American Idol 7 – Dolly Parton Night Results April 3, 2008
Posted by carambs in American Idol, TV.Tags: brooke white, Dolly Parton, jason castro, Kristy Lee Cook, ramiele malubay
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Okay, trying to figure this out.
Bottom 3 included Ramiele Malubay, Kristy Lee Cook, and… Brooke White! That’s a shocker, very similar to Jason Castro being included last week. Just goes to show that fans CANNOT ever, ever think that their favorite is safe. Not even David Archuleta! (He just has a LOT more fans I guess.)
Glad that Kristy Lee Cook was part of the bottom 3. She is overstaying! I would have wanted her to go, considering ALL of her performances but that’s just not how it goes. She sang well last night, she looked good too. As for Ramiele, though it’s her first time to be part of the bottom 3, she has been consistently delivering disappointing performances. So her elimination is not a shocker. I’m really sorry to the Ramiele fans out there (I got a hate comment already, hehe), but I’m really just being objective. I do agree that Kristy Lee Cook deserves to leave before her but well, can’t do anything about what America does.
Moving on to Brooke White… I did not see that coming at all. (Rickey.org called it though.) I’m not a fan, but she’s an awesome, unique performer. I’m still trying to understand what happened. I was surprised when Jason Castro was part of the bottom 3 last week, but I wasn’t really baffled. Today, I’m baffled.
It was heartbreaking to see Ramiele go. She’s really like the baby of the group. She seems close to a lot of the other contestants. She sang her last song well, even better than last night. It wasn’t pitchy at all.
Since I mentioned Ramiele being friends with the other contestants, I’ll ask you guys this question which I’ve been thinking about for several weeks now. Do you think David Archuleta isn’t friendly? It’s like he’s not close to the other contestants. I’ve observed his walks to the couch, not at lot of hugs or congratulations in the past. He always has a straight face during the judge’s comments. Yes he thanks them for the good comments, he smiles, and he takes the bad comments, but in terms of emotion, there’s not a lot, especially if you compare it to the others. Dolly’s hug looked awkward because it looked like he didn’t hug back. Either he’s not friendly, or, he’s just not a mushy type of guy. I’d like to think it’s the latter. Did you guys notice this too?
American Idol 7 – Dolly Parton Night April 2, 2008
Posted by carambs in American Idol, TV.Tags: brooke white, David Archuleta, david cook, Dolly Parton, Kristy Lee Cook, michael johns
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What’s with America and country music? I have never been a fan, so when I found out that tonight was Dolly Parton night I wasn’t really excited. Plus, I was thinking, this could mean an extra week for Kristy Lee Cook because this is her forte. I really think she’s overstaying already. Anyway, on to the comments…
Brooke White opened the show with “Jolene” and she was great! I agree with Randy that it was a bit rushed, she could have slowed it down a bit, but overall it was still a great performance. I absolutely loved the band, with the violin and the “kahon”. She has her own style, she’s not the typical pop idol. Great job!
David Cook came next, and he sang “Little Sparrow”. It was another good performance from David Cook. Week after week he delivers! I truly believe he is one of the top contestants right now. At the rate he’s going I will not be surprised if he will be in the Top 3.
Ramiele Malubay sang “Do I Ever Cross Your Mind” and sadly, I think it was a bad performance. It was actually the worst for night. Yes, hard as this may be for me, I have to admit that she was worse than Kristy Lee Cook. She was pitchy throughout the song! She nailed some notes then go astray with the others. I believe she will be part of the Bottom 3, and it’s very possible that she will be going home. Sigh.
Jason Castro was next with “Travellin’ Thru” and it was okay. Nothing new, nothing great. It wasn’t bad, but it just didn’t have an impact on me.
Carly Smithson sang “Here You Come Again” and she sang well. It was okay, but nothing great either, at least for me. And I agree with Simon with his comment on the clothes.
David Archuleta absolutely nailed it with “Smoky Mountain Memories”! Definitely one of the top performances for the night. However, I am kinda getting bored with David’s choice of songs. They all sound the same. He sings them really well but I’m hoping he can show another side, maybe a wacky, fun side. The most ‘fun’ performance I’ve seen was “Shop Around”, his FIRST performance.
Kristy Lee Cook, bless her, sang “Coat of Many Colors”. She sang it well. I don’t agree with Simon – I think, performance-wise, this was better than “God Bless the USA”. But I agree that it was forgettable. You know, just one of those performances. It didn’t stand out. She looked amazing though, I’ll give that to her. Nice dress! You know what, I’m thinking, it’s possible that she won’t be part of the bottom 3. Sigh.
Syesha Mercado chose “I Will Always Love You”, hoping she can blow us all away. She didn’t. Okay, here’s the thing. She sang it well. She has a great voice. HOWEVER, she sang Whitney’s version of the song, and c’mon, not a lot of people can beat that. Syesha didn’t make it her own, she just sang a cover. She sang it well, but she sang a cover. Very unlike David Cook who *owns* almost all of the songs he performs.
Michael Johns closed the show with “It’s All Wrong, But It’s All Right”. He nailed it. It was a GREAT performance, and he made the song his own. Country, rock – I don’t know what it was, but it worked. The other top performance for the night. Two weeks in a row… he’s getting into it at the right time. Let’s see if he continues this to next week.
The performances, ranked from favorite to least favorite:
- Michael Johns
- David Archuleta
- Brooke White
- David Cook
- Jason Castro
- Syesha Mercado
- Kristy Lee Cook
- Carly Smithson
- Ramiele Malubay
It’s hard to predict the bottom 3! I’m only sure about Ramiele. The other two could be: Syesha, Jason (noooo) or Carly. I want to say Kristy Lee Cook but I really don’t think she’ll be in the bottom 3 this week. I actually hope I’m wrong. Let’s see….
Banapple: Happy First Year Anniversary! March 31, 2008
Posted by carambs in Food.Tags: banapple
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Wow! One of our favorite restaurants, Banapple, has just celebrated their first year anniversary! It seems just like yesterday when I posted an entry about Banapple’s opening. I even included their menu! Well, one year after, they are doing very well, and with new pies and meals too! My absolute favorite is the COFFEE TOFFEE ROCA PIE! (P75/slice, P560/whole)
Click here for their pies and cakes price list.
Congratulations GJ, and here’s to another great year ahead!
Earth Hour March 29, 2008
Posted by carambs in Random Stuff.Tags: Earth Hour
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Happy Earth Hour to everyone! I am a proud participant of the global event, which happened more than an hour ago. I thought of going around the Metro during Earth Hour to check out which establishments joined but Jovan pointed out that if we do that, we’d be using up gas for nothing. So, we stayed home. My family and I turned off all our lights, airconditioning, TV. The only thing we left on was an electric fan, because of the intense heat. We stayed at our lanai, listened to the radio (which used batteries), and played with Graham. I greeted friends “Happy Earth Hour!” via text and was very happy to find out that they participated too. Most of the replies were “Same to you! It’s so dark!”. One of my friends said I lit up the room with the text, which meant that only the celphone light was on in his room. One of my friends was in a mall, and she said that a lot of establishments actually turned off their lights.
I was pleasantly surprised to find out yesterday that Starbucks was planning to support Earth Hour. And today, I found out that SM Malls are supporters too. That’s the way to go actually, tapping corporations with many establishments, because word of mouth will not be enough. Our neighbors, both to the left and the right did not participate – I’m not sure if they don’t care or they didn’t know about it, I would like to believe it’s the latter.
I’m not a hardcore ‘green’ person. I don’t preach to my friends or ride my bike to work. I don’t think I can give up my aircon and using the car. But I’m aware of the destruction of the environment and global warming, and I know something has to be done. This Earth Hour event is really, really awesome because in that one hour, we have saved a LOT of energy. One other thing we do is using reusable bags when we go to the grocery. We bought 3 bags and our monthly grocery items all fit in these bags. This is an awesome idea which I hope will be widespread soon because this means there will be less plastic bags used.
I hope we can have Earth Hour more often. Maybe 1 Earth Hour per month? That would be so awesome.
How about you? How did you spend Earth Hour?
American Idol 7 – Top 9 March 29, 2008
Posted by carambs in American Idol, TV.Tags: Billie Jean, brooke white, Chikezie, David Archuleta, david cook, jason castro, Kristy Lee Cook, ramiele malubay, Syesha Mercado
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Wow, not blogging for a week is weird. Okay, so I need to catch up with my American Idol posts.
For last week’s performances – I ABSOLUTELY LOVED David Cook’s rendition of Billie Jean. It was an amazing performance. The arrangement was unique, and it really worked. And he sang and performed well. AMAZING. Next favorite was David Archuleta’s, even if I don’t know the song I really liked it. I kinda agree with Simon – the song actually reminded me of The Lion King – but for me, that’s not a bad thing at all. Brooke White’s performance was good. I agree with the judges though – if she stayed with the piano only it would have been awesome. My bottom 3 were actually Ramiele Malubay, Chikezie, and Kristy Lee Cook. However, I KNEW she wouldn’t be part of the bottom 3 – the song choice was perfect really, what with everything that’s happening to the US right now. Still, for me, it’s all about the competition, from the start until this week. One week with a clever song does not make her a top contestant. She didn’t even sing the song well!
For the results – I wasn’t surprised with Chikezie and Syesha, but I was very surprised with Jason Castro. At this point I really believe that the “fans” come into play already. So it doesn’t matter if Chikezie sang well (but I do agree with Simon with his “cheesy” comment) and Syesha nailed the song – they’re really just not as likeable as the others. I don’t see them having FANS. Which is why I was very surprised with Jason Castro – I thought he had a very strong following. Syesha should learn from David Cook and David Archuleta – the short interviews before the performances are PART OF the competition. Both Davids chose really cute pictures that make the audience love them even more. David A in the video was adorable! Syesha, and also Ramiele, chose pictures when they were growing up and a bit awkward, and these didn’t help them at all.
So, we have our Top 9. Next week SHOULD BE Kristy Lee Cook’s time to go home. Please, America, it’s about time. She’s the Haley of this year, no?
Hacked! March 23, 2008
Posted by carambs in Blogging.1 comment so far
My site, which I haven’t “launched” yet, got hacked. It got hacked after 2 weeks of trying to figure out how to install wordpress on my host. Now that I have successfully installed it, I got hacked. I wasn’t even done yet, because I was still trying to figure out how to edit the template/theme.
The hacker left a message that included “Where is your security?”. I googled the hacker and it seems that he has hacked a number of sites already. How was he able to hack my site? A weak password? How else? How do these hackers choose the sites they hack?
I am extremely annoyed. Aside from having a very, very complicated password, how else can I avoid hacking?
Sigh.
American Idol 7 Top 12 – Second Elimination March 20, 2008
Posted by carambs in American Idol, TV.Tags: David Archuleta, Kristy Lee Cook, Carly Smithson, Amanda Overmyer
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Okay, I got 2 out of 3 for the Bottom 3. Turns out that this week’s Bottom 3 included Amanda Overmyer (check), Kristy Lee Cook (check), and… Carly Smithson! WHAT?! Okay, her face can get scary when she sings but c’mon! Chikezie over Carly? America got that all wrong.
Bottom 2 included Kristy and Amanda. Kristy has been in the Bottom 2 for so many weeks now, I can’t count anymore. She mentioned this herself. She is DEFINITELY my new Luke Menard. Please just go home. I wouldn’t ask “Why are you still here?” because I know the answer to that. Her get-up yesterday worked – legs, low neckline, and looking pretty… Let’s see how long she will last on this. She can’t keep giving bad performances week after week after week and still hang on. But hey, who knows, she may turn things around next week.
Goodbye Amanda, I knew this was coming. She’s just way too predictable. Oh and if ever (IF EVER) you get the idea of comparing yourself to Chris Daughtry, please, don’t do that to yourself. Because Chris showed his other side. Remember his performance of “Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?”. Yes, exactly.
Moving on to the other portions of the show. I really HATE the call-in portion, where the fans call to ask questions. It’s just so forced. I totally loved Elliot’s trip to Africa. I love Elliot, and seeing him tear up because of the baby being named after him… that was really moving. Kellie Pickler – well, I didn’t like her then, I don’t like her now. Good for her though that she has sold a lot of albums.
Next week should be an interesting week. Will Kristy Lee Cook finally turn things around? One good performance from her and I think she’ll stay. Will Michael Johns finally deliver what’s expected of him? Will Chikezie’s performance be over the top again? Will David Archuleta continue to shine?
Based on what we’ve seen so far, I think the Top 4 will include David Archuleta, Jason Castro, David Cook and Brooke White.
Ken Lee Lyrics Take 2 March 20, 2008
Posted by carambs in TV.Tags: bulgarian idol, bulgarian music idol, ken lee
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I moved! Find the “improved” lyrics here.
She’s back! Valentina Hasan performed “Without You” aka “Ken Lee” again on Bulgarian Music Idol. Her english has improved. It’s just not the same.
American Idol 7 – Beatles’ Night 2 March 19, 2008
Posted by carambs in American Idol, TV.Tags: Amanda Overmyer, beatles night, brooke white, Carly Smithson, Chikezie, David Archuleta, Kristy Lee Cook, michael johns
4 comments
Of course, American Idol is milking Beatles’ Night for all it’s worth.
Amanda Overmyer opened the show with “Back in the USSR”, and she tried to rock it. If it was the first time I saw her perform, I would have been impressed. But I’m tired of Amanda Overmyer. It’s the same thing week after week after week, and what’s worse, no fantastic performance yet! I don’t see her winning American Idol. It’s just a matter of time before she goes home, if she doesn’t turn things around.
Kristy Lee Cook brought out her guns today by looking extra pretty, showing off her legs and wearing a dress with a low neckline. I guess she figured that’s what will help her stay. Her performance of “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away” wasn’t as awful as her performance last week, but it’s still not good. I can’t even say it’s okay.
And then we get to David Archuleta, who I truly believe is not just one of the Top 2 performers of the night, but the Top Idol contender for Season 7. He bounced back tonight with his performance of “A Long and Winding Road”. Simon was right, he NAILED it. “Imagine” is still his best performance, but this performance was solid. I am so happy! I still think it would have been awesome if he sang “Here, There and Everywhere” but hey, no complaints on tonight’s performance. Go little David!
Here’s David’s performance:
Tagged! March 16, 2008
Posted by carambs in Blogging.Tags: tagged
2 comments
I was tagged by Reg. 
Rules: Post 10 things that recently made you happy then tag 10 people and force them to post this meme on their blogs.
- Getting Graham!
- Having lunch at CPK with Mommy, Daddy and Jovan
- Seeing the in-laws
- Having dinner and tea with the girls
- Finishing all requirements for today’s big fight Friday afternoon
- Seeing my batchmates and having lunch with them
- Discovering Stumble Upon
- Buying new Ipanemas
- Hanging out in Ateneo
- Fixing my layout problem
I am tagging: Jovan, Bunny, Kookie, Bea, Ginsey, April, Vic, Lawrence, Jennina, Gemma.
