The Voice

Katie February 8, 2012 2 Comments

The Voice is back! And even better – back after a Giants win at the Super Bowl!!  What is the over / under on how many times Adam is going to mention he won last season? Every time he turns his chair around and has to fight for a contestant? (That’s gonna get old fast!)

Night 1 Thoughts:

Rae Lynn – could take or leave her but no surprise she went with Blake.

Jesse Campbell – really good. And all 4 turned around!

Daniel Rosa – Not awful, but not all that impressed with him either and I guess the judges weren’t either

Juliet Simms – Im very biased on Oh Darling and believe other than the beatles Zac Hanson does the best rendition of this – but Juliet’s was not bad.

Chris Mann – Chris is a friend of One2OneNetwork! While I think he has a good voice, I’m not sure he is a fit for the show, so it will be interesting what they do with him, especially since the battle rounds are generally more mainstream songs and I don’t know that I want them to send him down that path. But.. we’ll have to wait and see what happens.

Tony Lucca – I love love love Tony Lucca. So so so glad all 4 turned their chairs around for him!  Looks like I am Team Adam again this year!

Night 2:

The Line –  I thought they had good harmonies… but I was surprised they went with Christina over Blake!

Jamar Rogers – Is this Danny Gokey’s friend from Idol? Or am I losing my mind? lol  (I looked it up. It’s him. Now my mom thinks I am crazy because I remembered him haha)  I think he and Cee Lo are a great match.

Neal Middleton – I thought he was good and kind of surprised no one turned!

Gwen – Glad she went with Blake – Adam turning around at the veeeryyy last second was kind of a lame move. Not to mention Blake will help her be more country than Adam.

Pamela Rose – I agree with the judges on this one.

Kim Yarbrough – Very good singer. Kind of shocked she went with Adam over Christina though!

Angie Johnson – Ive seen that video of her singing! Wow.  She’s really good 😀

Dez Duron – Cute…. but.. no thanks. Maybe ill bump in to you near Yale sometime…

Lindsey – I thought she had a great tone to her voice and I really liked her performance.

Hoja Lopez – This girl looks like the real life Lucy from peanuts. And Lucy is my favorite. So I want to like her. And then she comes out with some Katy Perry :/  She was really nervous and I think that really affected her performance so we say goodbye.

Jermaine Paul – very good even though im not a fan of the song choice.  Very surprised he went with Blake too, but we’ll see what happens!

Angel Taylor –  I am really sick of hearing Adele covers (in general) so that automatically knocked a few points from any score I’d give Angel.

Of course I am completely Team Adam and Team Tony so everyone since him has not wowed me. I’ll have to pick a couple other faves soon though 🙂

Karaoke Battle USA

Katie September 13, 2011 0 Comments

After the taping in July, I had mentioned that  I would give more detail once our episode aired.  The NYC episode aired on September 2nd – while I was away, so sorry for the delay with getting this posted! (And I am sorry that I didnt start writing this earlier so that I could remember more details! Oops!)

We went to the 4th and final taping, which was the end of the episode.   When they were playing the intro music, Joey said it sounded like “Born This Way”, which I had forgotten that he said until I was watching the episode back and heard the music.  I guess I was not being very observant the past few weeks when I had watched!

We got to see the final 2 guys and girls be chosen and sing their final song.  This made up of the majority of the episode.  I expect the other filming sessions had to sit through *everyone* performing, even though just clips ended up being shown, so I guess we chose the correct filming to be at, even though it was a really, really long taping…

First up was the guys, Joey did his “the votes have been verified” mumbo jumbo and then we waited what had to have been like 10 minutes for them to get reaction shots of all the front-runners.  Everyone had to sit there serious and anxious.  And then Corey Johnson was announced.  Then we did it all over again for the second person and Creigh Riepe was announced.  I think it was during this round (or maybe it was the one later) when they had to do Creigh’s chatting with Joey twice. The poor kid had to act all excited and shocked twice in a row! (Although he probably was still shocked and he did a great job both times)

Then it was time to announce the girls and get reaction shots of all of them… Brandi Thompson and Shantel Norman were announced.  The woman behind us was chanting quietly “Shantel, Shantel, Shantel” and went NUTS when her name was called.

We got to see all 4 finalists sing their final songs.  We had hoped that it would be Creigh and Shantel that were chosen, and they were.  We may be a bit biased – but that is who we will be rooting for throughout the competition!

(Edit): The above was written before the most recent episode aired.  We now have our top 8 down to our top 4!  Unfortunately Creigh did not make it (if WE voted, he would have, no doubt!) but Shantel did!  Here’s hoping she makes it to be the Karaoke Queen 🙂

Why I could never be on Big Brother

Katie September 2, 2011 2 Comments

Big Brother is one of my favorite reality TV show competitions. In fact, this year I decided to try and become a little bit more “in the know” and made the plunge in to subscribing to Showtime in order to get access to “Big Brother After Dark”. (Of course the fact that showtime also airs one of my favorite shows, Weeds and one of the family’s favorite shows Dexter helped a bit with the decision as well.)

However, I’ve been thinking about it and watching how boring everyone is for 3 hours every night has made me realize that there is absolutely NO way I would ever survive my time in the Big Brother house.

I’ve made a list of a few things that made me realize I couldn’t do it, and there are probably even more than this.

1. No computer / internet – While I’ve survived week (or so) long vacations without a computer or internet, I’m not sure I could survive it for several months. Vacations I either had my phone or a notebook as well.

2. No cell phones – No access to the outside world, my family, my friends, nothing. Just the other crazy house guests that I may or may not even get along with.

3. No paper / pencils! – If I am away without internet, I often keep a journal so that if I want to blog about things when I get back I have notes, or I can just toss the pages in to a scrapbook to read later to recap the event. (Half the things I wrote in my Rock Boat journal I’d never have remembered if I did not write down what had happened that day every time I went back to the room!)

4. B-O-R-I-N-G – It doesn’t seem like there is much to do in the house. The house guests sleep a lot. I’d probably get sick of sleeping all the time haha

5. I’d suck at endurance comps – If I won one, it would be a miracle. Which means I’d have less of a chance at winning H.O.H or Power of Veto if I end up being put up on the chopping block.

6. I’d never survive a week on slop – With Jordan being on slop 2 weeks in a row and the other options being fish both weeks, I realized like her, I’d probably end up on a steady diet of pickles. While I could probably use losing a few pounds, I am not sure that this is the way I would want to go about it. Plus being hungry would probably lead to me having headaches all the time and being grumpy. No one would want to be around me.

7. I wouldn’t want to be watched 24/7 – Creepy people who buy the live feeds (not to say that all are creepy) watching me all the time and picking apart any habits I might have? I’d probably stay clear of any of the internet chatter once I got home… but some of the house guests talk about being harassed on twitter or even in “real life” and I don’t think that I could handle that.

Platinum Hit Finale!

Katie August 14, 2011 0 Comments

The contestants are down to 3 – Scotty from New Orleans, Jes from NY and Sonyae from NJ.

The group each got to work with a producer, full band and backup singers! They had to perform their songs for an audience full of industry people.

Kidd Bogart stopped in to give each of the contestants some guidance with their songs.  Scotty had told Sonyae to change her song title, but then Kidd said she should change it back.

After working on their songs in the studio, the three had to perform them for an audience.  In addition to industry people in attendance, their families were as well!

The judges said that Scotty’s song was a miss this week and that he would not be winning Platinum Hit.  Then it was down to Jes and Sonyae.  It was a bit of a surprise to many that Jes ended up making the finale and even MORE of a surprise when many were saying that she had the best song of the night. (Her song was really good though – a great pop song)

It turned out that the winner of Platinum Hit and the recording deal, writing deal and $100,000 (among other prizes) would be Sonyae!

To be honest, it would have been more suspenseful if it came down to Scotty vs Sonyae since they seemed to be more consistent winning hook challenges week after week.  Once it was Jes vs Sonyae I kind of figured who had won.   I wish it could have been Scotty, but I think with this exposure he will be writing songs for others in no time. He really showed how great he was even if he did not take away the grand prize and title!

I don’t know if this show has gotten renewed for a second season or not, and I’m not sure I’d watch it if I didn’t “know” several of the contestants like I did this season.  Without Jackie and Scotty I’m not sure if I would end up… for lack of a better term… hooked!

Platinum Hit – Episode 9

Katie August 3, 2011 0 Comments

Our final 4 compete in this episode! Sonyae, Scotty, Nick and Jes all must write the hook for a POP song. This weeks guest judge is Perez Hilton. I am not a fan of his – but apparently he launched Lady Gaga and Katy Perry? really?

And then Perez Hilton had to say that he could hear Hanson singing Nick’s hook. Seriously? No. Get out of here, Perez. Nick’s song came in 4th because his lyrics failed to relay a complete thought. 3rd place went to Jes because her hook was not memorable enough for a pop song. Sonyae came in second and my boy Scotty came in first!

The songs were recorded and will be performed for high schoolers. Nick’s song went up first. I was not a fan of it. Jes’ song was up next. I think it made a lot of progress from the hook and the kids seemed more into it than Nick’s. Sonyae’s song Exit seemed to get a good response as well.  Scotty’s song was pretty good too… I thought it will be between him and Sonyae’s as the winner.

The teenagers and judges agreed – Sonyae’s song won and she has secured herself a spot in the finale!

Then it was time for 2 more to go through to the finale.  The second one going to the finale is Scotty!   The final decision came down to Nick vs Jes.

Jes makes it through! FINALLY… Nick’s ass is going home!!!!!!! yahoooooo.

Platinum Hit – Episode 8

Katie July 25, 2011 0 Comments

And then there were 5.  Jes, Nick, Brian, Scotty and Sonyae.

The theme was “Kiss the Flame” and that had to be incorporated in to the hook in some way.  As expected, we ended up hearing 5 very different hooks – but the winners of the challenge were: Scotty & Brian!

Brian got to choose first for his team and chose Jes. Scotty picked Sonyae.  Surprise, surprise, Nick was left as not being chosen.  Brian could choose to pick Nick or pass him to Scotty.  He decided to pass Nick off to Scotty’s team.

Jes opens up about an experience she had with assault to try and bring her sense of empowerment to the song.  Nick dibs the week “gay week” due to the subject matter of Scotty’s song.

Colbie Caillat is the guest judge this week. Nick likes.

To be honest, I wasn’t a fan of either of the songs – singing wise.  Jes sang Brian’s song and Sonyae sang Scotty’s.  But, this is a lyrics competition… and both were strong in that aspect, though I think I preferred Brian’s.

The person on the winning team that the judges believe are most responsible for the song’s success will win a spread in Spin magazine.

Scotty, Nick and Sonyae won the challenge. Brian or Jes will be going home.  Nick won the special prize since he was most responsible for the success of the song – as decided by the judges.

Jes has a bit of a meltdown back at the studio… but for nothing because it was Brian who was ultimately sent packing!

Platinum Hit – Episode 7

Katie July 18, 2011 0 Comments

This week on Platinum Hit we were down to 6 contestants.  All the writers were paired up and had to write as many hooks as they could to pitch.  The teams were Sonyae and Brian, Jes and Scotty and Nick and Johnny.

While 2 of the teams seem to hit it of quite well, Nick and Johnny did not.  What Nick and Johnny did not realize was that when they went to pitch their song (to Gavin DeGraw no less) only 1 hook would be pitched – not one from each of them.  Therefore, Nick letting Johnny go first (so that he could blow him out of the water by going second) came back to bite him in the ass when they had to expand on Johnny’s song.  The two of them could not work together at all and we saw sides of both of them that were less than stellar.

Jes and Scotty’s song was considered a good fit for Justin Bieber, so they had to expand on it as if it was going to be pitched to JB.  Sonyae and Brian’s song had to be worked on to be something that could be pitched to Beyonce.

It was no surprise when Johnny’s song (that Nick had next to no involvement with) lost.  Johnny was hopeful that since Nick didn’t help out, Nick would be the one to go home and was almost partying over that before they heard the results.  However, that ended up biting Johnny in the but when shockingly it was Johnny who was sent home!  Even the judges were a bit shocked with their own decision because they were all “team johnny” for a while in the competition, but this other side to him that we saw this week was terrible.

Word on Twitter is that we shouldn’t judge the songs based on the edited versions and that if you are interested in the full songs they can be bought on iTunes or watched on the Bravo website.

Brian, Sonyae, Scotty, Jes and Nick all have made it to the Final 5 – it will be interesting to see how things play out, especially since Nick says he is going to “change”. (I am not sure he can)  With one of my favorites, Johnny, leaving the show now – I am rooting for Scotty.  I also think Sonyae will do well in the remaining competitions even though I do not like her singing voice. (But it is a writing competition and not a singing competition!)

Platinum Hit airs on Friday nights at 8pm EST on Bravo.

Platinum Hit – Episode 6

Katie July 12, 2011 0 Comments

I thought Platinum Hit changed days/times due to the holiday on Monday, but apparently I missed the announcement that beginning July 8 it is now on Fridays at 8pm. Fortunately, my DVR was paying attention and recorded the episode for me 🙂

7 songwriters remain.  Sonyae has immunity.  They meet at the 3rd Street Promenade and are told by Kara they are going to write about risk… and perform the hook AT the promenade!  The 3 songwriters who end up with the most money from performing will win the challenge!

It was interesting to see the plans that each of the contestants had to try and get the passer-bys to give them money.  Nick was swearing at people and I am thinking that didn’t really go over well with people.  I know I wouldn’t give someone money who was begging/swearing for it no matter how good they were…

3rd place went to Jes with 14% of the money, 2nd place was Johnny with 27% of the money and the winner was Jackie with 43% of the total!

Jackie chose Scotty, Johnny chose Brian, Jes had to chose between Sonyae and Nick and went with Nick due to Sonyae’s immunity.  Scotty convinced Jackie to take Sonyae because she is great lyrically.

Then came an extra challenge – the song had to be written for a different genre than intended.  Jackie went with country, Johnny chose reggae and Jes took pop.

This weeks guest judge was Bonnie McKee who helped write Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream and California Gurls.

During Jes’ song they showed Johnny bopping along smiling, and then during Johnny’s song they edited Jes in watching it.  Gag me.

Johnny and Jackie’s teams were singled out to the stage and we found out that Johnny’s song won. (I would have to say, of the 3 that is the one I would be most likely to buy / listen to)  Of the other two songs, they had trouble trying to decide which was the worst – but ultimately decided it was Jackie’s.

Since Sonyae had immunity – Jackie or Scotty would be going home.

I am glad with who they picked. While she consistently seemed to win hook challenges, she was almost always in the bottom.  While I was rooting for her since I knew her from Idol, she definitely deserved to go over Scotty (another one I am rooting for)

Karaoke Battle USA Taping

Katie July 6, 2011 2 Comments

This post is going to be a bit vague as far as contestants because we were at the final taping from the East auditions so we know who is moving on and I don’t want to spoil anything.  When the show airs, I’ll post again 🙂

We got the the Gramercy Theater about an hour early, and there were maybe 5 other people waiting in line.  People from the earlier taping were leaving and we realized that they had been in there about 4 hours based on the time they were supposed to arrive.

Carnie Wilson is one of the judges and she walked by us and then a few minutes later Joey and one of the other judges walked out.  The girl in front of us in line called Joey over and he gave her a hug and talked to her a bit, but I just stared at him rather than saying anything! He had on a TON of makeup for the cameras.

When we were first let in, we asked about ADA seating (the tickets changed their tune and rather than seeming like they were discriminating it said to call for ADA seating – not sure why they had that write up to begin with because the audience just had to sit there and clap/cheer/sing along which is all I would have expected needing to do at a taping)  We were first placed off to the side and told they were re-setting the floor.    Then we were placed 2 seats in on the last row where the contestants were.  Then we were moved over 2 more seats.  This was a good view – but kind of weird to be in with the contestants.   (Although at this point we were all alone)  Finally, they realized they had just enough chairs for contestants and we had to go up the stairs to the stadium seating with the supporters and rest of the crowd.  I don’t know if they had a new crew for each city, or never had anyone needing seating anywhere else but it was a bit unorganized.  But they did apologize every time we were moved.

The audience just hung around for a while and then the contestants showed up (60 of them) We were the final show, so we would find out the Top 2 boys and Top 2 girls and then they would all sing and the top girl and guy would advance the LA.

Joey came out and was joking around and telling stories.  It always seemed like he was about to tell a really good story when one of the crew guys would cut him off so he could record his part.  Most of the stories he did end up finishing though.  He was making fun of Lance and Backstreet Boys (he said it was ok because he is friends with them), he talked a bit about how on the red carpet it was hard to concentrate because he had 2 people  talking in his ear, he was talking to a celeb and trying to come up with questions and pay attention to everything all at once (and that Lisa Rinna, though he likes her, would always talk about how ‘Wait someone is screaming in my ear!” and that he must be stupid to have been able to handle all that going on at once), talked a bit about how he was Tigger and a Country Bear at Disney…  And how one of the guys on the red carpet wasn’t nice to him so he kind of insulted him and then the next time he was nice haha

He recorded the opening several different times because they didn’t know if it would be the first show airing or if it would be later on in the season. (ABC says it starts on Mondays, the guy at the taping said it would air on Fridays so I have no idea who to believe at this point)

The judges were introduced and walked through the crowd… They spent FOREVER and a day taking close up shots of the judges on the stage (Did they really need an audience for that? Especially since Carnie kept telling the contestants to stop making her laugh!)

When Joey was announcing the Top 4  – they had to pause for like 5 minutes and get serious shots of everyone.  At first, this didn’t bother me since I had no idea who any of the contestants were so I wasn’t invested in them.  However, when it came time to announce the top girl and guy there were certain ones that I liked better so that time of the reaction shots was TORTURE! I can only imagine how the contestants felt.

The 4 contestants all sang a full song and then the judges talked about the performance. To be honest I thought one of the performances was pretty blah, but the judges all loved it.  The other 3 were really good though, I thought.

And the top guy announcement – they had to do TWICE! So he had to pretend the second time around he was still shocked and excited! (Which he probably was, but still lol the magic of television!)

We got in about 3pm and were let out just before 7.  I have to say, it was WAY too long to keep the audience and when people tried to sneak out they were told they couldn’t have any movement in the back. I’m not even sure the back area will EVER be on camera – I think you will just assume the audience was just the contestants, but I guess I’ll see next month when it airs.

Overall it was fun, but it just ended up being a really long day!