Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts
By Alyce Wilson
March 31, 2005 - Happy Trails
Copyright
2005 Fox Broadcasting
Last night on American Idol, the bottom three were a little unexpected: Nadia Turner, Jessica Sierra and Anwar Robinson. Now, if it had been up to me, Anthony Fedorov would have been in the bottom three. He's a mediocre performer at best.
Admittedly, he has a great story. It's a miracle he's singing at all, since he had surgery as a child that doctors believed would make it impossible for him to use his voice. An immigrant from Europe, he's lived the American dream. Naturally, there are a lot of people voting for him. But it won't help him forever. I give him three more weeks at most.
Jessica Sierra ended up going home after Nadia was told that she was safe. Honestly, as much as the judges like her voice, I'm not at all surprised. Judge Simon Cowell was right about her having a likeability problem. Also, to use an appropriate analogy, it's like some who's extremely experience in knife throwing is competing in a rodeo competition for lasso tricks. For awhile, people may be impressed enough with her abilities to keep her in the competition, but eventually, they're going to have to admit she just doesn't belong.
Likewise, Jessica was competing in a pop singer contest and performing country songs week after week. Her song choices did her in. All she needed to do was sing more pop songs, even if they'd been done by country artists like Bonnie Raitt. But she kept picking country songs, and the audience wasn't there to support her.
Anwar, I believe, ended up in the bottom three because he hasn't grown in the competition. Initially, he seemed to have a lot of potential, but his performances are often uneven and he's not as comfortable on stage as many of his competitors. It's getting to the point where simple likeability is not enough for him.
As far as Nadia is concerned, she's my favorite female competitor. She's just so damn cool. Nadia has stage presence and a great voice, but she's no Fantasia. I don't see her winning, but I do think she's a strong competitor. It seems like the rest of the audience might not agree, seeing as how she ended up in the bottom three for two successive weeks.
Scott Savol, it seems, wasn't wounded too badly by this week's poor performance, no doubt much to his relief.
An interesting thing came up at the end of the show, when host Randy Seacrest asked the judges if viewers should vote based on one night's performance or on the accumulation of their performances. Simon insisted that people should vote on individual performances. Nice judge Paula Abdul was noncommittal, saying that people should always remember to vote for their favorites.
I don't quite agree with Simon. I think that, unless one night's performance is enough to make you decide a competitor is not worth supporting any longer, one week doesn't necessarily mean that person shouldn't continue. Many times voters have connected emotionally to performers and will continue to vote for the ones they like, even if their performance that week isn't up to their usual standards.
If a performer has more than two performances in a row that are weak, however, voters might reconsider.
It's really starting to feel like spring, although it's not quite warm
enough today for a spring jacket. This is good, because I don't currently
have one. I put last year's jacket up for sale at the local consignment
store and won't find out for a couple weeks yet if it sold. Even if it
didn't, I'd need a new jacket: that one is definitely too big.
I was hoping to get a little closer to my final goal before I bought a new jacket. Otherwise, it will be the same story next year. Fortunately, until I get a new one, I do have a vintage, one-size-fits-all knit poncho.
Of course, The Gryphon, who has lost about 20 pounds, is starting to require new clothes, too. With moving coming up, and with a busy April, I'm not sure when we'll get a chance to look, though.
Sunday we'll be meeting with our new landlord to sign the lease. In the meantime, I've started going through things in my apartment. The first task was going through the stacks of magazines that have been accumulating since I haven't had time to read them. I paged through them, occasionally tearing out an article to read later. I'll bundle them up for recycling.
When I'm done with that, I have other stacks of papers to go through, and shredding old bills and such. There's no sense in transporting things to the new place that I don't need or want.
After that, I'll go through the rest of my stuff with a fine-toothed comb, deciding what to keep, what to give away and what to sell at a yard sale.
The Martial Artist and the Book Lover have offered to give us some boxes once they empty them out. I personally have a lot of empty boxes stacked in the basement, but I know that The Gryphon might be able to use some.
Yesterday,
when I first started thinking of all the work ahead, I was overwhelmed.
But now that I've started, however small the steps, I feel more optimistic.
More Musings on American Idol:
Moral:
A country singer can't survive forever in a pop singer competition.
Copyright
2005 by Alyce Wilson
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