Ding, dong. The witch is dead.

Ryan's comments about Kellie were sophomoric, but they cracked me up.

What a great night. Carly in the bottom 3 AND Amanda goes home.

The real winners are the people who will be buying tickets to the tour. No Amanda.

I thought Carly's reaction when Ryan told her she could have a seat was enormously instructive. That is a girl with serious self-esteem issues. Having her "next teen sensation" experience may have been the worst possible thing that could have happened to her from a development standpoint.

And to boggle you further, I have to say this: I really can't stand country music as a genre, but I was startled by how believable Kellie Pickler was as a performing artist. It almost makes me begin to suspect that these American Idol people know what they're doing when they winnow the contestants down to the final 24.

I'm on tape delay here, watching Tuesday performances right now... I can't believe Simon didn't like Carly's performance, I thought that right there put her head and shoulders above everybody.

My wife and I both thought Pickles was trying to sound like Dolly Parton, instead of like herself. But then again, most country singers try to add some sort of forced infliction to their voice, which is one of the reasons I can't stand that type of music.

I can say this, having sat through a LeeAnn Rimes concert - she may not have Rimes' voice, but at least she doesn't stand dead still for 45 minutes and pass it off as a "concert performance." LeeAnn Rimes makes Kristy Lee Cook look like Tina Turner by comparison.

I'm trying to picture you at a LeeAnn Rimes concert without giggling.

Hold on.

Nope, still no luck.

Man, I suck. Just can't do it.

Carry on.

I think this explains it best:

She's really let herself go. I used to think she just had fat thighs, but now she looks like a dude, I swear!

;)

It was the tour she did with Bryan White. My wife was a big Bryan White fan for some reason. I bought her tickets for Christmas. Rimes' band was awesome, actually, which made her performance all the more bizarre. They were energetic, running around the stage, and she literally did not move one time from where the techs placed her mic stand.

I've also seen Debbie Gibson in concert, for a high school girlfriend. That one was worth it, too, but in a far shorter-term way...

Hell, I'd have gone to see Debbie Gibson in concert in high school. I probably would have licked the polish off her toenails if I could have gotten close enough to the stage.

dola...

That was right before the period in which I realized that an even greater fantasy was to have Axl Rose drip his whiskey sweat all over me.

In a completely hardcore, heavy metal, heterosexual way, I mean.

BTW, the opening song medley was soooo bad. Multiple terrible vocals, Ramiele's mic apparently didn't work, someone bumped a cameraman, and I'm pretty sure Amanda's mic was turned off until she sang that last part. She was hardly trying to lip sync through most of it.

It isn't showing off so much as it is "just wearing a sleeveless top"

When you have something that ugly and prominent on your arm, continuing to wear sleeveless shirts/blouses is the same as making a conscious decision to show off your tattoo.

Anyway, I'm glad she was in the bottom 3. It's one of those things where you wonder if this was done to prompt a sudden surge of fans for her, but who knows. Unless she completely bombs, I expect her to not be in the bottom 3 next week thanks to a flood of fans calling to "rescue" her. But no one aside from David A has built a decent fan base, so it may just be that she has a big enough base to get her into the top 8-10, but in the bigger picture, there aren't THAT many people who want to see her succeed. I reacted negatively to her attempt to twist her industry history into a sympathy ploy; perhaps voters did, too.

The whole Kellie Pickler appearance pissed me off. The only reason to look forward to her performance was boobs, and you couldn't see shit with that dress of hers. I'm done with American Idol. I'm done. Unless they can promise Kathy Griffin on "Idol Gives Back" or whatever it's called, I'll never watch again.

Oh, wait. It'll still be on my TV twice a week because I think my wife wants to snuggle Jason Castro.

"my wife"

That would be called Idol Gives Up.

Hey, you can have her. Just be ready for some hot hot four-way action with her, Jason Castro, and a blonde nurse who doubles as an Arena Football cheerleader.

OK NOW THAT JUST HURTS

Idol Throws Back?

Idol Throws Up?

I'm trying my best to work with what you're giving me...

I am so fucking done.

THIS.....


is American Gargoyle!

pretty much strangling myself now etc

Taking a break from Pumpy abuse...

I might have missed the official announcement since I was FFing through most of last night, but the 4 mentors this year are Mariah Carey, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Dolly Parton, and Neil Diamond. I'm thinking perhaps songs from Ringo Starr's solo career might be preferable to some of those.

EDIT: I guess Mariah isn't next week. It's songs from the year the contestants were born. And Kimberly Locke will be singing on the results show. Hopefully she'll do In-a-gadda-da-vida so they won't have time for the Ford commercial and call in segments of the show.

On that list, I'd put him at #1.

Seeing Amanda perform during Broadway Week would have been GOLD, dammit.. :(

Ksyrup, I think you are cuckoo about Carly. Just sayin'.

You know, if they can get Neil Diamond, why hasn't there been a Billy Joel week?

That is an excellent question.

I suppose it could be because he's gone bald and gained like 500 lbs.

Man I was hoping that one of those live calls would be someone saying "Bababooey, Bababooey!"

Then I relized they probably weren't really live.

Oh, I know she's good. I just don't like her.

You can hear them reacting to the answers. Seems live to me...

I must have missed the reactions. The first two just asked questions and were never heard from again. Then I threw up and changed the channel.

Cause didn't they have one last season or two seasons ago?

I think they may have done an episode of songs written by Billy Joel awhile ago. I seem to recall him being on the show (via video, not live), but it was before the current "mentor" format.

I checked wikipedia to make sure I wasn't crazy and found that there was a Billy Joel week during Season 2.




I remember this season pretty well because it was right after my wife and I got married and we had a ton of snow that winter, so we watched way more TV than we should have.

Snowed-in newlyweds spending all that time watching TV? Say it isn't so...

After seeing the list of contestants who did the Billy Joel week (I didn't watch that season at all), I'm starting to wonder who decides which contestants get to go by a single name throughout the competition. Apparently, that season had a Trenyce, and that was followed by Fantasia. Two seasons later, there's Mandisa. Now, there's Chikezie. It's not like any of these people had last names that were hard to pronounce, and only Chikezie's could be considered exotic at all.

I wish I was young enough to be on the show. I'd want them to just call me Pumpy.

Thanks for doing that research, Swaggs. I didn't really start watching Idol until Season 5, so it looks like (horribile dictu!) I missed it.

If that's what you kids call it these days...

Me too

Ah, now I remember the Billy Joel week very well. That was when Kimberley Locke had just an amazing performance and I think that was the first time any one saw her as challenging for the title (though I think people thought no way was she going to catch Ruben and Clay).

Sucks for her...

That list says Kimberly was voted off, but there were two of them.

I think we picked up watching this show sporadically during Season 2. But I don't remember this week, even if I saw it.

Maybe Archuletta will do "Baby Got Back" from 1992.

Gotcha...