The auditions continued yesterday night, this time in Dallas, Texas, where Kelly Clarkson auditioned in the first season.  To be honest, I did not remember much out of tonight's show. 

The standout female audtioner was this girl Kady Malloy, who can imitate the voices of several singers.  She sang ala Britney Spears, then ala Carrie Underwood.  The judges asked her to sing in her own style, and she did "Unchained Melody".  She was given the three thumbs up even before she reached the chorus.  The first girl Jessica Brown was also very good in her rendition of "I'll Stand By You," and she brought with her her story of success over drug addiction.  There was also this back-up singer Pia who fixed her hair like a Mohawk and sang Gladys Knight. 

Among the men, there was no clear winner.  The best was this guy Colton Swon who sang a good driving version of a country rock song called "The Boondocks".  There was this farmboy Drew, who was given a generous backstory complete with his family, his tractor driving and hay chewing.  There was this geeky choir member Kyle who wore a tie.  And that guy Brandon who had to reveal his secret of collecting his old fingernail clippings (!) in order to get airtime, and a golden ticket.

Of course there were the kooks.  I was very dismayed at that last overlong segment with this Pinoy guy Reynaldo Lapuz, who was already 44 and clearly had no business being there.  He wore this glittery Elvis inspired outfit to gain attention and airtime.  I may have found it funny at first, but it was certainly drawn out too long, with Randy, Paula and Ryan joining in and dancing around the poor guy as he sang his original composition "Brothers Forever" repeatedly as they all had a good laugh about it.  They did have a funny ending to this whole sham, by showing Simon all aglow with a halo, as Reynaldo was praising his "goodness" effusively.

They go to San Diego next week.  So let's hope there we can get to see a genuine Pinoy talent get through to Hollywood.

I can't believe that American Idol is upon us again!  This Season 7 starts in Philadelphia, and as usual there were good singers and those who just want their 15 seconds of "fame/notoriety" on TV.  I do not really like these auditions where they would purposely choose people with physical (and psychiatric) defects with the aim of getting a laugh out of the audience. 

This time, they even allowed two overaged guys (both of whom I could not believe are younger than me!) to have their time with the judges.  The first guy sang a self-composed "inspirational" song called "No Sex Allowed", and the second guy sang a self-composed stalker's ode to Paula Abdul (quite funny lyrics in a perverse way "If I were Colombo, I'd Peter Falk her" and so on...).  Simon called both guys "creepy".

Other crazies included this guy who wore what looked like a Princess Leia bikini.  His chest hair bothered Paula, so he actually went out and had it waxed!  Obviously this was orchestrated by the production since they had a camera at the waxing salon (yucch!).  There was also this girl with a Princess Leia (again!) obsession.  Craaazy!

They spent a lot of time on Temptress Brown, a mature-looking obese 16 year old girl, who was doing this to help her morbidly obese, wheelchair-borne mother on oxygen.  She said she will sing "I'm Not Going Nowhere" by Jennifer Hudson, which turned out to be "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going".  Unfortunately, it was a bad rendition, and she did not get through.  The judges (yes, including Simon) escorted her out and met her family.

There were good auditions as well.  The beautiful horse-trainer cum cage-fighter from Oregon Kristy Lee Cook (her album cover in the photo) who allegedly sold a horse to make it to the auditions.  She sang an amazing "Amazing Grace".  The final auditioner was pretty Brooke White, who was a nanny who never watched an R-rated movie in her life.  She sang a short but sweet "Like A Star" by Corinne Bailey Rae.  They both got in.  However, news on the internet reveal they both had record deals previously already.  Let's see how they pan out.

Among the guys, there was this 19 year old guy Joey who lost 200 pounds (!) for the auditions, who sang Maroon 5's "Sunday Morning" and got in.  There was also a young man Chris from Dover, Delaware who also looked and sang very well.

Let's see tonight what happens in Dallas, Texas for the second day of auditions.