American Idol - Omaha and Miami Auditions

OK, people. It's time for:

Omaha -
Where's Paula...?
Chris Bernheisel - Brought bribes. Since You Been Gone. Weird dancing and flips. Got a reporting deal.
Jason Rich - When You Say Nothing at All. Really nice, soft voice. Raspy a little. Pushed a bit. Forgot the words. If he can manage to remember the words, I'd say watch for him.
Rachael Wicker - Leann Womack song. Great voice. Love. It. Very surprised she didn't move on.
Sarah Whitaker - Lady Morgue. Spongebob song. Horrible voice.
Samantha Sidley - Don't Know Why. Interesting. I like her a lot. Watch out for her.
Elizabeth Erkert - Good.
Michael Sanfillipo - Very nice. Watch out.
Anjelica Puente - Sob story. Very good. Power of Love. Strong voice.
David Cook - Reminiscent of Chris Daughtry.
Johnny Escamilla - Shout. Simon- "Everything I hated."
Leo Marlowe - A Song for You. Great voice.
Paula was messed up tonight...

Miami -
*Note-I missed about 10 minutes*
Shannon McGough - Belcher. Cry Baby. Very strange. Not good.
Robbie Carrico - Former boy-bander. Turned to rock. Nice voice. I like him.
Ghaleb Emacach - Marc Antony song. Not good. Very bad. Yuck. I don't know why they put him through. Oh, yeah, Paula's high again.
Corliss Smith - Not amazing. But she can sing.
Brittany Wescot - I like her better. My Guy. Watch for her.
Ben Hausbach - Monotone.
Corey Bertha - Over the top.
Grant Rhea - "Come back in a dress."
Richard Valles - Light, nasally, too high. Strange.
Julie Dubela - Was on American Juniors, made top 20. Bobby McGee. Not Janis, but she made it her own. Strong voice. Better on AJ.
Brandon Black - Very strange entrance. Very falsetto, something interesting though. A little nasally, strange.

Rainy Day

It's raining outside. Yuck. It's a grey day. I'm glad I'm done with classes, because now I can just relax and stay inside and avoid the greyness.

Not much to do today. Went to class. I'll probably take a nap. Then go to dinner. Probably hang out with some people at some point.

Meh, boring day.

Return of Video of the Week!

As promised folks, here's the Video of the Week:

That's young David Archuleta, who auditioned for Idol. He's one of my favorites to get pretty far. He's singing, in this video, to the contestants from Season 1. That's Kelly Clarkson right up front in the white tank and baseball cap.

PS. I dyed my hair again.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes...

As you've hopefully noticed, if you've been here before, the layout of the blog has changed. I was getting sort of bored with the old layout and decided it was time for change. You may have also noticed that I've created logos for American Idol Wrap-ups and Talky Blogs. I think they came out quite well. I'm working on one for Album of the Month and Video of the Week (the latter of which I've been neglecting as of late and will be making it's comeback tomorrow).

Currently, I'm sitting behind the desk at the library. It's boring as all hell, but it pays. Interestingly enough, I've actually been quite productive so far. I've finished reading the first assigned chapter of The Rest is Noise for Music Theory, filled out the reserve form for the same book for Diane, decided which five composers and pieces I want to bring to class, and I've found recordings and/or vocal scores of all of them. All I have left to do is read the assigned chapter in our textbook for Music Theory, read the assigned chapter for Ear Training and finish the assigned chapter in the textbook for Exceptional Populations. Not bad considering I still have all day tomorrow. I also should practice for Voice Lessons which I can do later tonight and tomorrow back in my room.

Auditions for Urinetown were Thursday night. I don't remember if I mentioned it. They went well, although, Lisa royally messed up the accompaniment which consequently messed up my singing, but I muddled through it. I didn't get a callback, but, throughout my whole theatrical career, I've only ever gotten one callback, so I wasn't worried. The cast list was posted last night, and I got the role Bobby the Stockfish. I have no idea what that is, but I'll find out.

That's about all that's new here. If you're reading this before 6:00 PM, there will probably be more changes to the layout before the night is through. I tend to get nitpicky. I don't think that I'll be doing a Talky tonight, but you never know, something exciting might happen.

Till whenever, blog buddies!

PS. I promise Video of the Week will return. I'll be posting them on Sundays starting tomorrow.

Sad Panda

So I got a call from Matt today, and apparently he won't be able to come up to visit. Some fancy-pants master chef (of which there are only 35 in the country) is coming, and Matt's boss wants him to be there. Matt told him that he'd already booked bus tickets and that he had this weekend off, but they wrote him a check right then and there for the tickets and told him that he had to be there or he'd have no job when he came back. So, sadly, he won't be coming up this weekend.

I have my first day back at work tomorrow, and I'm not looking forward to it. It is so freakin' boring just sitting in the library all day. Maybe I'll get some homework done for once though.

Anyway, I think I'm gonna go hang out with Rayshelle for a little while. Have a great night, blog buddies.

Surprise Talky Blog!

OK people, so I wasn't planning on doing anything exciting for the blog today, BUT Joshua and I were waiting around for Brittany to get out of rehearsal so we could head over to Mallory and Kate's and we got bored. So I decided to do a Talky Blog with Joshua for you. Here it is:

Have a great one, blog buddies!

American Idol - San Diego and Charleston Auditions

OK, Blog Buddies. Here's my American Idol Wrap-up for San Diego and Charleston. Enjoy. (Don't mind my plea for a Flip Cam. Just ignore it. Really. Even a 30-minute. White or black only. I don't want any crazy colors. Just saying.) Moving along:

Anyway, here are my notes:
San Diego -
Tetyana Ostapowych - Someone to Watch Over Me. Very good. Love her. Watch for her.
Perrie Cataldo - Single father from Arizona. Very nice voice.
Michael Johns - Australian. Kinda rockish. I like him. "White soul singer" - Simon.
Marat Hayrapetyan - Awful, terrible.
Christopher Mitchell - Sang way too high.
Tehilla Lauder - Weird.
Valerie Reyes - Mariah Carey wannabe. Not good at all. Screaming.
Joseph and Juanita - Mexican and mime?
Monique Gibson - I Believe in Miracles (Whitney Houston). Not good. Really strange. She freaked out.
Christopher Baker - Sang the same song. Just as bad. Tried to sing too many songs.
Samantha Musa - Aretha song. Very good. She and her sister obsessed with Simon. Watch for her.
Blake Boshnak - Eleventh time auditioning. Stand By Me. Decently good. Not amazing. Thought he'd move on.
Alberto Hurtado - Whackjob. Original song. Long nails. "Most depressing song" - Simon.
Aaron Garrett - Very strange. Leave Me Alone.
David Archuleta - Vocal paralysis. Possible conflict with Star Search. Really good. Loved him. Waiting on the World to Change. Watch for him.
Carly Smithson - I'm Every Woman. Not fabulous, but pretty good.

Charleston -
Raysharde Henderson - Not bad, did some weird thing with his voice.
DeAnna Prevatte - Hmm. Interesting. Has a voice.
Randy Stark & Crystal Ortiz - Dating. Really awkward voice.
Michelle & Jeffery Lampkin - Very good together. Alone? I'm not sure. I like them.
Amy Flynn - Abstinence girl. Kinda sketchy vocally.
London Weidberg - Not amazing. I don't think she'll make it past Hollywood.
Lyndsey Goodman - Black Velvet. Very nice voice, a little bit strained and screamy.
Aretha Codner - Very large tatas. Strong voice, but pushed and mainly flat.
Joshua Boson - Whackjob. Sang And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going. Extremely f-ed up.
Oliver Highman - Good voice. Had baby day before. Shouldn't go into falsetto. Warbly.

And that's it. Take my critiques with a grain of salt. It's just my opinion. I don't know these people and I don't have anything against them personally. Just my predictions based on previous seasons and a year and a half of college music.

Have a great night or day, whenever it is you're reading this!

Snowy

It's been snowing off and on all day today, and it's been really windy. Not impressed.

I've decided that I would post my American Idol notes and Talky Blogs on Wednesday nights after both nights of auditions. So check back later for a Talky and my notes.

Also, it's 22 days late, but I have the Album of the Month. Somebody seriously needs to start reminding me.

Legally Blonde the Musical

That's right. The new musical Legally Blonde. I've fallen in love with this show since seeing it on MTV a few months ago. Many shows on Broadway recently have been adapted from movies, and I'm always skeptical. Legally Blonde blew me away though. The songs written for the show are perfect and just amazing. Go check out this show.

I promise, February 1st I'll put up the next Album of the Month, and it won't be from a Broadway show...

Back to the Grind

Yesterday was the first day of classes. It wasn't terribly exciting. I just had Music Theory and Ear Training, and later choir.

Both my music classes were rather boring. In Theory we just discussed what we were going to be doing this semester, and in Ear Training we did some sight-singing.

Choir was also rather boring. We warmed up and sang through one piece. Then she let us go.

Today I had my first new class - Intro to Exceptional Populations. It was interesting. It seems like it will be a good class, even though it seems like there will be a lot of work. The professor was very nice. We have to do 3 hours of classroom observation as an assignment, so over February break I'm going to head back up to SMS to observe Mrs. Bowler once again.

Matt's coming up for a visit this weekend. He's coming up Saturday night and staying till Monday morning. I am SO excited.

In sad news, Rachel's favorite celebrity, Heath Ledger, passed away today. I was very surprised by the news. She's "handling it surprisingly well".

~In Memoriam~
Heath "The Heath" Ledger
April 4, 1979 - January 22, 2008

Yay JSC!

Everyone came back to JSC today! Yay! It was so nice to see everyone and reconnect. I missed everyone so much. We had a nice time.

Dinner was nice. They had Fettuccine Alfredo. It was delicious.

After dinner, I had my floor meeting. It was lame, but whatever.

Then after that, I went over to Arthur to hang out with people. We went over to Base Lodge to see the band that was performing, but they were taking a break when we got there. So we left.

Then we went up to Suite 303 and played Scattergories. After Rayshelle straightened my hair of course. It kinda looks the same, just longer.

Now I'm back, and Stephanie's gonna come over to watch Pirates: At World's End in a little bit.

Biggest news, I guess I have to say, would be that I am now officially seeing Matt. He's a guy I've been hanging out with in Boston for the past week, and we hit it off really well. He's a great guy, and I'm very lucky.

That's all for now. Classes tomorrow. Ew.

Talky Blog with Mallory!!

OK people, I promised a Talky Blog with Mallory, and I delivered. Mallory finally makes her long overdue debut on my blog. Without further ado, here it is:

I Hate Packing

Well, folks, after a month at home, tomorrow I head back up to Vermont. That means that today is packing day, which includes laundry. I absolutely hate packing for and after this break. It's such a long break that I have to bring things I normally wouldn't on a week-long break, like my plant, my fish, my keyboard, to name a few. So it's kind of a pain-in-the-ass kind of deal.

In other news, I downloaded a bunch of music the past few days. I've downloaded almost the entire albums of Adam Pascal, all of one album of Idina Menzel and most of another, some of Anthony Rapp's album, and all but one song of Landon Pigg. Now some of you may notice that 3 out of 4 of these artists are from RENT. Well, yeah, so what? They're really talented artists, and I love their music. Landon Pigg is amazing too, I'm listening to him right now.

Well, that's all the news for now. I'm headed out later to say goodbye to my grandparents. Then tomorrow morning dad and I are off to Vermont. I'll do a Talky with Mallory and Kate (if she's there) when I get to their apartment. Till tomorrow bloggers!

PS. Keep commenting. It makes my day. Even if it's just to say hi.

Just Thought I'd Share

Hey Hey Hey

Thanks to the new blog buddies who have been commenting. It means a lot to know that people out there are taking the time to read my blog and comment. I've added a new comment section to the page. It's in the upper-left corner. It's basically a general comment box where you can leave comments, questions, suggestions, whatever and it doesn't have to be in relation to any specific post.

Today wasn't exciting. I woke up at 10:30 to hop on the T. I had a follow-up eye appointment for my contact lenses at 12:45. I got home at about 11:30 and checked email and Facebook. Then I ate a muffin and headed out. I brought Pa with me because I know he likes spending time with me. So I picked him up around 12:20.

The eye appointment was very quick. She just looked at both my eyes and had me read a line from a chart thing. That was it. Then I dropped Pa off and came home. That's about all.

No Idol tonight, so no Talky Blog tonight. Sorry folks. I'm gonna go take a nap. Thanks again to all the new bloggers. I love reading the comments, and I'll respond to them all. Till tomorrow.

American Idol - Dallas Auditions

The second set of auditions for American Idol were tonight. They still didn't blow me away. They didn't show a lot of people who moved on, but they also didn't show a lot of crazy people tonight. Enjoy my Talky Blog about it.



Detailed Notes:
Jessica Brown - Recovering drug addict; two kids. Very good singer. She sang I'll Stand By You. She's someone to look out for.
Paul Stafford - Roller coaster enthusiast. Nice guy, bad voice. Terrible really. Sang Wait For You.
Beth Maddocks - Somewhat nasal, not good. Sang Kelly Clarkson's Beautiful Disaster.
Alaina Whitaker - Good, strong voice. Stronger.
Gregory & Mia Tobias - Terrible. I don't even know what to say.
Bruce Dickson - Never kissed a girl? Please, even I have. Decent voice, not spectacular. Ain't No Sunshine. I would have put him through.
Zpia Easley - Gladys Knight song. Pretty good, low voice. Very strong. Watch for her.
Brandon Green - Decent, not amazing. He'll make it far though.
Kayla Hatfield - Janis Joplin song. Not great, not good. I don't know. She won't get too far.
Tristan Clements - Not 100% awful, but pretty bad.
Kady Malloy - Vocal impressions; nice voice. Sang like Britney Spears (ew), Carrie Underwood, and sang Unchained Melody.
Douglas Davidson - Awful, funny warmups. Sang Living on a Prayer. He was hilarious. Loved it.
Angela Reilly - Had a model husband. Not 100% great, but not awful. Sang Baby Love and Hit Me With Your Best Shot.
Kyle Ensley - Interesting... Bad song choice. Politics guy. I don't know about this.
Tammy Tuzinski - Very strange... Sang Power of Love.
Colton Swon - Very good, may go far. Sang Boondocks.
Drew Poppelreiter - Sounds like Hank Williams. Very good.
Kyle Reinnek - Rocker guy, kinda strange. Didn't sing well.
Nina Shaw - Not amazing, but good. Old-fashioned. Sang Run To You. Her jazz side was better.
Renaldo Lapuz - 44 years old. Sang original song We Are Brothers Forever. Not good. Looked like a Liberace knock off. He was hilarious. Loved it. They brought Ryan in.

That's all. Good night.

AHH

Rosie answered one of my questions on her blog. Finally! After months of writing, I got a response on her blog. She sent me a copy of her book too, but that's old news.

Ask Ro

Click that, and then scroll about halfway down. I used the name Allison, because I'd already asked a question earlier in the day and had to use a different email address...

American Idol - Philadelphia Auditions

So tonight were the first set of auditions for American Idol 7. Before it premiered, sources said that this year the focus would be the good auditions rather than the bad ones. For some reason, I didn't see that. There were still tons of bad auditions. I discuss it in this Talky Blog!



Detailed Notes:
Joey Catalano - Good. Will get to sing live, won't make it far after that.
Alaa Youkaeem (sp.?) - "Sexy face", bad. Sang How Deep is Your Love? by "Mr. The Bee-Gees"
Melanie Nyema - Decent. I don't see her going far based on this audition. Sang Unwritten.
James Lewis - This guy was hysterical. He sang Go Down, Moses and was terrible.
Zhengzhong Yu - Terrible. He sang All the Pretty Little Horses. It was just awful.
Junot Joyner - Good. Sang The Blues by Elton John. I'm not sure he'll make it too far.
Jose Candelaria - Pretty good. Sang a song in Spanish that I've heard in English.
Temptress Brown - Oh, my god. This girl was such a sad story. She plays football and her mom is very ill in a wheelchair. She tried to sing And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going. She was not good, but they treated her very nicely.
Udi Sampeet - Very bad. He was a singing accountant.
Alexis Cohen - Not 100% awful. She was crazy though. Rocker chick. Sang Don't You Want Somebody to Love.
Angela Martin - Has a child with RETTs. Sang very well. Sang Signed, Sealed, Delivered.
Milo Turk - First off, he was 39-years-old. He sang his own original song, No Sex Allowed. Very bad.
Kristy Lee Cook - Very good. She sang Amazing Grace. I see her going pretty far and doing well.
Ben Haar - OK, he was awful. He had a cloak and dressed up like Princess Leia. He tried to sing Don't Ya Wish Your Girlfriend. Paula told him he should wax his chest. So he went out, waxed and came back.
Paul Marturano - Paula Abdul stalker. Holy crap! He freaked me out. SKETCHY!
Beth Stalker - Very nice. Didn't sing a very memorable song (Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered), but she sang very nicely. She'll do well.
Chris Watson - Decent. Not the best. He'll go far though because of his looks.
Christina Tolisano - Another nutso. She thought she was Princess Leia too. She got all upset because they didn't take her. She couldn't sing, but she thought they thought she was a dork. Which she was.
Brooke White - Very good. She's going to do well. I liked her a lot.

And that's my take on the first night. Names in bold moved on to Hollywood.

It's Been A While

Sorry it's been so long since I've updated, folks. Nothing interesting has happened. Seriously. Nothing. I can't even remember what I've been doing.

I'm pretty sure I've just been really lame and sitting around the house.

It snowed a lot yesterday. I shoveled the driveway. That driveway doesn't seem as big until you have to shovel it. It wasn't a lot of snow, but it took me three trips out to finish.

I finally finished downloading and burning Legally Blonde: The Musical to DVD. I watched it yesterday. It's a good show.

Tonight is the premiere of American Idol. I am SO freakin' excited people! I am gonna keep a tally of who I like and my picks right from the beginning so we can see how accurate I am. So I'll be posting again later tonight after it airs.

Till then folks!

Popsicles!

I just went on the biggest excursion to get a box of popsicles. Well, I suppose it could have been bigger. Anyway, I've been craving these popsicles all night long. I like the Karnival Stix by Hood. It's got cotton candy, lemonade, fruit punch, sour grape, bubble gum and, my favorite, watermelon. They're delicious. So, I've been wanting them all night long, and I decided to go out and get them.

So, I went to the Stop and Shop in Malden. They're open all night so I figure this will be easy. In and out. So I go in, head to the frozen food section, and they don't have them. So I'm ticked. So I think, I'll head over to Shaw's by Meadow Glen Mall in Medford. So I drive all the way over there, and they're closed. So I decide to go to Stop and Shop around the corner. I would have gone there first, but I figured since they didn't have them at the first one, they might not carry them at any Stop and Shops. Well, turns out they did. So I bought them and came home and just ate a watermelon one. Yum.

I spent the night in Boston last night. I got up around 11 and headed home. When I got back, I heated up the leftover Chinese food in the fridge and watched Sleepless in Seattle. It was good, I enjoyed it a lot. Then I just hung out watching TV and on the internet the rest of the day.

I'm going to Boston tomorrow night. My friend, Matt, is taking me out to dinner. Then we'll probably end up hanging out afterwards.

So, till tomorrow bloggers!

Well, Whaddya Know?

Today was a boring day. It was so nice out, I wish I'd had something to do. I woke up around noon at Iliya's. I got dressed and ate my yogurt. Then I got packed up and headed over to the T. I got home and ate a muffin. Then I just hung out watching TV and chatting with people online.

Turns out Mallory probably won't be coming to visit this weekend. That sucks. I'm missing everybody up at school something awful. I can't wait to see everyone.

No plans yet tomorrow. We'll see how the day goes. For now, I leave you with this.

Wind's in the east, there's a mist comin' in,
Like something is brewin' and 'bout to begin.
Can't put me finger on what lies in store,
But I feel what's to happen all happened before.

For Rachel and David

A Talky Blog. Short but sweet.

Getting Better All The Time

Hooray! After three days of feeling deathly ill, I'm feeling much better today. Not well enough to do a Talky Blog though (sorry Rachel and David). I still look like crap, and my voice is yucky. Soon though. I promise. With guests...

My illness ruined my first night with Iliya. I was fine when I picked him up. Then I started feeling sick around dinner time. Then I ate some soup. Then we watched Party Monster, well, some of it, and I felt better. Then we went to his place, and I was still feeling fine. Then come time to sleep, I was up every hour or so throwing up. It was not a good night.

I'm going over there tonight. After dinner and after my eye appointment. I gotta go eat something. Talk to you soon!

Iliya!!

He's back! I just picked him up at the airport. He's downstairs showering. Then we're going out to dinner at the Roadhouse. SO EXCITED!

I Really Want This Album

Have you seen that commercial for A Diamond is Forever that has the song "I think that possibly maybe I've fallen for you..."?? Well, I loved that song, so I looked it up. I found the artist, Landon Pigg, and I think he's amazing. I love this song too. Tell me what you think.

One Day More

Iliya comes home TOMORROW!! I can't tell you how excited I am. It's going to be such a good night I think, if everything goes well. This has honestly been the longest five days of my life.

I woke up at 11:00 today because I had to take my grandfather out shopping. I felt like crap. My body ached. My head ached. My stomach ached. It was bad news bears. I tried to at least eat a banana before taking him out, but I couldn't even eat a whole one.

It wasn't awful. He didn't do a whole lot of shopping, and he was in and out of Walgreen's and the bank. I talked to Iliya while Pa was in the bank, and he was all worried about Julian and Nico yelling at him for telling Julian's mother that Julian and Nico smoke. I felt bad. I just want him back so I can hug him forever.

When I got home, I ate a bagel and had some orange juice and cranberry juice. Then I went upstairs and got into bed. I started watching Top Model, but it didn't last long. After like 10 minutes, I gave up and turned off the TV and went to sleep.

I had this crazy dream about Sweeney Todd (amazing movie, go see it). It was really strange.

I wasn't impressed with dinner tonight. My mom made this roast pork meal in a crock pot, but I didn't like the potatoes or peas, so I pretty much just had some pork for dinner. I went upstairs and watched more Top Model. Can I just tell you how much I absolutely LOVE the week-long marathon of it on VH1? It's amazing. It's always on.

So I think I'll just go watch some more of it now. I don't know. We'll see. Can't wait to see my Iliya tomorrow!!!

Baby, It's Cold Outside

It's 13 degrees out!! AH! It feels like I'm back in Vermont!

So today, I woke up at, no joke, 2:30 PM. Holy. Crap. I couldn't believe I slept that late. It was ridiculous.

I went to the mall to return my jacket at Aeropostale with my dad, and then we went to dinner. It was really good. We went to this restaurant that neither of us had been to, but we had a gift card to, and it turned out to be delicious. I ate so much food.

Now I'm just hanging out watching TV and browsing online while I wait to talk to Iliya. Three days until he comes home!!!!

What'll I Do?

What'll I do when you are far away, and I am blue? What'll I do?
What'll I do when I am wondering who is kissing you? What'll I do?
What'll I do with just a photograph to tell my troubles to?
When I'm alone with only dreams of you that won't come true, what'll I do?

I miss Iliya so much it's ridiculous. All day long I've been thinking about him and how much I want him back. Not fair.

Happy 2008!

Happy New Year to everyone! Hope 2008 is a wonderful year for all!

Today was my first Iliya-free day in 6 days. I was not impressed. All I could think about was him all day. He called me when he got to Florida, so I know he got there safe. Then he called me a little later and told me his trip was not going very well. He sounded very upset, so I thought about him all night. I tried to call him at midnight, but he was in a club so he couldn't talk. Hopefully he'll call me later.

What did I do tonight? I went to Boston with Fred! The T was free tonight from 8PM onward, so we took the orange line to Haymarket and walked around the North End for a while. She wanted to go to a pastry store (not Mike's), but it was closed. I think we then took the green line to Faneuil Hall, but we may have walked. I forget. We took the green line at some point. Then we went to the Commons to see the ice sculptures. Then we walked to Back Bay via Newbury Street and came home.

We played Scene It? for a while then watched the ball drop. That was it. Nothing special. Happy New Year!!!