Class ran late, so I’m running a bit late. Oh, well. So the guys actually brought it last night, and put themselves back into the competition. Let’s see if the girls do a reversal as well, and thus…suck. But I don’t think that’s going to happen. (Oh, no, what if I just jinxed them! Uh-oh…)

Gina Glocksen
song: Alone
original artist: Heart

She didn’t quite power that last note as much as it could’ve had, and beginning was a bit…um…where is this going…but the first entry into the rock part was very good. And yeah, the backup singer was impressive, too. ;)

Alaina Alexander
song: Not Ready to Make Nice
original artist: Dixie Chicks

I think that was a better song for her than last week’s–I’m still not convinced she sings as good as she looks. I agree with the judges, the beginning was good (I really liked what she was doing with the melody), but then it ran away from her a bit toward the end. Heh…she and Ryan do make a cute couple. ;)

LaKisha Jones
song: Midnight Train to Georgia
original artist: Gladys Knight

Awesome. She is so naturally good, it’s like she doesn’t even have to try. Some people are just born to do this, and she’s absolutely one of them.

Melinda Doolittle
song: My Funny Valentine
original artist: um. lots. Frank Sinatra sang it in the ’50s, but I think it’s from Rodgers & Hart’s 1940s show Pal Joey

I love this song! And she sang the pants off of it! Damn, it’s going to be quite the race between her and LaKisha, isn’t it? This is precisely why I love seeing what singers do with these old songs–the songs are actually better-written, IMO, than most songs now, but because they are, they provide a lot of freedom for people to change them up without it sounding like crap. Plus, the singers have to work really hard to do something that HASN’T been done before, so when they do? Frapping awesome. Like this.

Antonella Barba
song: Because You Loved Me
original artist: Celine Dion

I’m going to go out on a limb and say she won’t be able to do Celine. Let’s see… Well, it was better than last week. Of course, that’s not saying a helluva lot. The high notes were actually the best, interestingly. Dude, Antonella? There is NO COMPARING you to Jennifer Hudson. I’m sorry. There’s not.

Jordin Sparks
song: Reflection
original artist: Christina Aguilera

Very, very nice. Really good song for her voice. I don’t know that she’s quite AS good as Melinda and LaKisha, but I like her a whole lot, too. She’s got a bit more vulnerability than they do, which is attractive for me.

Stephanie Edwards
song: Dangerously in Love
original artist: Beyonce

She didn’t wow me as much as last week, but that’s probably just because she didn’t sing first. I tend to think that although she is very good, she’s not as memorable as some of the other singers that hit the same kind of demographic. But, judging by the judges, that may just be me.

Leslie Hunt
song: Feeling Good
original artist: Nina Simone

Why does this song sound so familiar? OH RIGHT, A.J. sang it last night. Yeah, I still don’t like the song. She was better than last week, though. I’m not sure how I feel about the scatting–sounded a bit forced (and overlong), but I mostly liked it. I do really like the tone of her voice, though. She’s growing on me.

Haley Scarnato
song: Queen of the Night
original artist: Whitney Houston

Very much not crazy about the song. If we get a choice between that and “cabaret” I think I’ll take cabaret. “Leaps and bounds” better than last week, Paula? I disagree. You couldn’t hear her voice! But then, I tend to diverge from most of humanity on that point. Damn, I sort of agree with Simon. The sky is falling!

Sabrina Sloan
song: All the Man That I Need
original artist: Whitney Houston

This girl can sing. There’s something about her I don’t care for, though…not sure what it is. I think she seems hard, or something. Not a vocal thing, because she’s very good vocally, but a personality thing.

Best Tonight: LaKisha Jones and Melinda Doolittle (I sense I will be typing those names for a LONG time to come). Also Jordin, Sabrina, and Leslie.
Going Home: Antonella and Alaina. Possibly Haley or Gina, but I hope not.

Okay, boys. Time to step it up. Heh, I like how Ryan just snuck Sundance in there.

Phil Stacey
song: I Ain’t Missing You
original artist: John Waite

Not bad at all. In fact, I thought it was quite good.

Jared Cotter
song: Let’s Get It On
original artist: Marvin Gaye

I felt like he was a bit sharp through the middle, but by the end I quite liked it. And he’s so gorgeous. SO GORGEOUS. What? I’m watching freakin’ American Idol–I can be shallow.

A.J. Tabaldo
song: Feeling Good
original artist: Nina Simone

I’m not a fan of this song–probably because so many bad auditions have used it. But he can definitely sing, and did a really good job.

Sanjaya Malakar
song: Steppin’ Out With My Baby
original artist: Fred Astaire

Okay, Sanjaya, time to step it up. Dude, you will not believe this, but I was thinking like three days ago that this would be a fun song for one of the guys to sing. Honestly, though, he’s not doing it justice. He got a second chance last week, and he’s again being underimpressive. I think his voice just isn’t strong enough to compete here.

Chris Sligh
song: Trouble
original artist: Ray LaMontagne

Awesome. That was really, really great. I loved that 100%. He’s moved back to the front of the pack for me, I think.

Nick Pedro
song: Fever
original artist: Peggy Lee

I LOVE THIS SONG. And he’s got that 1950s-type style, so I’m mucho excited. Simon’s snapping his fingers! Nice. Not perhaps as wow as it could’ve been, but very cool. Aw, his girlfriend is cute. He doesn’t have a charisma problem as far as I’m concerned. But I can see that he might not appeal to everyone as much as he does to me.

Blake Lewis
song: Virtual Insanity
original artist: Jamiroquai

Hee. That was cool. He is very strategic in his song choices and style. I enjoyed it, and the beat-boxing was well integrated. I’m still not sure he’s got the best voice, but he remains one of the best performers. What is wrong with Simon this week?

Brandon Rogers
song: Time After Time
original artist: Cyndi Lauper

I still love the tone of his voice, but I wasn’t incredibly impressed by that. I don’t think he was totally there this week. OTOH, Simon? WTF? It’s appropriate for him to wish his dad a Happy Birthday ON HIS BIRTHDAY! Quit being a pill.

Chris Richardson
song: Geek in the Pink
original performer: Jason Mraz

I didn’t love the song, but it was really good, and on what sounded like an incredibly hard song to sing. I’m just not a Jason Mraz fan. Why isn’t he wearing pink, though?

Sundance Head
song: Mustang Sally
original artist: Mack Rice (also Wilson Pickett)

Okay, now that’s the Sundance Head from the auditions. I was ready to cut him loose after last week, but that was worth keeping him. Wow.

Best This Week – Chris Sligh, Chris Richardson, Blake Lewis, and Sundance Head
Going Home – Wow, difficult. There weren’t any that I hated. Well, Sanjaya may not be able to survive two dull weeks (though he does have some die-hard fans). Jared was weak, but he’s too hot to lose. And no matter how much I love Nick, I doubt he’s as popular with everyone else as he is with me. Brandon had a boring week, but he’s got such a lovely voice. Okay, time for real predictions: Sanjaya and Brandon.

Hee! Paula’s adopting the “touchdown” terminology from Australian Idol‘s Mark Holden. (At least, that’s who I first heard it from.)

And now I’m going to torture my intellect by watching “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?”

Well, my European Romanticism professor decided to perpetuate my bad study habits by giving me an A- on the paper I turned in last Monday, after writing it on Sunday night. He said overall it was the best group of papers he’s ever graded–no lower than a B+ from anyone in the class, so we all did awesome. Awesome, I tell you. There’s still nothing new in my paper, I don’t think, but apparently my talent for succinctly and clearly explaining things came in handy–I really think that’s where my gift is. Not in coming up with new insights or theories, but in communicating existing theories clearly to a non-specialist audience.

So, the paper is here. How did I do? The prompt was to discuss an aspect of the Romantic aesthetic as it appeared in at least three European countries (i.e., to what extent did the three chosen countries agree in their concept of the aesthetic and to what extent did they differ). I covered the idea of the sublime, using England, Germany, and France. Oh, and we had to do it all in roughly 2000 words; this runs 2100 or so.

Okay. I was going to live-blog the Oscars last night, but then I decided not to. It was going by pretty quickly, and it was pretty much all my friends and I could do to recover from each unfathomable choice in time for the next one. Okay, to be fair, the Academy got a few right.

I’ll put the rest after a jump for spoilers’ sake.

Click here to read on!

Man charged with three criminal accounts because he mistook a porn video for a woman being raped

Now, entering an apartment brandishing a sword (with varying degrees of violence depending on whose story you believe) may be a little eccentric, but I’m sorry. This guy did the right thing. He heard a woman screaming for help and went to rescue her. The fact that it turned out to be a porn DVD is irrelevant when it comes to his initial reaction. He says “Now I feel stupid,” but he shouldn’t. He did the right thing. Now he’s facing criminal charges, because apparently we’re more concerned about protecting porn guy’s rights to watch rape porn in peace than about the safety of women. What do you think this man is going to do the next time he thinks he hears a woman being raped? “Oh, it’s probably just a porn video…don’t want to get into that again.” What if it really is a woman being raped?

(via Boing Boing)

I spent the afternoon reading Langston Hughes poems (for a paper I have to write in two weeks), and wow. He’s apparently pretty Communist. Interesting. But then there’s this great anti-academic one (Hughes went to Columbia for a while, but hated it):

Ph.D.

He never was a silly little boy
Who whispered in the class or threw spit balls,
Or pulled the hair of silly little girls,
Or disobeyed in any way the laws
That made the school a place of decent order
Where books were read and sums were proven true
And paper maps that showed the land and water
Were held up as the real wide world to you.
Always, he kept his eyes upon his books:
And now he has grown to be a man
He is surprised that everywhere he looks
Life rolls in waves he cannot understand,
And all the human world is vast and strange–
And quite beyond his Ph.D.’s small range.

Remember when I used to be all about academia? Heh. Don’t get me wrong, education is great, and I love it, and I love school, and I love taking classes…but there’s a limit.

Grr Arrrgh. My webhost is apparently having severe database issues. Hence the lateness (and terseness) of this.

Interesting guest coaches this year…Gwen Stefani! Cool. And Tony Bennett, so we have a standards or 1950s-style night, which is good for me. I heard we were getting a Beatles theme–apparently it’s British Invasion now. And BeeGees, so we’ve got disco, then? Meh.

Click here to read on!

I’m posting some videos here for the interest of the other members of my Harlem Renaissance class. Thought it would be easier to maintain one post rather than multiple links to the multiple videos. Feel free to pass by and ignore if you’re not in the class–or not, it’s up to you.

The Colbert Report: Stephen Colbert’s guest, Debra Dickerson, claims that Barack Obama is not, in fact, black. Interesting counter-position to the editorial we read for class. (Obviously Stephen plays it for laughs, but I think Dickerson does a fair job of making her point despite him.)

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a video by a high school student. She’s interviewing black teenagers on racial perception, and includes a recreation of the famous doll experiment from the 1950s.

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30 Rock – This NBC sitcom focuses on a Saturday Night Live-type sketch comedy show, the Tracy Jordan Show. In this clip, Tracy and the only black staff writer (nicknamed Toofer, I don’t know why) are working on writing a sketch together, but they clash because of their different racial experiences.

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30 Rock – In another episode, Jack (the, uh, I’m not sure what he is–he’s the boss, but not of the whole network–programming director, maybe?) wants Tracy to entertain an important client, but Tracy resents that role.