American Idol Ending After Next Season
It's been a rough few years for American Idol. Thanks to an onslaught of competitors, weird backstage shenanigans leading to a few winners fading into obscurity, and a struggle to catch the right demographic, the show is a shadow of its former superstar making self that helped us find the goddess Kelly Clarkson. If you haven't followed my weekly segment, American Idol-izer, I've been a fan of the show since its inception. I've stuck it out through the good times and bad, and I've noticed quite a few changes over the years. And this season in particular has been through the roughest changes, leading to one of the most boring seasons in series history.
With the writing on the wall, it was a matter of time before the show would come to an end. According to Variety, American Idol is premiering its final season in January 2016 with all of the current judges and showrunners in tow. It kind of makes sense only because I assume the program is hemorrhaging money. Without Coca Cola and the former Interscope records, I'm guessing either the current record studio in charge, Big Machine, nor Fox wanted to pony up the difference. But that's just wild conjecture. I've got some more to say about the show's decline over the next couple of pages.
[via Variety]
[The Weekly Swarm] 5/4 - 5/10
Happy belated Mother's Day to all of you wonderful Moms out in the world. I hope all of you had your fill of flowers, brunches, cards, hugs, kisses, and well wishes yesterday - hell, everyday! If you're playing catch up with Mom today, be sure to share some of our amazing content from last week with her. Some highlights include news of The Simpsons' two season renewal, Tribeca Film Festival reviews for (T)ERROR and A Courtship, Nintendo entering the theme park game with Universal Theme Parks, a solo Kurt Cobain album announcement, and more! Find our full week of content below.
How The (British) Avengers Inspired a New Age for Women on Television
Nintendo Attractions to Appear at Universal Theme Parks
The Force Awakened at Geek Bar Beta
The Peanuts Wish Mothers a Happy Mother's Day
Avengers: Age of Ultron Is a Cinematic Event Comic That Introduces Generic New Characters
Casting Call for Spike Lee's Film Set for Saturday
List of Rumored Spider-Man Directors Released
[Weekly Netflix Fix] First May Update Features Great Films
[Tribeca Review] (T)ERROR
[Tribeca Review] A Courtship
Broad City Girls and Paul Feig Working on Upcoming Film
The Peanuts Wish Mothers a Happy Mother's Day
[Playlist of the Week] 10 Anticipated Albums for the Spring
Solo Kurt Cobain Album Coming This Summer
[American Idol-izer] Top 3 Perform
[This Week In TV] Penny Dreadful; Big Bang Theory; New Girl
The Simpsons Renewed for Two More Seasons
How The (British) Avengers Inspired a New Age for Women on Television
[Weekly Netflix Fix] First May Update Features Great Films
[American Idol-izer] Top 3 Perform
Broad City Girls and Paul Feig Working on Upcoming Film
[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.
[youtube id="mVTkiC9_MfU" autoplay="no"]
Solo Kurt Cobain Album Coming This Summer
Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck has been buzzing in hype since it debuted at Sundance earlier this year. Director Brett Morgan began work on the documentary in 2007 after gaining access to a large archive of memorabilia ranging from home videos to artwork to unreleased tracks, due in part to cooperation between the director, Cobain's widow Courtney Love, and other family members. It's no surprise, then, that Montage of Heck has been highly anticipated within many circles. Even then, nothing would excite Nirvana fans more than the announcement of new, official songs by the enigmatic musician.
During an interview with Bedford + Bowery, Morgan revealed that a solo Kurt Cobain album will be released this summer:
[The album] will feel like you’re kind of hanging out with Kurt Cobain on a hot summer day in Olympia, Washington as he fiddles about. It’s going to really surprise people. Just to be clear, it’s not a Nirvana album, it’s just Kurt and you’re going to hear him do things you never expected to come out of him.
The album will be the first official collection of new music from Cobain since 2002's "You Know You're Right." Whether the untitled album will do justice to Kurt's legacy or be seen as an exploitative cash cow remains to be seen. However, one thing is clear: 2015 just may have become the year of Kurt Cobain's return... for better or worse.
[Bedford + Bowery via punknews.org]
[The Weekly Swarm] 4/27 - 5/3
Welcome to May! After a long and tiresome winter, we can finally begin to enjoy the flashes of warmth without worry. If you were too busy enjoying the burst of good weather we had last week, fear not, for all of it will be compiled here in The Weekly Swarm. We had a good variety of content last week, including a personal essay about Filipino identity, Chicagoan athletes and their Avengers counterparts, reviews of Live from New York!, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Reality, and Alabama Shakes' Sound & Color, news that Humboldt Park isn't happy with Riot Fest, and the Dragon Ball Super announcement. You can find all of this and more below!
Will Riot Fest Return to Humboldt Park?
The Windy City Avengers: Chicago's Mightiest Athletes
He Fights for Us
[Tribeca] GORED's Reckless Bravery Offers Lessons for Creatives
[Tribeca Review] Live From New York!
[Red Band Trailer] Ted 2 (NSFW)
[Trailer] ROAR
[Review] Avengers: Age Of Ultron
[Weekly Netflix Fix] Sons of Anarchy: Season 7
The Windy City Avengers: Chicago's Mightiest Athletes
[Review] Reality
[Playlist of the Week] 10 Music Videos for the End of School
[American Idol-izer] Top 4 Perform
[Review] Alabama Shakes: "Sound & Color"
Will Riot Fest Return to Humboldt Park?
WWE Extreme Rules 2015: Results and Match Reviews
Dragon Ball Super to Debut This July in Japan
The 10 Best Dragon Ball Z Fights
[Weekly Netflix Fix] Sons of Anarchy: Season 7
[American Idol-izer] Top 4 Perform
Will Riot Fest Return to Humboldt Park?
This post originally appeared on our affiliate site, Chicago Music. Photo by Geoff Henao.
For somebody that absolutely dislikes music festivals, Riot Fest has been the one consistently appealing and entertaining Chicago festival. A part of what's made Riot Fest so great is its location in Humboldt Park and the organizers' ability to utilize the park's space properly. However, major, lingering damage was sustained during last year's festival, resulting in Riot Fest organizers paying upwards of $150,000 in repairs.
According to RedEye Chicago, Alderman Roberto Maldonado of the 26th Ward isn't too keen on having the festival return to Humboldt Park this year, explaining:
I am exceptionally disappointed at the Riot Fest organizers for the mess they left at the park last year and their shallow and hollow promises to restore the park [...] I don't support them coming back.
At a recent Humboldt Park Advisory Council meeting, Riot Fest organizer Max Wagner assured residents that park repairs are still ongoing seven months after the festival ended. He also let worried residents know that the festival won't grow beyond last year's size, saying the organization is comfortable with capping the festival's size to the level it was at last year. Wagner further explains:
We want to use about half the park. We want to scale it way back. We've agreed to not grow the event any more. We simply don't want to sell any more tickets. We don't want any more people. [We're] fine with capping it where it is.
Unlike Lollapalooza and Grant Park, Riot Fest doesn't have a contract with Humboldt Park. Rather, the organizers are given a permit to hold the event the same week it's scheduled, which is surprising to learn. With opposition coming from both residents and Ald. Maldonado, could Riot Fest realistically relocate this year? It's possible... but unlikely.
[via RedEye Chicago]
[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.