AI7 recap, Finalists x 4 (05/06)

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame week. Two songs by each competitor and two phone lines for each. Before I even hear the songs, I predict it will be the 2 Davids safe and Syesha and Jason in the bottom 2. Ryan jokingly set the ground rules that the judges will give their comments after each performance this week.

Tough exit for Brooke last week. I really liked the tone of her voice, but I think the few mess ups hurt her. And can you believe she’s only 24? I swear she acts much older.

And just a word of note. I’ll be gone next week. My wife Kristin’s 95 year old grandmother passed away last week and we’ll be traveling to Hawaii for the funeral this weekend. But filling in will be a first time contributor, my manager’s husband, Jim Rutter. Jim has a highly distinguished literary background. He’s the co-founder and editor of TheBootleg.com, “The Ultimate Authority on Cardinal Sports,” the Stanford University affiliate site of Scout.com network, owned by Fox Sports Network. He’s also the editor of The Bootleg Magazine, which is a periodical covering Stanford University Athletic teams. In addition he’s an archivist of Stanford athletics at Stanford University. See what a world we live in. A Cal guy can hand over the reigns to a Stanford guy and it’s going to be alright. Believe me, you’ll enjoy Jim’s sense of humor and writing style. As in the past with Mike Rico, I’m leaving you all in good hands.

01 – David C., Hungry Like The Wolf (Duran Duran)

Whenever I hear this song, I think of “Hot Dog … The Movie” that bad ‘80s movie about competitive freestyle skiing. And the Japanese guy (appropriately named “Kendo,” I might add) doing karate moves out on the dance floor to this song. I looked the guy up on IMDB (his name is James Saito) and he’s got a long undistinguished bio. Sixty-nine titles of movies or TV shows, but most of them with non-descript names like, “Professor” or “Lab Technician” or “Anesthesiologist #1” or “Korean Man” or “Chinese Mob Boss.” Hollywood doesn’t see the subtleties between the Asian cultures. In Hollywood, a Japanese man can play any of the southeast Asian cultures, be it Chinese, Korean, etc. Back to David. I thought his performance was pretty good and thought he changed it up a bit. But my wife Kristin (and the judges) disagreed with me. Maybe it’s just because I like Duran Duran. Randy called it an okay choice. Paula had some scripted comment down and got it right without having to fumble papers this week. Simon called it good, but a little copycat. But said it would be good enough to get him to next week.

02 – Syesha, Proud Mary (Tina Turner)

Syesha really has changed her look. From her hair to her wardrobe and also to her stage presence. It’s like she flipped a switch and just “got it.” I attribute it to letting her hair down. Somehow that big mess of hair defined who she was and now that she’s let it down and straightened it, she’s been doing so much better. I still think she looks like Robin Givens at times. My wife Kristin thinks she looks like her cousin Marisa and I can see that. Most of you can’t though because you don’t know her cousin (insert smiley face). Randy said what a difference a few weeks makes and that she’s in the zone. Paula said she looks like a star. Simon disagreed and called it a bad, shrieky version of a Tina Turner song. I’m in between. I liked it, but not as much as Randy. But didn’t think it was great, but liked it better than Simon. Syesha’s had nine lives so far, but it would really be bad form if she goes home before Jason Castro. But knowing this competition, she’ll probably be the one to go tomorrow. Top 3 would be quite an accomplishment for her after her start. There’s no way she or Jason touch the two Davids though.

03 – Jason, I Shot The Sheriff (Bob Marley)

How painful was this song? It was right up his alley, being reggae and all, but it just sounded weird and he was bouncing around the mic quite awkwardly. Maybe it was because he had his guitar on, but it was not normal. Vote For The Worst has adopted Jason as their poster boy, so we’ll see what kind of influence they wield. My wife Kristin used to say that she would have a hard time listening to a whole CD of Jason’s, but now she can’t even listen to a complete SONG of his. Randy called it a karaoke Bob Marley and said it was nothing special. Paula said she’s never seen him perform to the audience more. Simon (correctly) said it was utterly atrocious and likened it to a first round audition massacre. Seriously though, is he the worst top 4 contestant to date? The only ones to come close are Nikki McKibbin in the first season and Jasmine Trias in third season, but neither of them were as bad as Jason was tonight.

04 – David A., Stand By Me (Ben E. King)

David rocked the Flock of Seagulls shirt tonight. One of my favorite lines in “Pulp Fiction” was when Samuel L. Jackson calls a kid “Flock of Seagulls” who had the new wave haircut in that scene when they also try the Big Kahuna burger. Anyway, David did a typically wonderful and technically sound job with this song. He threw in a “beautiful girls” line that I don’t think was in the original and I think comes from the 2007 song “Beautiful Girls” by Sean Kingston that samples from this song. I looked it up on Wikipedia, but I know that I’ve heard that song on the Sirius station “Radio Disney.” Randy said he’s (David) the one guy who hits the stage and tries to win it every week. Paula said he delivered on this. Simon called it a very good choice of song. He wasn’t in love with it but called it the best performance so far.

05 – David C., Baba O’Riley (The Who)

I really don’t know The Who, but I’ve heard this song before. But I thought it would be called “Teenage Wasteland.” This was another reminder that David has a stronger voice than you realize. He usually rocks things up and has a “contemporary” voice (my wife Kristin always says that of him), but he also has a strong, nice singing voice. I think he proved that on Andrew Lloyd Webber night. If David really shoots low and only aspires to this, I think he could be this generation’s Kenny Loggins. He could make a nice career out of rocking up old songs for soundtracks. That is a common soundtrack ploy. Get a song that everyone knows, get a fringe band (or Smash Mouth) to change it up and slap it on the soundtrack. I remember “Can’t Help Falling In Love” done by Lick the Tins on the “Some Kind of Wonderful” soundtrack. Randy said this was more like the David Cook that he’s grown to love. Paula spurted out some scripted comment that I didn’t waste the time to write down. Simon simply said, “welcome back David Cook.” He’s cruising into the finale in a showdown with the other David. This much I’m sure of.

06 – Syesha, A Change Is Gonna Come (Sam Cooke)

Syesha looked great in her gold dress for this song. She really took the words of this song to heart and sang it with a lot of emotion. My wife Kristin kept saying that this song was too big for her. I think that’s Syesha’s problem. She has a better than average voice, but she pales in comparison to the singers of the songs she chooses. And from a marketing standpoint, I don’t think she’s a fresh face nor does she have a unique sound to her voice. That’s one thing Jason Castro has over her. He is unique. But he also (he admits) has the weakest voice of the remaining competitors. Randy said he loved the first song but not the second one. He thought she changed it up too much and should’ve just left it alone. Paula gave her a standing O and it brought a flood of tears to Syesha. Simon agreed with Paula because if he had piled on Randy’s comments she might have really turned the water works on. The USA Today guy thought this song was the best of the night. I thought it was good, but not better than David Archuleta’s 2 songs, nor David Cook’s second one. She really deserves to stay another week at this point, but ultimately it might be her time. Honestly, 3^rd or 4^th shouldn’t matter at this point. If you don’t win, it doesn’t matter when you go, just as long as you stay long enough to make it on the tour.

07 – Jason, Mr. Tambourine Man (Bob Dylan)

Great song choice for his vocals. But he forgot the words and started humming a bunch. Then he was rushing. I think he actually finished the song earlier than the allotted one and a half minutes. Probably because he skipped so many words. What a disaster he was tonight. But there’s a chance he won’t go home tomorrow because of his popularity and subversive element (Vote For The Worst) support. Randy said he wasn’t in the zone tonight. Paula said something about a niche. Simon said to pack his suitcase. I really hope he goes home tomorrow so that I don’t have to sit through him butchering THREE songs next week.

08 – David A., Love Me Tender (Elvis Presley)

My wife Kristin called it a nice arrangement of a well known song. I really could listen to a whole CD of this guy. And I realize that he’s got some “Stage Dad” issues. Entertainment Weekly ran an article last week about the song selection process for Neil Diamond week and it was (predictably) not favorable for David’s dad. He was complaining about Neil Diamond’s voice being a fifth lower than David’s and it really portrayed him as a “Stage Dad,” but I guess I look at it as I’m listening to David’s voice and I can’t hear (or see) his dad being this demanding. I think it’s unfortunate, but I think David Archuleta is still the front runner and already have a little bit of cash on him vs. David Cook. Randy said it was another great song and that he had the hot vocals of the night. Paula said it was one of her favorite performances. Simon said that he didn’t beat the competition, he crushed it.

Top 2 – the 2 Davids

Bottom 2 – Jason & Syesha

So I’ll be absent next week, but will be back the following week to recap the finale between the two Davids.

Shortened DWTS bullet points

• Didn’t get to see most of it last night
• I did see Cristian and how he trained with one arm
• The judges gave him more credit for dancing with one arm than they should have. How could he have the highest score of the night?
• Without seeing any of it, Marissa’s time should be over
• Sorry, just didn’t have any time last night to watch