Another Season Gone

When I looked at dialidol.com this morning, I saw that they had called the vote for David Cook by a wide margin. This of course contradicted the judges' commentary from last night, so I was looking forward to some backtracking tonight. I got it. Poor Simon had to make up some stories about the performances being closer after he looked at it on TV at home.

Well, this is the second year in a row I've called out the eventual winner early in the season, but it was pretty easy to narrow it down to the final two way back when there were 10 people still competing, so I'm not getting a big head about it - yet.

Congrats to DC, who was either sporting a new guitar tonight, or he just replaced his "AC" decal with a new one. I wouldn't be surprised if one of the guitar manufacturers signed him up to an endorsement deal this week, which would be a first for an Idol.

More observations:

• I was entertained for two solid hours tonight (except for Jimmy Kimmel, the Pips spoof that went on far too long, and the "you are my brother" guy), and the performers were phenomenal.
  
  
• The group numbers were all extremely good. I think they've been rehearsing for weeks while the competition was still going on in the other arena.
  
  
• Brooke White had her "Idol moment" during her duet with Nash. On the final verse and chorus, the magic happened where two performers suddenly connect with each other, and you could see it on both their faces. This is why musicians do what they do, and it's also why they tend to do drugs - it's an amazing feeling and if you can't make it happen all the time, you look for it elsewhere.
  
  
• I totally can't believe that Randy found an authentic Captain Kangaroo blazer somewhere.
  
• Any doubters about the best performer between the Davids need only look at tonight's show. Cook was everywhere, singing harmony, singing lead, singing different genres of music, showing his incredible versatility. Archuleta isn't that great singing harmony, and can't do upbeat stuff, or move around while singing. I think Archie will be great someday, but he's got a lot of work to do in the meantime - he's got to become a musician to get to that next level.
  
  
• Speaking of which - I nearly died laughing when I saw Cook's Guitar Hero commercial. In Archie's version, he was wearing shorts - such a Mormon.
  
  
• I'm going to have dreams about fronting for ZZ Top tonight.
  
  
• Carly looks better each week, and now that the pressure's off, her singing is light-years better than it was while she was still competing. She's lost a lot of weight in 20 weeks.
  
  
• I'd forgotten, as did most of America, how good Jason Castro is when he's in his comfort zone. I read last week that he had been on stage only twice before he auditioned for American Idol, and only learned the guitar two years ago. He's got work to do, but he came a long way really fast, and experience could turn him into a force to be reckoned with in the future.
  
  
• Did it look to any of you like when the fireworks started raining down at the end that the stage managers rushed the Idols into the audience rather quickly? Think that was a snafu?
  
  
• Damn, George Michael is amazing. I wish he'd get his personal act together. Queen should have signed him up to replace Freddie Mercury.
  
  
• I can't wait for DC's CD.
  
  
• It's a shame I won't shell out the cash for the tour, because it should be great - the contestants that lost this year didn't lose for lack of talent, they lost because they broke under pressure. Like Carly, I think they'll really amp it up without the nerves being a factor.