American Idol Season of Worship Leader?

It seems that this year, there are more than normal number of worship leaders competing. Of the first six that have been put through, three are nice churchboys.

Although it makes sense. Worship leaders are a talented crew. Every week, they come up with a new set, arrangements, sing, go with the flow. Very good musical skills and lots of practice. It's about time people realize how much talent we have in churches.

And let's face it, it never hurts to have favor from the Man Upstairs. I've often thought that God blesses those who use their musical talents for Him.

And, those Christians are a powerful voting block for AI. Because they are home watching AI instead of something with inappropriate content.

This blog post link does not mention Jason Castro, who played at his church in Houston. BTW Jason will be on the March 4 AI, singing a new song he is releasing.

Anyway, here is the blog post from beliefnet talking about the proliferation of worship leaders on this year's American Idol: http://blog.beliefnet.com/gospelsoundcheck/2009/02/american-idol-is-this-the-seas.html

Steven Curtis Chapman Cinderella

Just the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5LteQgBIMA

Video with the story afterwards:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLYxtuC0oRk

Watching American Idol Finale at the Mski Home

Now, please take this post as a post highlighting the shenanigans of the home, and not a bitter mom complaining about her TV watching being interrupted by live humans...because of course that would never be me...

• Boy has open house at school from 6 to 7:30 pm. Aw darn, that means Mama has to take him to open house and not go to Wednesday night services at church, and therefore can watch American Idol finale live.




• AI starts.




• Quiet boy suddenly becomes chatty Kathy. He talks about everything under the sun, including how calculators work and wants to demonstrate how they work. Mama tries to pretend she is interested.




• Youngest girl decides to play piano and sing. Mama puts a quick stop to that.




• Boy decides to root for Archie, against his mother's Cookie.




• Oldest teenager finds out who the winner is from her internet sources and threatens to tell the mother.




• Little girl takes her shower. Lather, rinse, get her into jammies.




• Boy takes his shower. Lather, rinse, throw him in a towel and send him to get his underwear on.




• Younger teenager calls from the next town, ready to be picked up from choir banquet.




• Mama delays leaving to pick up teenager until after Jason Castro sings solo Hallelujah song.




• Oldest teenager worries about Jason Castro singing his Hallelujah song, because he was visibly shaking. We share a moment of concern.




• Mama decides to send oldest teenager to go pick up younger teenager so she can keep watching AI.




• Oldest teenager is a good sport and leaves to go pick up her sister.




• Boy wants milk.




• Girl wants milk.




• Girl needs to go to bed. Pause AI.




• Boy needs to drill his 8s addition facts, so mama set him up on http://www.aplusmath.com/.




• Girl goes to bed and wants 2 pages of Cinderella. Mama reads it.




• Boy goes to bed and Mama reads Superman to boy. The shortest book in the room.




• Girl wants to sleep in parents' bedroom. Whatever, just let me go back downstairs to watch the TV.




• Unpause AI.




• Teenagers return.




• Oldest teenager rewinds the whole thing back to the beginning so we can see it all again with younger teenager.




• Mama thinks we will be lucky to get done with this show by midnight.




• Everyone laughs/screams at David Cook shaking his legs while singing with ZZ Top. Nice moves David!




• Everyone laughs at how David Hernandez magically got the line about being "naked" in the George Michael song.




• Younger teenager takes over computer to do a project on the Ukrainian genocide.




• Husband comes home from church.




• We laugh at the crazy Renato and wish they showed the Jason Castro singing with the crazy audition guy piece we've seen.




• Younger teenager needs advice on the Ukrainian genocide project.




• Mama refrains from kicking younger teenager off the computer so she can check AI forums, http://www.mjsbigblog.com/, and Michael Slezak at Entertainment Weekly.




• Teenagers give husband the recap of what has gone on.




• Younger teenager cannot work the double sided tape and mama has to fix it.




• Older teenager wishes Jason Castro sang "Tambourine Man," his infamous lyric botching song, which sounds really great on the itunes studio download CD.




• Husband goes on a big diatribe about the judges in the moments before the winner is announced.




• Husband is sad that no one is listening to what he is saying.




• The winner is announced. Yay David Cook!! Yay!! Happy happy joy joy!!




• We all remark and how happy all the contestants are for David Cook.




• Cautious older teenager states that she would not have all those sparks flying down if she were the winner, that is not very safe.

This morning, I had to break the news to Luke that big David won the match. Luke is very disappointed, and begins questioning if David Archuleta can go another round. He does not give up very easily.



If you missed the show, I highly recommend MTV.com's 60 second recaps. Jim Cantiello gives everything you need to know in 60 seconds. And he does.



Congratulations to David Cook!! Who has done a fine job all year.

American Idol's Dirty Castro Conspiracy

Now I'm going to be talking about the grassy knoll. And Area 52. And how the government invented cancer.

Dear friends, I have reviewed the Tivos. And have come to the conclusion that indeed, the AI judges were conspiring to get Jason Castro voted off the show.

We know the unnecessarily harsh criticisms. We know how Paula, in "Paulagate," judged Jason's second song harshly before he even sang it. We know how Simon says no one could possibly do Bob Marley. (Well, I was thinking Bob Marley, yeah!) And we know how Randy would be so angry and critical at Jason...when David Archuleta had previously forgotten the lyrics on 2 songs, and 1 group song (RENT - hello, Naomi caught that one).

Yes dear friends, I am afraid that the American Idol machine was afraid of the Castronauts - the gazillion fans out there who love Jason Castro. Who is not the Clay Aiken of Season 7. But he certainly is the Jack Johnson of Season 7. Or the Brad Paisley, or Kenny Loggins, or ... well, I am not sure. But there is a real charm to the boy. The way he perseveres in the wake of everyone judging him very harshly, and laughing at himself, and joking around...just very nice. I could see other contestants crying at the mean comments directed towards him.

And here is a little known fact: he is a smartypants. I have read somewhere on a forum that he had an SAT score of 1340 (higher than mine), and was on an academic scholarship to Texas A&M. For some of the more interesting interviews with Jason, past his hair and the "vote, vote" controversy, take a look at EW's Idolatry interviews with Jason by Michael Slezak - who actually knows the show and gets Jason: http://www.ew.com/ew/video/idolatry.

So on this first week sans Jason, I have to say that Archuleta did fine, Cookie did his usual excellent job, Syesha...yeesha, and it was all very serious and stressful looking at the contestants without the pleasant little break of Jason, who seemed to give a little lightheartedness to the show. He could joke, and laugh at himself, not care about winning, and always be a little island of peace. Now watching AI is like watching ER or CSI:NY or something with all the stress of the contestants.

In the end, Jason had the top iTunes download with "Hallelujah." And has already sold a whole lot of t-shirts. I'm sure his album will do quite well. Perhaps he will be - more than Ruben Studdard, or Taylor Hicks, or Katherine McPhee, or Fantasia - the commercial succcess that American Idol seeks to breed.

We still love and watch the show, but it's a hollow shell of its dredlocked former self without the charm of Jason, the guy you knew wouldn't win but didn't care.

Too bad he was targeted to leave, because the judges were so intent on having a David/David showdown. Because Jason just may have been loved enough to unseat one of the Davids.

Jason Castro Performances

Some mighty nice performances on Ellen and Regis & Kelly, from MJ's American Idol blog:

http://mjsbigblog.com/jason-castro-on-ellen-and-regis-and-kelly-video.htm#more-4821

AI Top 4

Yes, Jason does care:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2008/05/american-idol-3.html

No, Syesha (who says the word "I" or "me" 8 times in one sentence) should not change an iconic song about the civil rights movement into a song about her personal American Idol journey. That's like me saying that "Bye Bye Miss American Pie" is a great song for me because I like pie.

David Cook, nice job. Tough to meet all those exaggerated expectations of you.

David Archuleta. Geez, I think Randy wants to marry him. I didn't think it was mad hot, just kind of vanilla.

American Idol Rock n Roll Hall of Fame Song Suggestions

It's going to be a little tough this week for the contestants in song selection. LOTS of good songs to pick from.

The key in selecting a song is to get a great song done by someone who sings worse than you. Now, this can be tough when doing the people in the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame. The other thing would be to change the song to your style, and make it your own. And, let's remember that these people are young, and don't necessarily know all of these artists. Yeesh.

Here are my thoughts.

David Archuleta - I'd love to hear something really gritty from him. Let's do something raw, and show some personality. Although I'm sure it will be Fleetwood Mac "Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow," Bruce Springsteen "Born in the USA," or Michael Jackson "Man in the Mirror."

Jason Castro - song selection will be key for him. I'd suggest something like Buddy Holly "Everyday," or maybe the Eagles "Desperado," Prince "Purple Rain," Bee Gees "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart," Simon & Garfunkel "Bridge Over Troubled Water" or "The Sound of Silence," or Billy Joel "She's Always a Woman," or James Taylor "Something in the Way She Moves."

David Cook - what can't he sing this week? It's going to be his oyster.

Syesha - well, I'm sure she'll pick a big song already sung by a singer better than her and try to copy it, doing well but not as well as the original. Aretha Franklin "Respect"? Glady Knight "I Heard it Through the Grapevine? But I'd like to hear her song Bonnie Raitt "I Can't Make You Love Me."

Phew. I am exhausted with all of this song strategy work. But, since the AI contestants are all loyal readers of the Blog Adventure, I'm sure it will all be to good use.

Preacher's Wife Soundtrack

I am putting the finishing touches on our slideshows for tonight's 12th Night Ball. I am so pleased because I found the perfect song for our Christmas season slideshow - Whitney Houston's "Joy," from the soundtrack of "The Preacher's Wife."

I have been listening to all of the soundtrack, and it is great. Where most of the songs of Christmas albums I have/listen to have got the same tired songs on it, Whitney has got a lot of new (to me) gospel songs with a super choir behind her.

Dearest Whitney, just think of the Preacher's Wife you could have been. Just one more reason to be angry with Bobby Brown.

Joy by Whitney Houston