TV Season Recap Podcast Adventure!

Ashitakas Angels Podcast #3 - Ashitakas Angels

Long time no podcast, dear readers. That's right, Mind Grapes and I decided to do another podcast. This time around, we decided to do a sweeping season recap! Exciting, I know. We basically talk about all the shows we watched (in part or in total) and give our general impressions (plus bonus haikus! yay!). Just be warned, it's a long one. So, do whatever you need to do to settle yourselves in...grab your favorite beverage, pick your favorite chair, etc., and let the beautiful yet (hopefully) entertaining chaos that is an Ashitaka's Angels podcast overtake you.

ETA: Please ignore the random musical interlude around the 4 minute mark. Don't really know what happened there. Oh yeah...we're professional.

Things that are making me LOL

• AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com - An example:

• MyLifeIsAverage - Much funnier than FML. I have a really weird sense of humor

• ontd_ai - A cracktastic American Idol LJ community. This place is HYSTERICAL! I spend far too much time here than I should

• Kris Allen on Twitter - Follow him! He hasn't had it for too long, but he tweets pretty frequently and is absolutely adorable and kind of hilarious. He's also following Adam, Allison, Matt, and Anoop. Follow them too! (Yes, I did get a Twitter solely for the purpose of stalking Kris Allen. Don't judge me!)

Things that are not making me LOL:

• Vitolio and Karla got eliminated on So You Think You Can Dance. I don't really care that much about Karla, but VITOLIO! Vitolioooooooooooooo!!!!!! I will miss his dorky enthusiasm! (we were so close to getting rid of 2 of my 3 least favs, Kayla, Phillip, and Jeanine, too!)

• I can't believe I'm saying this, but why do I have to wait until August 26th for the American Idol Live Tour?! Especially because it's starting this Sunday (OMG SO EXCITED!) and I now know what Kris and Adam and Allison's sets entail and they're all going to be so awesome and I don't want to wait! God, I'm such a loser...
  

OH. MY. GOD.

KRIS WON AMERICAN IDOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't believe it! I'm so so happy and so proud of this guy! And Adam too! Adam is awesome and fantastic and is going to have a fantastic career and I love him almost as much as Kris. But holy crap KRIS WON! No one ever thought this would happen, but it did. Is it the biggest upset in Idol history? I don't know and I don't care, I'm just so unbelievably proud to call myself a Kris fan! What a season! Amazing! Thank you for all of those people who voted for him! The Derelict, Zozizzle, Good Grief, Mom! You guys helped too! I cannot wait to buy my first Kris Allen CD! And Adam CD! And Allison CD! And....god, I don't know, this is just so fantastic! *group hugs all around*

*WTF my font size got all messed up but I don't care!!!!! as;lkdfj;saldkfjals;dfjs;aldkjf;asldkjf;asdlkfjas;dlfalfjk

Quick thoughts on the American Idol performances

The clear loser of tonight was Kara for writing that shitty coronation song. Wow. Terrible. I was embarrassed for both of them that they had to sing that.

Adam: "Mad World". This is one of my favorite Adam performances and I think he performed beautifully on it yet again. I did get a bit of a chuckle out of the trench coat and the dry ice, but it was still very good. Didn't quite pack the punch of the first time he did it (I'm not sure he connected with it as well), but still good.

Kris: "Ain't No Sunshine". I was so happy he picked this song. SO HAPPY! This was the song that made me fall in love with Kris in the first place and hearing it again was just magical. He sounded fantastic and it may have even been better than the first time he sang it. I just loved it to death! It may have been my favorite performance of the night.

Adam: "A Change Is Going To Come". This sounded really great too. I completely disagree with Paula that it was one of his best performances, but it was good. There were moments in there where his voice sounded a little hoarse and off a bit, but he connected with it for the most part. I really wouldn't have picked this song for him though and was kind of disappointed that we didn't get a "crazy" Adam performance tonight.

Kris: "What's Going On". This is where my extreme bias comes in, because I absolutely LOVE it when Kris does performances like this. I loved it when he did it with "She Works Hard For The Money" and "Heartless" and I loved it here. As soon as I saw Kris with his guitar, surrounded by percussionists, I was in heaven. He put his own spin to the song and added sufficient emotion to the lyrics (particularly when he stopped to sing the lyrics "war is not the answer"). I hated that Simon said the performance was "too small", because well, what the hell did they expect Kris to do with a low-key song like that? He didn't pick the song after all. I liked this a lot better than Adam's second song, but then again, I'm biased.

Adam and Kris: "No Boundaries". I'm doing them together because I don't really know what I can say about this song. Neither of them sounded very good. With Adam, he seemed to lose the lyrics a lot and was a bit "pitchy" as Randy would say. The range of the song was way too big for Kris and he seemed to really be stretching to hit some of those high notes. However, while Adam was more technically proficient with the song, Kris did seem to connect with it a little more and you could tell he was really, really trying. I can't fault either of them for their performances however, because that was just a shitty ass song that I don't think either of them could have done anything with. Can you please go now, Kara?

Overall, besides the coronation song, I thought this was a great finale, with both boys giving fantastic performances that they should be proud of. I can't wait for tomorrow no matter what the outcome is! Kradam has already won, ya'll!

American Idol Top 2 Finalists: We're all winners!

As I was reading through these articles about the adorable press conference Adam and Kris did yesterday (adorable video here), I was overwhelmed by the feeling that, well....I wish they both could win! Reading about how much these guys genuinely like and respect and support each other made me actually get a little emotional. Like they said repeatedly in those articles, they feel like they've both won, and you know, I feel like we've all won too! This sounds ridiculously cheesy, but I just love this finale so much. SO MUCH! And I can't believe we actually have it. A Kradam finale was just a small pipe dream I had when I started watching this season, and now it's a reality. I've felt beaten down by this season many times (I blame Danny...and Kara), but now I couldn't be happier. If Alan Sepinwall wasn't my favorite TV critic already, he would be after this article, which pretty much expressed my thoughts exactly: that in a season filled with unnecessary changes, manufactured drama, over-pimped contestants, attention-hogging judges, and a lesser focus on the most important part of the show, the contestants, we somehow managed to get one of the best, most interesting and love-filled finales this show has ever had (the fantastic website What Not To Sing also has a similar article about the awesome finale in spite of a weak season). You know, I hope somehow, someway, Kris and Adam get the same number of votes on Wednesday and they call it a tie and they both win the show and then live happily ever after THE END.

On a more serious note however, I will be voting the four hours for Kris tonight, heh. After the results show last week, I was just so excited Kris made it into the finale that I went on and on about how I didn't care who won. And reading all this lovely Kradam press recently made me feel the same way. But when I really thought about it, deep down inside, I do want to see Kris win. I've been voting for Kris every week since Top 9 week, fully expecting every week for him to go home. But he didn't, and we finally got him into the final 2, and well, I'm not gonna stop voting for him now, heh. I think if "Heartless" showed us anything last week, it's that Kris wants to win this, and thinking about what his face would look like if/when Ryan announces his name as the winner of American Idol gives me a happy feeling inside (although Kris always looks so shocked and amazed every time he makes it through, the poor kid might pass out on stage if he wins, hee!). Now let me clarify for all the Glamberts out there, that I would be extremely happy if Adam were to win as well. Like I said, both of these guys deserve to be in the finale and truthfully, if we're basing the win by pure, God-given singing talent, then Adam probably deserves it more. No one can hit the notes Adam can (I love Adam's voice, I just prefer Kris's more). In fact, I think Adam will probably win, but I do think it will be closer than a lot of people originally thought (only a million votes separated the two last week).

Although, you know what I want the most? I want both guys to just go out there and do their best. I don't want the producers or the judges ruining the finale by manipulating anything. No bussing, no pimping, just let the performances speak for themselves. I want the show to just let both of these guys go out there and do what they do and hopefully have great nights. Remember, in a Kradam finale, we all win!

*Be back later with thoughts on the performances

OMG we're podcasting again?!

Ashitakas Angels Podcast #2 - Ashitakas Angels

Yes! We are podcasting again! Why? Because we like the sound of our own voices! Today's installment features:

1. Office finale squee!
2. 30 Rock finale hilarity!
3. Talk of the Detroit Red Wings and their domination of all other teams!
4. Mentions of Kradam fanfic. Be warned.
5. Musical interludes!
6. A serious message for Good Grief.
7. A discussion of the Grey's Anatomy finale and its weirdness. Plus: Does Kevin McKidd = Marian Hossa?
8. Did we mention Kradam?
9. Insanity + Kris Allen outro

~mind grapes and zozizzle

American Idol Top 3 Finalists Perform: Vote for talent! Bring Kradam to the finale!

So, before we begin, some laughs:

Why you should vote for Kris and Adam on American Idol: An illustrated thesis. Hilarious.

Why I hate Danny Gokey [RAP]. Fantastic.

25 Reasons to vote for Kris Allen. Wonderful.

This week's 3 part Entertainment Weekly Idolatry. Amazing. (As an aside, you all need to go back and watch all the previous episodes of Idolatry. I look forward to watching Michael Slezak's take on the show almost more than the show itself! They are also the ones who originated the "Put the GO in Gokey" movement, and have been huge supporters of this season's underdogs, Kris and Allison. Go watch!)

Before we begin again, I have to bring up something silly. I went back and looked at all my older American Idol posts recently, and I noticed that the level of swearing increased exponentially on each post, heh. Because Zozizzle and GoodGrief still try to make this somewhat of a "family blog", I'm going to try and not swear or keysmash as much as I have been, heh. Sometimes I can't help it though! I've come to the slow realization that American Idol is mostly filled with pain and heartbreak. I have found the little tiny bit of good in it, but mostly, I still kind of hate this show. Especially after last week when I was never more mad or upset over an episode of a show in my life! Let's hope this week is better, yes?

And here we go! Oh Kris honey, the bus is coming for you tonight no matter how well you do. Don't let them get you down though! Two songs tonight: Judges choice and contestants choice.

Judges choice first. I actually already know what the judges picked for each contestant, so now I'm just anticipating what they're going to do with it. Surprisingly, I think Danny got the worst song choice.

Danny: Paula chose "Dance Little Sister" by Terence Trent D'Arby for him. Danny didn't know the song, heh. I had never heard of the song either actually. But when I looked it up, it definitely fits his voice. Ok, so this performance is typical Danny. He's powering through it. It's not that he's singing it badly, he just sort of...yells it. He's scatting with a saxophone player on stage. I hate saxophones. It's pretty upbeat and of course, he's dancing. It wasn't bad at all, but it was pretty much what Danny does every week. LOL Kara is critiquing his dancing! This is the first time I think I've ever liked Kara, heh. Simon is being kind of harsh to Danny....and I love it!

Kris: Randy and Kara picked "Apologize" by OneRepublic. I think this is a pretty good song choice for him. I like that they went with something more current for him. He's playing the piano. He changed the song a little, but it still has that "hip-hop" sound. His voice sounds fantastic! There are a few bum notes in there, but for the most part it's great! He's singing it pretty straight though. Not really changing it too much. Kara! You chose this song! How can you criticize the arrangement when you chose the song?! And how can you criticize Kris for not changing the song, when Danny just sang a karaoke version of his song? OMG did Simon just support Kris? I...don't know what to do with this. The judges have gone insane!

Adam: Simon picked "One" by U2. He's got the "Mad World" lighting going for him. The beginning sounded really really good, but I did not like the screeching in the middle. Normally I don't mind when Adam "screams", but I don't know, he kind of lost me for a bit there. Not my favorite Adam performance. Did I miss something? Normally I like Adam, but I was underwhelmed. Wow, the judges are being extremely annoying right now. It's not that they're praising Adam, it's the way they're doing it. Can't they just critique the performances without acting like children? God! I want to KILL Kara.

Danny: His pick is "You Are So Beautiful". This song always reminds me of the movie The Little Rascals. Yes, I'm a giant dork. This is such a typical Danny song choice. Sappy and cheesy. Really really slow and kind of boring. His voice sounds good though because he isn't shouting....and now he's shouting. Should have seen that coming. That was pretty good, I guess. I think this may have been one of his better performances actually. It was still boring though, and he did nothing special with the song. The judges love him. Blech.

Kris: "Heartless" by Kanye West! What? WHAT?! I never in a million years thought Kris Allen of all people would pick this song. It's just him and an acoustic guitar! He totally rearranged the song! This is so cool! I've never heard the song sung like this. No one else on this show can do what Kris just did. Wow. I loved it! Amazing. This just proves how musically talented he really is. He played two instruments tonight! No one else can do that! The judges loved it! Yay! Go Kris go! I'm so proud of him!

Adam: He's singing Aerosmith lol. Show us how Aerosmith is done, Adam! We need to erase what Danny did to Aerosmith last week. "Cryin'". Now this is a more upbeat Adam. Not as crazy as other Adam performances though, which is probably a good thing for him at this stage. Pretty good. His voice sounds great. I think I liked it better than his first performance. Still didn't love it though. The judges did, of course. Is it just me, or was Adam kind of off tonight? Whoa...did Simon just beg people to vote for Adam?! Strange.

Final thoughts: So....that was sort of underwhelming, yes? I think I expected both Kris and Adam to totally blow it out of the water, but I think Kris was the only one who came close to doing that. "Heartless" was definitely the best performance of the night by far, and for that I think he "won" the night, even though his "Apologize" wasn't the best performance of his (I still liked it though). Even so, Adam was way WAY better than Danny, who was just sort of...blah. Like always. If there's any justice in the world, we will get our Kradam finale! Please make it so, America!