American Idol down to 24 – The Showstoppers Part 1

Beware, this is not a recap of the first half of the showstopper round. Instead of giving you a play by play, it’s more fun for me to just tell you who’s definitely going to win. In other words, it’s my opinion so then we can discuss in the comments why I’m probably totally wrong. My top 3 guys are Slater Nalley, Jamal Roberts, and Thunderstorm Artis. My top 3 women are Gabby Samone, Clara Rae, and Breanna Nix.

I’m a little premature because we’re only halfway through this current round of cuts (60+ down to 24) and we haven’t even seen a few of my favorites– Krews Wright, Clara Rae, Josh King, Abi Bowen. Actually, the show is not great about sharing who’s still in it at this point so I’m not sure Clara and Abi are even there anymore. We’ll know the top 24 after tonight’s second half episode but after the first part, here are my favorites.

Slater Nalley and I’ve figured out why I like him so much. He reminds me of Jennifer Jeffries from last season. Here’s his showstopper performance of a song called “Ophelia.”

My next two favorites from last night’s episode is Thunderstorm Artis and Jamal Roberts.

I hope there’s a spotlight on Josh King, Abi Bowen, Clara Rae, and Krews Wright in tonight’s Top 24 wrap-up episode. Who are your favorites? Do you have a prediction for who will be crowned the winner?

-Out of the Wilderness

What’s that Funky Jazz Song in the Airbnb Commercial? Answer Here!

To be honest, I prefer VRBO because I’m not really keen on the idea of being in a stranger’s home when they’re home, too. It encroaches on my peace and ups the anxiety. But to be honest again, I prefer state parks over VRBO. If you want to be in nature, as the ad below suggests, camp. But when that’s not feasible, Airbnb has your back. Check out the ad below then scroll down for the name of the song and more…

The Music. About halfway through the commercial a jazz funk song becomes the soundtrack of the outdoors. The song is called “Watermelon Man” by Herbie Hancock in 1973.

Actually the first version was released in 1962. Much more jazzy but also not as fitting for the Airbnb ad.

How do the people at the creative agencies creating these ads find these obscure (ish) songs? Kudos to them for their research!

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-Out of the Wilderness

Brock Horner, Villains, and Songs About Boats

Brock Horner, the best boat villain since that pirate in Captain Phillips, probably wakes up and says to himself, “I’m the captain now.” But something tells me that before grouper season ends he’s gonna be someone’s coxswain in prison if you know what I mean, bro. Ok that doesn’t make sense but how can I have a post about boats and not use the word coxswain, bro!?

The nautical theme continues with a handful of songs about boats. There are thousands more but see if you recognize any of these from some well-known artists.

“Come Sail Away” Styx

“Where the Boat Leaves From” Zac Brown Band

“Sloop John B” The Beach Boys

“If I Had A Boat” Lyle Lovett

“I’m On A Boat” The Lonely Island

“Pontoon” Little Big Town

“Buy Me A Boat” Chris Janson

“Sailing” Christopher Cross

The next time you brag about being the best fisherman on the water and illegally board someone else’s boat, nearly making them wet their pants from fear, take a deep breath and realize no one really knows who are and no one really cares.

-Out of the Wilderness

This type of median curb is a disaster!

Modern designs can be really cool. So can cities and neighborhoods designed for pedestrian safety. As a part-time cyclist, I appreciate when there are measures put in place to make people safer. For instance, crosswalks for people walking through intersections. That’s a no-brainer. But I’ve noticed an annoying design with some of these crosswalk areas, in combination with the concrete median curbs. Take a look at a mistake I made recently… mostly my own dumb error (the rest of the story here) but also I blame whoever designed a crosswalk through a curbed median. It nearly broke my truck!

And it happened again with a driver in front of me, recorded on my dash cam. Take a look at this little car and if you could’ve heard the bottom of the car scraping the concrete, you would’ve flinched as hard as I did. What’s the harm in making the curb sloped to keep cars from suffering major damage?

City planners– get on it. Make them sloped, or better yet– These fingernail (for lack of a better term) medians are super dumb and dangerous for vehicles so stop it!

-Out of the Wilderness

The Really Bad Powerade Basketball Commercial – The Music and More

There are quite a few rappers out there. There are quite a few commercials out there, too. But how many brands attempt to combine the two to sell their product? Well, there’s this Sprite commercial that, quite frankly, is terrible. I’m sure there are others, but the most recent is a new offering from Powerade. Check it out then scroll down for more…

I’m Not Against Rap. I’m not against rappers. But I am against those who put them in commercials. The higher ups at Powerade went the urban route with this ad. I’d call it an air ball coming from the brand owned by Coca-Cola, who infamously used AI to create a poorly received Christmas commercial last year. The rapper in this Powerade commercial is Flau’jae. You might recognize her from this Lil Wayne song or from her career playing college basketball at LSU. Her team recently lost in the women’s tournament and there are rumors she’ll declare her availability for the WNBA. I’ve never seen her play so I guess I know her more as a rapper since I’ve now listened to 2 of her songs. In her defense, while the 30 seconds used in the Powerade commercial was pretty bad, the full track isn’t as bad.

I can’t decide which irritates me more– the arrogance or the choppy delivery style of the lyrics. I’ve been listening to rap since the 90s. It was hard to live in Miami, FL and not know at least a little bit of what was going on in this relatively new genre (early 1990s). Clearly it takes talent to perform this type of music. I’m still constantly in awe of rappers in how they word things, weave stories together, rhyme, their ability to deliver so many words in a few minutes, much less how they remember all those lyrics! I don’t want to take anything away from Flau’jae’s goals and aspirations but goodness gracious this is a terrible song. Either that, or I’ve become one of those people who complain about modern music while championing music “from the good ol’ days.” So I’m seriously asking… does anyone out there think the song for this Powerade commercial is good music?

Mainstream rap music, broadly speaking, is usually about feeding one’s high ego… something like the spotlight effect in psychology. “Everyone wants to be me” because of the car(s) they have, the money they spend, the high end lifestyle they live. The world revolves around them. This is the foundation of most mainstream rap music (and the opposite of traditional country music). This track from Flau’jae is no different. Maybe that’s why the song is so forgettable. It’s just another narcissistic track from an average rapper.

Unlike this gem from the good ol’ days.

-Out of the Wilderness