Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Play a Song For Me

It's a darned good thing I declared the end of hockey talk in yesterday's Blog, because the only stupid NHL news yesterday was that Mats Sundin signed for a year with the Leafs. If there's one thing I hate about the end of the Playoffs, it's that we now have to listen to Leaf Nation rising again...BLECH!!

Last night I watched my first episode of the summer of Canadian Idol. I believe the audition rounds kicked off last week, but I missed the debut. To be honest, I haven't paid a whole lot of attention to the show since the first season, when I fell in love with the underdog Ryan Malcolm from Kingston who went on to win the whole she-bang. The next year, that floopy haired angel-boy won, and I lost interest. Last season, I watched on and off, and was proud that Eva Avila, a Gatineau native, eventually won it all, but I really didn't care.

This season, however, I've discovered a new twist that really boosted my interest in the show. This year, contestants are allowed to bring in instruments to audition with if they wish. And I am a sucker for boys with guitars. Most of the guys who came in with 6-strings slung around their necks...Well, I loved 'em.

There were a few who did not impress, like the guy who called himself "Strings" and sang "Purple Haze" after plugging in his electric guitar and making a lot of racket by running his face up and down the strings. I couldn't have agreed more when Sass begged him to stop.

But there was a young cutie-pie teacher who played "Beast of Burden", and a burly-looking boy who sang "Drift Away". Both made it through to Toronto, and they were two of my favourites on the night. Oh, and the rocker from Saskatoon who they showed playing with his band before his audition - the judges weren't sold on him when he came in and strummed for them, but after Farley asked him to sing the last line of O Canada, they handed him his gold ticket to T.O. And there was also a hot young dad who not only won my heart with his guitar playing, but he had the most adorable little boy...I would've put him through just because the kid was so cute.

These are the parts of the audition process that I love - when someone walks in there, and really knocks your socks off. The rest of it I find contrived, twisted, and painful at times. There are the people who walk in who profess to be stars-in-the-making, but they sing so badly, it'd almost make you want to change the channel. Then there are the people who know they have no talent, but they do something whacky just to get on TV. It's gimmicky, and while it might've made for good TV a few years back, it's all just getting old now.

But I really do think the introduction of instruments in the audition process has breathed a bit of new life into the Idol process. And judging from the snippets they showed of next week's Toronto Round, the boys will be allowed to bring out their guitars again.

Guaranteed, I'll be in love with one of these lads before the summer's out!

6 comments:

Sarah said...

Hey Jill,
I watched idol last night too, just because there was absolutley nothing else on! And I will admit I did enojoy it! I also liked the new twist of allowing the contestants to bring in instruments! I liked the cute little fiddler at the end -- haha

I was waiting for you or brenda to call to go for ice cream but look at what we would have missed eh!

Jill said...

Hey Sarah!
Brenda told me the ice cream idea, but it didn't sound like she was going to have time last night, so I thought we should wait until a night when we could all go together! Actually, I felt like crap last night and my nose was all stuffy and I couldn't taste, so it would've been a waste of good ice cream! lol...

I liked the fiddler guy too, and I even liked the skinny oriental dude who played guitar and sang "This Magic Moment"...haha! It was entertaining at least!

Anonymous said...

Hey Jill

Well I just got around to reading the blog. I didn't watch Idol last night. Not a fan at all. But it's all good. That's what the blog is for, to keepme informed.

I am a bit of a crankster today, I am hoping it will help me really wallop the ball out tonight when I go up to bat... and I hope I do good on the defensive side as well.

Looking forward to seeing you at Ball Jill-Bean!

Jill said...

Maybe I'll do a Blog on ball tomorrow. But my nose is running like a tap today and if it doesn't improve by tonight, I might not be concentrating too hard on ball...I'll have to load my pockets with kleenex. Ugh.

Anonymous said...

Bah... your nose might not be running but your fore-head might be from sweat... the heat is extreme, I will be wearing the ball cap tonight!

Jill said...

Hopefully it'll cool off by tonight...There's actually a pretty nice breeze today, so I guess we'll see...I might be dripping from my head and my nose.