American Idol Girls

I want you to know that I think reality shows are completely trashy and of no redeeming value. And the worst is when I start watching a show and then can’t. turn. it. off. Have you seen any of that Moment of Truth show? It really is bad. But, since I’m in the baring-my-soul mood, I wanted to answer what is being advertised as one of tonight’s hard questions:

Do you think that you’re a better mother to your children than your mother was to you?

Uh, yeah, like a million-trillion times NOT. My mom is great — besides the usual mommy-wonderfulness, she’s the kind of person who, if she were on that LOST show, everybody would have gotten back home in Season 1. I don’t know what awful things my kids did before this life to get stuck with me. I was going to feel bad for suggesting that my sweet, innocent little babies had ever done anything wrong, but then Susan (3 1/2 yr old Susan) had her third potty accident of the day, and maybe the question I should be asking myself is what did I do wrong?

Anyway, Dick has YM (church youth group) tonight, so I let Sally and Susan watch American Idol with me. If you want a recap of the entire thing, head over to Musings of a Housewife. And for a serious anthropological/fashion question, see Tara Thinks. I’m just gonna hit a couple highlights.

Of course, the 80s were the golden age for music, so this week had a lot of potential for greatness, but, tragically, no one sang Jesse’s Girl or Wild Boys or David Bowie or U2 or anything from Flashdance or Some Kind of Wonderful or — I could go on all night. Not much to say about Guys night because David Archuleta was good, but not fantastic-awesome-goose-bump-inducing. I actually liked Jason Castro a lot. Love the song Hallelujah (first heard on House) and love his eyes, but, please somebody cut those dreds. Loved the Simple Minds song by Michael Johns.

The best part of tonight was getting Sally’s take on Simon. Dick thinks Simon is a god and always right about everybody. I do not have enough musical talent to judge music, so I really appreciate that Simon talks in simple, colorful words that tell me what to think. And I love Paula because when I was thirteen some girlfriends and I did a lip sync to He’s a Cold-hearted Snake, one of the great songs of Western culture. Our choreography was smokin’ too.

Amanda Overmyer actually looked like someone I might trust to take my blood tonight. And she sang well, too. After hearing Simon’s praise of Amanda, Sally said, “I thought she sounded kinda screamy, like a little girl.” ‘Cause she ought to know how screamy a little girl can sound. Carly Smithson was fantastic; might have to download I Drove All Night. Can we take up a collection to get her tattoo removed? Oh, you think that since she does tattooing for a living she probably likes it? Oh, well. hmmm.

Brook White was good again, but why does she keep her eyes closed so much? I agreed with Simon (’cause I’m cool like that) and really liked the acoustic-ish (there still was a full band, with serious guitar-ing) version. That technique is great on such an iconic song. My mind can provide all these great associations and accompaniments, and like Randy (’cause I’m cool like that too) said, I can focus on her voice. Which is great and not pageanty at all.