Week 3B - Los Angeles

LA - already overpopulated with oddball wannabes, should be a goldmine for weirdos...

Sure enough, the first entry they show us lives up to that premonition...
Eccentric is euphemistically well-named. Peculiar would have worked as well for me, and has the same number of syllables. I guess the millenial fad to be more outrageous than everybody else has not yet found its deserved end.

If Ever He's In My Arms...I'll run away screaming...with my ears covered!

Marianna Riccio's speaking voice suggests she can't manage anything lyrical. Yep.
Apparently she took Paula's and Randy's knee-bending yesterday as the thing to do to make up for it. Beautiful mom, though. Go sponsor mom in a beauty contest. or something.

I can tie my shoes! Let me through!

Alaina Alexander - not good enough for me, but hey, Simon thinks she's hot, and passed over Paula to garner Randy's support. Sneaky, these Brits.

Phuong Pham, or, better, Taylor Fan, or Pong, as Simon calls her - not so much.

Brandon Rogers - pleasant, but a leetle bit pitchy in spots. A welcome relief from prior auditions, but I'm not sure he can go the distance. The ladies will love him, though.

Brian Miller, former contestant - hasn't yet learned not to overpower the song, but has a chance to learn through the season, and is pleasant enough to listen to.

Sherman Pore, whose wife died of cancer - touching, and not at all bad for his age. Many of the younger crowd could learn a lot from him, about many things.

Cavett Carr, or Sparkles, did so poorly with her announcement that there wasn't much hope. Her overt overtures toward Simon were a little scary. I hope Darryl doesn't find out.

Oops. So much for that. Simon ratted her out, to cover his butt in case Darryl was jealous. But he can't sing.

Eric's eyes are too far north, too often, in his pre-audition interview, to suggest any connection with his body sufficient to sing a song. Yep. Apparently his pitch is somewhere up there with whatever his eyes are focused on. Hideous, apparently thanks to an Idol's training course DVD that I won't be buying any time soon.

*Sigh* - I grow weary to the bone of these auditions. The commercials are beginning to signify a dearly welcomed relief. Fortunately, there aren't many more to endure.

The rumor on the news is that Paula's being replaced. Perhaps this explains the frequent additional female judges we've been seeing...?

See you next week...

John