CI Top 4 Results

Yeah, it’s old news now, and really no big shocker that Dwight is off the show.  I was surprised when he made top ten, and kept on being mildly startled every week that he managed to hang in there.  It’s no secret by now that the CI voters like male rockers whether they can sing in tune or not.  A bit macho, a bit loud, and easy on the eyes makes for a top contender.  And being from Eastern Canada appears to help considerably. 

So I’m two-thirds happy with the top two.  I sincerely hope that Brian and Carly are in the final show, and then I don’t really care who is named Idol .  But here’s the thing.  I like/don’t like - Carly Rae/Jaydee for almost the exact same reasons.  They both have unique and recognizable voices.  They both have stayed true to doing what comes naturally and what they do best.  They’re both are just so dang smiley and cute.  Neither of them has changed much since the early auditions.  So what it comes down to for me is their respecitve genres.  Carly Rae music is way up there on top, and Jaydee music is pretty much rock bottom.  

I think the top three show will showcase the differences – not in talent or potential, because all three of them have tons, but in what very different styles we can expect from their respective cd’s.  I’m already looking forward to buying Carly’s.  I will avoid Jaydee’s like the plague. 

Which brings us to Brian.  What a diamond in the rough he has turned out to be.  Week after week he has taken the knocks and the trips to the bottom three and come back stronger.  He keeps getting better.  He’s a likeable guy with a fabulous raspy voice and a bright bright future if he gets the right breaks.  And unlike some of the others he’s shown that he has a lot of versatility.  There has not been a theme or a genre in which he did not do well.  He’s got the signature hat thing going.  Whether that’s working for or against him I have no clue.

Now picture this.  A Carly Rae/Jaydee finale in which they sing a love song to eachother.  I know, it makes me shudder too.  Then picutre a Brian/Jaydee finale and that would just be completely gay.  Haha.  And SERIOUSLY no contest unless we all lose our musical minds.

Whatever happens, I won’t be around for it anyway.  It’s been a strange season.  With enough quirks and craziness and predictability to keep me looking forward to the next one.  It appears there are some things I may never outgrow.  One more review to go, and then I’m outa here.

CI Top 4

I’m wondering why they leave the standards show to so late in the season. Perhaps they’re hoping that the few remaining singers will actually by that time be very good ones, and that the odds of having half of them crash and burn will be slight.   

Oh well. The best laid plans….  These are just kids after all, who probably have never heard most of these oldies, and wouldn’t be caught dead actually listening to them, never mind learning and singing them.  So it takes a talented and versatile singer to get it right.  Thank God there’s still a couple of those left in the competition. 

Carly Rae was definitely in her element, in the pocket and in the zone. It was simply delightful for us old grandma types to hear a couple of the lesser known songs from way way back in the day. My Heart Belongs to Daddy was cute and a little sassy – Zack wanted more sizzle, but I liked it just fine exactly the way it was. And yeah – those were some killer shoes! I Got It Bad and That Ain’t Good was even better. It is so completely obvious that the music and the lyrics are taken to heart and that to Carly Rae they mean absolutely everything. She is lost in her performance and it’s a beautiful thing. If this girl does not make top two, I will expect to see flying pigs on stage next year.

Jaydee was advised to be sexy and focused and put a NIX ON THE SMILING!! What we got for his first song, Fever, was a somber and subdued but rather disturbingly twitchy impersonation of Elvis. More like having a muscle disease than running a temperature. When You’re Smiling was much better, although a bit choppy. Kudos to Jaydee for having a bit of fun with the dance moves in the middle of the song, and for trying to follow the mentoring he’s been given. I was expecting him to be way worse but thankfully screaming and pulling my hair out did not happen as badly as anticipated.

Brian sang Mack the Knife doing the whole macho and aggressive thing and it was incredible. Doesn’t hurt that I love that song. And that he kind of looks like a young Paul Anka. Absolutely perfect song choice for him and an absolutely killer performance.  Feeling Good is one of those Michael Buble songs that I find gaggy, but I can’t fault Brian’s rendition of it. The judges seem sold on Melo sticking around ‘until the cows come home’, a Farley comment that made Jake go into panic mode and urge everyone to VOTEGODDAMMITT!! I’m sure that’s what he wanted to say, anyway.

And then there was Dwight . Oh my.  Picture a fish riding a bicycle. I Get A Kick Out of You was so seriously off key it was painful to listen to.  And he was looking all sweaty and like he might suddenly puke. You wouldn’t think things could go downhill for Dwight after that one, but they did. I would like to wipe that particular cover of Unforgetable from my memory. I think probably he would too.

So who should stay and who should go? What’s the theme next week? People’s Choice? I choose to have Dwight come back and redeem himself. I’ve had enough of Jaydee to last me several lifetimes. But I’ve been saying that since the top 7, so what do I know.

My Life as a Fake

 I don’t even know where to start with this one.  It’s a tangled up mess of characters with interwoven lives.  Sort of like real life, where maybe you can figure out who’s for real and who’s a fake, or maybe you never will. 

Christopher Chubb, a struggling poet intent on exposing the shallowness of poetry,  makes up a character by the name of Bob McCorkle, has him “die” young, and then invents a sister who discovers his work and submits it for publication.  These poems are published in a trendy literary journal and touted as masterpieces.  When the ruse is discovered it destroys the magazine’s credibility and drives it’s editor to commit suicide.  Mr. Chubb feels understandably pretty guilty and bummed out by this turn of events.  Then a real life flesh and blood Bob McCorkle shows up and takes the credit for Chubb’s poetic genius, and for the rest of his life Chubb becomes obsessed with exposing McCorkle as a fake.  What a tangled web we weave, and all that good stuff. 

The story is told decades later by Sarah Wode-Douglass, the editor of another poetry magazine,  who is drawn into the bizarre puzzle and agrees to record Chubb’s twisted tale for the chance to publish  McCorkle’s verses.   She adds her own commentary to the tale of casual cruelties and shocking crimes, and Chubb’s unceasing pursuit of vengeance and redemption, pondering the truth of what he’s telling her and constantly questioning his credibility and even his sanity. 

And that is just SO the bare bones of it all.  There’s also a girl who may or may not be Chubb’s biological daughter, stolen from him in infancy by – guess who – Bob McCorkle.  And if that makes you want to find out more, please read the book.  See if your head hurts when you’re finished.  

Brief News Brief

It’s exciting update my life time again!  HA!  (Not too much emphasis on the exciting portion of that sentence.)  I have actually been leaving my house on my days off though.  I know.  Hard to fathom that one. 

My pounds stirling are in at the bank and I’ve decided to get some travellers cheques in pounds too, because how will I ever know which is better if I don’t have both?  I’ve gotten so much conflicting advice.  I dream about what to pack.  How stressed out does that make me on a scale of one to ten?  Probably a 10.5 or thereabouts.  It is just not easy for me to think ’simple and uncomplicated, mix and match, layers, and wear things three times each’.  But the suitcase dimensions and weight restrictions don’t give me a lot of choices.  Or way too many choices.  It’s hard to decide. 

Yesterday I picked up croc sandals!!  How fabulous is that?  Open toed crocs.  I can now die happy.  And then I went to Penningtons to pick up a pair of black go-with-everything-non-wrinkle-take-up-no-room-in-the-suitcase pants.  Ummm, yeah.  That’s about the only thing I came away without.  They had this scratch and save thing and the saleslady (who appeared to be bored out of her skull, based on how excited she got at the prospect of doing the scratching for me) came up with 50% off for my purchases.  So of course I had to go through the entire store again and find double the amount of things I’d already selected.  Add to that my $25 coupon and I saved over a hundred dollars!!!  A visit to Superstore made short work of that.  I don’t know if money burns a hole in my pocket since it’s never in there long enough to find out.

W. has been working like a slave ever since he got back here.  Early mornings, long days, trips all over the place.  He leaves again a week before I do, and comes back two days after I’m gone.  By the end of September it’s possible we’ll finally have stuff to talk about to eachother!  Meanwhile, I have to act all grown up about getting my shit together for this trip and getting myself to the airport.  Once I’m in Toronto my sister can take over looking after me.  (We’re two of the world’s worst decision makers, so that was complete sarcasm, in case you missed it.)  Less than two weeks to go!  And still my list does not seem to be shrinking.  Good thing I don’t have to pack the damn list.

CI Top 5

I did watch the show, after much sighing about it, wondering if it would be worth the supreme effort of picking up the remote.  The idols singing their idols.  Ho Hum predictable. 

Matt (Stevie Wonder – Higher Ground) (Red Hot Chilli Pepper Version) :   He took Kelly seriously, got into it, and went seriously off key. It was fierce.

Dwight (Bon Jovi – Bed of Roses): I did not know Dwight could play the piano. That was the best I’ve ever heard from Dwight.  But he still can’t really sing.

Jaydee (Elvis – I Can’t Stop Loving You): That was loud and country, but at least he looked like he meant it this time around. However, I have never bought an Elvis recording in my life, and that did not convince me to to start doing so any time soon.

Carly Rae (Rickie Lee Jones – Chuck E’s In Love): I’m a sucker for the jazzy stuff so I found that immensely entertaining.  I would buy a Carly Rae cd.  

Brian (Karma Police – Radiohead): I hope I’m one of those grandmas that Zack was referring to who ‘got it’. Insanely good. Left everyone else far far behind.  Brian Melo for World Idol. 

Well – isn’t this nice for a change? Concise and to the point and not excessively bitchy? I must be sick. haha

This is now so seriously all about Carly Rae and Brian that any other outcome is INCONCEIVABLE!!!!!  And that’s it.  I’m over it and right back to not really caring.  Stay tuned for whatever assinine results come next.

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Oh my good loving GOD.  Jaydee gets to stick around (and do another Elvis impersonation) for standards week and Matt does not.  The world has gone crazy.  Some sources are predicting that Saskatchewan will now vote for the rockabilly kid,  but personally I think they’re a lot smarter than that and have a lot more class.  Fingers crossed.  (And yet, still typing!)  He simply cannot make it to top three without the show losing every ounce of credibility it has built up over the past five seasons.  It’s looking more and more like being out of the country for the possible fiasco of a finale is an excellent plan. 

To The Power of Three

The travelling  circus is back from their road trip.  I’m only making a bit of fun because of the various comments K and J made after the fact.  Let’s face it – travelling the equivalent of all the way across Canada with a huge trailer, three kids and a half grown St. Bernard pup could not have been a walk in the park.   Add to that the fact that once they got to their eventual camping spot there was still the various trips back and forth across the river to and from Camp Erika.  Not to mention the mish mash of relatives to contend with.  And then the long trip home.

I love this picture.  Corey hardly ever looks this worried.  Kale is doing a forced kind of cheery.  And Omayja – well, I don’t know exactly what’s going on here.  Maybe if I had two brothers, I’d feel like strangling myself too. 

This looks a lot more promising!  Not sure what was said or done that Corey found so hilarious.  Could be he’s just ecstatically happy to have a sippy cup full of milk.

The older kids are looking pleasantly relaxed and agreeable.  But for a baby, being in a straight jacket type of personal floatation device when you have no neck to speak of does not a happy camper make.

Do you think it’s possible that Kale was trying to inject a little humor into the photos?  Remind you of his mom at all??  HAHA!!  Or, if I dig really deep, I can remember his dad going through a period in his life around the same age where he always got the uncontrolable urge to cross his eyes when anyone brought out a camera. 

And this one – I don’t care if it was a little forced or not.  It’s simply beautiful. 

I know for a fact that everyone who saw these three was thrilled that K and J made the effort to get them there.  Corey left my house crawling and came back walking!  Omajya insisted on calling me ’grandpa’, but in such a sweet way it didn’t matter.  And Kale explained his play station to me in intricate detail and let me help him with some incredible art work.  And I was only a stop-over spot at the start and near the finish! 

I hope getting to know three of their beautiful great grandchildren made a happy memory for W. ’s parents too.  They’re an awesome trio.   

Picture Perfect

Wait!  We weren’t ready.  Okay, how’s this?

What are you talking about?  It’s a great face!  Well, okay, maybe you’ll like this one better?

Really?  Too fake?  A bit contrived?  Hang on, I can do better.

You wanted happy?  Baby you got it!!  And that’s a wrap.

Meet the Smockers?

Once again it’s a totally random close to fifty year old picture of some kids who may or may not have been instructed to line up from short to tall:  cousin Al, sister Ann, cousin Audrey, and moi, demonstrating how to look frumpy before you even hit your teens.  Those peter-pan collars and the top buttoned cardigans were all the rage.  Not to mention bobby socks and saddle shoes. 

And my sister’s dress has a smocking panel on the front.  Isn’t smocking a delightfully smoochy sounding kind of word?  My mother was a very good smocker and we had a lot of dresses like this one.

It’s a series of teeny little folds and intricate stitches, kind of like embroidery, but way more interesting.  Funny how we really did not appreciate how beautiful it was until we didn’t have even one smocked thing left in our possession.  Although it’s possible that Ann does.  She’s very good at saving things like that.  Probably even learned how to do it, the bag!  Always making me look bad.  I guess it’s not a lost art if there are pictures of it on the internet, and even instructions!  But I’m very content to admire it and it’s artisans from outside the smocking circle. 

And on a sort of related note, there’d be a lot less web sites about smocking if it wasn’t a mis-spelled version of the word smoking.  Smocking a pipe and no smocking signs put some strange images in one’s head.  Holy smocks.

CI Top 6 Results

I really did think the two girls would be safe for awhile longer, but surprisingly enough it’s Tara who goes home this week. 

So what does this mean?  Well, lots of things.

1.  All the people who vote for girls will now vote for Carly.

2.  All the east coast votes will now go to Dwight.

3.  All the ‘country’ votes will go to Jaydee.   Sigh. 

4.  Matt and Brian and Carly will continue to get the votes from people who vote on versatility and/or singing talent. 

Seems obvious to me at this point that Canada is hell bent on a male winner this time around, and that’s fine, maybe it’s time.  But sheesh.  Look what we’ve got to choose from.  Let’s give our collective heads a shake and promote the guys who have actually shown us that they work hard and can keep on getting better.  That list definitely does not include Jaydee.  His last performance was dreadful, the culmination of a steady downhill slide.  And the rumors of him being a little shit disturber behind the scenes and having actually been banned from the idol mansion for breaking all the rules starts to make sense.  Not really the kind of ‘fame’ the idol concept is all about.

Next week’s theme gives the top five a wonderful chance to shine since they get to pick their own personal idol to emulate on stage.  So get your shit together Jaydee, or party time is over.  Maybe pick somebody who hasn’t been dead for fifty years.   And deep six the twang.  That might work.  If it’s not already way too late.

Two Scary Things

I can’t remember where I found this picture, but I saved it because it is so deliciously frightening.  It’s the clouds, and the birds, and the shrouded windows.  And the fact that it’s probably an abandoned house, but, maybe not.  Could be there’s things in there that don’t bear thinking about.  Like bats. 

This, on the other hand - I know exactly from whence it came.  The Trafalgar tour book, the amazing Britain page.  And it’s scary in an entirely different way.  My trip commences in about three weeks.  THREE WEEKS!!  I’ve had months to prepare, but I need more time!!  Meanwhile, the other half of my brain is telling me to stop being such a stressed out freak.  It will all go by so quickly I’ll wonder what possessed me to spend such an inordinate amount of time deliberating on the size of a toothpaste tube.  Or obsessed by zip lock bags and socks.  What if my suitcase goes missing and it was all for naught anyway?  Hey?  Ever think of THAT?? 

I called the credit card customer service person yesterday to tell him where I’ll be, and when,  so that my card doesn’t get declined.  He told me to have a great trip.  So I guess I have to now.  Because the credit card guy said. 

So if I had to make a choice, spend 10 days in a haunted house or spend 10 days on a bus in a foreign country I guess I would pick the latter.  I guess.  Because there’s no guidelines at all for the former that I’m aware of, and the light probably wouldn’t be that great for photos in there.

Twenty four days and counting.  Yikes.