American Idol 2011 Top 12

This week’s theme? Songs from your birth year. Last week was a mediocre episode and Jaye and I weren’t even looking forward to this episode but oh well, we needed some background noise while eating dinner. Jaye and I predicted a horrible episode and we ended up having a horrible episode.

Now we ask... what's wrong with Steven Tyler? Did his scriptwriters made him memorized prewritten review points? At least JLo was making some sense (albeit not much).

Naima Adedapo
“What’s Love Got To Do With It” by Tina Turner

If you’re going to be bad, at least be interesting. This formula worked last week for her only because there were at least three others who were both and and boring. This week? She was so out of tune I had to switch to other channels to check if something’s wrong with the TV. The beginning of the song was terrible, she missed most of the notes and the ending was a disaster.

Unwatchable.

Grade: F

Paul McDonald
“Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues” by Elton John

He was like this drunk uncle in a wedding who hogs the microphone, sings violently and everyone just claps and watches him enjoy himself until someone plugs out the microphone adapter.

Grade: B-

Thia Megia
“Colors of the Wind” by that Pocahontas girl

Played it safe… really safe. You can see in her face that she doesn’t have the confidence (yet) to take on the competition. Last week, she tried to incorporate some jazz tunes into her performance and the jazzy part failed so this week, she went back into her shell, went back to her normal ballad range and did a decent performance. Good enough to survive.

Grade: B+

James Durbin
“I’ll Be There For You” by Bon Jovi

Good thing he was entertaining and confident because the vocals were just decent (missed a couple here and there). I hate to make him the lock to win this competition not because he’s good but because the rest of the group is just terrible. It's his competition to lose now.

Grade: A-

Haley Reinhart
“I’m Your Baby Tonight” by Whitney Houston

Took a gamble and played around with the song using both her sweet and raspy voice but she kinda tripped and was out of tune again. At least she wasn’t worse than Naima.

Grade: C

Stefano Langone
“If You Don’t Know Me By Now” by Simply Red

Great performance except for the last 2 seconds of the song. Did a fly enter his mouth? Once he gives a mind blowing performance, I’m ready to name him as the dark horse to win. IF he gives a mind blowing performance.

Grade: A-

Pia Toscano
“Where Do Broken Hearts Go” by Whitney Houston

She has the looks, the range and the guts to take on tough songs. She may be the best female contestant around but how does she rank against Jordin Sparks, Carrie Underwood, Fantasia and Kelly Clarkson? Not so good eh?

Grade: A-

Scotty McCreery
“Can I Trust You With My Heart?” by Travis Tritt

He’s beginning to be as predictable as sunrise. He has a country voice, sang a country song and will manage to stay another week in the competition. It will be interesting what he does on a non country theme week though.

Grade: B+

Karen Rodriguez
“Love Will Lead You Back” by Taylor Dayne

You wonder why she’s been holding back at the start of the song, intentionally softening her voice during the high parts and when she did try to belt it out, you wished she never did. Something tells me she'll do a JLo song first before James can do an Aerosmith song.

Grade: B+

Casey Abrams
“Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana

Glad to see him out of the hospital but a "rocker voice" is raspy in a unique and audible way. When they belt out, it should be loud but still audible. They don't screech. It looked like he lost a bet to someone and he had to sing a random song from his iPod.

Grade: B-

Lauren Alaina
“I’m the Only One” by Melissa Etheridge

Skit acting fail for both of them (Melissa and Ryan Seacrest) prior to the performance. The song performance on the other hand was actually nice. Maybe the flu did give her a little raspier voice but it sure worked.

Jacob Lusk
“Alone” By Heart

Oversang the song just like Jim Carey overacts scenes. He has a great range and picked a great song but sometimes you just want someone to sing it the right way. The Glee version is better for me and I hated that.

Grade: A-

Bottom three: Naima, Haley and Karen

Out: Naima

American Idol 2011 Top 13

Steven always likes it (or always agrees with Randy and JLo), JLo doesn’t make sense and Randy just seems to just go with the flow. I still think American Idol needs a gong, more contestants in bikinis and Ricky Gervais.

That tears it! I’m writing my own reviews!

Lauren Alaina
“Any Man of Mine” by Shania Twain

Picked a safe song and sang it in a safe way. She manages to give a decent but forgettable performance with the aim of just making it to next week then hopes that one or two people slip up and forget the words or something. It’s the best tactic in elimination reality shows though, just be faster than the slowest guy around.

Grade: B-

Casey Abrams
“With a Little Help From My Friends” by Joe Cocker

I guess Idol made it clear they don’t want any guitar playing soft rocker anymore and this happy guy may be what they’re looking for. I’m still waiting for that one big night where he ultimately shows his vocal range… or the night his beard gets tangled in the microphone head.

Grade: A-

Ashton Jones
“When You Tell Me That You Love Me” by Diana Ross

Didn’t like it. It looks like she was more focused on looking good on camera than nailing her notes. She did get the high note in the end but everything else before it was not so good.

Grade: C+

Paul McDonald
“Come Pick Me Up” by Ryan Adams

Came out with a marine uniform and looked really really creepy at the start. Jaye asked me three or four times if he was high and I didn’t have a good answer. Quirky has been overused to describe him and it will be interesting what he does in the upcoming weeks.

Grade: B+

Pia Toscano
“All By Myself” by Celine Dion

Great performance but again, you don’t want to peak in this competition this early. She could have danced the chicken dance, smiled in front of the camera, Steven Tyler would like it, JLo would cry and Randy Jackson would say it’s good dawg good and she still wouldn’t be voted out.

Grade A-

James Durbin
“Maybe I’m Amazed” by Paul McCartney

I’m surprised he didn’t scream the entire song out. He toned it down a little and gave a solid and confident performance. He still needs to separate himself from Adam Lambert (or according to Jaye - Adam Sandler... eh?).

Grade: A+

Haley Reinhart
“Blue” by LeAnn Rimes

Zzzz... huh? Song’s done? Why is Miley Cyrus on the stage? Oh wait…

Grade: zzz

Jacob Lusk
"I Believe I Can Fly" by R. Kelly

Three things Jaye and I were debating about: (1) whether or not he should concentrate on his low voice range or high voice range, (2) whether he should sing something more up tempo and (3) if you can fit three or four golf balls in his mouth.

Grade: B- (meh)

Thia Megia
“Smile” by Michael Jackson

Great start but terrible finish. Jaye told me if I wasn’t writing anything good about her, just don’t write anything at all.

(empty space)

Grade: uh… abstain?

Stefano Langone
“Lately” by Stevie Wonder

This song is for people who can reach and sustain the high note but instead he danced his way around it. He felt as comfortable as someone who’s trying to eat soup with a fork. (Jaye: wag mo awayin yan! Love ni Tere yan!)

Grade: F... as in "Fine..."

Karen Rodriguez
“I Could Fall In Love” by Selena

I quickly pointed out that she was sucking up to JLo since JLo played Selena in one of her movies. 5 minutes into the song and I gladly washed the dishes just to get out of the living room.

Grade: D

Scotty McReery
“The River” by Garth Brooks

The song’s great. Voice is smooth and he gave a clean performance but he violated one of Jaye’s rules: “Wag kang feeling pogi kung di ka pogi”. I still think he looks like Tucker from “There’s Something About Mary”

Grade: A-

Naima Adedapo
“Umbrella” by Rihanna

She was all over the place and I think at one point she even mistimed her breathing. She was fun to watch and she gave a complete song and dance performance but if you’re going to tire yourself out dancing, concentrate on singing first.

Grade: C+

Bottom 3 Prediction: Ashthon, Karen, Haley

I say Karen goes out, Steven likes everything again and JLo still won't make any sense at all.

Finally... my first Mac!

My old Toshiba laptop has officially announced its impending retirement. It has served me well, very well. I got it back in August 2006 from Best Buy along Clark and at that time it was one of the top of the line machines available. It had a huge 17 inch display, it used the very stable Windows XP operating system and it was ready if I decided to upgrade that time to this thing called “Windows Vista”. After more than 4 years of service, the speakers have disintegrated, disk space has become a constant challenge (it had 90GB of available space for personal files), the hard drive “clicks” every minute, it took 4 years to boot, 5 years to shutdown and a decade to defrag.

Now, I have my first Mac as I tread through uncharted territories (I’ve never even used a Mac before). Jaye bought me the best, the most powerful and the baddest 15 inch MacBook Pro available. I’m still testing all its features but I’m completely blown away by the specs alone. We got it from the Apple Store along Michigan Ave. and in addition to the laptop, she also bought a wireless HP printer. I know we went a little over the budget (by “little”, I mean it’s like walking from Chicago to Indiana is a “little” far) but it’s completely worth it.

I’m enjoying the Mac life so much the past few days. Thanks again honey! =)