Hell-O Gleek Out!

Glee is back, I'm watching American Idol again and OMG Sue Sylvester does Vogue! tv life is good again.

Fox made sure everyone knew Glee was back ON! Even if you weren't in the U.S., you can FEEL it returning after its super long hiatus of what felt like a year! The cast of Glee minus Lea Michelle were in the audience for Wednesday night's American Idol (Tuesday if you're the U.S.) and Cory Monteith (sigh Finn!), Jane Lynch (Sue Sylvester ftw!) and Matthew Morrison (Mr Schuester) were even onstage to close the show with Seacrest.

Considering I haven't watched two weeks worth of AI (seriously had no urge to watch last week's show at all), I tuned in this week because my favourite Idol persona was on - Glambert. And boy, was he worth the 1am - 3am viewing. (I watched Glee from 12am - 1am, more on Glee later).

Thank gawd for Adam who was super honest and constructive unlike the other guest judges so far who have sugarcoated and hemmed and hawed their way through their mentorship duties. Ok, Usher wasn't too bad. But Adam really said it like he saw it. And I just have to say, I loved Tim Urban. Best performance for me last night. Totally deserved not to leave - for last night anyway.

As for Andrew and Katie going, I predicted it (to myself la, since no one was up for me to talk to), everyone's tired of Andrew not hitting that 'Straight Up' stride again and Katie's been on her last legs for a while now. When the two of them stood on stage together at the end watching the 'goodbye package', I felt kinda sad, cos they were first two I followed on Twitter just cos I thought they had the most potential at that point in time.

Big Mike's fans got a huge wake up call, and unlike alum Matt Giraud, Mike's fans got the message and voted like siao to keep him in - he wasn't even in the bottom three.

Elvis night was not bad. Everyone did fairly well. Had no idea what Casey was singin' about. Apart from T'Urban's haunting 'Hallelujah-like' rendition of 'I Can't Help Falling In Love With You', the other performance I enjoyed was Lee's - good call by Glambert to get him to smile more. As Tyra would say...'smize' (smile with your eyes).

The best part of the show for me, wasn't even the performances, it was catching glimpses of the Glee cast when the judges were talking! Every time Simon spoke, I had to listen harder to hear what he was saying cos my eyes would keep straying to see the expressions on Jane Lynch's and Matthew Morrison's faces - to see if they concurred or disagreed with Syco.

And of course seeing Adam in mentor-action was a real treat too. Love that guy. Just LOVE. HIM.

Highlight of the results show for me was of course Adam's lasered up performance of 'Wattaya Want From Me'. Seriously Siobhan this season's Glambert? Not even close. I love the girl, she has loads of potential, but not even an eighth of his personality, and it was even more apparent when they were onscreen together. Adam has always just oozed starpower and presence, even when he was a mere contestant.

Ok, enough Glambert-praise.

So how did Glee's first ep after hiatus hold up? Well lemmetellya-it.was.just.AWESOME!

I loved seeing Cory Monteith sing solo. And it was a pretty strong one too. His rosey cheeks and duh-duh looks sometimes made me wonder how he could be the school's top jock when he was so wimpy everywhere else, but when he takes on songs like that, rowrr. Good job Finn.

Loved Sue's less than savoury tactics to get herself reintstated in the school - drugs, sex (or the illusion of it) and blackmail. Very Cheerio. Would have liked it if they didn't snuff out the Will & Emma romance so quickly though. However, the introduction of a new love interest for Will and Rachel, both from the enemy camp of Vocal Adrenaline, was a great distraction, albeit a little predictable.

Best song of the episode....Rachel's duet with her new 'boyfriend', Jesse St. James. They sang Lionel Richie's 'Hello' accompanied by piano. I've forgotten how beautiful that song was. Thank you Glee. And HELLO! Welcome back!

xoxo, s.

ps. CANNOT WAIT FOR NEXT WEEK'S EPISODE - Sue does Madonna!!!

First, check out the promo for next week's episode.

ROTFLMAO - "Somewhere in a stately manor home, Madonna is weeping!" - Sue Sylvester

Next, watch Glee's music video parody of Vogue, featuring Sue Sylvester. Goode one!

For the latest episodes of Glee, the legal way, ;) do the mio TV season pass. New episodes every week just a day after the US. Hello--- I've just gotta let you know.......

Ellen Old Blue Eyes

Ellen's eyes damn blue lor..

After all the anticipation and the 'woot'-ing and 'yay'-ing and daily countdowns (I'm sure I'm not the only one who set a countdown alarm on my phone...she has crazy mad fans in the US), I thought the minute she walked on set I would laugh. But nope, the first thing I saw was how darn blue her eyes are. Even more so paired with that denim jacket. Now THAT is what I call blue man. Even The Husband's first comment was "Wah her eyes damn blue man!"

And after all that fuss about her and Simon feuding...they got along like best friends throughout the show. She'd make jokes, he'd smile or laugh. The closest to a catfight we saw was hardly even a meow - Ellen played step back step forth with the final four contestants of the day only to put all of them through and Simon remarked, 'You're a sadist'. Feud? Where gottt? PR Spin laaa, told you I could smell it.

Ellen to Simon :

"So this is it huh,.... I come on.... you leave."

It was pretty apparent in our first Hollywood week episode that the producers were clearly giving Ellen the judging lead (or at least it seemed that way in on the final edit). In my previous post, I carried quotes from various articles online speculating that producers were figuring out how to 'phase' Simon out. Imo, certainly looks like they are grooming Ellen to be head judge from Day 1.

I guess with Ellen as the anchor judge from here on in, Simon's exit won't seem to leave such a gaping hole on the panel. I'm so gonna miss Simon when he DOES leave. Say what you want, but I've always felt the guy is genuine and he calls it like he sees it (and 90% of the time I agree with him). Oh and I love how he totally supports those that he thinks have talent.

Back to Ellen's first day, I think she started the day on the right note when she came onstage and addressed the 'big question on everyone's minds' - "What does she know about music?" And her answer was perfect :

"What I do know is what its like to stand on stage and try to please an entire room full of people. Thats a hard thing to do."

Ok so how did Round 1 of Hollywood Week go?

Everyone gets a chance to sing either acapella or accompanied by an instrument. Many took to the opportunity to bring their guitars and keyboards. Lots of aspiring singer/songwriters here.

What I liked about this episode, especially remembering last season, was that it had plenty of surprise goodbyes. Last season, producers pretty much gave away who were going through to the Top 24, because every single story they highlighted (ie followed back to hometowns for backstories) made it through.

You'd assume the same this year, but nope. A large number of those with backstories didn't make it through. Bye bye to SkiiBoSki, country girl Vanessa Wolfe (the one who'd never been on a plane before), Cornelius the guy who split his pants doin' a split, Maegan Wright who's lil brother was a big supporter, the New Jersey sisters, Barney girl Erica and beatboxer Jay Stone who failed to impress - Ellen said something was wrong with his mic (wahlaueh epic fail lor).

Although many bit the dust, there were so many standouts too - totally blowin' me away were :

Andrew Garcia - wth blew me totally to the next town man!

His accoustic rendition of Straight Up was SLAMMIN!! He took that song and totally made it his own! Agree with Kara 100% - "RIDICULOUS!" (in a good way)

Paula Abdul must be kicking herself for ending her contract right? (While simultaneously snapping her fingers, screaming and clapping and rooting for him in her living room)

Janell Wheeler

Her accoustic version of American Boy was awesome!! I really like the tone of her voice!

Haeley Vaughn

I actually kinda enjoyed her version of 'Hallelujah'. She's very likeable, although it still confuses me cos I can't peg her to a genre eventhough she says country pop - seems weird.

Lilly Scott

Wow, this one was an OMG moment! Love her voice!! Totally took me by surprise cos her speakng voice is lower, and then she sings this Ella Fitzgerald classic in such a cool way. 'Everything about you is refreshing' - totally on da money Kara!

btw, the Sam guy that made it through with her, looks cool, pity we didn't get to see his audition :(

Mike "Big Mike" Lynche

He's really huge (as in, the-guitar-looked-seriously-like-a-ukelele-huge) personal trainer who missed the birth of his first child for this. I totally didn't even remember his first audition. He also surprised me. His take of 'Waitin' On The World To Change' was infectious! I loved it, loved his personality and his lil ukelele...oops I mean guitar :)

Casey James

Woot! He was kinda dull and not much of a personality at his original audition and probably got through cos he took off his shirt. But with the guitar added, he came out of his shell. Casey became a croonin' coyote! (<--- ok don't know where that came from)

Loved it, eventhough I'm not really a country fan. (Then again, I'm actually likin' Carrie Underwood and Kellie Pickler and oh gawd Taylor Swift too! how? might need to git me a cowboy hat soon)

Crystal Bowersox (no not Powersocks)

All dreadlocked and tattooed, she totally powered through 'You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman'. She looks too young to be a mom, I mean, she looked 16 (she's actually 24). She certainly got the crowd going and she's kinda got a hippiechick feel - reminds me a little of Rose Flack from last season. Rose was prettier, but Crystal has a much better voice and musicality.

And last but not least people...my favourite of the night was.....

Didi Benami

I love love LOVED it. I'm actually a Kara Dioguardi fan and I was so excited when she said she was singing 'Terrified' cos I have loved this song since I found Kara singing it on a video on Youtube early last year.

Imo, she did it better than Katharine McPhee (this is one of Katharine McPhee's singles from her new album 'Unbroken'). Didi made it very current. Kat McPhee's version sounds like it could be from the 90s or even 80s (no disrespect to her, I was actually rooting for her all throughout Season 5) Click here to listen to Katharine McPhee's version, but I suggest you watch Kara sing it below :) (one of my fave vids, the singing only starts at 1:49)

Kara btw looked awesome on Idol...and this is so random and unrelated but I have the same coloured scarf! Yay, me and Kara have something in common (except that maybe hers cost a few hundred bucks, mine was $10 from Cotton On, Anchorpoint).

Others that were pretty good were Katie Stevens (16 year old whose grandma has Alzheimer's), Tim Urban (floppy haired, and I just love his name) and Mary Powers, the rocker mama who brought along her 8 year old daughter to meet Simon and he said 'Are you sure this isn't my daughter' because she was such a cynic.

Maddy Curtis (the girl with Downs Syndrome brothers) didn't make it through. Apparently the judges felt she wasn't ready for this. But imo, I thought she deserved to go at least one more day.

46 made it thru to Group Day. Historically Group Day is Super Drama day. Its bound to yield lots of emo scenes because its a super stressed environment and you're forcing strangers to work together within 24 hours on a performance that will either make/break their Idol dreams. Drama with a capital 'D' comin' your way, tonight! EXCITINGGGGG!

See you on the flipside of tonight's episode folks!

What did you think of Ellen's first day as judge? Can she helm the panel once Simon's gone? Why didn't they groom Kara? Comment comment comment :)

xoxo, s.

ps. I liked the girl with the purple woolly hat and glasses but I have no idea what her name is. We didn't even see her audition.

American Idol Day! LA Auditions!

Yesterday LA, TODAY Dallas.

Its 3.30am and I've just managed to watch today's (Wednesday's) telecast of American Idol, no thanks to some wonky stuff going on with my recorder. Lucky for me, I had a back up recording in the other room!

I was really looking forward to the LA Auditions, mostly because I wanted to see how Avril and Katy would do as judges. I mean, we've all seen Posh and Mary J. choke, and then there was Shania who seemed the best fit followed by a giggly Kristin Chenoweth who didn't turn up for Day2 of the Orlando auditions (the show declares she had to go back to New York presumably for work, but 'sources' say she was 'sent' back/judging duties cut short cos she annoyed Simon too much). So how would two very young entertainers like Lavigne and Perry fair?

I have to say, not bad. Apart from Avril's slightly whiny (and er, 'young') way of speaking, she was present and contributing (apparently her age is what makes her a relevent judge cos she's young enough to 'audition, so she knows how it feels'). Her devil-eared hoodie and the jangling of her jewellery every time she spoke was kinda distracting for me, but hey she's Avril Lavigne. She's actually very pretty. I expected her to be more angsty and 'angry' but she was smiley and bubble-gummy (she was literally chewing gum the whole time). Not really worth of the seat imo.

Katy Perry was entertaining to watch from the get-go. Gorgeous to a fault in a huggy peach dress that showed off her assets (so much so that a creepy guy pointed it out), she stuck by her opinions and didn't get steamrolled by anyone, especially Kara (whassup with the cattiness though Katy? Are you a Kara-hater too?). Unfortunately for Kara though, Katy's snow white complexion (seriously, she looked like Snow White with the 'skin white as snow, lips red as the rose and hair as dark as ebony - I'm quoting the Magic Mirror here), Kara's tan, looked orange and super fake (even if it was real). Every time there was a two-shot of them, I was like 'ugh, Kara needs to un-tan', such a departure from last season when I used to feel, 'ugh, Paula needs to un-tan' (Kara seemed pale next to her).

Ok, so lets review the show and the auditionees shall we?

Opening shot of this week's episode is of Ryan in his radio studio, with the big 'On-Air with Ryan Seacrest' logo right behind him. Well-played Seacrest - plug your radio show on your tv show :) I really take my hat off to this guy, he's got all his fingers in every pie, and each pie complements the next - its f*rking GENIUS I tell you! He's got his LA morning radio show (its daily), he does American Top 40 (a weekly countdown show, that's syndicated internationally), he's got American Idol (twice weekly, in a few weeks it'll be thrice), he owns his own production company (Ryan Seacrest Productions) and produces tv shows (mostly celeb/reality shows like Keeping Up With The Kardashians on E! (psst!its addictive :P) and Denise Richards reality show; he's got a dating reality show comin' up and even something with Paris Hilton), he's got his daily duties at E! where he helms E! News Live (daily shows + the weekend bumper edition!) AND he has time to like sometimes host big shows like a Disney Christmas Parade (big deal type show) and the Emmys (hello, even bigger deal).

He's 36 this year people. Overachiever hor. Does he even SLEEP?

Oh and plus he's like on Twitter ALL the time - I'm now beginning to think he's got a PA to tweet for him, but then again, some of the stuff he posts (like in reply to his celeb friends) are quite personal - he's probably attached to his Blackberry (or T-Mobile Sidekick, if AI sponsors AT&T gave him one).

Stalk him here, his website is awesome for BTS stuff on AI, PLUS he twitpics!!!

Sorry got so sidetracked with Ryan, I'm so in awe of how he is so productive 24/7, 365 days of the year. Now on to the show. Lets list Good vs Evil (ok, just BAD).

Bad/Strange/Weird/Creepy

Neil Goldstein

First guy up, says he's got an IQ of 168 - sure not? Sang 'Remember Everything That I Told You' and ironically forgot the lyrics after the first line. Refused to accept the 'no's he was doled and when told he needed a reality check said, 'There is no reality than that which we make for ourselves' wth?

Some really offkey singers not really worth mentioning, but since I wrote their names down might as well - Jayson Wilson, Jesse Chang (seriously cliched, Asian guy singing 'Kung Fu Fighting' *face palm*) and Martin Perez.

And then, we meet Damian Lefavor.

Martial arts enthusiast. I think he's watched Jackie Chan's 'Drunken Master' move one time too many. His 'moves' were nowhere near Jackie's or Bruce's but at least he realised it when he choked, and left without much of a fight - kungfu or otherwise :)

A.J. Mendoza

Bad Glambert impressionist. Apparently he got two thumbs up from Lambert himself after he sent him a demo tape. Point is, he only sounded good after I turned my tv volume down a few notches. But after I did that I couldn't hear what the judges were saying. Anyway I was so distracted by his 'fringe' flicking - every few seconds he would flick his fringe - I wanted to clip it up with one of Scarlett's (The Daughter) gazillion clips.

Austin Fullmer.

Guy with the PVC red and black shirt. Calls himself 'sexually open'. OMG. Walking pillar of raging hormones much? R-rated a bit. Even Katy Perry said "I'm scared. Do they frisk these people?"But actually, his face isn't too bad. He's just a bit skinny. Next Top Model Homme maybe? He'd provide loads of drama Tyra. I'm seriously waiting for Tyra to do America's Next Top Male Model. (Btw, if you watched Idol on Ch5, you woulda missed Katy Perry's intro vid which you can see in this vid below. Hrm, wonder why Ch5's censors cut it out? 'kissed a girl and I liked it?')

Jason Greene.

Creepy long-haired guy who was, erm, creepy. I quote Katy Perry, "You make me feel...dirty." Hrm, Katy's turning out to be pretty quote-worthy :)

The Good.

Jim Ranger. Cue sob story #1. Producers feature him with his three cute kids. He's also a pastor. I don't see the 'sob' much considering he has a huge house with a pool table. But he says life is busy, but he loves his kids. Okay. He sang an original called 'Drive' and it was good. He's on to Hollywood. I don't get why Avril said 'no' to this guy - just to create drama? Just cos he has a family? Loads of successful singers have families wat.

Mary Powers.

Short hair, eyeliner, rock chick get-up, sang Pat Benatar's 'Love Is A Battlefield'. Kudos to her for actually pulling this song off, remember the 'tv host' who tried this song too - way to major fail on that one. Mary got four YESes and her 8 year old got to meet her hero - Simon Cowell :) so cute. Simon's my hero too.

Andrew Garcia.

Cue sob story #2. The guy had ex-gangmember parents who gave it all up and moved to the burbs to save him and his brother. He doesn't look like he's in a gang, but he does have tatts across his neck (ouch!), but he also has this adorable son - SO CUTE! So he's doing this to hopefully support his family. His audition - superb. Sang 'Sunday Morning' and it was awesome. I totally loved it and fell in love with him. Go Andrew! Loved his tone too, reminded me of Airi.

I found these vids on youtube of Andrew Garcia. Love the Sunday Morning one in the playground (second vid below).



Tasha Layton

"PA by day, Minister by night". Doesn't look 26. She actually looks a little bit like my fave Gilmore Girl Lauren Graham. She sang Joss Stone's 'Baby Baby Baby' and I have to say, it was kinda cool, cos I didn't expect that song to sound good without Joss' raspy low voice. It wasn't bad. I wonder if she'll go all 'hallelujah' on us as the show progresses - nah, doubt it, she doesn't seem the loopy-religious type.

Chris Golightly

Cue third and final sob story for the night. Orphaned at 18 months and has been through 25 foster homes, music has been his only constant. And the boy can sing. Throughout the show, producers have been trailing that we'll be 'blown away' by this afro-ed guy, but I think all the over-promotion worked against him. He got four YESes, but Katy and Simon gave him small 'y's and I wasn't too blown away either. Kara and Randy put him through with big Ys. He kinda has a Justin Guarini vibe (and its more than just the hair, maybe its cos he looks mix-raced too).

Production slip-ups! Oops!

Did you notice the two boo-boos I did?

The first one was glaringly obvious that producers had Neil come back twice in the same outfit - he had super long hair in some shots and then short hair in some. If you don't want people to realise there's a 'culling' round, you need conty (continuity)!

Later on, they spliced up 'bad auditions' footage together for 'Day 1' but there was a wide shot that showed Katy in the judging seat instead of Avril. Tsk.

And I thought things like that don't happen on American productions - cos they're so pro and y'know, sticklers for quality etc. So far their editing has been seamless and fast-paced. Oh well, we're all human right producers? So next time our own producers slip up, close one eye la.

Oh and did you see the Judges arriving via helicopter on Day 2? Totally agree with Katy Perry "Ridiculous." American Idol definitely has $$$ to burrrrn man, give us (Singapore Idol) some la, since we all in the 'idol' family right? And having the A-Team theme song play when the helicopter landed just added to the cheese - tsk.

Ok so, all in all only 23 made it through in LA (so little right?). The standouts for me were Andrew Garcia (can you tell? hehe) and Chris Golightly (I wonder if he's named for Holly Golightly, and if he is, is it the singer or Audrey Hepburn's character from Breakfast at Tiffany's).

Lets see how the Dallas auditions go....with guest judges Joe Jonas (also young enough to relate?) and Neil Patrick Harris (he's my great big hope for one-liners today)...perhaps it will be...say it with me....Le-Gen-Dary....

Nite y'all! (wahlao 5am liao!)

xoxo, s.

ps. If you watched Idol on Channel 5, you may have caught an ad for 'Nursing as a profession' featuring Haizad Imran, Top 30 for Singapore Idol Season 1 and familiar face on Suria. He's still as cute as ever.

pps. Had to squeeze this last vid in, its for an upcoming show produced by Ryan Seacrest's production company and it features my fave chef ever cos he's so adorable and so kind (yes kind!) Jamie Oliver! Watch! Channel 5, please buy this show can?