Last night Terry McDermott rocked it out on The Voice with–of all things–‘Dude Looks Like A Lady’ by Aerosmith.  Doing a duet with Blake Shelton, he made his coach look bad as he outperformed the country singer with one hand tied behind his back, nailing the song.  Steve Tyler would be proud–if, he hadn’t been a judge on a rival show.   The way Terry sang it, you could even understand the lyrics–I never realized before but that song is edgy, man. Their duet has appeared on the itunes top 100 songs chart this morning–I’m not at all surprised.

Unfortunately, technical difficulties appeared to mar Terry’s performance of his second song “Broken Wings”.  Adam Levine referred to Terry as digging himself out of a hole and recovering by the end.  Because all top three singers reprised their ‘breakout’ song moments, Terry redeemed himself, once again, by ripping open his heart with “I Want To Know What Love Is”.  This version was a little softer, and a little better.  He was definitely feeling it tonight, looking right at his family as he performed.

Perhaps the school shooting this week brought out the feelings.  The show opened with a musical tribute to the children who died.  Being the father of a six year old, Terry said later he couldn’t make it through a chorus without tears. The other reason for some heavy-hitting emotion was his father’s presence at the finale.

The Voice maybe pushed things a little too far in going for a third “surprise” visit for Terry McDermott.  When they brought out his father the effect was a tad underwhelming.  Though he apparently was the one who introduced his son to classic rock, and could make a song out of every little thing himself when Terry was a lad, at this point the best he could say about Terry Jr. was that he’d worked very hard to become a success. (But wasn’t a success? You had to wonder if this opinion was unspoken.)

It was not anything like the heart-warming moment he had seeing his aunt and uncle from Scotland.  However, his father was absent a lot as Terry jr. was growing up, and mother died from Lou Gehrig’s Disease, or ALS as it’s called (a horrifying disease where your body slowly freezes up until you’re mentally aware but completely unable to move).  Sometimes there are a mountain of complicated deep feelings that are too hard to tap–and not appropriate for reality television.

And now it’s all over.  Casidee is queen of the prom, sitting on her itunes throne in the number one spot.  She has various other numbers from the show in the top 100 as well.  She was excellent last night, as always.  Perhaps her solid excellence proves that consistency can beat out sporadic moments of sheer perfection. (Not that she didn’t have her perfect moment with ‘Over’ and came very close with ‘Stupid Boy’.)

Nicholas David churned out an excellent performance of all his songs too.  He even ladled on some crazy sauce with extreme karate kicks at the end of his first performance.  Yet he was barely fluttering the itunes charts today.  On one hand I get it–he doesn’t make me want to buy anything either.  On the other hand, he did what I was hoping Terry would do in a way–he put it all on the floor, left nothing undone to perform his heart out for us.  The judges acknowledged this in their own way.

Even though my heart sank a little that “Broken Wings” didn’t go so well and didn’t seem to suit Terry, I had hoped that the itunes version would sound better.  Indeed it does, and Terry’s sitting right below Casidee in the top 100.  He’s filled up practically the entire top 10 rock chart.  I hope his father sees that and is proud of him.

Nicholas must feel a little frustrated that they both only perform older songs, but Terry’s had so much more success.  (Well, he does have a better voice.  Though Nicholas is perhaps most improved.)

I was struck by how much the top three finalists gleam with an extra patina of charisma and presence this season.  They look, feel, and sound like top entertainers in the biz.   Good job, people at The Voice!

So back to my obsession: what will become of Terry after The Voice?  Will he sink down into obscurity? Will some rock manager/promoter/producer looking for the next Stephen Tyler get ahold of him and make him into a star?  It would have happened if he was in his early twenties. It might happen now…I want to say, but it’s kind of tragic that he only got this opportunity at age 35.  He said he’s sorry it’s all ending, even as tiring as it is. At least he’s had this shining moment before going back on the road, away from his son, to slog, slog, slog once again.  Certainly he doesn’t show any signs of quitting the biz.

Meanwhile, I went to see The Hobbit yesterday and I was disappointed for the following reasons:

1) There was NO Hot Elf King. 😦  I am super-disappointed by this.  He must show up later down the road in this drawn out trilogy.  Ugh!

2) OMG it was so long…I took a long nap between the escape from the Trolls and the arrival in Rivendale and I can’t tell that I missed anything at all.  It’s called editing, Peter Jackson.

3) There’s this whole plot problem with the eagles.  Yes, it’s a great moment in the book when they get to fly on the backs of eagles, but at the same time I remember thinking as a kid that that if the eagles flew them to this far, why couldn’t they have just dropped everybody off at their destination? If I could figure out this major plot point when I was nine, you’d think someone else would have figured it out.  Alas, the movie unfortunately makes this plot hole even more obvious.  Even as the eagles are dropping them off, you can see the enormous mountain standing out in the far, far, distance.  As audience members we’re left saying “really?” as the credits pop up and we tromp out of the theatre in disgust.

That said, the acting in The Hobbit was good–really good, and sometimes it was quite excellent.  Jackson handled the dwarves well too, differentiating them physically and presenting them just right.  They were playful and vigorous, but not too vulgar.  They were not made into fools.  You could appreciate the strength and endurance of the dwarves, and yet notice the fault of pride within their leader.  Well done.

As an added bonus there were two unexpectedly extra hot dwarves (aside from Thorin.)  Why hello, Fili & Kili.