Thursday

TV-Review-"American Idol" Performance Round 4/8/08 and Elimination Round 4/10/08

Sent Home 4/10/08=Michael Johns.

Bottom Three-Carly Smithson, Syesha Mercado, Michael Johns


Immediately after the conclusion of the elimination show, around 10pm in the eve, this Blog post will go up with the name of which of the remaining 8 would-be Idols got sent packing, along with a review of the performance show aired Tuesday, 4/8/08.

The review will be written BEFORE the elimination so I'll probably, indeed will LIKELY be wrong with my predictions of who will be eliminated plus the bottom three as I ascertain. But I'll risk it that my prognostication skills can be measured by yon readers.

All with pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.


American Idol logo


---Let us begin with a musical smile.

Cartoon header for country/western song titles tidbits


  • Get Your Tongue Outta My Mouth 'Cause I'm Kissing You Goodbye.
  • Her Teeth Was Stained, But Her Heart Were Pure.
  • How Can I Miss You If You Won't Go Away?
  • I Don't Know Whether To Kill Myself Or Go Bowling.
  • I Just Bought A Car From A Guy That Stole My Girl, But The Car Don't Run, So I Figure We're Even.
  • I Keep Forgettin' I Forgot About You.
  • I Liked You Better Before I Knew You So Well.
  • I Still Miss You, Baby, But My Aim's Gettin' Better.
  • I Wouldn't Take Her To A Dog Fight, Cause I'm Afraid She'd Win.
  • I'll Marry You Tomorrow But Let's Honeymoon Tonight.
  • I'm So Miserable Without You, It's Like Having You Here.
  • I've Got Tears In My Ears From Lyin' On My Back and Cryin' Over You.
  • If I Can't Be Number One In Your Life, Then Number Two On You.
  • If I Had Shot You When I! Wanted To, I'd Be Out By Now.
  • Mama Get A Hammer (There's A Fly On Papa's Head).
  • My Head Hurts, My Feet Stink, And I Don't Love You.
  • My Wife Ran Off With My Best Friend And I Sure Do Miss Him.
  • Please Bypass This Heart.
  • She Got The Ring And I Got The Finger.
  • You Done Tore Out My Heart And Stomped That Sucker Flat.
  • You're The Reason Our Kids Are So Ugly.
  • If the Phone Don't Ring, You'll Know It's Me.
  • She's Actin' Single and I'm Drinkin' Doubles.
  • She's Looking Better After Every Beer.

    And the Number One Country and Western song of all Time is...

  • I Haven't Gone To Bed With Any Ugly Women But I've Sure Woke Up With A Few.

    Inspiration Night on "American Idol" 2008-Aired 4/8/08

    CLICK HERE FOR Pics of Top 24 American Idol 2008 Finalists

    This week on American Idol 2008 with eight contenders left on the episode aired 4/8/08, the would-be Idols were to choose an inspiring song. The night following this performance night, Idol had its second "Idol Gives Back" night which is probably why the inspiring songs shtick.

    I did tape the Idol Gives back show and watched a few snippets. I couldn't bear to watch the whole thing.

    So I shall sound heartless, but if I watch one more African family besot by Aids I will scream.

    Which is not to say that this is not a very serious problem and as heartbreaking as most anything on this planet. The United States throws millions of dollars at the African Aids problems and now we have Idol and a well-meaning celebrity contingent out raising more money and somebody's got to state the obvious here.

    Folks, the fine despots and dictators of Africa, who are in charge of all that money thrown at their populace, WANT the Aids virus to keep ravaging their nations. The pitiful thing is that innocent African children face the loss of a parent, indeed both parents, each and every day and often these youngsters contract Aids their own selves to lead on to a sickly life and possible early death.

    It's like malaria. Now here's a disease, just like Aids may I remind, that has been beaten handily across the planet. But again, those thugs running the nations of Africa NEED a sick population to better get money from the rest of the well-meaning globe. So DDT, the most effective insecticide proven quite effective against malaria, is BANNED in Africa. DDT, allegedly as there's lots of lies out there about this myth, is harmful to the eggs of the bird population, causing the egg shells to thin and break under the weight of the incubating parent.

    Well I once bought into this ridiculous lie, bird lover than I am. Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring", like so many books I read and believed my young stupid liberal self, turned out to be a big lie.

    So in order to save the birds of Africa, based on a lie, WHAT ABOUT THE HUMAN BEINGS? DDT was banned here in America but once mosquito populations began to expand the hell with the birds, the insecticide was sprayed liberally in communities across America at the demand of the voters and hey, we still have birds and NO malaria.

    Delaware is basically one big swamp. There are thousands of Delaware employees charged with protecting the shorebirds and other wildlife of Delaware, mostly political appointments who helped Joe Biden through the years.

    But let a long spell of constant rain fill the low-lying areas with standing water the mosquitoes so love, trust me, the low-flying airplanes come out toot de sweet, with no consultation with the environmental bureaucrats, and insecticide is sprayed liberally over the yards and gardens of the damn VOTERS.

    Because when all is said and done, let malaria break out in this tiny state, so perfect for a spread of that disease, and what? You don't think there'd be a state-wide riot? So hey, we get it here in Delaware.

    America sent millions to Africa for simple damn mosquito nets for the citizens of Africa, and the fine, fine dictators such as the stellar Robert Mugabe, failed to distribute such an easy item to the populace. Finally Americans themselves went to Africa to hand out mosquito nets to the citizens, up front and in person with no money passing through the despots' hands for their own palaces and wealthy lifestyles.

    Now Aids. Once again, the innocents are dying and suffering because the African leaders, they don't care about their citizenry. Except for the sight and sound bytes they can send to the most generous people on the planet, which would be US, the Americans. "Send us money," is the plea. And we do. But those who need it don't get it.

    Soon, the next big lie will come down, which is Global Warming. This new deceit will allow third world countries to extort God knows how much money from America because hey, they rather like their palaces and their wealth.

    Aids, folks. It's the simplest disease to contain and has been contained. And yet, like malaria, it's only out of control in Africa. Why is this?

    So it's not as if I think the concept of "Idol Giving Back" is a bad one. Indeed I suspect that this blockbuster reality series makes so much money that if it didn't raise and contribute money for charity it would be turning over millions to the American government that Obama yo mama can give grants to his fine church and lunatic pastor that he may shout at the top of his lungs that it is the WHITE man spreading Aids, that lying sack of shit.

    Maybe the wrong Reverend Wright ought to watch "Idol Gives Back" and take a gander at those African nations, what say you?

    Anyway, my rant and frustration now aside, on to the critiques of the final eight on American Idol's Inspiration Night, 2008.

    Michael Johns sang "Dream On" by Aerosmith. Michael showed off his falsetto skills and added a few singing screams to impress us viewers out here in TV la-la land.

    Randy and Simon were both unimpressed, as was I as Michael's screaming didn't sound inspirational at all. Paula said something about her Chihuahuas and while she was trying to compliment, heh, I once had a dachshund that would have howled right along with Michael at that screaming end.

    Syesha sang a Fantasia song "I Believe". Which was a great inspirational song, no doubt about it.

    Randy and Simon both thought that Syesha once again bit off a great big song better left to the pros. Last week Syesha sang a Whitney tune and I thought she didn't so such a good job. Still, America loves those big voices, loud notes and tender lyrics.

    I think Syesha did a fine job and will be around another week.

    fashion montage AI inspiration night 08


    I predict that Jason Castro will be sent home this week.

    Which is not to say that Jason didn't give a fine performance. In fact, Jason's song "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" performed on a ukulele and a rendered in a style perfectly suited to Jason, was the best performance of the night. At times the low parts of this intriguing rendition of this well-known song were not so good but this was a tune meant for Jason's coffee house singing style.

    Only problem is American Idol is not a platform for coffee house style singers as I've been saying right along.

    In fact all of the judges adored Jason's performance but me, I just don't think America's going to get it. Jason has been in the bottom three before so he's in a precarious position.

    Instrument montage inspiration night 2008


    The best performance of the night, by my judgment, was Kristy Cook's "Any Way" by Martina McBride.

    Yon readers should take my assessment with a grain of salt as this is one of my favorite tunes.

    But Kristy picked a winner with this one. She looked great, she was at ease, she belted it out with her nice voice not as big as her opponents but fine in most song venues. I loved Kristy's attitude, so perfectly depicted in her song choice.

    She said she knows she's in danger of elimination but she was going to sing her inspirational song with all her heart.

    She was going to sing it Any Way.

    The judges loved Kristy's performance because anybody watching it knew it was a song from the girl's heart, it don't get much more inspirational than that.

    First I don't know what that white jacket thing was that David Cook was wearing but he looked like a drum major in a marching band. David sang a tune I didn't know "We Are Innocent".

    David is this year's token rock type of singer and he's good, quite good. I can see David going the route of Chris Daughtry, a rock singer who didn't win in his American Idol year but still went on to great singing success.

    Thus, I'm not convinced that David will win this thing but I see him definitely in the top five.

    David had the words "Give Back" inked on the palm of his hand and that was original I suppose.

    Randy declared David's performance not his strongest and Simon declared it a bit "pompous". I'm not sure what Simon meant by that but I totally agree.

    Carly Smithson sang the Queen tune "The Show Must Go On" and goodness, Carly does like songs with great big loud lyrics doesn't she?

    Still and so I like Carly and think she could be the top female in this competition, though not the outright winner.

    However, I predict Carly might find herself in the final three again this week because at this point in the competition, the votes come in mostly from contender-devoted American audience voters with the "uncommitted" voting based on each night's performance.

    In comparison to the other performances on this Inspiration Night, Carly didn't fare so well. The judges weren't impressed at all and in a bit of a surprise, even Paula didn't like Carly's performance. Simon said she "oversang" but ever the fashion critiquer, Simon said Carly looked nice.

    I would not be surprised if Carly gets the boot tonight but I definitely see her in the bottom three.

    So okay, David Archuleta, who I think is a shoo-in to win this year, sang a magnificent tune I hadn't heard before but with David's voice, it was a beauty, a sound of perfection.

    David played a baby grand piano no less as he sang a song titled "Angels". The judges were very impressed and it's been unspoken until last night when Simon said that David would sail through to the next round.

    Which he will. Because this kid has it all.

    Finally Brooke White sang the most mundane and boring of songs, Carol King's "You've Got a Friend". Dressed in a frock made from her grandmother's parlor curtains, Brooke sang the tune in her usual deep, throaty style and it was pretty, yes, pretty. But ordinary. Most ordinary on a night when Kristy did it Any Way, Michael Johns screamed half of his song, Syesha took on the mighty and David Archuleta was David Archuleta as always the best of the lot.

    I predict Brooke White will be in the bottom three this week and has a better chance than Carly for being sent home.

    Below is a short video remix of the performances. Featured is a section of Michael Johns screaming, Jason Castro singing a hit Judy Garland tune while playing a banjo and David Archuleta singing like an angel about the angels.



    Top 24 "American Idol" 2008
    Brooke White-
    Carly Smithson-
    David Cook-
    Amanda Overmyer-Sent home 3/19/08
    David Archuleta-
    Kristy Lee Cook-
    Danny Noriega-Sent Home 3/6/08
    Jason Castro-
    Luke Menard-Sent Home 3/6/08
    Alexandra Lushington-Sent Home 2/28/08
    Ramiele Malubay-Sent Home 4/2/08
    Michael Johns-
    Syesha Mercado-
    Robbie Carrico-Sent Home 2/28/08
    Garrett Haley-Sent Home 2/21/08
    Kady Malloy-Sent Home 3/6/08
    Chikezie Eze-Sent Home 3/26/08
    Amy Davis-Sent Home 2/21/08
    Alaina Whitaker-Sent Home 2/28/08
    Jason Yeager-Sent Home 2/28/08
    Asia'H Epperson-Sent Home 3/6/08
    David Hernandez-Sent Home 3/11/08
    Colton Berry-Sent Home 2/21/08
    Joanne Borgella-Sent Home 2/21/08

    Prior Links to Posts for "American Idol" 2008
    ======================
    Premiere Show 2008-Philly and Dallas
    San Diego and Charleston
    Miami and Omaha Tryouts AI2008
    Atlanta and Various Tryouts -the last AI2008
    TOP 24 American Idol 2008
    From 24 at the top-Four Go Home
    Twenty Down to 16
    Elimination Thursday 2/28/08
    Elimination Thursday 3/6/08-The Top Twelve!
    Lennon McCartney Night 3/11/08
    Beatles Night-Down to Top Ten
    Ten Down to Nine
    Dolly Parton Week-Eight Left
    Seven Left



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