Will Latin Week be out of sight?

Halo! I mean Hola!

Say what you will about J. Lo, excuse me (I forgot), Jennifer Lopez's "voice" and her "musical talent" and her "movie choices" (lest we forget "Monster-In-Law" and "Shall We Dance" and "Jersey Girl" AND "Gigli"), this woman will always have a welcome home at AI HQ because she played Karen Sisco in Steven Soderbergh's masterpiece "Out of Sight". Sodebergh is perhaps the only director to draw a genuine performance out of her, and that should earn him praise alone.

For all of you movie fans who have never seen "Out of Sight", I suggest you bump it
up to the top of your Netflix list. Not only does it successfully blend crime, drama, and comedic genres into one (with a great ensemble cast that it seems like only someone like Sodebergh can handle), it also is the signature Soderbergh film from camera work all the way to the editing techniques used. This is the movie where you first see him use audio from one scene to play against the visual of another, the first where you see freeze frame photography, the first where he playfully jumped around in the narative, and the first that looked absolutely incredible (as evidenced in the picture above).

But back to the singing.....Jennifer Lopez? Really? She's the role model for SINGING? She's horrible!

Wikipedia tells us that this week's theme is Latin week (which sounds reasonable for Jennifer Lopez week), and we understand that Latin music is a mucho commercial genre of music, but we also find it hard to believe that every finalist will have no problem picking a Latin themed song out this week.

Which really leads us to believe that Latin themed week might get stretched beyond the realm of absurd. While we're sure we'll hear a ton of Gloria Estefan, I really wonder what other artists are out there that a) count as Latin music, b) the finalists are remotely aware of and c) the viewing public would find a connection with. These factors make us think that Latin Week will be a liberally used label. Yvonne, can you help us out here? Larsen?

Wikipedia is also telling us next week is country week y'all and the week after is God, I mean God, I mean inspiration week. Now, I don't know about you people, but Latin week, Country week, and Inspirational week sound like 3 clunkers to me. It might as well be gregorian chant week, songs about suicide week, and.....um.....country week. I mean, when are we going to get Indie Rock week, Lesbian folk week, and movie musicals from the 2000's that end in -girls and start with dream- week? That's why we watch, right?

And, if the country agrees and starts to tune out a bit, could it mean a little trouble for the show?

Not only are the ratings down this season compared to last, but every episode has been viewed by fewer people that the one before it. Now, some want to blame the poor quality of contestants (coughcoughSanjayacoughcoughHaley'svoicebutnotherlegscoughcough), but the producer's have another theory:

If you ask "Idol" producer Nigel Lythgoe what is causing the problem, he'll blame daylight saving time, which started three weeks earlier this year. Ratings tend to dip every year whenever the time change kicks in. "Even if we lost 50 percent of our audience, we'd still be in the top three shows in the country," Lythgoe said at a press conference on Monday.

Oh, to be Nigel Lythgoe....when asked about a potential problem, first brag about how powerful you are and then come up with a crazy excuse to explain it all away!

Daylight Savings Time? The reason less and less people are tuning in is because they are making sure they are outside at 8PM on Tuesdays every week? And every week they grab a few more of their friends to make sure they're outside too? That's the best you got?

Or is it just that people forgot to move their clocks three weeks ago, and not only do people continue to check in on Fox an hour after the show every week, but they also forget to check in at the right time the next week, AND every single week even more people decide they need to set their clocks BACK to where they were 4 weeks ago so that they'll absent mindidly check in at the wrong time, too. That must be it.



Getting back on subject, Latin week is going to suck this week. I mean, can anyone left decently sing a good Latino song? I have two theories about this week and next (country week). Want to hear them? Tough, you're reading this whether you like it or not.

Theory 1 - Everyone sucks because they don't know anything about Latin and (to a lesser extent) Country music, so the suckiest person will go home (ie - Haley probably this week, and I hope to God Sanjaya next week. What country song could he possible sing?).

Theory 2 - Upsets, Upsets, Upsets. Someone is singing a song so out of their comfort range that they completely bomb. Could LaKisha or, dare we say, even Melinda be vulnerable on Latin week or country week? It's possible.

Let's not forget that last year, Ace Young went out around this time last year, the year before that, Nadia Turner and Anwar Robinson went out right around this time (followed closely by Constantine), and of course, 3 years ago next week was when Jennifer Hudson went home (by the way, did anyone catch the Jennifer Hudson joke in "The Office" last week?).

I'm not saying it's going to happen, but right around this time is when people who are considered the favorites coming out of the top 12 have a tendency to go belly up unexpectedly. Could it be a theme just doesn't fit them (Nadia) or America just tires of them (Anwar & Ace) or America gets over being taken to bed by them (Constantine) or the country decides to go loco for the night (Hudson)?

I don't know, but these next two weeks are generally when it happens, if it does happen....craziness!


OK, let's look at our standings really quickly.

Senorita Lisa Wagner says Sanjaya will say adios this week, and I think I speak for all of America and this pool when I say, "Lisa Wagner, gracias!". I sincerely hope you're right. Lisa will go 5 for 7 if he goes, but she'll also be OK if Haley or Phil goes, too.

In fact, that goes for almost all of you - almost everyone will be OK if Sanjaya, Phil, or Haley goes.

In 2nd place is Matty Lane. Matty has Jordin gone this week, which would be just a little bit of an upset. But I can tell you now that more people would be hurt by Jordin leaving than by her staying, so Matty's picks would be one of the few that would really benefit by her leaving ASAP.

Now, if you're one of those people who are a little bit lower in standings (not like Matty) and have someone who now seems like kind of a favorite going home (like Jordin), I recommend you visit a voodoo doctor ASAP, because that voodoo curse would be like a blessing from God for your picks if it comes true.

Brooke is in third and had Gina leaving this week, so Brooke falls into the "Sanjaya or Phil" category - but not Haley! Brookes still has Legs McGee around.



On a personal note, if Sanjaya doesn't leave soon, we're going to switch shows and next year do a "Happy Boy" pool. Deal?


Buenos Noches!

The Master