 Sunday, 14 May 2006
 Idol, final 3 contestants
I was kind of gratified to see Chris Daughtry knocked out this week; his singing technique works very well for a few specific genres, but not well for all the varied styles that the show has demanded.
Of course, everyone has an opinion -- here's a particularly fannish mash note to Daughtry, with the obligatory slamming of all the other contestants:
...the squishy middle has won once again. Daughtry was voted off the show this week, leaving behind three uninspired performers who may appeal to the masses but lack any distinctive personal style.
After weeks of patiently watching, obsessing and praying for Elliott Yamin, Katharine McPhee and Taylor Hicks to reveal some sense of personal aesthetics, there has been nothing but disappointment...
Daughtry glared. He glowered. He did the rock-star growl during which he looked to be at risk of popping his jugular. He wore cool shades. Oh sure, he was cocky. But he should have been. He was the best. America, have you no soul?
...In Daughtry, America had the opportunity to choose distinctiveness, confidence and cool. Instead, it chose bland and boring. Blech and blech.
This is a typical kind of rant that you would see on fan-boards, or on a livejournal, or on a blog (heh). But in this case, it was Robin Givhan writing in the Washington Post.
Yes, she got paid cash money to whine about her personal emotional investment in a reality show and stamp her foot over how the rest of the country must have absolutely no taste because they disagree. How nice for her. I would have thought that might go in the Letters to the Editor section rather than the Style News.
(Lots of people disagree about Chris' self-evident awesomeness btw... google "Chris.Daughtry goat" for a small sampling of one branch of dissent.)
Elliott's still who I'm rooting for. When he started on the show he wasn't very polished but he clearly had a lot of potential. In the weeks since, clearly he's not just been getting a lot of good advice, but working darn hard to put it into practice and succeeding.
At this point I think he's evolved to be the best all-around singer on the show (IMnshO), transitioning from musical style to musical style with real skill. Chris just didn't evolve enough.
Vote Elliott!
Music
Embarrassing The Nationals have had some awfully rough losses in the last week.
Last night in particular was a nightmare of a 9th inning -- we came into it with a two-run lead over the Braves, but then there was an immediate solo homer, the Braves loaded the bases with one out... Cordero did get a strikeout to make it 2 outs, & he looked like he might pull it out, but then BOOM, the Braves knocked out a last-minute grand slam.
And this is after a horrible last-inning loss two nights before, too... SIGH.
We keep losing games at the last minute; it's very disheartening. I tried to think of what would be a worse way to lose a game than this, just so I could comfort myself that it could have been worse... the most demoralizing scenario I could come up with was:
- Bottom of the 9th, we have a four run lead
- Opponents tie the game with a grand slam, game goes to extra innings
- we get another 4 run lead
- opponents then tie it up with another grand slam,
- then they load the bases again
- and with two outs, we force in the winning run with a walk.
That's about the most awful way to lose I can think of, and I hope to never see it; last night felt too close to it already.
(I shudder to ask, but... can you think of even more agonizing ways to lose?)
Update: Oh thank goodness, we got some dignity back today by smacking around the Braves, 8-1. Ha.
Baseball
1 comment(s)
Yes. Please, beat up on the braves. The Mets need all the help they can get!!!!!!!
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