Abyss of Silence

Thursday, May 22, 2008

American Idol Geek Out Time

Last night's finale was fantastic and surprising. First of all (drumroll) for the first time my pick won! Holy crap! David Cook has been my favorite since before the final 12, and I am so completely pleased he won. I was shocked thinking the tweens would win the day and coronate David Archuletta. Happily I was wrong. In fact I was so convinced that the wrong David would win, when Ryan Seacrest announced David Cook the winner I let out a surprised yelp.

RECAP OF FINALE EPISODE:

  • In General: This finale was much better than last year's show. Unlike last year, the two-hours seemed to fly by. The performances were, for the most part, fantastic. And there wasn't the glut of religious songs that plagued last year's god fest show. While I got sick of it constantly being mentioned early in the season, I must agree that this year truly did have the most talented group I've seen in the 4 seasons I've been watching.
  • Mike Myers' Love Guru: Mike Myers was on to plug his upcoming movie. I generally bristle at this kind of stuff but it was actually quite funny.
  • Donna Summers: She needed help getting down the main staircase, but the woman can still sing. She was great!
  • Bryan Adams: He was looking older and very thin but the guy still can't sing. Well, at least he's consistent.
  • Visiting hometowns: They had remote cameras at gathering places in the finalists hometowns. Those segments could have been easily left out.
  • Graham Nash & Brooke: I'm not terribly familiar with the music of Crosby, Stills & Nash, however the song Graham Nash sang with Brooke White was really sweet. It was folksy and right up Brooke's alley, who it was really nice to see again. I was bummed when she got kicked off.
  • Guitar Hero ads: I almost skipped past them on my TiVo but there were two Risky Business-esque ads during the broadcast for the video game "Guitar Hero". There was a version with each finalist. Funny, the Cook one had the sexy aspect, while the Archuletta one had the cute aspect. I mean since Archuletta looks like he's 13 years old, it seemed more like a little kid playing a video game when his parents are out to dinner or something.
  • You Are My Brother!: Instead of giving the lunatics from the early audition episodes a whole platform, this time they just gave one a chance to sing his song. Preston and I had a field day with this guy and his song, so I was happy to see him again. Very goofy, but the guy, though weird, seemed sweet and genuine.
  • Jordin Sparks: Last year's (not my pick) idol did a song. She was good but her dress was tragic. It looked like a gold potato sack. Surely she has enough money now to get her dresses taylored!
  • Gladys Night & "the Pips": Doctored old video of Gladys Night singing "Midnight Train to Georgia" with Ben Stiller, Jack Black, and Robert Downey Jr. as her Pips was cute.
  • Carrie Underwood: Blech! Enough of Carrie Underwood (another, not my pick). I found her country song attocious. It was the only part of the show I fast forwarded through.
  • George Michael: He was phenominal. As I had already mentioned to someone else he looked like Harry Dean Stanton with big sunglasses and a wig. According to Preston, he had a botched facelift or something. After I had gotten over the shock of the ravages that time and scalpel had on his once pretty face, I started to listen to the song he was singing. My goodness, it was so beautiful. He apologized about his cold after singing the song. Either I couldn't tell or it added to the raw quality. It was one of those tragic songs about growing up and being greedy and it's hard to love because there's so much to hate and all we can hope for in life is time. I got misty. First time I've ever been impressed by George Michael. In fact, I found a link to the performance. Judge for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZXE8Fohj8M

So the Pros of the night outweighted the Cons by a long shot. I liked the show very much. The intermittent group sings were fun and on the whole, it was a very enjoyable show. The absolute best was kept for last, the combination of George Michael and then minutes later, David Cook winning.

yay!

2 Comments:

  • George Michael has been everywhere lately, but I haven't seen his face clearly - always with those oversized dark glasses.

    He has a beautiful voice. I was a bit disappointed during his years of whispering songs, but this one, aside from the wonderful lyrics, had hints of his strong, musical voice.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8:52 AM  

  • Yeah, I know what you mean. My friend at work had the studio version of this song on his iPod and it left me cold. It was over-produced and breathy and soul-less. He could have been singing about bubble gum, no connection to what he was actually singing about. In this live version, it's more raw and touching and it draws attention to the fact that he really has a great voice.

    By Blogger Abyss of Silence, at 10:10 AM  

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