James and Casey were the only performances I really liked last night. I know, I'm probably prejudiced because I've liked those two from the beginning. But I think James finally proved he can actually sing, and not just scream. Casey I'll admit I probably would have liked no matter what he did ~ I just really enjoy him! As for the others:

There was nothing technically wrong with Lauren's performance but it reminded me of something I'd see in an amusement park. I think Simon would have said "cruise ship". And, oh, those faces she made when the judges didn't rave over her performance!

Ashthon and Karen's songs were waaaay too big for them ~ both of their voices sounded weak in comparison to the song. I like Ashthon's personality and spunk, but she's out of her league in this competition. And I'm ready for Karen to stop playing the Latino card every week.

I like Paul, but I like his quirky stage presence much more than I like his strange voice.

Pia has a great voice, but the whole Celine/Whitney diva thing is a huge turn-off. I would never buy one of her albums.

I'm not feeling Haley at all as the rest of you seem to be. I haven't liked her from the beginning, and I was shocked that they even put her through after the disaster that was Hollywood Week. Her voice is all over the place, it seems like she's trying too hard, and she's awkward onstage unless she stands still. In my mind, Lauren Turner should have gotten her spot in the Top 13. Or even Kendra Chantelle.

Jacob was nowhere near as good as he was last week ~ the whole thing just fell flat for me. I'm going to get tired of him really quickly.

Stefano and Thia suffered from poor arrangements. Stefano sang fine, but he's a bit boy-band-y for me. The arrangement was very distracting and the song was virtually unrecognizable in some parts. I'll echo what everyone else has said and say Thia should have stuck with the beginning style of the song. The jazzy part was really awkward. And I think my problem with her is she's pitch perfect but has no passion.

Scotty's performance was boring for me. I guess he sang it fine, but I'm not sure I really even listened. That was probably one of the most pointless Garth Brooks songs he could have chosen. I would have preferred something like "Thunder Rolls".

Naima's performance was quite energetic. Maybe a little too energetic. I know this sort of performance is all the rage in the Rihanna/Beyonce/Fergie crowd. Perhaps I'm just a bit too old to get it.

What struck me as a positive thing about the theme this week is it might have given everyone an idea of what kind of music each of these folks would put out there if they had a record deal.

Now, as for the judges... I should have broken out a bottle of whiskey last night and played the "Beautiful" Drinking Game. I counted five beautifuls ~ four from Steven and one from Jennifer. (Had I played the game, I might have had quite a different tipsy take on the last few performances!) At least I can count on Randy not to use the B-word! But OMG! How did this happen? Randy is the voice of reason! Randy is the voice of truth! Never in a million years did I foresee a world in which I would use the phrase "I totally agree with Randy"!

Yes! That's it! I was trying to find out what it is.
Lol! (about Randy).
Is anyone getting a bit sick of all the niceness, and long for a real Simon Nasty?

After Simon's overt pushing of whatshisname the paint salesman last year, I am glad he is gone. I think the real Simon checked out around the time Melinda was eliminated.

Looks like the right person got booted tonight!

Adam Lambert looked great and sounded great tonight don't you think?!

Yes, Ren, I will agree with you. While I'm not a fan of "nasty" in my real life, part of the essence of American Idol has always been (sometimes painfully) honest critique. If someone sings badly, and the "beautiful" crew fails to tell them they sang badly, how are they supposed to know to change things?

I know I was in the minority around here, but I actually liked the paint salesman. I've listened to a few cuts off his first album, however, and wasn't a fan of most of them.

I have to admit that though it was great to see Adam, I was hoping for a more passionate Adam-like performance. I enjoyed every single performance he did during his season on Idol more than the one last night. There's nothing wrong with subdued from a paint salesman, but from Adam I want FIRE!

*gasp* did I miss Adam?!? Must look for the encore show whether he was good or not

I'm still trying to get the names right - but I haven't been able to watch diligently.

I didn't dislike Lee, I just felt his story was pushed way to hard and he was excused for some pretty average performances while others were held to a higher standard. I also felt that in the past few years that Simon had been much more critical of the women than the men. His comments, in particular, about Carly, Allison, Siobhan, Crystal and a few others often had nothing to do with their talents or their performances. And I fear that since the real focus on the text votes, a female contestant has a much harder road to get to the finals. I think a more attractive "cute" boy has an enormous advantage over a much more talented girl. If my kids were old enough, I think I would be hiding the Hello Kitty phones.

I was a pretty avid Lee fan, too, last year (until I broke my hip and lost immediate and total interest in buskers, paint, Hallelujah!, Simon's Last Stand and even television in general for weeks thereafter, that is ). In retro, last seeason seemed more like a variety show (and a wildly mid-tempo one at that) than it did an actual "contest" about anything, about midway through, to me. I always wondered, as it progressed, if there was some unconscious thrust to make it a *sleepy* season, possibly as a knee-jerk reaction to the utter explosiveness of Adam Lambert the one prior. Kinda like "Whew! This place nearly imploded last time, kids ... we better tone it done plenty, lest we rock this building's foundation into colmplete collapse!" Just a theory, and probably a wrong one, but I remember feeling that way at the time. AND [maybe it was just me, crazily theorizing again] ~ but I thought Cowell was pimping Crystal a lot more than he was Lee, at least at first. I had a strange hunch that that was a bit reactionary as well. The judges, and the entire planet-at-large, were so gung-ho on Lambert the year before and look what happened!? Was it a backlash against such popularity and enthusiasm that the other guy finally grabbed the votes? If so, then this time let's stop championing the girl we love to death and get behind the underdog dude. Maybe then the backlash will work the way we need it to? If my shaky suspicions are true, the lesson learned there is: don't manipulate a "backlash", eh? Trying to maneuver one turns it into something else, by definition. That Adam lost was, in more ways than fifty, a complete game changer. I think that the only reason Lee won was because the Gods were trying to 'change' the game back to something closer to normal. Or maybe not. But, either/or --- I liked Lee's voice and demeanor a whole lot. I'm still not sure if I liked it MORE than Crystal's, though. Overall, I'm not sure if the majority of audience members did or do, either. It really was a good race, with rather quiet and polite boundaries all over the place. And (sigh), Starfish. I'm kinda bummed that DeWyze's tracks that you caught weren't so great. I've haven't heard a note out of him since he won (because I haven't hunted any down ... I'm sure they're available just as sure as I know I'm too lazy to search ). And another recollection: they weren't shy about promoting the 'single mother/diabetic/rough childhood' backstory in Crystal's camp, were they? Good grief, Lee's hustling housepaint pales on the "woe is me" barometer compared to all that! Seems like nothing went the way Cowell & Co. had planned for it to in Season 9. This new lot is having NONE of that business this year, either, are they? My gosh, they've already given the unceremonious boot to the kid who managed to get out of his wheelchair and that other one with the critically injured fiance, etc. Heartless bunch, huh ? I'm thinking, after all the pimping, promoting, favorites-at-the-gate nonsense of recent years, the new mix-up in place in 2011 is the (potential) stuff of what "Idol" used to be, and needs to be again. Just a place for unknown talents to 'sing for their supper', so to speak. The better they do it? The more eligible they are for a second helping.

Sorry. I'm just thinking out loud here. And sounding like a loopy analyst sleash unlikely optimist ...
I'll shut up now.

Copago, you can see all the videos from Thursday's show, including Adam's performance, here.

Just buzzing in with a quick observation (or maybe several of 'em) after tonight's "Songs From the Year You Were Born" night --- which, I must add, is usually the most depressing theme evening, for me, of any season. Born in 1989, were ya? Say what? I still have a half-snappy three-piece suit somewhere in my house that is slightly older than that, I'm sure of it . So, as I gulp my Geritol and put vanishing cream on my liver spots ...

I slept through the first 50 minutes of the show. Ooops. Woke up as Haley was wrapping her tune up, and haven't looked at any video recaps yet. The first one I saw, then, was Karen. Which sparked my first keen observation ~ that being: did she look like the unknown starlet of some 1950s B-movie or what?. Perhaps that imaginary cult favorite sci-fi slither-fest Attack of the 50-Foot Bee Woman? Or something? I have to admit that I was tiring a bit of the Selena look-a-like bit, too, but I prefer it to a 3-D stab at resembling Judy Jetson, hands down. Next I noted that Casey has very cool parents, doesn't he? No wonder he's so enjoyable (disagreeable colon issues regardless). In terms of the singing, at least what I heard? Pretty dull (or was I still just groggy from my extended nap?). The best I heard [and it rather shocks me to say it, even though he's usually good -- just not what I'd expect myself to annoint as the *best* at any of this, so far] was Stefano. Fine delivery, pitch perfect, American Bandstand nice. Pia was good, too, but she always is. But not very exciting, as she went. Karen sang in a LESS exciting way. Scotty's never exciting, and nicely sang himself into that same region again this evening (but still, somehow, repetitive as he is he seems worth listening to). I didn't care for Lauren's show, once again. Not terrible, or anything ... it just didn't 'grab' me. And, seeing as how I'm an old man with many old and gnarly opinions, or so my calendar tells me? I really thought she was too young to be doing that Etheridge song properly. That's entirely my opinion, however. For all I know, she's had dozens of lusty suitors at her window offering bucketloads of broken hearts by now. I'm senile. So, accordingly, I have no recollectiom of being that young or how things happen when such youth is at hand [ahem]. I was s-o-o-o glad to wake up for the anticipated Nirvana tune! Ultimately I was all proud/thrilled that Casey did it, but I really didn't like it all that much. I didn't hate it, either. Bah, though. Seeing as how Casey was the one trying it, that alone made it a somehat special minute or two in a day.

I dare say nothing much about Jacob, this time. Other than that, while the judges were (inexplicably) praising him to the rafters and back, all I was doing was trying to think of a good excuse to skip church (and the choir in it) come Sunday. "Alone", Jacob? Really? Ugh.

I didn't get to take a nap but I missed the first 3 performances myself. Despite this, I counted 6 "beautiful"s and 1 "beautifully" (if that one counts) -- which would have gotten me even drunker than I would have gotten last week, had I been playing.

I haven't checked out the videos of the ones I missed, either, but after seeing the little recaps at the end and reading some of the blogs, I'm not inspired to bother. Is it me, or were a lot of these people better before they made it into the Top 13?

The only performance I really liked was James, and even that one wasn't particularly inspiring. A lot of the blogs, and Gats, liked Stefano, but at our house we got bored a couple of lines in, and chatted through the rest of his performance. At least his song was recognizable this week. Some of the blogs also thought Haley gave a decent performance, but I thought it was perfectly dreadful. Worst of the evening, for me (although if I'd seen Naima's entire performance, I might be changing my tune). Once again, Pia sings well but bores me silly. Karen's outfit would have worked better if she'd saved it for a 60's themed week, although I doubt if there is one, she'll still be around for it. And didn't she say she wanted to show America there was more to her than the Latina schtick ~ and then 30 seconds later launch into yet another song sung partly in Spanish? I thought Lauren was pitchy as all get out, but the judges didn't seem to think so. Jacob (sigh). Still great pipes used completely inappropriately. Very weird song choice. And you can't argue Scotty has a perfect country voice, but he keeps choosing the absolute most boring songs and then manages to make them even more boring. ZZZZ.

And then there was Casey. That was weird. I'd looked forward to it all day after I read he'd be performing this (conveniently leaked by Nigel Lythgoe himself). I'm all for the recent trend of performing stuff that's never been done on Idol before (first Judas Priest and now Nirvana). Enough Whitney, enough Celine, enough Stevie Wonder. And if one more contestant sings "Against All Odds" I'm going to hack my television to teeny tiny pieces with a machete! I knew this was going to be a risk for Casey ~ I'm not sure anyone but Kurt Cobain could pull this particular song off, but I thought if anyone could, maybe it would be Casey. It wasn't entirely awful, and the chorus worked much better than the verse, but that is not a singer's song. For one thing, when Kurt Cobain sang it, you could barely understand the words. When Casey sang it, I could understand the words, and that was weird all by itself. I kept wondering how that song would come off to someone who'd never heard it before. Better or worse? He could have, and should have, chosen "Come As You Are" from the same album. It has a great bass line and is more voice-friendly while still having enough growl and passion for Casey to do his trademark thing. On a positive note ~ Casey has now become one good thing Adam was for me two years ago: I can't wait to see what he's going to do next!

I should have prefaced this little "review" with the info that I fell and hurt my shoulder a couple of days ago and haven't been in the best of spirits ~ which may have affected my attitude negatively. I may go back and re-visit these performances to see if I feel differently next time. Meanwhile, I look forward to seeing what next week's theme will be! Let's have something challenging this time!

Oh dear! I didnt like anyone much. I liked Casey but that's only because of who he is and the lovely lovely scarey risks he takes. (yes weren't his parents great? So refreshing and real!). The rest? Ho hum,
I think Karen might go, much as I wish it were Jacob, though that said, I am not a Pia fan nor do I care for James any more. Oh dear!

Speaking of parents, our 16-year-old thought Lauren's mom looked like Hannah Montana. That's not a good look for a mom.

A litle bit o' Motown tonight, eh? The minute I heard that all I could think was that all week, when not rehearsing, Scotty must have been at the Rhinestone Cowboy Saloon sipping on many near-beers to calm his nerves? Such a theme is so way NOT up his alley, obviously ... and I wasn't sure he was at all the musical sort who could arrange (dare to arrange) a song properly to fit himself. He kinda didn't, as it went ... but I'll pull up the now routine caption to his performance(s): it really wasn't bad. It was not an unpleasant experience, listening. And I hadn't thought of Glen Campbell in ages, either ~ so I'll give him a bit of credit for sparking some of those recollections. To me, the only two that seemed to embody what I think the spirit of Motown is/was were Jacob (no surprise there ... and I finally got to enjoy a song from him that didn't give me hives, after weeks of itching) and my pick [without hesitation] for "best of the night": James. Watching the latter do that song was absolutely infectious since he was enjoying it so much AND he sang it to near perfection (in my opinion). Casey rather disappointed me. Sigh. I'm not sure if he even sang it very much, or so it seemed to me. I still like him a lot, and I think he's a shoo-in to be safe tomorrow night --- but his take on Marvin Gaye didn't do too much for me, and I was hoping it would. The other guys? Clearly, Stefano has positively NO rhythm and blues-ish vibe in him much. That was evident. He performed "Hello" all right, I guess, but I wrote down 'way wedding reception-y' next to him on my notes. I reckon that's not a very complimentary scribble. He's on a roll, though. He'll prob.ly be safe tomorrow, too. Paul, on the other hand, might not be so safe. I'm stubborn about it. I like the guy, and thought his show was pretty good tonight. Not the best by a short mile, not the worst by similarly short mile. Most importantly, though? Not humdrum dreck, as happened here and there elsewhere on the stage, as the clock rocked. I'm thinking another girl will likely get the boot this week, however. Thia started off great, I thought. But then? Maybe it was just me, but I thought that performance fell down all over the place as it neared the end. Another one, as well, who has a definite shortage in the "soul music" department. Something about the way she delivers (predominately perfect notes aside) reminds me of a morphine drip. Lauren did better this week, but I'm still not 'getting' her, and why she's really there. I'll rewatch the tapes, I think. I truly must be missing something that many others are all happy about. Haley. Well, she certainly slunk down those steps like Eartha Kitt as Catwoman, didn't she? Once she stopped with all the suggestive poses and shameless leg shows, I thought she sang (growled?) in an acceptable way. Again, nothing breathtaking ~ but better than Lauren or Thia, or so I thought. Pia was (like Scotty) her usual spot-on self, vocally. I like her, but she's not even partly surprising anymore. Anymore!? Three weeks in, she's not surprising anymore? Probably not a good observation. I sense that she's very confidant up there, though. I also sense that she knows exactly what works for her, in terms of the contest at this point. I personally have a hunch that she'll be doing something spectacular as things progress, just to rattle this "Champagne Lady" model she's been presenting. Naima was a lot of fun to watch, as usual. Nice to listen to this time, too. She had the whole Motown 'thing' going nicely, and I really do *get it* why she decided to do that dancing business at the end. Somehow or other, however, the song didn't click with the dancing (and I might even suggest a professional choreographer next time she tries it, if ever)? At least I thought not -- but, as always? What do I really know? Not much.

My guess for the Bottom Three? Certainly Thia, probably Haley and more than likely Paul. Whoever goes tomorrow will not make the Top Ten tour, I just remembered. In that case? I hope Thia is voted off. Naima and Paul would be much more fun to watch in concert.

"Beautiful" count this week: ELEVEN! Steven really pushed it over the top tonight with three beautifuls in one critique! Every week I say I'm going to drink along, but honestly, if he keeps this up, I'm terrified to try. I'm afraid I'll be in rehab before finale night.

This week was happily *not* the absolute train wreck that was last week. No one was brutally awful. Closest to awful was Thia. All I can say is she's lucky Simon's no longer with us. It was just so...well, I can't quite come up with the words for what I'm feeling so I'm going to have to fall back on Simon and use the term "cruise ship". The other one I couldn't abide was Stefano. I find myself treating his performances like a commercial break -- time to get up and go into the kitchen for a bite to eat. No passion, no soul, and his high little boy-band voice grates on me. I tried to at least watch his performance to see if he managed to keep his eyes open, but I just couldn't do it and beat a hasty retreat to the kitchen to warm up some taquitos. Haley was admittedly better tonight, and while I managed to stay in the room for her performance, I'm still just not feeling that one.

In the middle of the pack: Lauren, who sings relatively well, but I've already forgotten what she sang. Paul, who made an excellent song choice while managing to turn Motown into Rod Stewart, but didn't do anything stupendous. I do like him much better with a guitar, though. Scotty, who I was really looking forward to, to see, of course, how he would handle a Motown theme. Similar to Paul, he managed to make a Motown song a boring country song, so, same old same old. Pia, who sang the closest thing to a Celine Dion song she could find in the Motown catalog. I know it's unfair to put her in the middle of the pack when she's absolutely spot-on every week. But, jeez Louise, she might as well be singing the same song every week. I'm sure in the future she'll be singing an Oscar-winning Disney movie song, but for now, she's putting me to sleep. And Casey, who I still love, but unfortunately offered no surprises tonight. It was a tad cruise-shippy, too. I'm still behind him, but I'm afraid he doesn't have a snowball's chance down below of winning this thing. He's just too quirky. And while you all probably know I love a good growl, I'm missing that sweet, soulful voice he used on "Georgia" during Hollywood Week.

Cream of the crop: Jacob and James. I'm still not ready, and probably will never will be, to become a Jacobite ~ but he really reigned it in tonight and gave a fantastic performance. The hand movements and facial expressions are still quite distracting, so I definitely like Jacob better with my eyes closed. But it was one of my favorite performances of the season so far. James chose an excellent song ~ one of the most rockin' Motown songs he could have picked ~ and delivered it with just the right amount of singing and his signature screech. I loved his dance moves, too, whatever Jennifer called that. I've been solidly behind both James and Casey since day one, and James has yet to disappoint me. Not all of his performances have been absolutely top-notch, but I've thoroughly enjoyed every single one of them.

Jennifer seems to be getting better and better at giving a truly helpful critique, while Steven seems to offer less and less every week. It seems the closest he gets to any sort of critique at all is to echo what one or both of the other judges have said. I was enjoying him quite a bit during the audition process, but he's starting to seem a tad pointless. I'm starting to think we'd be better off with Ellen -- at least she was funny sometimes.

Whew! Looks like the judges finally put that crazy "save" thing to good use tonight, huh? I never liked the idea of that peculiar (and usually misused) little twist in the contest ... until this evening, that is. I'm still mostly thunderstruck, quite frankly. Thia got more votes than Casey?! Something's rotten in Denmark ....

Holy Toledo, was that the most dramatic results show ever, or what?



I'm thinking folks were extra diligent about voting this week, because this vote determined who would go on the tour. My guess is despite the fact that Casey's had a couple of bad weeks, voters assumed he would be safe, and therefore used their votes on others that they wanted to make sure made the tour.

As for Thia, I'm afraid she may be the Jasmine Trias of Season 11.

I've not been a fan of the "save" either, but thank goodness they instituted that after all! For Casey not to even make the Top 10 would have been a huge injustice.

Interesting that they didn't mention that the Idols have all moved out of the mansion because they think it's haunted.

Phew! My hero, and my main reason for watching nearly went? Sheesh!
So who is haunting the mansion? Sanjaya?

I've had a hard time getting up the energy to comment on last night's performances. Meanwhile, I've read some of the blogs and re-watched a couple of the performances to see if I still felt the same. I do.

I'll start at the top this time. I loved that Casey stopped running frenetically around the stage and growling. His rendition of "Your Song" got back to what I think we've all been missing about Casey. It still wasn't as good as "Georgia" during Hollywood Week, but my fears that he's going to be another Andrew Garcia were allayed.

The middle of the pack includes almost everyone else. Jimmy Iovine used the term "one-trick pony" in reference to Scotty and that about sums that up. I wish he would at least try to do something else. Carrie Underwood was obviously going to be a country artist post-Idol, but she proved week after week that she could handle anything that was thrown at her without turning everything into the exact same country song.

I enjoyed Paul a little more than I have in previous weeks, but his lack of vocal range is becoming more and more obvious. Still, with the right songs, that quirky voice could catch on and find a fanbase.

There's never that much to really say about Pia. "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me" is one of my favorite Elton tunes, but it is now tied with "Against All Odds" as the most-performed song ever on Idol. I knew she would either do this one, or "Candle In The Wind" and I wasn't looking forward to either. Perhaps we should give her a "one-trick pony" badge as well.

I managed to stay in the room while Stefano was singing this week, which I guess means it wasn't as awful for me as usual. That's about all I have to say about that.

Lauren was another that I enjoyed more than I have been. She wasn't technically perfect on this song, but her slightly countrified version of "Candle In The Wind" worked much better than I thought it might.

This week was my least favorite performance of my boy James. He stole the frenetic page out of Casey's playbook. The singing was fine, but that's not a singer's song. Still, he moves wonderfully onstage and gives a good show.

I thought "Daniel" was Thia's best performance so far, but that's not saying much. It was still passionless, and it drives me nuts when she smiles while singing sad songs. I'm thinking she's just too young to have the kind of passion needed to really "feel" as song and make us all feel it with her.

Jacob is back to boring me with oversinging, and I found his voice tone on the parts that weren't oversung to be kinda weird. Definitely worse than last week. I tried listening with my eyes closed, but found myself having to peek.

Bottom of the barrel goes to Naima and Haley. Elton John as a reggae song? Really, Naima? And reggae singers sing with a Jamaican accent because they speak with a Jamaican accent! That fake Jamaican accent was so ridiculous, I still haven't recovered. Last week, she was African, this week she was Jamaican. I could stomach this just fine if she actually was either of those two things. Simon Cowell was at home with his tongue bitten completely through.

As for Haley, I've read the blogs and nobody, but nobody, hated this performance as much as I did. When the judges praised her, and Randy went so far as to call it the best performance of the night, I thought they must have been smoking some of that herb our Jamaican friend Naima must have brought to the show. For me, Randy, this one was drunken karaoke. Really bad drunken karaoke. But apparently, I'm the only one who thought so.

The "beautiful" count, by the way, was eight ~ with only ONE from Steven! Poor Steven was just completely off his game last night. If he can't give me any beautifuls, he's going to move all the way to completely useless.

I SO agree with all you have said. To me the only one worth staying in the room for was Casey. I want to smack Thia, and the others gave me no feeling of wanting to do anything. Lets hope tomorrow brings the demise of the dreaded Scotty or Thia. (too much to hope for Jacob )

LOL.

Well, I do keep trying to watch and I keep missing it. Or I keep walking out of the room for two seconds and the channel gets changed to History ...
but I did watch some last night and wasn't overly over the moon about any of them. The elimination is about to start here so we'll see if I can hog the remote for long enough!

Well, I think I'll try to write something after watching tonight, but I'm not sure what it'll be? I'm getting all flummoxed. Last week (Elton night) all I kept jotting down was "OK", "OK", "Pretty good", "Not bad", etc. after each one's name when they got done. Nobody really *popped*, in my opinion. It was kinda the same this week (but what I jotted down was a tad less middle-of-the-road). Ergo, I reckon things were looking up. The other area of flummoxation [I made that word up, o' course] is that I sit here with Casey as my favorite. Hands down, no question. I'd buy one of his CDs before I'd even pick up and glance at anybody else's in Season 10. BUT??? I sit here at the same time almost certain that James is the best contender up there. I look forward to him each time, as I do Casey, but it's 'different'. Maybe I'm instinctively sensing some of that mysterious "X-Factor" in Durbin? Casey's artistry is twice James's ... but there's something about that kid who cried in tandem with his gently weeping guitar this evening (and those other evenings before this one). I don't know what I mean, exactly. So I'll just drift further off into Flummoxland re: the whole issue, I guess. In regards to how those two guys compared to one another Wednesday night? Just to complicate matters worse, I'd call it a total tie. What's up with Randy, anyway? Casey is making the upright bass "cool", is he? Has Randy been on Planet Mars since the late 50's, or what? Has he never even seen "The Smothers Brothers" on TV back in the day? Did he not watch this year's Grammy Awards, and the Best New Artist recipient thereupon? Hmmm? Clearly, then, this means that Randy is, as expected, w-a-y out of touch with coolness. For me, I wasn't even paying much attention to the stringed instruments. I was all wrapped up in the way Mr. Casey phrases his lyrics as he goes. It's an odd and interesting and perfect way he has of doing that (when he's not screaming). James did George Harrison very proud, I thought ~ and continues to manage his ferocious-as-a-lion vocal instrument ably. I'm not sure if I'm right, but I enjoyed Haley bunches, too. While she didn't send me into flashbacks of Joplin quite, she put on a good show and sang well. At the beginning she sang it well, anyway. She lapsed into her signature growl at the end, and it all got lost in what sounded a bit like a feral cat fight. But, overall? I like her, I think. I liked Paul's show, too - mostly because he was having such a grand time doing Mr. Cash (it was obvious). How was it in "vocal excellence" terms? Prob.ly not so hot --- but I'm not sure it mattered. It really didn't matter much to me, anyway. Pia, who I still say has what is likely the best vocal chops up there, is the only singer I can think of who can make even Tina Turner come off as a bore?! If Durbin has me wondering what that hazy crazy X-Factor is, Miss Pia has managed, week after week now, to assure me what it isn't. Vocally perfect, though. It's getting like saying it's special to get an outstanding night's sleep after swallowing the most exquisite variety of sleeping pills.

Scotty was OK (he really DOES look like that guy on the cover of Mad magazine, doesn't he?). Stepped out of the box ever so slightly, eh? I'd probably recommend that he step back into it next week, if possible. The girls rushing the stage at the end of his Elvis tune was a nice touch, wasn't it? NOT! Stefano is, pretty much, so 'done' now that it might be advised to put a fork in him this week. If not this week, he's bound to be gone by the end of next one. He's really reached his *personal best*, I'd say. Nowhere else for him to go. I'm going to bear with Lauren, as long as I can stand it. She certainly came out there looking like a full-grown woman tonight (natural or otherwise). That mature/red carpet-ish updo and fetching outfit reminded me that Gwen Stefani was, in fact, trotting around the place somewhere. And, finally --- did Jacob really tell me, rapt viewer that I am, that if I didn't like his song it's only because 'I haven't looked in the mirror'? Say what? Here's the deal on that. Even though I'm thinking that, by now, he could burp loudly (with accompaniment) up there on the stage and the judges would gush endlessly? I didn't care for his song at all tonight. And my mirror had nothing to do with it.

Yeah, I very much agree with everything you said Gats, particularly about appreciating the different qualities of Casey and James. My favorite contestant is Casey as well. Man, Pia's got chops, huh?

Oh, and it's Alfred E. Neuman that you're thinking of (aka Scotty). I was thinking the same thing when I first saw him. Thought he was pretty smooth singing Elvis up there, but I'm tired of the way he always cocks his head to the right, raises his shoulders and holds his mike sideways like a flute. Bizarre posturing if I ever saw it.

I think Stephano will be packing his bags tomorrow.

Yikes. I was just reading the Idol board over on Entertainment Weekly and it seems like there's mass outrage going on about Jacob's remark . Wow. Granted, what he said was mighty smug and ultimately unnecessary (and, I have to admit, impacting enough for me to even bother mentioning earlier) but, still. I'm suspecting he didn't intend for it to come out the way that it did. It would really (really) bite if he got voted off significantly because he flubbed up that way --- keep in mind, these youngsters are still new at having questions thrown at them while a microphone's in their face. It's just my take on it, but I'd propose that his actual performance was lacking in enough 'stuff' to get him the boot. Such uproar about the 'gaffe' afterwards seems a tad misplaced.

But I, too, am thinking that Stefano will prob.ly save Jacob from getting gone. Young Jacob will (maybe?) get to share his inspirational, yet borderline annoying, vibrato with us for at least another week.

I just so so love Casey. What a refreshing change he is from the norm. (Though I have to say everyone was considerably better, in my opinion, tonight)I also thought Pia did really well . I thnk my problem is I seem to love performances if I really love the song. "My Guitar Gently weeps" is a favourite, so I would vote for James if I could vote that is, as well as Casey , and Paul because again I adore the song and he did a great job of livening up proceedings. I just really do want Jacob to go. I really do.