Okay, so I've gotten over it. Mostly I was upset because this has been a tough week, and I'd finally gotten done with everything, and had really been looking forward to watching the tape at the end of the road. Plus I was a bit upset with myself, as I probably should have known to check the schedule at the start of the week. (Granted, the fact that I'd been stressed and busy was likely one reason why it didn't occur to me to to do so.) Oh, well. I'll know for the rest of the season.
I'm thinking of starting a pool of my own, strictly for fun, starting either next week or the one after it. I have an idea of how I'd run it (it'd involve making predictions every week, and long-term and short-term picks would both play a role), but I need to do some math and see if the method I'm thinking of would make any sense. More details to follow, if I go through with this. If you might be interested in being a part of it, maybe leave a comment or drop me a line, just so I'll know I should bother. There'd be no point if I were the only one playing.
Anyway. As expected, I saw the first six performances before the tape ran out. Before going on in my usual curmudeonly way, I should say that what I saw has allayed my concern that this season wasn't going to be very good. I'm glad we're getting down to the better performers, I'm glad they're stepping up their game, and I'm starting to get enthusiastic about this show again.
Now that we've gotten the warm fuzzies out of the way... rather to my surprise, I was underwhelmed by LaToya's performance. This might have been due in part to the fact that I'd had high hopes for her going into this, but I wasn't even close to being blown away this time around. It made me wonder if I was seeing the same performance as the judges.
If the six I saw had been the only ones in the running, and I were voting, I'd have had to have gone with Matt. Good song choice, enthusiastic performance (if occasionally straying from singing to talking), and the only singer to have me dancing in my seat. Amy wasn't bad, Jon Peter sounded too pitchy to me (and what the heck was the point of that portrait?), Camile was the worst of the six, and Fantasia was Fantasia.
This I foretell: Fantasia will make it at least to the top four, but she will not win. She's certainly good enough to make it that far, and there are enough people who like that sort of voice to allow that to happen. But there are also enough people who really don't like that sort of voice -- myself included -- to keep her from the top spot. She'll probably get a record deal anyway. Speaking of which, K-Lo's album is due in a couple of months. I'm looking forward to it.
(On the other hand, note that the last time I used the phrase "This I foretell" with regard to American Idol, I was predicting that last season's Top 3, from Idol to second runner-up, would be Clay, Ruben, K-Lo. So feel free to take this with a grain of salt.)
...okay, I've now read the recaps. I'm sorry I missed Diana's performance; it looks like it was a good one. And I think I'm gonna skip straight to reading the results online, given that I'm missing that part of the show anyway...
(Ooh, Clay was on. Guess I'll have to watch that tape after all.)
Okay, Leah went home, which tallied with what just about everybody on the Foxes On Idol panel had to say about her performance. Jennifer and Amy were the others in the bottom three. Amy's the only one I saw of those, so I can't really say much otherwise, except that I kinda forgot to take the Hawaii hometown vote into account with regard to Camile. (And I suppose some viewers may be hoping to see more footage of her in that bikini if she stays around...)
Posted by Shmuel at March 18, 2004 1:50 AM