A Man. And His Blog.

Katy Perry feels dirty, especially in this top

Welcome to the hometown of the American Idol auditions. This time the judges look for the next best thing among the crowds of the city of angels. 11.000 hopefuls came down to the auditions, only to live their one dream: to be the next American Idol.
Guest judge of the episode is the Canadian singer/songwriter Avril Lavigne. I hope she has to say more than the other guest judges before, because Avril is the first one I really like from the guest judges.

The first contestant of the day is 19-year-old Neil Goldstein, with an IQ of 168. That makes him “a pretty smart guy”, he is a geek, reads books, is way into computers, is into music, is into dancing. And he has an awkward haircut and an awkward sound, when he is doing … things with his mouth. Neil says he is going to get that ticket to Hollywood – come what may, come fire, come rain. He sings Meat Loaf’s “Rock ‘n Roll Dreams Come True”, and already fails after the first line. Well, Simon said he is not going to Hollywood, and as Neil stated at the beginning, he is not going anywhere, until he is going to Hollywood.
The first discussion in Los Angeles can begin, and we have another one of those non-listeners.

27-year-old father of three children and pastor Jim Ranger tries the most difficult thing and sings an original song during the audition. From the start Jim could wow the judges, though Avril is not very sure, if he would leave his job in the church and family to be on the road as the next best superstar (FINALLY, somebody mentions it!), which is why she said “No”, and which is why Kara was short before saying “No”, asking herself how Jim could do everything at one. Nevertheless he got the golden ticket and we will see him to Hollywood.

28-year-old Mary Powers has a daughter, who loves Simon Cowell, and she sings Pat Benatar for her audition. While Avril had fu during the audition, she was resembling Serena Ryder (at least for me). Avril thinks it is punk rock and it is cool, Simon says “Yes”, and Mary got the golden ticket. Do we have the next punk rock star in the making?
Well, we will get the answer during the Hollywood round, but first: Mary’s daughter is meeting Simon for the first time, and he asked if Mary’s sure she isn’t his daughter. I think he failed to deliver a joke…

The second day of the Los Angeles auditions had quite a surprise: Avril Lavigne was gone, instead Katy Perry was now the guest judge. This was obviously the end of the “one guest judge per audition” plot. I was already sad that Kristin Chenoweth had only one day as a judge, now we see two different judges in one episode. Hm…
At least Katy said she will be very brutally honest and she will not letting anybody off the hook.
19-year-old Austin Fullmer is the first contestant of the second day, and he is giving a cray performance while singing “Surrender” by Cheap Trick. Either Katy had much fun during Austin’s audition or she really was scared, like she said at the ending. Kara thinks Austin is a cheap Mick Jagger in an Iggy Pop body. And when it was obvious that Austin won’t be going to Hollywood, he started to start a discussion. But fortunately Simon stopped it, before it even began. So, we will not see Austin again. And Katy is freaked out about him.

26-year-old Tasha Layton hopes to be one of the few women, who gets the golden ticket. The female contestants were out of luck during the second day, and Hollywood surely needs more women to sing for their dreams. Tasha tries it with a song by Joss Stone. After the audition, Katy loves her, Simon loves her, Randy gives her one more shot, and Kara says “Yes” as well. Now we have to see, if Simon is right, will we see a “Oh Happy Day” medley, when she is coming into the Top 12?

21-year-old Jason Greene will be the next awkward contestant of the day, and you can not only say that, because of the previews. He already starts awkward his screentime, while saying he is a student and he has talent and is believing in magic. Oh yeah, and he is “wonderful”. Jason sings “I Touch Myself”, and it is already uncomfortable for Simon, after Jason finished the first line of the song.
Well, Jason’s critics are all about being uncomfortable, and especially Katy feels dirty. So, Jason got a “No” from all the judges, and I hope he doesn’t come back next year, like he said he would.
That he is giving Ryan his number, is another thing… What an awkward, ehm, guy.

25-year-old Chris Golightly has a difficult life behind him. He grew up in foster care and was living with over 25 different families. The music was his only constant in life, the music was always comfortable for him. For his audition he sings “Stand By Me”.
Chris is one of Kara’s favorites, maybe the favorite, but Katy is brutally honest with everybody and says that they are not in a Lifetime movie (whoa, this was probably the best joke so far this season). Simon has some doubts about Chris and gives him a small “Y”, why Katy has respect about where Chris is coming from, he is getting a small “Y” from her as well. But Kara and Randy gave him a big one, so we will see Chris in Hollywood.

Seriously, the producers should think about bringing Katy in as a new judge. She was hilarious during her 20 minutes of screentime. She kinda bitched around against Kara, she was almost always on the same line with Simon, and she always had a nice joke on her lips. She really blew me away as a guest judge, and even though I don’t really like her as a musician. Basically, I only like her because of her resemblance to Zooey Deschanel.
The Los Angeles auditions were like the other ones: solid, good, crazy, completely normal. So, see you in Dallas.