Blog Posts by Lyndsey Parker

From Jason Castro's headscratching Cats song choice to Brooke White's false start, last night's American Idol episode was filled with drama--which I suppose was fitting for a show centered on musical theater legend Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Well, tonight's elimination show was just as dramatical, to borrow an adjective from Reality Rocks fixture Flavor Flav.

Of course, it wasn't particularly dramatic that the Davids, Cook and Archuleta, were summoned by Ryan Seacrest first and told they were safe. After all, no one expected either David to be in the bottom two. (Yes, that's right, the bottom two--no more bottom three at this stage in the game. One of those stools has been returned to the Fox prop closet.)

But then Syesha Mercado and Brooke White were called--and Brooke looked so defeated, like her roller suitcase was already packed and waiting in the hallway a la America's Next Top Model. And the drama ensued.

Believe it or not, despite Brooke's major misstep last night...she was safe.

FYI, for those of you not keep track of this sort of stuff because you were watching the presidential debates or An Inconvenient Truth or Meet The Press or whatever: Asia, the winner of last year's Search For The Next Pussycat Doll, bizarrely ended up snubbing Scherzinger and company and decided to go solo instead. (Not sure this was such a hot idea--check out Asia's MySpace page for more on what she's been up to.)

So in light of this, PCD's masterminds, Robyn Antin and Ron Fair, retooled and relaunched their CW Network talent search as Pussycat Dolls Present: Girlicious, a televised open call for members of a new, prefabulous, Antin-helmed girl group bearing a suspicious resemblance to..well, the Pussycat Dolls.

(Hey, Robyn, don'tcha wish your new group was hot like PCD?)

Oh, I kid, I kid. The idea was Girlicious wouldn't be exactly like the Pussycat Dolls. Because Girlicous would be a trio, not a quintet. That's how we'd be able to tell Girlicious and PCD apart. Got it?

So anyway,

Some may call it a desperate act of attempted career resurrection. I call it an act of marketing genius. But whatever you call it, next Monday, April 28, Clay Aiken will hawk his fourth album, On My Way Here, on QVC--the shopping network so very popular among his core demographic of shut-ins, grandmas, and Hummel figurine enthusiasts.

"Starting my career on national, live television, it seems fitting to be unveiling my new album live on QVC," Clay announced today in a statement. "To be able to connect with QVC's viewers and broadcast my performance to over 93 million households is an amazing opportunity."

This is why Clay is still the third-best-selling Idol of all time, and the best-selling Idol runner-up.

Yes, Clay is no dummy. People might scoff at the unhipness of performing on QVC, but since the day he entered the Idol audition chamber rocking those geek glasses and that toilet-brush hairdo, Clay has never concerned himself with being "hip." He knows his fanbase is not the hip

When the Red Hot Chili Peppers played "Fire" at Woodstock '99, it ended up becoming the unintentional soundtrack to the ill-fated festival's Altamont-esque riot. But luckily, since Coachella is a more good-vibey event equipped with reasonably priced drinking water and fully functional flushing toilets, RHCP's two headlining sets at Coachella, in 2003 and 2007, were relatively incident-free.

That of course doesn't mean the Peppers' Coachella performances were boring. No gig featuring a lineup of Anthony Kiedis, Flea, John Frusciante, and Chad Smith could ever warrant such an adjective. So start Californicating, people, and get in the mood for Cali's coolest fest (which kicks off this Friday) with this classic Coachella RHCP performance:

By the way...Coachella tickets are still available! But they're hot (literally) and going fast. Get them at http://coachella.com/tickets.

And check out the live webcast and highlights after the show exclusively in the AT&T blue room April 25-27. For

As I mentioned in my previous blog about this season's mentors, I've had a lot of doubts about music theater impresario Andrew Lloyd Webber overseeing one of the show's theme nights. Yes, ALW was right at home on Grease: You're The One That I Want, NBC's 2007 search for a new Danny and Sandy...but that show was all about Broadway.

However, on American Idol, one of the harsher critiques a finalist can face--almost as harsh as being likened to a karaoke/cruise ship/hotel lounge/pageant singer--is "You belong on Broadway." That is Simonspeak for saying, "Sure, you can sing...but there's nothing about you that's cool, hip, or relevant to the modern pop market."

So I had to wonder how cool, hip, or relevant the remaining six Idol contestants would seem performing songs by Andrew Lloyd Webber--egad, the man behind Cats and Phantom Of The Opera! David Cook might've worked wonders with Lionel Richie's "Hello" once, but Broadway Week was going to be a major challenge even for him.

As Ryan

Much ado has been made (and sometimes made by me) about the American Idol producers' manipulative and sometimes downright cruel treatment of its contestants. And from duping Michael Johns into thinking he still had a shot during Idol Gives Back week to forcing David Archuleta to guess who was in the bottom three last week, this season has been no exception when it comes to such ratings-grabbing nastiness.

Well, this week on Celebrity Fit Club, season 1 Idol co-host/footnote Brian Dunkleman claimed that it was precisely this harsh treatment of the finalists that made him quit the show. Yes, that's right--he says he quit, that he was not fired.

Of course, the way Brian's former partner Ryan Seacrest psyched out Michael Johns recently is still nothing compared to how Celebrity Fit Club agitator Dustin Diamond tormented former Idol contestant (and rumored Harvey Walden IV gal pal) Kimberley Locke on Celebrity Fit Club last season. But if such treatment really is the reason why Brian

Coachella is three days away now, which means we're three days away from seeing Kim Deal reclaim the main stage, like she did when her former band the Pixies played what is still the most-anticipated and most-hyped Coachella renion ever.

Sure, punters are excited about seeing Kim and her reunited Breeders get the old "Cannonball" rolling again at this year's festival (after all, Kim's so cool, the Dandy Warhols wrote a song about her). But it's Kim's 2004 appearance with Pixies bandmates Black Francis, Joey Santiago, and David Lovering that will undoubtedly go down in Coachella history.

So check out this classic clip from the Pixies' Coachella reunion below. It's the real Deal.

By the way...Coachella tickets are still available! But they're hot (literally) and going fast. Get them at http://coachella.com/tickets.

And check out the live webcast and highlights after the show exclusively in the AT&T blue room April 25-27. For more info on Coachella, click here for their official

As one astute reader posted on the message board for my previous Miss Rap Supreme blog, when already-established hip-hop artist Khia competed against unknown "Femme C's" on the show's season premiere last week, her supposedly spontaneously penned 16-bar rhyme sounded naggingly familiar.

Guess it sounded familiar to the show's host, MC Serch, too. See, he did a little research, confirmed that Khia's rap was indeed lilfted from her previous recording "Respect Me"...and, well, he lost all respect for Khia right then and there. Serch immediately disqualified Khia.

Click HERE to check out a clip of Serch telling Khia to pack her bags and get her neck, her back, and the rest of her body parts out of Miss Rap Supreme's Fembassy Hotel.

In the words of MC Serch...STEP OFF!!