Welcome back to American Idol ‘Hits and Misses’. I am the 5th Judge and it’s time for the guys to take to the small stage for the final time before the merger of guys and gals. I look forward to the guys more than the girls because I feel that they are far superior this season. Aside from Crystal, Siobhan, and Lilly, the girls are average at best. But, enough with the females. Let’s get to the show!

Lee Dewyze sings “Fireflies” by Owl City - First thought; interesting song choice. Lee, of course, rocked out to the song on the acoustic guitar. He also did some new things to the song and added a few note changes and runs. He made the song sound like a rock hit. Lee is showing a knack of being able to sing any type of song and make it his. I am still hoping to hear him sing Kings of Leon one of these days, but this was a good performance. Lee looks extremely comfortable up on the stage and he is a shoe-in for the Top 12. Will this be his defining moment? No. But it was a solid performance and, like I said last week, I would buy a CD of his right now if he released one. He is a, undoubtedly, one of the 2 or 3 guys to beat this season. Score – 6 out of 10.

Alex Lambert sings “Trouble” by Ray Lamontagne - Coming off a mediocre performance of the John Legend song, “Everybody Knows”, I would have preferred Alex to sing something a little younger and maybe more current. Furthermore, I can’t help but hear this song and immediately think of the commercial that currently has the song in the background while a dog runs around the screen. Alex is borderline boring to me; though, he’s extremely talented. He comes across as someone who is trying too hard and has no stage presence. Stage presence means everything on Idol and if he doesn’t gain that confidence soon and show it, he’s putting himself in great jeopardy of not being alive much further. Score – 4.5 out of 10.

Tim Urban sings “Hallelujah” by Jeff Buckley - This song has gotten so popular and mainstream in recent years. I love that because I’m a huge fan of the song. Aside from Buckley, we’ve seen artists such as Justin Timberlake and K.D Lang cover this song in recent months. And American Idol alum Jason Castro had a stand-out performance with this song. Castro was so tremendous that he ended up performing it again on the finale. Urban’s version was pretty stripped down with just him and the acoustic guitar. I enjoyed his performance last week even though the judges chastised him. Tim was unbelievable this week and put on the best performance of the night, thus far. This song will make people vote for him and I believe we will see him make the Top 6 thanks to this performance. Great song choice because Tim was going home with another subpar or mediocre performance. Score – 8 out of 10.

Andrew Garcia sings “Genie in a Bottle” by Christina Aguilera - Interesting song choice, but I love it especially after how well he did with the questionable choice of Paula Abdul’s “Straight Up” during Hollywood Week. His vocals were not the best tonight, but his arrangement of the song was very good. Like I said last week, Andrew set the bar high very early with the Paula Abdul song and he’s continuing to struggle to live up to it. I can’t help but wonder how the critiques would be of the last few weeks if he didn’t do so well during Hollywood Week. Andrew is very popular and I can’t imagine him going home, but he could be in danger after all of the strong performances we’ve seen so far. He was one of my favorites coming into the season and I hope he stays. We’ll go over this on hits and misses. Score – 4.5 out of 10.

Casey James sings “You’ll Think of Me” by Keith Urban - One of my favorite songs and by one of my favorite artists. It’s cool that so many of the guys have played the guitar tonight and kinda stripped things down a bit. It almost seems like we’ve been hearing one continuous performance so far this night. The performance was average and didn’t really do much improving over the Gavin DeGraw performance from last week even though it was better. With so many of the guys in a tight race for these 6 spots, I’m curious if Casey did enough to separate himself from the rest of the pack. Score – 4.5 out of 10.

Aaron Kelly sings “I’m Already There” by Lonestar - I’m shocked to hear one country tonight, and I actually get to hear two. I’m ok with that since I’m a country fan. Aaron is the youngest guy in the competition this year and I can’t help but to think how good he will be in the future. He’s definitely receiving the bulk of the young female votes and he’s going to need them all to carry him through to next week. The song sounded off extremely rough at the beginning. In fact, it was awful. Once the song got going and he went into his higher notes, he was tremendous. This was the tale of 2 songs. At just 16 years of age, Aaron is way ahead of his time. I really enjoyed the performance and I hope to see him continue growing for weeks to come. All you young girls better be voting! Aaron needs you! Score – 6 out of 10.

Todrick Hall sings “Somebody to Love” by Queen - First thoughts; I LOVE this song but can’t stand Todrick. I’ll try not to let the latter sway my opinion, however. I really feel that Todrick is lucky to still be in the competition. With that said, I thought he did a good job with this song; particularly at the end. He put himself neck-and-neck with Tim for the performance of the night. I didn’t think it would work at the beginning, but he worked it out and more. He took a huge risk singing a song that people wouldn’t expect to hear from him. I’d like to see Todrick tone down his theatrics and “WOW” us with just his voice. This performance is 9 out of 10 if you listen to it with your eyes closed. Unfortunately, I saw it. Score – 7.5 out of 10.

Michael Lynch sings “This Woman’s World” by Maxwell - I don’t know this song at all. Let’s see if that’s a good thing or bad. Michael has such a soulful voice and is starting to remind me of Season 2 winner Ruben Studderd. The suit he wore tonight probably fueled that comparison. Michael was unbelievable yet again tonight after being the best performance last week. He took a song I didn’t even know and made me really like it and want to download it. This song was like a great story. It started off slow and ended in a great climax. Michael reduced Kara to tears which was unexpected. This was the absolute best performance of the entire season and Michael is the overall person to beat in this season. He’s guaranteed a spot in the Top 12 and I would say the Top 3. Amazing performance and one that will be my first iTunes purchase by one of this season’s contestants. This also means the first perfect score of the season so far. Score – 10 out of 10.

Now, for the “Hits” and “Misses” for this week.

Hits (People that are 100% safe based on their performances) – Michael Lynch, Tim Urban, Todrick Hall

On The Fence (50/50 chance of going home) – Lee Dewyze and Aaron Kelly

Misses (The people that have the best chance of going home) – Alex Lambert, Andrew Garcia, and Casey James

Brett is 26 years old and from Millville, NJ. He has is a life-log fan of the Philadelphia sports teams as well as the Boston red Sox and Cincinnati Bengals. Brett is also a big fan of professional wrestling and mixed martial arts. If you would like to comment on one of his stories, please e-mail him at Brettley916@aol.com

American Idol – The Best & Worst of American Idol ( Limited Edition )

Check out American Idol Season 8

It has been quite a while since the “King of All Media,” Howard Stern stole some headlines. Stern will definitely create some buzz with his newest radio show contest. Stern announced today that he will hold a $100,000 Tiger Woods Mistress Beauty Pageant on his radio show. Could this turn out to be one of the biggest stories of 2010 or a failed attempt to ride out into the sunset after 30+plus years of broadcasting?

Stern casually mentioned the idea for this contest shortly before he left for his annual holiday break. It looks like the prize amount dropped dramatically from his original plans of a seven-figure prize. Longtime Stern advertiser Ashley Madison will be sponsoring the contest. Stern did not reveal a date for the contest or a minimum requirement of entrants. Stern teased the idea of celebrity judges including Tiger’s wife Elin Nordegren but I’d suspect the chances of that happening are slim and none with slim just leaving town.

I think the idea is brilliant but there is one major flaw at the outset. The amount of the prize just shows how out of touch the show is with media in the new century. A $100,000 prize may have sealed the deal in the 90s with a Bill Clinton Mistress Pageant, but that is chump change today. For one, chances are that some of these women are being offered more just for an interview. Two, CBS could sweep in here, make this a seven-figure prize, and steal the contest for one of its own shows with a dual radio and television broadcast. Three, I would venture to guess that a few of these women will be offered more money for book and movie deals. Are any of these women really going to subject themselves to the humiliation and criticism that comes along with a Stern Show Beauty Contest for $100,000?

Stern show producer and ace pitcher, Baba Booey reported on the show that he has been in touch with a new woman who claims to have had an affair with Tiger Woods who has yet to go public. The show could go down this road and have four or five women who haven’t gone public, yet claim to have affairs. The problem is, how would anyone verify any of them? Most of the women already revealed look to make good livings (not all) and after taxes would be looking at a prize that won’t change their life too much in 2010. Now ask them in 2015 when the publicity dies down and you could probably put this thing together for $10,000.

This announcement comes as we head into the final two years of Stern’s Sirius contract. Stern started a five-year deal with the company in January 2006. Reportedly Stern’s deal was for an estimated $500,000,000 which likely consisted of stock options and production costs. This may tick off a lot of Stern fans, but in the end it has been a colossal failure. The stock at Sirius tanked, the company merged with XM, and right now the future of the operation is very much up in the air. Stern definitely did his part and brought millions of listeners with him, but I highly doubt those listeners put a dent into the costs of producing the Stern Show, which makes the deal a huge bomb for Sirius. The Tiger Woods Mistress Beauty Pageant may get some initial buzz, but it is really hard to fathom the idea that Sirius will get any new listeners in the current economic climate off of this lame attempt at publicity. Over $12 a month for radio (which is well worth it as a five-year subscriber), is the first thing that will be eliminated from the unemployment budget and the last thing anyone is going to sign up for who is just coming out of debt with a new job.

In the end I think this is a fun idea, but the execution is just bad on several accounts. I think the show should have waited until they had at least four written commitments before announcing the contest. The money isn’t right, the timing is off, and the chances that Stern looks like a fool for not being able to pull this off are greater than us hearing a contest on the radio show. Hey, I could announce a contest here on the blog but if nobody enters the contest doesn’t happen and it is all for nothing.

In that case…CamelClutchBlog.com will be holding a $10 Tiger Woods Mistress Beauty Pageant.

Update: Apparently some people are getting their panties in a bunch about the comment I made about Stern’s lack of success at Sirius. I think it is interesting how so many people assume that I am taking a shot at Howard. As a longtime Stern listener and fan (attended the Morning Zoo funeral here in Philly), that was not my intent. From my standpoint, I put the blame on Sirius for mismanaging their investment. I will write a blog at a later date specifically on that topic, but I blame Sirius for blowing it and not Howard. Howard can only do what he is paid to do which is entertain. It is up to Sirius to go out and market him, not Howard.

Update #2 - Howard Stern officially announced that the Tiger Woods Mistress Beauty Pageant will take place live on his show on March 10. Stay tuned!

Update #3 - Jamie Jungers won the pageant today on the Howard Stern Show. Jaimeee Grubs came in second.

Visit www.ashleymadison.com and bring some excitement back into your marriage.

Radio Packages @ SIRIUS.com.

It’s time for the top eight girls to give their final performances on the small stage before the guys and gals merge next week in front of a huge audience.

Before I dive into things, thanks to everyone for all of the reads, e-mails, feedback, and link-sharing of these articles last week. It was extremely overwhelming and well-received. Not bad for a blog centered mainly on sports and professional wrestling. It’s greatly appreciated.

Now, this is a huge week for the girls. With only about 2 or 3 of them guaranteed a spot in the all-important top 12, this week is pivotal for those other few females who are still trying to find themselves and gain a following. Also important about this week is that it will be the last time this season that these artists can pick any song they want to without being forced to pick a particular song from a specific theme or genre or music. These girls need to capitalize on this, pick the songs the best show the artist they want to me, and go for the gold. With that said, let’s get it going.

Katie Stevens sing’s “Breakaway” by Kelly Clarkson – Before she even starts singing, know that it can’t go anywhere but up for Katie after last week’s horrendous performance of “Put Your Records On”. Kelly Clarkson is so hard to sing for two reasons. One, it was Clarkson who set the bar on Idol by being the first and most successful Idol of all-time. Second, Clarkson has quite the voice and can sing in any registry. While I admire the song choice, Katie once again was awful from the beginning until the end of the song. It was particularly bad at the beginning when she needed to use her lower registry. It got ok for the first verses of the chorus and then went completely downhill once again. The crowd was dead and she took a song that normally has people jumping in concert, and made it sound like background music at a cocktail hour. I know it’s early and we’re yet to hear the other females, but it’s hard to believe that anyone could do worse than this. Katie may have cemented her trip home. Score – 2 out of 10

Siobhan Magnus sings “House of the Rising Sun” by The Animals - This could be the first time that this 1964 classic has been sang in Idol’s history. Following her terrific performance of “Think” by Aretha Franklin, it can be assumed that this is the time period that Siobhan has been the most influenced by and probably the type of music she would like to release. I loved how she began the song accapella and then continued to increase the intensity of the song. It was like she was telling a story and concluded with a bang. She also made this sound like a song that is on the radio right now. Make no doubts about it, this girl has chops. To use a cliché, Siobhan could sign the phone book and still sound great. If Idol voters voted strictly on voices, Siobhan would be safe with flying colors. Since she has yet to really connect with a wide audience, I’m curious to see if that will end up hurting her. This performance was tremendous and there’s no doubt that she is one of the top 3 girls this season. Score – 7.5 out of 10.

Lacey Brown sings “The Story” by Brandi Carlisle - First things first, I’m shocked that Lacey is still here after she butchered “Kiss Me” last week. But, maybe she got a second chance for a reason. She took this second chance and ran with it. Lacey sang this entire song while seated at the edge of the stage with very little background music. She showcased her range and voice in this performance and it was extremely important for her to do that after her previous performances. Will this performance be too “boring” for the voters? I’m going to guess that some voters will feel that way. Even though she had a solid performance this week, I don’t know if it’s too late for her or not. If it was, she did the best possible performance that she could have. Score – 6.5 out of 10.

Katelyn Epperly sings “I Feel The Earth Move“by Carole King – First thought; weird song choice. I’ll admit, I have been biased in favor of Katelyn because I think she is the most attractive girl on the show. So, I purposely didn’t look up at the TV screen even one time as to not be swayed. The verdict? She sucked. Awful. It sounded corny and ridiculous. It seemed to me like a song that someone sings at a talent show. I found her playing a keyboard to also be a little corny. This song was a horrible choice and just didn’t do Katelynn any justice. She was one of my favorites (and I believe the public’s) coming into the season and I have a feeling that she’ll still be safe. If she is, she needs to consider herself lucky. If she gets another shot, she must improve and quickly. Score – 2.5 out of 10.

Didi Benami sings “Rhiannon” by Fleetwood Mac - It’s just Didi and her acoustic guitar for this performance. I hate to say anything negative about my girl Taylor Swift ever, but this is the song that Swift performed a duet of at the Grammy Awards alongside Stevie Nicks and made dogs howl nationwide. I enjoyed the performance but still found it average. It was much better than last week but was slightly boring and gloomy. She sounded great at the beginning of the song and even in the center, but it went a little off the tracks at the end when she was singing with the background singers. It just sounded completely out of sync during that point. Even that little hiccup, however, doesn’t put a damper on this performance. Her vocals were spot on and people will vote for her after her terrific improvement over last week. Score – 7 out of 10.

Paige Miles sings “Smile” by Charlie Chaplin – A song called “Smile” shouldn’t sound so depressing. And maybe it’s my youth showing through, by I will always attribute this song to Michael Jackson’s funeral. It was probably the second most gut-wrenching part of that performance. This performance by Paige was absolutely awful. The vocals were off, the song was made to be depressing though it’s a happy song, and the arrangement wasn’t good. There’s nothing left to say….except for, probably, goodbye Paige Miles. Enjoy obscurity. Score – 1.5 out of 10.

Crystal Bowersox sings “Give Me One Reason” by Tracy Chapman – One of my all-time favorite songs sung by my pick to be the last girl standing this season. I loved the shot of Simon at the beginning of the song tapping his fingers on the desk to the beat of the song. Crystal was tremendous. Her guitar playing impressed me and she did enough to make this song current and her own. Crystal flat out rocks and, I must say, I would pay money tomorrow to see this girl in concert. She plays to the crowd, has a great feel for her voice, and knows exactly what to sing and do to make the crowd want the song to be never-ending. Crystal is yet to do wrong on this show and I firmly believe that she is a shoe-in for the top 3 of this entire season. Head-and-shoulders the best performance of the night, thus far. Score – 9 out of 10.

Lilly Scott sings “I Fall To Pieces” by Patsy Cline – The big thing to look for here is whether or not Lilly can follow up her amazing performance from last week. (Side note: What in the world is up with all of these old songs tonight? The Kelly Clarkson performance that opened the show was the only recent song.) Lilly has a great voice and is extremely unique. Lilly will undoubtedly make the top 12, but this performance was just kinda ok, for me. I thought her vocals were good, but the entire song was dark, boring, and gloomy. There were a few times when I thought she was going to do something more with the song and it just never happened. Normally the last performance, known as the “pimp spot”, is a ‘WOW’ performance and this just wasn’t that. She will still be safe, but this was an unneeded risk. Score – 5 out of 10.

Now, for the “Hits” and “Misses” for this week.

Hits (People that are 100% safe based on their performances) – Crystal Bowersox and Siobhan Magnus

On The Fence (50/50 chance of going home) – Lilly Scott, Didi Benami, and Lacey Brown

Misses (The people that have the best chance of going home) – Katie Stevens, Katelyn Epperly, and Paige Miles

That concludes the Top 8 females for this week. I’ll be back tomorrow with the reviews of the top 8 guys.

Brett is 26 years old and from Millville, NJ. He has is a life-log fan of the Philadelphia sports teams as well as the Boston red Sox and Cincinnati Bengals. Brett is also a big fan of professional wrestling and mixed martial arts. If you would like to comment on one of his stories, please e-mail him at Brettley916@aol.com

American Idol – The Best & Worst of American Idol ( Limited Edition )

Check out American Idol Season 8

We’re back with American Idol’s Hits & Misses for the performances by the…Misses. Thanks for all of the feedback from last night. Let’s get the show rolling. You know the drill – I’ll go through each performance after it airs via the DVR. I’ll fast-forward through the judge’s comments as to avoid being swayed, give a little feedback, rate it on a scale of 1-10, possibly mention what I’d like to see that person sing next week, and list the hits, misses, and predictions of who America will send packing at the end. With that said, here’s what I saw on this weeks’ Top 20 Edition of American Idol.

Crystal Bowersox sings “As Long As I Can See The Light” by Creedance Clearwater Revival - I like the Crystal leads off tonight beings she was the one who was the reason that the men performed first last night. Apparently, it was some sort of diabetic issue. When Idol’s Producer was on Ryan Seacrest’s radio show this morning, he stated that if Bowersox couldn’t perform tonight that she’d be off the show. Crystal showed up healthy and was unbelievable. Just as Michael Lynch did yesterday, she led the show off and set the bar high for everyone else. She was the female favorite from day one and she rebounded from last week to put herself back in that spot. Her vocals were awesome, the arrangement was terrific, and she owned the stage. This girl is a trooper and she is a star. Score – 8.5 out of 10.

Haeley Vaughn sings “The Climb” by Miley Cyrus - Before she even sings, is there any more of a contrast between The Beatles and Miley Cyrus? I doubt it, yet, Haeley is singing those two artists in back to back weeks. When I had heard that she was going to sing this song, I was excited because it’s a song that is more her type of song. After she sang this song, I had blood pouring from my ears and I couldn’t stop my dog from howling. The song started off pretty well when she used her lower registry. After that, it was all downhill. She made the extremely mediocre-sounding Miley Cyrus sound like the spawn of Aretha Franklin. She is definitely in danger after this performance, but I still think that her attitude may keep her alive another week. Score – 3 out of 10.

Lacey Brown sings “Kiss Me” by Sixpence None the Richer - Well, one week after butchering Fleetwood Mac, Lacey is back and singing “Kiss Me” based on the suggestion of Kara. Well, Kara, she sang the song that you wanted and was still horrendous. Possibly you can give her the suggestion to sing some spoken word next week. This performance was just disastrous from the very beginning. I just can’t imagine her receiving a third chance next week. Score – 2 out of 10.

Katie Stevens sings “Put Your Records On” By Corrine Bailey-Ray - This performance was like riding any roller coaster. It started off terrible, got pretty good in the middle, and then finished average. I question this song choice because even though it’s a relatively new song, it’s old-sounding. Also, Meghan Joy from last season (who I disliked strongly) butchered this song last season and possibly left a bad taste in my mouth. Prior to this year, Simon stated many times that he thought the females were far superior then the guys. Unless I’m going tone deaf, I must be missing it. Aside from Crystal, I’m ready to turn this off tonight. Score – 2.5 out of 10.

Didi Benami sings “Lean On Me” by Bill Withers - For as many times as this song has been performed, I thought that Didi did a great job on making it her own, modernizing it, and adding just enough to the song without making it sound like original. I didn’t like her at all last week, but I actually enjoyed her this week more than last week. Considering she was the worst last week, it’s hard to not overcome that. Aside from the good beat and arrangement, her vocals were once again all over the place and awful. I think that, come this time tomorrow, we will be saying bye-bye to DiDi. Score – 2 out of 10.

Michelle Delamor sings “With Arms Wide Open” by Creed - Please correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think a Creed song has ever been sang in the history of American Idol. They are my favorite band of all time and it’s pretty cool to hear someone give them a try. It’s odd that all of the judges found the performance to be terrific because I thought it was not much better than the lackluster performances prior to this. It wasn’t terrible, but it was her best showing to date. I still prefer Scott Stapp singing that song, however. Score – 3.5 out of 10.

Lilly Scott sings “A Change is Gonna Come” by Sam Cooke - Lilly is so unique. No matter how she sounds, she definitely is an individual. This is a very hard song to sing and though she may not sound the best vocally, Lilly was terrific on this song. This was her defining moment so far into the competition. I wouldn’t say that she was better than Crystal, but she still is head and shoulders above the rest of the women on the show. This is a performance that was so good that I would download it. Score – 8 out of 10.

Katelyn Epperly sings “The Scientist” by Coldplay - Coming into the season, she was a favorite of mine among the females with Crystal. This……..song….was……….so…………sllllllloooowwwwwwww. I normally have trouble falling asleep, but tonight, I’ll be playing this off of the DVR. I’m getting sleepy just thinking about it. The song itself was good, though. She was great on the piano and she has a nice voice. She’s still one of my favorites and I think she’s popular enough that she’ll live to see another week. Score – 4 out of 10.

Paige Miles sings “Walk Away” by Kelly Clarkson - There’s no doubt that Paige has one of the better overall voices in the entire competition, but this performance just didn’t do anything for me. It was an average performance but was still only slightly better than the other terrible performances from tonight. I wish I could have given Paige the benefit of the doubt, but I really just find myself hoping for this show to be over. It’s been that bad. It’s a shame that there has to be 6 guys and 6 girls in the Top 12 because only about 3 or 4 of the females belong there. Score – 4.5 out of 10.

Siobhan Magnus “Think” By Aretha Franklin - I can’t help but think of a commercial every time I hear the “freedom, freedom, freedom” line, but I forgot about this halfway through this one. I didn’t think this was going to work, but this performance was tremendous. The note Siobhan hit at the end of that song was incredible and made up for the few rough spots at the beginning. She was definitely one of the better performers of the night and should be safe. Score – 7 out of 10.

Now, for the “Hits” and “Misses” for this week.

Hits (People that are 100% safe based on their performances) – Crystal Bowersox, Lilly Scott, and Siobhan Magnus

On The Fence (50/50 chance of going home) – Michelle Delamor, Katelynn Epperly, and Paige Miles

Misses (The people that have the best chance of going home) – Haeley Vaughn, Lacie Brown, Katie Stevens, and DiDi Benami
That concludes the Top 10 females for this week. I’ll be back next Wednesday with the reviews of the ladies (barring any last-minute, medically-induced switches).

Brett is 26 years old and from Millville, NJ. He has is a life-log fan of the Philadelphia sports teams as well as the Boston red Sox and Cincinnati Bengals. Brett is also a big fan of professional wrestling and mixed martial arts. If you would like to comment on one of his stories, please e-mail him at Brettley916@aol.com

American Idol – The Best & Worst of American Idol ( Limited Edition )

Check out American Idol Season 8

Welcome to my new weekly piece where I give my review on all things American Idol for the current week. It’ll include reviews of each performance, opinions of some songs I’d like to see them try next, and predictions on who will go.

What’s my musical experience and what makes me qualified to give relevant feedback on music? Well, nothing professional at all. Call me the ‘Monday Morning Quarterback’ of American Idol. I listen to every single type of music out there and sing constantly. I dare anyone to take my iPod, put it on shuffle, and listen to 10 songs straight without attempting to skip a song. I can do it. I bet you can’t.

Opens Apple iTunes, clicks ‘shuffle’, hits ‘play’:: Let’s see what you’d think about these 10 songs? 1) John Mayer – “Dreaming With a Broken Heart”. 2) Dierks Bentley – “What Was I Thinking”. 3) Fergie – “Glamorous”. 4) Carrie Underwood – “Jesus Take The Wheel”. 5) Hanson – “This Time Around”. 6) Genesis – “In Too Deep”. 7) Joe – “I Wanna Know”. Brad Paisley – “Whiskey Lullaby”. 9) Jay Z – “99 Problems”. 10) The Toadies – “Possum Kingdom”. So, that’s contemporary, country, pop, country, classic rock, r&b, rap, and modern rock. There’s even some dance, opera, and classical in there.

I’m a fan of music; ANY music. I’ll listen to anything and give anything a chance. Most of the time, I’ll like what I hear. I’ve seen every single Idol season from beginning to end and have paid attention religiously. So, I’m no Simon Cowell, but I am about as well-rounded musically as they come. I’ll go through each performance after it airs via the DVR. I’ll fast-forward through the judge’s comments as to avoid being swayed, give a little feedback, rate it on a scale of 1-10, possibly mention what I’d like to see that person sing next week, and list the hits, misses, and predictions of who America will send packing at the end. With that said, here’s what I saw on this weeks’ Top 20 Edition of American Idol.

Michael Lynch sings “This is a Man’s World” by James Brown - In what might be the best performance yet on this season, Michael tore the house down with this rendition. His vocals were spot on, he commanded the stage, and sang the exact song that he would release if he were a singles artists. I’ve liked him since he auditioned and I’m glad to see him excelling and even gladder that he didn’t get the boot from the show as previously rumored. I feel bad for the guys who have to follow him tonight. Score – 8.5 out of 10.

John Park sings “Gravity” by John Mayer - If there is one artist that is very difficult to pull off, it’s John Mayer. He has a very unique voice and to conquer one of his songs, you must change it up and make it your own. Park didn’t do that and, instead, put me asleep. Aside from being a way better performance than last week and a song genre more like he belongs in. With there only being 10 men left and only 6 going into the big show, I can’t imagine John staying making it much further. After all, the people that would vote for him are now asleep after this performance. Score – 3.5 out of 10.

Casey James sings “I Don’t Want to Be” by Gavin DeGraw - Gavin is one of my favorite artists and I love this songs. The song has been done many times in recent seasons, including last season when 10th place finisher Michael Sarver did it. Casey chose to strap on the electric guitar for this performance. The first thing that can be pointed out is that he is great on his guitar. As far as the song, it didn’t do anything for me. This came off to me as a karaoke performance. This song was no different than the Gavin performance. It’s tough to bounce back from the performance he put together last week, but he was just an average Rock Band-esque singer. He has nothing to worry about, however. He’s too popular to go home. Score – 4 out of 10.

Alex Lambert sings “Everybody Knows” by John Legend - This performance was way better than last week. It’s night and day. He even made it through this broadcast without cursing on live TV a la last week’s results show. This performance should be good enough to get him through this week; however, I just can’t see him making it into the Top 12. The most important quality of a contestant on this show is to connect with the audience. Aside from possibly being the underdog, he comes off as extremely bland and boring. Maybe a more upbeat song that causes him to move around next week would fix that. Score – 5.5 out of 10.

Todrick Hall sings “What’s Love Got to Do With it” by Tina Turner - I must admit, I’m not a fan of Todrick at all. I must say, however, I enjoyed this version of this song. It was so different from the original and was modernized here. I didn’t think his vocals were that bad, but my worry is that the different arrangement of the song was so much different than the original that it almost comes off as a completely different song. Pair that with his awful performance from last week, and Todrick could be in danger of being handed his walking papers on Thursday night. Score – 4 out of 10.

Jermaine Sellers sings “What’s Going On” by Marvin Gaye - At this point, Jermaine could possibly perform like the next Michael Jackson and I’ll dislike it just because of his horrible attitude. This is the guy who “threw the band under the bus” in Hollywood week and then last week gave the judges dirty looks as they picked apart his performance. The bottom line is that Jermaine isn’t that great of a singer. He over-sings every song and he did it once again with “What’s Going On” by adding runs and not changes too many times. There are the people who need to go out of the realm and add things to a song and then there are the people who need to tone it down and just sing. Jermaine is the latter. He needs to just sing. Score – 3.5 out of 10.

Andrew Garcia sings “You Give Me Something” by James Morrison - I like Andrew so much and it’s mostly thanks to two things. First, when I first saw a leaked list of the Top 24 over 2 months ago, I saw a bunch of his work on YouTube. Go YouTube ‘Andrew Garcia’ on YouTube and watch some of his performance, specifically, Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror.” Second, his Hollywood Week performance of Paula Abdul’s “Straight Up” was off the charts. His problem since that performance has been living up to that “Straight Up” masterpiece. It was that performance that got him into the Top 24 and now he’s struggling to meet the expectations that everyone has of him. This week’s performance was just average. It was no different than Morrison’s version and Garcia played it rather safe. With next week being the last week of the season where contestants can sing whatever they want without being limited by one of Idol’s theme-weeks, I’m hoping he pulls one of his awesome YouTube performances out of his bag-o’-tricks and WOW’s America again. He’s too popular to go home already, but this performance didn’t do him any favors. Score – 4.5 out of 10.

Aaron Kelly sings “My Girl” by The Temptations - I’m curious where this song ranks on the list of songs performed most times in the history of Idol. With that said, I felt that Aaron nailed this song. His voice was terrific and he added enough to the song to make it unique and original. If you close your eyes and listen to him sing, he sounds identical to Nick Jonas. To all you men that just rolled your eyes and are cursing me for naming a Jonas Brother, sorry. Just like Nick Jonas, Aaron can sing. His confidence poured through this performance after coming off as extremely shy last week. Teen girls around the country will be texting and calling their little fingers off tonight for Aaron Kelly. Before tonight, I’d have said that he could have possibly been in danger, but I think that he helped himself a lot. Score – 6 out of 10.

Tim Urban sings “Come On Get Higher” by Matt Nathanson - I love this song. Unfortunately, Tim didn’t do anything different to this song. It sounded exactly like Matt’s version. Aside from the long note in the center of the song, his entire version was forgettable and just average. Tim actually was booted from the show back in Hollywood but got back on when contestant Chris Golightly was disqualified. I find it hard to believe that there wasn’t a better person out there that they could put in Chris’s place. This version was leaps and bounds better than the cringe-inducing “Apologize” by OneRepublic performance that he put out last week. With that said, he took the judge’s criticism and worked at it. He could stay Thursday or he could be booted; either way wouldn’t be a surprise to me. Score – 5 out of 10.

Lee Dewyze sings “Lips of an Angel” by Hinder - The guy who was my favorite overall after last week’s performance of “Chasing Cars” by Snow Patrol, he showed up again and rocked the house with a song that I have gotten sick and tired of hearing on the radio. That’s how you know if a contestant is legit or not; if they can make a song that’s been played to death sound great, than they’re good. It worked here for Lee with “Lips of an Angel” and it didn’t work for Tim Urban when he sang “Apologize”. Lee does look extremely nervous on the stage without his guitar, but I’m hoping that he picks it back up and doesn’t put it down. Lee needs to stay true to himself and be the guy that America likes. America likes Lee; the guitar-playing rocker. Scott McIntyre got pretty far last season by sitting behind the piano and Kris Allen won the show while barely setting down his acoustic. I think he did the second best performance of the night (behind Michael) but still has shown that he is the early favorite from the men and possibly everyone to win this whole thing. Score – 8 out of 10.

Now, for the “Hits” and “Misses” for this week.

Hits (People that are 100% safe based on their performances) - Michael Lynch, Lee Dewyze, and Aaron Kelly

On The Fence (50/50 chance of going home) - Casey James, Tim Urban, Andrew Garcia, and Alex Lambert

Misses (The people that have the best chance of going home) – John Park, Todrick Hall, and Jermaine Sellers

That concludes the Top 10 men for this week. I’ll be back tomorrow with reviews of the Top 10 females.

Brett is 26 years old and from Millville, NJ. He has is a life-log fan of the Philadelphia sports teams as well as the Boston red Sox and Cincinnati Bengals. Brett is also a big fan of professional wrestling and mixed martial arts. If you would like to comment on one of his stories, please e-mail him at Brettley916@aol.com

American Idol – The Best & Worst of American Idol ( Limited Edition )

Check out American Idol Season 8

One of my favorite video games of the last five years has turned into one of my least favorites. Apparently I am not alone in thinking that the Guitar Hero video game series has jumped the shark. A plethora of reasons from overkill to game changes has take this from one of the premier party games of the last decade to a game with a serious need of a tune up.

The first Guitar Hero video game I picked up was Guitar Hero 3 – Legends of Rock. From the second I saw red, blue, yellow, green, and orange I was hooked. The set list of songs were great, it was challenging yet not too difficult, and the game itself became addicting to anyone who dared to pick up a guitar in my living room and take a “Slow Ride.”

Most of the world agreed with me as Guitar Hero 3 – Legends of Rock was a smashing success. The game reinvented the genre of interactive music games. Add the success of Rock Band and its multi-player instruments and you had the perfect recipe of fun for an old school rocker and video game lover that just can’t sink his teeth into the crazy fantasy games of today. Unfortunately with success came greed and later games have never achieved the level of success that came with Guitar Hero 3. A few Activision blunders later and the future of the series three years later looks more bleak than ever.

Activision recently announced layoffs within the production of Guitar Hero. Activision also announced after a year of flooding the market with several new Guitar Hero games that they have cut back production to two games per year, one of which will be DJ Hero. It didn’t have to be this way. I have gone from being hooked on GH to selling most of my games and barely playing the ones I do have. As the customer you have alienated over the last two years, I am here to tell Activision just a few simple tweaks to fix the series and bring this game back from the clubs to the arenas. Here are just a few fixes that in my opinion would reinvigorate the franchise and bring back the lost rockers like myself.

Go back to guitar rock! It was immediately evident as I loaded up Guitar Hero 4 and saw the set list that this game wasn’t for me. Gone was a set list of guitar smashing classic and hard rock classics replaced with pop music favorites that you are likely to hear at your typical Friday karaoke night at the local bar or club. Load the next game up with fun classic and guitar rock and you will get me and most other rock fans that found very little appetizing about the last few Guitar Hero games.

Drop the all instrument portion of the game. The big problem here is that Guitar Hero turned from a game that made it fun to play guitar to a game that had to alter their set list of songs to include drumming and singing. This eliminates a ton of great guitar anthems that would normally be included in the game that couldn’t because they didn’t have vocals or drums. Hey, leave the vocals and drums to Rock Band. They do it better anyway or create a Music Hero game. Activision may be leaving a ton of dough on the table by getting rid of the addons, but I believe they would make it back in sales of a new all-guitar Guitar Hero.

Bring back the No Fail Guitar Hero cheat. Personally, I don’t mind playing without the No Fail cheat. However, it can be really useful when you work your way through new songs. Yet the biggest reason to bring this back is party play. Most people struggle with the songs the first time you pick up the game, especially Guitar Hero – Van Halen. At a party, people just want to pick up and play no matter how much they suck. That is why I throw Rock Band when people come over who haven’t necessarily played before. It also leaves some wiggle room for little kids to play the game who may not be good, but want to jump in with the adults. Activision removed the party fun when they removed this cheat and at the same time, removed the party fun of any future Guitar Hero games that don’t include this option.

Finally, improve the DLC! A Smashing Pumpkins or Country pack aren’t going to cut it. As much as I like to play Guitar Hero more than Rock Band, I made the full switch to Rock Band because of their DLC. RB constantly updates their DLC. On top of that, the selection of Rock Band DLC is massive. They hit everyone from Buddy Holly to Slayer. I can’t tell you the last time I saw anything on Guitar Hero that I cared to spend 160 points for, yet I drop points like crazy on Rock Band content that admittedly isn’t as much fun to play on guitar.

While I am sure we can sit here all day and come up with a wish list for the next GH game, I think this is a great start of tweaks that Activision can make to revitalize the franchise. Like a 70s rock band that hit rock bottom and made a successful come back in the 80s, Guitar Hero can be that band. The ball is in their court and it’s up to them whether they want to be a one hit wonder or a classic comeback.

Order Guitar Hero 5 with bonus Guitar Hero Van Halen on Gamestop.com by clicking here.

Buy Guitar Hero 5 and get Guitar Hero Van Halen for free on Amazon.com by clicking here.

Order The Beatles: Rock Band with 3 free downloads on GameStop.com by clicking here

Order The Beatles: Rock Band on Amazon.com by clicking here.

Register for GameFly™