Noooo they be stealin’ my bunneh!

(Via I Can Has Cheezburger?.)

AI:7 - Best of the (not quite as good as the) Rest

Stuff that wasn’t good enough to make the first edit? Wheeeeeeee!

General Observations:

• Well, commercials gotta be sold, right?
• I couldn’t bring myself to write about all the badness that they showed, because they packed an awful lot of suckitude into this last hour of open auditions…
• Simon got his chivalry on…
• Simon butchering names is comedy gold…
• This didn’t strike me as much of painfully long process as the past few have been, and that, as Martha Stewart would say, is a good thing…

The Good:

• n/a - but that doesn’t surprise you, does it?

The Bad-enough-to-get-me-to-write-about-it:

• Tiffany McCampbell - Winner, “Don’t blame all this on God, girlie!” sub-group. A gift from God? And she’s hearing directly from the Holy Spirit. Wow. That was bad. Bad. Bad. Bad. On several levels.
• Tar Heel Love Triangle - Winner, “Eeeeewwwww!” sub-group. Bohunky, beat-boxy, no talent, gangsta wannabe, dumbass whiteboy twins, a skanky blonde, and little toy dog. Damn, but that was über/hella lame. But it was kinda funny how she was willing to whore herself & her possessions (i.e., the aforementioned doggie) to get through to Hollywood. But, since she has no talent, I guess that’s what she needs to do. And then, to have the wondertwins throw her under the bus & diss her as skating by only on her looks.

The Indifferent:

• Amy Davis - Winner, “Hottie from the House of Hootchie” sub-group. Potentially really good voice. Nice back story. House of Hootchie wardrobe. She’s got all the necessary elements, at least for the Top 24.
• Cardin Lee McKinney - Winner, “Well, the red dress was nice…” sub-group. Theatrical? Yes, that sounds about right. Very pretty, but I don’t think we’ll see her ever again.
• JoAnne Borgella - Winner, “Plus-size models are still, you know, models…” sub-group. She’s got too much hair, but she’s cute & she can sing. Maybe not long for the competition, but I’m glad to see her through.
• Alesha Stelzl - Winner, “Dollywood has many career opportunities…” sub-group. I wasn’t going to write about her, until her audition turned into one of weirder (non-train-wreck) auditions I can remember. She can sing, after a fashion, but I don’t think she’ll do too well outside of Dolly’s milieu. Meaning that I think she’d probably do better off on Nashville Idol.
• Chikezie Eze - Winner, “Wants the Dawg to feel him…” sub-group. Not a bad singer. I didn’t remember him from last year, so in addition to not having Randy “feel” him, he wasn’t memorable. And he’s still not that memorable. Even if the Dawg felt him this year.
• Danny Noriega - Winner, “Persistence can pay off…” sub-group. Proud Mary? Slow? Why? That aside, he does have a decent voice. I don’t think he’ll do much in Hollywood, though.

7 Cities.

100,000+ Contestants.

164 Golden Tickets.

Up next: Hollywood Week

-ghp

AI:7 - Atlanta

Atlanta? Just peachy…

An Idol march through town, the likes of which Hotlanta hasn’t seen since Sherman!

Will there be another Clay, J-Hud, or Fantasia???

General Observations:

• The final audition city? w00t!
• Paula thought it’d be a good day, and looked loopy enough to believe it…
• Moms & Pops Seacrest representin’…
• They’re just now realizing that Paula can’t say ‘no’? I’m shocked! Simon’s right, it is unfairly torturing to be that indecisive.
• Suckitude ain’t Glamorous…

The Good:

• Asia’h Epperson - Winner, “Super Trooper!” sub-group. Two days after her daddy died? I feel horrible for her. I want her to be good - really good. And she is good. She could surprise in Hollywood, especially if her voice can translate into contemporary genres. It’s such a good story, that I hope it doesn’t get exposed (and I hate that such a thought even enters my mind…)
• Alexandrea Lushington - Winner, “Porn star name” sub-group. Very good for a 16 y/o girl. Nice look, nice sound, killer 93 y/o grandmoms. Kewl.
• Amanda Overmyer - Winner, “Hot, Harley-ridin’ Home Nurses!” sub-group. Down-check: Janis Joplin. Nice rocker-girl voice. And darned cute to boot. She is authentic, and that means a lot. She ain’t a poser, in a way that, for example, Gina Glockson or Connie Maroulis were as the “Rocker Chick”.

The Bad:

• J.P. Tjelmeland - Winner, “I’m sure Carrie Underwood regrets not hooking up, too…” sub-group. Good lord, white boys can be so damn pathetic, can’t they? A music major? In singing? It’s shameful that schools will take deluded kids’ money like this…
• Eva Miller - Winner, “Leggings are never a good fashion choice…” sub-group. Wow, that was bad. Bad singing. Bad acting. “This is not no joke!” It was so bad, I can see just why Simon thought it was a joke. And that it wasn’t a joke makes it just plain ol’ sad.
• Nathan Hite - Winner, “Being a combative smart-mouth always gets you through…” sub-group. Sometimes, 16 y/o boys can be really dumb creatures, especially when they are wanting to pose as anti-authoritarian smart-asses. There was a bit of funny in there, but a bit too much of the “lippy”.

Honorable Mention:

• Josiah Leming - Winner, “Homeless drifter-boys make me sad” sub-group. Never sing a self-written song, kids, because, as a general rule, only the nutjobs do it. While he was certainly nervous, I really didn’t like the faux British accent dealie he had going on. I guess he’s intriguing (as Paula said) enough, but I wouldn’t have put him through. He’s got a long drive ahead of him.

The Indifferent:

• Joshua Jones - Winner, “If they don’t want to see your eyes, that can’t be a good thing, can it?” sub-group. Interesting story, nice guy, despite the helter-skelter eyes. Won’t be long-lived in Hollywood.
• Brooke Helvie - Winner, “Pageant talent ain’t no real talent” sub-group. So very, very, very blonde. Not a bad voice, as these things go. Better than the usual pageant fare, but it won’t get her into the Semis.

Total for Atlanta: 20 golden tickets

Total Golden Tickets given out: 164

Up next: “Best/Worst of the rest” - the perfunctory recap filler show…

-ghp

Apple nostalgia

I get nostalgic quite easily. Always have. It’s not all that bad a thing, and probably contributed to my affinity with History & being an History major as an undergrad. That said, I do also tend to get melancholy at times, and that’s not always that good, when combined with nostalgia jags.

Anyway, of late, I’ve been getting increasingly nostalgic about computers. Someday, I’m going to attempt to do a more thorough rundown of the computers I’ve gotten, built, and/or used over the 26 years that I’ve had computers to call my own. The list of what I built & when, however, could be a bit tricky, though, as I’ve started to forget exactly what I built into the various boxes I assembled in the late ’90s.

The first computer that I really felt was mine was the Apple IIc that I got in August 1984, just as I was about to start my senior year of high school. I really, really wanted a Mac, but settled/rationalized that a IIc was OK because I could have a mouse with it, and might even be better because I could do my computer class (BASIC programming & such) homework just like at school (where Apple IIe computers were used). It wasn’t exactly what I wanted (I had bought into the Cult of Mac almost immediately upon hearing about the Mac), but I just wanted a computer with that rainbow fruit on it.

Years later, much to my chagrin, I found out that my father was surprised when my mom & I came home with the IIc instead of the Mac. He expected, and was OK with, my getting the Mac. The thing is, though, I was firmly convinced that he was dead set against the Mac, as it wasn’t as “practical” as the IIc. It wasn’t the first, and certainly not the last, time that I outmaneuvered myself!

That all said, I’m very fascinated by this Flickr photoset of someone unboxing a pristine, never-before-opened, 1988 vintage Apple IIc. Very cool. Very cool, indeed.

Now, I wouldn’t want to have that IIc, as my nostalgia doesn’t extend far enough to want to actually use one these days.

The same, however, cannot be said for the Mac SE that I got in 1988. Over the course of the next few weeks, I’m going to be putting the final touches on refurbishing that SE, so that I can have it up & running again in time for its 20th anniversary. I’m not looking to try and get it online or anything like that (I’m not that much of a masochist, after all…), but I do want to have it working & running just like I did back in the day. I have every intention of keeping y’all updated with all the gory details…

-ghp

« Previous Page — Next Page »