So I guess there was one big girl in the shower and one little girl with a cell phone following orders.

But I like Castro. A lot. Even if he does look like John Travolta with dreadlocks

2) My wife forces us to watch this stuff so …. I think Mercado is usually excellent and nailed it the previous night. I think the problem for her (as with Smithson) is who the kind of people are who religiously watch a show like Idol: Pre-teen, white girls. So it’s probably going to come down to the ‘Mormon plush toy’ or the stoner … ugh.

7) Welcome back Idol Blogging.

2) I was thrilled to see Carly go. Her sense of entitlement and woe is me attitude was rivaled only by the Clintons. “Why are you always picking on me, Simon?”

3) Equally thrilled to see Castro still in it. He’s the only person I think might have a chance of keeping it from being a David vs. David final. Plus, any one that sings Cohen on American Idol has my vote as long as they are on the show.

4) David Cook may have won the show the other night. Not my cup of tea, but playing it straignt and relatively well probably endeared him to a lot of voters whose horses will be leaving the race soon.

5) Syesha was fine but she really should have gone home weeks ago.

6) Some one has to sing Cracklin’ Rosie next week. Best Neil Diamond song ever — and there are a lot of them. Too bad Kristy Lee Cook isn’t still in it. I would have loved to hear “America.”

I had a sneaky feeling that the obvious two bottom performances would wind up safe. I think people vote for more reasons than just the most currently performed song. I expected Jason to get axed but I figured if a guy gets axed after an Andrew Lloyd Weber Idol then at least he can leave with his dignity in tact.

David Cook should win the thing but I think Archuletta will take home the prize. Archuletta has the little girl vote and believe me those kids will sit down with his number keyed in to their cell phone and hit “end / send” hundreds of times before time runs out on a night of voting.

I think Simon nailed the assessment of Jason’s performance. It was like a guy that was forced to sing a ridiculous song at a wedding he did not even want to attend.

But he still got by. I think the fact that my wife was endlessly hitting the end/send buttons on the cell phone helped. She can be such a little girl.

I hope he can pick a decent Neil Diamond song to do next week.

“I Am…I Said” would be a good one for anybody to do.

When I saw you write “Mormon plush toy”, I was sure you were writing about Brooke White, because she is actually a Mormon. She’s very adorable and gave some great performances early on, but she isn’t as versatile or consistent as most others. No one else can match her playing the Carole King or Carly Simon type music, which I personally would buy. I wouldn’t buy an album with songs that didn’t fit her, like many of the weekly theme choices. David Archuleta’s asthmatic enunciation weirdness has bothered me from the start, and his style is too bland, even if he can hit the notes well.

The only effective way to decide marketable talent is to have people buy the music they want to hear, i.e., vote with their wallets. But I don’t think a weekly show would lend itself to that. A futures market would be interesting, but I don’t think it would draw the viewers that Fox wants.

I don’t like Mariah Carey either, but I searched Itunes for Cook’s version of “you’ll always be my baby.”

CC

Carly going home is very disappointing. I would have put her third, above even Archuletta, if only because she can at least sing different-sounding songs. Cook and Mercado are top two for me.