cyberspace junkyard

10 days to go!
And here commences the official countdown to saltlight's This Way Up album launch. Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!

For some reason, despite having been on stage and performing countless times before, I'm still nervous. I think it's because this matters so much more than a normal performance. I'm singing and playing music that I and my friends have written, about the thing we are most passionate about - our relationship with God as Christians. Praying for the word and the Word to continue to spread!

If you're a Sydney-sider, PLEASE COME!

The great Paulini goes the way of the great Tamyra
Eerie similarities between this series and the first American Idol. Darn you, complacency! Earlier today, I predicted this result - Guy and Paulini bottom 2.

All I can say is I am utterly disgusted. I've just come home from a rehearsal for the CD launch, and I can barely bring myself to watch the verdict video. This has completely soured my whole obsession for this show. Can you even begin to imagine anyone other than Guy and Paulini at the Opera House, singing it out? Of course, this is great news for Guy fans. They will vote extra hard next week because of their scare this week, almost guaranteeing him a place in the final 2.

Man, first Bek, now Paulini. I'm backing Guy half-heartedly (he has previously been a favourite) though ugh. It's just not the same without Paulini. I'm so glad I got to see her sing LIVE for the final time at the Big Band show yesterday. What an absolute privilege.

Edited 11:13pm
Still can't bring myself to watch it. Visited the various message boards. The official AI board is typical nonsense and rudeness, though a lot of shock about Paulini. The Cosima board is just too sickly. I have never hidden the fact that I don't really appreciate Cosima as a singer or performer so you can just guess how I feel about some people gloating that they got her through by voting hundreds of times, even though they admitted she didn't sing well. The Paulini board is just so sad. I have tears in my eyes just being there. Haven't even watched it yet!

I'm still just so disgusted.

Big band - LIVE
Awesome, awesome, awesome. The TV studio wasn't as intimidating as I thought at all. Quite friendly and cosy, actually. The hosts worked so hard! It was fun spending half the night reading their autocues. Heehee. Plus, I'm deaf and mute from all the screaming! Of course, I voted for Paulini, though tonight, I thought the order was...

1. Paulini - Pretty on par with Shannon - different kind of performance really. Paulini was just so professional and she looked and sounded gorgeous. Her scatting was amazing. As our sign said - she blew them away!
Edited 11:36pm: Just watched the video of the show. Paulini was the only one who sounded as great if not better live as on TV. How good was she? Man! "At Last' (Etta James) was just sublime, as Dicko said and "Almost like being in love", with the sassiness and the scat was even better.

2. Shannon - wow. The moves, the crooning, the BIG band BIG key change. Wow.
Edited 11:33pm: Shannon was a close 1st over Paulini when I first blogged tonight, but on 2nd viewing, Paulini definitely took it out. Please let me tell you that he was 100 times better live than on TV. He was actually a little off pitch, but being there in person, I didn't doubt that he 100% deserved that standing ovation for NY, NY. He's a little more subdued and with little facial expression on screen, though.

Then, a long way to...
3. Guy - pretty good all round, though he didn't win me over with "The way you look tonight" which is normally one of my favourites. Even watching him do it live didn't help. Probably going first didn't help either.

4. Cosima - poor girl still sounds sick. Her first song, L.O.V.E. was cute and boppy. The 2nd song was a little bit *yawn*. Sorry, Cosima. I know the judges loved it, but we must have been watching different performances! Still, you tried.

Apparently, you can see Ves everytime the judges commented (we were sitting right behind them). Haha! After all that effort trying to hide, you got on TV after all! And embarrassingly, my big cheesy grin was shown right at the beginning of the show. Luckily the focus was on our cool Paulini poster, which took us *ahem* a couple of hours to make. Ves cleverly managed to push me to the outside edge of the queue while we were waiting to go in, which led to another embarrassing Vron moment when I was interviewed and revealed my true obsession with Australian Idol by talking about the messageboards. Let's hope that doesn't make it onto Inside Idol on Thursday!

Edited 9:58pm
Did a quick run of the messageboards. Based on initial opinions and my own theories, I reckon Cosima's fans have their work cut out for them keeping her in. They will vote like CRAZY and they might be able to do it, though she wouldn't have won any extra votes tonight. Shannon was great, but did he WOW people enough to make them vote for him? I thought he did great tonight, but I still voted for Paulini. Plus, I thought his fans might go crazy trying to keep him in, expecting him to struggle with big band, but since he did so well, will they feel the urgency as much? Guy is the toin coss - don't know will happen there. No predictions for tomorrow night from me. Overall, based on the previous weeks and tonight, it should be either Cosima or Shannon to go.

Pre-show matchup
No, I'm not talking about the rugby world cup (though did any of you catch the triple header today? or for that matter, Iron Chef?), but of course, my latest topic of obsession, Australian Idol.

Top 4. Wow. This place last year, on the first American Idol series, we were left with Kelly Clarkson (girl next door with the huge voice, eventual winner), Justin Guarini (the original afro, oozing charisma and charm), Tamyra Gray (strong set of pipes though lacking a bit of appeal for me) and Nikki McKibbin (all-american punk rock chick). I can't help but compare with our Australian Top 4. I mean, we have Paulini (big voice, down to earth), Guy (Afro the 2nd, though can't dance as well as Justin. Better voice though!), Cosima (polished performances but just doesn't do it for me) and Shannon (all Aussie rock dude).

As far as strategy goes, I think Paulini and Guy might be in trouble this week purely because of complacency and negative press. You wouldn't believe the number of people around the message boards saying that Paulini is only in the top 4 due to the sympathy vote. Has everyone forgotten that she has blown the judges and audience away with almost every performance? Wake up and smell the roses, people! Or maybe they're too busy chopping down the tall poppies?

Guy, on the other hand, is riding a stream of popularity and momentum. I hope people don't think he's just gonna cruise through this week, cos Cosima fans will multiple-vote due to her bottom 2 scare last week, and Shannon fans are going to multiple-vote cos I don't think he'll handle this week's theme, "Big Band", as well as the others.

I'm going to embarrass myself on National TV and make a sign for Paulini to take the the show tomorrow. I actually drew a design. Drew. A. Design. Can you believe it? (It actually looks rather snazzy... it has a sihlouette of Paulini from an earlier show, complete with curly hair taking up almost the entire left hand half of the cardboard. then, instead of holding a microphone, there is a gold trombone stretching to the right hand edge (big band. Get it?). Above the trombone, it sells in bold lettering PAULINI and below the trombone, it says BLOWS 'EM ALL AWAY.

I'm so sad.

Oh bliss, oh rapture
I have a free night. No bible study, no people, no deadlines. Lovin' it.

Girlish Squeals of Excitement
I'm going to be in the studio audience for Australia Idol!!!!!!!!!!!!! Okay, now that's out of my system, at least for the next 5 minutes. What providence that I get to see one of my favourite and highly-anticipated themes (big band/1940s/swing), on the ONE Sunday in the next 3 weeks I don't have a million and one other things on, and on a live performance show as opposed to elimination show.

Wahoo! I feel another squeal coming on.

Idol Recap
Ok, by now you know I am obsessed with Australian Idol.
Tonight was full of surprises and has me stumped as to who will go tomorrow.
Shannon: Pretty good. Remarkably rock sounding soul, but he did an above average job. I personally don't find it appealing, but I guess I can see why people would vote for him. I just don't think he would garner fanaticised voting.

Paulini: She rocked, and yes, I voted for her (5 times). Great passion in Toni Braxton's "Unbreak my heart" and "Survivor" was cool. I could see straight through what the male judges were doing - getting people angry about their comments on her dress and weight to make us vote more for her. I'm sure it worked for some who wouldn't ordinarily vote for her, but I'm such a fan anyway, so she had my vote even without their comments.

Guy: He is getting better and better in my opinion though he was a little boring tonight. I'd be pretty happy if he or Paulini got Australian Idol. The judges made an interesting point though, about voting for who WE wanted to be Idol, not who we thought should be Idol. Hence I voted for Paulini this week, as Guy was great, but didn't blow me away.

Cosima: Sigh. Poor girl. Her voice sounds so tired and strained and it must have been hard for her to drop several keys in Respect. Alas with Kelly Clarkson's recent version ringing in my ears, it was not a good comparison for Cosima, though I could tell she was trying. Her interpretation didn't really appeal (the whole hands on hips attitude) but granted, if she was 100% well, she can sing. Alas, still doesn't do it for me at the moment.

Rob (Millsy): I was all set to dislike him tonight, but he was actually pretty good. Sang both songs well, and actually took some trouble to interpret them instead of just mugging for the camera.

This was tough, but my order for tonight was...
1. Paulini
then pretty evenly...
2. Guy
3. Rob
4. Cosima
5. Shannon

Ding dong
After months of emitting a high-pitched whine whenever someone pressed it, our doorbell is inexpicably working again. The bizarre workings of technology.

Poll position
After tonight's unjudged Australian Idol: Up Close and Personal performances, Guy has solidified into my favourite. He and Paulini were neck and neck in my book for a while, but I love "When I get you alone" by Thicke, and he sang it well. I think he's listened to Dicko's comments to not toss into too many extraneous notes, and it's taken his performances of late to a whole new level. I also love the song Paulini chose (Fields of Gold) but I wish she'd done more of an Eva Cassidy rendition (Michelle Kwan skated to this when she won the bronze medal at the 2002 winter Olympics - always makes me teary) as opposed to Sting. Oh well. We'll see what happens on Sunday!

Edited 9:55pm
I also was quite surprised that Millsy was pretty good, though unfortunately he sounded a little too much like Ronan Keating and swallowed his words the same way through out the song. I liked his performance though, it sat well in his range. Shannon gave an interesting rendition of With or Without you but didn't do U2 justice. For some reason, I still can't warm to Cosima. I expected big things from Mariah Carey's Hero tonight, but she just didn't blow me away (in fact, she never has).

I can't take Monday nights!
Man, I am so Australian Idol obsessed! I have my VCR programmed for each Sunday and Monday night. Last week and this week, I had tears streaming down my face at the elimination show. One of my favourites, Bek, left last week, and this week - I got really emotional seeing Paulini in the bottom 3 (I didn't vote for her this week!) and also Levi as he started to cry just before he got voted out. I won't get into the judges' comments (which I think was what actually made me cry each time, both from unfairness as well as truth) but the competition is getting really tight. I don't remember American Idol being this bad (except when Tamyra Gray got voted out).

Y'know, then again, it is pretty typical. I always cry in movies, books, TV etc - but rarely in real life (though that is changing. I think I'm getting more hormonal as I get older!) Anyway, life goes on..... hehe

Moved to tears
I have a new current favourite song... "the Luckiest" by Ben Folds. I've heard this song countless times in the past, but I've never really listened to it before. Well, I was in the car the other day, and was so affected by these lyrics, towards the end of the song. I was just so moved.

Next door
There's an old man who lived to his nineties
Then one day
Passed away in his sleep
And his wife
She stayed for a couple of days
And passed away

Ah, the sweet poignancy.

Need to sit down
Was feeling nicely empty-headed after a long weekend of physical activity and mental hibernation. Alas it didn't last, as I had a mini-brain explosion tonight realising that Aaaaah! Album launch in one month, and Aaaaah! I'm giving 5 performances in 48 hours this coming weekend!

And they said Australian Idol was tough!