EW.com has a video-interview with Michael Johns on their website. It’s split up into three parts and isn’t a bad interview. It’s nice to see Michael talk in a casual, relaxed fashion about his experience on American Idol and his possible future. I’ve seen a few other interviews this week, but I like this one the best so far. He’s such a cute goof-ball. In part 2 and part 3 of their interview, EW.com gets him to sing two lines (one line each time) of a song Michael would’ve performed had he not been voted off. It’s not him singing, mind you - it’s more as if he was in your living room and he broke out into song for about 3 seconds.

I recorded one of the very short audio snippets of him singing one of those lines, so if you don’t want to download/watch the videos just to hear that one 20-30 second bit, you can hear it (mp3) by clicking here to my file. But if you’re a Michael Johns fan, you’ll probably want to see the videos in their entirety. You can see them on EW.com’s Idolatry page. If they’re not on the top of the list anymore, just page down.

Tonight on American Idol, the contestants had to sing from Mariah Carey’s songbook. I’ll be the first to admit that while I know of Mariah, I’ve never listened to her songbook. I guess there’s a lot of famous music artists that I haven’t ever bothered to get to know, especially in the past 20 years. So I had almost zero familiarity with the music this time around.

Paula Abdul had on a purple off-the-shoulder dress on, which was finally something that was well-tailored to suit her.
What is with Randy Jackson the past few weeks? He’s gone from constantly agreeing with Paula and nearly raving over every performance to being not very impressed with most. Almost makes you wonder if the producers told him “You and Paula always agreeing makes for boring TV, start being more critical.” I could almost see a case for that, really. One gushing Paula is enough.

David Archuleta - “What You Believe“: First, the black leather pants have got to go. Second, this song was boring with a capitol B. I nearly fell asleep. On the bright side, David A. performed with his usual professionalism, earning accolades from the judges and, of course, from the screaming tweens in the studio audience. I felt it was a little too low in pitch for him in the early parts, but the vocal runs and more power type notes were very good.

Carly Smithson - “Without You“: This was the one song I was familiar with - because I grew up listening to then-famous Harry Nilsson’s version, which you can listen to via this YouTube video. Carly was also too low-pitched early on, and as we watched I said to hubby “I bet that’s so she can hit the power notes” - and yup, when she belted out the chorus, she sounded pretty good to me. She seemed to be trying harder to frown less and smile more, but she still seemed a bit physically uptight or something - and it shows in her voice. So a decent performance but not stellar - it certainly wasn’t anywhere as good as Nilsson’s version. Since we’re down to only 7 now, I’m going to say she’s not safe.

Syesha Mercado - “Vanishing“: The most exciting part about Syesha’s performance was her shiny gold dress. She had some good vocal runs, and yes she can sing, but she just didn’t inspire me in any way. It’s like she’s technically proficient but has little stage-charisma. Not safe.

Brooke White - “Hero“: Sitting behind the big black piano once more, Brooke started out quite well, imo. I like Brooke’s sound, so perhaps I’m not the most impartial. Towards the middle of her performance tho, I frowned and asked hubby “She’s sped up the pace, hasn’t she?” Hubby said “yeah”. I was glad the judges also commented on that, so I could be sure it wasn’t just my imagination. So, in all, she sounded pleasant - but nerves must have gotten to her again and she started rushing the song at the end. I hope she sticks around for a little longer, but even so I’m going to have to say she’s not safe.

Kristy Lee Cook - “Forever“: From being almost universally panned on the internet for her performances to having a string of pretty good ones, Kristy continues her run with a good vocal on this song. There were a few minor off-notes but all in all it was pretty good. Hubby commented that he thought she sounded just a bit like a young Patsy Kline. She might still be in the bottom three, since she’s ended up there so often, but I think if she is, just like all the other times she won’t be voted off. Of course, if she continues to be good, she could eventually fall victim to her fans voting for her less often etc. But not this week, I think.

David Cook - “Always Be My Baby“: OK, David C. can sing that alternative rock sound very well. I admit it. Especially the power notes. Although, once again I thought he was a little too low pitched at the start. Maybe it’s my weird ears again. The problem is, I still don’t like him. Something about him rubs me the wrong way at this point. Still, he definitely sounded like someone with a hit record with this performance, and he’s safe, safe, safe.

Jason Castro - “I Don’t Wanna Cry“: Guitar-less and sitting on a stool, I thought perhaps Jason was going to try something really different and blow it. But he wisely had the band play softly, with mostly a guitar (or whatever) playing the most audibly, and it worked. It was typical Jason, being kinda mellow and lightweight, but he sang well. It was very much an “easy listening” type of arrangement - y’know, the kind you’d hear on an “easy listening” station while at work. Sometimes that can be a bad thing, but in this case, I think it was a good thing.

So who will be in the bottom three? I think it’ll be three gals. Carly and Syesha, and then either Kristy or Brooke. Who will go home? I’m kinda thinking Carly. But as always … who bloody knows. :)

A few photos of the inside of the new house. These are mostly for my mother/family and are likely to bore anyone else. :P

The first photo is essentially what you’d see if you walked in the front door this week. There’s quite a few unpacked boxes around, but they’re mostly behind the couch, which is nice since they keep the sofa from sliding around every time you sit down, heh heh. I’m not used to a living area that’s so open like this, with so few real usable walls - there’s no good way to arrange things. The TV is against the front window/wall. I suppose most people would put the couch against that wall, instead of in the middle of the room like I have, but I have this thing against sitting directly in front of a big front-yard window. Baby-kitty likes the couch in this position, because he can walk in circles around it, which he does all the time…he sits in front of us, meows for attention, then walks once around the couch to sit in front of us again. Over and over. Yes, Baby-kitty is strange.

The tall fireplace mantle is kinda cool for putting candles or whatever on, but I’m not particularly fond of the appearance of the whole fireplace thing in general. I prefer fireplaces that aren’t so…tall.

The kitchen. It’s very white. And it’s very outdated in terms of appearance. And while it’s not what I’d call really small or anything, it’s a lot smaller in terms of floor space than what we were used to. The arrangement of the counters etc. is also a bit odd. The stove range is behind the garage door to the left, which is a tad annoying. Not only because you can crash into the cook if you’re coming in from the garage, but because it means I have to walk across the kitchen to the sink - something I don’t like when you have a giant pot of boiled noodles to drain. I suspect if we only did one re-modeling type thing in this house, it’ll be the kitchen. Might even move the wall/doorways.

Edit: One last picture:

Dear Mom: I hope you don’t mind that we’ve resorted to using your ‘buffet’ table as a TV stand/entertainment area. :D The buffet was so long it wouldn’t really fit elsewhere very well, and we never had a very good table for the 50″ TV. So we unscrewed the legs off the buffet - so it’d sit flat on the floor for better topweight-strength - and it works perfectly. We have the wicker speakers on each end of it, so it all kinda matches, which is cool. Someday we’ll get around to actually buying a stereo again, so the speakers will have some work to do.

The new house gets a lot of sunshine in the early morning, through the back sliding glass door. Hubby and I like to sit in chairs and absorb the sun’s heat while drinking our daily doses of caffeine. My cat Baby, oddly enough, doesn’t seem to like lying there too much. He’ll lie on the edge of the sun’s line, with his paws in the actual sun. I think he misses the carpeted floors.

Those are my slippers in the foreground. They were on sale for $6 at Target … I think they’re cutely amusing.

Peek-a-boo!

My pet cat Baby was grooving on this wood chair the other day. Isn’t he sweet and cute? Looking pretty good for being almost 18 years old or so.