American Idol 9: Top 12 Studio Versions

.. and so it begins!! Here are the studio versions of this year's Top 12 singing The Rolling Stones classics. Of course, this one sounds better than their live performances but I have to admit that I was floored with it. They are all fantastic. Really. Even Tim Urban.

This is how I rank their studio versions for this week:

01. Lee Dewyze
02. Didi Benami
03. Michael Lynche
04. Siobhan Magnus
05. Paige Miles
06. Lacey Brown
07. Katie Stevens
08. Crystal Bowersox
09. Tim Urban
10. Andrew Garcia
11. Aaron Kelly
12. Casey James

Random Thoughts: Lee's recording is impressive. I never liked the fact that he can't really stay on pitch live but he sounds amazing in this studio version. I suspect he'll be this year's Jason Castro - somewhat shaky live performances, but a wonderful recording artist with a truly lovely tone. Didi, on the other hand, loses some of the live version’s slinkyness but still very good. As for Lacey Brown, with the pitch problems cleaned up, the recorded version is a big improvement.

STUDIO VERSION
Michael Lynche: Miss You
Didi Benami: Play With Fire
Casey James: It's All Over
Lacey Brown: Ruby Tuesday
Andrew Garcia: Gimme Shelter
Katie Stevens: Wild Horses
Tim Urban: Under My Thumb
Siobhan Magnus: Paint It Black
Lee Dewyze: Beast Of Burden
Paige Miles: Honky Tonk Women
Aaron Kelly: Angie
Crystal Bowersox: You Can't Always Get What You Want

LIVE VERSION
Michael Lynche: Miss You
Didi Benami: Play With Fire
Casey James: It's All Over
Lacey Brown: Ruby Tuesday
Andrew Garcia: Gimme Shelter
Katie Stevens: Wild Horses
Tim Urban: Under My Thumb
Siobhan Magnus: Paint It Black
Lee Dewyze: Beast Of Burden
Paige Miles: Honky Tonk Women
Aaron Kelly: Angie
Crystal Bowersox: You Can't Always Get What You Want

American Idol 9: Top 12 Results Show

Lacey Brown. A girl who should be very proud of where she finished. I mean, she manage to make the final round of the competition after delivering only one good performance in the semi-finals. Her first week was a aweful, and her second was a mild improvement, but her third week at least made America realize she was talented. Now, was her performance this week worthy of getting eliminated? No. But, she was forgettable and that is a sin worse than murder on this program. Oh well. Good riddance Lacey!

Well, after a ridiculous results show last week - where Alex Lambert and Katelyn Epperly got the boot - America has finally made a rational decision. The result wasn’t very shocking, but it was interesting to see Tim part of the bottom three, even if it was for just a few seconds.

Now, as for some observations and comments on the results show..

• The sweet “Dream” beginning was kind of cool, but then things started getting weird. I don't know.
• The dramatic opening would also suggest that this is the best Top 12 ever! NOT! But still, good job editing team, you really made me believe such an outrageous untruth.
• Wait, the judges save is back?! Oh no!
• David Cook was phenomenal! Take note Season 9! That's how you cover a Rolling Stones classic.
• The Ford commercial went by very quickly, but it was pretty interesting.
• The kids design their own cars and I’d love a car with big ugly paint splattered all over it. Genius!
• Orianthi  is a fantastic guitar player! And that's about it!
• So, Ke$ha is everything that is wrong with modern music.
• I've decided, that every time the music industry decides to make fun of the artists American Idol produces - Clarkson, Underwood, Daughtry, Cook, and company - I'm going to show them a video of this episode where David Cook, an American Idol, made two popular artists look like amateurs.

SAFE:

Lee Dewyze

Siobhan Magnus

Aaron Kelly

Andrew Garcia

Didi Benami

Crystal Bowersox

Katie Stevens

Mike Lynch

Casey James

BOTTOM 3:

Paige Miles safe

Tim Urban safe

Lacey Brown

American Idol 9: Top 12

Let the Top 12 performance night begin!

Time flies so fast! Now, we are in the finals and this week the Top 12 came out swinging with songs from The Rolling Stones! No major trainwrecks but I was mostly bored tonight. Sigh.

But, besides the uneven performances tonight, what else caught my attention? Well, the judges were a mixed bag tonight. Ellen's one liners were hilarious. Simon was uncomfortably giddy. Randy was useless. And I swear, Kara invented annoying! I'm almost positive of it.

Also, another common theme I noticed was that almost all contestants are working their I-am-from-a-small -town credentials. Yes, we are aware that America loves seeing contestants coming from somewhere unknown and making it in the big city, but everyone?! Seriously?

Anyway, let’s get to the rankings!

12. Tim Urban
Under My Thumb
Somehow, I kind of liked this Jason Mraz, almost reggae-ish vibe from Tim. That said, while watching his performance, I couldn't help but relive Kristy Lee's train wreck performance of 8 Days a Week. I mean, it wasn't as bad but it was just as weird. It also didn't feel like Tim connected to what he was singing. I didn't mind that him changing most of the melody to suit his - limited - style but that just full of FAIL. And tell me, I'm just a little confused though as to why Todrick didn't get that kind of comment from Kara about changing the melody up. Seriously.

11. Aaron Kelly
Angie
Ok. So, Aaron's mom's name is Kelly, which makes her Kelly Kelly? Haha. Too funny. So, is he gonna keep killing us with these tender ballads? Sorry. Nice kid, but he's just mind-numbingly boring. Sure, he wasn't half bad vocally but I saw nothing special with that performance. He looked like a baby possum with scared eyes. He's just like Justin Bieber - cannot take him seriously.

10. Andrew Garcia
Gimme Shelter
Dude, what happened? He's not good anymore. Such a shame! I love the tone of his voice, and he's technically one of the better singers this season but he now obviously lost his mojo. He did sing it pretty by the numbers but it wasn't brilliant. To me, his version lacked the amazing introduction riff that it needed to make an impact. He needed the backing vocals to belt out the chorus of the song and he can't go low on that, at least not without an extensive background singers. No phrasing. No modulatin. Nothing. This was upsetting. I haven't really enjoyed Andrew since Hollywood week, and I'm tired of hoping he will be.

09. Lacey Brown
Ruby Tuesday
I just cant get into Lacey's voice. I don't know. I thought she sounded thin and whiny on that song. Don't get me wrong, I think Lacey has an interesting voice I could imagine hearing on the radio, but her voice was just so weak live that I don’t know how much musical sense she has. I definitely don’t even think she has any idea of who she is as an artist. I thought Ellen’s critique on Lacey was spot on – talk about someone not using the stage properly. Lacey, missed opportunity. Possibly going home.

08. Casey James
It's All Over Now
If I liked country music I'd probably enjoy this performance more. But I'm not so I didn't. Haha. Yes. He clearly has a nice voice and he plays his guitar really well, but he needs to move around more on stage. Seriously. The stage is way to big for him to just stand there and sing. To me, he really needs to push himself more than just looking good. I think he's slacking off, like it was just good enough to do the bare minimum. Good guitar playing but the rest was not that exciting. This isn't Guitar Idol! And in my opinion, that was the only good thing about his performance.  Oh, and CASEY!! You need to finish your phrases! What is wrong with you?

07. Paige Miles
Honky Tonk Women
It's about time! I thought Paige brought it this week! Is there a way to give her laryngitis every week? Haha. Tonight, I was actually able to hear a lot more of her potential and vocal talent. Right at the end, Allison Iraheta even popped into my mind when she belted out one of the notes. Interesting.  That said, she is too uneven of a performer to last very long in this competition and still doesn’t seem to have displayed even a little bit of her personality. So I'm not sure about her chances.

06. Michael Lynche
Miss You
Michael has a baby?! Shocker. Just when I thought Big Mike is slowly winning me over, he pulls that baby exposure again. Stop it already! Geez. Vocally, it was pretty good as his R&B take on the song employed lots of flourishes and falsetto riffs. Not sure if I like the arrangement - as it went absolutely nowhere - but it was good. However, some people just shouldn't dance around too much. Haha. I mean, the arms stretched outward was weird and his stage presence doesn't translate well to the bigger stage. I don't know. To me, he's just a fun guy at a wedding and not a superstar.

05. Lee Dewyze
Beast Of Burden
It’s so hard to poke fun at a man who has such a bland personality. Haha. Well, parts of Beast of Burden sounded really current and soulful, but then the end was practically unrecognizable. Lee, WORK ON YOUR DICTION!  I couldn’t understand parts of the song.  Good thing, the quality of his voice is really good that I tend to forget all other flaws. It wasn't my favorite Lee performance so far but I though it somehow worked. I liked the arrangement of the song.

04. Katie Stevens
Wild Horses
Finally!  Okay Katie, time for redemption! This performance was very Katharine McPhee-like! She actually sounded pretty good. Vocally, it was miles better than her other performances and I could see her fighting for it. To me, she earned her Top 12 spot with this performance. I thought she has got so much more natural presence and charisma this week. Oh, and Kara, Katie was never technically perfect, but who is this season?

03. Didi Benami
Play With Fire
Oh Didi, you sexy beast! Haha. Is it just me or does she look like Taylor Swift tonight? I thought she sounded different tonight. Quite intense. Her very modern take on the song showed off her range, which I didn't expect. I liked it. Her awesome phrasing and unique vocals were also back! Sure, she almost forgot a lyrics or two but she recovered surprisingly well. Good job.

02. Crystal Bowersox
You Can't Always Get What You Want
Crystal! Smile damn it! Haha. Well, her performance this week was soulful and professional, as always! Seriously. This girl does not falter and she is making my reviews kind of repetitive. I mean, I could just copy and paste every one of them to save time. Sure, she’s brilliant. So, what else can she bring to the table? None maybe. That said, I know the guitar is sort of her "thing," but I would really like to see her perform without it just once. She sounds the same every week, which I guess makes her consistent, but I'd really like to see her take a risk and do something completely unexpected in the coming weeks. We'll see.

01. Siobhan Magnus
Paint It Black
Another water cooler performance from Siobhan. Nice. The stairs, the low notes, the glory notes, the camera spinning around, the dark closeup at the end. Drama anyone? She's like the musical version of Johnny Depp. Haha. Vocally, it wasn't perfect as I thought she was slightly underpitch all the way through and the last note got a bit kind of scream-y to me. Having said that, I absolutely loved the changes on the verses’ vocal melodies. I thought that they were delayed and haunting and the end of the song was a phenomenal moment on American Idol - though not perfect. But still.. This performance was so dang interesting! Enough said.

DAM NATION has been deleted

My old blog, http://damthenation.blogspot.com, has been hacked and deleted! I don't know how but it's all gone! Everything! Geez. So I need to start from scratch. I don't have any back up filed of everything. I'll try my best to rebuild my site and hopefully, all ends well.

Welcome to the new DAM NATION!

Movie Review: Alice In Wonderland

Muchness. Ha.

Having never really read the book/s and only having little to no memory of the old Disney cartoon version of Alice in Wonderland, all I knew going into this film was the gist of what the story was about. And no matter how different things may be this time around, I thought that it was still an interesting tale.

As far as the story goes, I personally thought that this was an interesting interpretation. I never really felt things got boring at any stage, which was refreshing. Yes, the storyline may be a little rushed and I would have liked a bit more time to explore the characters, but it worked fine for the movie. To me, the story ended at just the right moment and with a nice conclusion for the lead character.

The acting ensemble was actually noteworthy. Anne Hathaway was acting so odd that I actually found her portrayal quite arresting. Helena Bonham Carter, I thought, single-handedly made everything interesting. Her portrayal was both amusing and a total riot. Johnny Depp, on the other hand, played his role with his usual gusto. He clearly brought some energy and quirkiness to such an oddball character that I actually saw a hint of Willy Wonka and Jack Sparrow somewhere. And as for Alice, I found Mia Wasikowska to be a perfect cast for the lead role as she was able to carry the film surprisingly well despite all the amazing visuals and weird to wonderful characters in the story.

Visually, it was obviously amazing! I mean, its execution weren't as seamless as Avatar's but this must be the first movie I genuinely enjoyed after watching that said blockbuster. Here, I really liked Tim Burton's style where the world seemed so clean, lush and happy. He managed to create an amazing place, often colorful, but equally ravaged and desolate. It was undeniably a treat for the eyes, with the set pieces and design shining through the technology.

If any fault was to be found in the film, in my opinion the blame would be placed on the bar that was set way too high by Avatar with regard to the visuals. Previously, the computer generated effects present in this film would have knocked everyone's sock off, however, in a post-Avatar world, this was significantly underwhelming.

Nonetheless, I REALLY enjoyed this sparklingly fresh fantasy world of Alice!

RATING: 9/10

Movie Review: It's Complicated

I am a bit conflicted with this one. Considering the cast, I began to watch this movie with high expectations. Sadly, I was somehow a bit disappointed.

Don't get me wrong, it wasn't horrible but its overly predictable plot [I saw the ending coming a mile away] left me wanting more than just that! I mean, the story was almost promising and I thought that it all went well until I got to know the characters. Then it stopped. And the rest of the movie just passed by like short parodies with commercial breaks as people staring to each other with sparkling eyes.

The real problem, to me, was the script. It was a little too cliched and frankly not funny enough. Some of the lines were lame and I didn't buy the happy ending for one second - although, it made me a little emotional. Also, there were too many unnecessary scenes in the film. The idea of putting so many interesting scenes together to have an additive effect didn't work here - it did not make the whole seem more beautiful.

To be fair though, I thought that the film had some great moments. The acting, for one, was impeccable. Three exceptional actors - Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin - ply their crafts perfectly. Meryl Streep was natural and proved that she can still create a character from scratch and make the role as real as possible. Alec Baldwin had the charm and magnetism to carry such a role. I thought he showed top comedic work here. Steve Martin, on the other hand, was surprisingly in control and utterly enjoyable.

The film did run a bit long and lost some of it's spark in the finale act, but it was still pure entertainment, at the very least. I adore the actors. I like the genre. I unwillingly bought the premise. But I ultimately was still disappointed. I don't know. It really is complicated. Haha.

RATING: 6/10

Movie Review: Miss You Like Crazy

Star Cinema never fails to amuse me. They are consistently producing one good movie after the other and this is no exception. I thought that the film itself was very insightful and its overall charm alone made it better than the usual.

To be honest, I found the first 30 minutes of the film to be a tad boring but the somewhat unconventional storyline made me appreciate the whole lot. Yes, it didn't avoid the usual Star Cinema formula but the film was able to develop the characters quite nicely by giving them enough back story and complete arcs. I personally liked the fact that the story was equipped with a believable script supported by remarkable actors.

The leads - John Lloyd Cruz and Bea Alonzo - were AGAIN just outstanding to the point where I admire every flex of their facial muscle for sheer mastery of control, expression and projection. Individually, I saw the subtlety and the nuances in their acting, and together, they were able to prove that the palpable chemistry was still there. Needless to say, both actors were effective in their performances.

That said, the supporting cast also held its own. I found Maricar Reyes to be so convincing for the role that I want her to portray every single 'socialite' role in other Star Cinema projects. Also, I got to admire Bembol Roco for his underrated but effective performance. Seriously. His limited scenes didn’t prevent him from being one of the most notable actors in the movie.

And while the inherent cheesiness cannot be avoided, I must admit that I genuinely enjoyed the film. Truth be told, the movie didn't simply rely on the usual 'kilig' moments but on the depth and maturity of the story and the lead's portrayal.

Another love story that was well complemented by a superb cast, a good story and a direction that was already crafted perfectly by Cathy Molina-Garcia herself. A very nice feel-good movie.

RATING: 7/10