9 Lives Left

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To see everyone's picks and a full standings breakdown, click here.

Another week of IDOL has come and gone and taken roughneck, Michael Sarver with it. Sarver's departure was overdue according to most of you but not for Amy A. who lost one of her top 4 and fell out of first place giving us a new leader by the name of Melissa Clement.

All in all I'd have to call Motown week a bit of a disappointment, but that's coming from a guy who holds Motown music as some of the best ever written. For me, it's hard for anyone to do justice to these songs - especially when compared to Mike Siciliano's fully-choreographed serenades in the offices of lakings.com.

The night's biggest disappointment (besides Megan Joy not being voted off) had to be Lil. The judges were right, it should have been her night. With so many great songs to choose from, "Heatwave" was a weak choice. After two luke-warm performances, Lil's breakout performance in the top 36 is starting to feel like a fluke.

Another favorite, Danny Gokey was good, but how do you blow off arrangement advice from Smokey Robinson?! Danny got off easy because the show was running late but I would have love to see him get called out for that with Smokey sitting in the front row.

There were some bright spots in week 3 though. Even the harshest Adam Lampbert critics among us (wait, is that just me?) were impressed by his stripped-down take on "Tracks of My Tears". I don't exactly see how that fits with his manic performances of weeks past, and I'd still call him the most overrated contestant in American Idol history (yeah, that's right) ... but it was good dog, it was good.

Tops for the night though was Allison Iraheta, who picked a tough song in "Papa Was a Rolling Stone" and knocked it out of the box. I'm usually pretty tough on the 16 year olds, but this girl can blow!

In the pool, Melissa takes over the lead in both earned and potential points but Amy A. is still in the hunt. The Hunts occupy 2nd place at the moment but picking Alexis to win will be their downfall. As the field narrows it's getting tougher and tougher to make a comeback but some people in the middle of the pack still have great potential. (Hint: the numbers in red are what really matters and they can only go down!)

Mums the word on this week's theme but the Idols will have their work cut out for them. The Swami says: "I hate to say it, but Scott MacIntyre's time is drawing to a close."

The Top 10

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To see everyone's picks and a full standings breakdown, click here.

Two weeks in, the touring top ten has is set, and if our pool is any indication we've had our first shocking elimination.  This week Alexis Grace got the axe, putting a lot of red marks on people's brackets ("Red marks," you say?  Click the full standings link above and you can see how each elimination affects your bracket and everyone else's).  

First off, thanks to everyone who stopped by to read last week's post but especially Mike Sis, who left a very amusing comment about how all (or at least half) of you all know each other.  If you didn't see it, check out the comments below the previous post.  And Mike, don't worry, It's only week two.  The snarkyness will pick up as the season progresses and I become more and more offended at how much time I'm devoting to this ridiculous TV show.  Once I start skipping weeks, my posts should be downright venomous.  Stay tuned.  

Secondly, I must make a retraction from last week's post.  Chris Piccolo picked Matt Giraud to win it all.  My last post said that Chris had picked TX native, Michael Sarver.  Let's hope we're both wrong!

OK, now that we've got the housekeeping out of the way let's have some week 2 highlights. Here we go ...

Clearly I'm an idiot, but I had Kris Allen out first because I thought he was boring. Halfway through his week 2 performance, I started writing down these notes ... Guess I wasn't wrong.

I think the judges were a little tough on Lil Rounds for not hip-hopping up her song on country night.  She made a conscious decision to respect the original version and took a risk with it.  If that's Lil singing outside her comfort zone, look out!  

Adam Lampbert with Randy Travis was the most awkward encounter since Jason Castro met Andrew Lloyd Webber.  His sitar-laden rendition of "Ring of Fire" was the most offensive performance since Archuletta sang "Imagine".  The fact that he survived that without a trip to the bottom 3 means were going to see a lot more Adam than I'm going to have patience for.

11:28 PM - I just realized that Scott is not a very good singer. Nice guy. Excellent piano player. Not a good singer... crap.

Megan getting a pass from the judges because she was sick was a crime. She's awful, flu or no flu.  If you think that's mean, you should hear my wife talk about her - scary.  

Good recovery by Anoop and Good thing for Jacqui and John, who both have him picked to win (Although truth-be-told, my aunt Jacqui said she wanted "Apoo" to win ... what a racist).  

Try as his stylists might, Matt Giraud is not Justin Timberlake.  He's a second-rate bar room piano player with average vocal chops - get over it people! 

There you have it folks.  Snarky enough for you?  Coming here and spewing sarcasm will soon be my only source of enjoyment since my own bracket is looking pretty dismal.  I'm not is as bad shape as the Hunts though, who both had Alexis picked to win it all.  They weren't the only ones hurt by Alexis' early departure though.  Adam, Brady, Jacqui, Ben S. and Geri "Glamma" Robak also picked her to go deep.  Not fooled though, was Amy Amantangelo, who continues to lead the pack with a 60/390 score and only one red mark going into week 3.  

This week's theme is "50 Years of Motown" and the Swami says: "Michael Sarver is going to sound silly singing Stevie Wonder and the Temptations - his days are numbered."

Season 8 is Underway!

(Click on the chart to view standings)

To see everyone's picks and a full standings breakdown, click here.

Yes folks it's season 8 of American Idol and we've reached the top 12 ... well OK, it was actually a top 13 but only for a brief shining moment as week one saw two contestants get the boot. Meanwhile, BP's IDOL Pool is in it's 6th season and despite losing some familiar faces (Where's Richie? Where's defending champ, Wilcz?), we have our biggest turnout yet with 21 players vying for IDOL supremacy this time around.  With two eliminations in week one, some people have already taken some damage but the season is young and it's still anyone's contest.  

This week, we said goodbye to Jasmine, who made it through as a Judges wild card and didn't fool a lot of people, as well as Jorge, the Puerto Rican sensation that many (myself included) thought could make a run.  The week one standouts came as no surprise. Lil Rounds, who led the pool in winner-picks with  7, had a strong showing as did Danny Gokey who was 5 people's pick to win it all.  But it was Adam Lampbert, who won the night for the judges with a (somewhat overrated in my opinion) rendition of "Black or White".  Only 4 people picked Adam to win it all so if things stay on course, Kathleen, Adam, Jay and JoAnne could be looking pretty good in the pool.

The big loser of the night (besides Jorge and Jasmine of course) was Anoop. 'Noop Dogg's likability earned him 2 winner picks in the pool, but his karaoke rendition of "Beat It" earned him a tongue-lashing from the judges.  Unless things turn around quickly, he looks overmatched.  

So far in the pool it's Amy Amantangelo leading the way in both points-scored and potential points.  Amy, along with Roisin and Kevin Hunt are the only players with a chance to go 10-for-10 this week.  The Idols take on the songs of the Grand Ol' Oprey in week 2, which is good news for Chris Piccolo, the lone player to pick Michael Sarver to win it all.  Country music could give a lift to the Texas native.  Swami says: "Anoop will struggle with the Opry tunes, and face the chopping block again.  But don't expect to see Megan Joy again - she'll be going home this week."