place finisher.

Moment I jumped up and down: "And the winner of American Idol Season 8 is...Kris Allen!"!!!! Loved his genuine shock and humbleness. Didn't love that he had to sing that terrible Mountains/Hurricanes/Overcoming Boundaries song again. Raise your hand if you wished he would have just started singing "Heartless" or "Ain't No Sunshine"! (hand raised!) I'm still so excited and shocked that he actually won; he may be the second American Idol winner that I actually purchase music from (first and only being Kelly Clarkson). He definitely deserved to win this season.

So Season 8 is in the can. I thought I would be sad about this day, but I couldn't be happier with the ending (yay Kris!) and therefore I think I'm ready for an Idol break. Farrell is encouraging me to watch So You Think You Can Dance? which I've never gotten into but I may try this season. We'll see...I'm about ready for a break from all voting reality shows; the stress to save everyone by calling in is a burden! If you have time I definitely recommend checking on the live-blogging transcript from EW here and the recap here, those people are hilarious. I'd like to close my Idol posts with the following video for your (and my own) viewing pleasure, enjoy!

Fist pump in the air!

Yay for Kris making it to the finals!! I'm going to sound like crazy Paula for a moment and say that I am proud of him for making it this far. I will be pleasantly shocked if he actually wins but I think 2nd place is very respectable this season. However I'll definitely still be voting Tuesday since it's my civic duty. I took a dvr break from the incredible Lost finale to watch the last 5 minutes to see who got voted off, so I don't have any other comments on the results show. Feel free to get your own Kris is my Idol (or other Kris themed posters) here

Kris > Kanye

Pop quiz for the morning: Which of the following events occurred while I watched American Idol last night?
A) Excessive voting for Kris Allen
B) Increased disgust with the judges (particularly Kara)
C) Multiple viewings of Kris Allen's version of Heartless
D) Increased annoyance with Adam Lambert (aka "Glambert" according to entertainment weekly)
E) All of the above

If you answered E congratulations, you are correct! Here are my thoughts on last night in non transitional paragraphs:

In case you couldn't tell from the title of this post, I absolutely loved Kris's version of Heartless. In fact I agree with Randy that I liked it better than Kanye's version. Let's just say I voted for him more than a few times (for my dignity's sake I will not reveal the number) and actually got a busy signal occasionally which I think is a good sign!

If there was any doubt prior to last night regarding the judges obsession and the entire show's flagrant favoritism of Adam, then those doubts had to be put to rest last night. He has performed last in the show more than anyone else and the judges swoon over him before he even starts singing. Kara D even dressed like him on rock & roll night. As I've said he is a great entertainer, no doubt about that- but honestly I think his notes sound the same and his voice is not that enjoyable to me. I know I may be in the minority here, everyone at work is a fanatic for him even after listening to me explain why they shouldn't be.

Warning this paragraph contains somewhat of a rant on Kara D so you may want to skip reading if you like her. Actually you should probably not skip if you like her to make sure you're sure you actually like her. When Kara D first rolled on the scene this season I admit, I liked her. I thought she provided some actual critiquing and input for the contestants, she sure sounded like she knew her stuff. However as the season has progressed I think the other judges who don't actually judge but instead say dude every other word or talk about the contestants dancing and clothes or use incomplete sentences and random thoughts to provide feedback, maybe have influenced her judging abilities. (i.e. Paula to Adam, "I hope you're collecting frequent flyer miles" Really? How does that relate to his performance in any way? And what does that even mean?) Or maybe Kara D was like them all along and it just took me a while to see it. Either way, at this point she gets on my nerves not as much as Paula (who is still the crazy queen) but definitely more than Randy and Simon. I have to give credit to the Pop Watch Blog on Entertainment Weekly for pointing out some of the errors in Kara D's critiques that I may have missed in the beginning which could have been another reason I blindly liked her at first. These errors include (but are not limited to) referring to Saturday Night Fever as Saturday Night Live (twice) and telling Danny he should have done an earlier Aerosmith song such as Cryin' or Crazy which in fact came out two decades AFTER the one he did, Dream On. Okay, I'm stepping off the soap box now and will close by saying I'm sure she is a nice person and is doing the best she can (because as some friends know I'm "right sided" and had to end on something nice).

If you have time I recommend checking out Lincee's blog here. She and her friend Kyle live blogged last night and they are hilarious! You should probably keep that page bookmarked because The Bachelorette recaps are coming soon (oops I mentioned it again, sorry). In conclusion, I've prepared myself for the worst case scenario (Kris being eliminated tonight and Adam winning it all) and I'll be okay with the outcome should that happen because after all it is just American Idol...it's not like it's the college football national championship or something.

Idol Update

I'm happy to report that my voting was less crazy this week. Seeing as one of the people I voted for the most last week was in last place (Matt) I figured a change in my strategy was needed. I think all my votes cast last week for almost all candidates ended up canceling each other out. So this week I forced myself to narrow it down and only vote for my favorite three. Last night that was Kris, Matt, and Anoop. Anoop actually didn't do that great last night but based on previous performances I still like him. My random thoughts regarding those and other performances last night:

• I actually almost voted for Lil because she was brave enough to wear a spandex one-suit...but then I realized I shouldn't be rewarding bad fashion decisions so no votes were cast for her. Allison was also sporting some sort of leather/spandex/sequin mash-up outfit, interesting choices by the ladies.
• I thought Matt's performance made him resemble Justin Timberlake more and I liked it - he received most of my votes.
• I think the judges are very contradictory, for the most part if the contestants don't change the arrangements they say it is karaoke, but then if they do change the arrangement the theme of the night is lost. As much as I loved Kris's performance, no way it was disco. Maybe the requirement is to just pick a song that was originally disco and perform it any way they want? And why is so much importance placed on the arrangement? I don't think the contestants are even the ones doing the arranging; and this is a singing contest not an arranging one, right?
  
• I like the addition of Kara this season but I've noticed she can't get through a show without asking a question and then answering it herself, tonight's "Was it the best performance? No"
• Paula is crazy...straight up crazy.

I also had a slight panic moment at the end of the show when I noticed for the first time that Ryan says, "phone lines are now open and calls are toll-free from landlines". Landlines only?!? I immediately went to the Verizon website to check my phone bill and was more than relieved to not see any charges for the calls last week. I then went to the american idol website to see why there is a clarification and it says "if you vote from a cell phone minutes will be used even though the call is toll-free." So thankfully all it costs to vote is minutes...and time...and dignity.

American Idol = Stress

I started watching American Idol again this season solely to be able to participate in the weekly Wednesday morning discussions with coworkers. However, as is sometimes a pattern with me and TV shows, I am now completely hooked!

The issue I'm having with this season though is that I don't have a definite favorite. I like a lot of the contestants, but I don't love any of them. Adam is clearly the front runner as the best entertainer, although as a coworker pointed out he doesn't really need to win because there's no question he will get a record deal while someone else might benefit more from winning the record deal. Personally he's on the bottom of my like-list, he's just a little too over the top for me. And in case you're curious, currently at the top of the like-list is Kris largely because of his song choice last night (Falling Slowly), followed closely by Matt...and then Allison, Anoop-Dog, Danny, ahhh see - too many!

Because of this issue, I ran into a problem last night that I believe is partly because I don't have a clear favorite, partly because sometimes I think I forget I don't actually know people on TV shows, and partly because I am too "right side" (synonym among friends for overly-nice and non-confrontational). The problem being last night I felt a sense of personal responsibility to vote for the contestants I like and to vote multiple times for the contestants that got bad reviews from the judges. "I have to save them! My vote counts!" I kept saying to myself. Farrell thinks that I am one of very few actually voting and that the whole "votes count" thing is a hoax. She thinks the producers decide each week and supports this opinion by asking me if the lines are every busy...which to her credit has only happened twice in my voting. I'm sure that they have an abundance of phone lines though; I mean my vote has to count - right?

However, I'm starting to think that I should just believe Farrell's theory even if it's not true because I really don't want the pressure of saving the career of these people each week. Plus my voting is on the verge of getting out of control. In fact, some might say it's already out of control...the number of calls placed last night was dangerously close to triple digits. I know - what am I doing!?! Shame!! BUT, if someone does get through tonight because of only a few votes I will feel responsible...although if they don't get through tonight because of only a few votes I will also feel responsible. This is definitely a lose/lose situation.

When did TV watching become so stressful??