Siciliano's Seven

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To see everyone's picks and a full standings breakdown, click here.

What's up, Cats and Kittens?

After a month of gracing us with his inspired prose, Ben has requested a well deserved week off. So, in Ben's absence, he called me in from the bullpen to provide an inning of relief pitching from a fresh arm while he takes the week off to rejuvenate his creative juices. 
Because my services will only be used sporadically and there is a an avalanche of American Idol brilliance swirling around in my brain, I've chosen to break from Idol blog tradition and just go with a rambling, free-flowing stream of consciousness before getting to last weeks recap. Due to the length, feel free to skip over the blog and go straight to the standings, but know that your soul will be forever destitute and empty for doing so.

IDOL THOUGHTS

Count me amongst the millions that missed most of Adam Lampbert's performance last week thanks to the show's battle royal with my DVR timer. Really Fox? Eight singers plus judges. Nobody thought last week's show might go longer than 60 minutes? Not one staffer raised this possibilty?... 

In the 4th season of Idol, with eight weeks left, Simon made a prediction that Carrie Underwood would not only win the competition but would "sell more records than any previous Idol contestant." Of course, she did both. After one performance this season, Paula made a prediction Lil Rounds should get ready to be in the finals. I'll let you fill in your own joke for that one....

This show makes 26 quadrillion dollars. It's historically popular. It's totally reinvented the television landscape. And they still can't figure something  out to help Simon hear the contestants when they are talking. It's pretty impressive, actually. I'm keeping count of the times he has to lean over and whisper "What did he say?" We're approaching the triple digits....

Gots to give the Idols credit, they've really chosen some classic songs. Between Lampbert's version of "Tracks of my Tears" and Allison's "I Can't Make You Love Me" by Bonnie Raitt, those are two of the greatest songs of all time....

I just re-read that last thought. I really need a girlfriend...

What's with the blatant lip-synching in the group performances? Where they always doing this? Two weeks ago, it looked like a Bruce Lee kung fu movie up there....

Ever notice Paula speaks in sentence fragments after a bad performance? "You are ........ a brilliant vocalist ...... but that ....... only gets you so far....Not your best." In the words of the Billy Madison, T-T-T-TODAY JUNIOR! ....

Hey Annop!  You seem like a good guy. Probably fun to hang with. Having said that, I really hope you have someone keeping detailed notes for you in that science lecture down at UNC. People aren't going to pay real money to hear/see you perform ....

I've been trying to figure out why Adam brings out the inner-jock in me. (I always find myself fighting a strong desire to pummel him.) And I think I've figured it out: I like weirdness. I embrace people who are kind of quirky and different. But I can't stand people who TRY to be weird and different. Adam strikes me as the kind of kid that goes waaay out of his way so that people will think he's edgy. The kid is from Pasadena. Stop with the black nail polish before take your lunch money...


This is killing me. Count how many times the judges uses this phrase: "You know what I love about ______"
A) "you..." 
B) "that performance..."
C) "this show..."
D) "pork chops ..."  

(D. is for Randy only)

This phrase is used at least twice a week. It's really starting to get to me. We need to either get the producer to cut the microphone of any judge that starts a sentence with that phrase OR create the first ever Idol drinking game. One of the two.

As for our pool, Melissa Clement continues to lead with the Amatangelo sisters close behind. And my cousin Jay sits in last. I mean, dead last. (Just wanted to highlight that.) 

This week's theme is Scenes From The Cinema, with mentor Quentin Tarantino. No, I'm not kidding. I'll wait a second while you read that sentence again.

(waiting...)

OK, so for pool purposes I need a strong performance from Lil. But if momentum means anything (and I think Lindsey Lohan has proven that it does), it looks like either Ms. Rounds or Anoop could get sent packing tonight. Then again, this week just has the feel of one of those shocking eliminations, so watch out. That would be fun.

Yo, you know what I love about shocking eliminations.........
 
--Mike Sis

The Questionably-Elite Eight

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To see everyone's picks and a full standings breakdown, click here.

Yes folks, Eight contestants remain after the shameless "Songs that are on iTunes" week, and thankfully, mercifully, gloriously, Megan Joy is not one of them. The awkward-dancing, sleeve-o-tats-having, Amy Winehouse-esque, crooner opted to cover Bob Marley and instead of being shown the love she was shown the door. But Megan wasn't the only contestant to turn in a sub-par performance in last week's show and with a seemly limitless choice of songs, there were more misses than hits.

Not the worst performance, but certainly the most disappointing, was Lil, who played it safe yet again, choosing a yawn-o-riffic Celine Dion ballad instead of something, anything with some swagger to it. What the hell happened to the Lil Rounds that came out blazing to Mary J. Blige in the top 36? Where's the attitude? If Lil get's any whiter this week, she'll be gone.

And speaking of being white ... Anoop ... seriously ... Usher?! No Anoop. Just ... no.

Danny Gokey was solid and picked a pretty risky song but I wouldn't have piled on the praise as much as the Judges did.

Matt Giraud singing the Fray was, to me, a lot less mediocre than I usually find him. But the Judges hated it, so clearly I just don't get this kid.

Adam Lampbert was obnoxious as usual but the judges didn't heap the attention on him as they usually do so I won't either.

Allison Iraheta has the perfect voice to sing No Doubt but her attempt at playing the guitar was absolutely useless. She only played for about 12 seconds before swinging the guitar behind her back where it sort of handcuffed her the rest of the way through the performance. She could have tore that song up but instead she just sort of stood in front of the mic looking awkward.

Scott was actually not that bad this week. Billy Joel was a good fit and he finally turned in a solid vocal. But the hair do ... really. You're lucky you're blind Scott, or there would really be no excuse for that.

Ok, Ok, enough venom. Because there was one performance that made it all worth while. Kris "formerly-most-forgetable-contestant" Allen was absolutely smokin' doing "Ain't No Sunshine". It was original, inventive and full of punch. Kris gets better every week. He's got a John Mayer, Jason Mraz-y style that's very relevant. He's a cool young married guy which I've gotta get behind, and I've gotta say, the guy I once thought was too boring to make it past the first round is fast becoming my favorite contestant.

Not much movement in the pool this week, Most people had Megan out already so Melissa Clement remains in front with Amy A. nipping at her heels. People are starting to have fewer red marks though as we reach the middle of the pack so it's still anyone's pool (well, almost anyone's) This week the Idols will be singing songs from the year they were born and Allison Iraheta will make us all feel old when she drops a top hit of 1993 ... sadly, she could sing No Doubt again if she wanted to. The Swami says: "Get yourselves a good dose of Anoop Dogg this week - It will be your last chance."

Make sure you come back next week when Mike Siciliano will take the reigns as guest-blogger for some fresh-perspective snarkiness - See you then!

9 Lives Left

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To see everyone's picks and a full standings breakdown, click here.

Another week of IDOL has come and gone and taken roughneck, Michael Sarver with it. Sarver's departure was overdue according to most of you but not for Amy A. who lost one of her top 4 and fell out of first place giving us a new leader by the name of Melissa Clement.

All in all I'd have to call Motown week a bit of a disappointment, but that's coming from a guy who holds Motown music as some of the best ever written. For me, it's hard for anyone to do justice to these songs - especially when compared to Mike Siciliano's fully-choreographed serenades in the offices of lakings.com.

The night's biggest disappointment (besides Megan Joy not being voted off) had to be Lil. The judges were right, it should have been her night. With so many great songs to choose from, "Heatwave" was a weak choice. After two luke-warm performances, Lil's breakout performance in the top 36 is starting to feel like a fluke.

Another favorite, Danny Gokey was good, but how do you blow off arrangement advice from Smokey Robinson?! Danny got off easy because the show was running late but I would have love to see him get called out for that with Smokey sitting in the front row.

There were some bright spots in week 3 though. Even the harshest Adam Lampbert critics among us (wait, is that just me?) were impressed by his stripped-down take on "Tracks of My Tears". I don't exactly see how that fits with his manic performances of weeks past, and I'd still call him the most overrated contestant in American Idol history (yeah, that's right) ... but it was good dog, it was good.

Tops for the night though was Allison Iraheta, who picked a tough song in "Papa Was a Rolling Stone" and knocked it out of the box. I'm usually pretty tough on the 16 year olds, but this girl can blow!

In the pool, Melissa takes over the lead in both earned and potential points but Amy A. is still in the hunt. The Hunts occupy 2nd place at the moment but picking Alexis to win will be their downfall. As the field narrows it's getting tougher and tougher to make a comeback but some people in the middle of the pack still have great potential. (Hint: the numbers in red are what really matters and they can only go down!)

Mums the word on this week's theme but the Idols will have their work cut out for them. The Swami says: "I hate to say it, but Scott MacIntyre's time is drawing to a close."

The Top 10

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To see everyone's picks and a full standings breakdown, click here.

Two weeks in, the touring top ten has is set, and if our pool is any indication we've had our first shocking elimination.  This week Alexis Grace got the axe, putting a lot of red marks on people's brackets ("Red marks," you say?  Click the full standings link above and you can see how each elimination affects your bracket and everyone else's).  

First off, thanks to everyone who stopped by to read last week's post but especially Mike Sis, who left a very amusing comment about how all (or at least half) of you all know each other.  If you didn't see it, check out the comments below the previous post.  And Mike, don't worry, It's only week two.  The snarkyness will pick up as the season progresses and I become more and more offended at how much time I'm devoting to this ridiculous TV show.  Once I start skipping weeks, my posts should be downright venomous.  Stay tuned.  

Secondly, I must make a retraction from last week's post.  Chris Piccolo picked Matt Giraud to win it all.  My last post said that Chris had picked TX native, Michael Sarver.  Let's hope we're both wrong!

OK, now that we've got the housekeeping out of the way let's have some week 2 highlights. Here we go ...

Clearly I'm an idiot, but I had Kris Allen out first because I thought he was boring. Halfway through his week 2 performance, I started writing down these notes ... Guess I wasn't wrong.

I think the judges were a little tough on Lil Rounds for not hip-hopping up her song on country night.  She made a conscious decision to respect the original version and took a risk with it.  If that's Lil singing outside her comfort zone, look out!  

Adam Lampbert with Randy Travis was the most awkward encounter since Jason Castro met Andrew Lloyd Webber.  His sitar-laden rendition of "Ring of Fire" was the most offensive performance since Archuletta sang "Imagine".  The fact that he survived that without a trip to the bottom 3 means were going to see a lot more Adam than I'm going to have patience for.

11:28 PM - I just realized that Scott is not a very good singer. Nice guy. Excellent piano player. Not a good singer... crap.

Megan getting a pass from the judges because she was sick was a crime. She's awful, flu or no flu.  If you think that's mean, you should hear my wife talk about her - scary.  

Good recovery by Anoop and Good thing for Jacqui and John, who both have him picked to win (Although truth-be-told, my aunt Jacqui said she wanted "Apoo" to win ... what a racist).  

Try as his stylists might, Matt Giraud is not Justin Timberlake.  He's a second-rate bar room piano player with average vocal chops - get over it people! 

There you have it folks.  Snarky enough for you?  Coming here and spewing sarcasm will soon be my only source of enjoyment since my own bracket is looking pretty dismal.  I'm not is as bad shape as the Hunts though, who both had Alexis picked to win it all.  They weren't the only ones hurt by Alexis' early departure though.  Adam, Brady, Jacqui, Ben S. and Geri "Glamma" Robak also picked her to go deep.  Not fooled though, was Amy Amantangelo, who continues to lead the pack with a 60/390 score and only one red mark going into week 3.  

This week's theme is "50 Years of Motown" and the Swami says: "Michael Sarver is going to sound silly singing Stevie Wonder and the Temptations - his days are numbered."

Season 8 is Underway!

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To see everyone's picks and a full standings breakdown, click here.

Yes folks it's season 8 of American Idol and we've reached the top 12 ... well OK, it was actually a top 13 but only for a brief shining moment as week one saw two contestants get the boot. Meanwhile, BP's IDOL Pool is in it's 6th season and despite losing some familiar faces (Where's Richie? Where's defending champ, Wilcz?), we have our biggest turnout yet with 21 players vying for IDOL supremacy this time around.  With two eliminations in week one, some people have already taken some damage but the season is young and it's still anyone's contest.  

This week, we said goodbye to Jasmine, who made it through as a Judges wild card and didn't fool a lot of people, as well as Jorge, the Puerto Rican sensation that many (myself included) thought could make a run.  The week one standouts came as no surprise. Lil Rounds, who led the pool in winner-picks with  7, had a strong showing as did Danny Gokey who was 5 people's pick to win it all.  But it was Adam Lampbert, who won the night for the judges with a (somewhat overrated in my opinion) rendition of "Black or White".  Only 4 people picked Adam to win it all so if things stay on course, Kathleen, Adam, Jay and JoAnne could be looking pretty good in the pool.

The big loser of the night (besides Jorge and Jasmine of course) was Anoop. 'Noop Dogg's likability earned him 2 winner picks in the pool, but his karaoke rendition of "Beat It" earned him a tongue-lashing from the judges.  Unless things turn around quickly, he looks overmatched.  

So far in the pool it's Amy Amantangelo leading the way in both points-scored and potential points.  Amy, along with Roisin and Kevin Hunt are the only players with a chance to go 10-for-10 this week.  The Idols take on the songs of the Grand Ol' Oprey in week 2, which is good news for Chris Piccolo, the lone player to pick Michael Sarver to win it all.  Country music could give a lift to the Texas native.  Swami says: "Anoop will struggle with the Opry tunes, and face the chopping block again.  But don't expect to see Megan Joy again - she'll be going home this week."

The Final Four

So clearly starting this blog was the perfect jinx to ensure I would never find time to write about the IDOL pool ever again.  So far I'm 2 for 2 at starting blogs, making one post and completely abandoning them (Click here to view my other one-hit-wonder).  But with the Final Four set to compete tonight, I couldn't resist dropping by to give my 2 cents.

ON THE SHOW

Four contestants remain, the Davids, Seyesha, and Jason Castro (who I can't seem to get off a first-name-last-name-basis with).  Props to our Idol Pool pickers who did a pretty good job of picking winners.  Each of the remaining contestants was picked as a winner by someone in our pool.  But how many have a legitimate shot?  This guy says only two.  We've seen some surprises this season but I can't imagine not seeing an all-David finals.  

David Archuletta has shown signs of weakness lately, and I've failed as a writer if I haven't expressed my own personal bias against the 17-year-old wunderkind but he's been steamrolling since week one and we shouldn't expect that to change now, especially with all of Brooke White's sweet-votes up for grabs.  David Cook has been the competition's most unique performer and looks to have a promising career regardless of what happens in the next few weeks.  But is he getting the votes?  I generally (and completely unscientifically) think that most voters are teeny-boppers and Moms.  Alterni-pop teens who are fans of bands like My Chemical Romance and Death Cab for Cutie should eat up D.C. but I have to think that the other David has the Miley Cyrus crowd locked down.  

So how about the underdogs?  Do Jason Castro or Seyesha stand a chance?  Seyesha has made a few appearances in the bottom 3 and most (at least in our pool) picked her to go out long before Carly or Brooke.  And yet, she remains the only girl left in the competition.  That has to be good for something doesn't it?  Jason Castro is a real unknown.  Most people think he would have been long gone but his sheepish grin and shoulder-shrug attitude has obviously captured people. If it were up to me I'd want a Castro-Cook finals but, since I refuse to actively participate in TV by voting , it is clearly not up to me.  

IN THE POOL

Since I'm one of several people who could lose the pool despite picking the winner, I've been hesitant to do the math.  The lead piled on by Wilcz and Jeff in the early rounds might be insurmountable, even if Archuletta doesn't win it all.  But, for the sake of down-to-the-wire excitement, the remaining Pool contenders can be divided into 4 camps.

Camp Archuletta - If you're going to pick the favorite, you better be good in the early rounds.  over half the entries had Archuletta as their winner but Wilcz's early success and a supporting cast of David Cook in his final 2 will make him a lock ahead of all the other Archuletta-lovers out there.

Camp Cooke - As the lone camper here at Camp Cook Ben P.will take great pride in seeing D.C. win it all (sorry, had to slip into the 3rd person for a sec. so I could bold my own name).  But I should have hedged my bet with the other David in the finals.  Instead, the red mark over Carly Smithson's name will likely be my undoing.

Camp Seyeha - Brady has been a big Seyesha supporter all year but the only one brave enough to pick her was Cheryl M.  The early rounds were tough on Cheryl but if Seyesha can pull it off, she'll have bragging rights at least.  

Camp Jason Castro - Kelly S. was the lone Castro-supporter and she's done well thus far.  depending on how the finals shape up she could ride her dark horse to victory.  The Swami says, "It will be all guys in the final 3 but don't expect to see Jason Castro in the finale." 

Week 7 Recap

Week 4 Recap

4 weeks down and the field is narrowing, both on the show and in the pool. This week we said "Hello Dolly" and "goodbye Ramiele," as the contestants took on the Dolly Parton songbook. Now, with 8 contestants remaining, the cream is rising to the top and time is running out for the rest of the pack. Here's what's happening in IDOLand ...

David Cook is in a league of his own and there's plenty left in the tank. He seems to be effortlessly finding songs that are a perfect fit for him. ... I'm happy to say, without any sarcasm this time, that Michael Johns has returned to form and he managed to seem cool this week after a gradual slip into dorkdom. ... Syesha gave her least forgettable performance this week but it was far from a showstopper. She, Brooke, and Jason Castro have all been giving decent performances, but they need to find another gear if they want to compete and time is running out. ... Carly Smithson needs to decide who she is. Her look is very arty and mysterious but she sings like a pop star. If that's the road sh wants to take, Simon's right - she needs to start dressing the part. ... Does anyone else think David Archuleta might be a robot? His vocals were spot-on again this week but he seems absolutely emotionless onstage. I've can't remember him every saying anything besides "huh, huh, oh man, thank you, huh, oh man" and what's with the weird up-turned hand thing he does while he's singing? Ok, ok, I'll stop hating on the kid - at least until next week ... and finally ... Shut up, Brooke White. Quiet down. Seriously, stop talking.

Meanwhile, Jeff is proving he's the David Cook of this competition, going 4-for-4 this week and putting some distance between him and the rest of the pack. If Archuletta can win this thing he'll be tough to beat, but to go 5-for-5 he'll need Jason Castro out this week. The rest of us will hope that Kristy Lee Cook makes her long-overdue exit when the contestants take on "Inspirational Music." I'm not sure what that means but here's hoping somebody kisses Randy's ass with a little "Don't Stop Believing". Wilcz had another big week this week and carries a clean sheet into round 5 but Ramiele's exit was disaster for front-runner Amy A., who had the tiny Hawaiian in her final 3. Speaking of 3, Look for 3 girls in the bottom 3 again next week - and don't expect Carly Smithson to be one of them - so says the Swami!

Good luck to everyone next week and I'll see you in Dollywood!