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Okay, so American Idol tonight: Neil Diamond songs. Wow, Neil wore some glittery shirts back in the day! You know, you don't have to match your name...anyways...
The contestants are singing two songs each tonight and Jason's up first.

Jason Castro ~Forever In Blue Jeans Edit: If you click on this link or the one for David C.'s song and get a 403 error, try cutting and pasting the url in another window...for some reason that works, but these links won't!
The clip shows Jason forgetting his words, and realizing he has the wrong sheet of lyrics in front of him...oh dear, not a good start Jason... However, Jason does very well, he actually puts some energy into his song for a change (still not as much as Neil Diamond) and sings a little lower, which sounds good for a change. Good job, Jason!

David Cook ~I'm Alive
Ryan asks David how he prepared for Neil Diamond week, David flips it around and asks Ryan what he did to prepare...Ryan says he "used to sit in the back of his mom's station wagon and sing Neil Diamond songs while making faces at people through the back window...too much information..." and David tells him to cut to the tape.
Mom and I found a video of Neil Diamond doing this song and it sounded really good even then so we figured David could only make it better, which he did. He did very, very good! In fact, this is the first song where I actually thought that I might like to download off of iTunes...I'm not sure that I will though. In the middle of David's song Dad suddenly says, "He's playing that guitar left-handed!" He hadn't noticed before that when David plays guitar it looks backwards...maybe you only notice that if you've played guitar...

Brooke White ~I'm a Believer
Brooke sings "I'm a believer" like she's acting, and makes the end of every phrase sound country...um, not good there, Brooke. If Rebecca saw the show tonight, she was yelling at the TV during Brooke's performance...right Rebecca? ;)

David Archuleta ~ Sweet Caroline
The arrangement was bad, I thought he was forgetting words, but there just weren't words in some spots...when there were words, I couldn't hear them...except for "Shweet Caroliiiiiiine...." as David seemed to stick his tongue out as far as possible to sing that part...I don't see how that helps any, David.

Syesha Mercado~Hello Again
Wow, what a boring song! And why did she need to be barefoot?

Ryan goes to the judges for a quick review on what they've done so far, Paula criticises both of Jason's songs...uh...um, Paula? He's only sung one so far... (I think they must have written down their critique during the rehearsal) Randy points out that she just needs to go over his first song. "What?!! I thought you sang two songs, Jason!!!!!" Paula rather falls apart over this, while Jason looks a little worried and David C. totally cracks up, he's still laughing when she finally yells something to him about being very good, since she can't judge the others. David nods his agreement with her while still grinning.

Second round:

Jason ~September Morn
Oh...*yawn* we're back to Jason's usual style...and he's sitting down again. I guess he used all his energy for the first song so there's nothing left. I'm falling asleep...

David C. ~All I Really Need Is You
I can't find any video or mp3 of this, so I don't know what the original sounded like (I need to look some more) David made it sound completely modern, like I could have heard it on the radio...unfortunately that's why, although it was very good, I didn't like it as well. But it was good. David once again freaks out as Ryan starts patting him on the back, and pointedly offers him his hand to shake. :p

Brooke ~I am..I said
Brooke changes the lyrics from "New York" to "Arizona" which makes the line "I'm lost between two shores" completely irrelevant. Brooke doesn't seem to really get the song...possibly because she only had to go as far as Arizona?

David A. ~America
Ha, clever song choice! And he didn't gasp, that was good at least.

Syesha~ Thank the Lord for the Night Time
This was really quite good...a very good song for her and she did it well. Once again she was barefoot...maybe her feet just hurt today so she thought she'd go barefoot? Who knows.

So, that was American Idol...Neil Diamond is supposed to perform on the results show tomorrow, and I think he's supposed to sing one of his new songs called "Pretty Amazing Grace" which is pretty good, and you can hear it on his website...and I sound like an ad for Neil Diamond.

Now I need to go vote some more.

I was planning on writing a regular blog post today, but at this point I think I'll wait till tomorrow...space it out so there's something throughout the week. Or maybe I'll start on it tonight...or write it all tonight and use the handy scheduled posting feature to post it tomorrow! :)