rereader2

The two pictures they had up there were Sam and Jessica.

I was mentally going through the list of high scoring Scrabble letters--that made it much faster to figure out!

Yay, Juila, another win! (AND I got FJ right. :))

Of course, there is a difference--when Hayley Williams sings, even when she's jumping around, you don't need subtitles to hear the lyrics.

Tell me this isn't what Jena is trying to be--including all the running around and the join-in shouts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSmAahUwkTo

Oh, no, Sam recognized her--he turned a rainbow of red, but had the presence of mind to go right in for a hug...twice!

Ryan caught that!

Benedict came in 7th overall in the Time 100 Readers' Poll. ETA: And he's made the magazine's Time 100 as well, essay by Colin Firth. (I don't know what order they have them listed in, but Benedict is listed first online in their "Time 100 Artists" category.) AETA: Also from Time Magazine: Benedict Cumberbatch Is Everyone's Favorite European on the TIME 100

Benedict Cumberbatch Leading As Time Magazine’s Most Influential Actor. There are still two days to vote, here.

Exactly! :)

Klingon captain: "Federation ship Enterprise, surrender and prepare to be boarded." Picard: "That will be the day." --Yesterday's Enterprise

By bracketing his song with a comment about manipulating ANYONE before and a comment about manipulating people by making faces after he undercut any emotion in his own performance. That's stupid.

It was worse than rude, it was stupid.

I came because it was Star Trek! I stayed because it was good. And because Picard. (Yes, that includes some of the first season missteps. I didn't stay for most of Voyager, or most of DS9, because they didn't feel much like the Star Trek Universe.) (Enterprise? It NEVER HAPPENED, you can't make me accept its existence, lalalalalalalala I can't heeeeeear you...)

I definitely had the impression that HCJ had a drink or five before the show. (And that Keith may have joined him.)

Oh, they've had easier ones. (Not that it wasn't easy!)

I find it pretty inappropriate for him to be criticizing the kids he's supposed to be mentoring on elimination night. If he's mentoring, it's his job to point out to them what they're doing wrong, true, but to the world he should be pointing out what they're doing right. Otherwise, how can they trust him? ... Nevermind. Better for them that they don't trust him!

I wasn't crazy about the implication that "old ladies" are so easily manipulated--an interpretation enforced by his post-sing comment about making the "baby face". Way to drain any real emotion out of your performance.

Some of the AI winners who put out something quickly sank like a stone because "quickly" was "anything" instead of something good and appropriate to the singer.

Sarah: I dunno if I blame Sam for asking if anyone knew who Ricky Nelson was--if a tipsy/high/something HCJ told me to go look up some person I had never heard of (kids today...), I'd probably be a little cautious about it too! Otherwise, agreed. :)

"If it should become necessary to fight, could you arrange to find me some rocks to throw at them?"

Caleb needs to put a filter between his brain and his mouth. (Of course, what he really needs is to stop being automatically jokey. That's tiresome to be around--and it definitely not something you want to do on camera.)

He just de-creepified "Every Breath You Take." How did he DO that?

Well, that's a mistake--we already have a Stevie Nicks, we don't need two. Better she should be a good Jessica Meuse.

Alex is, for my money, the best musician of the lot, and he has the best grasp of song structure and how to find the story in a song. What he doesn't have yet is stage presence, but he's pushing himself on that front. I don't think he'll ever be a big-name pop star, and I don't think he'd want to be--but I can see him very well have a long and respected indie career, though.