Virginia Breeze

I really like Jordin Sparks.  And I don’t really see her as a celebrity. She is so comfortable in front of a camera that it is easy to believe that you really know her.  She is so enthusiastic and talented.  I feel twenty years younger just watching her do her thing.  And it’s NOT like I am an old guy “in love” with a MUCH younger woman.  Why do people think old guys are so crazy all the time?  We usually aren’t any more crazy than anybody else.   She is just a very nice person with a good upbringing behind her.  And I am an American Idol fan.  I really like David Cook too.

But not as much as Jordin.  Here’s the behind the scenes video about the making of No Air.  It’s very interesting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckuvjTAk7lk

We are nearly at the end of the competition. So let’s get down to business.

David A sang And So It Goes by Billy Joel. This was Paula’s choice. It was a beautiful performance of a song he probably was not familiar with and he mastered it. He has such a pure voice but he needs a song that will let him show some personality.

His second song was With You, a Chris Brown song, and David chose this one for himself. It started off a little rough but he got into it by the chorus. He could learn to do an up tempo song without too much difficulty.

His final song was Longer by Dan Fogelberg and it suited him well enough. The key change helped with the emotional momentum. David’s biggest problem is his inability to convey very many emotions when he sings. Compare him with last year’s winner, Jordin Sparks, who was also seventeen and you can see immediately a vast difference.

Syesha sang If I Ain’t Got You , an Alicia Keys tune , and Randy chose this one. She did an excellent job this time hitting the strong parts and keeping it melodic. She is confident and looks amazing.

Her second song was Fever chosen by herself. It was also a terrific performance. Her personality came across very well and it was a great arrangement.

And finally she sang Hit Me Up, a Rhianna song, It was a solid contemporary performance and ended a great night for this girl. After tonight she absolutely belongs in the finals.

David Cook sang First Time Ever I Saw Your Face a gift from Simon. It was a tough challenge and he met it with a contemporary rendition of a great classic.

He then sang Dare Ya To Move chosen by himself. I had never heard this song and did not much care for it. David was pitchy in the beginning and it went on from there but as a whole it did not work well.

The producers chose I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing by Aerosmith. It was a good song choice for him but he hit a bad note at the end. Other than that it was a good solid performance from David if a little predictable by this point in the competition.

None of the contestants were at their very best having to learn so many songs plus visit their hometowns for all the shenanigans there.

Who will be leaving? It’s a tough choice. It seems unlikely that David A will go since he is the best singer. Syesha is the best entertainer and she should definitely stay. David Cook is the most inventive singer but he has a problem with consistency. He is like Blake Edwards in a way although their styles are vastly different.

Last year Melinda, the best singer, went home in third place. If history repeats itself David A should be leaving us. David Cook will be the 08 Blake and go home second.

Syesha will be this year’s Jordin. Lots of personality and a great voice. The entertainer wins in the end.

Will it happen? We will see!

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Jordin and Chris are taking center stage tonight on American Idol to sing their hit song No Air. And unless St. Peter calls me home this afternoon I plan to be there. Jordin Sparks won the AI contest last year as we all know and since then has put out a CD that has done very well. American Idol and this blog go together well. I started blogging because Jordin inspired me to be more creative.

But she has not been the only one to do that. There have been others on AI and there have been other shows as well. We live in an age where you can stand in line one day and be a successful and well known artist the next. That is what American Idol has done for many. And blogging has done the same thing for many others.

We live in an age where you can discover your talent and show it to the world. The world will then tell you what it thinks of your talent. But it’s not an all or nothing process anymore. There are many more avenues to success. So if you don’t make it to the finals on AI you can still end up with an Academy Award like Jennifer Hudson. I’m surprised no contestant has started a blog. Or maybe someone has and I have not gotten the word. They obviously would have the basis for a very successful enterprise on the internet.

So focus on your talent and start thinking about where you would like to go. Reality television has taught us that we are all in this together. And just because you are not the next great pop star doesn’t mean you will be pushed into obscurity. As long as you don’t do something totally ridiculous and turn everybody off. That has happened a few times. But it seems like we have all decided to start promoting from within instead of letting some dude in a penthouse office do it. We have joined the discovery process and it is a great thing for all of us.

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Update: Well, Jordin and Chris did their song tonight and they sounded fabulous. Jordin has amazing eyes. If you watched the show I’m sure you must have noticed when the camera first found her how brilliant are her eyes. And she did a great job. She is going to be a great star. Chris already is a big star. And the two of them together bring excitement to millions of young people who need great role models.

I’m sure all the comments about them being a couple are going to start up again here. But I am telling you guys Jordin doesn’t have time for that stuff right now. She is working very hard and learning her craft. She is building the frequent flying miles.

And two people in show business do not a happy couple make.

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Vote for Jordin and No Air on the BET Award Show here

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I guess now would be a good time to review the first quarter of activity here at Virginia Breeze. My motivation for blogging is low. Maybe it is spring fever. Maybe it’s the fact that everyone has gone away. I don’t know. But we can put some figures up here for the record and then go do something else. The woodworking shop is calling me.

First of all I would like to share with you a neat and very simple utility I just found for taking screen shots. All you do is right click on take a photo which immediately is sent to Picasa or wherever in JPG form. You can’t ask for better service than that.

And here it is.

And here are all the funny figures courtesy of Google. If I could only look at one stat it would be Google’s top content. Because it tells me what readers are interesting in seeing. And, hopefully, if I am not feeling too stupid when I read this info I will immediately try and create something else that is in some way similar to something at the top of this list.

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Here are the stats from the first quarter. They are nothing to write home about as you can see. Return visits are way too low. The bounce rate is about fifty percent. Time on page is under two minutes.

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And here are the stats from the last thirty days. These tell me that readership has gone up but the amount of time each reader spends here on average has gone down. Sometimes I think that those two things just go together.

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So after about nine months of blogging this is what has happened. A lot of the enthusiasm for blogging has gone out the window. But the need to blog is still with us. And I know much more about how to do it. As we all do if we continue to practice.

Will I continue to do it? A month ago I would have said definitely “yes”. Now I am not so sure. Right now the only readers commenting are fans of Steph Jones, Chris Brown and Rhianna. I don’t even know who Rhianna is. Apparently they are friend’s of Jordin.

I wouldn’t mind except that their comments go like this one from anonymous. . .

“honestly stephan was an enyce model back when i met him here in nyc… he’s not 24-25 he’s got an 8year old daughter check it out and use to roll with Joe the singer. lol its so funny how he embellishes his history… cracker!”

Fascinating.