Gel

Is there a twitter save?

Well. To be fair, he was up against Darby.

Stumbled across a 2008 recording of Crying by Billy Gilman on iTunes. Also available on Spotify (can I really insert that link?). How is it so much better than the recording he did for the Lives?

'Nine to Five' is a tough song to sell if you don't have the lyrics down. That's a hard, hard song. In this situation, a word heavy/word centric song is almost always a mistake because of the near inescapable enunciation issues. Which is a pity, because Ali did so well last week. Song requests--Aaron, When a Man Loves a Woman. (I know, I know, it's been done to death, but I can't think of anything else suitably upbeat-ish that's different than what he usually does). And Billy, My Heart Will Go or any other Celine song with big, big distracting notes.

I like Aaron's cover of Hurt. I liked the emotional intensity he brought to the performance, and the studio recording I love, love, love. That being said, I've resigned myself to the fact that no one I'm rooting for ever wins (sorry, Aaron), but it would be nice if he could stay at least a few more rounds, or at least longer than Josh, who always sounds like he drops off key to me, even if he does know how to work the crowd. This. So much this. I really wish there was a way to crack the shell of Billy singing in his head, but Adele's version has the emotion his lacks. Soaring notes and riffs are not emotion. That being said, this is the best cover he's done since the blinds. There must be something they can do to replace the useless post performance tongue baths.

I like Billy, but I think his performances have gone downhill since the blinds. His voice is gorgeous, technically, and he can sing any note, but to quote Joan Jett, "just because you can sing five octaves, doesn't mean you should." I find for his performances since "When We Were Young" he gives the impression of thinking instead of feeling the song. I had thought "Crying" would be better than the peppier songs he's done that have been flat, but that turned into an exercise in vocal gymnastics as well. It's like he's trying really hard on the technicals, but none of his personality is coming through.

I have bought a couple of the iTunes recordings. Listen to the free snippet first. It's usually much better than the lives, but sometimes the background singers are still there, and still distractingly loud.

Aaron, I'm a fan, but throw me a bone, man. I'd like to hear a less growly song, and one in which thewordsdon'tallruntogetherreallyfast, so I can least understand you. Losing My Religion was great. I understand that whole build future fan base for the kind of music you want to do thing, but this 90 seconds to show the world you're The One isn't the format for the type of song that needs to grow on you. It cracks me up that during Adam's team performance, Adam was the only one I understood completely, even though I know the words. I understand Billy most of the time, but I don't know what he was doing there. Is enunciating really that hard?

I think they sound better in rehearsal because the band is fainter.

Oh goodness yes a thousand times about people being off pitch! I thought it was just me, but a lot of them sure sounded flat. Riley sounded miserably off-key for at least half of the song, as did Josh G, as did even We at times, which was startling. I'm not a fan of the hold-out-that-one-note-forever trick because it's perilously close to screaming, but you gotta admit it's pretty much the only way to drown out the band. Why is the band so loud?

No worries! We'll just vote blind for our favorites anyway? There really ought to be some kind of iTunes save; if you make it high on the charts where people have voted with real money, you get a second chance, but maybe making it high on iTunes is its own reward.

I like Billy, but I suspect he would do better with more ballad type songs than either of the last two songs he's sung. I hope Aaron goes far, because as much as I like Billy, I think Miley was right when she said there are singers one is awed by, but then there are those you listen to in your car. Billy's voice is amazing, and would be great given the right song, but Aaron's cover of Losing My Religion is the one I listen to more.

That Aaron vs. Sa'Rayah battle was a whole different level. It was more like a duet and a real performance than a battle, and I think Alicia chose the exactly right word when she said the performance was well "crafted". I'm impressed by Miley as a coach, especially if she had a hand in the choreography and staging choices. Fanbase, +1, success.

Guilty. I admit to being old and not having the faintest idea what the difference is in singing mechanics, but there's a huge gap between him and pretty much everyone else to my untrained ear. For starters, I can hear him, as in, his voice over the background music. Why is that? For two, I can understand him. For three, he hasn't murdered the song by "making it his own", though, ymmv. I actually far prefer this version to Adele's.

I'm easily amused. Miley's "I'll be your honey mustard, You'll be my chicken wing" to the tune of Honey Bee cracked me up.

The one big difference to me between the pros and the contestants: enunciation.

But which demograpghic is most likely to get on the computer to vote in the allotted time window?

Is it just me or are the vocals horrible in the lives? I can barely hear the contestant half the time over the band and the backup singers. Plus, they are all more or less unintelligible; without close captioning I can't even make out the lyrics. It's been fascinating how my opinion has changed on certain singers over the course of the show. I enjoyed Mary Sarah's blind, but now much much prefer Katie's voice. Her cover of Gypsy was the only one I bought. I don't know if it is the song choice or the acoustics, but suddenly Mary Sarah's voice sounds very thin. And is falsetto now a thing? I admit to being soooo out of touch with current pop, but Daniel and Nick? Really?

I was completely taken out of the grand memorial moment because the visual that came to mind was a small blinking orb where the Earth used to be with a sign saying, "Please press Play." Because otherwise, the Overlords were going to somehow leave sound in space. To which, just, sigh.

Having read the book once ages ago, that was gawdawful. I spent most of the six hours thinking " Wait, that wasn't in the book. Nor that. And WTH is that?" It felt like a ridicously over-emoted montage that lasted forever. To top off all the things that were absurd about it, there was Milo's shock that 40-80 years has elapsed during his little interstellar jaunt, and gee, Rachel had aged and died. Ya think? Even if he harbored some fantasy that the Overlords could bend space-time, as a scientist he would still have to allow for the possibility 80 years might indeed pass on Earth while he was traveling around at light speed. And six hours later, I still have no idea what the mini-series was trying to get at, what the message or plot or point was. All I got was look! Shiny! Pretty! Stupid!

So, when Darkness Guy started making the room dark, why did the people in the room not move towards the door and the well-lit hallway? If they were surviving huddled in the middle around their lamps, wouldn't a slow group shuffle going into the light have been better? Or where they all afflicted with Poltergeist Trouble ver 2, an aversion to going into the light? Also, Dwight, a glow stick? Really? Does it really take that much longer to thumb on a flashlight?

I'm a little disappointed with the Gaia bait and switch, to be honest. The last few episodes felt like they were surprised by renewal and needed to come up with a plot twist to carry through to the next season. Nevertheless, I like the show--most of it is so refreshingly different. The fact that Dawn did not remember Ty-ex-Hod was certainly a surprise. It's also fascinating how they are unrepentant about creating characters that on the face of it, are really not all that endearing, yet somehow they work. Anders is not hiding a heart of gold, and is not motivated by deep complex things, and is somehow still less annoying than pretty much everyone on Dominion. I'm rather impressed by that alone.

I'm really enjoying this season. It's a refreshing combination of being light and really quite dark at the same time. I love that things happen on the show that actually manage to surprise me, which almost never happens now with series/dramas, yet are totally consistent with the storyline and manage stay in character for each of the gods. They don't have an idiot ball to pass around, hooray! The actress playing Axl was very good.

Regarding calorie counting-- this is a little off topic, but I need to vent, please. "Diets", as in random pieces of advice gleaned from the great interwebs, are always saying to eat a handful of nuts for healthy protein. Well. I remember the first time I weighed out 1 serving of nuts on my kitchen scale and looking at the twee amount with great sadness and hunger. Twenty almonds that hog up 200 calories is not satisfying, diet-writing-up-people. It's a vehicle for salt, yes, but in no way makes you less hungry post-consumption.

I adore this show. This is the first show in some time where I am willing to rewind to catch a particular expression on someone's face, rather than sit through with my finger on the fast forward button. The pair of not-very-accurate oracles are hilarious and yet, sweet. It's a novel combination. Googling says SyFy bought rights for seasons 1 and 2, so I hope they will show season 2. May I say, SyFy, if you do not show season 2, after canceling Eureka and Warehouse 13--I am never trusting you lot again. I will have come to the conclusion that shows which have an actual coherent plot, credible acting, and are not filmed on dimly lit sets or against green screens with CGI monsters are of no interest to your network.