[American Idol-izer] Top 3 Perform
American Idol has been particularly rough this season. I'll attribute most of it to growing pains since lots of factors screwed over the programming: Big Machine Records took over for Interscope (and ousted Jimmy Iovine as mentor, replacing him with Scott Borchetta), Coca Cola pulled their sponsorship after a decade of product placement, and Fox forced it to a single night in order to give space to Empire. So I've been sounding like a broken record each week (does that analogy mean anything to the kids?) because I can't help but mention how awkward and terrible this all is for everyone involved. I'll be going over this season in better detail in a separate post, so stay tuned for that.
The reason I bring this up is because it's done quite a number on these poor contestants. They've been put through the ringer this season, and with the finale next week, the fatigue is starting to show more and more. This week, the Top 3 contestants had three songs: Scott Borchetta's choice, Hometown Dedications, and Judges' Choice. All four of the remaining Idols sang regardless of whether or not they were going home at the end of the evening. The four of them also got the big homecoming parade they do every year, so it was a bit weird but not as awkward as I expected.
And after weeks of playing "The Comeback Kid," Rayvon's run has finally ended. Going home in a respectable fourth place and even enjoying all sorts of things like the hometown visit and three swan songs, Rayvon ended his run on a falsetto. He fought for his place, and as much criticism as I've given him over the weeks, I can't fault that effort. On the next few pages, I'll get into American Idol XIV's Top 3 night.
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How The (British) Avengers Inspired a New Age for Women on Television
Last week saw the release of one of this summer's most anticipated blockbuster sequels, Avengers: Age of Ultron. In Britain, the first Avengers movie was renamed Avengers Assemble, due to a much loved, if sadly little recognised these days, '60s television program beating the comics to the original title on these shores by two years. The series was Sydney Newman's first major hit, with his second being the more widely celebrated Doctor Who. Starting out as a gritty spy thriller, the British Avengers came to define the swinging sixties through its playful embrace of abstract imagery, empowered women in risqué clothing, and intrinsically English sense of humour.
[American Idol-izer] Top 4 Perform
I'll have to admit that with Quentin gone, a little bit of my drive to stick it out with American Idol this year has waned a bit. The remaining contestants are talented for sure, but after the extreme sourness from last week, it's going to take a bit to get me back into the game. But what pulled me back to the most part is how the show was going to handle the elimination this week. Since the show has been reduced to one, two hour, night a week, it's been padding out the performances and leaving the elimination for last. It's gotten past the majority of the awkwardness the last few weeks with the Twitter save, so that each person actually performed before they found out whether or not they were going home, but I really wondered how they'd proceed now.
It was just an overall awkward night for everyone. With two different themes: one from the Judges' hometowns and one that best captured the contestants' "spirit" (really, those are the words they used), Russell Crowe showing up for promote his movie for two seconds (along with a story of riding his bike), a terribly clumsy (and sad) elimination, and now Clark Beckham is the center of attention with yet another big Idol clash with the head honcho Big Machine's Scott Borchetta.
Read on for my impressions of American Idol's Top 4 night.
The 10 Best Dragon Ball Z Fights
With the newest iteration of Dragon Ball anime, Dragon Ball Cho (or Dragon Ball Super), looming over the horizon, let's take a look back at the anime that kicked off the childhoods of lots of boys from my generation. I remember discovering Toonami at my aunt's house (because my family didn't have cable), and it changed my life. It was a cartoon were spiky haired dudes punched other dudes in the face, and sometimes their hair color changed. DBZ helped usher in a second anime boom and helped foster an environment where Japanese shows like One Piece and Naruto could thrive.
It was pretty much impossible to cut down some of DBZ's best fights from its 291 episode run (though if you're a newcomer to the series, I'd recommend the quicker version Dragon Ball Z Kai which only lasts 167 episodes or Dragon Ball Z Abridged, which is even better) to a mere ten, so I had some rules set. These ten fights don't include the films, the original Dragon Ball anime, nor does it include the sequel show GT. This is just a list of pure DBZ punchy goodness.
So, here are the 10 Best Dragon Ball Z Fights.
WWE Extreme Rules 2015: Results and Match Reviews
Extreme Rules 2015 was held last night, which means we've begun the WWE's anemic slog between WrestleMania 31 and SummerSlam 2015. And boy did it feel that way. This was less like an extreme pay-per-view and more like a decent episode of Monday Night Raw.
Key players were hurt or absent last night, most notably Daniel Bryan, who wasn't cleared to wrestle and may be out for a few more weeks. The limited roster depth and a card full of repeat bouts from WrestleMania 31 didn't help matters either.
On top of that, this PPV was hobbled by a lack of decent stories/builds. WWE creative has fumbled so many bits that were over with the crowd (so much for interest in Miz and Mizdow, and whatever happened to Goldust and Stardust?). At Extreme Rules, we watched a bunch of people wrestling because wrestling. And we'll probably see some rematches from Extreme Rules at Payback in May. Because wrestling.
Let's go match by match and look at the handful of highs and buckets of lows at Extreme Rules 2015.
[American Idol-izer] Top 5 Perform
We lost my post from last week thanks to some technical hiccups, so I'll do my best to catch you up to why I feel so awful about what went down this week. So Quentin Alexander, one of my favorites from the get go thanks to his interesting style and vocal talents, seemed to be fighting against the AI system when he got into a verbal match with Harry Connick Jr. It wasn't as bad as the producers claimed as Quentin merely said the thought of one of his close friends going home sucked, but they just wouldn't let it go. As history dictates, American Idol voters usually don't vote for contestants that speak back to the judges. They don't like what seem to be confrontational people. But the worst part of it all, is that the producers clearly wanted Quentin to go home and were bending the show this week in the others' favor.
After weeks of captivating performances, Quentin was unceremoniously sent home. That altercation recived more attention than anything else this season, and producers wanted to make sure Quentin got sent home before he got into the Top 5, and was allowed on AI's ever shrinking Summer Tour. From replaying the altercation clip, to repeating Rayvon's performance once it was assured he was in the bottom two, to showering praise on the other contestants despite major, major flubs, Quentin sang first in both #IdolSave performances rather than in alternating order like with Joey Cook last week, and Ryan even claimed Quentin said he "gave up" after Rayvon's final performance.
It was just all around ugly. Let's get to everyone else during an "Arena Anthems" week that only had a few songs that'd qualify.
[American Idol-izer] Top 6 Perform
This was an intense week. At this point in the competition, stuff gets very complicated. Contestants start singing more than once, and now with the extra #IdolSave rule this year, they call it Top 7 night as they include the eliminated contestant's final performance. It was just a weird, weird night. Especially so for the poor eliminated finalist who now knows that they have to perform for the save about 45 minutes into the show. Then they have to drag themselves around for two whole performances in the hope that America likes them enough to vote on Twitter for them. For that reason, I can understand why we might need to use #SaveQuentin next week.
You see, right after Quentin Alexander found out he was the last person safe for the week, he had a sour face after his performance (which I'll get to in a bit). When Ryan asked him about it, Quentin said "This sucks. We have two of the best vocalists [in the bottom (Joey Cook and Rayvon Owen)]. My best friend [Joey Cook] is sitting there. This whole thing is wack. But I’m going to shut up right now." It was awkward, and totally what American Idol is made for. He's just an emotional kid, who's even officiating Cook's wedding, and he was sad more than angry over the show itself. It's obvious he knew someone has to go home every week. But Harry Connick Jr. was not having any of that.
Right before the commercial break, Connick blurted "Quentin, if it’s that wack, then you can always go home, because Idol is paying a lot of money to give you this experience. And for you to say that to this hand that’s feeding you, I think that’s highly disrespectful." Quentin, getting a chance to defend himself, approached the judges' table aggressively but politely noted "When I said that this was wack… it sucks to see two people that I’ve grown to love go home. That’s what I mean by it being wack. So I’m not disrespecting this competition… I’m glad I got to clarify it for you." Holy moley. Quentin's probably going home. AI has a track record of sending contestants that talk back to the judges home the next week.
And that set the tone for rest of the evening. This week's theme was the broad "American Classics" where the first song was supposedly chosen by America and the second all their own. It only got weirder from here.
[American Idol-izer] Top 7 Perform
Man, I'm so sorry I wasn't here to cover last week for you all (I moved cross country). So much went down last week, and with so little space here, I can't cover it all. Daniel Seavey finally went home (he was bad, folks), Idol introduced a feature from its big competitor The Voice with the #IdolSave (sort of as an apology from using the save too early in the season, I guess), and Kelly Clarkson was all sorts of fabulous.
Now it looks like we're moving away from the theme weeks as this week is a general "Billboard Top 100 Hits" featuring Florida Georgia Line and Jason Derulo as guest mentors. The whole night was filled with single shilling performances, and it was the first time in a long while that felt like a current competition. For once, it felt like whoever wins this can actually survive on the radio. Unfortunately, that meant the mentor critiques weren't as strong as they were in past episodes. I know Florida Georgia Line is a big name right now, but after hearing what they had to say to the contestants I question their musicality entirely. Jason Derulo wasn't too bad though.
Also, Iggy Azalea and Jennifer Hudson performed for some reason. It was a totally sour way to bring Hudson back. I know she's not a winner, but she deserved better than this. Then again, at least she fared better than Ruben Studdard and Candice Glover last week. Yikes
Anyway, let's break down the Top 7.