I don't care about American Idol anymore

Since Casey was eliminated, I'm not watching. But I figured I'd place my bet anyway. It seems like the producers liked the whole "two winners by having the best place second," and with that plan they were clearly pushing Lee, so I'd bet on him. Crystal definitely deserves to win more out of these two, though.

American Idol - The Top 4 - Songs of the Cinema

Jamie Foxx is back as a mentor, explaining that "music is really the soundtrack of our lives." Deep, man.

Lee is singing "Kiss from a Rose"---didn't Michael Lynche do this one? Oh, no, it was "Hero." Hm. Still, it seems like it's been done a lot. Why does Lee sing out of the side of his mouth? He looks like a stroke victim. Nothing against stroke victims, of course, but as far as I know, Lee is not one, so what's up with that? What's also up with his screeching reaching? As usual, he's rough and consistently veering off key. He's actually so off key this time I'm wondering if he can't hear himself properly. He's also getting quite out of breath, and there isn't much of a reason for that in this song. His weakest performance in a while, and that's saying a lot. I think this might be the weakest thing I've ever seen him perform. It seemed like an audition that wouldn't have made it to the finals. I don't think "Blaze of Glory" would have done him any favors either, though! I think Ellen is a dumbass, and doesn't belong on this show. "You're so great, though." So great that it doesn't matter when he sucks? Then, of course, Kara goes right along with that. They've selected who they want to win, so they say he's good even when he's not, like they do with Crystal. I agree with Simon, extremely karaoke, and not even good karaoke.

Michael Lynche is singing "Will You Be There"---a little off key in the first note, and a little wobbly in that first line. But again, he's chosen a song without much range and just put a lot of play into it. Add the choral backup, and of course he sounds okay. But he, as a singer on his own, didn't do much with it. It was fine, fairly pretty, but a little ho-hum. I disagree with Ellen giving him credit for using a chorus (that should deduct credit, in my opinion), but I also disagree with his performance being predictable. To me it seemed a little random. It seems like Simon agrees. A little out of left field. I also agree with Simon that it seemed to have some genuine intent there. That aspect was nice.

I found out that Lee and Crystal were doing "Falling Slowly" before I started watching, and I was already dreading it, no, no, no! It's one of my favorite songs. Oddly enough, it was Lee's parts I was least looking forward to, and it's actually Crystal's performance that doesn't stand up as well to me. She's no Marketa Irglova, and I think this song was a bad choice for her. Her voice is more quirky and powerful, not clear and ethereal. Lee was nowhere as good as Glen Hansard, but he was okay. Randy claims "it could be a hit right now"---uh, no it couldn't. It was exactly like the original except done by people who couldn't sing as well as the original artists. It was okay, but it wasn't really based on anything from them. I agree with Simon, it's a fantastic song. But their singing didn't make it any better or enhance it in any way. They just took advantage of the fact it's already an incredible song. Lucky them, getting to use that cheat. It's also pretty clear that Lee and Crystal are the producers' favorites, since they were paired. The male/female duet is always going to be more striking (unless you're Simon and Garfunkel or something).

Casey James immediately gets the artist shirt, of course. Why are people clapping? To make it cheesy? Why are they clapping????!!! Assholes. It's distracting and not even in time. I think he might have gotten a teeny bit distracted by it also. . . but not for long. When he started changing the vocals a bit he really got into it, and you really felt his passion imbued in the song. I think the he's pretty incredible. And the mandolin sounds gorgeous and deceptively complex. The song was a simple sounding but clever choice, and I thought he did a beautiful, nicely harmonic version of it. Randy must be deaf if he thinks Casey didn't change it up---I guess he doesn't know the original very well. Ellen must, since she heard the changes. I finally have a bit of pity for Kara with being called "Mrs. Robinson." She's not that old! I'm confused with her assessment of his performance, though. I thought he did seem comfortable with it, and I thought he sounded sincere and lovely. I really liked it. It also reminded me a bit of what Chris Allen was doing last year before he won American Idol. I didn't think Chris should have won, of course, but he did win! I think Casey has a lot more talent and soul, and I really enjoyed this choice. This is one I'd be interested in listening to at home.

Crystal is singing "I'm All Right," inexplicably. You have practically Kenny Loggins's entire musical catalog (he seems to have put every song of his into a movie soundtrack), and you choose that one? Very weird. But if she'd stuck with what she was doing at first (before the drums and backup singers came in), it could have been really cool. I'd have liked it if she'd sung it totally stripped down, empty and spare. As she did it, eh, I guess she sang well, performed well, but her style is just not that interesting to me. She seems like an aged rocker still going, rehashing old styles rather than someone new singing something fresh. I agree that the song was better, but it was a pretty crap song to work with. Simon declares Crystal "is back in the game"---was she ever out? She's been their top pick for so long.

Casey and Michael are singing a duet of "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman." Casey is continuing his thing of making his Ws and Rs sound more like Vs and Bs. I think he really has to practice anunciating with a mike. Not this Mike. This performance highlights how weak Michael's vocal personality is compared to Casey's, but I don't think it did either of them any big favors. It was also extremely short. No big surprise, since the show is skewing toward Crystal and Lee. I think the judges are on crack with their appreciation of the duets. They were okay, but nothing special.

Okay. Crystal is talented, but I just don't like what she does. It's boring. It's old-fashioned. I'd like it if she were just adding the slightest bit of something new to it, but she isn't. She sounds retread, and comfortable that way. Still, I guess she's in my top two with Casey. Casey got over 2,000 votes from my house tonight.

However, I know that the producers want their top three to be Crystal, Lee, and Michael, and I think they did their best to try to direct things in that fashion. The whole segment about Michael's year-old goal to make it to the top three (although I agree with Ellen that's a weird goal---you should have a goal to win, of course) seemed designed to elicit sympathy votes to bolster his chances. But I think Michael or Lee should go. Probably, based on overall season performance, I would say Michael should go. But I worry that not enough people are voting for Casey. I think maybe people really like the cheese of Michael and the sneers of Lee.

But I'm hoping I'm wrong, and Casey's talent prevails to lead him into the final three. I'd love to see his hometown visit. GO CASEY!!!

American Idol - The Top Five (Sinatra avec Harry Connick Jr.)

Yeah yeah yeah, I'll get back about last week's. I took notes, but I was busy and not even home those nights.

So, very excited about sweet Harry Connick Jr. being on tonight's show. Less excited about Frank Sinatra songs. They're mostly written by other people, right, so why call them Frank Sinatra songs? They're really more "standards." But whatever.

I love Harry Connick Jr., and he summed up the aim of the week well: Sinatra interpreted these standards his way, the contestants have to interpret them their own way. Connick also appears to have put a lot more effort into the mentoring role than most of the others did, which is nice. Some of the mentors this year have been crap. Harry Connick Jr. is a wonderfully skilled musician and artist. In my opinion, he's more skilled than Frank Sinatra was (in everything but schmoozing, perhaps). But I don't know how fair it is to have him doing the arrangements when the contestants are getting judges on the arrangements as well. I trust Harry Connick Jr. and would much prefer to have him arrange a song (especially a standard) for me if I were a contestant, but I still wouldn't want to be judged on his work as if it were my own creation.

I see Lee wears the same outfit even to the rehearsals now.

Okay, performance observations, in order of general impressions best to worst.

• Crystal Bowersox, singing "Summer Wind," promised a "very different" sound in the audition, and I guess she sort of delivered. I really don't know why she has to get all breathy when she sings prettily, or why she has to break up all the phrasing with gulpy accents. But once she got going, she was pretty good. I liked it. I especially liked the end. I wished she sang the whole song that straight and beautifully, instead of the breath stylings. [note: I wrote my reaction before hearing Kara's, and I maintain what I said about Crystal's phrasing, and not for the first time, feel Kara is a nutter.]
• Aaron Kelly, singing "Fly Me to the Moon," was pretty damn good. I like the tone of his voice during lots of it, and he even sounded a little older at points. He looked cute, too. The vest is interesting. I like the hairdo this week, rather than the slightly wet/greasy 'do he usually has. Slightly wavery on occasion, but generally on point throughout. Sweet and a little country, very endearing. Very Aaron. So a win for him, I think.
• Casey James, singing "Blue Skies," was really adorable in the story he related. Casey seemed extremely nervous when he was working with Harry Connick Jr.---but he sounded good in that rehearsal. He didn't open quite that strong in the performance, and he looked even more ill at ease. He had way too much of the vibrato in his voice, and seemed quite uncomfortable, but he powered through pretty well nonetheless, and as usual, covered his shyness with smiling. I don't understand why he's always so nervous when he's such a good singer and seems like such a nice, likable guy--as in, people must like him, so why would he be so nervous they wouldn't? Harry Connick Jr. obviously liked Casey, and I really respect the support he offered in pointing out that Casey killed it in rehearsal and probably had a hard time hearing well on stage.
• Michael Lynche, singing "The Way You Look Tonight," makes me a bit nervous and disappointed before he even started, because this is such a gorgeous song and he's usually such a milquetoast disappointment. But it's not a difficult song, really. So maybe it would work well for him. He started off all right, got even better, and was generally solid throughout. I would have appreciated less vocal wiggling and some sharper anunciation, but good performance overall. Nothing exceptional, though---I don't know quite why the judges got so excited over it. What Kara claims is "Big Mike" is something that would be totally unrecognizable as "his" if you heard it out of context.
• Lee DeWyze, singing "That's Life," was lucky to hear Harry Connick Jr.'s compliments, although I must say I think both Harry and his wife are off their rockers to say Lee is cute or looks anything like Harry Connick Jr.! Harry Connick Jr. is much cuter. So here's Lee, again in the black jacket and skinny tie. Is he just refusing to wear anything else? Lee is so cocky at this point, he makes me sick. He performed better than he has recently, but he act like such a stuck up asshole I'm not really interested in seeing his shit. I mean schtick. Or do I? The song is kind of about that, but in Lee's case, it's not there, so I think the song choice sucks, and it leaves me liking him even less than before. But yes, he stayed on key this time! Wow. I agree with Kara: given that he's one of the five finalists on American Idol, he very well could win. He just shouldn't.

My opinion isn't fully based on single performances anymore, because it would be insane to be doing that at this point, and I don't believe anyone else is voting that way either. I think Michael or Lee should be eliminated. I think Aaron or Casey are in the most danger. My home team for Casey got in about a good 2,500 votes for him, though, so I'm hoping we made a difference. If I could have, I'd have given votes for Aaron as well.

Crystal and Casey were the only ones who had arrangements that really differed from an accepted standard version, so I don't know what the judges were on about in their willy-nilly love for Michael and Lee. The way they judge, they've pretty much had the fix in for a while---especially bringing Michael back with that save, which was utter insanity. I hear that viewership is down 17% this year. I'm not surprised. The old formula of Simon, Paula, and Randy was the ideal setup to get the proper results on the show, results that reflected audience feeling (minus the year Rueben Studdard won, which has always seemed hinky to me). Ever since they started messing with that, there have been problems, and this year is the worst ever. Simon's already half out the door, Ellen is useless, Kara is feeble, and Randy is as waffly and uneven as he has always been. Unless they get Paula back and keep Simon, or possibly try whole new set of (truly impressive) judges, perhaps with a revamp of the voting system, I think we're seeing the start of the swift decline of American Idol. Adding Kara was the beginning of the end, so by now we're sliding pretty quickly. Rein it back in, Fox, or you'll lose your magic cash cow for good.