Semifinals Round 2

Oh man, this week's performances were even more disappointing than last week's. Many of the judges early favorites, namely Jasmine and Matt (the pianist, not the welder ), just chose the wrong songs and gave away their chances of getting into the top 12.

Having said that, there are, however, one or two performances that really stood out from the night. Among them are my personal favorite, Adam Lambert, who sang Satisfaction (A very weird song choice for him, for me, and I prefer seeing him singing ballads, but nonetheless, his vocals were truly remarkable) and the dark horse, Allison Iraheta, who sang Alone by Heart (The only girl who could really sing, she is kind of a rocker and I like her edgy attitude. I do have some issues with her blazing red hair though).



One of the most memorable performances of the night would undoubtedly be And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going by our dear Nick Mitchell, a.k.a. Norman Gentle. I was actually pretty disturbed by his shocking and over the top rendition of the song. All the kneeling, hugging the logo, and random change of lyrics were simply annoying, and I absolutely agree with Simon that it was probably the most atrocious performance on the history of American Idol Live Telecast, excluding, of course, the auditions.


Unlike the past, I am unable to get the video of the performances posted on this blog. I, however, manage to get the direct download links to these videos (isn't it better?), and so here is it.

Adam Lambert, Satisfaction
Allison Iraheta, Alone
Nick Mitchell, And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going
(Right Click and Save Target As)

If you want to download the rest of the performances, please do not hesitate to contact me by leaving a message on the seemingly dead and quite tag board.

More Hayden Panettiere

Here are more videos of Hayden Panettiere. I cannot believe that she had sung so many songs.

Wake Up Call

To all the Heroes fans out there, hold your breathe, and please remain calm while you continue reading the post. Presenting to you, Hayden Panettiere, aka Claire Bennet from Heroes, performing her first single, Wake Up Call.



This is so surreal, I can not believe that Hayden can actually sing. I was stunned when I came across this video on youtube. Believe it or not, she was once nominated for a Grammy in 1999 for Read Along from A Bug's Life.

Here is another shocking news I found while searching her Wikipedia, she has recently broken up with Milo Ventimiglia in February. How sad.

I Just Love You

This is Adam Lambert covering I Just Love You by Five for Fighting. His voice suited the song, in my opinion, and I think that he has done a fantastic job on the song.



Adam Lambert will be on American Idol tonight, tomorrow morning in Malaysia time, and I hope that he will do well, and hopefully get into the top 12

Go Adam!

The 81st Oscars Academy Awards

The annual Oscars Academy Awards Ceremony was concluded yesterday, with absolutely no surprises, in terms of the award winners, for most of them, if not all, have already won similar awards in the other major movies award ceremony.

Slumdog Millionaire was the overall big winner of the night, having clinched a total of 8 awards, including best picture and best director, out of 10 nominations. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, despite being the film having the most number of nominations this year, 13 to be exact, could only bring home 3 awards, among them are best art direction and best make up. Heath Ledger was once again crowned the best supporting actor of the year, based on his incredible portrayal of the crazy joker in the The Dark Knight.

The performances of the night were also spectacular. Hugh Jackman has done an impressive job hosting the show, especially considering that it was his first time hosting major live telecast event. Aside from being a wonderful host, he has also put up several amazing performances on the stage, including the opening act and the musical medley. I am particular in love with the musical medley, which put together many of the memorable and famous musical number in one cohesive and breath-taking performance. Joining Hugh Jackman were Beyonce, the cast from High School Musical, Vanessa Hudgens, Zac Efron, and the cast from Mamamia, Amanda Seyfried, and Dominic Cooper.



Above is the video of the performance. Enjoy, and if you are interested in viewing the opening act, I believe you can to find it easily on youtube.

Love Song

The song that I am going to introduce today is Love Song by Sara Bareilles. It was released in Sara's second album Little Voice in 2007. I have actually heard this song for quite a few times on TV and movies, but I never really get the chance to note down of the name of the song, until recently when I stumbled across her music video on youtube. It was quite a catchy songs and I immediately fell in love with this song after I watched the music video.


Youtube has once again disabled the Embed function to her music video. I wonder what is the reason behind them disabling the function, for it would enable more people to know about this video if people are allowed to post the video on their blog or personal websites. Anyway, the music video to this song is really quite fun and interesting. It shows a miniature Bareilles performing at a piano inside a coin-operated jukebox that plays love songs. On a particular day, she grew frustrated as she declared that she is "not going to write a love song today" decided to grab a coin from one particular customers and jammed the gears of the jukebox. Anyone who is interested in viewing this video can go and search for it on youtube.


This is a live performance of Sara on Late Late Show and I think that she has done an amazing job playing and singing the song.

13 Years Old Dad, Probably Not

Remember the shocking news about the 13 years old father I posted a few days ago, well, several unexpected developments have surfaced and this story may turn out to be a complete and utter scam after all.

First, there were these two teenage boys who came out and said that they are the baby's biological father. They both asserted that they are Chantelle's boyfriends and claimed that they are Maisie's real dad. Recently, it was further suspected that it was Chantelle's mum who forced Chantelle to lie to the press that Alfie is Maisie's Dad, for it would make the story more interesting and that Chantelle's mum would be able to make a huge sum of money for selling the story to the press.

So, is Alfie really the dad of Maisie? Is this really a complete case of shameful scam? Well, we will all know until the paternity test result comes out. Personally, I still can not believe that a 13 years old teens can really be a dad, eventhough I know that there is a even younger boy who had a baby when he was 12. Having said that, given Alfie's innocent and young look, the fact that he is already a dad is simply too disturbing and ridiculous.

Only the paternity test result will tell us the truth, and we will just have to wait a few more days for the answer.

Danny In The House

Today is the first day of the Semifinals Rounds of the American Idol, and Danny Gokey has once again proven to us that he is one of the best and the most deserving contestants to be in the top 12 in this season. He sang "Hero" by Mariah Carey, in which I thought that it was quite a weird song choice for him, but you know what, he nailed it. He was insanely good and I would really be disappointed if he does not make it into the top 12 this week. American must be blind or deaf for not voting him into the top 12.



Another contestant that has made a really good impression on me would be Ricky Braddy. He performed "Song For You" in this round and he was surprisingly good. I have never heard him singing before, or not that I can remember, but I really like his voice and performance tonight.



One of the big disappointments of the night, to me, would be Anoop's performance. He is a very likable characters and I think that he has a pretty good voice too. The song that he sang tonight did not really suit him and he failed to showcase his true potential and range with that song. Nonetheless, I still hope that he can make it into the top 12.



The girls tonight, in my opinion, were generally bad, and I failed to notice anyone who deserves to be in the top 12. However, as you might have known, only three persons can make it through to the next round and they would be the male and female contestants who have received the highest number of vote plus the next contestant, regardless of gender, who has received the next higher number of votes. So one of the girls will definitely make it into the top 12, which really sucks because I do not think that anyone of them deserves the place, base on their performances tonight. However, if I really have to choose, I think that the one who is relatively more deserving than the others would be Alexis Grace, who sang "Never Loved A Man". She is quite an edgy girl and I believe that her edgy attitude can bring her quite far in the competition.



All in all, I think that this week's episode was rather disappointing, except for the incredible performance by Danny near the end of the show. I hope that the semifinals next week will be much better and I really wish to see more good performances next week.

Not Ready To Make Nice

When I first heard of the name Dixie Chicks, I always thought that it is a pop female band with girls who dress up sexily and dance to hot musics, very much like The Pussycat Doll, I presumed. Perhaps it is the word "Chicks" that gave me such a poor stereotypical impression on the band. I was really surprised to find out recently that Dixie Chicks is actually a country pop band. I came across them when I was trying to find a song that was sang by a contestants of the American Idol, and the song that I am going to introduce today is, as you might have already known it from the title of this post, "Not Ready To Make Nice" by Dixie Chicks.

This song is very well known for its Anti-Bush Theme. It is the first single released by Dixie Chicks after they have made some negative comments about the then American President George Bush. It was written by all the three member of the group and it was basically a statement of how they feel about the entire controversy, the banning of their song from American Country Radio Station and the freedom of speech.

The message of the song is rather clear, that they were still unwilling to succumb to the public pressure and that they still felt strongly that their freedom of expression have been clearly violated. Did I mentioned that they even received death threat from the public, asking them to just "shut up and sing".

I’m not ready to make nice
I’m not ready to back down
I’m still mad as hell and
I don’t have time to go round and round and round
It’s too late to make it right
I probably wouldn’t if I could
‘Cause I’m mad as hell
Can’t bring myself to do what it is you think I should

I a particularly in love with the chorus and I think that the lyric of the song is rather meaningful and that it has clearly reflected their views on the entire controversy.

Surprisingly, this song has became one of the major hits of Dixie Chicks. It has even won the award for both Best Records and Best Song of the Year at the 2007 Grammy Award. What an incredible song, I must say, it is plainly spectacular and it certainly deserved the two major music awards.

Here is a video of this amazing song.



There is another music video to this song but Youtube has disabled the Embed function. So if you are interested, you can go Youtube and search for it, it is a much more emotional and beautifully directed video than the one I put on this post.

13 Years Old Dad

I first read about this news in a local newspaper and I thought that it was completely ridiculous. Afraid that it may be just total crap, I decided to check online, and to my greatest shock and surprise, it is a true story and 13 years old Alfie Pattern is indeed a father of a baby girl named Maisie.

Alfie and his "little family", Chantelle, Alfie's 15 years old girlfriend, and Maisie, the cute little baby.

Can you believe it? 13 years old dad. I mean seriously, some of us even have siblings that are more than 13 years of age apart from us. Imagine when your child is 20 and you are only 33, that is completely insane and crazy.

Alfie kissing his beautiful baby girl.

Anyway, I think that the UK should really be paying more attention to sex education and teenage pregnancy. How the hell would this innocent looking 13 years old child know about sex at such a young age? I still can't believe that the cute little boy in the picture has already became a father.

Alfie trying very hard to be a young dad.

You all can find the full article about this bizarre story here.

Don't Cha

I suddenly came across these two youtube videos while I was trying to search for more videos related to the American Idol Experience, and I thought that they are both extremely funny and hilarious.





Watch the clips and you'll know why I put the two videos together in one post and under the name of Don't Cha.

American Idol Experience

American Idol Experience, a brand new Disney attraction, has finally opened. Apparently, it provides people with the opportunities to perform and sing on the stage of American Idol. And if you are good, you would be invited to go to Hollywood and be given a chance to participate in the real American Idol.

Many of the American Idol alumni, including all the past winners and some of the contestants, attended the opening ceremony. This was also the first time all the seven idol winners sharing the same stage together. It was really exciting to see all of them standing on one stage.


From the left, it is Kelly Clarkson, Ruben Studdard, Fantasia Barrino, Carrie Underwood, Taylor Hicks, Jordin Sparks, David Cook. and finally our dear host Ryan Seacrest.

David Cook and Carrie Underwood performed a duet of the song "Go Your Own Way" by Fleetwood Mac, for the media in the brand new attraction's theatre. The stage did resemble the stage of the American Idol. Ha.

They are both my favorite winners of American Idol and I think they have done a spectacular job singing the song together.

They both then performed a solo each with Carrie singing "All American Girl" and David performing "Light On".





They were both amazing and I really like their performances on that night.

I am still searching for more videos related to the event. Will update again if I can find more videos.

Radioactive Crush

Good news everybody, according to FOD, David Archuleta will be joining McFly in their upcoming tour!!

Here is an extract from McFly's MySpace Blog

“We are also pleased to announce David Archuleta (American Idol Runner up) will be the Special Guest on our new Up Close and This Time Its Personal Tour. The tour will be great - we can’t wait for opening night!”

Isn't it exciting? Too bad that I will not be able to watch the tour. I think that Vincent must be overjoyed hearing/ viewing this news; your favorites are going to be performing together on the same stage. Ha.

Let's Talk About Love

Here is a new song recorded by David Archuleta for this charity organisation called "Build-A-Bear". Apparently, if I am not wrong, you will be able to download the mp3 version of the song for free with every 1 dollar donation you made to the organisation. This song is rather fun and light tempo and David has once again did an amazing job.



I still can not find the link to download the song. Well, I shall keep trying.

Hollywood Solo and Top 36 Revealed

Hollywood week has finally came to an end and we have witnessed several incredible acts by some of the contestants and also, inevitably, some really horrendous performances. Here's a recap of the really breath-taking performances on American Idol Season 8 Hollywood Round 3.

Adam Lambert - Believe

What a weird choice of song, I must say, but he has done a fantastic job on the song. The moment he hit the highest note of the song was absolutely incredible. I, however, have a problem with his black nails and I think that it is kind of distracting.

Scott MacIntyre - Home

Our first blind contestant who has made it this far to the American Idol. He was really good and he sang his song with so much emotion that I was really touched by his performance. Quite a different rendition of Home as compared to that of Chris Daughtry.

Lil Rounds - If I Ain't Got You

My personal favorite so far. Have you seen her performance on Whitney Houston's I Will Almost Love You? You will definitely be stunned by her wonderful performance on that song. This time, with Alicia Keys' If I Ain't Got You, Lil Rounds once again has proven to us that she is definitely deserved to be in the top 12.

Danny Gokey - I Hope You Dance

Another of my favorite. He has been getting quite a lot of air time from American Idol Season 8 and we can almost see him in every episode of the Hollywood Week. Though they were many that sang I Hope You Dance for the Solo Round, I believe that he was still one of the, if not, best among all the others who sang the same song.

Matt Giraud - Georgia On My Mind
I can't seem to get the video of his performance, but never mind, he is great. He has done an amazing job playing the piano and singing the song. I have never noticed him until this round. Hmm, my new found favorite.

Well, they are my new top favorite of the shows and I think that they all have a really good chance of getting into the top12. Let's hope that America would vote for them during the upcoming semifinals.

And here is a list of the top 36 that have made it to the semifinal rounds. Some of the names on the list are really unexpected, for example Nick Mitchell aka Norman Gentle, drama queen Tatiana Del Toro and drama king Nathaniel Marshall.

1. Anoop Desai
2. Von Smith
3. Alex Wagner Trugman
4. Adam Lambert
5. Taylor Vaifanua
6. Jasmine Murray
7. Arianna Afsar
8. Casey Carlson
9. Megan Corkrey
10. Mishabonna Henson
11. Stevie Wright
12. Joanna Pacitti
13. Kendall Beard
14. Kristen McNamara
15. Alexis Grace
16. Scott MacIntyre
17. Lil Rounds
18. Jesse Langseth
19. Allison Iraheta
20. Danny Gokey
21. Ricky Braddy
22. Matt Giraud
23. Ju’not Joyner
24. Jorge Nunez
25. Brent Keith
26. Stephen Fowler
27. Nick Mitchell
28. Jackie Tohn
29. Tatiana Del Toro
30. Nathaniel Marshall
31. Jeanine Vailes
32. Kai Kalama
33. Anne Marie Boskovich
34. Kris Allen
35. Michael Sarver
36. Matt Breitzke

That is it for American Idol this week.

Trust and Blood

Just when I thought that Heroes has started to become more interesting and less boring, here comes this week episode, Trust and Blood, which completely disproves my previous thought.

Some of the questions I stated in my previous post has been answered. For example, Noah did agree to help out Nathan in exchange for the safety of his family, the government still has no idea that Nathan can fly and that Hiro has lost his power, etc. Peter's power was also briefly mentioned in this episode; he can now only acquire and use one ability at a time, which I think it totally sucks, for Sylar will now become the strongest meta human among all the others and no one can compete on the same level as him anymore. He would soon turn unstoppable and become the ultimate villain.

One interesting development of this episode, however, would be the storyline of Sylar and Luke. Luke is a troubled teenagers who has a crappy relationship with his mother. He can emit microwave radiation, which can melt, burn objects and potentially kill a man. Wait, he did kill a man in this episode. Sylar seems to be rather interested in Luke, perhaps due to his rebellious nature. It would be rather interesting to see how the relationship of the two of them would develop in the upcoming episodes. Sylar has finally got a sidekick. Ha.

One of the other things I hate about this episode would be the death of Daphne. It was really sudden and unexpected and I think it is just another desperate way of the writer to turn Matt into this person fulled of rage and wants only revenge, a character twist which is highly unlikely to happen on Matt should the tragic death of his lover has not occured. I love Daphne and I think her ability is super cool, not to mentioned she could travel back in time with the help of Ando. I like her hair too, short and white, kind of reminds me of Storm from the X-men. I would really miss her. But in Heroes, we would never know that one is truly dead, the writers of the shows has shown us a myriad of ways they could bring back the dead to the show, either through the regeneration ability or the infamous twin creations of Niki Sanders. Perhaps the gunshot did not really kill Daphne, one would never know, and we will just have to wait and see.

One small observation, I realised that Hiro's English has improved tremendously over the past seasons. The way he speaks English now is completely different from that of the previous seasons. He is now more fluent and the pitch of his voice seems to have become lower, not as cute and innocent as the Hiro we once used to see on the previous season.

Generally, this week's episode is kind of disappointing, mostly because we can not see much progress in the story line. Several questions are still not being addressed in the episode, i.e. the sudden change of Nathan and the Precognition power of Matt. I certainly hope that the next episode will be better scripted and more exciting.

Superwoman

I stumbled across this amazing live performance by Alicia Keys for her new single, Superwoman, on Youtube and I thought that she is totally incredible and the ending of the song is absolutely fabulous. So, here I am, sharing this wonderful performance by Alicia Keys. Hope that you will enjoy it as well.

Transamerica

I have not watched a really nice and touching movie for quite some time, until today.

Transamerica is a multiple award winning independent dramedy film about a transsexual woman, Bree (Felicity Huffman) who is going to undergo her final surgery procedure to fully become a woman, until she receives a call from a boy, Toby (Kevin Zegers), who claims to be his son. Afraid that Bree is unable to face her own past, her therapist refuses to give a go for her operation unless she can finally accept her/his old self. Toby turns out to be Bree's son, who she had with her/his college friend, a juvenile delinquent who works as a male hustler for his living. The shows then follows the story of Bree who goes on a road trip with Toby, which changes their lives tremendously.


Personal journey towards self discovery is one of the few major themes depicted of the movie and the director did an amazing job depicting this controversial and contentious issue of transsexualism in a hilarious, and yet touching manner. Felicity Huffman has also done an excellent job portraying the character of a transsexual women in the show. She has been nominated and won numerous awards, including the Golden Globe and the Academy, for her amazing performance in Tranamerica.



I hope that everyone can go and catch a glimpse of this incredible film. It is definitely worth downloading and watching.

Once again, Tansamerica.

17 Again

This is so exciting. I am going to watch this movie for sure. The trailer was god damn funny.

Adam Lambert Rocked The House

Adam Lambert, aka the Wicked guy, is absolutely fantastic. He is such an amazing. The only problem I have for him would be his weird eye make up. Did he wear mascara or something? His eyes looked quite scary in the video.

David Singing I'm Yours

He is so adorable in the video. I think that he is quite nervous singing the song, as can be seen from all the mistakes and blunders.



I am wondering why is he so shocked, I can not understand the reason behind him freaking out. But well, he is so cute and funny.

Fugitives

After a month of anxious waiting, Heroes is finally back. This time, it is back with a whole new and more exciting storyline. Our heroes of the previous volumes have now all , except probably one or two, turned into "fugitives" and are trying desperately to runaway and combat the evil scheme of Nathan to round up people with extraordinary abilities.


While the first episode of volume 4: Fugitives was nonetheless exciting and, as always, filled with shocking surprises, I find that there are still many issues in Heroes that need to be properly addressed.


The sudden and abrupt change of Nathan's personality is one of my major concerns. Why has the man, initially thought of granting everyone ability in the previous volume, suddenly morphed into the now heartless and cold person who is so against his own kind, by own kind I mean people with abilities, and is willing to do almost anything, even harming and betraying his own brother, to achieve his self-proclaimed noble aim to save the world?

If people with abilities are indeed dangerous, then why did the government not capture Nathan? Did the government know that Nathan can fly?

Why would Noah help out Nathan? Did Noah make a pact with Nathan to not harm Clarie and involve her in the operation? Could this explain the special treatment that Nathan has given to Claire? Or is Nathan really having a genuine love and concern for Claire?

Why did the team capture Hiro? Hiro has lost his power to bend time and space, and so technically he should not post any harm to society. Perhaps they still had no idea that Hiro has lost his power when they captured him. I wonder.

Why the hell would Morhinder become a pathetic taxi driver. I mean, come on, he is a professor. He should have a decent degree to get him a really nice job, like a professor in university, scientist, etc.

The fact that Matt Parkman can suddenly paint the future is simply ridiculous. I think that it is just a way the writers trying desperately to introduce back the Precognition ability, without adding in new characters.

Why is Sylar still alive? Though we all know that he can regenerate himself, but hasn't Clarie put something at the back of his head at the end of volume 3, before the whole company building collapsed and burned into ashes?

Besides all the above mentioned questions, some other minor questions include, what happened to Claire's mother and brother? They seem to have disappeared near the end of volume 3. What happened to Molly? Isn't she the adopted child of both Morhinder and Matt? What happened to Micah and Monica? What happened to West? These characters seem to have vanished from the show completely, without any proper explanation.

I know that I have many questions and I believe that some of them would be answered in the coming episodes. But seriously, I think that the production team should be more aware and careful in the way they write off certain characters from the show.

Despite all that, Heroes is still one of my favourite shows thus far and I am really looking forward to the coming episodes.

Crazy Men on American Idol

I am really worried about their mental conditions.