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  • The X Factor USA Recap: Season 3 – And Then There Were 8

    X Factor usa recap

    Last weekend’s vote was a surprise for me. I’ll admit that Khaya Cohen was stiff, but vocally, there’s no way she should’ve been eliminated yet. And while I was the opposite of a Tim Olstad fan, I don’t think he should’ve left the show before Carlito Olivero. However, since that last elimination was a mentor vote based on the sing-off, I guess it was Tim’s own fault he left earlier.

    But so far, out of all the voices, the only voice eliminated who could’ve actually won this show was Cohen, so I guess we’re doing a good job at keeping the right voices on the show.

    It’s time for the X Factor USA recap.

    Performances of the night

    I’ve never been a Jeff Gutt fan. I’ve always found him too pouty, too depressed and overly dramatic. But, with his performance of Feeling Good, he finally won me over. The guy is a single dad with a great story, but until that performance, I felt like he was pretending. That dude is real now.

    Ellona Santiago may have tied Jeff for my favorite performance of the night with Mamma Knows Best. She’s a vocal powerhouse. Just watch.

    Duds of the night

    Once again, there wasn’t really a dud on the show. I may have to change the title of this portion of the post. If I were to rank the bottom two, it’d probably be Carlito Olivero and Josh Levi. And yet, both performances were the two strongest of each so far. They just aren’t as strong as the rest of the competition.

    Who are the front runners?

    After tonight, it’s definitely Ellona. She was the favorite of each mentor. Rion Paige is also having a heck of a competition. Her performance of Swingin’ opened the show strongly. She looked super nervous and then by the end, was rocking out. She’s really the heart of this show, which counts.

    Alex and Sierra

    I have decided to discuss them (well, specifically my new wife Sierra) each week as long as they’re around. How adorable is Sierra? So what if Alex sings better than her? Sierra’s the money behind the act. And yes, even with boring Alex, they are who I’m rooting for.

    They also had the most creative choice, doing a big band version of Taylor Swift’s I Knew You Were Trouble. While I don’t think it worked 100%, it was pretty ballsy. And yes, Sierra rocked it.

    Who goes home?

    It has to be Carlito right? Or will his fans vote for him in droves because they saw how vulnerable he was last week. I’d also worry about Josh. An outside chance to leave this thing is Lillie McCloud even though I really enjoy her.

  • Led Zeppelin… live on film

    Led Zeppelin… live on film

    Last night, I happened to catch Led Zeppelin… live on film. What a treat that was!

    I happened to be flipping channels last night and happened across AXS, a mysterious channel that seems to show a lot of concerts and such. Led Zeppelin circa December 2007 was playing. I didn’t know it at the time, but what I was watching was Celebration Day, a concert film that had the aging but still brilliant surviving rockers performing together for the first time in many years. There they were in living color. Lead singer Robert Plant is still sexy as ever with his wild mane of curly brown hair. Still boyishly handsome John Paul Jones was there, playing bass guitar and keyboards. Guitar god Jimmy Page was ministering to the crowd, masterfully playing lead guitar and appearing to enjoy every minute of the performance. Drummer John Bonham, who died in 1980, was replaced by his son, Jason, who was keeping up just fine.

    This concert film was made from footage taken at the Ahmet Ertegen Tribute Concert on December 10, 2007. It was filmed at London’s O2 arena to a packed and very enthusiastic crowd. While I probably wouldn’t have enjoyed being in that huge crowd myself, it was pretty cool to watch them react to the music, which was played in lower keys to suit Plant’s aging voice. I have to admit, Plant’s voice was in impressive shape for that concert. He doesn’t hit the notes he used to, but he comes close enough.

    I read some criticisms of Celebration Day on Amazon.com and some folks claimed that the band had gotten “sloppy”. Given the fact that three out of the four guys on stage were in their sixties at the time this show was filmed and were putting on an energetic show, I thought they did damn well. As of late 2007, it had been a long time since Led Zeppelin had worked together putting out fresh material, but I didn’t see any evidence that these guys had lose their mojo.


    Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir”…

    I’ve always loved Robert Plant’s charisma and vocals, but I have to admit that it was Jimmy Page who captured my attention as I watched this film last night. He looks like he’s having a blast as he effortlessly plays his guitar. John Paul Jones is also very impressive as he moves from bass to keyboards and back again. I may be wrong, but it seems to me that they don’t make bands like this anymore.


    I love this interview. Jimmy Page comes off as such a gent.

    Apparently, Jimmy Page broke his finger right before this concert was filmed, causing it to be postponed a couple of weeks. Knowing this, I am all the more impressed by how well he plays, since it takes time to recover from broken bones. If you are a fan of Led Zeppelin’s and haven’t seen this film yet, I highly recommend it.

  • I think I’ve arrived…

    I think I’ve arrived…

    Lately, I’ve been posting videos on YouTube. Last night, one of them was muted because of a copyright violation. I think I’ve arrived…

    I have sort of a fascination with YouTube. I love watching videos, especially of old TV commercials, PSAs, music videos, and television shows. Of course, most of those videos are uploaded without the proper authorization from copyright holders. It always amuses me when someone writes in the video description that they don’t own the copyright to whatever it is they’ve uploaded. As if the powers that be at some random media company or YouTube is going to care that you bothered to admit that you don’t have the proper license to share something. If they catch you and are so inclined, they’ll probably still yank the video or, perhaps less harshly, mute it.

    It took me a long time to start uploading videos to YouTube, mainly because of copyright issues. You see, I am not particularly interested in being on camera myself. I am very self-conscious about how I come across on film. I sound better than I look. I’ve also been to a lot of interesting places and have a lot of photos and videos. Several months ago, I finally broke down and started using Garage Band and iMovie, two software packages that have been on my computer and went unused for years. I’ve discovered that I like making movies and videos, as long as I don’t have to be on film.

    Maybe six or seven months ago, I started making videos with photos from my travels and music tracks. A few times, I used music made by a recording artist. Most of the time, I use karaoke tracks that I pay for and then provide vocals to. I know this isn’t quite legal and I would like to make it right, but they don’t make it simple to ask permission to use music. Wouldn’t it be something if music distributors offered a simple way to buy the rights to use music, kind of the way people who sell stock photos do? If I could find a simple and reasonably affordable way to purchase the rights to use music, I probably would in an effort to prevent copyright claims. I recognize that people who are creative should be getting paid for what they do. At the same time, I don’t have the ability to create entirely original music. Or, maybe I do… it would just take a really long time and a lot of effort.

    One thing I have noticed from uploading my videos is that I am attracting other musically inclined folks. There’s one guy in Scotland who plays guitar and piano who has offered to send me a track that I can add vocals to. If I hadn’t illegally uploaded a few videos featuring my vocals, that couldn’t have happened. Perhaps the next step is to make something totally original with an original melody and lyrics. I don’t see myself as able to write a melody, but I could probably write decent lyrics. I’ve never tried to, but writing comes somewhat easily to me. I’d love to give it the college try.

    Last night, when I saw the YouTube note letting me know that one of the music publishers had made a claim and the sound on my video was muted, I decided to remove the video altogether. It had been up for about six weeks and the people I wanted to see it had seen it, so it served its purpose. I still have the film on my computer and it still tears me up to watch it, even though it had only gotten about 25 hits on YouTube. I don’t tend to share my videos extensively, anyway.

    Even though I know that copyrights are important, I find it very difficult to create something entirely original. Every idea has an inspiration and many times, it comes from an unoriginal source. Sometimes, if I am in a public place taking video, there’s music being played that I couldn’t turn off even if I wanted to. I have a couple of videos on YouTube like that, too; and they got the matched third party content notice, though the videos are still playable. And I see on YouTube that copyright violations, while not legal, are certainly rampant. If they busted every single user for copyright infringement, they would have very few videos to show.

    Anyway, I don’t upload many videos to YouTube and after this first experience with a video being muted, I’m not sure how many more I will upload. I need to go on vacation again anyway, so I’ll have more photos and film. Even though I think I’ve arrived, maybe moviemaking isn’t my forte. On the other hand, the prospect of sharing music and collaborating with others from other lands is exciting to me. Maybe this will lead to another skill.

    shargram (in Scotland) and Doc Protool (in Italy) collaborating on The Beatles’ “Yesterday”.