American Idol Season 10 — This Week

The Top 24 will be performing this week starting with tomorrow night.  On March 1st, Tuesday, the Top 12 guys will perform solos.  Then March 2, Wednesday, the Top 12 girls will perform solos.  Then March 3, Thursday will be the results night from the previous two nights of solos.

The first few weeks usually end up keeping around the most popular contestants even if they mess up during the first few “top” shows.  When it gets to the start of the top 10, things will get very serious.

The viewing audience will have a challenge this year because the talent is pretty awesome.  One thing for sure it is always interesting.

We have nothing else to report at this time except >> See you tomorrow.

American Idol 2011 — Top 24 Pics

These are the Top 24 pictures straight from “Americanidol.com“.  <<(Click on the link for details on each contestant).

We found it interesting last night and the night before because this was a different format than in previous seasons when they were picking the finalists.  Before all the solos were televised and then the contestants did the “walk” to meet the judges for the final decision.  This year they only showed a blurb of the solo and then spent, in our opinion, way to much time on the judges talking with each contestant.  We would like to see the format brought back from previous seasons.

Top 12 Guys:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Top 12 Girls:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have nothing else to report at this time.  Have a GREAT weekend!

American Idol Season 10 – Audit Round Five – Top 24

Tonight completed round five with the final selection of the Top 24.

We say to all the departing contestants, “We send our congratulations for making the Top 40 and even though you are leaving tonight, “Let nothing stand in your way as you continue your journey to complete your dream”.

In our opinion this is the absolute best line up of talent in all ten seasons of American Idol.  Every one of these contestants has awesome talent and we believe it will be the most interesting season of all.

Here is the final Top 24 for Season 10 (Mouse over pic for contestant name):

Top 12 Guys

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Top 12 Girls:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have nothing else to report except to add if there is one song and one contestant we would like to hear sing it would be to hear Jacob Lusk sing “Hallelujah” this season.  (Keeping our fingers crossed).

Have a GREAT week out there in cyberland and get those voting phones ready to go starting soon.

American Idol Season 10 – Audition Round Four and Five

Tonight starts with round four, which started in Los Angeles where the remaining 61 contestants boarded a bus and went to the Mirage Casino in Las Vegas.  Here it was Beatles Theme Night and the contestants were grouped in duals and trios.  When round four was completed 21 contestants were cut and the remaining 40 contestants went back to Los Angeles for round five.  This round consisted of the contestants singing a final solo for the judges and from these 40 contestants, the top 24 would be chosen.

The first hour of tonight’s two hour episode was the Beatles Theme in Las Vegas resulting in the top 40 contestants.  The second hour was the beginning of round five where the final top 24 will be chosen.  This was mostly a quick blurb of the contestants solo and then each contestant talking with the judges and getting “yes” or “no” result whether they made the top 24.

We at AAN invited Jojo, Jenna, Andrew, and Gabrielle to assist on the reviews and to score on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the high and Gabrielle used “*”’s for good and “x” for not so good.

Here are the contestants in order of performance – Round Four Beatles Theme:

1] Stefano / James
Excellent vocals..
Jojo – 10 – Excellent
Andrew – 4 – Not very original
Jenna — 9
Gabrielle — **********

2] Karen / Pia
Another very good performance.
Jojo – 10 – Excellent
Andrew – 3
Jenna — 9
Gabrielle — **********

3] Jacob / Haley / Niama
Pretty good vocals.
Jojo – Haley 2, Good – Naima 5, Good – Jacob 8, Very good.
Andrew – 5
Jenna — 10
Gabrielle — **********

4] Tim / Julie
More very good vocals.
Jojo – 10 – Excellent
Andrew – 7 – Good pair with right song.
Gabrielle — **********

5] Jerome / Lakeshia / Tatynisa
Very good trio.
Jojo – Lakeshia 9 – Tatynisa 5 – Jerome 9
Gabrielle — **********

6] Kendra / Paul
They made the song their own and it was very good.
Jojo – 8 – Should become a duo
Andrew – 2 – Very plain performance.
Gabrielle — **********

7] Melinda / Thia
So-so performance
Jojo – 4 — Fair
Gabrielle — **********

8] Ashley / Sophia
So-so vocals with a not very good arrangment.
Jojo – 4 – Unrecognizable song
Gabrielle — *****

9] Loren / Denise / Scotty
Very good vocals and Scotty really stood out with his vocals.
Jojo – 10 — Excellent
Gabrielle — ******

10] Chris / Casey
A very entertaining performance and pretty good vocals.
Jojo – 7
Gabrielle — **********

11] Robbie / Aaron / Jordan
Very good trio.
Jojo – Robbie 8 – Aaron 8 – Jordan 4 – Jordan took it off balance.
Gabrielle — **********

12] Robbie Rosen
Very good vocals with very good vocal range.
Jojo – 8
Gabrielle — **********

This ended round four and the group was cut from 61 to 40 contestants

Tomorrow night will be the final cut down to the Top 24 of season ten.  One of the contestants, Chris Medina, was cut tonight and he was one of our favorites.  We send our best to Chris and hope that he will continue to follow his dream.

Picked tonight for the Top 24 so far are Naima Adedapo, Clint Jun Gamboa, Haley Reinhart, Paul McDonald, and Ashton Jones.

We have nothing else to report except to thank Jojo, Jenna, Andrew, and Gabrielle for their assistance tonight and see you tomorrow.  We will have pictures of the final twenty four at the end of the show.

Jojo’s pick for top making the top 10 are James Durbin, Haley Reinhart, and Paul Mc Donald.

See y’all tomorrow night.

American Idol Season 10 – Hollywood Week Solo Round

Tonight starts with round three of Hollywood Week.  This is the Solo Round and 100 Contestants started tonight.  Then after the solos were completed the judges decided who would stay and who would be going home.  There were four rooms, two rooms with contestants that would be moving on to next week, and two rooms of contestants that would be going home.

We at AAN invited Jojo and Gabrielle to assist on the reviews and to score on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the high and Gabrielle used “*”’s for good and “x” for not so good.

Here are the contestants in order of performance:

1] Haley Reinhart
Very good vocals.
Jojo – 8 – Excellent!
Gabrielle — **********

2] Ashton Jones #8838
It was a pretty good performance.
Jojo – 8
Gabrielle — **********

3] Thia Megia
Very good vocals.
Jojo – 8
Gabrielle — **********

4] Clint Gamboa
More very good vocals.
Jojo – 8
Gabrielle — **********

5] Kendra
Pretty good vocals.
Jojo – 0
Gabrielle — **********

6] Sophia
So-so performance.
Jojo – 0
Gabrielle — **********

7] Carson Higgins #89993
Very good vocals and style.
Jojo – 5
Gabrielle — **********

8] Chris Medina #68817
Good vocals.
Jojo – 5
Gabrielle — *****

9] Julie
Jojo – 6
Gabrielle — ******

10] Colton Dixon
Jojo – 5
Gabrielle — **********

11] Brett (redhead)
Jojo – 5
Gabrielle — **********

12] Robbie Rosen
Very good vocals with very good vocal range.
Jojo – 8
Gabrielle — **********

13] Casey Abrams #22808 – This was the first contestant to perform with a Bass
Excellent vocals and song arrangement.
Jojo – 10
Gabrielle — **********

Note: Contestant #14 was supposed to be Jacqueline but she had to pull out of the competition due to illness.

14] Chelsea Brown #2246
Very good vocals.
Jojo – 6
Gabrielle — **********

15] Lauren Alaina
Very good vocals.
Jojo – 6
Gabrielle — **********

16] Jacob Lusk
This was our first “Wow!” of the night.  Great vocals and awesome vocal range.
Jojo – 10

17] John Wayne Shulz #13145
Jojo – 7

18] Ashley Sullivan #52859
Forgot the words and restarted.  Forgot the words again and restated.  Forgot the words again and restarted.
Jojo – 0 – Too tense

19] Stefano #40560
Jojo – 3

20] Jovany
Jojo – 2

21] Jacee (15 year old)
Pretty good vocals again.
Jojo – 6

22] Scotty
Forgot the words but his vocals were spot on.
Jojo – One of the best.

23] Tataina Wilson
Forgot the words but her vocals were pretty good.
Jojo – Great voice but ??

So the night ended with two rooms of contestants moving on to next week where the all the songs will be Beatles songs.  Next week the top 24 will be chosen and will move on.  So far most of our favorites are still in the competition and this year is proving to be one of the best seasons ever when it comes to talent.

We have nothing else to report except to thank Jojo and Gabrielle for their assistance tonight.

American Idol Season 10 – Hollywood Week Group Round

Tonight starts with round two of Hollywood Week.  This is the “dreaded” Group Round and usually the most intense.  168 Contestants started tonight and 100 were left at the end of the round.  Even though all the performances tonight were by groups, the contestants were judged individually at the end of each group performance.

We at AAN have seen many Hollywood Weeks and the second round is all about handling the pressure of the group song and choreography also included.  The first 45 minutes of tonight’s show was the drama several contestants went through to find the right group.  Finally after tons of drama the 39 groups began to perform.  We at AAN invited Jojo to assist on the reviews and to score on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the high.

Here are the groups in order of performance:

1] Three Girls from Jersey
We thought it was a very good performance.
Jojo – 8
All three moved on to round three

2] Four and One
It was a pretty good performance.
Jojo – 5
All five moved on to round three

3] Four-Forty
Jojo – 6
All four moved on to round three

4] Rebel Star
There were two members doing a duet.  These two ladies could not find a group to join.  They we not very good at all.
Jojo — 0
Both members were sent home.

5] Spanglish
This was a so-so performance by the group.
Jojo – 6 for the two fellows, zero for the other two.
Two out of four moved on to round three

6] Noodle Nose
So-so performance by the group overall.
Jojo – 8
Three out of four were sent home.

7] Five from Nashville
Not good at all.
Jojo – 0
One out of five moved on to round three

8] The Hits
This was a very good performance.
Jojo – 8
All four moved on to round three

9] Deep V’s
This was the group James Durbin was in and he stood out among the five members.
Jojo – Lambert #2 is through and not surprisingly, He out performed the rest of the group. (“Lambert” in reference to Adam Lambert’s vocals)
Two out of five moved on to round three

10] The Minors – This was a group of five 15 & 16 years olds.
Very good performance by all the members of this group.
Jojo – 10 – Excellent
All five moved on to round three

11] Night Owls
Jojo – 5
Two out of five moved on to round three

12] Ebony and Ivory
Another really good performance by all 5 members.
Jojo – 8 – Very good performance
All five moved on to round three

13] Nonchalant’s
Fairly good performance.
Jojo – 7 – All the guys went through
Four out of five moved on to round three

14] Displaced Kid Group – This was the group JC (15 year old) ended up in after being dumped by a different group.
We agree with Jojo — 7
All five moved on to round three

15] The Guaps / Gwaps / Gwafs / whatever – This was the group that dumped JC.
Even though they dumped JC they were very good.
Jojo – 7
All four moved on to round three

16] Exhausted Group w/Negative Guy
Jojo – 0
The guy was sent home and the two girls moved on to round three

So the night ended with 100 contestants surviving group night and tomorrow night they will begin their solo performances in round three. It should be interesting because the talent this year is pretty darn awesome and only 20 will be chosen out of 100.

We have nothing else to report except to thank Jojo for the assistance tonight

Applewood Pizza – “To Go” and Restaurant in Menlo Park, CA

Pizza is a food that we have found to be available in every town we have ever visited throughout this great country.  We do like a good pizza, but we found the home delivery pizza sometimes questionable.  There have been some “yuck” ones from some of the locals in whatever city we may have been visiting.

When it comes to the best pizza we have ever tasted there is only one – Applewood Pizza in Menlo Park California.  Yes, Menlo Park California, not Chicago, not New York City, or Philadelphia.  We were as surprised as could be when we found this pizza even better than Uno’s in Chicago.  The cool thing about Applewood is you can go take the family to their restaurant and have an enjoyable sit down meal or if you wish to eat at home, call Applewood “To Go” and either pick it up or have it delivered.  The “To Go” is right across the street from the restaurant.  You could even Fax in your “to go” order or go to their web site and place an order.  <Click Here for Applewood>

Now some might call their pizza gourmet because of the variety of special toppings they provide, but you can get anything you wish and even experiment with some of your favorite choices.  Another thing that makes it our favorite is the pizza sauce and we know that any topping we get on the pizza is fresh from the market. If you go and pick up an order be sure to watch the pizza guy when he takes the pizza out of the oven.  He dabs the pizza with a paper towel to take off the excess olive oil they cook with.  How many times have you had a pizza delivered and it like eating a grease ball?  Not a pizza from Applewood!

We especially like Anchovies on our pizza and this seems to be a topping that fewer and fewer other pizza “joints” no longer offer as a topping.  Not at Applewood!  You order anchovies as one of the toppings and you get it.

We have nothing else to report except that we are now dialing the Applewood “To go” and placing an order.  It will be ready in twenty minutes giving us just enough time to post this and be on our way to pick it up.  Hope to see you there!

American Idol Season 10 – Hollywood Week Round One

Tonight starts with round one of Hollywood Week.  The starting 327 contestants tonight will get their one shot to move on to round 2 next week.  Yes that is one shot, no second chances tonight.

We at AAN have seen many Hollywood Weeks and the first round is usually about how each contestant handles the pressure.  Many of these contestants have never sung in front of a live audience and there where many with the jittery nerves.  Caving in to the pressure also caused many to forget the words to a song or sing off key.

Because tonight was mainly a stream of short blurbs about some of the contestants this is a quick summary of many of the “yes’” votes and some of the “no” votes.  The “yes” votes move on to round 2.  The contestants came out in groups of ten and then were chosen from each group of ten.

YES:
Brett #31552, Rachael, Thia, Casey, James #50800, Paris, Lauren, Chris #68817, Hollie, Jaycee #36823, Robbie, Rob, Chelsee, Jaqueline #22955, Scotty #68524, Jackie, Jerome, and Tiffany #61239.

NO:
Victoria Huggins #62183, Stormi #7529, Steve #69057, Nick #22965, and Travis #52649.

Next week will start round two and that is the “dreaded” group round.

We have nothing else to report except to remind the remaining contestants two of Simon Cowell’s basic rules, “Pick the right song” and “Don’t forget the words”.

American Idol 2011 Season 10 – San Francisco Audition

Tonight is the last audition show and it proved to a very good one after last weeks “waste of time” show.  The format seemed to change back to the “Yes” contestants instead of highlighting the judges and the “NO” contestants.  We like this format much better.

Tonight AAN invited Gabrielle (5 year old grand daughter), Jojo, Andrew, and Jenna to be judges and to please rate each contestant on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest rating.  Gabrielle elected to use “X” for did not like and “*” for like. (Comments optional).

Here are the contestant performances in the order of appearance:

1] Inessa #46449 (Very confident)
We thought her vocals were so-so, very off tune.
Jojo – 0
Gabrielle – XXXXXX
Andrew – 2 – Give her a 2 on vocals and a 4 on her moves
NO to Hollywood

2] Stefano #40560 (Had a life changing accident)
We thought the vocals were very good and with a good arrangement.
Jojo – 10 — Excellent
Gabrielle – *******
Jojo – 5 – Good Voice
Andrew – 5 – Good voice.
Jenna – 6
YES to Hollywood

3] Clint #51021
We thought his vocals were so-so but he does have potential.
Jojo – 5 – Good voice
Gabrielle – ***********
Jenna – 6
Andrew – 2 – ruined the song
YES to Hollywood

4] Drew #47238 (Wearing a Transformer outfit)
His vocals were not very good but the outfit he was wearing was so creative we were amazed.  He said he made the outfit and it was a red Ford Mustang Transformer.  When he transformed in to the car it actually looked like a mini-mustang and moved like a mini-car.  Ford Motor Company should latch on to Drew and do some commercials.
Jojo – 0 – On vocals – 10 for a job in Silicon Valley
Jenna – 1 – Vocals – 1 for the costume
NO to Hollywood

5] Julie #48841 (From Columbia originally)
Very good vocals and she has “the look” along with a great story.
Jojo – 10_ — Winner this year or close to it.
Gabrielle — *****
Jenna — 10
Andrew – 9 – Great voice
YES to Hollywood

6] Dave #38164 (Rocker)
Not very good at all
Jojo – 2 – Think he should have tried country
Andrew – 3 – 3 for the hair
NO to Hollywood

7] Emily #42527 (House burned down recently)
We thought she has a very interesting voice, very different than anything we have heard this year.  We second song was a “Wow!”
Jojo – 5 – Need to see more – 8 – on 2^nd song
Gabrielle — ***********
Andrew – 7 – Classic sound
YES to Hollywood

8] James from Santa Cruz CA and a great story about overcoming adversity.
We may have missed his number but this was a “Wow! Wow! Wow!”  James has an amazing voice and his vocal range is “crazy” to quote Randy. James is one of the best voices we have heard this year.  This is a top ten or maybe even winner this year.
Jojo – 10 +++ — Adam Lambert revisited – but better!
Gabrielle — ***********
Andrew – 8 – Great voice, bad appearance.
YES to Hollywood

We have nothing else to report except to once again thank Gabrielle, Jojo, Andrew, and Jenna for joining the AAN panel again tonight.

Okay folks this was the last audition show this year and tomorrow night is the start of “Hollywood Week”,  This is where the contestants either shine or go back home.  This week is always very interesting and exciting.

Browser Dilemma — Review

We have been “battling” with which browser to use for several months.  We tried “Chrome” back then and found it to have issues.  We tried updating Explorer 7 to Explorer 8 back then and had some major problems so we kept Explorer 7.   Recently we tried again and the update worked without any problem.  So now we are running three different browsers and here is our review of the current browsers.

Microsoft Explorer 8

This browser does everything we require when we go out to the web.  The only issue we have is it is the slowest of the three.  We also think this browser is the most stable of the three.  We rarely get an update, maybe once a month and that is usually a security update.   The other good thing about Explorer 8 is we always come back here when one of the other browsers doesn’t work knowing that it will do what we need.

 

Mozilla Firefox 4.0 Beta

We have been using Firefox for about a year.  Firefox 3.6 seemed to work just fine with only a few glitches.  Then we updated to 4.0 Beta.  When we see the word “Beta” we make the assumption that there are some problems and that the folks at Mozilla are still getting this browser up to speed.  So we expect that we will have some issues.  What we like is the fact they state its in “Beta” and it’s a “work in progress”.  Also we like the fact that when there is an update it’s done automatically.

 

Google Chrome

This browser is by far the fastest of the three browsers we use, but on the other hand it “crashes” daily.  We see “Aw, Snap!” so often we are suspect that when we don’t get it.  About 50% of the time we get the “Aw, Snap!” we also get the “Kill Pages” button.  So we believe that the Google boys are in denial that Chrome is really in a beta state and don’t want to admit it to the public.  We find updates on Chrome at least once a week.  We say we find, because Chrome does not automatically update, we have to go look for updates.  The trigger for when we go look is when we get the “Aw, Snap” several time in a row or the web page we are currently on is doing some strange things. We wonder why the Google boys don’t add “Beta” to the Chrome name display.  We also wonder who came up with the “Aw, Snap!”. Is this meant to be cute way of saying “You are about to loss everything you just updated on this web page”?  I know that when we see “Aw, Snap!” we don’t think it’s very cute.  They should just change the “Sn” to Cr” and that would be closer to what we are thinking.

We have nothing to add at this time and hope your browser is working great for you.  If you get an “Aw, Snap!” while you’re here, please come back and make a comment as to what you were really thinking when you saw it.  We think the Google boys might want to know that Chrome has a little bit of tarnish on it.

 

<—- This would best describe the “Aw, Snap!” look on our face when we get it.