IGCC: The Whole Part

igcc-technology-overview

As I’ve promised before, I’ll post my paper here once it’s finished. So, just click the link above and read it. Hehe.

 

Let’s get to know: American Idol 7 Finalists (2)

 

Okay, after David Cook, here comes David Archuleta. A  17 years old boy who greatly take America’s breath away.

David Archuleta was born in Miami, Florida to James Jeffrey Archuleta and Lupe Marie Archuleta. He has three younger siblings, Amber, Daniel and Jazzy, and an older sister, Claudia. Archuleta’s family moved to Salt Lake City, Utah when Archuleta was thirteen and currently lives in Murray, Utah, where Archuleta is a student at Murray High School. The only regular job he has had was over the summer of 2007 as a sound “techie” at a park amphitheater. He once suffered partial vocal paralysis but refrained from risky surgery and feels he is almost fully recovered.

Archuleta started singing when he was six because he was inspired by a Les Misérables video. “That musical is what started all of this,” he said. He started performing publicly at ten years old when he participated in the Utah Talent Competition singing “I Will Always Love You” by Dolly Parton; he received a standing ovation, and won the kid division.

Archuleta’s mother is from Honduras, and much of the music he listened to as a child, according to an interview aired on American Idol, was Latin-influenced. She also “was big on dancing” according to Archuleta, and would “make” him dance to traditional music with his older sister. He also listened to jazz music, he said, from his father’s collection as well as gospel, pop, rock and “soulful music”. In a later interview he also revealed that his dad was a jazz musician. Archuleta also enjoys Broadway musicals.

On his American Idol “Fast Facts” page, Archuleta cites his musical influences as Natalie Cole, Stevie Wonder, Kirk Franklin and Bryan Adams. When asked to list his top pop artists, he cites Natasha Bedingfield, Natalie Cole, Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Bryan Adams, Kirk Franklin, and Robbie Williams. He also cites Tamyra Gray and Elliott Yamin as his favorite former American Idol contestants. Like Yamin and another singer he admires, John Mayer, Archuleta aspires to infuse his pop selections with a soulful vibe.

Here is Archuleta list of performance in American Idol.

Week #	Theme	Song choice	Original artist
Top 24 (12 Men)	1960s	“Shop Around”	The Miracles
Top 20 (10 Men)	1970s	“Imagine”	John Lennon
Top 16 (8 Men)	1980s	“Another Day in Paradise”	Phil Collins
Top 12	Lennon/McCartney	“We Can Work It Out”	The Beatles
Top 11	The Beatles	“The Long and Winding Road”	The Beatles
Top 10	Year They Were Born	“You’re the Voice”	John Farnham
Top 9	Dolly Parton	“Smoky Mountain Memories”	Dolly Parton
Top 8	Inspirational	“Angels”	Robbie Williams
Top 7	Mariah Carey	“When You Believe”	Mariah Carey & Whitney Houston
Top 6	Andrew Lloyd Webber	“Think of Me”	The Phantom of the Opera
Top 5	Neil Diamond	“Sweet Caroline”	Neil Diamond
		“America”
Top 4	Rock and Roll	“Stand by Me”	Ben E. King
	Hall of Fame	“Love Me Tender”	Elvis Presley
Top 3	Judge’s Choice	“And So It Goes”	Billy Joel
	Contestant’s Choice	“With You”	Chris Brown
	Producer’s Choice	“Longer”	Dan Fogelberg
FINALE	Previous Song	TBA	TBA
	New Song
	Coronation Song

Can’t wait to see their performance!!

Let’s get to know: American Idol 7 Finalists (1)

This week, on Tuesday, American Idol 7 will hold the very last stage of this season competition. And I will give you a sneak-peek to each finalists. I’ll begin with David Cook.

Cook was born in Houston, Texas and raised in Blue Springs, Missouri. Cook’s interest in music began early in life; he received his first guitar at the age of 2. He began singing in second grade, when his elementary school music teacher gave him a solo in a school choir performance. He proceeded to perform in virtually every Christmas and PTA program. He also participated in choir and drama programs in middle school and high school. At Blue Springs South High School, he performed in musicals, including The Music Man, West Side Story, and Singin’ in the Rain.He had also been an avid baseball player during high school. After losing interest in sports, he focused more on music. He earned a theater scholarship to the University of Central Missouri, but he abandoned theater after two semesters, graduating from the school in 2006 with a degree in graphic design.While in college, he was a member of Phi Sigma Kappa. After his college graduation, he relocated to Tulsa, Oklahoma to pursue his career in music, telling his family, “I just want to give myself until I’m 26 years old to get a job.”

Cook was the lead singer and guitarist of the band Axium from 1999 until 2006. He formed Axium in his junior year of high school with drummer Bobby Kerr. One of the band’s songs, “Hold,” was picked up by AMC Theatres Movie Tunes and was played before previews on over 20,000 screens nationwide. Axium was also named one of the top 15 independent bands in the country in the “Got Milk?” independent band contest, and it was chosen as the best band in Kansas City in 2004.

In 2006, after the breakup of Axium, Cook relocated to Tulsa, Oklahoma, and joined the regional touring band Midwest Kings, playing guitar, bass, and singing backup vocals. He recorded one EP, Incoherent with Desire to Move On, with the band in 2006. He also worked as a bartender at several Tulsa clubs, including Blank Slate and Rehab Lounge.

Cook released a solo independent album, Analog Heart, in 2006, the year he graduated from the college. It was written from 2004 to 2006, and he designed the artwork as well. The album was chosen as the fourth-best CD released in 2006 by website Music Equals Life. Cook also won the Urban Tulsa Weekly’s “Absolute Best of Tulsa” award for “Best Locally Produced, Independent Album” in 2007. He had completed recording his sophomore album before his appearance on American Idol.Over the weekend of April 18 to April 20, 2008, Analog Heart was listed as the number one album for “Today’s Top MP3 Albums” on Amazon.com. Soon there after, the album was removed from Amazon.

Here is the list of Cook performance in American Idol.

Week #	Theme	Song choice	Original artist
Top 24 (12 Men)	1960s	“Happy Together”	The Turtles
Top 20 (10 Men)	1970s	“All Right Now”	Free
Top 16 (8 Men)	1980s	“Hello”	Lionel Richie
Top 12	Lennon/McCartney	“Eleanor Rigby”	The Beatles
Top 11	The Beatles	“Day Tripper”	The Beatles
Top 10	Year They Were Born	“Billie Jean”	Michael Jackson
Top 9	Dolly Parton	“Little Sparrow”	Dolly Parton
Top 8	Inspirational	“Innocent”	Our Lady Peace
Top 7	Mariah Carey	“Always Be My Baby”	Mariah Carey
Top 6	Andrew Lloyd Webber	“The Music of the Night”	The Phantom of the Opera
Top 5	Neil Diamond	“I’m Alive”	Neil Diamond
		“All I Really Need Is You”
Top 4	Rock and Roll	“Hungry Like the Wolf”	Duran Duran
	Hall of Fame	“Baba O’Riley”	The Who
Top 3	Judge’s Choice	“The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face”	Roberta Flack
	Contestant’s Choice	“Dare You to Move”	Switchfoot
	Producer’s Choice	“I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing”	Aerosmith
FINALE	Previous Song	TBA	TBA
	New Song
	Coronation Song

Hope you’re doing great in the final!! I’m a big fans of yours.. Hahahah

Piala Thomas dan Uber 2008: Euforia itu akhirnya berlalu..

Ngga kerasa ya? udah seminggu kita disuguhi tayangan bulutangkis sehari 2 kali. Jam 1 siang dan jam 6 sore. Seluruh Indonesia bersuka. Senayan dipenuhi pengunjung, toko olahraga diserbu (hanya untuk beli kok atau raket bulutangkis ;p), jalanan dalam kompleks perumahan dipenuhi anak-anak yang bermain bulutangkis. Bulutangkis. salah satu dari sekian banyak hal yang bisa membuat bangga bangsa ini. ngga heran kalo “Visit Indonesia 2008″ juga menggunakan perhelatan piala Thomas dan Uber tahun ini sebagai batu loncatan promosi.

Akhirnya piala yang lepas itu belum juga bisa direbut kembali. Kedigdayaan Cina masih terlalu kuat untuk dihentikan bangsa lain, atau ini cuma masalah persiapan tim semata?Tim putra Cina menunjukkan bahwa mereka masih yang terbaik saat ini. Tim putra Korea akhirnya berhasil menjajakkan kaki di final piala Thomas untuk pertama kali setelah menorehkan kekalahan pertama Indonesia dari mereka. Tim putri Cina pun berhasil mempertahankan piala Uber yang sudah diraih sejak 1998. Bagaimana dengan Indonesia?

Banyak yang berubah kalo menurut gw. Kenapa? karena tahun ini ternyata tim putri lebih baik secara keseluruhan dari tim putra. Sejak Cina berhasil merebut piala Uber dari Indonesia pada tahun 1998, putri-putri kita ngga pernah bisa bicara banyak dalam perebutan piala Uber. Paling sedih ya tahun 2006 lah. Indonesia ngga lolos ke putaran final!! Torehan sejarah buruk untuk perbulutangkisan putri Indonesia. Dari catatan itu, masyarakat Indonesia ngga terlalu berharap banyak dengan tim Uber kita. Kenyataannya? Perjuangan mereka luar biasa. Semangat mereka luar biasa. MEREKA LUAR BIASA.

Nonton final piala Uber? Untuk tunggal, kita emang ngga bisa bicara banyak. Mereka jauh lebih kuat. Postur, teknik, strategi lengkap. Pas pertandingan penentuan, Lu Lan lawan Adrianti Firdasari, gw sampe jijik ngeliat bola silang Lu Lan. Karena itu bagus banget. karena itu bikin mati langkah banget. Karena itu… makin memperlihatkan perbedaan kelas tunggal kita dan mereka. Tapiiiiii untuk ganda, jangan salah.

Pertandingan kedua, ganda pertama Indonesia, Lilyana Natsir/Vita Marissa melawan ganda putri no.1 dunia Yang Wei/Zhang Jie Wen. Mereka kalah? iya. Tapi kalah secara permainan? kita kecewa dengan penampilan mereka? yakin banget gw, seluruh Indonesia pasti bilang ngga. Ngga bakal ada yang kecewa sama mereka, karena itulah permainan yang terbaik dari mereka. itulah yang terbaik yang bisa mereka berikan. Dan standing ovation buat itu. Cantik. Apa yang mereka tampilin tuh bener-bener ngga bisa dilupain. Kalah 12-2 di set ketiga ngga bikin mereka patah semangat. apa yang terjadi? kedudukan berbalik kan? 15-14!! Bener-bener di luar akal sehat gw. mereka bisa membalikkan keadaan!! gw yakin kaki mereka sebenernya udah ngga bisa digerakkin tuh, cuma karena semangat ngga mau kalahnya aja yang bikin mereka bisa terus gerak. Adanya Susi Susanti di tim ini sangat memberikan pengaruh besar buat tim. Susi bisa bertindak sebagai motivator bagi anggota tim untuk tetap bersemangat.

Semangat itu yang ngga keliatan di tim Thomas. Semifinal paling jelek tuh kalo menurut gw. Ngga ada yang mw ngejar kok itu. payah banget. Dari awal, Sony bener-bener ngga memperlihatkan mentalnya sebagai tunggal pertama Indonesia. Dia tuh tunggal putra terbaik Indonesia looooh. Tapi yang gw liat dy masuk lapangan ky cuma dengan kapasitas: PEMAIN no.1 JAWA. payah banget. Cupu. Main ky ngga pengen menang. Ya udahlah, dari awal kejuaraan ini digelar, gw emang udah putus harapan sama si Sony ini. Harapan terbesar emang di nomor ganda. Indonesia emang ngga pernah keabisan stok pemain ganda bagus. tapi begitu juga dengan Korea. Kido/Hendra emang no 1 dan ganda Korea itu cuma ranking 3, tapi apa yang terjadi di lapangan? Kita kalah. Hendra off banget hari itu kalo menurut gw. Kido ky main sendirian, dan tiap kali bola dipukul ke arah Hendra, pasti pasangan Korea dapet angka. Hendra bilang ganda kita ini kalah kekuatan tangan dibanding mereka. Satu masalah akhirnya terangkat ke permukaan. Bisa jadi ini masalah kesiapan fisik? Mungkin. Tapi bukan itu yang gw liat pas kekalahan Taufik. Dia malesss. Titik. Abis perkara. Lee Hyun Il bener2 nguasain lapangan, dan entah kenapa di bayangan gw, hari itu emang Taufik ky kerdil banget di hadapan Lee. Lee menang segala-galanya d. Ngga ada kepuasan setelah nonton pertandingan ini. dan selalu itu yang terjadi setiap kali gw nonton tim Thomas Indonesia bermain. entah kenapa. sampe akhir gw ngga bisa liat semangatnya. Mungkin kita perlu seorang seperti Susi Susanti sebagai motivator? Siapa yang bisa ya? Paling mungkin itu, memanggil pulang Rexy Mainaky. Kynya dy pas banget jadi motivator buat tim putra Indonesia.

Setelah semua euforia ini selesai, apa yang bakal terjadi ke depannya? Prediksi gw, Cina entah kenapa kynya piala Thomas dan Ubernya bakal direbut negara lain 2 tahun lg. Cina udah ngga sekuat 4 atau 2 tahun yang lalu. Baik di putra maupun di putri. Di putra, Korea kynya bakal muncul jadi kekuatan besar, Malaysia bakal mencari bibit baru untuk posisi tunggal, Denmark juga harus secepatnya menemukan pengganti Peter Gade. Hati-hati dengan Jerman, dari apa yang gw liat di Jakarta ini, putra Jerman bakal berkembang pesat. Indonesia juga jangan sampai berdiam diri aja. Evaluasi dari Piala Thomas ini harus segera diperbaiki, kalau memang masalahnya di fisik, segera perbaiki fisik pemain. dan satu lagi, REGENERASI. jangan sampai kejadian putri-putri Indonesia terulang lagi. hidupkan kembali pelatnas pratama. bisa jadi bibit2 unggul muncul dari sana. Di putri, sampai 2 tahun mendatang, setiap negara sepertinya masih akan mengandalkan pemain yang sama, sehingga perkembangan setiap tim akan sangat bergantung pada perkembangan pemain tersebut. Tetapi, putri Indonesia pasti akan berbicara lebih banyak setelah ini.

Semoga semangat itu selalu berkobar dalam diri tiap pemain Indonesia. Semangat yang dititipkan masyarakat seluruh Indonesia. Semangat kebangsaan lewat olahraga bernama BULUTANGKIS. SEMANGAAAAATTTTT!!!