The Country Showdown

Tonight was the annual Country Showdown and once again, Jesse got selected to perform in the finals. They changed the format this year. Last year they had 25 finalists who performed, then they chose a "Top 5" who each performed again, and then they awarded prizes to the top three of those five. It was long and drawn out and I remember we didn't get out of there until very late. Fortunately I think the organizers realized how ridiculous it was becuase this year there were 22 finalists selected. They each performed once, then they all came up on stage where they were each given a prize for participating and then the winner and two runners-up were announced. The whole thing was wrapped up before 10:00pm. It was great!

One of Jesse's best friends, Liz, was also a a finalist, so it was fun to get to cheer for both of them.

This is Liz and Jesse waiting for the announcement of the winners. The girl to Jesse's right in the pink and black ended up winning, but in my opinion she wasn't even one of the top five. The guy who got robbed was a guy named Kevin Fullmer who not only had a fantastic voice, but brought the house down with his performance. But you know, it's all political anyway. I mean, I didn't get chosen and I can promise you I would have done better than some of the people they picked. Still, Jesse and Kelly were especially impressed with how good I was tonight. I hardly made any durogatory comments about anyone, I mostly bit my tongue and kept them to myself. Kelly was very impressed because he knows what a critic I can be when it comes to performance. Anyway I got video of all of Jesse's performance and some of Liz's. It was kind of funny, Jesse was the very last contestant on the program and she got up to start her number and the mic quit working. I got it all on video, so enjoy.

Our seats were pretty good, but of course, my camera didn't quite capture everything. Still, the important thing is that Jesse looked stunning of course. Like a country music singing Barbie doll. But, you'll see in the video.