United 93

I just got back from viewing the new film about the story of United 93 on September 11, 2001. The movie succeeded in the fact that it didn't stoop to Hollywood dramatics or sensationalism. It genuinely was created to make you feel like you were on flight 93 yourself. Every attention to detail was given to the highest degree. Even though you leave the theater with a sense of exhaustion and sadness, you also leave knowing that you witnessed the true story of true American heroes. It has been a long time since I left a theater in that context. I highly recommend this film.

No More Calermari For Kellie

Kellie is gone.

Simon rightfully apologizes to Katherine.

Andrea Bocelli and David Foster show up every artist who has ever hit the American Idol stage.

It was a great results show.


Remember to vote in the tommybailey.com poll. What would be the next great theme night?

Boring, Dull, Lifeless

Who do you think will be the bottom 3? Vote now in the tommybailey.com poll.

My biggest fear was that American Idol this week was going to be boring, and the fear was justified. I thought some of the contestants performances were so-so, but no one stood out as a star (maybe Chris, but even he wasn't the great compared with other episodes). Altogether, I think it was lifeless. I am looking forward to hearing Andrea Bocelli. Let's hope some of these contestants are saying a Prayer for tomorrow's results.


Katherine McPhee: She sang her heart out, and I thought she did pretty well. Something was missing though. The beating she got from the judges was unjustified, they were ruthless for no reason.


Elliott Yamin: Incredible singer no doubt, but it wasn't the best song, a little boring at times. The judges praised him like he had just won a Grammy award, again, unjustified for the opposite reason of Katherine. And Paula started crying why?


Kellie Pickler: Goodbye


Paris Bennett: I thought it was good, best vocal of the night. The tune was a little dated, but her stand-out performance won me over.


Taylor Hicks: Not his best night, not his worst either, but man, I love to listen and watch him perform. I love soul.







Chris Daughtry: The coolest performance of the night, but not the best vocal by any means. He's safe.

Remember to vote in the tommybailey.com poll.

Andrea Bocelli

Can Andrea Bocelli really bring out the best of the Idols? I'm concerned that tonight is going to be boring. Really boring. I could be wrong, and I hope and pray that I am. Don't get my words minced, I like Andrea Bocelli, but there is a time and place for everything under the sun and on the stage.

I'm just wondering who picks the "Featured Artist" for each week. My imagination tells me they sent a legal pad around the office and let the old guys in suits write down their favorite artists. Barry Manilow anyone?




There are some great classic musicians (U2, Paul McCartney, etc) who could bring some life to this competition, why have we not seen them (barring of course Stevie Wonder). I'm just dreading the theme night of "The Music of Cher".

Love Songs

Tonight has the potential of being a really great show. Most of these contestants could pull off a really good love song. Not to be redundant, but this night truly is about song choice, song choice, song choice.

If we all put down our biases for a moment, and look back at the history of American Idol, there hasn't been a top six with quite as much diversity and talent. All six of these contestants can sing very well when they are on top of their game. Let's just hope that is the case tonight.

Remember to vote tonight, and also vote on the tommybailey.com poll (Who do you believe will go home this week?)

Icelandic Idol, and Other Things You Don't Care About

For those of you interested in Icelandic Idol, the winner for this year is Snorri Snorrason, 28. Congrats Snorri.



Now, if we can just get a suitable American Idol.

Remember to vote for the Idol you think is going home this week.











Here is a list of other international "Idol" shows:
(click here for links to the official websites of these international shows)

• Arab World, SuperStar [2] -- Diana Karazon, Ayman El Aatar, Ibrahim El Hakami
• Armenia,
  
• Australia, Australian Idol [3] -- Guy Sebastian, Casey Donovan, Kate DeAraugo
• Belgium, Idool 2003/Idool 2004 [4] -- Peter Evrard, Joeri Fransen
• Brazil, Ídolos [5]
• Canada, Canadian Idol [6] -- Ryan Malcolm, Kalan Porter, Melissa O'Neil
• Croatia, Hrvatski Idol [7] -- Žanamari Lalić, Patrick Jurdić
• Czech Republic, Česko hledá SuperStar [8] -- Aneta Langerová, Vlastimil Horváth
• Denmark, Idols [9] -- Christian Mendoza, Rikke Emma Niebuhr
• Ethiopia, Ethiopian Idols [10][1]
• Finland, Idols [11] -- Hanna Pakarinen, Ilkka Jääskeläinen
• France, A La Recherche De La Nouvelle Star/Nouvelle Star [12] -- Jonatan Cerrada, Steeve Estatof, Myriam Morea
• Germany, Deutschland Sucht den SuperStar [13] -- Alexander Klaws, Elli Erl, Tobias Regner
• Greece, Super Idol [14] -- Stavros Konstantinou
• Iceland, Idol Stjörnuleit [15] -- Kalli Bjarni, Hildur Vala Einarsdóttir, Snorri Snorrason
• India, Indian Idol [16] -- Abhijeet Sawant, Sandeep Acharya
• Indonesia, Indonesian Idol [17] -- Joy Destiny Tobing, Mike Mohede
• Kazakhstan, SuperStar KZ [18] -- Almas Kishkenbayev, Kayrat Tuntekov
• Latin America, Latin American Idol [19] - To premiere Mid 2006
• Malaysia. Malaysian Idol [20] -- Jaclyn Victor, Daniel Lee Chee Hun
• Netherlands, Idols [21] -- Jamai Loman, Boris Titulaer, Raffaëla Paton
• New Zealand, NZ Idol [22] -- Ben Lummis, Rosita Vai
• Norway, Idol [23] -- Kurt Nilsen, Kjartan Salvesen, Jorun Stiansen
• Philippines, Philippine Idol (Officially Philippine Idol: The Search for a Superstar) [24]
• Poland, Idol [25] -- Alicja Janosz, Krzysztof Zalewski, Monika Brodka, Maciek Silski
• Portugal, Ídolos [26] -- Nuno Norte, Sérgio Lucas
• Russia, Narodniy Artist [27] -- Aleksey Goman, Ruslan Alehno
• Serbia and Montenegro / Macedonia, Idol -- Cveta Majtanović, Mina Laličić
• Singapore, Singapore Idol [28] -- Muhammad Taufik Batisah
• Slovak Republic, Slovensko hľadá SuperStar [29] -- Katarína Koščová, Peter Cmorík
• South Africa, Idols [30] -- Heinz Winckler, Anke Pietrangeli, Karin Kortje
• Sweden, Idol 2004/Idol 2005/Idol 2006 [31] -- Daniel Lindström, Agnes Carlsson
• Turkey, Turkstar -- Emrah Keskin

Who's Going Home

Who do you believe is going home this week on American Idol? Vote for your choice to leave on the new "poll of the week" on the sidebar.














My vote would go for Elliott. He has an incredible voice, but has three things going against him:
1. He's been in the bottom three multiple times
2. He hasn't proven that he has stage presence
3. He looks like Mr. Tumnus from Chronicles of Narnia

Just Reminiscing

I was just recalling what it was like to fill my gas tank up for $15, not $40. I could actually afford a pack of gum when I went to the gas station, now I just have to grab handfuls of mints at restaurants.



In light of this nostalgia I have decided to sell my car and buy a personal transporter to save gas. What do you think.

Work Hard, Sleep Later

I hope you know I'm not picking on Bush and his staff, but I thought this picture was worthy of posting. It's Vice President Cheney sleeping while Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is talking. You know I hear that Bush really pushes his staff to the limit.

By the way, let's continue to vote in my latest poll on why you think Bush's approval ratings are so low. (the amount of people that read this website far outweighs the amount of people who comment and vote, so let your voice be heard, don't be a passive reader).

peace.

Reason for Bush's low approval ratings:
	The economy
	Iraq
	His staff
	The American public has ADD and needs a change
Free polls from Pollhost.com

33% Approval

What are your suggestions to boost the approval of President Bush?

Is his approval due to:

The economy?
Iraq?
His staff?
Or is the American public ADD and ready for something new?

Reason for Bush's low approval ratings:
	The economy
	Iraq
	His staff
	The American public has ADD and needs a change
Free polls from Pollhost.com

A Little Drink Won't Hurt :)

A little drink won't hurt. :)

"That's All" For Ace

Well, the Backstreet Boy's long lost member finally got the boot from American Idol.  Even though I was never a huge fan, the ending video with "Bad Day" always make me regret ever saying anything negative about the contestant.  But I got over it. Goodbye Ace, I'm sure you'll have a career in music no problem, and if that doesn't work out, you can at least fall back your your hair bun styling technique, there's a big market for that right now.  

On to next week.  Love songs.  Could be good, could be bad, you never know. Rod Stewart really suprised me, even though he's not the best singer in the world, I thought he was one of the most refreshing "celebrity" musicians on the show.  At least he was better than Shakira. 

peace.

Let The Show Go On

Okay, after the past few weeks I thought American Idol was running into a wall with its ridiculous themes, and to be honest, I thought last night would be another bore, but I was wrong.  It was a great show.  Even though standards are not my favorite songs in the world, the contestants overall did a stand up job.

Here are my favorites of the night:

Taylor: I just have to admit that I really like Taylor.  It seems that he just has music inside of him, and when he really performs it spills out.  He did a great job with the Sam Cook tune.


Chris:  He really showed that he can sing, and sing well, I was overly impressed with this take on "What A Wonderful World".  It was wonderful (insert lame joke laugh here).


Paris:  This girl can sing.  Period.


I still have to give props to Katherine, she also can sing like no other.  I agree with Simon that she was the best singer of the night, but I still think she lacks in the personality department.  I feel the exact same about Elliott.

The bottom three will be:
Ace
Kellie
Elliott

It's tough to predict who will go home, but if I was to guess, I would say Kellie. (I know, she has a huge fan base, yada, yada, yada, but she really hurt herself with her self deprication. I'm not sure anyone wants to vote for someone who doesn't even believe they did well themselves.  If not her, Ace (it's ironic that his song choice was "That's All).

Easter Weekend at NCC

I love Easter.  It is my favorite season, and this past weekend is no exception. 

Just to keep you updated on the happenings at Northview, we had over 900 people this past weekend come to one of our iDefy weekend experiences.  One of the most beautiful sites anyone could ever see is people proclaiming together in community that our God reigns.  What a day it was.  Well, I'm off to get the planning started for the next weekend and series.  

Oh yeah, American Idol is tonight. Rod Stewart. Yea.

Northviewcc.com

This may not interest anyone, but occasionally I will post videos or pics from my church where I am the Creative Arts Pastor, Northview Community Church. This video is for our newly redesigned website northviewcc.com. Check it out sometime. Peace.

Commander in Chief

According to most conservative news sites and radio shows no one likes ABC's "Commander in Chief".  I, on the contrary, really enjoy the show, and am looking forward to the new episode tonight.  I am a big fan of NBC's "West Wing" (have been for a while), and was hoping that Commander in Cheif could be it's succesor (although, I'm not sure that is going to happen, the West Wing was a brilliant show respected by both sides of the aisle for its quality of drama, and I'm not seeing the same type of quality yet on CIC).  

Am I the only one who likes this show (actually, I'm not, 10.5 million viewers watched the last episode)?

Not so lucky, Bucky

Well, the results are in, and the Buckster has left the building.  Is it just me, or after watching the end video for each contestant who gets kicked off (the one with slow motion shots and the song "Bad Day") you feel bad for he/she.  Just an observation (they try to guilt you into voting). 

So next week we have Rod Stewart.  Sounds fun.  My guess is that this will be an amazing night for Taylor. Since the song choices are pop standards Taylor could go with something soulful and take all.  It's a possibility that next weeks show could be really good.  My guess is that Bucky fans will trend toward Kellie, some could go to Chris, but Bucky was 90% country and 10% rock.  Let's all hope for good song choice.

p.s. Did anyone feel really bad for Elliott and his "hometown" video sharing every single health problem he ever had?  I don't think he was crying out of sentimental reasons, but out of reasons of embarrasment.  Poor Eliott.

I'm Just Not Sure

I'm just not sure the American Idol producers know what we want to hear. Maybe there is some producer who is a closet Queen fan and really wanted to do a Queen theme night. I thought most of the performances were okay. My favorite was Taylor, just for sheer performance value, but even he sounded a little odd. The hope for next week is that someone stellar would stand out, the last three weeks have been flat.

My pick for bottom 3:
Ace, Bucky, Katherine

My guess is that Ace will go home. His arrangement of We Will Rock you was cool, but his performance was less than amusing. Did he really think he could do a rock tune of that magnitude. Can't you just see it now...the Backstreet Boy's next single--We Will Rock You. blah.

Song Choice, Song Choice, Song Choice

WARNING: THIS POST COULD SPOIL THE SURPRISE OF AMERICAN IDOL TONIGHT, AND IT ALSO COULD MAKE YOU LAUGH HYSTERICALLY. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Here are the song choices for our contestants tonight. I'm just not sure about Kellie Pickler and Bohemian Rhapsody...yikes. Oh, and Bucky...no.

•Ace Young, We Will Rock You: "I urbanized the verses a little, just by riding on (the notes). I put a little R&B soul on it. When we were done, they said, 'That sounds like a record.' "

•Bucky Covington, Fat Bottomed Girls: "Yes, we all love the fat-bottomed girls."

•Chris Daughtry, Innuendo: "It's a relatively unknown song. It just had a mixture of a dark feel and a positive message. And I just found out they've never performed this live."

•Elliott Yamin, Somebody to Love: "I was drawn to the passionate emotion of the song. I heard a lot of soul in it."

•Katharine McPhee, Who Wants to Live Forever: "How could (this) not be fun? We're working with so many different legends."

•Kellie Pickler, Bohemian Rhapsody: "We only have 1 minute and 30 seconds, and the song is really long. Having to cut so many pieces is really hard to memorize, because I'm not singing the song as it's originally played."

•Paris Bennett, The Show Must Go On: "Being with the band was a big experience to me, never being with a rock band before. I was able to pick a song that fits me, that's still rocky."

•Taylor Hicks, Crazy Little Thing Called Love: "You listen to a Queen song, it's really melodic and very powerful, and the dynamics (are) really cool."

The Music of Queen

Out of all the musicians, bands, and superstars this world has to offer the producers at Americal Idol decided to use the music of "Queen" for this weeks theme. Interesting choice? Fun choice? Terribly ridiculous choice? I guess we will see tonight. My only concern is that someone will try to outdo Constantine's epic version of Bohemian Rhapsody from last year, those are tough shoes to fill. My picks for tonight's best performers: Chris, Taylor, Paris

Oh, and remember to vote, we all know what happened last time.

Palm Sunday

Today is Palm Sunday, the day that followers of Christ all over the world celebrate that God came into this world, wrapped himself in humanity, and lived a human life. It is because he came that followers all over the world can say "If the son has set you free, you are free indeed".



God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it.

John 3:17

This Weekend at Northview

This weekend at Northview we are doing part 1 of our series iDefy...iCame (Palm Sunday). This weekend is going to be incredible. Every element of our worship experience is going to point to the fact that the Son of God came to this earth, wrapped himself in flesh, and lived a human life. What an amazing God. The video below is one element of this week that I thought I would share. It is a video piece designed to accent the beautiful story told in the song "Why" by Nicole Nordeman. Enjoy this Easter season. The reason this season exists is how we know Jesus Christ is the redeemer and savior of the world.



Mark 11

The Triumphal Entry

1As Jesus and his disciples approached Jerusalem, they came to the towns of Bethphage and Bethany, on the Mount of Olives. Jesus sent two of them on ahead. 2"Go into that village over there," he told them, "and as soon as you enter it, you will see a colt tied there that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 3If anyone asks what you are doing, just say, `The Lord needs it and will return it soon.' "
4The two disciples left and found the colt standing in the street, tied outside a house. 5As they were untying it, some bystanders demanded, "What are you doing, untying that colt?" 6They said what Jesus had told them to say, and they were permitted to take it. 7Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their garments over it, and he sat on it.

8Many in the crowd spread their coats on the road ahead of Jesus, and others cut leafy branches in the fields and spread them along the way. 9He was in the center of the procession, and the crowds all around him were shouting,


"Praise God![a]
Bless the one who comes in the name of the Lord!

10
Bless the coming kingdom of our ancestor David!
Praise God in highest heaven!"[b]
11So Jesus came to Jerusalem and went into the Temple. He looked around carefully at everything, and then he left because it was late in the afternoon. Then he went out to Bethany with the twelve disciples.

Mandisa We'll Miss You

Tonight America voted off Mandisa.  I could say a lot of things, but the only thing I'm going to say is that America voted off the best singer on American Idol.  She'll be missed.

This has showed me that it may be time to start voting, because my guess is that the majority of those who watched American Idol last night would not have voted off Mandisa, so it was left up to only those who had the gumption to vote. Shame on me.

Oh, and, the music of Queen? Give me a break.

Goodbye Ace

Ace will leave American Idol tonight. That is my final analysis.

Bottom 3:
Ace, Taylor, Elliot

Headline: Apple Achieves World Domination

Apple is apparently moving towards world domination with their latest surprise.  Windows on a Mac.  Many people who have to use Windows due to business technologies, but miss the elegance and simplicity of the Mac can now rejoice.  Smart people out there at Apple.

The Worst They've Ever Had

For that last 2 weeks American Idol performances have been consistently in the dumps.  From the first note tonight I could tell this was going to be another let down.  

The biggest disappointment of the night was Taylor Hicks.  Taylor is probably my favorite contestant (out of any season), and I think he could still do very well, but tonight was a terrible night for him, but my guess is that he'll be back next week like a storm.  




We all know Mandisa and Paris can sing, but they didn't show their strengths tonight.  



Katharine has always been boring to me, but she gave us a little more tonight, no mistaking she has a great voice, just not the X factor.



Elliott was good, but forgettable, use the voice dude, don't listen to Kenny Rogers (the author of boredom).  



Even though Kellie isn't a favorite of mine, she did pretty well tonight.  



Ace has got to go, period (could someone remind him that the Backstreet Boys went out with the trash in 1999).  



And then there is Bucky, he's like the fly you continue to try to swat, but it just keeps flying away by an inch. My fear is that he has done that tonight, he wasn't good, but he may be good enough for that mystery fan base of his (who really votes for Bucky?).  



Chris was the star of the show in my opinion, he showed that he can sing and not just yell. Good song choice as well.

So that leaves the question, who will be voted off tomorrow?  If it was based purely on the performances tonight I think Taylor would be gone (I hate to say it), but I think he has enough of a fan base to be safe (I'm in that fan base). My guess is Ace or Elliot. They are both somewhat forgettable.  Who knows, what do you think?


Taylor why, oh why.

Easter at Northview

This Easter at Northview Community Church (where I work as the Creative Arts Pastor) we are doing a series titled iDefy. I won't give you all the details here, you can go to northviewcc.com for that, but I thought I would show you a promo piece I created for this series. Because of the wonderful technology that is YouTube, you can view it right here. Let me know what you think. Also, be watching this blog because I'm going to be a mad blogger these coming weeks of American Idol. Peace.

Back to Blogger

Okay, so I moved my blog to Apple's iWeb, and I loved it, but there was one thing...no comments. How was I supposed to know if you were reading or responding to anything I was saying? Well, I believe that blogs are meant to be interactive, so I decided to go back to Blogger, I chose a new look as well, something simple, bright, and cool. Let's let the blogging games begin again. Hopefully I'll post more often now that I know people are actually reading. Peace.