Archive through March 14, 2003
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TV ClubHouse: Archive: American Idol (FOX): Tonight's show 3/12/03: Archive through March 14, 2003

Prisonerno6

Thursday, March 13, 2003 - 02:01 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Yuhuru, thanks for the info on Randy and Simon. I still find it annoying, though. :-)

Laura11103

Thursday, March 13, 2003 - 02:08 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
I think Reuben is fabulous, but I'm a little prejudice because I absolutely totally adore that song he sang the first time *don't you remember you told me yuo loved me baby*, I actually cried listening to him sing that. But personality wise, he seems a little off to me... not sure exactly why. Prisoner... I haven't noticed any problem with Reuben's breathing either. Morbidly obese seems a bit extreme to me, IA with you, the term shouldn't be thrown around loosely since we really don't know his medical condition or anything.

Texannie

Thursday, March 13, 2003 - 02:10 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Walker, I agree with you. I think he has a nice voice, but not outstanding.
Prisoner, not meaning to be argumenative, but confused. I thought if you had a "highly efficient metabolism" that would mean you would burn your caloric intake quicker making it hard for you to retain your calories and keep weight on??? Mine is very inefficient and it makes it harder for me to lose weight.

Kitt

Thursday, March 13, 2003 - 02:56 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
I think Simon's issue with weight is to do with their image, not just numbers on a scale. Some people's style isn't affected by being a little overweight, for some who intend to be more of a traditional pop idol, being a few pounds overweight does effect their marketability. It might not be a good thing, but it is the truth in today's society, and whether they like it or not, the members of today's society are the ones who will be buying their records. It's understandable that Simon thinks like that, and if they want to be "stars" they have to take that into consideration. It's harder to deal with than him saying to Clay that he needs a style overhaul, but it's said for the same reason.

Prisoner, I know exactly what you're saying, but in purely clinical terms the main definition of "morbidly obese" is when your BMI is over 40. For a guy who's 6ft 4in (guess) if Reuben's over 330lb he IS morbidly obese in clinical terms. But it's just a number on a scale, doesn't take into account his general health, so please don't take offense. (Incidently, little Vanessa at 4ft 11in would be morbidly obese at 200lb.)

Fruitbat

Thursday, March 13, 2003 - 03:50 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
http://www.sabariatric.com/morbid_obesity_defined.htm

A clear definition of morbid obesity is very important, because this definition is used to guide physicians in selection of therapy for people who are overweight. Basically, one is morbidly obese when he or she is so heavy that the fat tissue load creates (or predictably will create) other medical problems.

Roughly, individuals are usually morbidly obese if their weight is more that 100 pounds in excess of the Ideal Body Weight (IBW). However a more exact (and more widely accepted) way to define morbid obesity is to use the Body Mass Index (BMI). The BMI is calculated as follows:

BMI = weight (kg)/height (m2)
weight (expressed in kilograms) divided by the square of height (expressed in meters)

Prisonerno6

Thursday, March 13, 2003 - 04:12 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Ah yes, a definition of morbid obesity on a site maintained by weight-loss physicians. Ironically, I actually had someone I know very casually at work ask me if I had ever consider that surgery. "Look what it did for All roker! Why don't you do that?" {insert eye roll here}

Sorry, Fruitbat, I'll stick with my doctor's estimation of the morbidity of my obesity. By this site's standard I am morbidly obese. By my doctor's standards (based on annual measures of blood pressure, cholesterol, heart rate, etc. I'm just fine, which is why she refuses to use the term. My experience alone makes me very uncomfortable labeling people as "morbidly" obese when I know nothing whatsoever about the state of their health.

Texannie, I refer to my metabolism as extremely efficient because it sucks every possible calorie out of the food I eat and then uses it to the fullest extent. :-) To lose weight, I have to eat so little (or exercise so much) that I can't get basic nutritional needs met by food.

Kitt, I agree with your point about style. However, I would put Ruben's weight a lot closer to 330 than the 400 pounds I saw bandied about here earlier. I have a good friend who is 6"4" and weighs 250, and I'd say Ruben has about 100 pounds more on him at most. *shrug* Then you subtract the 10 pounds the camera adds. :-)

It's all speculation. I happen to adore Ruben's voice, even more after I heard a local radio staion play his song Wednesday morning. I got chills. Clay just doesn't do it for me. He has a *wonderful* voice, but it isn't one that I would want to listen to over and over. Ruben's is, and it's the voice that matters to me, not the weight.

(And don't get me started on the wealth of health problems being *underweight* causes. Since there's no money in telling people to eat more, we never hear much about that...)

Marymc

Thursday, March 13, 2003 - 04:15 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
thank you fruitbat. thank you kitt. again, i say i meant no disrespect. "anorexia" is a term used to describe a person's eating (or lack of eating) habits. just because someone is thin, that doesn't make them anorexic.

Kitt

Thursday, March 13, 2003 - 04:23 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Yep, I love Ruben's voice too, and Clay's, I think both will make a career in singing beyond AI, winner or not. And I'm sure both will do it with their own personal style :).

Whoami

Thursday, March 13, 2003 - 04:30 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
A couple of comments regarding Rueben and obesity.

First of all, how insulting is it to have those stupid teacup/wineglass styled stools, that would barely fit one person's boob, let alone an average sized butt, and tell Rueben to sit down on one? Don't these people think ahead?

And to make a dig at Rueben with..."nobody, especially you Rueben, is allowed to do any stage diving." You think the guy likes to hear jokes about his weight? Have a little respect.

And, about his breathing and being fat. All I can say is (being "morbidly obese" myself), I have asthma, and my breathing has nothing to do with my obesity. But, growing up, you wouldn't believe how many disparaging remarks I've had about my wheezing, and how it relates to my body size. Even my own sister has done so. I ended up so self-conscious about it, I discovered a few years ago that I was actually holding my breath when I'd do something laborious like climbing stairs/hills, so people next to me wouldn't hear me breathing hard. Thankfully I am now more self-aware, and make a concious effort to breath long and deep when I climb the stairs. My lungs are much more thankful to me when I reach the top of the stairs now!

Prisonerno6

Thursday, March 13, 2003 - 07:32 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
"just because someone is thin, that doesn't make them anorexic."

Gosh, really? Maybe my point was that just because someone is very fat, doesn't mean they're going to die from it -- the implication of the term "morbidly obese." We know as much about Ruben's health as we do about Clay's eating habits, but y'all don't seem to have a problem in smacking a label on the fat guy.

Ladytex

Thursday, March 13, 2003 - 08:27 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
I love Rueben and his voice and I don't think the days of the overweight R&B singer are over

Marymc

Thursday, March 13, 2003 - 08:33 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
please don't take all this personally, prisoner. my WHOLE problem with this is that simon made weight an issue for the people who are "supposidly" 10 pounds overweight, but not the people who are much more obviously overweight. it's the double standard that i disagree with.

Walker

Thursday, March 13, 2003 - 08:41 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
ladytex..i disagree..im a huge fan of luther vandross but he isn't really doing much good anymore..lets face it hip hop has taken over..theres no audience for real singers anymore.

Hotlantan

Thursday, March 13, 2003 - 10:15 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
What??? Luther Vandross sold out Radio City Music Hall four nights in less than 90 minutes last month (Feb 12-15). I saw him perform over two hours and he was incredible!!! The current album is near double-platinum, and a new album is due this summer.

Luther had yet another Grammy nomination last month, has sampling/writing credit on at least three current Billboard R&B chart singles, (Jay-Z's "Excuse Me Miss" is #4 this week) and he has a duet with Beyonce from Destiny's Child being released as a single next month.

Just because "Pop" fans have abandoned him does not mean Luther "isn't really doing much good anymore...".

Muse

Friday, March 14, 2003 - 12:02 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Prisoner, please don't feel that anyone's trying to attack you *or* Ruben here. I'm sorry if I caused offense. I stand by the idea that Ruben would be better off if he lost weight, however. Whether it's affecting his health now or not, it's putting him at risk. I understand that he might suffer from some kind of condition or problem that makes it tough to lose weight for all we know, but *ideally* he should not be as big as he is now. I'm not demanding that he change (that's not my place, and his look does not determine whether I think he's talented or not anyway), and I'm not saying that it'd be easy (or even possible) to do so. I'm just saying that yes -- people do have ideal/healthy weights, and it's pretty clear that Ruben's not at it. Chances are that he could change it to some degree (whether it's through diet, exercise, surgery, medication, etc), but I'm not going to be think less of him because a) there's a small chance that he *can't*, and b) even if he can, it's probably tough to do so.

Whether the term "morbidly obese" is PC or offensive or not (I can see how you could argue that it is, by the way) is another matter, IMO.

And btw - Prisoner, you seem to be focusing on Ruben. Why not argue that maybe Josh, Kimberley, and Vanessa have reasons for being a few pounds overweight? (I personally disagree about Josh, btw. He looks fine to me, and I doubt that a Marine would be out of shape. But that's just me.) Or did you already do so? I don't remember.

Obesity is associated with respiratory problems including asthma. People who are obese are three times more likely to develop asthma. That's not to say that people at healthy weights can't develop it too though, obviously. I feel bad that Ruben has breath control problems whatever the reason is, but I can't help the fact that I feel it detracts from his performance. Hey, I feel bad that Charles isn't the strongest singer on AI2 since I think he's a nice guy, too. He can't help it, but it will still cost him. Ruben's breathlessness may cost him my vote. We'll see.

Anyway, this is SO off-topic that I'm going to leave it there. :)

(Oh, except I do want to reiterate... Simon saying that Vanessa and Josh should lose weight and not saying anything to Ruben or Kimberley is hypocritical. He should either shut up about weight and image, OR provide the same comments to *all* contestants to which they apply. Too much to ask? Yeah, probably.)

Okay, really done now.

Whoami

Friday, March 14, 2003 - 12:28 am EditMoveDeleteIP
<Obesity is associated with respiratory problems including asthma.>

Unless of course, the person was born with asthma, long before they had a chance to become obese.

So, does anyone have any comments about those stupid "wineglass" stools these people are given to sit on?

And, do you all think it's okay for Ryan to openly poke at Reuben's wieght?

Oh, and I wanted to comment on some comments about Trenyce. Some are distracted by her facial contortions, which I hadn't even noticed. Only because I can't get past her flapping fingers on that microphone! It drives me buggy!

Fruitbat

Friday, March 14, 2003 - 03:57 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Prioner, I just gave the definition of morbid obesity since it was being debated. It is not my opinion but seemed to be the general definition given on many sites.

Fruitbat

Friday, March 14, 2003 - 04:10 am EditMoveDeleteIP
I will add that I do not care what others weigh. It is their business.

Weenerlobo

Friday, March 14, 2003 - 06:49 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Well, I say, may the best man/woman win, regardless of weight, ears, hair, fashion-sense, microphone spanking, camera hogging or bar hopping.

Clay is my favorite and I don't need to defend it because it's purely a matter of preference. He's my choice.

I can understand Simon's "Motown Musical" comment and think that Clay could use a little relaxing on the pronunciation. I bet he's sharp enough to realize it too. He's already shown that he's taking all suggestions seriously.

I love listening to Rueben as well. His voice is smooth and easy on the ears, like honey down one's throat, which is always welcome after listening to someone screech and yell. I could listen to a whole CD done by Rueben, but then I already own Luther Vandross CDs, so why would I bother buying Rueben's? Also, my dh and my best friend both said Clay reminds them of Barry Manilow, so they wouldn't buy his CD, so there ya go. It's just a matter of preference.

Hereiam

Friday, March 14, 2003 - 08:44 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Does anyone know what next week's style will be???

Rslover

Friday, March 14, 2003 - 09:05 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Here's a link to an article on why Vanessa may have lost.

http://www.foxesonidol.com/cgi-bin/ae.pl?mode=4&article=article1099.art&page=1

Walker

Friday, March 14, 2003 - 09:21 am EditMoveDeleteIP
weenerlobo..your dh and your best friend are right clay also reminds me very much of barry manilow but thats ok with me because i happen to love barry..clay is fantastic.

Weenerlobo

Friday, March 14, 2003 - 09:56 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Rslover - that was a good article - thanks!

Djgirl5235

Friday, March 14, 2003 - 10:21 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Hereiam - next week it's hits of the movies.

Hermione69

Friday, March 14, 2003 - 10:32 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Cool, Deej! I wonder if Julia will do "Son of a Preacher Man" again. That's from Pulp Fiction. I would like to hear Clay do "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" from When Harry Met Sally. I'm drawing a huge blank right now as far as movie soundtracks go. Kimberly Caldwell could do "Kids in America" from Clueless. Or would that not be good for her range? I can't really tell what songs fit what voices.

Hmmmm, what are some songs the rest of you would like to hear others sing? Could Kim Locke do something like "Hopelessly Devoted to You"? I hope she doesn't do "Over the Rainbow" again.