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OK, it’s time to start weekly reviews!

Lauren – I love Lauren so much.  I love Shania so much.  And I think Lauren did the song justice and even had a few nuances to it but honestly, I felt it was kind of boring for her.  I think she’ll still sail through though.

Casey – Standing ovation.  That was awesome.  I mean, dare I say, almost sexy.  Who knew that song could be so fun?

Ashthon – I felt that was so out of touch with today’s world that no one could connect with it.

Paul – That beginning was really rough.  It was hard also to connect with because I was clueless about the song and his movements are so hard to follow but his voice is so amazing.  If you close your eyes and listen, I can completely hear him on the radio.  He’s so unique and I want him through because he’s one of the guys I would buy an album from.

Pia – She just nailed a Celine Dion song.  Omigosh.  I think she just converted me as a huge fan.

James – The best news about James is he lost his tail this week.  Finally!  But wow, even better, I LOVED that song.  I was grinning and clapping before he even finished!

Haley – Haley has a gorgeous voice there is no doubt but I just, I don’t know.  I feel like she’s a little fake and have a hard time connecting with her.  I mean,she seems sweet enough, but I guess she’s just not my cup of tea.

Jac0b – Jac0b is another that I probably won’t be buying his album but have mercy, he can SANG.  So impressive.

Thia – Not a fan of whatever they did to that song.  Too bad because I really liked her.

Stefano – Sorry, not a fan of that remix.  No thanks.  He sang it ok I guess but just not a fan.

Karen – I felt like someone pulled the power plug on Karen this week. I haven’t been a huge fan of her to date, but she’s always had a huge, powerful voice.  Just wasn’t seeing that tonight. I was waiting on those big moments like Selena had and just didn’t feel it.

Scotty – I think I liked last week better but still a great rendition of Garth.  And hello?  Can anyone else tell how much all the little girls LOVE him?  He is definitely a crowd favorite.

Naima –  I felt like this was her weakest performance honestly.  She was breathy and off-pitch and her moves seemed a little spastic to me. I did enjoy the Reggae thing.  I don’t think it was enough to send her home but I’m not sure how long she’ll last with performances like that.

Favorites: Casey, James, Jac0b, Paul

In trouble: Thia, Ashthon, Karen

Wow, what a season.  I remember in other season getting to the Top 12 even and saying we could slash it down to Top 5 easy.  All of this Top 24 is better than most of the Top 12 in other seasons. But if I could pick a Top 10 right now, this would be it.  And it’s more based on who I think will do well in the competition versus whose flat out talent I prefer.  There is NO WAY to pick an early winner.  With as many changes they go through throughout the season, I just don’t think anyone could call that.  But what a season it will be!

OK, it’s time to talk American Idol.  First I must comment on the judge change.  I LOVE it.  I really loved Simon and thought I would hate it without him but I have been pleasantly surprised.  The show, is quite enjoyable to watch.  I love that Jennifer and Steven LOVE music and sometimes it’s fun just to watch them watch the contestants.  My only quibble is with Steven and making comments about the young girls but it seems the producers have nixed those moments from the show.

As for lowering the age to 15, I’m torn.  These kids have some amazing talent but seeing the younger ones when they are being rejected, I’m just not sure they are old enough to separate rejection of that particular song from rejection of themselves.  Maybe I’m crazy but I wonder.

As for the talent…this year is AMAZING.  I particularly enjoyed Hollywood Round 3.  Here are some of my favorites:

John Wayne Schulz.  I love him.  So much love him.  Like, he might be one of my favorites.

Jac0b Lusk. He’s not one of my overall favorites but this performance was amazing.

Casey Abrams. Another overall favorite. He’s genuine and so talented he leaves me in awe.

Robbie Rosen. That falsetto was so pretty

Lauren Alaina. She’s so much fun.

Ashton Jones. I was in tears after this. I can’t explain but it’s like she puts her soul out there.

Kendra Chantelle. She came out of nowhere but I really like her.

OK, did I just list everyone that sang?? Wow, it’s gonna be an amazing season. Who are your favorites so far?

OK, we all know I love The Bachelor but gave it up last season and I didn’t watch it last night.  Well, I did.  For about 3 minutes.  And I couldn’t stand the catty women fighting over Brad so I turned it off.  But I kept an eye on some tweets and several mentioned Emily as a frontrunner.  I decided to look her up and turns out she’s from Charlotte!  And not only that, she’s the wife of the late Ricky Hendrick.  Which people, no disrespect, but that’s huge.  Charlotte is called the Queen city and the Hendricks are part of that royalty.  NASCAR royalty to be exact.  Car dealership royalty.  Their name is all over the place.  So I had to look up her scenes and ya’ll, I might have to watch The Bachelor this year.  I’m just not sure Brad is good enough for our Southern royalty though!

I loved her!  She’s sweet and sincere, calm, poised and beautiful.  And Brad was falling all over himself with her!

Did you watch?  If so, do you think Emily is a frontrunner?

PS I think that was Central Church of God where I went to church during middle/high school!

I can’t even go song by song on this.  Crystal blew Lee out of the water.  Which kind of stinks because I was really pulling for Lee coming in to tonight.  Dialidol is showing Lee way ahead though so what do I know?  I love Lee and I’ll be happy if he wins but Crystal deserves this.  She’s been consistent and out front the entire time.  Lee has had his moments and I’d buy Lee’s album way before Crystal’s but I really think she outperformed Lee tonight and overall.

Because I can’t not blog about LOST.

I watched LOST from day 1 but not every day since day 1.  I gave up towards the end of Season 1 and picked back up in Season 2.  Most of Seasons 3-5 were spent hounding a coworker for whatever answers he had since I missed a lot.  Only after a re-watch of Season 1 and most of Season 2 with Scott did I really understand most of it.  I’ve always considered myself a Lostie although hard core fans would probably laugh at my missed episodes.

Anyway, with 13 million other Losties I spent 4.5 hours in front of the TV watching the recap and then finale of LOST.  At the end of the episode my conclusion was that it was a beautiful episode and finale but that overall people wouldn’t be satisfied with the storyline and answers.  I think I still stand by that.

My biggest complaint is the resolution/explanation of the alternate timeline.  And it’s not that it wasn’t Biblically based or that it didn’t tie in with the island (although I could complain about that ) but mostly how come everyone got off the LAX plane and into this purgatory type place at the same time if they didn’t die at the same time?  Why the action/drama in LA at all if they are supposedly dead?  It doesn’t make much sense to me and certainly didn’t help answer many series-long questions.  I had hoped that the alternate line would somehow make more of an impact and converge with island time more than it did.

However, I enjoyed so much about last night.  I got weepy a few times and then was in an all-out ugly cry the last 30 or 40 minutes.  While the mythology and all has kept me interested for sure, I would say I’m more in the character-driven camp.  So seeing everyone come full circle with their constant and see everyone go in to the bright light together satisfied me to great depths.

The parts that made me ugly cry:

• Jack telling Hurley he would be the new protector made me openly weep.  Because Everybody Loves Hurley.  I wasn’t expecting this in the least and to see Hurley follow Jack again and then Jack trust Hurley who at many times hasn’t been trusted to live in the “normal world” much less protect the island it was heart warming to say the least.
• Vincent showing up with Jack made me weep on top of my weeping.  Throughout the series, everyone was always checking Vincent.  Is the dog ok?  It’s the mystery of utmost importance!  Not only was Vincent ok but he was there for Jack to end his journey as well as begin it.
• Seeing everyone in the finale.  In the moment I wasn’t sure what the church meant and why everyone was there but it was the final farewell and everyone knew it.  Part of weeping was grieving.  It was sad to know that was the last and only 1 of few that everyone was together.

The parts that made me weepy:

• Charlie recognizing Claire and then being there for the birth.  It was just so good to see the old Charlie again.
• Jack and Kate kiss on the cliff.
• Jin and Sun seeing their baby.

I know you’re expecting me to put Sayid and Shannon or Juliet and Sawyer and while they were beautiful moments, I’m not a huge fan of Juliet or Shannon.  So no weeping there

The parts I liked but didn’t make me cry:

• Jack killing MIB
• Rose and Bernard showing up

The parts that made me laugh:

• Miles: “I don’t believe in a lot of things but I do believe in duct tape.”
• Frank: “In case you haven’t noticed, I’m a pilot.”
• Jin and Sun laughing at Sawyer as a cop.

Other notables:

• I loved all the mirror moments of the episode like Kate delivering Aaron
• I liked how everyone was dead by the end but in general, there weren’t a lot of deaths in the episode.  Grey’s fans you might know how I’m feeling about seeing a lack of murders.

Questions I still have:

• Eloise?  Widmore?  Still not sure how they fit in exactly.
• Walt?
• Still don’t get that looking glass thing.
• I’m pretty sure I can’t even think of all my questions.  I probably need to look up some LOST fan site that has them listed and see which I really care about.

I think in general, I’m MORE than satisfied with the character development.  I think what’s interesting and what speaks to the success of the show is when we were at the end of the show, we cared about every single character that was in that church and even some that were outside of it.  There are not many shows where I care about so many character and even couples.  I mean, even 2 episodes ago I was becoming sympathetic to MIB.  I’m so happy with Jack’s role as the leader and savior and movement from Man of Science to Man of Faith.  That alone make the series enough.  And to put Jack and Kate together at the end for me, is just icing on the cake.

As for the mythology, I’m a little disappointed in the how and why of everything.  They made it so general and I almost would have liked to have seen them commit to a Christian or even Egyptian theology instead of just general good/evil/heaven/purgatory/light/darkness but then it would have alienated so many.  I think in their attempt to be general though, you never really satisfy anyone.

But no one can argue about the ride it took us on.  For those that may be asking for their time back I would suggest that sometimes the destination doesn’t make the trip worth it, it’s simply the journey (cue Miley with The Climb, please).  Questions and more questions, love and hate, tears and laughter.

Book me for Oceanic Flight 815 because I’d pay for that again.

Check out more LOST reviews at Rocks in my Dryer.