Sunday, March 22, 2009

Sad news regarding my mother

My mom finally returned home on Tuesday 3/3 after being in and out of the hospital and nursing home and not home since Sept. '08. She was rushed back to the hospital Friday afternoon 3/13. We lost my mom Monday morning 3/16 for 10 minutes but thank God that the doctors were able to bring her back to life. She was in ICU in critical condition but unfortunately never regained consciousness and passed away this Saturday morning. She was 62. Rest in peace mom. I'll always love and miss you.

Thank you to everyone who sent their support, love, prayers and warm thoughts all these past months and recently. It helped so much through some rough and dark times. I'll always appreciate it from the depths of my heart. Thank you.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

When it rains it pours...

As I had posted before, my mom finally returned home on Tuesday 3/3 after being in and out of the hospital and nursing home and not home since Sept. '08. She was rushed back to the hospital Friday afternoon. I was feeling very sick with a bad flu that I've been fighting all week, almost was hospitalized myself last weekend, and with yesterday's news I really felt worse. Am very stressed and depressed now, on top of feeling sick. Please say a prayer for me and my family.

Como yo escribi antes, mi mama por fin regreso a su casa en Martes 3/3 despues de estar en el hospital y centro de terapia y no en su casa desde Sept. '08. Ayer por la tarde fue llevada de emergencia al hospital otra vez. Yo me sentia muy enfermo batallando una mal influenza toda la semana, yo casi fui hospitalizado esta fin de semana que paso, y con las noticias me senti mucho mas mal. Estoy muy deprimido y con estres, encima de sentirme enfermo con esta influenza. Por favor de decir una oracion para mi y mi familia.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Jorge and Jasmine go home! Kelly sings!

The show started with the new Judges Save rule designed to save an artist that the judges think is wrongly being voted off on AI by America's votes. They can only use it once before teh Top 5 is set and then the next week, 2 will get voted off. I like it. Adds a twist to the show that probably would've saved Daughtry and Jennifer Hudson.

So, I was almost right about who was going home - the real shocker was Jasmine being voted off. I didn't think that she was ready to go home yet. I don't expect for the judges to use their save until much later in the season so I didn't expect them to save her. She was lucky to make it in as a wild card and I wish her the best. She's learned a lot during this process and I hope to see more of her. I like that Ryan was speaking to her after she was eliminated and giving her brotherly words of support. I've always liked that about Ryan and that while he's trying to get a good cry out of them for the TV cameras as he's told, he's there for them as well. That says a lot about him as a person.

Jorge looked so sad, he knew his time was coming to an end. He didn't even enjoy the very good Kelly Clarkson performance. She looked and sounded great. I wasn't crazy about her outfit but its Kelly so she still looked great! Sorry to see Jorge go but not surprising. Hopefully he'll go onto big things too. He seems like a very nice guy.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

American Idol Season 8 - Michael Jackson night!

Good 1st night of singing. No one was bad and a lot of the performances were very good to excellent. The judges upped the ante right off the bat by saying that 2 would be voted off today. I knew that this would be inevitable since American Idol is only signed for so many weeks to be on FOX, I just didn't expect it right out of the box.

Simon was in his typical brutal form, Paula seemed in mid-season over the top and tipsy form, Randy was on point as usual with his advice and Kara was kind of in between all of them. Still undecided how I feel about her as a judge.

Lil Rounds opened the show with a very good performance of "The way you make me feel".

I really liked Scott MacIntyre's performance of "Keep the faith". I thought he really shined behind the piano. I felt that Simon had somewhat of a point of picking a song that wasn't one of Michael's huge hits to do but at the same time, Michael is not Scott's style of music and his interpretation of the song was very good. Simon's comment that American Idol isn't about being artistic had to be one of the most stupidest comments I've ever heard on a music show. That feeds right into what critics have wrongly said about the show. What a dolt to say that.

Danny Gokey got the crowd on its feet with an interesting performance that showed off his excellent vocals and interpretation of "PYT".

Michael Sarver's version of "You're not alone" was very good. Nice, solid performance.

Jasmine Murray finally lived up to what I want to see from her with her performance of "I'll be there". Nice vocals and she looked great too.

Kris Allen's performance of "Remember the time" while playing on the guitar reminded me of Jason Mraz. Of course, Randy mentioned that as well. Good performance and the female audience really loved him.

Allison Iraheta was up next and wow, am I fan of her voice. Love the flaming red hair too! Allison is the 1st rocker girl on AI that has it all. I think she's top 3 at least.

Anoop Desai's song choice of one of Michael's biggest hits "Beat it" was a poor song choice. You stay away from the monster hits because you risk sounding inferior if its not beyond superior. Anoop is definitely in danger tonight.

Jorge Nunez' performance wasn't bad but it wasn't a standout performance either. Jorge is in danger tonight as well. Simon's comments to him were uncalled for.

Megan Joy Corkrey's performance of "Rockin' Robin" was cute. I really like her and think she has a lot of potential but she's really in over her head on AI, never having done anything more than school choir.

Adam Lambert's over the top performance of "Black and White" was very good in some parts but way over the top in other parts. I don't know what was up with Paula practically crying over his performance but at least Adam came across as humble and modest this week. I hadn't gotten that sense from him before. Nice to see.

Matt Giraud's performance of "Human Nature" was good.

Alexis Grace' performance of "Dirty Diana" was good but trying too hard.

So, who goes home tonight? Hmm, I definitely think that Anoop and Jorge are in big danger tonight - as well as Alexis, Megan and maybe even Michael Sarver. I like this all the singer's in this year's group but I think that Anoop and Megan go home. :(

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Come join me on Twitter!

Hi!

Would you like me to tweet you?

I just joined Twitter and would love you to come on there and help build my following and receive my daily updates on what I'm doing, planning to do, etc. Hope to see you on there!

www.twitter.com/mariomelrockero

Peace!

Thursday, March 5, 2009

American Idol Season 8 - Night 4 of the semi-finalists (Wild card night!)

Interesting show to say the least!

I was pretty happy with the judges picks although it sucked to not see Norman Gentle get one more chance to entertain America in only the way that he can!

So we got 3 singers from Night 1 - Ricky Braddy, Anoop Desai and Tatiana.
4 singers from Night 2 - Jasmine Murray, Matt Giraud, Megan Joy Corkrey and Jesse Langseth.
Only 1 singer from Night 3 - Von Smith.

I didn't think that any of tonight's performances were especially good.
They were all rather solid but uninspired.

Matt got picked based on his bluesy performance but I found Matt's singing not relevant to what would sell today so I don't know why they picked him since they are always talking about the singers doing things that are current and relevant. Matt can sing, no doubt - I just don't know how well the audience will relate to him if he continues in that style. They didn't like his more contemporary style either so Matt's got a lot of figuring to do.

I did not like Megan's performance or singing of KT Tunstall's song tonight either. She has a good look and this is a TV show after all so I think she got in on that, she also has a lot of work to do!

Jasmine Murray did much better than her disappointing 1st performance but she still has to put it all together and make it consistent. She certainly has the looks of a pop/r&b star!

I was disappointed to see that Anoop didn't make the Top 12 but was shocked when they announced that they were making it a Top 13! Very cool! He deserves to be there and he was my happiest choice of the night.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

American Idol Season 8 - Night 3 of the semi-finalists

Tonight's show was kind of karoake-ish. Not too many very good performances until the end of the show.

Von Smith opened up the show with a good performance but something about this Jesse McCartney look-a-like doesn't do much for me. He is talented and is passionate about music but there's just something missing that I can't place my finger on.

Taylor Vaifanua shouldn't have done an Alicia Keys song. It wasn't the right song for her.

Alex Wagner-Trugman - I like this kid but the judges were all over him for trying too hard. I liked his performance and thought the growling vocals were good and fun.

Arianna Afsar picked a really bad song to do. I felt bad for her as the judges were telling her how bad she did. She seems like a really nice girl.

I really liked Ju'Not Joyner's interpretation of "Hey there Delilah".

Kristen McNamara was good as well, although she should've picked a more uptempo song rather than make a slower song fast.

Nathaniel Marshall's choice of a Meatloaf song was rather strange. Not a fan of his though. I found him as irritating as Tatiana.

Felicia Barton got her 2nd chance to do her thing and again, picking an Alicia Keys song is a tough act to follow. Not a good choice although she didn't do it half bad.

I'm a big fan of Scott MacIntyre. He's very talented and with his combination of talent, overcoming adversity and being a genuine nice guy - he will go very far!

Kendall Beard had the unlucky task of following Scott but did pretty well with her version of a Martina McBride song.

Jorge Nunez was very good! I was very happy for him and found it cute when the judges were talking to him and he couldn't translate fast enough in his head the words he wanted to express. Paula and Kara seemed to love that!

Lil Rounds was the performance I wanted to see out of the all the performers tonight and she didn't disappoint! Great performance!

I think that Lil Rounds easily wins the top female vote, while Scott takes the top male vote. I would like to see Jorge win the 3rd spot but I think that Ju'Not and Von have a good chance to get in as the 3rd performer.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

My mom is finally home! :)

Man, I wish Blogger had some smileys I could use in here! Maybe if someone else knows how I can get some smileys on here, you could let me know! ;)

Anyway, after not being home since September of last year with hospital and physical rehab stays - my mom is finally home today!!!!

What a relief to say the least! Not that I am not stressing her health anymore (far from it since she is still not and will never be 100% healthy) but its just a nice feeling to know that she's finally back where she belongs. This has been such a long journey for my family that it almost doesn't seem real but I'm sure glad it is!

I just want to say thanks to everyone for all their thoughts, prayers and warm wishes for my mother. myself and my family. Thank you for all your support. It will forever be appreciated. :)

Monday, March 2, 2009

Stress and snowstorms

Sounds like a potential song title ;)

Well, stress has gotten the better of me. The stress of coordinating everything for my mom's discharge today and other things I've been working on has really affected me hard the past weeks and has run me down into the ground. Have needed a few days to recharge from 2 weeks of stress-related insomnia (not helped by early morning calls dealing with everything). Its even made driving hard to do and I love to drive! Am trying to take things easy but stress is a bitch! LOL!

My mom's discharge will have to wait one more day as NYC just got hit by a major snowstorm. We're expecting 14 inches by the time its all said and done tonight. Its for the best as the roads, sidewalks and stairs are all too dangerous and slippery today. A fall because of that combined with the dangerous cold would be very bad so better to postpone it one day and be safe rather than sorry. In the meantime, I'll take it easy and rest up for tomorrow.