Hi everyone! I see I have some catching up to do! I'm so happy it's Friday; it's been a week. I stupidly stayed up until 1 a.m. Monday night working on a new layout for my site's 25th anniversary on Tuesday and have been trying to play catch-up with sleep ever since. My nocturnal self is ready for summer! Hope everyone else is doing okay. Sorry Kieran did not get the Tony nomination, Mare. Steph, hope you had fun at your concert the other night! Lindsey, it's nice to have someone else chime in on these threads!
Regarding Baylee on American Idol: He made the top 20 but got eliminated when they narrowed it down to the top 14. In all honesty, he probably should have been cut a week or two earlier than he was. He doesn't have a bad voice and is a decent songwriter (he did a couple of his original songs early on), but when it got down to the best of the best, his vocal ability was noticeably not as good as the others. The episode before he was eliminated, he sang one of Brian's solo songs (Gone Without Goodbye), which was really touching but also showed how much he pales in comparison to Brian in his prime. Their voices are totally different, and Baylee didn't sound anywhere near as good as Brian singing that song. It wasn't a good fit for his voice at all. I thought he might make it further in the competition solely based on votes from BSB fans, but it wasn't enough - and I'm not sure how many BSB fans actually watched or voted for him. I don't think Brian and Leighanne were breathing down anyone's necks, trying to get him further. They showed up to support him, as most contestants' families did, but they were mostly just shown watching in the audience like everyone else.
It'll be interesting to see if Baylee's exposure from Idol has any effect on his music career. I wonder if he made any new fans who weren't already familiar with him from his BSB connection. I was happy to find out that he's enrolled in college and pursuing a degree in sports administration . Smart of him to have a backup plan in case his entertainment career doesn't work out. It would be nice to see him move off his parents' property someday and make a life for himself.
As for the Carters: I watched the documentary and thought it was well done but also heartbreaking. I was also surprised at how much home movie footage they had! I wonder who's been holding onto all that - I'm guessing Bob had it all, since Nick and Angel seem to have severed all ties with Jane. It was interesting to see the stepmom Ginger interviewed and hear her perspective on everything, since we've never really heard from her before. Like Mare said, I also noticed how often the kids were naked and running wild. Their household looked very chaotic, much like it was portrayed on the reality show House of Carters. Everything we've learned about their family dynamic since explains so much of the way the siblings behaved on that show. It's a miracle that Nick and Angel turned out as well as they did - and we all know Nick went through a lot to get to the good place he's in now. I'm sure Angel did, too, out of the spotlight. It is sad that the reason she grew up the most normal is because she was neglected and spent more time with her friends' families. Likewise, Nick had his BSB family to set a better example than his blood family did. Thank God for that. I love that Nick and Angel have gotten close again; it's always nice to see their families together for holidays and her coming to his shows like she did with Stagecoach. I was actually at his solo show where they filmed the scenes with him and Angel together. I think that was the only show he sang "Hurts to Love You" on the second leg of the tour, and it was clear that he only did it because Angel was in the audience that night, but we didn't know at the time that they were also filming it for a documentary. It would have been nice to have heard more from him, but I think it's also nice that he let it be Angel's project. I really hope he does a documentary of his own after his lawsuits are settled - or at least a nice, long interview.
I've always wondered about the retirement home Jane and Bob ran, too. Considering that neither of them seemed like great people even back then, I wonder how well the residents were cared for. It wouldn't surprise me to find that they were stealing from old people as you suggested, Mare. It definitely seems like an odd choice to go from running a bar in New York to a nursing home in Florida. The timeline you mentioned, Lindsey, is also interesting. They really were banking on Nick/BSB to succeed. The Ruskin house is different from the compound they had in the Keys. I wonder who owns that now. As far as I know, Nick no longer has any property in Florida, but I could be wrong.