Australian Idol - The 4th Judge #5

What is it you groovy bloggers say? Ahh yes, "Le Sigh."

Its a week late so the moment has passed. I'll quickly blog some random thoughts on the action of the last week's events:

- James and "G" wore the same jacket but in different colours. I would make a gay joke here, but, you know. Meh.

- Overall a really strong night. Highlights include Chris performing what I think was his best performance yet, "Play That Funky Music." Confident vocal and appealing tongue-in-cheek vibe. Also strong were Dean (complete with acrobatics) and Jessica (complete with animal print).

- Lavina looked super fat. BAD DRESS.

- "G's" body language towards Dean is super-telling. BUT I'M THE PRETTY ONE DAMNIT!

- Ricky, you keep letting yourself down with song choice. I'm afraid you're not very well liked. This is a shame because I really like what you do vocally. I do like that song though.

- The night was quite strong, apart from two disasters.

1) Lisa singing Blondie. Now, if she had attacked the song I would've let it slide that its not strictly disco. Instead though she continued to act like a spoilt, attitude-sprouting first class bitch. The thing is, Lisa, if Bobby wasn't up there kickin' it every week, using the talent he has to manipulate the music to his liking, you might be able to get away with the whole "this is so, like, not my thing, like, I need my guitar, like, totally" thing. And if Jessica wasn't up there being sweet, gracious and down-to-Earth, you might be able to get away with that rotten attitude. But as it stands, I hate you. You seriously need to go. Your original stuff wasn't even that good.

2) Damien singing "Celebration."In case you missed it, words can't really describe this performance. Instead, I'll use the magical powers of YouTube:



Obviously that's not quite accurate. Damien wasn't as good as that.


- Bobby Flynn. Bobby. Flynn. Flynn of the Bobby. Flynn. Bobby. Bobby. Flynn.
See, its all because of this guy:

The whole alternative vs mainstream debate. In the circles I travel in, its only cool to like Idol in a postmodern-ironic (Did I just link to wiki for postmodernism? Can you tell I'm going insane this month?) way or as a "popular cultural phenomenon" to study way. I like it in both these ways, aren't I cool?, and also genuinely. But generally, its not cool to like Idols. Especially if they are 'mock alternative,' as Lee is. And I agree, last year was a joke. The talent was rank. A couple of good voices with bland personalities and a few posers.

It would seem the producers (and their accountants) of this year's Idol agree, and so they decided to let 'real alternative' acts into the competition. And by 'real alternative' acts I mean people with guitars. Who were willing to enter. Now, people like Lisa and Dean and Damien I would've expected - corny singer-songwriters who really just want to be pop stars. But in amongst it came a real talent. Someone who clearly just thought, "I'll give it a go." They weren't snobby or too cool, they just wanted to try. Kind of like Casey Donovan. Or Guy Sebastian (who, when we think about it, is hardly mainstream). What I've loved about Australian Idol is the way voters haven't gone the predictable way (except for season 3 - maybe Kyle had something to do with it) and have supported all kinds of "wrong" acts. Lets hope Bobby Flynn is the next success story. Wouldn't that be something? It may even break the divide between alternative vs mainstream which is, of course, not as solid as some people think. After all, there are lots of people out there like me, who read things lots of different ways. Ken Gelder thinks its because if some sort of musical ability that's kept Bobby popular. this may be true, but I like to think its more that Australians love a "genius full mong."

Results: Chris, Ricky and Lavina in final 3. What a joke, Lisa needs to GO DAMNIT!

Bye Lavina, it wasn't that nice knowing you, you're as up yourself as your sister and you annoyed me. But whatever, you were never going to win.