Lightning Strikes Again!

It's almost a repeat of last year - the frontrunner with the niche market appeal loses to the dark horse with the more mainstream sound.

I like both Adam and Kris, but Adam got repetitive and didn't keep building his voter base and the rest of the field closed the gap on him each week. Kris simply survived and added the votes of those who got eliminated to his total each week.

Kris is going to be a good one, folks. He might even do better than David Cook will, who is my all-time favorite Idol. The cool thing about Kris is he can put out an album with a bunch of different songs that actually all sound different. I'm not sure Adam could do that.

Don't cry for Adam, though. He's probably got a thousand offers since the announcement. His future looks bright, too.

A Star Trek Observation

Two scenes from the Star Trek movie, involving Kirk...

Kirk and Sulu land on the platform of the planet drill with instructions to take out the Romulans hand-to-hand and then sabotage the drill. Kirk bull-rushes a Romulan, then tries to draw his phaser (if you had a phaser, why did you try to tackle the guy in the first place, Jim?) - the phaser is knocked out of his hand and over the side of the drill.

Kirk and Spock beam into the Romulan ship to rescue Captain Pike. Spock pilots the captured future-ship with the black hole-causing red matter out of the Romulan ship. Kirk attempts to sneak past the crew and gets ambushed from behind by the Romulan first officer. He drops his phaser and it goes over the side of the catwalk.

Note to Starfleet: Equip phasers with wrist straps in the future. Good return on investment there.

A Warning...

A quick warning to anyone that's had a gastric bypass.

Kashi Go Lean Crunchy! Protein and Fiber Bars are delicious, high in fiber and protein, and will pass right through you like grass through a goose.

It took me two days of rushing home from work and barely making it to the bathroom before I figured this out.

The good news is that I lost a couple of extra pounds during those two days. Seriously, though - this product should be classified as a laxative. Use with caution.

Kris Did It!

Kris vs. Adam next week! I'm very happy, because as I've stated before, I think Kris is the only legitimate artist in the top 10 this season. I never thought he'd beat out Danny.

DialIdol.com had these scores:
29 Adam
27.9 Kris
27.1 Danny

Now, imagine if 100% of Danny's fans vote for Kris next week. Do you think anyone that's been voting for Danny will start voting for Adam? I really don't.

3 To Go on AI

My thoughts on Idol tonight were that all three guys were pretty darn good. I thought Kris got a raw deal with the judges' song pick, as I hate "Apologize". Kris must hate it, too. Danny and Adam definitely got better songs for the first round.

Adam has started to grate on my nerves, though. He's pretty much settled on a persona and style and unfortunately, it's being a male version of Cher. He intentionally starts songs in a high register so he can screech even higher on the choruses. Frankly, it smacks of a Las Vegas career to me, not platinum albums. When Adam performed his second song "Cryin'" by Aerosmith, it really didn't sound good to me, and while it could have been the fault of the sound mix guy, the backup singer overshouted him through most of the song, and so did the band.

Note: I've complained of bad sound mixing on American Idol during several of the previous seasons, but this year it has been much better.

In my opinion, Danny Gokey's "You Are So Beautiful" was the best song of the night, with Kris's "Heartless" being second. Danny turned "You Are So Beautiful" into "I Believe I Can Fly", while Kris turned a bad Kanye West song into a great acoustic guitar ballad.

In my opinion, which won't be the same as America's opinion:
1. Danny
2. Kris
3. Adam

So who gets eliminated? It'll be Kris. The finals will be Danny and Adam, as everyone predicted from day one.

At 10:45 pm, Dialidol.com has it a dead heat between the three, with Adam slightly ahead, but all three with at least 30 percent of the vote so far. This could be close.

Return of Adam

Rock. What a great theme for a show! I wonder why they've never tried this before?

Tonight, Adam and Allison came back with a vengeance. It's almost like it was scripted by the producers. Seriously, the theme was unfair. Rock is the strength of Adam and Allison and not suited to Danny and Kris. At this point in the competition, we should be seeing two songs apiece per performer, and letting them have free rein with song choices. Instead, we get a tilted playing field right at the time when everyone should be able to play to their strengths to let voters choose who really is the best at what they do.

Adam started off with "Whole Lotta Love" by Led Zeppelin. While not the most innovative performance (it sounded like the original), it was definitely satisfying. I agree with Simon - "Nobody can top that." Adam can rock the stage. I wish they'd done two songs apiece tonight, because I bet he'd have chosen AC/DC for the second song.

Allison went next with "Cry Baby". She was definitely in her wheelhouse with this one. I loved the new hairstyle and she really owned the stage. I'm definitely sensing a fix tonight. First, the perfect theme for the favorite and the underdog - then the order placing them 1 and 2 - then the duet pairings. Tonight was totally in the Adam & Allison team's favor.

Kris follows with a hard edge version of "Come Together". This really sounded good - probably the most creative song of the night - but Kris just can't get on top of the band with his vocals. He simply lacks the power to pull it off vocally. Kris is smart, though - he tries to make up for it with the guitar, which is the skill he has that none of the rest possess, and very nearly succeeds. Randy notices it and gives him props. Good effort.

Then Danny. I feel sorry for him because he's the worst victim of tonight's theme, but not too much because he could have been clever and found a way to think around his limitations. Instead, he gambled everything he had on being able to miraculously channel Steven Tyler on "Dream On". Danny, Danny, Danny...you know you don't have the chops to go into that high register, but you had to try it anyway. It was a calculated gamble, but the final scream wasn't remotely musical and the song failed.

My rankings for tonight, same as the order of performance:
1. Adam
2. Allison
3. Kris
4. Danny

Now for the duets, which (yeah, right) aren't supposed to be subject to voting.

Danny and Kris decided to sing Foreigner's "Renegade". In my opinion, they mailed it in. OK, but not good. From the comments afterward, it seems like they had a hard time deciding on a song and didn't get much rehearsal time on it. I think both of them just decided to wing it and if it stunk, so be it. It didn't stink, but it wasn't much to write home about. Danny had enough power to get on top of the band, but Kris didn't and his vocals were too thin to impress. The lyrics of this song are too monotonal and repetitive to make it a good choice for a competition.

Adam and Allison did "Slow Ride", which has a lot of the same limitations, but they simply benefited from being able to power it out. They also fed off of each other's energy on stage and that put it over the top. They'll be good together on tour. Simon pointed out that Adam's coattails may have bought Allison a chance to stay in the competition, and I agree.

So who's going home?

My prediction:
Kris. Danny had the worst performance by far, but Allison really won a lot of fans tonight - for the second week in a row - and I think Danny wins the voting over Kris no matter what.

I still stand by my prediction that Kris sells the most albums out of this group.