Anti-climactic

I found last night's American Idol show to be anti-climactic, which isn't good because nobody's happy when there's no climax, am I right?

Maybe it was because the singers were still coming down from the thrill of making the top 12. Maybe they didn't have the energy or drive they had when securing themselves a place in the touring group, now that they've already done that.

Or maybe they had trouble relating to the music, since it was Beatles night, and none of the singers was even born when the songs were released. I know I had trouble identifying with the music as I have never been a Beatles fan.

Most of the performances were just okay, but nothing stood out as terrific to me. But there were 2 performances that stood out as terrible to me: Kristy Lee Cook and Jason Castro.
Since Kristy Lee has an obvious country vibe and had been encouraged by the judges to embrace it, she decided to go 'whole hog' and turned her Beatles song into a hot Hootenanny mess! There were fiddles and moonshine jugs and, I swear, I even heard somebody scratching on an old washboard. Needless to say, the judges did not like it either. I believe she could have given the song a country sensibility to compliment her voice and it might have turned out a lot better. But that hillbilly hoedown was tragic.

Jason Castro wheezed through yet another soft ballad, accompanying himself on guitar. I swear, if the girls and the gays (excluding me) didn't find him so cute, he'd be kicked off in a hot minute.

His voice has a nice tone to it most of the time, but he has no support behind it. When he stretches to hit high and low notes he loses all the quality of sound. I can't believe the judges haven't called this to his attention yet.

My recommendation: take some singing lessons (they'll really help) and audition again next year.

The variation among the judge's feedback must be worse for the singers than no feedback at all. Randy and Paula loved it, Simon hated it. Randy and Simon hated it, Paula loved it. Take a risk. Don't go overboard. Be yourself. Tone it down. Its no wonder 1/2 of them are hysterical and crying during the elimination.

And if I have to hear Randy and Paula self-congratulating this entire season, I don't know WHAT I'll do. "I had the pleasure of producing their first album, dawg..." or "I love that group. I had so much fun choreographing their music video..." News flash: nobody's watching this show for you, Randy and Paula. We're watching for the singers!

I predict Ellie Mae Clampett (aka: Kristy Lee Cook) will be sent home tonight.

When AI ended at 10:00, almost by instinct I switched over to Bravo, expecting my weekly installment of fierceness. Then I remembered: Project Runway is over. This realization was like pouring the proverbial salt into the wound created by that evening's lack-luster AI show. Thank god for that hilarious SNL spoof on Christian Siriano a friend sent me. It was the only thing that kept me from throwing myself from the 3rd story window.

That would NOT be fierce.


Crush du Jor: Tom Ford