No need to be coy about it at this point - plus I’m too tired to write up a snazzy recap of the show - the voters have decided, and David Hernandez is the latest Idol contestant to exit, stage left. It wasn’t surprising, but it was a little disappointing to me. I really think Kristy Lee Cook should have gotten the boot this time, but I guess her golden good looks have given her a pass once more.

Honestly, Hernandez had a better overall voice. However, he was a little more broadly inconsistent, which likely made voters tired of wondering if he was going to be good or bad from one week to the next. Still, we’re running out of obvious cannon fodder, so I’m hoping Kristy will be gone next week.

If I didn’t have DVR, I would have been seriously annoyed by the fact that American Idol has decided to force us to listen to the entire bottom three sing their songs over a second time. My ears (and eyes) couldn’t take listening to either Kristy’s or David H. mutilating Beatles tunes once more. Luckily for me, I could fast forward, thus turning an hour-long show into about 15 minutes. Yay for technology.

The best thing about the episode was seeing the ever-cute Jim Carrey in giant elephant feet/ears (he was promoting the Horton Hears a Who film) and the quick glimpse of Sanjaya in the studio audience. I don’t like Sanjaya, but it was amusing to see him there. Oh and … Ryan Seacrest showed the his obession with Chikezie’s near-bald pate wasn’t a one time thing. Ryan, Ryan … you’re getting stranger all the time.

Finally - if you’re wondering if I think the Hernandez “scandal” of where he used to be employed was a factor in him being voted off - well, I suppose it’s possible. But I’d like to think people aren’t that shallow. Who bloody cares where he used to work, or what he did, or what his sexuality might be. The question in terms of the show was: could he handle the pressure and continue to give us entertaining performances? Apparently the answer was: no.

American Idol’s Top 12 contestants tackled the songs of the Beatles tonight. With a couple exceptions, they were moderately successful, although of course none could compare with the original classic tunes they were being forced to sing. I mean, you just can’t “outdo” the Beatles. Sorry. You can, however, do a really good cover, and some of the Top 12 pulled that off, while others were ok to mediocore, and the rest were just plain lousy. In other words, typical American Idol.

The shocker of the night had to do with David Archuleta, aka The Chosen One, who as everyone knows has been slated by the media and general public to be the “surefire” winner this year. Well, we all know making predictions like that can end up. Especially when the person in question has a really off night. Whoo, boy. But don’t worry - I seriously doubt our David is in any danger. He simply has too many fans.

Syesha Mercado: “Got to Get You Into My Life” - Yes! She did something different with her hair. She looked lovely. Not that she doesn’t look lovely with her usual ‘do, but as I said last week, very nice to see some variety. Anyway, her performance was all right. Some good notes, nice arrangement. But in the end, I found it a little bland and forgettable - not something the AI audience is going to reward with tons of votes. Since I don’t think she has the strongest fan-base, she could be in trouble.

Chikezie: “She’s a Woman” - His outfit was mellower but I never did like the casual-preppy look. His performance starts out like a hoe-down than starts to turn more “rock.” It was a decent performance, but I don’t know - I still admire his vocal talent, but he doesn’t do anything for me personally. The judges loved him this night, however. And what was up with Ryan Seacrest’s spazzing out over Chikezie’s head and running around the stage? Very weird. Perhaps Paula slipped Ryan some of her “happy juice” during the break.

Ramiele Malubay: “In My Life” - She’s cute, she’s short, she can hit those “power notes” like crazy. But tonight, she’s also extremely boring. Borrrriiiiinnnng. One of the things I’ve liked about this season of AI is that there is a decided lack of dull predictable ballads, even among most of the women performers. I like music with a beat, and Ramiele’s performance had none. Plus her voice was too quiet or weak or something through most of the vocals. It’s not that she messed up or did terribly, but not entertaining and completely forgettable. I think she’s in mild danger - maybe not this week, but because we have a couple others that may have shot themselves in the foot a lot worse, but …

Jason Castro: “If I Fell” - Not as strong this week as last week. His lack of stage experience seemed to show through a little more today, but vocally it wasn’t bad. He grows on me more each week, seeming more and more adorable. I like how we seem to be watching him grow as a singer/performer as he goes along.

Carly Smithson: “Come Together” - My eardrums still don’t like her higher notes…a lot of the time it just sounds shrieky to me, and listening to just the audio of the song through headphones makes me wince a little. I think this reflects more on my eardrum’s shape and design more than her vocal ability, tho. She sure rocked it out, and it was far better than I thought it was going to be. Carly showed some genre range ability, as well as stepping up her stage-persona a notch. I give her props.

David Cook: “Eleanor Rigby” - Vocals decent, stage performance the same as always. I loved this Beatles tune, and while DavidC did a fair job at giving it a “rocker” arrangement, I’m tired of his rock-clothes, his smug rock-attitude (even if it is more genuine than Robbie’s was) and the repetitive nature of his alt-rock sounding vocal uplilt. But I’m sure he’s safe, since I’m obviously in the minority.

Brooke White: “Let It Be” - One of my favorite Beatles song ever. I was terrified of it being mangled to death. I shouldn’t have worried. I loved the real piano and Brooke’s playing. I loved her singing and the emotional vulnerability she showed. The only bad thing for me was that the piano was obviously distracting Brooke from being able to “perform” to the audience/camera. I think she should have ignored the camera and just concentrated on playing/singing. Of the women, Brooke is the one I’m cheering for.

David Hernandez: “I Saw Her Standing There” - Very campy, very tortured. Bad arrangement, bad dancing. Vocals were actually ok, but the “performance” was so awful I think he just hurt his chances pretty badly. Not much else to say than that.

Amanda Overmyer: “You Can’t Do That” - Good strong vocals, but sounded like she was mumbling the words half the time. Plus, it was still “typical” Overmyer. I’d really like to hear her do something softer or more mellow to show range and versatility. I have the feeling she can’t do soft or mellow or another genre, and that’s going to be her downfall. But at least she was smiling this week. And she absolutely commands the stage with her presence/moves.

Michael Johns: “Across the Universe” - YES. Finally, Michael does something different than his usual “rock with the microphone” style singing/performance. I’ll be honest and say I’ve never liked the original “Across the Universe” very much. Too hippie or whatever, for me. But with Michael’s voice it became more of an alt-rock ballad and I enjoyed it. Michael managed to control his vocals this time and the result was a much smoother and consistent vocal performance. It still doesn’t beat his “Bohemian Rhapsody”, and he couldn’t seem to keep his arm from wanting to do at least one of those “raise in the air for dramatic emphasis” moments, but at least was different than his usual and it didn’t feel as much as if he was just “coasting” along in a “The Doors mode”. The judges did have a good point that the song was a bit “boring” but I don’t think that’ll matter. He has enough fans that he should be safe.

Kristy Lee Cook: “Eight Days a Week” - *shakes head* The country blonde turned the simplistic rock tune of the Beatles into a horrible, Speedy-Gonzalez paced country vocal, complete with spangled top and ripped-up jeans. I don’t like country music much, so I’m prejudiced, but … all you can say is … terrible. BUT - again, I do give props for her guts to take a risk and do what she wanted with the song. Sometimes the risk doesn’t gives us the gains we were hoping for. Kristy has a good chance of going home, unless the country-fans (and male fans) vote enough to keep her from the brink.

David Archuleta: “We Can Work It Out” - He said he was nervous, he looked nervous, and not long into his performance he proved he was nervous by forgetting the words. Recovering from that, he proceeded to wander around the stage, and forgot the words again another couple of times. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the vocals weren’t as strong as in previous weeks. He seemed uncomfortable and you just had to feel awful for him. We all know he has the talent, the stage persona, and the experience - but he’s also 17 years old and this time the pressure got to him. How will this effect his chances of winning? Well, if it’s the only time he really “messes up” - I think not much. I hope he won’t let this one bad performance toss his confidence. I may not be his biggest fan, but I do know he deserves to be in the Top5 at least. One wonders if the producers of AI wanted him to be less-than-stellar this time to make sure the viewers would stay tuned into the show. ie, the more everyone thinks Archuleta is a shoo-in for #1, the more likely they are to tune out. This is reality TV after all - tossing in a monkey wrench now and then is good for ratings. Not that I really believe in a conspiracy. It’s just fun to doodle about. :)

At any rate - I think Kristy, Syesha and David Hernandez should be worried tomorrow.

mycathatesyou.com is one of the “cat photo” sites I enjoy. They claim to post pictures of “grumpy faced” cats, but it has a mix of expressions/scenes. They don’t update very frequently, so I only check up on the site once every 2-3 months - there’s almost always something there that makes me chuckle. The last time I visited, the photo to hit my funny bone is the one below:

The contrast of the black cat to the red/white Santa sweater/hoodie makes it “pop” and the glowing green eyes and expression are priceless.

Blake Lewis, who almost won last years AI, performed one his singles at the beginning of the show. It was terrible. Of course, I never liked him that much anyway … his beat-boxing stuff was inventive, but his vocals and charisma aren’t there. But hey, AI had some time to fill …

I’ll keep the rest short because none of the performers eliminated were a huge surprise to anyone, I think. Kady Malloy - no shocker. Luke Menard - ditto.

The only one that did surprise me just a little was Asia’h Epperson. I thought she might have had a bigger fan base that would pull her through. I have no rational reason for thinking that, but there you go. In terms of Chikezie vs. Danny Noriega, for me that was a toss-up. I really had no idea which one would have the lower votes. Both have their pluses and minuses. But apparently the voters decided (as I had) that Danny wasn’t entertaining enough to gloss over his lesser vocals and so out he went - torturing us with another performance of “Tainted Love”.

It’s uncharitable of me, but the past few days I find Paula Abdul so distracting I can’t focus on the show. Every time she opens her mouth I just want to roll my eyes and press the mute button. I know, I know, I should try to focus on the fact that Paula is cheery & sweet and that she tries hard to be nice and caring. I don’t mind that aspect of her TV presence at all, actually. It’s the blathering on and on and on and on to what amounts to completely useless (for the show) dribble … judging American Idol isn’t a personal video blog on YouTube where you can babble inanely about whatever pleases you for as long as you want. Argh … ok, I’ll stop ranting about Paula now.

Sorry, too much stress the past few weeks from all the buy-a-house stuff. I’ll be cheerier again in a few weeks, I’m sure - with new photos to boot. :D

Y’know, I was really looking forward to “80’s week”, because I loved the 80’s. But I haven’t liked most of the songs the contestants have picked. I didn’t pay attention to Whitney or others in that genre (because I don’t like such music), so perhaps this shouldn’t surprise me. I’ll never understand the whole almost religious reverence for Whitney and co. Anyway, on to my opinions of the gals this week. Quite frankly, I don’t find the women very impressive or even interesting this year. Loved the women last year, but this time around … meh.

Paula proved once again that she should be fired. Her incoherent rambling this time around - along with the chaos it causes - meant they actually took too long commenting on the first 7 gals this time, so the last performer of the night had to be satisfied with nothing but brief “Good.” “Good.” “Good.” from the judges. It was abrupt and in my opinion, unfair to the performer, since how the judges respond (well, how Simon responds) to the performance is often influential to voters - now now, don’t deny it isn’t true.

Asia’h Epperson: The first catty impression I had - “OMG where’d you get those pants?!” Horrible purple thingamigs. She sang “I Wanna Dance With Somebody.” Vocal was ok, but like with Michael Johns, she seems a bit one-dimensional in her performances. All that same head-shaking and dance moves. I keep wondering if her neck is double-jointed. She’s likely safe, however.

“Robotic” Kady: Unless she’s saved by youthful males full of raging hormones, she’s not safe and likely going home. Of course, many of us thought that last week too, so you never can quite tell. Still, she’s struggled since Day1 and her performance of “Who Wants To Live Forever” wasn’t anything memorable. It was, perhaps, her personal best performance, but that’s not saying a whole lot. I will say I give her props and respect for holding up so well to Simon’s constant “you’re a robot” comments. Many people twice her age would’ve been tempted to give Simon the proverbial finger by now, but she largely holds her cool.

Amanda Overmyer: Party on, Wayne! She sang “I Hate Myself For Loving You” and it was pretty good. She needed to “shine” this week, after a couple lackluster performances, and she did. Amanda’s vocal range and style is very limited, but she picked a good song for her voice this time around. I can understand that her gruff vocals aren’t for everyone, but I personally like her.

Carly Smithson: Good overall vocalist but way over-hyped. She came out singing “I Drove All Night.” Her “big notes” on this song sounded like nails on a chalkboard to me. I still don’t like her. And why is she so out of breath after she sings? She’s panting like a dog at the end, from ONE song. Does she have extra-small lungs or something? Learn to pace your energy, Carly. This doesn’t exactly bode well for 1-2 hour long concert performing. She’s definitely safe tho.

Kristy Lee Cook: I know the guys all pant after this woman just as women pant over Michael Johns, but vocally I’m not a fan. Plus she needs to stop with the whole “leg way out in front” thing; the only reason it wasn’t as noticable this time around is because the song wasn’t a “rockin” tune so she didn’t want to bounce around to the beat as much. But she did turn a Journey song into a passable modern-country melody, so I’m guessing she’ll be around next week. Then again, most of the others did a little better, so maybe she’ll go.

Ramiele Malubay: I like her, not because I love her singing, but because she’s short, like me. Heheh. I’m getting tired of all the “short” jokes/references by Ryan and the judges, tho. Her height has nothing to do with her vocal ability, guys. You’d think they’d never seen a woman slightly under 5 feet before. Ramiele sang “Against All Odds” and it was ok. A little off in some spots and no really “big moment”, but ok. She’s safe enough.

Brooke White: She’s no Pat Benatar, but she came out singing “Love is a Battlefield” anyway. And surprisingly, she was fairly effective. I think her performance of sitting on the edge of the stage the whole time was dull, but she tried to do something different with the song and made it work with her folksy voice. Safe enough this week.

Syesha Mercado: From the first, I thought she might have one of the better vocal instruments for the women this year, and I still think that. But she’s in danger of getting lost because she’s not doing anything to make herself memorable to voters. Her song selection of “Saving All My Love For You” was passable but nothing special. I agree with Simon’s comment that it was “a bit predictable but good.” I also think someone needs to tell her that she should change her basic hairstyle once in a while. The big poofy way-over-and-out-the-back-of-her-head style - I’ve had enough of that. She was really cute in her “embarrassing moments” video bit, with the cap perched slightly off-kilter on her head. Do something like that next time, please. If there is a next time.

I guess I’m going to be like a million other blogs out there and write about AI for a while. If you watch this show, it’s hard not to want to make comments about what you just watched. I’m no exception.

Luke Menard: I feel sorry for this guy. Like most, I never considered him to be in the Top 10 or anything, but with each performance my sympathy grew. Seriously. I was hoping he’d do better this week, simply because he seems like such a nice guy and it’d be nice for him if his time in the AI spotlight could be remembered for something other than “the boring guy who murdered “Killer Queen”. Sure, his voice is weak on anything but certain high notes, but you’d think there’d be a few songs out there that would showcase the talent he does have in a better light. However, “Wake Me Up Before You Go” was not it. I never liked that song much to begin with, and he did it no favors. Poor Luke.

David Archuleta: I like the kid. I really do. But I’m not enamored of him and I don’t think he’s the best singer or The Chosen One. He sings clean, but there’s nothing that uniquely special about his voice. Also, in terms of AI, I’m beginning to think he’s peaking too early, aka Melinda Dolittle. The other two things that might hurt him in the long run are: 1-Jason Castro might start “stealing” votes away from David and 2-if David keeps up with his trend of “this song had a great message about love and hope and giving” he may eventually annoy a lot of people. Not because he likes love and hope, but because most people don’t like to be preached to.

Danny Noriega: He’s entertaining in an “I got an attitude fer sure” way, but he can’t sing or perform at all. Watching him dance is painful. I’d like to see him go away.

David Hernandez: He was great last week. This week, as soon as he started talking about boogers in his nose, I started tuning out. Not something we needed to know, Mr. Hernandez. But he has enough talent he might stick around.

Michael Johns: Sigh. I so wanted to love this guy. But with each performance he becomes less and less interesting. He needs to learn some new “moves”, because his physical performance is exactly the same week after week. I mean exactly. Borrrring. His vocals seem to be going downhill as well. Unlike some, I wasn’t impressed with his “Don’t You Forget About Me.” I loved Simple Minds, I loved that song, and Michael just did NOT capture it at all. People who think he did should go back and listen to Simple Minds again. Jim Kerr’s voice lightly soared, raising an otherwise lightweight pop song into a classic for the time period. Michael didn’t sink, but neither did he soar.  His rock screeching end-notes were terrible. Plus, Michael’s voice cracked in a number of places. Unless he starts to pick it up again soon, I’m going to forget about him.

David Cook: Interesting. Something about him kind of creeps me out tho. I’m not sure what, and I’m sure it’s not rational. His voice “rocks” okay, but I dunno … he might make the top8 or so, but I kinda doubt it.

Jason Castro: Much better than last week. He’s turning on the charm, becoming a little more comfortable perhaps. His awkwardness and shyness seems a lot more genuine to me than David Archuleta’s “I’ve been performing since I was 6 but hey aww shucks” routine. Jason may start stealing votes from Archuleta if he keeps this up.

Chikezie: When the man isn’t busy puffing his ego or picking horrendous outfits to wear, there’s no doubt he’s capable of good vocals. But the man’s attitude annoys me - it’s not cute or charming or entertaining. Still, as the judges like to repeat, it’s a singing competition, so on that basis I can see him moving forward.

Speaking of the judges - what was Paula on? Her ramblings were even more disjointed and scary than usual. Maybe it’s time for an intervention. Both Paula and Randy could go away and I’d never miss them. Some of Simon’s expressions in response to Paula’s babbling were priceless. Simon’s occasionally a bit too “mean”, but 9 times out of 10 I agree with his comments. At least he’s not talking about rainbows and colors or using the word “pitchy” every single sentence.