Idol Thoughts

How appropriate is it that when Brooke White launched into her final, tearful farewell performance on “American Idol,” she wanted to… start over?

Of course, this time, they didn’t let her. End-of-show time constraints and all. But she did try, which sort of sums up the last four “Idol” weeks for her.

Ya’ll know I love Brooke. She started out strong, had a unique, breathy voice and was a total knockout. But sadly, her confidence was knocked out somewhere around Beatles week, and we’ve been watching her self-destruct ever since.

For that reason, and that reason alone, I think she was the right choice to go. It was down to five, and someone had to.

That said, I really feel she’s more talented — and marketable — than either Syesha or David A, and I will miss her.

And now, if you’ll allow a brief David A. tangent, I’m happy to clarify my position on him for those who are miffed by my comments. Yes, of course the kid is talented. And yes, of course he’s only 17 and will get much better as he matures. But the people he’s up against are mature right now. Their performances have depth and nuance and genuine emotion. He, meanwhile, is a robotic belter, and he’s just not on their level. Should he be given special consideration for being young? And if he is, shouldn’t Brooke be given special consideration for being nervous by nature? Should Syesha be given special consideration for sorta preferring the Broadway thing? I think you see where I’m going with this.

So what do you think? Was Brooke the right one to cut? Is Syesha next? And what exactly are the rumors that got Paula so tearful and Ryan so defensive?

Blog friends, I chose the WRONG night to stay out too late.

I apologize for my tardiness. I took a much needed girls’ night out on the town and as a result am now writing this blog way too late, which means that Ryan Seacrest’s dirty nasty mindtricks have thrown me for a loop.

It is after midnight, but Kristy Lee Cook IS gone, right? And David Cook was NOT in the bottom three afterall. Right? Am I right??? Please tell me I’m getting that right????

Dirty nasty Seacrest mind tricks. I don’t appreciate it.

At any rate, KLC is gone. Syesha or Brooke may be next. And at this point, that’s probably how it should be. Though I might passionately argue that David Archuleta and Carly Smithson both deserve a little quality time on the dreaded bottom three stools, it’s getting late in the season, so our favorites are going to start facing jeopardy more and more often.

I will say that Kristy Lee left with grace and dignity — the kind of grace and dignity that could be acquired only by a young woman who’s known for the past, oh, six weeks that she was done for. I will sort of miss her “Oh, fine, Simon, what now?” spunktitude.

Brooke will now have to fill that spot.

So what did you think? Did “America” get it right? Were those Cook tricks as dirty and rotten as my out-too-late brain perceived them to be?  And what happened to the rest of Mariah’s dress???

What a tearful hour of television!

Between Ramiele crying for herself, me crying for the Ethiopian children, and Brooke crying for Ramiele, herself, the Ethiopian children, Dolly Parton and Jesus, there wasn’t a dry eye in the… world???

Yes, it was a bit of a sad installment of “American Idol” tonight. I was not sad to see Ramiele Malubay go. She was — and I can’t believe I’m about to type this — even more deserving of the “Idol” ax than Kristy Lee Cook (who despite limited levels of talent at least ATTEMPTS to inject a little soul into her singing). But poor Ramiele. A good singer, she nonetheless saved every iota of the emotion in her teeny tiny body for each week’s evicted singer. For that person, she would weep as though she was sending her grandma to the gallows. But when it came to showing emotion during performances, poor Ramiele was a mother board away from robot citizenship.

But make no mistake. Just because I think the right person was booted does not mean I’m happy about tonight’s results. Brooke in the bottom three? Come now. The cynic in me hopes that the producers occasionally put a marketable front-runner in the bottom three just to drum up voter support and ensure they’ll stick around. Surely that’s the case here. On a side note, although I do love Brooke as a performer, I wish the girl would SHUT IT when on stage. She talketh too much. Blah blah blah blah blah IT’S OKAY! blah blah blah blah blah.  

So what do you think? Was it Ramiele’s turn? Is Kristy the most gracious soon-to-be-loser you’ve ever seen? And will you buy our boy Phil Stacey’s album when it comes out on the 29th, granted he shaves that dreadful beard-thing between now and then? 

Note: This weeks’ Idol coverage is written by guest blogger Monica. Denise returns next week.

All right, I know a number of you are cheering about Amanda’s departure but can you honestly say that Kristy Lee Cook is a better performer? At least Amanda gives it some heart and doesn’t look like some vanilla scared bunny in the headlights every time she performs. I just liked that rocker chick, and I think she would have been a better mix for the tour than Kristy Lee or Syesha (who is now on my second-to-last favorite list after that trick with the skimpy top last night and her weak and self-indulgent variations on the classic Yesterday).

But this was a surprising show. I nearly fell off my sofa when Carly turned up in the bottom three. Her performance this week was the only one of her performances I liked. I wonder if she came off as sort of whiny to people when she talked about how hard it was to break into the business. For some reason though, there are a number of people who do not warm up to her, including me. Still, to put her in the same category as Kristy Lee is indeed blasphemy!

From the comments on this blog and everything I’ve heard today from other fans (OK, three others), the second week of the Beatles was a mistake. Those kids just don’t know what to do with the songs and I think the producer’s don’t either because the opening medley tonight was weak and…dare I say BORING? Still, I can’t complain too much as despite their slip ups this week, Brooke and Jason are still here. To me the group now falls in three tiers.

• David Archuleta, David Cook and Brooke are the ones to beat.
• Jason, Carly, Michael Johns and Chikezie (if he gets his act together as he did last week) are the dark horses.
• The weakest are Ramiele, Syesha and Kristy, and if I were queen of the world they would go out in reverse order.

I’m sure glad Denise will be back next week because I’m going to turn the volume down in my own private protest when Kristy Lee Cook stands up and twangs next week.

It’s been great fun guest blogging and thank you to Denise and those who said nice things about my post yesterday. Please don’t gloat too much about my poor Amanda!

I wish I could say I was surprised by tonight’s four ousters — Kady Malloy, Asia’h Epperson, Luke Menard and Danny Noriega.

I also wish I could say Paula was behaving a little less badly. Or that Ramiele was sobbing a little less hysterically. Or that Danny hadn’t ripped the cute right out of his cuticles waiting for the bad news.

Luke and Kady were gimmes. Even they knew they were done. Even their relatives, planted nearby to display appropriate levels of shock and outrage, knew they were done.

The most disappointing dismissal of the evening was that of Asia’h Epperson, who failed to light much of a fire with two weeks of so-so performances but whose voice is leagues ahead of both Amanda Overmyer’s and Kristy Lee Cook’s.  Hers was also the most difficult farewell performance to watch. Retitle that song “I Want To Dance With Somebody Who Didn’t Just Ruin My Life By Voting Me Off American Idol Before Amanda Freakin’ Overmyer.”

I’m just a little sorry to see Danny go. His time was coming, and though he clearly wasn’t going to win, at least he was kind of amusing.

We’ll miss him… Ish.

So what do you think? Were the right four sent away? Who’s in trouble next week? And what did you think of Bl-bl-bl-bl-bl u-u-u-UH-UH-ake’s performance?