A Vending Machine Taunts Me

Anyways, so I put my one lonely dollar in the machine, punch in the code for my chips, and the little winding thing slowly moves, and my chips are about to fall when...the corner of the bag gets stuck behind the windy thing.

Noooo! (I think I actually said that out loud.)

I didn't have another dollar to buy another bag to free the first one, so all I could do was bang on the machine. It didn't move, of course, but it vibrated it enough that the chips bag started to ever-so-slowly slip out of the windy thing's grasp. I stood there, with two hands on the glass, staring at it and watching it while it sloooowly fell out. Someone came by at that moment, and they probably thought I was crazy. But, I got my chips, crazy be damned.

Anyways, that's probably way too many words put to a stupid vending machine story. This cold is kicking my butt in so many ways today. It's not like I'm a complete dripping, snotting mess, but I'm feeling extra exhausted, and my eyelids feel like they weigh about 10 pounds each. I had to meet with my boss this morning, and it was all I could do to not look like I was squinting at him.

I don't know how many times I can listen to the same one minute clip of a song over and over again, but apparently it's a lot. I just can't stop listening to that "Sober" clip. That high note slays me. On the other hand, you know what song I just don't get? That Umbrella-ella-ella song. How is that such a hit? I just don't understand that one at all.

AI Finale Rewind

Alright, time to take another stab at this. It actually isn't that bad, because there are unfortunately like no clips to be found of Justin's finale performances. Possibly because the songs written for them were not very good (and this comes from someone who could probably still sing both of those by heart). Both songs were also better suited to a belter's voice, so Justin was at a disadvantage here. Justin's performances were "Before Your Love," "Get Here," and "A Moment Like This."

I thought he did a pretty serviceable job on AMLT, but in both songs his voice sounded thinner than usual. He'd sung "Get Here" before on the show, so this performance was still good, but nothing new.

No problems finding Kelly's clips on YouTube, so here they are:

"A Moment Like This":

"Respect":

"Before Your Love" (lousy video, and it's actually of the time she reprised it on results night, but it was the only one available):

Results night had plenty of filler - it started even way back in Season 1 - although no real guest singers to speak of. Unless you count Will Young, the winner of the UK's "Pop Idol," but I don't. The top 10 do a number of medleys, and I wish I could find clips of these, because they're fun. I have this episode on TiVo, but I'm way to lazy to cap it myself. It was so much more enjoyable when they had all the finalists do all these medleys, instead of being reduced to being mostly backup singers.

There's also a cute and nice duet with Justin and Tamyra Gray on "With You I'm Born Again." These two sang nicely together. They're followed by Kelly and Will Young doing a duet of "Ain't No Mountain High Enough," and I can see why Simon said that US singers were much better than British singers, because this guy isn't that great. He's sorta cute, but his voice is yuck to listen to:

Finally, it's results time! (Ooooh, who will win?)

So much awesomeness there, made all the more perfect by Nikki's off-key warbling into the mic there at the end. Ah, Nikki. (Oh, and it seemed odd to me at first, but I guess "Sexy man! Sexy man!" - and "Ducka ducka ducka" - are Austin Powers references.)

And thus wraps up the first and best season of AI!