Am I the only night owl out there? Probably not. I like Tuesday nights. A handful of shows I enjoy all crammed into one night. I TiFaux (me? sit through commercials? ah hahahahahahaha) then stay up way too late catching up. Except, being a night owl, it’s not all that late for me. Of course, I’m also a morning person. I know, I’m disgusting like that. I blame it on my dad. He doesn’t need much sleep either. One of my fonder memories is staying up after my mom had conked out for the night, watching Johnny Carson, then Rockford Files reruns…and still being first up in the morning. For him, it was due to years of pulling shift work as a cop and just sleeping in compact five hour segments. I have no such excuse, except it’s apparently genetic. But I get a lot more squeezed into a 19 hour day. Or I should anyway.

So…last night was probably one of the better American Idol nights in a while. I was pre-cringing when I heard Barry Manilow was the singing guest this week. I enjoyed Stevie last week, but the contestants had a tough time with his music. I did NOT want to follow that up with them singing Mandy and Copacabana. Please god, kill me now, was pretty much my thought process. So I was really happy when I found out it was actually 50’s night and Barry was there to help them as an arranger. The man is pretty brilliant and it seemed as if he made an important connection for many of the final 11 in helping them understand they had to do more than just recite lyrics in tune. All in all, a very successful collaboration across the board, as it turned out some of the better performances of this season.

The Good: Mandisa was my hands down favorite. And she looked smokin hot, too. Paris returned to her roots and did a great rendition of Fever. I don’t love her, she grates on me a little, but I did like this performance. Katherine McPhee has a gorgeous voice, sang beautifully, looked hella lot like Jessica Alba last night for some reason…and still looks off somehow in her clothes and seems to have no idea what to do with her body onstage. It’s a conundrum. Eliot - I’ll say, no one beats Al Jarreau singing that song, for me. It’s one of my all time favorites. But he did a great job with his rendition. Applause. Chris - just because he took the risk. An alt rock version of I Walk The Line was almost as ambitious as when Marty did that alt rock version of Britney Spears “Hit Me Baby One More Time” on Rock Star: INXS last summer…although Marty wins that competition hands down. I still have that one on m iPod. Freaking brilliant. But then I Heart Marty in a big way, so I might be biased.

The (comparatively) Bad: Kevin. Now don’t jump me. I thought he was a goner last week and was shocked he wasn’t in the bottom three. But he did sing to his audience last night and far more in keeping with the sweet, innocent thing he his (than Part Time Lover last week. Just….ew.) So I think he stays. Taylor (who looked liked the love child of George Clooney and Pat Boone last night.) I love Taylor, and he was certainly as entertaining as always, but there wasn’t enough vocals in his performance for a singing contest. Not the bottom, by far, but not the top this week. Kellie Pickler…who I love. So sue me. But I love her for all the reasons that have nothing to do with her singing ability (or lack thereof) so it was great to hear her actually do some justice to the song. Like K McPhee, she has no idea what to do with her body, but it’s just so damn entertaining watching her try. You just know she practices that pointing move in front of her dresser mirror. She entertains me in a large way and I want her to stick around, even if I don’t believe she should actually win. Or even come close.

The Bottom Three: Bucky…well, what can you say about good ol Bucky. Gotta love him. His singing, however? Not so much. He did make a good song choice for his voice, but not sure it will keep him out of the bottom three. (Nor should it, in my humble opinion.) Ace. Ace, Ace, Ace. The judges must have been listenting to an entirely different song than I was. He didn’t even really bring the pretty last night, either. Nothing to save himself. Just horrible all the way around. I wouldn’t have put him in the bottom three last week (tho close to it) but I definitely think he belongs there this week. And Lisa…she’s a great singer and nice girl, but I just feel nothing for her. She’s like a generic Broadway musical singer. I want to like her but she’s just meh to me, week in and week out. She shouldn’t be bottom three as she is a much better singer than some of the others (yes, I’m looking at you Kevin and Kellie) but as an entertainer, she’s not bringing it. I could live with Kevin taking that spot, but I’m betting it’s Lisa.

Okay…double the pleasure, double the fun…a double leg on Amazing Race:

I actually liked Eric and Jeremy this leg…right up until they disgusted both me and Phil with the tonsil hockey comment. Sheesh. BJ and Tyler need to stop the over-mugging for the camera, but I admit I did laugh when they both cried “Santa!” upon seeing the German Amazing Bathmat Greeter. Lake and Michelle…not as grating this leg, but remain my least favorite team. I was not happy to see them become better racers.

Lori and Dave are still my favorite team and thank goodness the double leg saved them. MoJo is growing on me. I liked Joseph’s reaction to the Mercedes Wall of Death ride. And Mo danced the hell out of that German knee slap thing. (Was I the only one laughing as the teams continued to crack each other upside the head with wine bottles? Did it say something that Lake–Lake!–was the only one who was gentle with his partner? Of course, she’d have likely beaten him senseless if he’d actually cracked one on her head…and you know he secretly wanted to. Or maybe that was just me. They deserve each other.) I like Ray and Yolanda - they hang in there. And Fran and Berry didn’t annoy me nearly as much as they usually do. So okay for them staying…but not too much longer.

The D’s deserved to be eliminated for not racing their own race but following another team, but Mom and Desiree were also pretty poor racers this leg and so either one of them going didn’t bother me. I was tired of Wanda’s freak outs, and the D’s actually treat each other really well and seem like they could be competant racers if they’d step it up a little…so I was okay with the Amazing Bathmat of Doom this week.

For once, almost all of the teams are really decent, race well, and treat each other (and the locals) nicely. I’m not one who needs or wants the ugly villain teams, so I’m happy. And how funny was the drunk Fern??? (Fern = any local who helps a team, named after the first local, named Fern, who helped a team in Season One.)

I could MAC Boston Legal…but I’m MAC’d out…and Chapter 2 is calling me. Besides, you’d much rather me be here writing about Donovan MacLeod than about William Shatner, trust me on that one.

Happy Humpety Hump Day, all!

Tags: Writing //