First swing of the year.

The warm weather for the last two days has been a real treat. Lauren knew immediately that she could play outside. It's been a nice change of pace.



Even the crocuses are peeking out:




***Begin American Idol muttering***

I have loved The Beatles since I was about 6 years old, when my Aunt Phyllis took one for the team and let me "borrow" her copy of The Beatles Second Album (Which oddly has never been released on CD. Please don't tell, but I bought a Russian bootleg copy a couple of years ago. They might send the KGB after me! And you don't want Lauren to have to eat borscht the rest of her life do you? No one wants that on their conscience.)

Back on tangent. I used to play that album over and over again and pretend that I was playing guitar using a badminton racket. It had some great covers of "Roll Over Beethovan," "Long Tall Sally," and "Please Mr. Postman."

My favorite Beatle has always been Paul, and if you know me personally, this will make complete sense to you.

Anyway, I'm not sure which surprised me most this week:

-The invincible David A. forgot the lyrics to "We Can Work it Out" not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES.

-Chikeze, yes, THAT Chikeze, had the best performance this week.

Wha?!

On the other hand, I was underwhelmed by Jason's performance of If I Fell. It's one of my many favorite Beatles songs, so I was very excited when I read spoilers about an hour and half before the show reporting that he was going to be performing it (Yes, I'm that desperate.). While he was singing, I kept looking over at Mark and saying, "This isn't very good. Oh...this is bad! They're going to rip him to shreads!" Surprisingly, he ending up getting faint praise from the judges.

I listened to the stage performance a few more times, and it actually wasn't as bad as I originally thought. The studio performance available on iTunes is much, much better, as he hits the notes more forcefully. I think that he's so nervous when performing live that he runs out of breath which causes the money notes to just barely squeak out. Which makes him even more endearing to me.

To conclude, I rank this performance as my least favorite of the four. It's good, but I just don't think "If I Fell" lends itself to a solo performance. The harmonizing is critical. That what makes you want to sway along in the audience and throw your underwear on stage.

Um, yeah.

Next week, Jason really, really needs to step it up to gain his momentum back, preferably with something uptempo that, although it pains me to say it, DOES NOT INVOLVE ACOUSTIC GUITAR. He also needs to learn to work the stage, although I fear this could be a train wreck in the making. Could the bloom be off the rose already?


***End American Idol muttering***

In other news, we are taking the day off from work tomorrow. YES!