(no subject)
Things are finally winding down in the lab to a slightly more reasonable level of crazy-making. Knowing that there's a little flexibility in my stopping / starting date between the two bosses is helping immensely; I postponed what would have been the third consecutive day of Easy but Labor-Intensive Science Assay some of you may see what I did there in favor of catching up on all the little things that I'd been letting slide. I'm splitting what would've been easily a twelve hour experiment into two days instead of one, for the sake of my continued sanity and also being able to have lunches and dinners at lunchtimes and dinnertimes instead of "not at all" and "at 10pm," which was the case the last two days. The new goal is to have the four major loose ends tied up by the end of next week, instead of by Monday, so it's all just a whole lot more reasonable.
I even got home by 6 or 6:30 tonight, which was great. I washed some dishes, and now there is American Idol. I decided to skip American Idol last week because of hockey, which I figured would have a greater chance of a fight breaking out. American Idol would be way more interesting if it were full-contact. Apparently the contestants had to sing recent songs and oldies last week, and then Colton was eliminated because God wanted to punish his hubris. Ryan Seacrest chastises us for not having voted for Colton so that one of the other [I've totally lost track of how many there are now] contestants would go home instead. Because don't you know, America, that this is going to be Queen Week??? And Colton would've rocked that shit? He probably would've, actually, but instead we're going to have to hear Hallie and Joshua instead.
The surviving members of Queen are actually the mentors tonight, so no pressure or anything. That one guy with the long black frizzy hair now has long gray frizzy hair, and they're both wearing quite normal clothing, although frizzy-hair needs to button at least one of the buttons on his shirt, please, he could be someone's grandfather. We get some boilerplate about communicating with the audience and blah blah, it isn't really so profound.
We're starting with a medley of Queen songs that (I assume) won't be the featured performances of the individual contestants, then? This medley is suggesting to me that tonight is going to be a huge disaster for many of these contestants. Even Jessica is struggling a little bit with the arrangement which, by the way, is 100% devoid of any kind of transition from one song segment to the next. It's like a bad DJ got up in here. It's a shame, too, because a couple of these are songs that I wouldn't mind hearing someone sing a full-length version of.
Jessica is singing Bohemian Rhapsody and suddenly FOX is broadcasting in black and white for added drama, or maybe they couldn't afford the RGB? Instead of the floating heads of the band members, we get three floating Jessica-heads on the backing screen, which is super creepy. For a second I'm distracted by the guy who plays the red guitar, but then we get a closeup and he's not actually all that cute after all. Meanwhile, Jessica has been singing, and it just really wasn't very impressive. I mean, that's a beast of a song to take on, and to condense it down to less than two minutes, it was just... nah. Not really enough energy in the performance or something. It did nothing for me.
Skylar is surprising me by being really frakking awesome at a Queen anthem! It's super dramatic and her vocals are hot. She could really have a career with this whole country-crossover kind of thing. Good on her. I usually don't like country music, but I've grown to really respect her as a vocalist.
Joshua is singing "A Crazy Little Thing Called Love," which I always forget is actually by Queen and not a 1950s doo-wop group. He's not awful, but he gets a little screechy on it in parts. Somehow it gets a standing O from the judges, but I don't really see it. My heater was running (in late April, wtf) so I rewind it to listen again -- yeah, still not as enamored with it as the judges seem to have been, but it was better than I originally thought.
Elise has the logo from Fringe floating on the screens behind her. I actually don't know this Queen song very well, but she seems to be doing fine. (I kind of hope that someone sings the theme from Flash Gordon tonight, because that would be kind of awesome.) In any case, Elise convinces me that she does, in fact, want it all.
Phil Phillips is throwing up a big middle finger to all of everyone by singing Fat Bottomed Girls. Since we've gotten no inside scoop on this week's mentoring, I have no idea what Jimmy thinks of this choice. And actually even if we did get some clips of the rehearsal, who knows; this may be all part of some conspiracy to paint Phil as a rebel or something. Anyway, the vocals are totally adequate. This is going to be my default reaction to everything tonight, apparently; I must be in a mood. Anyway, Aerosmith gets creepy and the rest of the universe gets uncomfortable.
Hollie is finally wearing something that doesn't make her look fifty years old. I don't really know this song all that well either, but she's singing well.
They get to sing a second time.
All the contestants are interviewed about Jessica's near-elimination a couple of weeks ago, and Philip comes across as a d-bag even though I'm 90% sure he's joking. So, wait, we're off the Queen theme now? Jessica is singing a ballad about wanting to dance with her father, and I'm nearly sure Freddy Mercury never sang this. Although anything is possible. Anyway, this is way more in Jessica's wheelhouse than Queen, and she sang it really well. But I wonder if she could be in trouble, going first -- so far away from the voting.
I got distracted by another window, but apparently Hollie did or did not call Skylar fat? WHATEVER, DOOD. Skylar is singing something much more country now, but it's unfortunately a little bit too low for her I think? I don't know. Vocally it is a little boring for me.
Joshua is singing really well on this one. I like him better when he sings the stripped-down arrangements.
I've seriously stopped paying attention at this point.
Elise is singing, but I can't even understand the lyrics much less figure out what the song is. It would help if I'd been paying attention when Ryan told us what the theme of the back half of the episode is (if he told us?) I like Elise, but she might be in trouble this week. Both of her performances were kind of just... nice but unmemorable.
Why is this show still two hours long?
Aerosmith actually gives great advice to Elise this week, using an oddball aphorism that even made sense for once. "You can't pick the cherries with your back to the tree."
I really get uncomfortable when they ask the Idols to talk about their competitors, because it's like they're trying to be funny but also they can't possibly really be friends so there must be some truth to it and all.
HAHAHAHA, I'm not 100% certain, but I think that Phil is actually singing DMB. Which is hilarious because that's the comparison that always gets made for him. It was a bit imitative. The judges really hated it, but this was kind of one of my favorites of the night. Maybe Phil's douchebaggery really comes from an authentic place? If so, I kind of respect him a little bit more than I had.
Ryan has a girlfriend? Who is a girl?
Hollie is singing The Climb, which I should point out is a song that I would not know at all if not for Idol, because inevitably someone goes there every damn season. Anyway, of the million or so Idol renditions of this song that I've heard, this is one of the better ones, I think. She gets a standing O.
Oh, apparently we're done now. I think Jessica or Elise will go home, which is too bad; I like them. But really, at this point, there's no one who is actually awful. They're just different degrees of good, and very different styles, so, whatever. I kind of wish the entire episode had been Queen-themed, although then we wouldn't have gotten Phil's DMB performance, which was honestly my favorite of the evening even though I kind of haven't really liked Phil that much up until now.
I even got home by 6 or 6:30 tonight, which was great. I washed some dishes, and now there is American Idol. I decided to skip American Idol last week because of hockey, which I figured would have a greater chance of a fight breaking out. American Idol would be way more interesting if it were full-contact. Apparently the contestants had to sing recent songs and oldies last week, and then Colton was eliminated because God wanted to punish his hubris. Ryan Seacrest chastises us for not having voted for Colton so that one of the other [I've totally lost track of how many there are now] contestants would go home instead. Because don't you know, America, that this is going to be Queen Week??? And Colton would've rocked that shit? He probably would've, actually, but instead we're going to have to hear Hallie and Joshua instead.
The surviving members of Queen are actually the mentors tonight, so no pressure or anything. That one guy with the long black frizzy hair now has long gray frizzy hair, and they're both wearing quite normal clothing, although frizzy-hair needs to button at least one of the buttons on his shirt, please, he could be someone's grandfather. We get some boilerplate about communicating with the audience and blah blah, it isn't really so profound.
We're starting with a medley of Queen songs that (I assume) won't be the featured performances of the individual contestants, then? This medley is suggesting to me that tonight is going to be a huge disaster for many of these contestants. Even Jessica is struggling a little bit with the arrangement which, by the way, is 100% devoid of any kind of transition from one song segment to the next. It's like a bad DJ got up in here. It's a shame, too, because a couple of these are songs that I wouldn't mind hearing someone sing a full-length version of.
Jessica is singing Bohemian Rhapsody and suddenly FOX is broadcasting in black and white for added drama, or maybe they couldn't afford the RGB? Instead of the floating heads of the band members, we get three floating Jessica-heads on the backing screen, which is super creepy. For a second I'm distracted by the guy who plays the red guitar, but then we get a closeup and he's not actually all that cute after all. Meanwhile, Jessica has been singing, and it just really wasn't very impressive. I mean, that's a beast of a song to take on, and to condense it down to less than two minutes, it was just... nah. Not really enough energy in the performance or something. It did nothing for me.
Skylar is surprising me by being really frakking awesome at a Queen anthem! It's super dramatic and her vocals are hot. She could really have a career with this whole country-crossover kind of thing. Good on her. I usually don't like country music, but I've grown to really respect her as a vocalist.
Joshua is singing "A Crazy Little Thing Called Love," which I always forget is actually by Queen and not a 1950s doo-wop group. He's not awful, but he gets a little screechy on it in parts. Somehow it gets a standing O from the judges, but I don't really see it. My heater was running (in late April, wtf) so I rewind it to listen again -- yeah, still not as enamored with it as the judges seem to have been, but it was better than I originally thought.
Elise has the logo from Fringe floating on the screens behind her. I actually don't know this Queen song very well, but she seems to be doing fine. (I kind of hope that someone sings the theme from Flash Gordon tonight, because that would be kind of awesome.) In any case, Elise convinces me that she does, in fact, want it all.
Phil Phillips is throwing up a big middle finger to all of everyone by singing Fat Bottomed Girls. Since we've gotten no inside scoop on this week's mentoring, I have no idea what Jimmy thinks of this choice. And actually even if we did get some clips of the rehearsal, who knows; this may be all part of some conspiracy to paint Phil as a rebel or something. Anyway, the vocals are totally adequate. This is going to be my default reaction to everything tonight, apparently; I must be in a mood. Anyway, Aerosmith gets creepy and the rest of the universe gets uncomfortable.
Hollie is finally wearing something that doesn't make her look fifty years old. I don't really know this song all that well either, but she's singing well.
They get to sing a second time.
All the contestants are interviewed about Jessica's near-elimination a couple of weeks ago, and Philip comes across as a d-bag even though I'm 90% sure he's joking. So, wait, we're off the Queen theme now? Jessica is singing a ballad about wanting to dance with her father, and I'm nearly sure Freddy Mercury never sang this. Although anything is possible. Anyway, this is way more in Jessica's wheelhouse than Queen, and she sang it really well. But I wonder if she could be in trouble, going first -- so far away from the voting.
I got distracted by another window, but apparently Hollie did or did not call Skylar fat? WHATEVER, DOOD. Skylar is singing something much more country now, but it's unfortunately a little bit too low for her I think? I don't know. Vocally it is a little boring for me.
Joshua is singing really well on this one. I like him better when he sings the stripped-down arrangements.
I've seriously stopped paying attention at this point.
Elise is singing, but I can't even understand the lyrics much less figure out what the song is. It would help if I'd been paying attention when Ryan told us what the theme of the back half of the episode is (if he told us?) I like Elise, but she might be in trouble this week. Both of her performances were kind of just... nice but unmemorable.
Why is this show still two hours long?
Aerosmith actually gives great advice to Elise this week, using an oddball aphorism that even made sense for once. "You can't pick the cherries with your back to the tree."
I really get uncomfortable when they ask the Idols to talk about their competitors, because it's like they're trying to be funny but also they can't possibly really be friends so there must be some truth to it and all.
HAHAHAHA, I'm not 100% certain, but I think that Phil is actually singing DMB. Which is hilarious because that's the comparison that always gets made for him. It was a bit imitative. The judges really hated it, but this was kind of one of my favorites of the night. Maybe Phil's douchebaggery really comes from an authentic place? If so, I kind of respect him a little bit more than I had.
Ryan has a girlfriend? Who is a girl?
Hollie is singing The Climb, which I should point out is a song that I would not know at all if not for Idol, because inevitably someone goes there every damn season. Anyway, of the million or so Idol renditions of this song that I've heard, this is one of the better ones, I think. She gets a standing O.
Oh, apparently we're done now. I think Jessica or Elise will go home, which is too bad; I like them. But really, at this point, there's no one who is actually awful. They're just different degrees of good, and very different styles, so, whatever. I kind of wish the entire episode had been Queen-themed, although then we wouldn't have gotten Phil's DMB performance, which was honestly my favorite of the evening even though I kind of haven't really liked Phil that much up until now.