Posted by: Business Correspondent Jennifer Westhoven
Filed under: looking out for you

*Note: this is the first in a series of blog posts from "Morning Express with Robin Meade" Technical Director, Keri (aka: MXPTDK). Keri knows what every button on that giant control panel (above) in the control room does, and she uses all of them (and the levers too) to put "Morning Express" on your TV every day. She'll take over the introduction from here...

Hi! I'm Keri the technical director for "Morning Express," and I also double as the show’s designated American Idol watcher. Though I am just a fan and have absolutely no musical expertise or qualifications, I’ve been watching Idol since the beginning, and this season I have been sharing my thoughts with the "Morning Express" crew. We thought we’d share them with you too. The opinions below are my own and do not reflect those of HLN.

The Top 10 finalists took to the stage for Soul and R&B last night on American Idol: Season 9 with Usher as their mentor. Usher, help these kids bring the soul! Just please don’t make them dance.

Top 10? Are there really still 10 of them? Really? I thought (or hoped) we would at least be down to 6 or 7 by now. I guess it is like they say… Time flies when you're having fun. And Season 9 definitely does NOT have wings! I'm not even sure it has legs. Unless they are little turtle legs, and it is just strolling along at its own leisurely pace oblivious to the world watching and waiting for something worthy of speed dial induced finger cramps. Come on Top 10, surprise me!

When the Top 10 take the stage we get a fairly long segment introducing Usher where he asks permission to be brutally honest with them. (Yes, please. Whatever it takes.) Then the singing begins. And Usher had a lot of great advice for the Top 10.

THE GOOD (in order of appearance):
MICHAEL: Usher wants him to look through the camera and connect with people. Seated on the platform behind the judges, Mike sang “Ready for Love.” I haven’t been Big Mike’s biggest fan, but the toned down performance was quite nice and pretty. Randy thinks he is in the zone and is loving every performance. Ellen doesn’t like when people talk, or sing, behind her back but thought it was beautiful. Kara thought it was “tasteful” and “lovely.” He “mastered the intention.” For the first time since the live shows started, Simon can actually take him seriously now as an artist. He believed it.

LEE: Ryan says that Lee has been suffering from walking pneumonia (Another sick contestant? What are they doing to these guys?) Lee insists he is fine. He has had problems with stage presence, and Usher tells him to just own it when he sings “Treat Her Like a Lady.” Yay Lee! I Love his voice, and he finally brought it! He still looked a bit scared on that stage, but the audience was helping him by clapping along. Randy said it was “unbelievable… the bomb.” Ellen said it was the best performance of the night. Kara thought it was amazing. Simon thinks this was the night Lee’s life “may have changed forever.”

CRYSTAL: Crystal teased us last week with “big plans” for tonight. What were they? She ditched the guitar, donned a pair of stiletto heals, and decided to play piano. She explained to Usher that she is a little rusty on the piano. And I agree, She looked a little uncomfortable while playing “Midnight Train to Georgia.” Not my favorite performance of hers, but she would have to seriously bomb to slip from my good column. It is relative after all. Randy thinks Gladys would be proud. Ellen thinks she is “in it to win it.” Kara loves that she took that risk. Simon is worried that this process will “suck the identity” out of her and doesn’t want her to change.

THE PRETTY GOOD:
ANDREW: Usher notes that Andrew is over-thinking things and tells him to just stop and play it. Andrew sang “Forever,” and I finally saw some of what I’ve been missing since Hollywood Week. Randy thinks Andrew is back! Ellen thought it was a “really amazing strong performance.” Kara thought it was “one giant leap in the right direction.” Simon said it was “miles better” than the last few of weeks but thinks he comes across “boring” as a person. Then Ryan brought Mama Garcia out to have a few words with Simon.

THE MIDDLE OF THE PACK (in order of appearance):
CASEY: He sang “Hold On, I’m Coming” with his electric guitar. Simon and Randy loved it. Ellen and Kara wanted more. I thought he sounded good, but it all kind of swallowed him up.

KATIE: The judges agreed that her vocals on “Chain of Fools” were really good, but they still wanted something more current. And then Kara and Simon got into yet another argument over what style of music she should be doing.

AARON: After the awesome moment Kris had with this song last season, Aaron attempted to take on “Ain’t No Sunshine” but did not compare. The judges weren’t wowed either with Simon saying it was a “cupcake” compared to Lee’s “main course.”

THE BAD (in order of appearance):
SIOBHAN: Siobhan was adorably “wicked nervous” to sing for Usher. It pains me to put Siobhan in “the bad” column since I really appreciate the unpredictability she’s been bringing this season, but the scream, though a little less screechy this time, is becoming predictable. And there were some really seriously bad notes in her performance of “Through the Fire.” Randy said it was a little all over the place, but he loves “the courageousness and the conviction.” And the boots. Ellen said it was “like when you’re hiking, and you miss the trail, and then you’re really lost.” Kara thinks she’s delivered every week, and every singer is entitled to an off night. Simon said, “It sounded as if you’d run a marathon and you were singing while you were running out of breath.” He thinks it was her weakest performance by far. Siobhan wanted to at least try the difficult song even if she didn’t “kill it.” Simon thinks she did but preferred the word “manslaughter.”

DIDI: Emotional Didi begins crying after her rehearsal of “What Becomes of the Brokenhearted” with Usher. He advises her to channel the emotion during the performance, not after. Ellen thought it was “way dramatic.” (Drama, seriously? I wasn’t feeling the drama.) I wasn’t feeling much of anything except a need for it to be over. Simon said, “It was like swimming in jelly.” (Huh?) He continued, “So over the top, so old-fashioned, so off melody.” He likened it to a singer on “one of those dancing shows” (Hmm, Simon, which one could you be talking about?) where they always “have a singer murdering a song.”

TIM: Tim has apparently gained the nickname “Teflon Tim” for being able to take a beating from the judges with a smile. He sang “Sweet Love” . I was not feeling an emotional connection, more like desperately bad acting. But as Randy said, at least it “was mostly in tune.” Ellen heard about a drinking game where people take a drink every time she says he’s adorable. So she called him adorable “because those people may never drink again.” Tim laughed. Kara thought he “took the soul out of the song.” Tim laughed. Why he is laughing? Simon thinks it's because it doesn’t matter what they judges say, “you’re going to smile, the audience is going to vote for you, nobody cares, and you’ll be here next week so well done.”

Despite extending my DVR’s recording by a few minutes and having two whole hours for ten 2-minute performances, Idol still went over. I’m guessing I missed Ryan’s tease for what will be going down on results night.

So R&B night wasn’t actually all that bad. Or was the bar just so low this season that it felt better than it was? As I finish these notes and glance down at my DVR, it looks sad. Season 9 is making my DVR sad, definitely feeling the blues and not the rhythm. It was just staring off into space impatiently waiting for the boredom to end and the moment it can finally ask me if I wish to “delete now.” Yes, little DVR, yes. Please, delete now.

So what did YOU think of the performances, who do you think will go home tonight?

Posted by: Morning Express Technical Director Keri
Filed under: Behind the Scenes • Extras

Good afternoon, early bird! I'm just thinking about you right now, as I catch up on my emails and get ready to see you in the morning. I had a few days off and packed a lot of life into those few days! From St. Thomas to New York to Nashville and back to Atlanta. But I've missed you and look forward to bringing you news in the fast lane in the morning. Sound good?

See you then!

Posted by: Anchor Robin Meade
Filed under: Behind the Scenes • Extras

Posted by: Business Correspondent Jennifer Westhoven
Filed under: Your Money

Hey rock star! I'm thinking of you right now. Just wanted to say I’ll be back on the air tomorrow (Wednesday) after some days off to work on a music project of mine. But I've missed you! So I look forward to our morning appt. together tomorrow.

Posted by: Anchor Robin Meade
Filed under: Behind the Scenes

Cranking along on a Tuesday here. I’m watching a new round of heavy rain move from the NC coast to NE right now. The surface Low moves up to NJ, pirouettes under Long Island this evening, and ejects out to sea tomorrow. Problem here is that it yaks up tons of rain and wind the whole time. 2-3” of rain in Boston today, 1-2: in NYC. This means lots of air travel delays, all of which I’ll cover for you on the big show. Then it’s a nice little warm up continuing in the center of the country. Twin Cities, St. Louis hit 70 while Denver reaches 80.

Out west, a big trough is slamming down. That means snow in the mountains of CA, OR, WA, ID, NV. Rain in the valleys, and lots of wind. 60 mph gusts in Reno today. Trying to catch a flight on time in San Francisco will be tough to do, with all the rain and wind. Foul weather on both coasts, but at least we aren’t chasing tornadoes this morning in FL like yesterday!

Posted by: Meteorologist Bob Van Dillen
Filed under: Weather

It was a wild night in NC. 8 tornado reports, mostly near High Point. Damage to houses, lots of trees down too. Even Charlotte had a tornado near the Catawba River. Just a lot of rain and some thunder there now, but the severe threat continues for FL. There’s a tornado watch till 11 am today for south FL, including Miami. Full updates on the show. In fact, every single state on the east coast has rain as I write this at 4:52 this morning. It will be very heavy for the northeast, with 4-5” rain possible in CT! Flood warnings are all around the region, so massive air travel delays will be there too. It’s all snow in northern ME, with about 4-8” expected. Then we calm it down and warm it up in the Midwest, but another storm is hammering the NW with valley rain and mountain snow.

Busy morning, so I’ll keep this thing short. See ya out there.

Posted by: Meteorologist Bob Van Dillen
Filed under: Weather

The new podcast is here, the new podcast is here!!! Robin, Richard and HLN money expert Clark Howard help out some special families in this web-only video. Put on your coveralls and come along on a super-sized Habitat for Humanity build!

You can get involved too. Visit Habitat.org to find out how you can lend a hand.

The Robin Meade Expressed podcasts are also available on iTunes.

Filed under: podcast

Hey. Two storms this Friday morning. One moving away from the east coast and one in the Rockies. East Coast: once the rain/snow moves out later today, the wind will pick up. It will be breezy from NE all the way to Atlanta today, so expect some air delays if you are catching a flight. I’ll show you where. This storm ushers in colder air for the weekend too. Yesterday Boston was 65. Today, mid 40s. Ouch.

Storms in south FL this morning too, as a cold front hangs around and stirs it up.

The next Rockies storm is gathering strength right now. By tonight, it will have formed a center over NM and TX, making it very windy there. Gusts in NM could hit 60 mph this afternoon. Rain changes to snow for CO, so a winter storm watch is up. I’ll have that for you.

The rain and snow continues early this morning in the Pacific NW, but ought to end later today.

Going to buy my coffee now. Again, no fancy-pants stuff. I’ll chew on the beans if I have to.

Posted by: Meteorologist Bob Van Dillen
Filed under: Weather

This "Live Better Now" segment on Morning Express features chef Maureen Petrosky and her tips on teaching your kids healthy eating habits. You've seen the finished product, now have a try at whipping up your own! Then come back and tell us how it comes out!

Curried Chicken Pot Pie:
3 cups chopped cooked chicken
1 bag frozen mixed vegetables
3 Tb Olive oil
1/4 cup all purpose flour
3 cups skim milk
2 Tb curry powder
1 sheet of Pilsbury pie crust

-Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In a small sauce pot heat the olive oil and whisk in the flour. Cook until amber colored, slowly add milk while whisking. Whisk until smooth and add curry powder.
-In a 9×13 in baking dish combine the chicken and vegetables. Pour the thickened milk mixture over the mixture in the baking dish.
-Stretch the pie crust to fit over the top of the dish, pinching the edges to the edge of the dish. Cover the edges with aluminum foil.
-Place in the oven for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 15 to 20 minutes until the crust is golden brown.

Recipe Courtesy Maureen C. Petrosky
MaureenPetrosky.com

Maureen Petrosky’s Grocery Store Musts:
1. seven Grain Pilaf
2. canned Beans
3. protein enriched pasta
4. frozen peas
5. frozen spinach
6. dried nuts and dried apricots
7. snack boxes of dried cranberries
8. bananas and apples
9. whole wheat bread (no high fructose corn syrup)
10. part skim mozzarella cheese sticks
11. all natural peanut butter and low sugar jelly
12. baby carrots

Filed under: Live Better Now