Here Is The Draft Order!

Date:  Sunday October 11th
Time:  6:00 PM Pacific/9:00 PM Eastern (give or take a few)

DRAFT ORDER (I listed first names in alphabetical order, then got an 8 number sequence from random.org)

1)  Debbie
2)  Ed
3)  Gina M.
4)  Erin
5)  Pat
6)  Jim
7)  Gina T.
8)  Tim

I CAN CUT THE TENSION WITH A KNIFE!

Does A Thursday Draft Work For You? (PROBABLY NOT AS IT TURNS OUT)

Our good friend and defending champion is gone for 10 days after this Thursday.

As you know my preference is always to try and accomodate everyone since the draft is half the fun of this, so my question to everyone is:  Does Thursday evening work for you?

EDIT:  Kinda never mind.  Deb has an appointment and won't be able to make Thursday until around 8PM Pacific and I believe that is asking too much of our East Coast contingent.

The Thing Begins -- First Two Audition Weeks!

“History repeats the old conceits

The glib replies, the same defeats”

                --Elvis Costello

My lovely wife may already be sick of my opinions.  It’s a consequence of writing these recaps for what, the fourth season?  She knows how I’m feeling about something and if she doesn’t agree but knows that I’m likely to comment she starts to needle me about it.  What amuses me about that is that I note her saying four or five mean things these past two weeks of auditions and think that I’ve only said two; and besides, it’s part of this shtick.  But since this is the kickoff post for the FOURTH SEASON OF THE TSAVFL CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!???!! I feel the need to issue my annual reminder that I apologize for any offense in advance because I love each and every one of you, and anything I say that makes you feel differently is an error on my part and regretted.

NBC, “Build Your Voice Team”?  Build Your Voice Team?  BUILD YOUR VOICE TEAM??  Erin and Gina, are you guys getting a cut of that???  NBC YOU BASTARDS!  Also glad to see that you remain unwilling to let the audience experience any surprise by promoting the shit out of what is going to happen before it does.  You keep on doing you.

So we have newly single (and super skinny) Gwen back and open the festivities with everyone singing “Get Lucky” which c’mon, has to be for Gwen and/or Blake if the tabloids are to be believed and frankly after a few of their interactions (check out her look at him after he referred to himself as Hookshot Shelton) I’m more than willing to believe.  I root for that to be true and go on for a little while but end awkwardly and then they can be passive-aggressive towards each other for the rest of the season.  Deb did note though that he was wearing his wedding ring for at least part of the auditions.

Is it me or have they shortened up the audition times?  From what I gather they will fill next week so that’s just three weeks.  I could have sworn it was longer in past.

The wedding proposal was what I hated and Deb enjoyed.  At the start of the show when they showed the ring I made some dismissive noise and Deb said “settle down”.  Every time they teased it I got a little more irritated and soon I could tell Deb had had enough when she said something along the lines of:  “You’re going to ruin this for the rest of us, aren’t you?  Because you don’t believe in real love, you just hate.  You’re a hater.”  And she was right because when I saw the unholy cross between Jay Leno and Guy Fieri that is Jubal proposing to Amanda (who seemed fine) I did not believe in true love at all and I kinda hated him.  I do believe in non-public proposals but my wife thinks they are sweet and that’s valid so we’ll not mention it again.

Do you have favorites yet??  We do.  But since secrecy is paramount pre-draft I’ll just leave some random observations without reference to whom they belong. 

Deb quotes:

“What the hell is Adam talking about saying he is good at song choice?”

“He reminds me of Craig Wayne Boyd.”  Me:  “He reminds me of Damien.”

“Did any of those extra jobs include cooking meth?”

“Pat!  She has the dress with the cowboy boots SHE IS DARLING!”

“Bryan Adams???”

Adam:  You are the most important person who has been on this show.

Me: What?

Deb: That is called hyperbole.

“PLEASE DON’T PICK BLAKE!!”  *Blake is picked* “AAAUUUGH!!”

“Pat there’s your girl.”

And mine:

There were no fewer than 18 songs sung over the past two weeks that I did not know.  I kept track.

I believe that singers who have a large crowd backstage are probably nicer people than those that just have one or two with them.

I’ve always wanted to visit Budapest.

Is the goth nanny Kat v2?

It makes me nervous that I didn’t agree with most of the four chair turns, but it says “faulty opinion” right at the top of the blog, folks.

I so wanted Jeffrey Austin to sing “Never Gonna Let You Go”.

Kohl’s styleout!  Look for Unionbay!

Cantaloupe girl is back!!

I’M A BLIND JOE MAN!

Remember, we’ll likely have to draft next week so let’s start kicking times around in the comments!  IT’S ON AGAIN FOLKS!

Yours in TSAVFL excitement,

Brother Pat

Scoring change proposal

Hi again!

Are your notes taking shape after the first week?  We caught up this weekend, and after we see this week I'll get an audition recap together.

First things first though.  Here are the proposed scoring changes from last year:

Winning battle round/showdown round -- 2 points
Lose battle/showdown but stolen -- 1 point
Make the live rounds -- 3 point bonus (up from 2 last year)
Surviving a live round -- 2 points
Making the top 5 -- 5 point bonus (up from 3 last year)
Surviving round after top 5 -- 4 points (up from 3 last year)
Winning The Voice -- 7 points (up from 5 last year)
BONUS ROUND:  After all battles are done, each team picks 3 finalists, each successful guess is worth 5 points. (up from 4 last year).

The main goal is to incentivize staying power a bit more than in the past but without going crazy because we've had some close contests.  Please vote in the comments below, silence will be taken as a "yes" vote.

Hold Please

Hi!

Due to scheduling conflicts and an anniversary it is very likely that the lovely Debbie and I will not get to see this week's auditions until the weekend.  I will definitely have something to say at that point because without seeing a single second THERE IS SO MUCH TO DISCUSS in the The Voice offseason, not to mention speculation on who Blake is banging this week.

SO!  Feel free to put your thoughts below and talk to you soon!

I am pleased to announce

That everyone is back this year!  YAY!

I will go back in the next day or two and send out whatever those scoring changes I was thinking about at the end of last season -- I have to admit that I blank the existence of The Voice from my brain at the end of one season until the next comes along......just to maintain sanity.

ONLY ONE WEEK OH MY GOD OH MY GOD!

September 21st is only 12 days away!!!

Hi kids,

How's your summer been?

Yes it is true, we board this train once again starting September 21st for the 4th season of the TSAVFL and it is time for headcounts.  Who's in and who is out???  Let me know below.

This blog is about to get ACTIVE again!!