American Idol Top 24, Final 3 Prediction, and Judges Mistakes

I’m starting to realize that I only agree with the judges half of the time. And if Lionel says, “I love it!” during a performance one more time, I’m going to flip out. Unless he just loves everything, which is weird, he and the rest of the judges need to channel their inner Simon Cowell and tell someone that their song was abysmal. That’s me, judging the judges. But in spite of the trio (Lionel, Luke, and Carrie) making some bizarre choices in who they gave golden tickets too, they have done a pretty good job narrowing down the group to 24 contestants. I don’t agree with all of them, or who they sent home very early on–yes, I’m still bitter about Sophie Powers getting cut after her iconic audition! She was unlike anyone who made it to the Top 24, as listed below. When I become a rich and famous singer, I’m going to plop myself down in a judge’s chair for a season to show everyone what’s what. But until then, here are the contestants comprising this season’s Top 24. Note, names in bold are the singers I predict as the top 5. Names in italics are contestants who will be (or should be) eliminated first.

Canaan James Hill
Gabby Samone
Zaylie Windsor
Mattie Pruitt
Thunderstorm Artis
Drew Ryn
Ché
Penny Samar
Grayson Torrence
MKY
Josh King
Amanda Barise
Victor Solomon
Kyana Fenene
Slater Nalley
Baylee Littrell
John Foster
Filo
Kolbi Jordan
Isaiah Misailegalu
Olivier Bergeron
Desmond Roberts
Jamal Roberts
Breanna Nix

My top pick, and who I’ll be voting for, is Slater Nalley. My next two favorites are Jamal Roberts and Thunderstorm Artis. In other words, I think a guy is going to be the next American Idol. Who’s your favorite and if you say Baylee Littrell, I’m going to assume Brian is looking over shoulder right now, isn’t he?

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-Out of the Wilderness

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