For your central Jersey real estate needs: JudyNJHomes.com
Ok. So this is my second post. Thank you to all who read my first. Your responses were great! This post will be a complete hodgepodge of thoughts I've had lately on AI and our Miss Katharine McPhee.
FIRST! LET'S VOTE LIKE IT'S OUR ONLY MISSION IN LIFE! AND RECRUIT OTHERS TO DO THE SAME THING! I am going to buy a cheapy pay as you go Cingular Phone and text like he**. I hate that Verizon isn't compatible. In fact, I can't even get through on my Verizon cell when trying to call in my votes. I know I may sound like a silly teenage girl, but I assure you I am a responsible well educated, professional, young man who happens to just have fallen in love with the talent of one Miss Katharine McPhee. I am so busy in my personal and professional life and yet I take time for all of this hullabaloo because Katharine has become such a welcome distraction. And why not? It's all in good fun. So to all my friends who think I am insane to get caught up in all this AI pop-culture nonsense... WANKER OFF! I am a musician and fan of great musicians and performers. I've never voted on AI or watched regularly until this year and it's all because of her. It's our responsibility as her fans to get her the crown.
And I am so sick of this B.S. about a man winning. Perhaps, AI is fixed. Maybe all of reality TV is. If Katharine McPhee sings and performs well next week and gets the ax then we should all revolt against AI because it will be an AI travesty. The only winner that deserved to win so far was Kelly Clarkson. And at that time when the show aired, I was not thoroughly convinced. She has proven, however, that she deserved it all along. Clay should have won. Bo should have won. Furthermore, I am sick of Kat's naysayers comparing her to Kelly. If they were truly listening and had any inkling of musical knowledge they would hear that there is a huge difference in the way they sing. While I am a fan of Kelly's last compilation, Kat's voice has much more depth and clarity. Her vocal range is broader. She has more freedom and flexibility. She can sing in more genres. Kelly's strength is pop rock, where as Katharine can sing well anything...well not heavy metal. Let's leave the almost in tune screaming with a contorted expression on your face to the likes of Chris Daughtry. I won't go on any further, you get my point. Even if you disagree and prefer Kelley to Kat you must acknowledge they have very different voices, from their vibrato to their tone to their delivery. One more point on this subject, Carrie Underwood has nothing on Katharine McPhee. I know there are Carrie fan's here, but despite the fact that sometimes I enjoyed her voice, all she did was stand there at the microphone and smile and sing loud. She was the worst performer. She had no variety. She couldn't emote to save her life. It's not just about the singing my fellow blogging friends, it's about the performing too. You have to have both to be truly great. And lastly, for those who say Kelly or Carrie or Clay never faltered as much as Kat you are utterly and completely wrong. Kelley almost lost her voice because she oversang with improper technique far too often. Both she and Carrie sang flatter than a pancake on more than ten occasions. They all had lackluster performing days. By the way, if you don't understand what of tune singing sounds like get a friend who does and re-watch past AI dvd's together. A lot of it goes on.
I don’t want to over-berate our AI alumni past and present. As a classically trained singer, I know how hard it is to perform at your peak each and every time. Even Renee Fleming falters. Every singer has sung out of tune from time to time. It just happens. We all get nervous. Nerves can destroy the best singers. They can throw your technique out the window. Kat succumbs to hers every once in a while. I can commiserate. We all forget our words. We all stumble. Our bodies are our instruments. We all get sick. We all get tired. It's tough. I am sure all of the remaining contestants are tired. But it is those with solid technique that will survive, vocally. If you are singing with good technique, supporting with a relaxed breath with an open throat (as if you had no throat) you can sing for hours and hours without getting tired. Singing is an extension of speech and should be as free an effortless as talking. Kat doesn't always use solid technique, but she is the only one who at least has some. And as I said in my first post with the right teacher….watch out for KATHARINE MCPHEE!
The others, well here's what I think. Elliot needs to do something about his machine gun style vibrato. It's fake. It's ugly. It needs to go. There is, however, something soulful about his voice. He could be a good singer. He has potential. He, too, sings flat on top. He pushes, supports with his chest and closes of the sound. I think he is passionate, but has no passion in his performing. He needs a lot of work. I can’t bear to watch him perform.
Chris- well read my comment above. Also, how many thousands of semi-attractive young men are there out in the folds of American bars and clubs that moonlight as alternative rockers on their weekends off from their day jobs...? Chris is marginal at best. I know a thousand guys that could do the same thing. AI is contrite about last year. But pushing Chris through should not be their act of contrition. Letting the most talented one for the job win is.
Taylor: Taylor, Taylor, Taylor. He has a voice. To some it's pleasing. In his genre it certainly is. Is he as good a singer as Clay Aiken? No. Maybe it's me and my vocal taste, but I think is sound is bland. He always sings the same way. There is no volume differentiation, which says to me that he has a lot of tension. He looks like it hurts him to sing. He sings sort of monotone. No color other than the smoky quality, which only gets one so far. It's all subjective, but honestly America, is he really the best? No. And I think his off-the wall performing is so insincere. I think he finds all the AI stuff amusing and it's his own sort of diatribe lashing back and poking fun at it all. And for that I think he's clever, but c'mon. This show could have integrity and could be an amazing thing…well maybe that’s more wishful thinking on my part.
So who will win? I don't know. I know that at this point, it's important for Katharine to get to the top two. It legitimizes her cause. However, she has the potential to be the next biggest star on the planet for all the right and wrong reasons. She'll go far simply because she's gorgeous. Let's all imagine for a minute if Britney Spears and all of her kind actually had talent. Well I can't because that is a fantasy land. And I am much too pragmatic for that. Katharine is the real deal. I am so sick and tired of people faulting her for it and faulting her for external factors. Did she write her genetic code to make her beautiful? Why should we fault her because she comes from a wealthy, successful family? And I don’t even know if the McPhees are wealthy as I am not privy to their financial statements, but I certainly have read and heard Kat being lambasted for it. Our lives are what we make of them. I applaud success. I work hard for it. We all measure it in different ways. Life has different meaning for all of us; it's what separates us from any other species. Why should being a working class Southerner who's had a hard life entitle anyone to anything. We all have hardships, but we all have free will. It's what we make of it that counts. Back to my point about who will win. If Kat McPhee gets booted next week or the week after, honestly my fellow McPhans, it's OK. It's just a reality TV show. It's one step in her career. If it does happen that way, in five, ten, twenty years and so on down the road we will be watching Kat take home Grammy's, Oscars and so forth and McPheverishly buying her concert tickets. And so will Chris, Taylor, and Elliot thinking of the day silly Americans voted them over her and wishing they could turn back time. Of course, I will probably cry like a school boy if she doesn't win, but it's all so silly and fun.
Hmm. What else. I should probably get some work done this afternoon. Don't get discouraged McPhans by what you read. The fact is that the fans of our opponents are demographically and socially more apt to write on these forums and to write negatively. There are gazillions of sophisticated McPhans of all shapes and sizes and ages all over this land who adore her like we do. They vote too! She is the star. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a renaissance of the Hollywood Golden era with Kat McPhee leading the way?
I guess that’s all for now.
One more thing, if one more freakazoid says that Kat is fat I think I will cry. She looks like a woman should, busty and curvy with just the right muscle tone. Let’s bring back healthy women. It’s these people calling her fat who perpetuate the myth that emaciation equals beauty. Stop it! Young girls and women, and even some men are dying out there because of you. She is a bombshell! Get is straight.
Let me just say a hearty "AMEN!" to that one.
Ditto, groucho !!!!
I couldn't agree more. I've been around music all my life. Very few singers make little goose bumps pop up on my arms and the hair on the back of my neck get all "tingly". But Katharine does. It's not just the "voice"... it's her personality and beauty, too. She's always gonna have me in her corner !!