This and That

Less than two weeks away from a new season of American Idol! Looking forward to seeing Ellen Degeneres as a judge! I spent New Year's Eve watching Daughtry singing on ABC plus Kris Allen and Allison Iraheta on FOX.

Finally took the time this week to start organizing all my old photos. Placed an order today on the Jo-Ann Fabric and Crafts website for some storage envelopes and boxes. As for the more recent ones, I haven't gotten prints made yet for 99.9% of the pictures I've taken in the last four years. Time to round up all the CDs that the pics are stored on. Speaking of photos, looking at them brought back MANY memories. Ended up looking for a lot of old friends on Facebook tonight.

Yay! Valerie Bertinelli has a new website! Click here to see it. I am so amazed that she is running her first marathon as well as turning 50 years old this year!

Idol Thoughts

It's been a long time since I've posted anything here but now I'm back to write about American Idol, which is a subject I tend to post about often.

Driving home from work today, I was thinking about my favorite American Idol contestants from seasons past. My #1 all-time favorite Idol is definitely Chris Daughtry, without a doubt. You haven't lived until you've attended a live performance of Daughtry! SO AMAZING! I can also very confidently say that my #2 favorite Idol contestant is David Cook, who is also AWESOME in concert! When it comes to #3 and beyond, my favorite seems to change a lot. So I'll just list the others that I like from each of the seasons that I've watched. Season 8: Anoop Desai, Kris Allen, Matt Giraud, Allison Iraheta. Season 7: Michael Johns and Jason Castro. Season 6: Melinda Doolittle and Jordin Sparks. Season 5: Ace Young.

I went to one of the American Idols Live concerts this year for the first time. Several of the top 10 from this season were MUCH better sounding live than they were on TV. I was the most impressed with Anoop and Matt. Can't wait to see what kind of debut album they eventually release. Somebody hurry up and give them each a recording contract soon!

Speaking of albums... I am so obsesssed with Daughtry's second album "Leave This Town" which came out in July. That CD has been in my car stereo for more than 3 months now. If I'm not listening to the radio, I'm listening to Daughtry's CD. Not sure yet how long I'm going to keep it in my car. Probably until one of my other favorite singers release a mind-blowing new album. Will it be Kris Allen's or Jason Castro's debut? Or David Cook's sophomore album? Or whenever my favorite Beatle, Paul McCartney, has a new album?

Cook vs Lambert

I really really really wish the people on some websites would stop trying to pit David Cook against Adam Lambert!!!!!! Even when they write an article that is only about Cook, people insist on glorifying Lambert in the comments!!! The comments that some people wrote today were calling Adam a "god" and that David is "boring"! I just wanna shake those people as hard as I can and ask "Are you insane?!" Yes, Adam is very talented but he is in no way a "god", not even in a musical sense. And they keep saying that David sounds exactly like the band Nickelback and is not unique. I don't agree with that at all. His voice and his songs sound nothing like Nickelback and he's not "hard rock" like them. He's more "pop rock" with "alternative rock" aspirations. (If he didn't have to do whatever Idol told him to do, his album would have been much more alternative and only a little bit pop.)

Getting back to the idiot comments... People were gushing about how there's no other singer that sounds like Adam and that he's not afraid to "wear his sexuality on his sleeve". PULL-EEZ!!!! Apparently those people have never been to a quality theater performance (like a Broadway-type show but not necessarily actually on Broadway). There are many theatrical singers out there who are just as talented as Adam, if not more. And who flippin' cares whether he's gay or not?! I sure don't. That's his business, not mine. Just like I don't care if a contestant is married, widowed or single. Or if they're a single parent or don't have kids. Or if they're 16 years old or 28 years old. All I care about is the music and whether or not the singer's performance makes me feel emotionally connected to the song. Personally, I don't feel any connection when a song is taken a few notes higher than necessary and is "screeched".

At the beginning of the season, I had high hopes for Adam. I expected him to "wow" us each week with clever spins on well known songs. Unfortunately, I've been disappointed by week after week of screeching. (The only exception would be Motown week when he sounded amazing and was screech-free.) At this point in time, the only Top 10 Idol that I care to vote for this season is Anoop Desai. I know he's not the strongest singer on Idol this year. But his performances leave me wanting to hear more (which is important to me) and I'm looking forward to any album he records. If Anoop is voted off, I'll probably go with either Allison Iraheta or Kris Allen --- and I'll be voting for whoever is up against Adam in the finale. But that's just MY opinion.

American Idol - Season 8

Wow, it's been a long time since I last wrote a blog entry. We now have a new president (woo hoo!) and I have been to my first David Cook concert (woo hoo, again!). Well, now that we're in the middle of Season 8 of American Idol, maybe I'll have something to write about. But only maybe. So far, A.I. hasn't been as much fun for me as last year was. Too many mediocre singers in the Top 10. At least we have a guest appearance from David Cook to look forward to. Today I was reading MANY comments on a news website where they were trying to compare Cook with Season 8's front runner Adam Lambert. Personally, I think it's impossible to compare apples to oranges. Here's the comment I posted on that news site:

"I think Adam Lambert is very talented but I don't feel any kind of emotional connection when he sings. Who is he as an artist/musician? What kind of music would he record? I hope that we get to see the real Adam soon. Up to this point, Anoop Desai is the only one I've voted for [among the top 10] so far this season. I see Anoop as an R&B artist with a little rock thrown in once in a while. Who is Adam? Certainly not a rocker from what I have seen so far. When I vote, I think about who I'd like to see in concert and whose album I'd buy. From previous seasons, for me it has been David Cook, Michael Johns, Jordin Sparks, Melinda Dolittle, Ace Young, and Chris Daughtry who are worth spending my money on. I didn't watch the first four seasons. Chris Daughtry is the one who got me hooked [on A.I. in Season 5]."

Light On and other stuff

"...try to leave a light on when I’m gone, something I rely on to get home, one I can feel at night, a naked light, a fire to keep me warm, try to leave a light on when I’m gone, even in the daylight, shine on, and when it’s late at night you can look inside, you won’t feel so alone..." (from the new David Cook single, Light On)

Love this new David Cook song!!!!! I listened to it eleven times in a row on my way home from work today. No kidding. Eleven times. Hey, it's nearly a 40 minute drive. And now the lyrics are stuck in my head. But that's okay. It's a great song! Can't wait until the entire debut album is released in November!!!

I've been a Cook fan from the very start of the 2008 season of American Idol. Yes, I admit, I liked David Archuleta's audition, also. But as the weeks went on, I became more and more annoyed by Archie. I know there's a lot of people who think he should have won but I'm not one of them. Yesterday I listened to a clip of Archie's single, Crush, which will probably do well on R&B/Pop radio stations. His singing just isn't my cup of tea, though. Don't get me wrong, I do like some R&B songs -- just not David Archuleta's. I'll be sticking with Rock/Pop music like Daughtry and Cook. After all, Chris Daughtry is the only reason I started watching Idol in the first place.

Speaking of talented folks, tonight I caught the last few minutes of the finale of America's Got Talent. I've never watched the show before but a friend at work is a fan of it so I thought I'd tune in and see who won. The winner was an opera singer named Neal Boyd. Last year's winner was a ventriloquist and now this year an opera singer! Awesome!