Idol chatter

Ah, American Idol ...

Where were we before the expansion of our family ...

Ah, yes. Michael Johns had just been dismissed (no shock to me, America), and then there were seven.

Then, Phoebe arrived a couple days later. And we watched Mariah Carey Week from our hospital room ...

When David Archuleta sang “When You Believe,” Kates and I were with Simon -- We could’ve bet a million bucks he was going to sing that song. And we still weren't impressed. The shine on ‘lil David has rusted. We also were turned off by Syesha's “Vanishing” and Jason Castro's “I Don’t Want to Cry.”

We liked Brooke's version of “Hero.” But we loved Carly Smithson's brilliant “Without you.” And David Cook's “Always Be My Baby” -- Awesome. No, we didn’t like David Cook those first couple weeks. But week after week, as the competition has progressed, again and again, he has proven his ability to be, as Simon said, daring and imaginative. He did one of my favorite Mariah songs and his rocked-down version of it was an ace. He's beginning to leave any doubts he's going to win this thing.

On the other side, Kristy Lee Cook's dismissal after her awful “Forever” (another one of my Mariah favorites) had to have been one of the most predictable exits of the season ... But I will say her exit performance, seated in front of Simon, was a gem.

And that brought us to this week. With six Idols left. Andrew Lloyd Webber Week ...

Eh.

My mother will scoff at this one, but I'm hardly an Andrew Lloyd Webber fan. Which made this week a little less exciting to watch -- along with the idea that these next few weeks have everyone going through the motions to get the Idols whittled down to the David Cook vs. David Archuleta final.

Before tonight's show I predicted it was Jason Castro's night to go. ... A surprise to me, Jason didn't even make the bottom two, but I can tell you Carly -- who did go -- would have been my next guess. All season long, given her record label past, the expectations and buzz around her seemed to be unrealistically high and I think that, combined with the notion she never really got it (She admitted herself last night she had been choosing songs to please the judges and fans, not for her own fun.) led to her perhaps-earlier-than-deserved demise. (Here's a good read from the LA Times: Seeking closure with Carly Smithson)

At the same time, Syesha hardly deserved to be in the bottom two. Though she's likely to go any week now too, her fantastic “One Rock n’ Roll Too Many” was arguably the best performance of Tuesday night. And it was even better last night during her possible exit performance ... (And seriously. What was up with Carly and Ryan yapping in the background all through Syesha's time? Tacky indeed.)

And what's with everybody beating down Brooke for starting and stopping her song, "You Must Love Me," when she flubbed the lyrics ... Geez people, everybody was totally praising her for it and complimenting her maturity when she did it earlier this season. What changed!? She was only a few notes into the song and I've seen and heard dozens of top performers do the same thing. It shows professionalism for wanting to get it it right and I'll never blame them for doing it ... And extra kudos to Brooke for sticking with her descision last night ...

One more thing: I called it that David Archuleta would sing a song from “Phantom,” and he sang “Think of Me.” Kudos to him for trying to turn it into a pop song. But I agree with Simon, it was forgettable. I'm so bored with 'lil David ...