AI:5 - The King Is Dead, Long Live The King
That was pretty good.
Right up front, I’ve got to say that I’m more a fan of “young” Elvis than I am of “old” (or, if you prefer, “Vegas”) Elvis. I prefer the badass, sneering, Ed Sullivan-won’t-show-him-below-the-waist Elvis to the jump-suited, bespangled, syrupy-string-arrangement, (yes, I’ll say it) fat Elvis. If I may channel South Park for a moment, Young-Elvis kicked ass, while Old-Elvis sucked ass…
That all said, Elvis was, is, and always shall be the King of Rock & Roll.
The performances last night were, all things considered, worthy of this group’s being thought of as the “best AI final four ever.” There were a few minor missteps along the way (by each of the four, IMO), but none were significant enough to make tonight’s elimination an easy or foregone conclusion.
The worst performance of the evening, IMO, was given by Simon. How, on God’s green Earth, could Simon expect anything other than “karaoke” type performances when the songs were from the early-Elvis period? Those are iconic songs that are so well known & ingrained in the popular consciousness, that such a criticism ceases to have any real meaning, IMO.
Tommy Mottola did a reasonably good job filling the “coaching” role this week, considering just how high up on the food chain he is. Knowing his past with Maria Carey, however, I must say that I found some of his comments about Kat to be kinda creepy! Priscilla Presley… Well… Hrm… I just don’t know. She seemed nice enough, but YIKES! Someone should have told her that, just because Lisa Marie was married to Michael Jackson, she didn’t need to use the King of Pop’s plastic surgeons… But, enough of that — on to:
The Performances:
Taylor: Very entertaining on Jailhouse Rock & wonderfully evocative on In The Ghetto. I know he likes to perform & do the whole dancing thing, but when he sings & emotes, he’s just so very good…
Chris: Solid on both Suspicious Minds and A Little Less Conversation — understated, but without doubt solid & nicely done, especially on A Little Less Conversation.
Kat: She’s so classy, and even when she messes up (by, say, dropping a lyric…) she covers it nicely. She made a game effort to rework Hound Dog/All Shook Up, and pretty much pulled it off. And Can’t Help Falling In Love was sweetly powerful. Not her best, by any means, but still good enough (IMO) to keep her around.
Elliot: Objectively, I can agree that Elliot is hugely talented, and that he seems to be coming on stronger, at this late stage of the competition, than anyone since Kimberly Locke (AI:3). Subjectively, however, I just don’t “feel” a connection with Elliot. His renditions of If I Can Dream & Trouble were sonically very good, and the judges certainly liked them. I just felt disconnected.
The voting at Schloß TB:
Mel: Kat
Deb: Taylor
ghp: Taylor
I’m going to dispense with the bottom two prediction, a) because there are only four left, and b) because I really have no earthly idea. At this stage of the game, I think it’s reasonable to focus on who’s going home & why.
Going Home: Kat
Note: I don’t want this to be the result, but I just have that gut feeling it’ll be someone other than who I want it to be (i.e., Elliot). I think Kat is more vulnerable than either Chris or Elliot (and Taylor is bulletproof). I really hope I’m wrong, and that Elliot goes — but I don’t think I am. We’ll see…
Thank yew. Thankyewverrymuch!
-ghp
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AELLP & Dealing with Congregational Antagonists
Contention & confrontation is an unfortunate reality within any congregation. I know that it, or the threat of it, is at mine. Oddly enough, given my oft-times hyperbolic & polemical style, I hate confrontation. It’s one of the things that I really find difficult about being involved at a board/leadership level.
The latest offering from the Alliance of Evangelical Lutheran Laypeople (AELLP) provides a nice macro-level look at dealing with congregational antagonism, in the appropriately titled article, Dealing with Congregational Antagonists:
“The LC-MS is experiencing its own crisis at the Synodical level with those at the highest levels compromising, in the guise of tolerance and societal acceptance, many of the doctrines that Lutherans throughout the centuries have held to be true; such as closed communion, for only one example. Because of this, there is continual friction between those who want to change the practices of the Synod and those who believe that to compromise these doctrines is tantamount to betraying Christ.”
It’s definitely worth a closer read, and it’s also made available in handy PDF & newsletter/bulletin-ready formats.
-ghp
Outcast Genius
I can live with this…
-ghp
| Outcast Genius 91 % Nerd, 69% Geek, 52% Dork |
| A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia.
A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one. A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions. You scored better than half in all three, earning you the title of: Outcast Genius. Outcast geniuses can be very lonely, due to their being outcast from most normal groups and too smart for the room among many other types of dorks and geeks, but they can also be the types to eventually rule the world, ala Bill Gates, the prototypical Outcast Genius. |
My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:
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| Link: The Nerd? Geek? or Dork? Test written by donathos on Ok Cupid |
Ceremonial Highs & Lows
Over at Gottesblog, Fr. Eckardt has proffered a very useful & insightful posting on the role of ceremony in church, entitled Why ceremony?.
There is no doubt that Fr. Eckardt is “high-church” — something to which anyone who has read his fine journal Gottesdienst could easily attest. High-church ceremony has been under assault ever since the Radical Reformation. (Way to go, Karlstadt! :mad:)
I’m more of a high-church kind of guy, in case you were wondering… 
-ghp
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