Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Man, a lot of people are gonna be reeeeally disappointed.
^^^See, THIS is what I call an American Idol! *swoon*
The moment I walked into school the other day, the first thing my friends yelled excitedly at (and with) me was "Go Bo!". Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE I knew was rooting for Bo (and I quote Ian: "Talung-talo na si Carrie kay Bo!"). He was the odds-on favorite going into the finale, he had more support from the crowd than Carrie did...I didn't think anything could go wrong.
But of course, fate hates me.
As it turns out, Bo had contracted a bad case of food poisoning just this week (it's true---Fox News did a report on it and Bo himself confirmed it), he was said to have been in the ER the day before the big finale, and was still sick even during the show (Carrie even said she could hear him vomiting from across the hall...poor thing!). Trooper that he is, though, he worked through the illness, and I truly believe in my heart that he still managed to outsing Carrie. Now that's what I call a real Idol.
I won't lie, though: this royally sucks. He had all the momentum, and it all goes *poof* just because of freaking food poisoning (great as he was, you could tell he was sick: he was pale and not as energetic as usual). I stand by my belief that Bo did better than Carrie that night, but imagine how much better he would have done were he not sick. Not to mention the injustice of the song selection: they make Bo sing an untested song that was not at all suitable for his baritone voice and rock style ("A Long, Long Road") while Carrie got to sing a song that was brought to #1 on the Australian charts ("Angels Brought Me Here") by Australian Idol Guy Sebastian (and to be honest with you, it was the ONLY song that she performed well that night. She was damn lucky to have won that coin toss, I'll tell you that much right now)!
So to summarize, it was a shitty finale. Neither one of them was 100%, and my mom even agreed with me when I said that Constantine would have kicked both their asses were he still there (like he should've been).
It was a terrible time to have an off-night, so I was worried about Bo's situation. I stayed up 'till 5am, sitting and worrying and wringing my hands before coming to the conclusion that America knows true talent and that I had nothing to worry about. I went to bed...and woke up three hours later (8am) to watch the live telecast of the finale results show with my bro.
And thank goodness they didn't disappoint this time---the results show was ten times better than the performance night. Wanna know why?
'Cause Constantine was in it! Duh! Seriously, he was the REAL star of the show (watch the audience react to him if you don't believe me). The theater erupted in cheers when it was his turn for a solo in the group song...and I nearly freaking died when he kissed the camera!
Me (jumping and screaming excitedly): "OH MY GOD, HE KISSED ME!!!"
Bro: "Heeey, he kissed me too!"
(awkward silence ensues)
Ahehe. And that bit he did in the Corey Clark spoof was hilarious (he played a Greek waiter, complete with bushy mustache and heavy Greek accent, and the smouldering stare and little wink at the end---soooo cute!).
^^^ Doesn't he make you just wanna rip off that mustache and plant him a big wet one on the lips? LOL! (credit Rickey for this image and the one below)
Went ballistic a second time there, and then again when he rocked Aerosmith's "Walk This Way" with Nadia and Jessica. Wicked spectacular!
No doubt about it---my man's a star! But what about those two other people?
Well, first off, I loved Bo and Carrie's duet. I always thought they had great harmony, and tonight they did not disappoint. Their voices sound amazing together, and if they'd ever release a single of the song they sang ("Up Where We Belong"), I'd definitely buy it.
Secondly, I must admit to my own chagrin that...Carrie's performance with Rascal Flatts ("Bless the Broken Road") was great. I've been keeping this a secret from everybody for a long time now, but the cat's out of the bag: I like country music. There, I said it. I wouldn't admit this to anyone before because everyone I knew hated country (my parents especially), but truth is, I find it all awesome. (So my three favorite music genres are Broadway, standards and country...I am such a geek.) Bonnie Raitt, Tim McGraw, The Dixie Chicks, Faith Hill, LeAnnRimes...I like 'em all!
Which is why I hate it when Carrie sings country---it makes it that much harder for me to hate her. Aargh.
But Country-lovin' or not, I still ain't buying her damn CD.
As for Bo...Ilovehimlovehimlovehim! "Sweet Home Alabama" was fantastic! I was up and dancing in front of the TV screen, and during the commercial break, my bro was rocking the guitar (he managed to learn the chords to the song just by watching) while I sang at the top of my lungs: "Sweet Home Alabama...Lord, I'm coming home to you!" My brother even noted that at the end of his song, everyone was acting like he had already won (and he had, as far as I'm concerned)!
And now, the results. Your American Idol is...*groan*...Carrie Underwood.
Shock and silence filled the living room where my brother and I were watching. Everything was going great, and then this happens...aww, shit.
"Talk about an anticlimax," I finally mumbled after shaking off the disappointment. I wonder what Ian, Reggie, Pauline, Larisse, Tifa (Tifa, I feel terrible!), Sophie, Vicky and everybody else would have to say about this.
And if that wasn't bad enough, the single that Carrie will be releasing is of the one song that Bo outsung Carrie at ("Inside Your Heaven"). Now that's just plain rubbing salt in the wound.
Dude, even the audience disagreed with the decision. During the shows today AND yesterday, Bo got the loudest cheers, while Carrie actually got some boos while singing. Bo had more finalists on his side (reported by a fan who attended the event): Nadia, Anwar, Nikko, Constantine, Scott and Vonzell were clearly rooting for him, and they would only stand up when Bo was performing.
And after it had been announced that Carrie won, Bo had encourage to the crowd to cheer for her (classy guy!), since the audience wasn't really feelin' it (well duh, we've been duped). Smart crowd. And oh yeah: there was even this girl in the audience screaming "Fuck you, Carrie! Fuck you, this whole fucking show is fucking rigged!" after the results were announced. She was taken away by security, but anyway, girl, if you're out there---my hat's off to you! ^___^
It's Ruben/Clay all over again. The one that Idol's been pimping to win since day one gets the crown...but the legitimately BETTER Idol will gain more success in the long run (that means Bo and Constantine).
Best of luck in all your endeavors, Bo, I'll be supporting you a hundred and twenty percent! In my eyes, you've won. :)
It's Ruben/Clay all over again. The one that Idol's been pimping to win since day one gets the crown...but the legitimately BETTER Idol will gain more success in the long run (that means Bo and Constantine).
Best of luck in all your endeavors, Bo, I'll be supporting you a hundred and twenty percent! In my eyes, you've won. :)
Monday, May 23, 2005
Of "bottomless food", basketball, Star Wars and the useless inventions of the Japanese
[Note: I made a new layout that STILL stars Constantine Maroulis, who is the hottest man in the galaxy, as well as the color purple, which is the cutest color in the galaxy. Made by gluing together some screencaps from a hot clip of Constantine on E!, coloring 'em purple and sticking some captions on. Comes with a newly updated "About Me" profile and some lame-ass unintentional rhyming on the side bar.] [Second note: The Powers That Be have decided to throw my sorry ass into section Ilang-Ilang (not too shabby) and into the Science stream (not too shabby either...now if only I could weasel my way out of EnvSci). May kasama ba ako?]
[Third Note: Sabi ni Boss, visit daw kayo dito. Yun boss, did my job! Askal_011, happy to be of service, sir!]
Paula had brought up the thought of meeting up and hanging out at a mall since last month, and I was excited about the idea since I so desperately needed to get away from the house. I swear, spending seven days a week with my family is getting incredibly detrimental to my psychological state. Really. Is it normal to be screaming at least once a week (and not just screaming, but high-pitched, screechy caterwauling) "FUCK YOU, YOU'RE A FUCKING ASSHOLE!" to your own brother over something as shallow as who gets to hold the remote control?
I didn't think so.
So it's like, a month later, and Max Gana, Carlo Castro and Gabby Saplagio had agreed to meet up with Paula and yours truly at Starbucks in Greenbelt 3 on May 21 (last Saturday). Then on the night before the scheduled date, Paula told me that she couldn't go because of some argument with her parents over a seatbelt and a wet t-shirt. I'm just as baffled as you are.
I freaked out at that point because I knew Mom wouldn't let me go if she knew I would be the only girl there. It was bad enough before when I went to Robinson's Galleria with two boys (Castro and Jiano)---I got an earful from Mom after that about how I should be careful around boys and their raging hormones, blah, blah, blah. So if she'd react that way even if I ended up looking like the babysitter of those two (who are, no offense, a couple of the most hormonally-challenged boys I've ever met), what more if I was with three guys?
The rest of Friday night was spent trying desperately to figure out what to do. "Mom, meet Maxine, Carla and Gabrielle. Um, they kinda like to dress up like boys, but they're totally straight, I swear!" Which was technically true (the second statement, anyway), but still sounded pathetic.
My ass was saved the morning after when Paula said she could make it, after all.
Everyone showed up at Starbucks sometime between 11 and 11:30AM: (in order of arrival) me, Castro, Paula and her brother Christian, Max and Gabby. Castro and I were a lot earlier than everybody else, so while waiting, he showed me this taser gun that he brought everywhere with him.
"You ever use it on anyone?" I asked.
"Yeah, a cat and some guy who tried to rob me."
"Any casualties?"
He laughed. "The cat."
Everyone else showed up eventually, then we went to eat lunch at Big Buddha, which is this fancy Chinese restaurant on the third floor of GB3. I was psyched---back in my grade school days, we'd be hanging out at Alabang Town Center nearly every week, and it was always McDonald's for lunch/dinner. It gets boring after the tenth visit, you know?
Having waiters around to serve you instead of standing in line at a counter was also pretty cool. It shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that I get a kick out of ordering people around (hehe). Max was hilarious---I dared him to ask the waiter to refill the complimentary bowl of chips at our table (I knew beforehand that they didn't charge anything to replenish the chips, but nobody else at the table did), and to my great amusement, he did it! He was so happy to be able to "Drink bottomless drinks and eat bottomless food!", and I was laughing my ass off because it was so funny to watch, if you'd only been there to see it.
Then we headed to Timezone, and naturally, Max was king of the air hockey and foosball tables. To my utter surprise, however, Castro kicked Max's ass in a best-of-three basketball shootout, beating him in the last round 41 to 29. Wow.
I'm not much of an arcade person, really, but I managed to beat Max at car racing. It was the only game I played the whole time we were there, but I didn't mind. It was just as fun to watch everybody try to kick each other's asses. While Paula and Gabby duked it out at air hockey, a thirtysomething guy wearing black approached me and asked me if I could help him out with a Star Wars trivia sheet (I think it was from Canon, and you'd get a prize if you answered everything correctly). "Amidala's first name is Padme, sir." "No, it's C-h-e-w-b-a-c-c-a, not 'Chubakka'." Note that I'm not much of a Star Wars fan, I mean, yeah, I have watched all five movies prior to Revenge of the Sith, but only because someone I was with wanted to watch it ('cause personally, I think it's overrated). My brother and my uncle wanted to watch Episodes 4, 5 and 6, my friends wanted to watch 1 and 2 so they could see "that hottie" Hayden Christensen and all those super-kilig love scenes he shares with Natalie Portman.
So I asked Max (who was more of a fan than I was) to help me out, and less than two seconds later, everybody was crowding over this guy and his little piece of paper. It was quite a sight: the Star Wars fanatics came to rescue this (male) damsel in distress, and of course, we saved the day! Yippee!
The rest of the day went by in a blur: we had the prerequisite studio pics taken, we stopped by Powerbooks (which is the most awesome shop in the world), where Max and Castro were giggling over this book called "Useless Inventions of the Japanese" (sp?) while I was flipping through the pages of "Sex Lives of the American Presidents". I put it down not too long after, deciding that maybe I didn't want to know what a bunch of wrinkly, balding old men did behind closed doors *shudder*. Then I somehow found myself walking through the busy streets outside Greenbelt while discussing religion with Castro (more enlightening than you'd think), and before I knew it, the day was over and I was in a car on its way back to Hyatt where the family was staying.
I don't lie when I say that I had a blast, and it was nice to receive "Thank you, it was fun" texts from the others after it was all over.
...Guys, how does next month sound? ^___^
Friday, May 06, 2005
May I have your attention please...I would like to exercise my right to gloat...
Indeed, it is true that there is a silver lining to every dark cloud: at least Constantine's exit came before the debut of Premium Blend (it's a stand-up comedy that airs at 8:30pm on Wednesdays) on Solar USA/JackTV, so I have something more interesting to watch in place of Dullsville, a.k.a. American Idol minus Constantine Maroulis. La lang. Stand-up comedy rocks. ^___^More importantly, I'm beginning to realize that the untimely departure of my beloved Greek God might actually be better than winning the contest itself. How so? Well, at least he won't be forced to record a crappy "inspirational/autobiographical" song for his debut single, like Kelly Clarkson's "A Moment Like This" or Fantasia Barrino's "I Believe." Eeurgh *cringe*. And secondly, leaving AI far earlier than he deserved to go caused a lot of buzz and controversy---and, of course, more media attention for Constantine: he's appeared on Jay Leno, Ellen, Regis and Kelly, The Tony Danza Show, The Early Show on CBS, E! News Live (twice!), The Soup, Fox News (five times!!), Nickelodeon's U Pick Live, Good Day New York, Entertainment Tonight, and Access Hollywood among other shows; he did interviews for several radio shows, like WKST FM, Z100 FM, KIIS FM, KFAM FM, KFMB FM, and for websites like AOL.com, ItsDestiny.net and Kidzworld.com; he showed up at the White House Correspondents' Dinner where people cheered like mad upon his arrival; and he was even invited to Tobey Maguire's surprise party for his girlfriend, who was apparently a total Constantine fan (as Constantine said on E! News: "I showed up---and like, [there were] huge celebrites there, and everyone was like, freaking out that I came, 'cause she's, like, a big fan. She dropped, like, you know, Joel Silver was there, and Nikki Hilton, and she was like, 'CONSTANTINE!!!'"). And get this: rumor has it that he signed a modeling contract with Ralph Lauren (and we all know how great the Greek God looks in tight denim jeans...*drool*).
But no, that's NOT what I'm gloating about, believe it or not.
So I watch Premium Blend on Wednesdays instead of American Idol, right? Meaning I've totally ditched AI, although I managed to catch Bo's performances...and he was so goddamn-spanking hot in those lovely outfits. Grrr, baby, grrr. Carrie was okay, too, and my dislike for her is slowly decreasing. In fact, she's my second favorite among the remaining contestants (next to Bo, of course). Still wouldn't buy her CD, though LOL. ^__^
My mom watched, though, and she noticed that there were lots of empty seats in the audience, at which point I, in my immense schadenfreude, cackled louder than the Wicked Witch of the West. Empty seats! This, my friends, is the result of Constantine no longer being on the show. Empty seats! Many empty seats!
[Note: It's legit, folks---a report shows that American Idol's ratings were down the episode after Constantine's elimination.]
Another thing I'm really happy about is what happened the following day. I did NOT plan to watch the results show at all, but when my brother told me who got kicked off, I sooo had to watch.
Scott Savol, everyone! Scott Savol's going home! Yeeeeaaahhh!
The results show was shitty as expected---cheesy group song, Ford pimpomercial and all, but watching Scott totally humiliate himself made up for every single moment of crappiness. It was WICKED AWESOME.
It went like this: Anthony and Scott were sent back to the couch while Bo, Carrie and Vonzell were told to remain standing. Now, Anthony understood what was going on, and in fact, he even said quietly to himself, "It's not over," as he walked back to the couch, but the uber-moron Scott thought it meant he was safe, and he was gloating and "praising the Lord" again (but if you ask me, it looks like he was threatening the Lord), and upon reaching the couches, Anthony shook his head and had to explain to Scott that they, in fact, were not safe.
Funny. The 20-year old foreigner kid gets it while the 28-year-old parent of one doesn't.
You rock, Fedorov.
Moment of Awesomeness #2: In the recap, Ryan asks Scott what he expected to do the following day. Scott's answer? "Thinking about what song I'll be singing the following week." Hah! EAT CROW, YOU COCKY BASTARD!
Moment of Awesomeness #3: Final words of Scott's journey on Idol? "I just wanna be the guy that everybody loved."
*snort* ... *giggle* ... *guffaw*...BWAHAHAHAHAHA! [JC falls off chair laughing]
Scott's final song was "On Broadway", and although he totally butchered it, I was dancing around the living room---but I was singing a different song:
Ding, dong, the witch is dead!
