I'm intrigued

Josiah Leming is an interesting guy. He's 18 and he's living in his car - he claims he's not homeless, but a guy living in his car is homeless - there's no other way to look at it. He says he likes living in his car, traveling wherever the mood strikes him, but they show him crying, saying how he's lonely and stuff, so I'm not really sure what to make of him, really. He sings a song he wrote and again, I'm not sure what to make of it - it's not horrible - I'm not disgusted or repulsed as I have been with other auditions, but I'm not sure it's good enough to make it through. I kind of feel like if they let him through, it's simply to get him out of his car.

The judges tell him he sounds British when he sings. And he totally does - he almost carries it into his speaking voice too. Paula loves him and says yes. Randy says he's interesting and says yes too. Simon gives him the final yes and he's through. He's quite the intriguing guy - I'm interested to see what else he can do - whether America will appreciate the Southern guy with a British accent.

Either way, only one more day of auditions, thank goodness, and it looks like it's just a collection of the best and wackiest auditions this season. Next week is Hollywood week - finally we're getting to the talent.

We have a winner... or two

It only took a couple of notes for me to fall in love with the voice of Alexandrea Lushinton, the girl who showed up with a huge posse, including her 93-year-old great-grandmother. She has such control of her voice and her voice is full and clear - no pitch problems at all. Just wonderful. The judges must agree because she only sings maybe be three lines of her song and they stop her. Randy tells her it was excellent and then asks her how old she is. She's only 16 - absolutely amazing. She could win this whole thing - at least from the pool we've seen so far, I think she beats them all. If we don't see this girl in the top 5 at least, I'll be surprised. Of course, all the judges say yes and she's through to Hollywood.

But wait!! Amanda Overmeyer, the motorcycle-riding nurse with the two-tone hair is pretty cool too. She says she's auditioning to find out if singing is how she's going to make her money or if nursing is gonna be it. She's happy either way and that's what I think is so cool about her - she doesn't have unrealistic expectations of the experience - she's just going in to see how it goes. She knows that her look is enough for her to stand out, she says it's just a matter of whether they dig it or not. In my opinion, I think if she can sing, they'll dig it. And boy, her sound is awesome - totally different from every single girl we've seen so far. She can totally pull off the rocker thing and thankfully, the judges love her and she's through to Hollywood. You know, she could be in the running, too. People love women who can rock. Can't wait to see more of her.

Strength amid tragedy

I think Asia'h Epperson from Joplin, Mo., may take home the prize for ultimate sob story. And I don't mean that to be disrespectful - her story is heart-breaking, and it touched me more than any other so far. She says she's a small-town country girl and that she doesn't come from a family that has a lot of money, so she had to work her butt off to make it to the auditions in Atlanta. Two days before her audition, she called her dad to tell him that she was on her way to the auditions and that she wished he was with her and that she loved him. About 30 minutes later, her brother called her to tell her that her dad had been in an accident and had died. She says that he's with her for the auditions and that it will be good. I cannot believe how composed she is considering her father died literally two days before she was filmed. Unbelievable. I'm actually a bit surprised she didn't go home, but my guess is her family told her to go ahead and follow her dreams.

I'm kind of torn on her voice - it's very pretty, but there doesn't seem to be much depth to it - her voice sounds very thin to me. But Simon likes her, acknowledges it was tough (she sang LeAnn Rimes' "How Do I Live?") and says it was very well done. Paula tells her she's very brave, that she wouldn't have been able to do it, and that she deserved to go through to Hollywood. Randy says yes, too, and she's through to the next round.


There's something about Brooke Helvie that I really like and I'm not sure what it is. I think it could be what a dork she is. And what I mean by that is she's silly and goofy and doesn't seem to care how she looks to other people and I find that really endearing. Anyway, she's also a beauty pageant winner and wants to prove to Simon that pageant girls can sing. And I think she does a good job - maybe a few too many runs, but overall, her voice is really nice. I can't imagine she won't get a ticket to Hollywood. She does, and she screams her head off and proceeds to hug all the judges, before going outside to scream with her family and friends. The funny thing is that Simon finds her annoying - calls her the most annoying person he's seen in his life, and Randy agrees. Well, I like her and I hope we see more of her.

Starting off with the strange

So, we're in Atlanta tonight, where Clay Aiken, Fantasia Barrino, and Jennifer Hudson were discovered. I imagine that there should be some incredible talent here, and I say that because as I mentioned once before, there was a girl named Joy, whose brother was profiled on "Intervention" about a month ago, and she auditioned in Atlanta but didn't make it and I thought her voice was beautiful. So, she either bombed her audition or the talent in Atlanta was so overwhelming that she didn't measure up.


So, Joshua Jones, the guy who works with glass, is a bit of a hypocrite. He spends most of his interview saying that if he makes it big, he'd still want to work with glass, because he really enjoys it, but at the end, he says he wouldn't mind taking his glass cutter and throwing it as far as he could. I'm a bit confused, but whatever - all that matters is whether he can sing. Well, he starts off and it's actually pretty good, but Simon cuts him off and says he has to stop doing this weird thing with his eyes. Of course, I hadn't been paying attention, so I rewound it a few times, but I'm still not sure what he means - I guess the cameras just didn't show us enough. Simon says he looks slight demonic. Now they're showing it up close and I can see what Simon means - he kind of bugs his eyes out a bit - it is kind of creepy. They make him sing the song with his back turned and I think it's good, better than a lot of the guys we've seen so far. Simon says no, that it was too karaoke for him. Paula says yes, that he has a good voice, so it's all up to Randy. They try to pull off this suspenseful moment, but they quickly show Josh coming out with a golden ticket, so he's through to Hollywood.


JP Tjelmeland is a little strange. He talks about how Carrie Underwood was two people behind him at the Season 4 auditions and how he's kicking himself because he didn't keep in touch with her. I think that's kind of shallow - if she hadn't made it big, I'm sure he wouldn't care one way or the other. I mean, does he think that if they'd kept in touch, somehow she'd get him a record deal? C'mon... Plus, as he walks into the audition room, he's reminded that his audition three years ago wasn't good. And this audition is probably worse. You can't understand any of the words he's singing and he's doing weird theatrics with face and hands. Just awful, and kind of a waste of time, if you ask me. The funniest part is when he tells the judges that he's a music major. Randy's like, "NO!" Then he asks, "What do you major in, composition?" and JP says "No, in singing." And Randy's like, "NO!!" even louder than before. Then JP responds with "I was not that bad." and all Randy can do is laugh. Simon tells JP that yes he was that bad, and then informs him that he's not being rude, just in case JP thought he was.