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#46
02-04-2009, 11:35 AM
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Hollywood Week (Episode 1) Recap
American Idol - Season 8
Hollywood Week (Episode 1) Recap American Idol constructs a version of reality that associates normality with materialism and reduces individuality to product (usually for the sake of derision). Example: widower Danny Gokey, along with two fellow Top 36 contestants: failed pop singer Joanna Pacitti and Jeanine Vailes, takes a ride in a show-sponsor Ford car. Gokey delivers some scripted dialogue to the girls and then shows off the car's cool features by pretending to offer a voice command for some some music, specifically the Rihanna hit "Shut Up and Drive" -- "get it?" they're in a car! It's phony, but the pretense of candid reality makes the quest for Idol-dom indistinguishable from the aspiration for material things, such as Ford cars with cool high-tech features. All it really tells us is that Gokey will play ball. However, because most practitioners of television are inept, these attempts at creating forced narratives out of reality sometime make for unintentionally bizarre spectacle. Everything widower Gokey does on the show is connected to his wife who passed away -- suddenly -- one month prior to Gokey's audition for Idol. Gokey, himself, actively participates in this narrative as he declared that the Golden Ticket to Hollywood was "for" his wife. However, in Hollywood Week's first round of solo singing, Idol introduces Gokey with another montage of Gokey telling the story of his wife's death and home video footage of him and his wife. Was it, then, a manufactured bid to sway sympathy on the part of Idol producers that Gokey sings Seal's "Kiss From A Rose" -- another "get it?" song choice? The result, however, was that everyone I've talked to felt like the whole scene resulted in a creepy vibe that intimated, at best, exploitation and, at worst, foul play (reinforced by Gokey's unfelicitous song choice, mediocre singing approach -- roundly praised by the judges, and smug Cheshire grin). The result is that Gokey appears to be riding a new Ford model car -- The Ford Sympathy? -- to Idol victory. Along with "The Widower Gokey Mystery," Idol 8's other most compelling -- unintended(?) -- narrative is "The Myth of Tatiana Del Toro." Keen-eyed viewers caught a few glimpses -- four shots -- of Tatiana on last night's Hollywood Week Episode 1: 1) A face in the crowd, wearing a red dress with matching grin after Barry Manilow's pep talk; 2) During the "goodbye to new friends" montage, Tatiana is shown wearing loose-fitting hoody(?) from last week's Hollywood Teaser; she's crying as she says "Thank you!" to one of the show's crew members -- not a fellow contestant; 3) in a teaser for the Day 2 solo auditions, she is shown wearing the same hoody(?) on the stage of the Kodak, with her arms in a prayer pose as she cries; I remember it being in slow-motion -- though we never see her perform on Day 2; and 4) during the teaser for tonight's Group Number episode, wearing the same hoody(?) and crying the line that now summarizes anticipation for Group Number dramz: "This is not a game to me! This is my life!" Yet, the Idol producers arrange her image, her signficance, her life like a pawn in a chess game. In the above breakdown, shots 2 and 3 ultimately have nothing to do with the ideas they're selling -- faux spectacles of friendship and hardship. The Idol producers' "Myth of Tatiana Del Toro" centers primarily around the presentation of her as a freak prone to hysterical laughing. Anyone with eyes can see that the producers strung together a series of shots -- gleaned from HOURS of footage -- of the bubbly gal giggling to create the impression of hysteria (etymology of hysteria: "of the womb") -- a misogyny made explicit in news from London that Simon Cowell told her during her audition: "You look like a h***er!" (Google it.) This impression of her also makes people keen to find out what Tatiana will do next, thus the use of her in the above teasers. However, the irony is that, for those who can discern Idol sleight-of-hand, that laugh is what tempers Tatiana's drive (all the contestants are ambitious) and keeps her significance from being entirely owned by Idol -- it bursts through the sutures. She's great Television, but the question will be whether or not she can translate that appealing humanity to her singing. During her audition, Tatiana claims to be the best singer in the room. Remember that episode and clear away the producer-constructed derision! She was right: Nobody was better. For Gokey fans, Sympathy is just a pose, a product into which they've bought. Tatiana's life depends on the real thing.
__________________
"They love each other so much, they think they hate each other." Imagine paying $1000 to hear "Don't Dream It's Over" instead of "Go Your Own Way" Fleetwood Mac helped me through a time of heartbreak. 12 years later, they broke my heart. 
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#47
02-04-2009, 01:08 PM
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Vote for the Worst claims the following is the final 36 based on an insider spy.
Adam Lambert Alexander Wagner-Trugman Alexis Grace Allison Iraheta Ann Marie Boskovich Anoop Desai Arianna Ayesha Afsar Brent Keith Casey Carlson Danny Gokey Jackie Tohn Jasmine Murray Jeanine Vailes Jessica Langseth Joanna Pacitti Jorge Nunez Junot Joyner Kai Kalama Kendall Beard Kristen McNamara Kris Allen Lil Rounds Matt Breitzke Matt Giraud Megan Corkrey Michael Sarver Mishavonna Henson Nathaniel Marshall (aka Nate McGee) Nick Western (the only one not listed on the AI site- possibly could be Nick Hendrix from Orlando?) Ricky Braddy Scott MacIntyre Stephen Fowler Stevie Wright Taylor Vaifanua Tatiana Del Toro Von Smith
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#48
02-04-2009, 06:30 PM
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^^I posted that list here on 1/30
The latest however is that Nick Western is now believed by many at VFTW to be... Norman Gentle!
__________________
"They love each other so much, they think they hate each other." Imagine paying $1000 to hear "Don't Dream It's Over" instead of "Go Your Own Way" Fleetwood Mac helped me through a time of heartbreak. 12 years later, they broke my heart. Last edited by TrueFaith77; 02-04-2009 at 06:49 PM..
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#49
02-04-2009, 11:14 PM
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Apparently Jessica Langseth is Jonny Lang's sister. That's kinda fun.
I'm loving me some Danny, even though I hope we can cut back on the personal biz after awhile (though this is Idol, who am I kidding). Also loving Jeremy Michael Sarver Oil Rig Roughneck. Mmm.
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#51
02-05-2009, 10:18 AM
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Hollywood Week (Episode 2) Recap
American Idol - Season 8
Hollywood Week (Episode 2) Recap On the epic Return of Group Night, Idol producers employed Voice-Of-God Ryan Seacrest to distort the meaning of the most humble moment on Idol since his performance of "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me" left David Archuleta shaking (Seacrest tried to ruin that moment too). Last night, Ryan announced: "Even though they make it through as a group, it's all about Tatiana" over the image Tatiana Del Toro's group leaving the stage -- each one earning passes to the next round. Ryan provides the context for the next shot: Her group in the Kodak lobby, with Tatiana overwhelmed with emotion and gratitude. Tatiana thanks "Jesus" and "God" and "the guy holding the sound stick" and everyone involved in the show. It's beautiful. Then she really lets loose -- and it is awesomely audacious: "You all make this part of me. You are all part of me. I will take each and every one of you in my heart for the rest of my life." American Idol attempts to pervert as vanity this display of profound humility -- one expressed in an impromptu dramatic flourish! Imagine her now-famous laugh: articulated. The tension of Group Night revolves around this dialectical relationship: The show spins Tatiana's moral sanity as insanity. After being the odd Idol out in the show's Group Night dodgeball fascism, Tatiana suffers her group's insults -- they call her "Satan" and "psycho" -- and their defeatist attitude -- one complains about not being able to stay on key and one calls the members of the group "not tolerant," singling out Tatiana. Tatiana fears a repeat of her audition, in which Simon said she looked like a "h***er," as she explains that she's been through "Hell and back" to get here: "When we get in front of the judges, I know they are going to humiliate me like they did on camera!" Despite these genuine obstacles, Tatiana still takes charge and corrals the entire foursome to victory. Sure, Tatiana looks out for her own best interest (it is a competition, after all) but she knows that the best way to succeed on Group Night is if the entire group is "tight"! The show even illustrates her point. When she left her group because they spent more time dissing her to the camera than practicing, Tatiana also realized that her new home -- Team Compromise (Kristen McNamara, Nancy Wilson, and Nathaniel Marshall) -- would be a lost a cause, each member unwilling to "compromise" on personal approaches to rehearsals. "I can admit when I'm wrong," she apologizes to the doomed Team Compromise; she laughs as their displaced interest in her perceived betrayal reveals the group's fatal flaw, which Tatiana had to escape. Tatiana compromises by returning to her more malleable group -- they'll follow her lead, and she'll have to suffer their cruelty -- but she does not compromise her integrity.
__________________
"They love each other so much, they think they hate each other." Imagine paying $1000 to hear "Don't Dream It's Over" instead of "Go Your Own Way" Fleetwood Mac helped me through a time of heartbreak. 12 years later, they broke my heart.
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#52
02-05-2009, 10:24 AM
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What did you guys think of that massacre of "Don't Stop" last night.
 Quote:
I'm actually glad Rose is gone. I didn't like anything she sang, but "Don't Stop" was the final straw... even Alex Wagner-Trugman pulling faces during "Don't Stop" made me mad at him. And he's been my second favorite contestant.
__________________
"They love each other so much, they think they hate each other." Imagine paying $1000 to hear "Don't Dream It's Over" instead of "Go Your Own Way" Fleetwood Mac helped me through a time of heartbreak. 12 years later, they broke my heart.
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#53
02-05-2009, 10:47 AM
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Quote:
 Technically she would have been booted off of AI for not singing the correct lyrics.But yes, it was terrible last night.
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#54
02-05-2009, 01:11 PM
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Quote:
Quote:
 Quote:
 Not that I'm a big fan of Stevie's versions...
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#55
02-05-2009, 05:13 PM
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Quote:
Quote:
__________________
"They love each other so much, they think they hate each other." Imagine paying $1000 to hear "Don't Dream It's Over" instead of "Go Your Own Way" Fleetwood Mac helped me through a time of heartbreak. 12 years later, they broke my heart.
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#56
02-05-2009, 07:40 PM
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The best thing about the massacre of Don't Stop is that it forecasts a possible Fleetwood Mac night when the actual competition starts.
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#57
02-06-2009, 10:02 AM
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Tatiana Blogs
deleted cuz of idol roolz.
__________________
"They love each other so much, they think they hate each other." Imagine paying $1000 to hear "Don't Dream It's Over" instead of "Go Your Own Way" Fleetwood Mac helped me through a time of heartbreak. 12 years later, they broke my heart. Last edited by TrueFaith77; 02-06-2009 at 07:05 PM..
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#58
02-06-2009, 01:47 PM
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__________________
"They love each other so much, they think they hate each other." Imagine paying $1000 to hear "Don't Dream It's Over" instead of "Go Your Own Way" Fleetwood Mac helped me through a time of heartbreak. 12 years later, they broke my heart.
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#59
02-06-2009, 01:52 PM
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^ Thanks. I see Stevie's probably still in. I wasn't sure, since they haven't shown much of her during Hollywood week.
My current faves are: Anne Marie Casey Danny Jackie Jasmine Lil Matt B Mike That could change quickly, since they definitely have been showing certain people more than others & there are several on that list I'm not very familiar with. We'll see.
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#60
02-06-2009, 03:28 PM
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My Top 12 (Alphabetical):
Alex Wagner Trugman Casey Carlson Jackie Tohn Jorge Nunez-Mendez Kris Allen Matt Giraud Megan Corkrey Nathaniel Marshall Nick Mitchell Stevie Wright Tatiana Del Toro Von Smith My Top 12 Predictions (Alphabetical) Adam Lambert Anne Marie Boskovich Anoop Desai Danny Gokey Jasmine Murray Joanna Pacitti Lil Rounds Matt Giraud Megan Corkrey Scott MacIntyre Stephen Fowler Stevie Wright I'll be shocked if I'm off by more than three of those.
__________________
"They love each other so much, they think they hate each other." Imagine paying $1000 to hear "Don't Dream It's Over" instead of "Go Your Own Way" Fleetwood Mac helped me through a time of heartbreak. 12 years later, they broke my heart.
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