A Disordered Book List

If there’s such a thing as death by reading, I guess I’m trying to kill myself. 

I’ve been in run-down weary mode for the past few weeks, and some days picking up a book and turning pages is about all I feel up to doing.  Not that I don’t do other things, like showing up for work and hanging around until it’s time to go home.  But that’s 90% obligation, whereas reading is 90% personal gratification.  Big difference.  Too bad I don’t get paid to read, I’d take it up full time.  Especially if it involved lying down and periodically losing consciousness.

Anything by Margaret Atwood is always an adventure in stark simplicity.  I know of no other author who can say so much with just a few small well chosen words. 

Moral Disorder is a collection of inter-related vignettes of intertwined lives.  Kind of like snapshots falling randomly from an album.  The stories are like pieces of a puzzle, and ultimately part of a bigger picture.   And if you never get the connections it doesn’t really matter – each piece is a treasure on it’s own.

The Spiderwick Chronicles was definitely an impulse buy.  It’s such a delightful chunky fat little book.  With great pictures. 

              

I’m a complete sucker for this kind of thing, and rationalized buying it by deciding I’d one day read it aloud to my grandchildren.  After reading it to myself first, of course.  Tony Diterlizzi and Holly Black don’t go heavy into the descriptions and the details, but maybe that’s part of the appeal for a kid, giving their imaginations a work out.  There are five books bound together, each chapter title beginning with the words “In Which…..” and three siblings who are kept busy jumping from one crisis to the next.  And there’s a happy ending of course.  That’s a given. 

There’s no natural progression here, or any method to my madness whatsoever,  except that this happened to be the next book I picked up.

It was off one of the bargain tables at Chapters and it looked like it might be funny.  A chick-flick in book form.  If that’s what you’re looking for, it doesn’t disappoint.  Quite a few laugh out loud moments.

And I don’t know, maybe a head full of fluff is not really something I can live with for long, because now I’ve started in on The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett.  And it’s also possible that these two books so close together are just too much of a contrast from eachother, because this one is proving damned hard to get into. 

For one thing, it’s close to a thousand pages and weighs a bloody ton.  My wrists are screaming.  But my brain says this is supposedly an extraordinary historic epic and sucking it up would be in order.  You wimp.  Apparently it’s chock full of information about the building of cathedrals, and that could get good, couldn’t it?  I’m still waiting.  I will slog on.  But first, perhaps I need a transition book to get me in the right frame of mind. 

So I’m also reading The Nine Lives of Charlotte Taylor by Sally Armstrong.  Who just happens to be Charlotte Taylor’s real life great great great granddaughter. 

The cover says “The sweep is epic, a romantic narrative filled with passion, rebellion, adventure, heartbreak, triumph, legacy.  It’s a heck of a story.”  The Ottawa Citizen would not lie.  And there’s no mention of any cathedrals so far;  that fact appeals to me, for some reason or other. 

And that’s how I’ve been exercising my brain cells lately.  At least one part of my body is functioning normally.  Well, maybe that’s a stretch, but you know what I mean.

    

AI Top Ten!

Don’t let that exclamation point fool you.  I woke up Wednesday morning and realized I had COMPLETELY forgotten about watching AI the night before.  So last night I watched all the performances on YouTube, and then went to the CI board to find out the results. And then I went to bed.

I’m such a fanatical ball of fire these days.

Here’s my abreviated summary.

Alone. Ramiele’s pitch was all over the place. Poor sick pouty little baby. Take a pill.  Once again she’ll get by on cute.

Fragile. I like Jason. The judges can kiss my ass. I will buy his c.d.

If I Was Your Woman. Syesha, as good as she is, often bores me to tears.

If Only For One Night. Chikezie – ditto the Syesha comment.

Every Breath You Take. I think the make-up people have done wonders with Brooke. She looked lovely with her straight hair. She sounded the same.

Queen Remix. Yay Michael! Awesome. I love Queen. 

Total Eclipse of the Heart. Carly is too good for this bunch and should be in the recording studio. I’d like to see her do something FUN!! Does Carly have a FUN side???

You’re the Voice. David A. Get the weight of the world off your shoulders and lighten up. You are too young for all this ANGST.

God Bless the USA. GAG ME!! gag gag gag. Kristy Lee makes me gag. Haha…..actually it’s just that song. She sang well.

Billy Jean. David C. is unf’ing real.  Sometimes I find him all mumbly and nasal, but he is never boring in his delivery. That arrangement was insane and could have been a complete bomb but it wasn’t.

I’m fine with the results. Not surprising that Jason was in the bottom three – he tends to do pretty much the same thing every week, although one week they love how laid back he is and the next week they give him supreme grief about it.

Syesha is beautiful and talented but so are a million other people. Maybe she should sing standing on her head…..

I thought Chikezie would be gone long before this. In fact I was kinda surprised when he made top 12. So no big deal for me that he’s done.

Easter 2008

I did not do anything Eastery this Easter weekend.  And I don’t know if what I’m doing right now should be catagorized under ‘just my life’ or ‘just now’.  It’s very hard to make this decision before actually writing something.  Okay.  Enough meandering thinking out loud, or on paper, or on screen or wtf ever. 

Of course there is a perfectly good explanation for my extreme lassitude the last few weeks.  Same old thing – I get progressively run down and despondent and to the point of down right snarly, and then my blood tests show a high TSH reading, which means things are not as they should be, and my synthroid dosage has to be raised.  So for six weeks I’ve been on 200 mg. (from 188) and next trip to the lab shows an even higher TSH reading!  So up goes the dosage again to 225.  I really really MUST start paying attention to this.  My doctor told me a TSH reading of 4 a few months ago was within normal range.  Now it’s gone up to 6.  So I’ve finally gotten off my lazy butt to do some internet research and find out that although acceptable readings used to be considered between .5 and 5.0, now they think readings between .3 and 3.0 should be considered normal.  And that could mean that whatever my doctor thinks is normal has probably been high.  And when I get down to a reading where I’m feeling healthy and energetic, he gets panicky and lowers my dosage to get that reading back up there around 4.  I think we need to have a serious talk.  I’d like to try for .3 and see how that feels.  Actually I’d settle for a 2 or less.

The things I’ve read suggest that you not just take your doctor’s word for it when he says “your readings are within normal range.”  Well, I finally clued in to that one on my own and got him to give me the actual number reading when he told me it was 4.  This has not been going on for just months, it’s been years of up and down and back and forth like some kind of bizarre manic depression.  I’ve complained about it on and off, tried different diets, more rest, less work, less rest, more work.  Diagnosed myself as merely getting old and ever more eccentrically crazy.  I dutifully make my trips to the lab every three months and take as the religious truth whatever my doctor tells me no matter how I’m actually feeling.  Next trip is in six weeks.  I’m so tired of it all. 

My dad has been to hospital with a bladder infection and pneumonia in one lung.  He is now back to the care centre and doing as well as can be expected for a man in his mid ninety’s who has been confined to a wheel chair ever since his stroke several years ago.  I think about him.  I worry about my mom, who worries about everything.  Worry keeps our brains active.  It’s in our genes. 

My daughter has gone through a lot of changes in her life since before Christmas.  Her stories to tell, not mine to blather about and get all wrong.  We’re here to do whatever we can to help and please God keep us from interfering too much, no matter how well meaning we may think we’re being.  Kenzie and her brother (here for his spring break) will be at ‘other’ grandma’s for Easter dinner.  Thus my excuse for not bothering with anything more ambitious than maybe some take out Chinese food at this house.

Everyone at work seems to be going through some minor crisis or other.  It’s hard to keep up my own personal worry level when there are so many others who all want a piece of me.  Absolutely impossible for me NOT to offer sage advice.  I have no clue why it’s so easy for me to satisfactorally solve everyone else’s problems (if they would just listen!)  and not my own. 

My solution, or method of ‘treatment’ for me lately has been to solve over a hundred jigsaw puzzles and play a gazillion scrabble moves on facebook and spend the rest of my time lieing around reading.  And then in my spare time I fret about getting our income tax done and co-ordinating holidays and where exactly the money is going to come from to purchase my new car.  Which W. insists will be therapeutic for me.  Well, not in so many words, but he’s so excited about it I must say it’s rubbing off.  Even though I know one of the reasons he’s insisting on buying it is so that he can feel perfectly jusified in purchasing a new truck next.  See, I’m not so stupid.  The little Escort owes us nothing – it’s been a great little car for getting me to and from work.  I will admit that something better will certainly prompt me to take more road trips, especially to the ranch up north, home of the most sportsman-like novice hockey player and his three and two year old siblings.  I miss seeing them. 

I’m also sick to death of our cat who is old and senile and constantly yowly.  I would just like him to shut up for five minutes.  GAH.  Somebody slap me. 

So Happy Easter!  Spring is on it’s way!  The snow is almost all gone!  Even if we get more it won’t stick around.  W. is going on a two week fishing trip to the island in May.  Our son is buying a pontoon boat for camp!  That is perhaps the very best news I’ve heard in months and I’m totally excited to get there and use it.  I might even take up fishing again!!  Well.  Best not to get too carried away.  But what an incredibly great idea.  And I have the fact of having both Kenzie and Kale together at the island this summer, and the promise of enjoying all of the grandchildren there soon, once they’re all old enough to not fall off cliffs and drown.

And I think that’s an entirely sufficient amount of demented rambling for one day.   

AI Top 11 Results

I really really hate reporting things in a timely fashion I guess.  But it’s never too late to make some kind of brilliant comment. 

Quite unbelievable that Kristy Lee makes her third trip to the bottom TWO and is once again declared safe.  Can’t say I’m sorry to see Amanda leave, though.  I think we’ve all seen just about everything she has to offer.  And her kind of “music” was never my thing. 

Carly in the bottom three borders on the ridiculous.  I suppose that was our mini shocker for the week.  There were many more deserving candidates for that spot. 

So what do we have to look forward to next show?  No countrified Beatle songs!  YAY!  Well, hopefully not.  The theme is songs from the year you were born.  So it’s pretty much 80’s week all over again, every one of them having been born in the 80’s except for Michael (‘78) and David A. (‘90).  Could also quite possibly be Kristy Lee’s forth consecutive trip to bottom two!  Woo hoo!!  There will be people who tune in just to see that. 

What I’d like to see -

David A. doing something young and fun. 

Michael and Jason and Carly all stepping it up in a huge way.  Although I can’t think how Carly could get any better than she already is.

Brooke suddenly realizing this is not the little Miss Sunshine pageant. 

David C. pretending to be humble while also being a little more serious and a little less rock.

Ramiele doing something that doesn’t result in half the audience becoming unconscious.

Chikezie, Kristy Lee and Syesha……I don’t know, being so forgetable that they all end up in the bottom three?  That would be an interesting development.  Or not.  Depending on how much you like or dislike surprises.  

Whatever happens I expect I’ll be watching.  And commenting and predicting and generally being opinionated and filling up my blog with inane blather.  What the hell.  It’s keeping me off the streets.

AI Top 11!

And here’s the top eleven!!

Thank God the Lennon/McCartney/Beatles thing can now be laid to rest.

Amanda – Back in the USSR. Another screeching stomper. It’s really all she does.  Might be fun to see in concert, but hard to listen to in your living room on cd.  I’m not sure if there’s an actual singing voice in there somewhere. 

Kristy Lee – Hide Your Love Away. Kristy seriously deserves another trip to the bottom three, hopefully for the final time, lest she be forced to make another unsuccessful attempt at blowing Simon’s socks off. Kristy, give it up. It’s not possible.

David A. – Long and Winding Road. Absolutely beautifully done.  It’s all about emoting sincerity for the littlest David, and the littlest fans are lapping it up.  Along with a whole whack of big ones of course, which will keep David in the running for many weeks to come.

Michael - A Day in the Life. Not a good song to shorten up so drastically and do without all the back up stuff in the original recording. Not a good idea to choose a song purely for sentimental reasons. I get the impression that Michael has lost his will to win.

Brooke – Here Comes the Sun. Can we all say CHEESE??? Gah. How completely unchallenging and gaggy in the extreme.  Lalala, I’m auditioning for the Barney show. 

David C. – Day Tripper. David was a bit too in love with himself this week. The voicebox was interesting, the rest was ever so slightly off key and the facial expressions smug. Get yourself back to surprised and grateful and humble David C.

Carly – Blackbird. WOW. Love the song, and loved how she sang it. Simon is on a roll being an ass, and keeps it up, just to keep things real for all the Carly fans out there who might be getting lethargic with their voting.

Jason – Michelle. He’s a charmer through and through. Not bad, not great; hopefully good enough to carry him through to next week. I mean seriously, he learned French. Give the kid a break.

Syesha – Yesterday. With only guitar to accompany it, her voice came through as beautiful and pure. Too bad the song has been done to death by everyone and their dog.

Chikezie – I’ve Just Seen a Face. WTF?? Is he taking advice from Kristy Lee? Turning this song into a country hoedown complete with harmonica was just plain weird.

Ramiele - I Should Have Known Better. This is Ramiele’s idea of stepping up the tempo? I’m sure she’ll be right back to the lullabies next week.

Predictions for bottom three: Kristy Lee. Amanda. Chikezie. Those would be my choices anyway.  Although I think they’re way too obvious to happen.  This show loves the surprise element above all else.  But I still predict Kristy Lee going home and taking up modeling as a career, horse training on the side.

Read read read

Time for some more breathtaking book reports.  “Pontoon” by Garrison Keillor was one of those books that I picked up at one time and tried to get into and just could not.  If it got borrowed, I didn’t miss it.  Then, following a long aging process in which it was tossed aside a couple of times and otherwise neglected, it suddenly became one in a small group of last resort books.  Those are the books that are still hanging around after everything else that’s good has been read and I have to read something.  So I read it.  If you’re in the right kind of mood for something like this, you’ll find it hilarious.  Kind of like a sit-com gone wild. 

Evelyn, a good Lutheran lady, leaves a note which is found after her death saying she wishes to be cremated and her ashes placed inside a bowling ball and dropped into the lake.  A veterinary aromatherapist returns to town to get married on a pontoon boat.  And a group of Lutheran pastors from Denmark arrives on an American tour.   Add a hot air balloon and a flying Elvis to the mix, and things get complicated.  There are some laugh out loud bits in this one – also like a sit-com, where you know these things would never really happen, but man, if they did?  They’d be seriously funny.

“She’s Come Undone” by Wally Lamb is a book that will make you laugh too, and then it will make you want to cry.  No book can have any higher recommendation than that.  Comical and heartbreaking all at the same time.  And with an ending that isn’t exactly happily ever after, but close enough.

“The Boys In The Trees” by Mary Swak has a central story but it’s told from several different points of view.  So at first it seems to be jumping around all over the place, but it all comes together in the end.  It’s a sad story, or series of stories, that explores the connections between people I suppose.  Alice Munro is quoted on the cover as saying “This is a mesmerizing novel – it can truly claim to be filled with a terrible beauty.” 

I’m just glad it was short.  Probably for exactly that reason. 

And that’s it for now.  I think I may have read a couple more books in there somewhere, but I don’t know what happened to them.  I lend things.  Sometimes I’m very surprised when I get them back, having mostly forgotten I had them in the first place.  And this is why I read so much.  To keep my mind SHARP!  Please tell me it’s working.

AI Top 12!

Good thing I don’t run a newspaper!  Big “F” for me on episode one of the final countdown to idoldom.  I didn’t watch the show (again) but that’s what Youtube is for, right?  I got it all pieced together more or less, sans annoying commercial breaks, and even stayed tuned on some of the videos to hear what the judges had to say.  Randy sort of gets it.  Paula loves it to death.  Simon finds it hideous.  Ryan blathers away.  Very very difficult theme this week and next – Lennon/McCartney stuff that’s all been done before many times by dozens of artists.  Could be a gag fest, or a snooze fest, or a time for brilliance.  One never knows. 

I’m feeling like putting everyone into ‘categories’ tonight.  So here goes.   

1.  People I fully expected to bomb, but they didn’t.

Chikezie!!  OMG, what kind of weird “She’s A Woman” was that?  It was crazy in an awesome way.  I did not think he had it in him to do something so original and fun. 

Amanda did her stomping around rocker thing to “You Can’t Do That” and it was a perfectly good stomping around rocker thing.  Amazing.   I still would never buy an album by her, and hope to never end up in hospital with her as my nurse.

2.  People from whom I expected great things and they kinda  let me down.

Michael doing “Across the Universe” should have been WAY better.  Not that it was bad or anything.  It was just kind of whatever. 

Same for David A. doing “We Can Work it Out”.   Too much praise too soon for this boy perhaps. 

3.  Personal favourite no matter what he does from here on in.

Jason, doing “If I Fell”.  I really don’t care what he sings next or how he sings it.  I want to buy his CD.

4.  Those who verged on brilliant.  

Carly!  “Come Together”. Incredible.   

David C.!  “Eleanor Rigby”.  He’s become a keeper.

5.  Those who do consistenly well and I can’t get overly excited about them.

David H. “I Saw Her Standing There”.  

Syesha.  “Got to Get You Into My Life”.

Ramiele.  “In My Life”.

Brooke.  “Let It Be”. 

6.  Those who tanked.

Kristy Lee.  Only because she turned “Eight Days A Week” into a country hoedown.  Seriously.  If you didn’t hear that one, count yourself lucky.

The bottom three were David H., Syesha and Kristy Lee, with David Hernandez going home.  Kind of a disappointment when one of the best vocalists is the first to get the boot, but if you’re not a stand out in other ways, that’s how it goes.  Syesha is good, but so are a whole lot of other singers out there just like her.  And the big question on everyone’s mind now is of course what Lennon/McCartney song will Kristy countrify next?  and can those country beatle fans keep her around?  Edge of your seat stuff, without a doubt. 

Letters To My Sister (#13)

November, 1980  

D. has at long last decided that she should keep her own name, because Alison is going to look exactly like her, and everybody will get them mixed up anyway, never mind having the exact same names.  Thank goodness we have that all worked out.  She has also decided that Alison can have her ’sleepy baby’ along with it’s 3000 piece wardrobe when she’s too old to play with her anymore. 

I’ve decided to get you a medical encyclopedia so that you can be as neurotic as me.  Every time the kids are the slightest bit feverish I rush to my medical book and fly into a panic thinking they have all the symptoms of some dread disease.  Then I’m always relieved to learn they’re okay and it’s only teething, or chicken pox, or croup or thrush, and all treatable.  I could go on, but you’ll see for yourself. 

Last night we had a mini crisis.  K. got clunked in the face and had an incredible nosebleed.  I sat him upright on the kitchen counter and kept putting cold cloths on his face and neck and rinsing them out and trying to calm him down and thinking I might have to take him to the hospital.  When the bleeding seemed to finally be slowing down I got out the medical book which said to do exactly what I had been doing.  Finally he said he felt okay and he thought it had stopped, and that’s when the room started to spin and I got a funny buzzing noise in my ears and was seeing little explosions of light.  I had to sit down with my head between my knees for a good 10 minutes until I was sure I wasn’t going to pass out.  Both kids were quite interested in how awful I looked.  I guess it was some sort of panic attack.  W. is always away when I have to live through these little dramas. 

I also broke my hair dryer.  I wonder if I can think of any more bad news to tell you. 

W. is off to Paulatuk for two days and we are invited out to supper for our anniversary on the day he gets back, and then he’ll be off to Yellowknkife for a week.  After that we should know if we have to rush around here like idiots getting ready to move.  Pond Inlet is on the northern tip of Baffin Island, just south of Bylot Island, and on a fiord and surrounded by mountains and ice bergs and neat stuff like that.  There was a program on tv about people who go from Toronto to Frobisher Bay on some kind of “Land of the Midnight Sun” tour, and of course all they see is a town much like Inuvik, by BUS yet.  Then it went on to show the REAL north, Pangnirtung, Pond, Resolute, etc.  Even as far up as Eureka, Grise Fiord and Alert.  I’m afraid we have our minds made up to absolutely love it there,  so I hope we aren’t disappointed.  And I must admit I’ve gone a bit crazy buying stuff just in case….like sewing supplies and yarn and a new bathroom set and extra vitamins for the kids and a bunch of paperback books…..things that I figure will be hard to get there. 

Thanks for the story by Stephen King!  How weird!  I really enjoyed it.  I also bought a book called “A World Full of Secrets” simply because it was written by Alison Scott.  With a name like that it just had to be good.  (She also wrote The Thorn Birds).  And I’ve just finished reading Heartbreak Hotel which I will send to you with the Christmas stuff.  Maybe you’ve seen the movie. 

I have ordered a really neat new clock to replace our chicken clock which W. can’t stand.  (I don’t know why.)  It fell off the wall down behind the fridge one day, and he was really upset when he discovered the damn thing still worked.  Aunt Jeanne and Uncle Murray gave us that clock for a wedding present!!  I haven’t had a lot of respect for them ever since.  HAHA!!  The clock I ordered has glass doors on it and a chime every hour and half hour, and a swinging pendulum.  Mom would find it way too swanky. 

I was cleaning out our closets the other day and found my earth shoes! Can you believe that?  I burned them.  Along with some clothes that I think W. wore in high school.  We are packrats. 

I bought K. a ken doll because he gets upset when D. won’t let him play Barbies with her.  So now he’s happy as anything dressing his doll  and taking him for swims in the sink.  I’m pretty sure he’ll be a normal boy someday.  Anyway, tonight he lost one of Ken’s shoes and I was looking under the furniture for it, and happened to say (out loud) “AW SHIT!”  Because I have not yet learned how to clean up my language around my kids.  So they had giggling fits and asked my why I said that, and I told them it was because there was a lion under the china cabinet.  Which made them hysterical.  Sigh.  I actually wasn’t kidding, it was one of the circus animals that goes with the circus train I sent to you.  I thought I had rounded up all the little pieces, but I guess not.  I also found a weeble – one of those little egg shaped people that I still am convinced a kid could swallow if they tried hard enough.

It’s great that Alison sleeps as much as she does!  D. never slept more than 6 hours at a stretch until she was nearly a year old.  And that’s when I was working.  Midnight to six a.m. no matter what we tried.  So I spent a year of my life as a walking zombie.  I put K. in his own room when he was 4 days old, but it still didn’t stop me from hearing every little noise all night long.  I was able to get up and run down the hallway and pick him up before he had a chance to open his mouth.  No wonder he was such a fat contented baby.  He just had to roll over and there would be his mother picking him up and feeding him.  It wasn’t until we moved here and K. was 18 months old that I finally remember sleeping through an entire night without getting up.  Isn’t that the most depressing thing you’ve ever heard?  I was still getting up whenever D. made any kind of noise until I finally realized she just made noises in her sleep.  And now, as W. will tell you, I could sleep through an earthquake.  He says 15 rip-roaring drunks could crawl into bed with me and I’d never know the difference.  It’s great.

The other night he was looking at some old pictures from before we were married and remarking on how cute and skinny I used to be, and saying that there was a time when I would have followed him to the ends of the earth.  Excuse me??  Isn’t that what I’ve been doing, and am about to do again??  It’s our ninth anniversary this month, so we’re getting all nostalgic for the good old days when we were both slightly thinner and considerably more sane.

BS on Idol (4)

Have to get this incredibly insightful commentary down before the results so that I’m not influenced by whatever is about to happen.  It’s fun to see how out to lunch my vague predictions can be.

If you were in the mood for some serious weep music, I hope you tuned in last night.  For me the girls’ show was over all just kind of boring, with all kinds of heart rending and gut wrenching emoting going on.

Asia’h - I Wanna Dance With Somebody. Hasn’t that song been done to death? And didn’t it sound like every other rendition you’ve ever heard?

Kady – Who Wants to Live Forever – also done to death. Please wake up from your trance and do something fun.

Amanda – I Hate Myself for Loving You – probably her best performance yet, but the yelling and stomping around isn’t really my thing.

Carly – I Drove All Night – the only real stand out of the evening as far as I’m concerned. She’s just so easy to listen to and watch, and like Michael Johns she sings the hell out of everything she does.

Kristy Lee – Faithfully. Very country twangy please-get-over-yourself seriously ho-hum stuff. She’s a good singer, but wake me up when that stupid song is done.

Ramiele – Against All Odds. This little girl takes herself WAY too seriously. What does she do for fun? Maybe she never has any.

Brooke - Love is a Battlefield. Zzzzzzzz. I like her raspy voice though.

Syesha - Savin’ All My Love for You. Gag me.

Once again I have no real clue as to who might be going home. They are all very talented singers. However, I think Asia’h and Syesha are a lot alike, and Kady and Kristy Lee are a lot alike, so maybe one of each of those two will be sent home. Amanda may have saved herself after being so horrible last week.I believe Carly, Ramiele and Brooke will be safe. The rest is a crap shoot. 

Edited to add:  The results are in.  If I get any smarter at this it just won’t be fun anymore.  Luke and Danny are out.  I predicted that!  Asia’h and Kady are also out.  I predicted that too!!  In not quite so definite a way, but whatever.   I am on a ROLL here!  So at last we are down to the top 12, and now the process gets ever more tedious as the contestants are eliminated one by one.  And the REAL BS on idol begins.  I’m giving up on these bracketted numbers titles and just calling it the top whatever number it’s at.  Sort of my own personal count down to idol interest oblivion.  But right now while all my favourites are still in it, I’m thinking it’s a very very good top 12! 

BS on Idol (3)

It was a good show for the guys this week, over all. 

I don’t think Luke can survive going first and having Simon call his performance weak and girly.  Sometimes to me he sounds like a lost Gibb brother, and I’m waiting for the harmony and back up that never arrives.  He’s never been horrible, but he’s never really been great either.  And the judges have consistently given him a hard time. 

Well, except for Paula of course, who is having a great deal of trouble this year making any sense whatsoever.  It seems hard for her to express even one coherent thought, never mind put two of them together.  Time for Luke to go home and get a new razor going on that stubble.

Little David A. needs to cheer up and stop trying to save the world one gloomy song at a time.  He seems like such a happy little person – I don’t understand why he keeps picking the serious stuff where he has to fight to keep that huge smile off his face.  Time for David to lighten up and be fun again.

Danny is a great big question mark for me.  I could NOT figure out what song he was singing until about halfway through it, and that can’t be good.  His moves and everything about him seems to be contrived and rehearsed.  Can’t warm up to that kid at all.  His pouty face for Simon helps not one little bit. 

David Hernandez is always a pleasant surprise with his rich and powerful voice.  But he sang a Celine song!  He sang it very well, but it was still Celine.  GOD.  Could they all just stop doing that? 

Michael Johns’ song choice and delivery this week were both excellent.  He didn’t have to strain to reach any screaming high notes, and he didn’t mess up the Breakfast Club song.  I like how he comes out and sings the hell out of something every week.

This was the first time I’ve truly liked listening to David Cook.  I think I finally get it, with his emo version of a pop song.  He’s a musician first, a singer second.  And I do have a soft spot for word nerds.  

I hope Jason Castro gets a record deal.  What he did with Hallelujah was brilliant.  Out of all eight performances tonight, his song will be the one that stays in my head for a week, finally bumping out ‘what a day for a daydream’.  In some ways I think he’s even better sans guitar, lights low and no distractions.  

Chikezie is a great singer, but also one I can’t seem to warm up to, no matter how sincerely he tries.  He’s just ultimately kind of boring.  There’s nothing new there, nothing that hasn’t been done before.  I can take him or leave him.  Makes no difference in the long run.

I believe the three at risk this time around are Luke, Danny and Chikezie.  I’m hoping it’s too soon to have some kind of crazy upset that has somebody’s fans totally freaking out.  Any one of the other five – Jason, Michael, and the three Davids not being in the top twelve would just be very, very wrong and incredibly disappointing.  So please get it right America – nobody wants a repeat of last year’s Sanjaya embarrassment.