Brian Lara

Last week, Brian Charles Lara picked up a bat for the last time in international cricket. After he announced his retirement a few days earlier, tributes had started pouring in. It befitted a man who had accomplished so much, often in the face of such adversity.

My memories of Lara are largely gleaned through watching him on TV and hearing of his feats on the BBC World Service or Radio Australia. But I did get to see him in person, back in the 1992/1993 season down under. It was a one-day match, Pakistan vs the West Indies in Perth. The opening match of the annual triangular one-day series in Australia, then called the World Series Cup. Cricinfo tells me that Brian Lara scored 59 that day. I remember that he was shorter than I expected and impeccably balanced in defence and attack.

That was not a particularly memorable match or a memorable performance for a man that had scored 501 in first class cricket and 400 in a Test. But it's my personal memorable match - the first and only time I saw in person this genius of a cricketer.

He must be retiring a weary man, having carried the Windies on his shoulders for years. For a while he had Adams or Chanderpaul to share the toils of batting in an under-performing team, but they did not have the gift of his genius, nor the burden of it. An entire generation of cricket-lovers give thanks that it did not burn itself out completely, as it could so easily have. At some points in his career, it seemed he would leave the game, but he came back to it. He has left it now for good, forever. It seems to be over all too suddenly, and yet his is a legacy 20 years in the making. It has been an astounding career in every way - the runs, the records, the longevity, the beauty, the entertainment and that undefinable sense of immortality.

Chelsea 1 Liverpool 0 : It could be worse, right?

Isn't EVERYONE tired of this already? Chelsea vs Liverpool in a Cup knock-out tie?

And what type of luck has Liverpool had lately? Meeting Arsenal all the darn time in domestic cups and then getting Chelsea AGAIN in a Champions League tie.

And Chelsea is a goal up after the first leg. Bleeargh. The entire season is being set up for a Chelsea vs Man Utd show-down on three fronts; we are right on track with that.

So I tell myself: it's only one goal, it could have been worse and at least Liverpool has the Anfield home ground advantage for the second leg. I don't know if it's going to be enough. Hopefully Benitez really has something else up his sleeve because the hand they played this morning was not that convincing.

All this after Jordin sang You'll Never Walk Alone on American Idol, and sang it not very well. It's enough to make a Liverpool fan grumpy. Let's just hope nobody decides to sing 'Ring of Fire' on AI in two weeks' time. It is just as well that they have already done the country music theme.

AI Top 6: Inspiration, Desperation and Exaggeration

Tonight is the first of the two-part extravaganza that it Idol Gives Back. Hey, I think it's great that money will be raised and that this will go some way to helping those who live in poverty. It's almost hard to be cynical about this when there is such an obviously good cause that will benefit from this week's episodes. But my heart is suitably cold and shriveled. It's not so much Idol that is giving back, after all, but Idol getting Americans to give and taking all the credit for it. If the show donated the advertising revenue from just one episode, that would be Idol Giving Back.

Anyway, on to the show. Lots of heart-string-tugging clips tonight. Ryan in Africa, Simon at a foodbank, you get the idea. Okay, it is hard to be cynical about these scenes, when the kids are looking all innocent and wide-eyed and you just want to scream at capitalistic excesses (Idol, anyone?) and the unfairness of disparate standards (again, Idol, anyone?).

But one can always be cynical about the performances and the judges, so let's just get to the good part. This week's theme? Inspirational songs, or "life anthems". I hope that phrase does not catch on.

Chris sings "Change the World", a song which brings to mind Singapore Idol (I think it was sung as a medley in the Grand Finale). It's a scandalous association, of course, since the song was originally sung by the iconic Eric Clapton. But there you have it, I hear the whole "You can change the wo-orld" refrain and I think of Christopher Michael Lee and Daphne Khoo and the rest of the SI1 gang. Clapton would be mortified. Anyway, back to Chris. He starts on a stool and negotiates the first phrases carefully, placing his voice properly to avoid the nasality that caused such a kerfuffle last week. He sounds good, for Chris. Not fantastic, since he has a chronic distaste of holding a note for longer than 1 second and the ever-present pitch problems are evident. Still, better than last week by a mile. Then he stands up and it all goes to hell. He starts singing from the side of his mouth again and his voice is coming out through his nose and he is doing that same, darn move he always does on stage AGAIN. He recovers at the end, and sounds pretty alright again, but that middle part was just bleagh. The judges are weirdly complimentary and I start to believe the conspiracy theorists claiming Chris to be a Chosen One.

Melinda does Faith Hill's "There will Come a Day", a song completely unfamiliar to me. She has kept last week's hair extensions (or is it a wig?) and looks smashing; that hairstyle is truly flattering on her. Melinda is Melinda, and I make no secret of the fact that I am a fan. She is in total control of her instrument and can therefore pay attention to trifling matters such as phrasing, lyrics and interpretation. The band is annoyingly loud and over the top during the chorus, but she shows what she is made of by soaring above them. It is beautifully sung and heartfelt. The judges love her, but I am irritated by an almost dismissive tone to their praise. It's like "you are a pro and you did good, like I expect you to." Anyone else sings like this and they would be falling over themselves to hail the next coming of Fantasia or Carrie.

Blake takes on the immortal "Imagine" composed and sung by John Lennon. One of the most familiar songs of the 20th century, and one which has received the Idol treatment before. Blake approaches this with no frills, no beatboxing, no tricked up rhythms, no cool arrangement; just a straight up rendition of a classic song. That voice that I want to hear is coming out to play and he sounds like the Blake we heard in the semis. It's not a stellar vocal and he loses control over a couple of notes. This will not erase memories of John Lennon, but I like what he is doing. It is a performance that respects the song lyrically and musically. The judges are divided, with Randy being a bit of an idiot (not the last time he will be one tonight) by wanting more out of Blake, Paula being frighteningly the one I agree most with, and Simon giving praise that is not qute praise.

LaKisha sings that god-awful coronation song "I Believe". Fantasia was saddled with this as her first single when she won Season 3. This is just a bad, bad song. It might even be the worst of all the coronation songs unleashed by the show. LaKisha is singing it very well and sounds better and more controlled than she has since her Top 12 performance of "God Bless the Child". She clearly identifies with the song and is inspired (drink!) by it. It is an emotional, heartfelt performance of an emotionally empty song. I don't know; I can admire the singing but I cannot get past the sheer awfulness of the song. The judges are probably drunk and declare Fantasia to be a non-touchable, an honour which they had herethereto conferred upon the likes of Mariah, Whitney and Aretha. Seriously? For what it's worth, I hate the screechy tone of Fantasia's voice but I think the song worked for her because of the specific context of her winning Idol. LaKisha's voice is far more pleasing to my ear, but there is no way she can make a silk purse out of this sow's ear. On a more positive note, to risk sounding like Paula, her make-up is wonderful and I think this is the best she has looked all season.

Phil sings Garth Brook's "The Change". He is truly embracing the country theme that got earned him unprecedented praise from Simon last week. Well, that's Phil for you. Nothing if not over-eager to please. He manages to carefully mention Oklahoma (twice!) in his pre-song bit. Trying to nail down his geographic demographic? Anyway, he is hatless again tonight which is immediately NOT a good footing to start on. The performance is vocally decent, although his low notes are as shaky as they have ever been. He hits a sweet spot in the chorus and sounds quite pleasant for the rest of the song. But it seems so effortful somehow. He is almost straining every muscle to get us to like him, choose him, vote for him. I think he is trying to project intensity but it comes across as desperation more than anything else. Not to take anything from his vocal, though, which was stronger than Chris's (undoubtedly) and Blake's (arguably). The judges tell him firmly that he should stick inside his "country" box, and good boy that he is, I am sure he will oblige.

Jordin sings Roger and Hammerstein's "You'll Never Walk Alone", from the musical Carousel. As a Liverpool supporter, I don't even know what to think when Idol contestants take this song on. It's by no means sacrilegious to sing it, of course, but please, please don't mess it up. First things first, Jordin looks just fantastic. The hair and make-up people are doing great work with the ladies this week. Her singing is less successful. She starts off very shaky. Her voice is beautiful and because it is so grateful to the ear, I think it sometimes distracts listeners from her obvious technical weaknesses. They are almost jarringly evident in this performance; the big gulping breaths between phrases, the somewhat squally vibrato and the tendency to slide of the centre of her notes. She hits her strides halfway through and hits a few strong clear notes, showcasing the beauty of her voice. Then the glory notes start and there is some sing-screaming and a flat held note. I think she successfully conveyed the meaning of the song (as she perceives it, which is of course highly individual as there are a hundred interpretations of this song, even among Liverpool fans) but it was vocally less secure than I would have liked. The judges prove again that we do not watch the same show. Randy goes into hyperbole overdrive and insults half a dozen previous Idol contestants by calling this the best performance in the show's history. Paula and Simon are no less enthusiastic, but are at least more temperate in their choice of words. Geez, can this show be MORE obvious about wanting Jordin to win?

There have been a few performances on Idol that have been praised beyond all proportions. Fantasia's Summertime and Katherine McPhee's SOTR come immediately to mind. This performance by Jordin falls firmly into that category for me. But the producers are old hands at this, and I am sure, come May, Jordin Sparks will be crowned American Idol, to the delight and relief of Nigel Lythgoe and company. Then they can truly forget that Taylor Hicks ever existed and actually won the show last season.

Overall, a strange night. I liked the performances, was moved by the clips but was super-annoyed by the judges and the obvious and over-the-top bias towards certain contestants. Inspired? Not quite.

AI Top 9: They did it their way

Last week on AI, a theme that was not a theme, Gwen Stefani and much singing that I did not care enough about to take out the keyboard. Chris Sligh left after not being able to find the beat on the Police's Everything She Does is Magic. The best male voice tonally, but ultimately not a good singer technically.

This week, it's my favourite theme night every season, when the kids dust off the good old American Songbook! Standards Night or Big-band Night (are they calling it Tony Bennett night this year?) brings out the detractors in droves (irrelevance of the genre in modern music, regression instead of risk, boring reinterpretations of songs done 100 times before and 100 times better by 100 other singers) but I love it. A matter of taste, perhaps, but I love the songs from that era; how they are invariably grateful to the ear and how clever they can be lyrically. I don't even mind the AI contestants butchering these songs, because the songs are good enough to withstand it.

Last year, they had Rod Stewart on Standards Night. This year, they landed the big one - Tony Bennett!! Tony freakin' Bennett, fer cryin out loud! I think this is the biggest deal on AI since Elton John back in S3.

Blake sings Mack the Knife. I have a strange love-hate relationship with this song. I think it has one of the great melodies of the standards repertoire but the words are completely incongruent with the tune. All that morbid stuff about scarlet billows are set to this finger-snapping major key melody. It's a song to be sung with laid-back menace, I suppose. Anyway, Blake adopts the finger-snapping, smooth approach. It's a mess vocally, easily the worst he has sounded in this competition. No interesting arrangement tonight to compensate, either. I like Blake a lot, and I just wish he would let us hear his voice properly, without being too caught up in "putting on a performance". He is so natural on stage, I think he can afford to spare some attention for his vocals and the performance would not suffer at all.

Phil tackles one of my favourite Cole Porter songs, Night and Day. Confession: I have six recordings of this sung by different singers (love them all, but my favourite is probably Fred Astaire's because of its genuine swing sensibility, even if he was not the vocal equal of the others recording this music in his day). Phil approaches this as a passionate love song, all swelling strings and drawn out phrasing. Not a swing beat to be found (against Tony Bennett's advice, which will be a recurring theme). He sounds pretty good but then I make the mistake of watching instead of just listening. Yikes! His appearance is particularly discomfiting tonight, with his uncovered head, pale complexion, pointed ears and his eyes more orb-like than before. When he is not smiling, he is really scary looking. Seriously, like an unearthly character in a Neil Gaiman graphic novel. I think the singing is strong and heart-felt, but I completely understand Simon's comment about the performance being dark - Simon might not go there directly, but he means that Phil seems to have come from the Underworld.

Next up is Melinda Doolittle. Another confession: she's my favourite contestant this year. Among some circles in the blogosphere, it's become almost something of a war-cry to disparage her (too boring, too polished, too rehearsed, possibly disingenuous, no neck and so on) and I can objectively see where they are coming from, but no matter, I am a fan. I am usually wary of the contestants that the judges endorse. This time, I think the praises are deserved. To my ear, she is among the best singers that have ever appeared on this show. I don't particularly believe she will be a big superstar beyond AI, given that talent is not the most important currency in the industry. But within the context of this show, she is the best thing on it and she is making the best of this opportunity to parlay the AI exposure into a solo career. Tonight goes down as another top-drawer performance. She sings Gershwin's I Got Rhythm in three distinct parts (slow and sweet to start, spirited middle section and finishing off in classic big-band all-horns blaring manner) and shows off again the layers and flexibility in her voice. The syncopated rhythms are so difficult and she pulls it off effortlessly.

Chris does Don't Get Around Much Anymore, but not before forgetting the words in front of Tony Bennett. All things considered, I will be glad if he gets through the song without any dropped lyrics. He makes a dramatic entrance, silhouetted against the backdrop, striking a pose that is Sammy Davis Jr meets Michael Jackson. I immediately feel like laughing. Then he starts singing and I feel like crying. He is sounding less nasal than usual, all credit to him. In place of the nasality is something far worse - the dreaded "pitchiness". He wanders off-key almost off the bat and never quite finds his way back. It is so irredeemably bad that I cannot even watch what he is doing on stage, although I am sure he is engaging the audience and being cool per his usual MO. The judges inexplicably like this performance and my thoughts turn to conspiracy theories.

Jordin is next singing On A Clear Day, an AJ Lerner composition from the 1960s. As far as these things go, it's the most "modern" song of the night, befitting one of the youngest contestants there. I think Jordin has the best vocal tone of anyone there, in that it is the purest and the most straightforwardly beautiful, especially in her upper register. And this is a great song for her particular type of voice, open and joyous and full of phrases that climb and climb. She starts off rough and her breathing between phrases is distractingly audible. Then she hits the part where the song rises and her voice carries it home, hitting a great big note to finish off on. It is not especially subtle singing, but tremendously effective. Simon gives her some complete BS about how she played it safe and old-fashioned, compared to Chris's more contemporary take on his song. I guess that means bad singing is contemporary? Jordin might not have tried anything too risky, but she did not do a note-by-note reproduction of Streisand.

Gina sings Smile, while sitting on a stool. The first thing I notice is her make-up which is terrific. She looks very classy, glamourous in a very subtle way (Chanel vs Versace, if you will). The eye make-up is especially well-done. She is singing a straightforward arrangement, no flashy phrases or big notes. I like it very much, although I fear it is a little too low-impact for this show. I do like the fact that she is not smiling inappropriately throughout the song, unlike some people have in the past. It is a perfectly pleasant and restrained performance, very controlled and understated as the judges go on to say. It is probably too restrained for this show, where bombast and over-wrought interpretations bear greater rewards. Perhaps Gina should have gone for the impassioned approach that Phil took with Night and Day, allowing her voice to crack on words like "aching" and "breaking".

Sanjaya (who will be with us even next season, at this rate) takes on Cheek to Cheek, which that sweet fellow George Huff sang back in Season 3. He rather endearingly tells us that he wants to show America that he can actually sing, which is a rather refreshing admission that his past two performances haven't been so much about the singing. Tony Bennett seems to have a soft spot for the kid which is nice. Okay, I am not Sanjaya's "demographic" and I don't get the cult of Sanjaya. AT ALL. He seems nice enough, but I don't think he is all that cute and I frankly find his Jack-O-Lantern perma-grin as creepy as Phil's Demeanour of the Embraced. All that excessive hair and the weirdly proto-effete stage mannerisms; straight out of a nightmare sequence in one of those low-budget 1970's "surrealist" comedies. Underneath all that, he has a decent voice and he shows it to us tonight. It would take some really bad singing to make me dislike Cheek to Cheek and Sanjaya is not bad tonight. Not great, but certainly serviceable. His voice is clean and clear and he manages to pull of some dancing with Paula without losing the key. Vocally better than both Chris and Blake tonight.

Haley is next, wearing some shiny metallic fabric that is cut up to here and down to there. Tony Bennett tells her that Ain't Misbehaving is about exactly that - not misbehaving. Haley proceeds to misbehave down in the audience and all over the stage. She is determined to make this song into some a coy, flirtatious number being sung by a Marilyneque sex-pot. The singing is non existent and mostly drowned by the band. She is just all long legs and gesturing arms and flashes of cleavage. I don't hold it against her to use her assets to the best of her own advantage, but this is NOT the song to sing if she is going after "sexy". Too Darn Hot might have been a better choice. As it is, it just comes off as a poorly executed non-event. Maybe this is one for the boys, because I am certainly not feeling it. Again, I am probably not the "demographic".

Lakisha is probably going after my "demographic" with her take on Stormy Weather. She has a wonderful honey tone to her voice unheard since the semi-finals. I thought it might come out to play tonight, but she opts to do the song as some sort of pissed-off paean to the nastiness of man. So she is injecting false grit into her lower register and goes off-key for her effort. Interpretively, this performance does not work for me. Stormy Weather can be sung ironically or with resigned bitterness but not with man-swallowing rage. It takes away the sultriness of the melodic line. Then she ends with a melisma phrase, pointedly ignoring Tony Bennett's advice to just hold the big note. Almost as if by karmic intervention, she hits a very sour last note on the phrase and the song ends abruptly on that bad note that you will hear forever.

Result show: Did not watch it. Gina goes home, undeservedly so in a week where Haley and Chris R were much, much worse.