Jacksonville Underwhelms

It is snowing here is in St. Louis, and I am curled up with a blanket glad to be out of the elements. The show begins tonight with some hysterical footage of Ryan and Simon's limo ride to the auditions. Ryan is doing his educational shtick about Jacksonville and Simon interrupts him and tells him to talk normal. Apparently once a camera is turned on, Ryan just can't do that. After a tribute to Gary's favorite band Journey(yawn) we jump right in with the fun.
Josh Ulloa 22, loves to be compared to Justin from Season one. He enters the room with a whole lot of energy, but his version of Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get it on" is hard to take, even with the nice voice. He just has way too much going on with it. Simon compared it to Inspector Gadget. Randy says it was crazy, but entertaining. The judges must be in a good mood this early on because the send him on to Hollywood.
Sharon Wilbur 25,is one of those "odd" pet people (you know who you are) and brings Sasha her dog with her. She sings Superstar by Karen Carpenter, but she does the new R & B version (don't ask me who sings it). She apparently doesn't remember anything but the refrain, so she repeats it a couple of times. She has a nice voice, but she doesn't remember enough lyrics to prove to me that she will go very far. Simon, who is one of those dog people too, holds Sasha and says yes almost immediately. Randy agrees, and with that Paula fake makes out with Kara who almost has a wardrobe malfunction. Kara says she was under the impression it would be Simon trying to kiss her, not Paula. Simon just smiles.
Dana Morena screams a few bars and then tells Simon she would be happy to take direction from him. So he shows her how to leave the room.
Kaneswa Finne, an overconfident 16 year old moans an attempt at an Anita Baker song (Caught up in the Rapture of Love) that she renders almost completely unrecognizable. Simon tells her the song got progressively worse, and Kaneswa disagrees. Simon even brings the mom in to tell her how bad it was, but there is no convincing these two.
As if our beauty queen from a few nights ago wasn't bad enough, Jacksonville gives us Julissa Veloy, age 19. She dons a tiara, and actually tackles Whitney, and not completely unsuccessfully either (sigh). Simon told her she didn't make the song pretty, and there is something about her laugh that he doesn't like. When Randy passes over Paula to ask Simon for his vote, Paula walks out and Julissa talks her back in. I am not sure, but I think this is why she gets the golden ticket. The girl has a big voice but she is a little too kooky for top 12 material.
Darin Darnell (Mr. personality plus) works the room for the cameras. He apparently is a friend to everyone, and is proving he has got it all. Shortly before he goes in to audition his friend gets cut and Darin goes from top of the world to big stress and emotion. Oh, and he sings terrible. Once he starts crying, Simon stops him and tells him that he doesn't have the voice. Kara tells him if he can't hack the four of them, they just did him a favor because the road to success is paved with heartache.
Naomi Sykes comes in just like a wind-up toy and proceeds to beg Randy to see her friend who is crazy about him. Next is a slow-mo scene of Naomi's friend kissing Randy, who then invites her to sit on his lap for the audition. Not to be out done, Paula hops on Simon's lap and lonely Kara calls in Ryan to fill her lap. Now six people have to be tortured by yet another fool singing "Loving You". She can't believe she isn't good and cries. Kara (probably still feeling bad about last week) gets a group hug initiated.
Only 9 idol hopefuls were produced from Day 1, and Simon tells Ryan that Day 1 was mostly terrible.
Jasmine Murray 16, starts off day 2 with "Big Girls Don't Cry". She is absolutely beautiful, and has crazy potential. You can almost see Simon adding up the money he could make off of this girl in his head. Her sisters are waiting with Ryan to help her celebrate.
George Ramirez 18, another physics oddball with a terrible beard and a worse haircut has the best line of the evening. Simon asks him if he could do anything, where would he see himself in 11 years, to which he replies "in a simple house with nice floors, marble floors". This guy is either socially disabled or has a potential problem with sedatives.
Anne Marie Boskovich (great name, isn't it)is 24 and comes in a little star struck about Kara. The judges tell her to go back out and come in later with some confidence and a sense of her own stardom.
Next is T. K. Hash, who tried out last season and didn't make it. Simon makes sure to tell him that he doesn't remember him. He does the most overworked version of my favorite song "Imagine" and Paula tells him he sounds better this year, but that it was too much. They give the okay for Hollywood, and even though I hated what he did to my song, I think this guy is a worker with a good heart.
Michael Parrelli and his guitar is next, and maybe it's because of the repeated clips prior to each commercial break of him crying or his bandanna, but I can feel myself getting annoyed. He sings pretty well with his guitar, outside, before the audition, but Idol has already ruined him for me. His childish anxiety about not getting to hold his guitar is on my last nerve. Once he finally gets to the audition, I already don't care how he does. He sings a few bars and he is okay, but the judges think he needs to get a band. Simon doesn't think this competition is the right place for him.He starts begging and Simon sends him packing. When he comes out to his waiting family, his poor mom tries to comfort him and he gets all rude and says "Don't touch me". Ryan was like "that is your mom" (and gives a pretty good disgusted look).
We close with Anne Marie Boskovich coming back for he another try. She is made up and ready to sing. She nails "Bubbly" and they tell her to pack her bags for Hollywood. This girl is darling and talented, and I hope she does well.
After two days, Jacksonville only sent 16 on to Hollywood week. Tomorrow we will be in Salt Lake City.
I will not be tuning in until Friday my friends. I have bunco and the rep for the next two days (if we can get out of the driveway).I promis to blog about it all over the weekend.