Posted on 05/23/2006 10:10:55 PM PDT by doug from upland
Dateline: Hollywood, California
May 23, 2006
The Kodak Theatre crowd was treated to great entertainment this evening by the two 2006 American Idol finalists, Katherine McPhee and Taylor Hicks.
Although it would have been more enjoyable to be on the floor, the mezzanine was still okay. One of my personal highlights of the evening was that I was in the Kodak Theatre, the home of the Oscars, and the stinking anti-American leftist scumbags like Alec Baldwin and Julia Roberts were not in the building. I was a little queasy however, knowing that they had been there recently.
Judging by crowd reaction and the comments of Simon Cowell, it appears that Hicks will be the next American Idol. The best performer they have ever had on the show, Chris Daughtry, was seated with his wife Deanna in the third row.
Hicks, appearing in a purple coat, and McPhee, showing a little less cleavage that usual, each did a reprise to previous numbers for their first two performances. They finished the evening with original songs written for them for the finale. Hicks won round one, McPhee round two, and Hicks had the superior performance in the finale.
The audience was introduced to other contestants, including Daughtry, Bucky, Paris, Chicken Little(yes, they called Kevin that), Mandesa, Elliot, Kellie, Ace,(who am I missing?). When Daughtry walked in to take his seat, the crowd erupted.
Randy Jackson was the typical Randy Jackson. Paula Abdul seemed to not be drunk or on medication. Simon Cowell actually wore a jacket over his trademark T-shirt.
Near the end of the show, the guy who was working the crowd during commercial breaks came up to the mezzanine. Mrs. DFU owes me big because I requested and he called down to Daughtry to stand up and wave to the mezzanine. Again the crowd erupted when he waved to the semi-nosebleed section.
After the event, we wandered around the area where reporters were setting up for interviews. After doing some scouting, I brought Mrs. DFU to the area where the performers were going to come out to greet the press. The three judges and two finalists gave interviews.
Mrs. DFU got Jackson's autograph and several pictures (hopefully, they will be viewable and be posted tomorrow), including a shot of Hicks from about two feet away. Yep, I sat back and watched my groupie wife really enjoying herself. She can sit back some day and watch me get excited over Tom Tancredo, perhaps the only man who can save our nation, other than the guys who will launch cruise missiles at Tehran and Mexico City.
For about 15 minutes, I had the pleasure to speak with a corporate security guard who was a 20-year veteran of the LAPD. He has worked with several stars, most of whom are very difficult. Although he has not worked with Streisand, from what his friends have told him, he would turn down the job no matter how much it paid.
Chris's voice goes beyond his sound. The depth of his character is extremely sexy and attractive to me. He loves his wife, and even his song choices seemed to be picked so he could send her a message and assure her of his fidelity. I'd be willing to bet that when he focused his eyes on the camera, he saw his wife at home, looking back at him.
My favorites of his performances:
Higher Ground
Walk the Line
Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman
Suspicious Minds
I remember Julia DeMato. I really liked her!
He was also one dimensional and was never able to broaden his base, which is why he got voted off.
I said quite early that I thought Chris would beat Taylor in the final round, but that Taylor's music would outsell Chris' in the long run.
I, too, was stunned when Chris was deleted. Under the heading "pop star," he was by far the best. Hicks is my favorite because he sings my kind of music, but something else I've been saying all along is also still true: a couple of Chris' live performances on AI could be released as-is and become big hits. He's that good.
Chris's CD will be the only one I buy from this season. To date I've bought Kelly Clarkson, and Kerrie Underwood. I will probably buy Bo's, but haven't yet. Chris's voice is amazing!
I guess I'm not much of a music expert, but performances that included I DARE YOU and WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD seems to make him more than one dimensional. But what do I know? I virtually never listen to music.
When he tried to do things other than rock songs, his fan base rebelled against him and put him in the bottom group.
That may well be true, but I was commenting on the one dimensional comment. I preferred things like Hemorrhage and I Dare You. That is probably what he will sell. It seemed to me that he showed quite a bit of versatility.
Is Meatloaf going to be singing tonight? I noticed him in the preview for the show last night, but they never mentioned him after that.
Yeah his fan base probably forced him to be one dimensional on the show. I think he'll be successful as an artist though.
I don't know. If so, Christopher Lee should intro the band again ---- "It's time to meet ---- LOAF!"
I'm going with Taylor Hicks myself.
Me too!!! I think he has been the most consistent throughout the season and besides I don't like to reward people for forgetting lines to a song and that is what Katherine did and she should have paid for it. Two better singers left before she did, Chris and Elliott. I can't wait until Ryan says we had the highest ever votes going to the number 1 winner and the least amount of votes in history going to the loser. Oh Katherine go sit down. It was a ride but you are doing and take your parents with you. This night is for the great Taylor. I would love that, but of course in reality Taylore will win and they will pity the Katherine who does not deserve it. OK, maybe I don't need to watch American Idol. LOL. It is the only show I watch and am shocked to be addicted.
I forgot I also watch 24 and House also....Don't want people to think I am telling a lie. lol.
I also watch House, and we've been watching "24" on dvd, we're currently on season 4 and have tried not to read anyhing about season 5. I wasn't impressed with last night's episode of House.
As for the idols, my 2 favourites this season were Lisa Tucker and Paris. I voted for Taylor last night, I did manage to get in 2 votes after trying for 2 hours. I like katherine, but for some reason, i want to see Taylor win. Don't know what it is about Katherine that,even though I think she's good, I'm not that enthusiastic to see her win, maybe it was her song selections combined with all the cleavage she kept showing that sort of turned me off. Lol, but I'm sure the men didn't enjoyed looking at all that cleavage.
I voted for Taylor ten times last night. My cousin's daughter and her friends were voting multiple times over the four-hour voting period.
If the Dems can do it in Philadelphia, you certainly can.
That said, I won't be surprised if KAT wins. She'll come out like a Vanna White spokesmodel in a low-cut dress and wave, and the Producers will crown her their new "Miss America", er, American Idol. And her singing deficiencies will be covered up by sound engineers, and they'll put out a decent record for the teens and young adults who will buy it in droves.
This competition will come down to whoever the producers believe will sell the most records if they clinch the title. The producers will arrange it that that person will win. That's my firm belief.
DFU--It was very nice of you to indulge Mrs. DFU and take her to the Kodak Theater to see her Idol, Chris, in person.
That's a great report. I bet the show was even more exciting in person.
And I thought I was lucky because I got to see it on my son's new 48" Plasma TV with high definition! HDTV made Kat look even more gorgeous; and it made Paula look pretty darn good too!
Really? The more I see of Katherine the more I can't stand her style. She has a sweet face and a nice tone, but she does some weird stuff that just makes me wince. I'm for Taylor mainly because I don't want Katherine to win. I would have prefered Chris, Paris, Mandisa or Elliot over the two at the top. But of those two, Taylor wins easily.
I agree. Chris was great. But I also think the actual sound of his voice was simply excellent, though some times more than others. I noticed an improvement after that classical singer made him lay on the floor and sing. Seriously. I believe his potential is even greater than we heard. But even with no improvement at all, he was better than the others.
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