Click here for my latest article. The day after "The Great American Songbook" show, Rod Stewart stopped by to sing a song.  It is really interesting to observe how effortlessly a veteran performer can sing a song in comparison to the young Idol contestants.  Rod made it look really easy to sound good. Next week's guest star/ coach will be Andrea Bocelli.  He'll help the contestants with "great love songs."  -I doubt that this Bocelli fellow was chosen to appeal to the...

Click here for my latest article. Tonight, the Idol contestants worked with Rod Stewart on the classics of American Standards. The performers on the show seemed to be more on their game than usual. Rod Stewart was pretty cool. He was friendly, approachable, and very humble. Of all of the guests that Idol has ever had, Rod seems like the one that would be the most pleasant to be around. (Barry Manilow probably isn't all that bad either.) The Performances: 1. Chris Daughtry ...

Click here for my latest article. The other day as I was browsing around the internet, I visited the American Idol-related website: votefortheworst.com.  VFTW was interesting.  There is a spot on the site where someone does weekly reviews of each episode.  Name, song, commentary, and a letter grade. Reading through those recaps, I was struck by how similar the style and commentary are to my weekly recaps.  Granted there are only so many ways to "skin a cat", but I was...

Click here for my latest article. So there it was, the American Idol episode that I've been waiting for.  The songs of possibly my favorite rock group: Queen. Sadly, tonight's show was plagued with a number of poor song choices and below average performances.  I wish that the contestants would have spent more time looking for a song to sing than simply reading the back of the "Greatest Hits" CD. I think that if some of the contestants (namely Elliot, Ace, an...

Click here for my latest article At the end of last night's Results' Show, Ryan announced that next week's theme will be "The Songs of Queen". Wow! What a great theme! There are so many good/ fun/ entertaining songs to choose from. That said: there are a few Queen songs that are simply dangerous to sing. Here are some of my thoughts on song choice for next week's theme show. Good Queen songs to pick: Crazy Little Thing Killer Queen Breakthrough Love of my Life Don't Stop...

Click here for my latest article Well after country night we found the  Mandisa , Paris , and Elliot  in the bottom three.  That was an interesting bottom-three, considering that each of these three would conceivably have the most difficult time with the country genre. Mandisa was there because her song wasn't very good.  Paris was in the bottom three because she has REALLY lost her spark.  Elliot was down there because he seemed traumatized on stage last night...

Click here for my latest article. Every year on American Idol, there are two theme nights that I enjoy significantly less than others.  One theme that I dislike is "Motown night", and the other one was tonight's theme: Country. It looks like I wasn't alone in disliking "Country night", as a number of the contestants didn't seem to be so thrilled with the theme either. The best news from the country world has to be Kenny Rogers.  He looks really good for a man of 68! (August ...

Some time yesterday afternoon, I started thinking about "Twin Peaks". "Twin Peaks" probably has to be my favorite television series. It is funny, dreadful, mysterious, creepy, scary, poignant, and enigmatic, all at the same time! Over the years I have spent a few days here and there watching the series from beginning to end. Each time I hope that it ends differently; but every time I watch, Cooper still ends up in the bathroom looking at Bob in the mirror. That still creeps me out! In ...

Click here for my latest article. Following a lackluster 2000-2006 themed show: Ace Young , Lisa Tucker , and Katharine McPhee found themselves in the bottom-three.  In the end, Lisa was sent home. Lisa's departure leaves nine finalists. It is a mystery to me why Lisa never quite caught-on once the competition moved to the big stage.  It seemed like she had a hard time defining herself, and her songs were never quite as good as they had been. Katharine's fall into the...

Click here for my latest article. Tonight's article will be a bit shorter than usual.  I had a really long two days of conferences at work, and I am looking forward to watching last Sunday's "Sopranos" before going to bed.  (Hopefully I will find time tomorrow to add to these comments...) Tonight's Idol featured the contestants singing songs from the past 6 years.  Compared to last week's gem of a show, this week's was a bit of a stinker.  Barry Manilow must have had ...

Click here for my latest article. After the 1950s performances, one contestant found himself eliminated.  Finding themselves in the bottom three for the second week in-a-row, Lisa and Bucky welcomed Kevin into the fold.  Ultimately, Kevin Covais was eliminated. Comments: Lisa Tucker: For some reason there isn't a lot of love out there for Lisa.  Maybe it is because she's a seasoned performer at 17.  Who knows?  She's probably 2 or 3 good performanc...

Click here for my latest article. Tonight's theme was "The 1950s".  Knowing that: I wasn't expecting much.  I was expecting the contestants to miss the essence of the oldies, or to sing an easy song poorly.  Surprisingly enough, nearly all of the songs turned out really well. The special guest star this week was Barry Manilow.  There were good clips of Barry working with the various idols.  (Barry seems like he'd be an awesome teacher, musician pitch-man, or sni...

There have been some good things on television lately. Last night I saw the US premiere of the 2005 series of "Doctor Who" on the SciFi Network.  Apparently this will be a weekly series until they run out of new episodes.  My verdict is: So far, so good!  This new guy who plays the Doctor now may finally get viewers to forget Tom Baker. Watching the show last night brought back good memories of watching the show as a kid.  I hope that success of the new series will enco...

Click here for my latest article. Tonight's bottom three were: Ace Young , Lisa Tucker , and Melissa McGhee .  At the end, Melissa was eliminated. Ace Young went on first on a two-hour show.  His song selection and execution were also poor.  I wonder whether this guy will get any better than his early "Father Figure" performance. Lisa Tucker sang a forgettable song in the middle of the show.  I also doubt that she has as many hardcore fans as the others. ...

Click here for my latest article. The theme of tonight's show was "Stevie Wonder Songs".  Hearing that, I knew that a few of the contestants would have a rather difficult time with the theme. Tonight's performances: 1. Ace Young sang "Do I Do".  This one was pretty below-average.  Although Ace had a few good spots, it didn't really seem like he could handle the song.  Grade: C 2. Kellie Pickler sang "Blame it on the sun".  Kellie wasn't enthusiastic ...