movieking

A bit early, but I wanted to mention something that I saw on the Today Show. Joshua Gracin was on this morning, and was interviewed by Matt Lauer. He said that Ruben will win because the press and the judges have championed him, and not because he is the best singer. He said that he thought that Clay should win, since he is by far the best singer. He compared Ruben to a star collegiate athlete that gets all of the press before he is drafted, but turns out to be a bust when he goes pro. These are very close to the words that he actually used.

The interview definitely made it seem that Josh has no love lost for Ruben, and he came off pretty bitter towards him. I found it funny that he basically accused Ruben of getting where he is because of the press, since to me (and many others) the press is how Josh got so far in the competition. In other words:

Pot to Kettle: "You're Black"

mediabear

This mirrors what Simon said on The Tonight Show last night. He said that he thought that Clay should win, but that Ruben will end up the next AI.

fujishig

Interesting that the AI press corp would let Josh say things so openly... I don't think I've ever heard anything like that from any contestant, past or present.

And I can't believe Simon said that, especially because he's the one who'd "influencing" the votes. He told a national audience that he thinks Clay should win, when he always criticizes Clay for not being idol material?

This year's results should be closer than last year's, when it was pretty obvious to most who was the most talented. This year, any of the remaining three could win. And we've seen that sometimes the judge's "push" backfires, as we see from Ruben being in the bottom two a few weeks ago. And the real winners are FOX, who are just reaping in the ratings (2nd and 3rd to CSI), and the Simon Fuller who's running AI, who doesn't care who wins, since they have exclusive contracts with all of them.

Patman

I watched Simon's appearance on the Tonight Show last night.

Simon said that Clay would probably win, but Ruben probably should win.

BTW, this was the show in which Jay Leno and Katie Couric swapped jobs for the day. Katie had Mike Myers as a guest before Simon, and then launched into an AI parody, where 3 singers/volunteers came out and sang for about 10 seconds, and for the judges, you had Mike Myers imitating Randy with "Yo yo yo, Dawg!", and Katie had a wig on imitating Paula with comments like "You did your best, you look great, etc", and Simon said everyone was "dreadful, horrible, terrible. The last singer was Kelly from Destiny's Child (who didn't really sound all that good while singing, for real, a Martha Reeves song "Nowhere to Run to".

Groucho

Randy Jackson was on "The Daily Show" last night. He didn't really have much to say except for "Yo dawg, what's up?" He came off like a parody of himself. In order to end the interview, Jon Stewart literally had to tell him to "Shut up!"

TheAllPurposeNothing

I did the unthinkable this weekend and listened to the American Idol 2 CD.

After showering with scalding hot water afterwards, I've come to the following conclusions:

- Both Reuben and Clay are mediocre in the studio. Neither singer is able to really breathe life into their respective songs.

- All of the women are mediocre as well. Caldwell comes across best with her version of "Killing Me Softly" though it still isn't what I'd call a professional recording.

- The three best amazingly are Charles Grigsby (though he basically seems to be pulling a Trenyce by trying too hard to imitate the original), Ricky Smith, and yes, Josh Gracin. Each sound like the singles are ready made for radio.

Mind you...I'll never put the CD on again and I'd likely never buy anything from any of the singers. But I wanted to see if my suspicions regarding how well they'd carry over to the studio would hold up. And, for the most part, I was on the money. The best have already been booted, and Josh could actually sell on country and adult contemporary radio.

If I used the CD as a barometer for picking the next Idol (from the 3 remaining contestants), Kimberly Locke would win hands down. But that's highly unlikely.

BTW, is there a theme for tonight? To paraphrase Dennis Miller, if they reach any further into the celebrity guest barrell, they're going to need a bathosphere.

Patman

The theme is:

3 songs:

Judges pick
Personal pick
Random pick

goofee girl

Everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) in the office came to check on me after I burst out laughing at your comment. You didn't even have to describe the CD to convince me. I won't be buying it.



As for Josh sounding bitter on national TV... well... that wasn't a very brilliant move. You're off the show, you deserve to be off the show, move on with your life. You aren't the American Idol. Jeesh.

Patman

Plus, they have the AI Tour to go on after the show. But Josh might not be able to do the tour due to his "commitment" to the Marines.

Groucho

What is "Random Pick"?

Patman

Potluck pick? There's probably a short list of songs that the singers have to prepare for, and once it's picked, the contestant has to sing the song.

TheAllPurposeNothing

Don't get me wrong...it's not the worst thing I"ve ever heard (for that, you need to visit the 365 Day Project website...look up "King of Fuh"). It looks, feels and sounds like a marketing throwaway. Nothing entirely incompetent, but just about everything entirely bland and lacking anything distinct. Like a successful night at Joe's House of Karaoke. Absolutely no replay value. BTW, the group numbers esp reek.

But...I do think it is almost necessary to give it one listen to fairly assess the remaining contestants, since the end result of this is a recording contract.

Patman

Anyone know if there's a guest judge tonight?

das Monkey

I can't help but rejoice in the knowledge that this season is almost over. I don't know what sadistic urge compelled me to watch again, but I'm at the point where I just want it to stop before I have an aneurysm.

das

movieking

Oprah is having her American Idol show today. I just watched most of it, and it is pretty fluffy, as expected. It was filmed last Wednesday night after Josh got booted.

Big Quasimodo

Clay was on the local radio last night while I was driving home and he had an interesting bit of trivia:

In his group of "Finalists", he and 2 others were "picked". When they whittled down to 2 of the 3, he was not chosen. The other 2 were Kimberly Locke and Ruben Studdard. All 3 of the current finalists came from his group (Group 2).

Then they played a clip of him singing "To Love Somebody" direct from last week's AI show.

Groucho

I never thought about it, but that's right! Here's a link to our original discussion of the Group 2 show. The poll results are telling:

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...hreadid=269707

Patman

Clay was America's Wildcard pick.

TheAllPurposeNothing

Couldn't agree more.

Funny thing is that this is the first show in almost 17 or so years that I"ve been actively involved in. Haven't followed a show on a weekly basis since St. Elsewhere. Sort of decided I didn't want to get involved in something where I'd hate missing an episode.

So my wife plays this all season. I started half paying attention and now I find myself actually looking forward to the show each week. And to be honest, I don't even find it all that entertaining. I just somehow got to the point where I had to find out where this was going.

After next week, I"ll probably go back to my only sporadic TV viewing and I'll be much happier.

But until then...only five hours to go.....

mediabear

Thanks for correcting me. Now that you said that, I remember it. Sorry about that. We have a family member in the hospital with a stroke, and things are getting all messed up in my mind.

TheAllPurposeNothing

BTW, great review for the CD over at Rolling Stone:

Rolling Stone's review of American Idol 2 love songs CD

Pretty much sums up the whole affair nicely.

goofee girl

Excellent!!! Thank you!

Patman

There must something to the notion that Josh will make a decent recording artist because most people do praise his vocals on these AI CDs. It's just that his stage presence can be so goofy and tortured at times.

Jadzia

I will gladly go through life if I never have to see his "come here" hand gesture ever again.

It looked like a nervous tic or something.

TeeSeeJay

I'd rather see that than Trenyce's off-beat finger-pulsing on the microphone.