The most important news of the day? It’s probably that tonight marks the return of House. Unless maybe it was the Libby conviction, of course.

While you ponder that, let’s watch some American Idol, alright?

We’re all happy that Blake is still on the show, and his song choice of the night is inspired. Which is why it was so surprising that it was a boring performance--lifeless, bland, and not up to his standards. Randy and Paula’s admission that they didn’t know 311’s “All Mixed Up”, though, was stunning--and it was hardly better to hear them insist that singing an 11 year old song somehow makes Blake contemporary.

Good Lord. No wonder these people can’t identify a rock star. They live in a musically lost world where the hardest rock someone like Randy has heard was while playing on stage with Journey.

I still love Journey, though.

Sanjaya thinks people will be surprised that he can hula (or, “shake his bootie Hawaiian style"), I’m thinking no one is shocked by this news. He is a lovely young man--seriously, I don’t mean that in a completely non-ironic way. He’s polite, intelligent, and seemingly kind. Unfortunately he just isn’t getting any better--he was lucky to still be on on the show this week and it will be a minor miracle (or at least a lot of horrible voting) if he stays on the show for next week.

Brutal truth: he’s not good in any aspect of his performance and he doesn’t deserve to still be on the stage. Sweet kid, though.

Speaking of lucky, how about Sundance? He lucked his way through weeks of bad performances until he actually had a good week. That good week was last week. Doing Pearl Jam’s “Jeremy” this week, though, he reverted to (bad) form--he made the song into a elevator pop version of what was a pretty decent rock song. He didn’t carry any of the angst and guilt of the original and ended up looking and sounding a little like Meatloaf Sings Pearl Jam’s Greatest Hits.

I’m surprised Paula didn’t call it “brave”.

Chris Richardson, on “let’s reveal our secrets” night, reveals his inner fat guy. Everyone can see my inner fat guy. Mostly because he escaped the confines of the wussy little thin guy who was trying to keep him hidden.

Anyway, man that sucked. I really don’t like this guy’s voice, his song choice, or anything about his performance. The g-phrase asked if we could turn the show down during the singing portion of the evening. They like what about this guy? Whatever it was, I missed it.

And then there’s Jared Cotter. Okay, that was alright. Not actually good, mind, but decent. Unfortunately, there isn’t much else to say.

Little Link Away Moment: Dissenting opinions (and a peek at upcoming performances) from that snaky chick. And World Crushing Monkey Boy, too.

I continue to want to like Brandon--he’s obviously musically talented and, at times, he’s shown a powerful voice, but his performances haven’t been great. Tonight, though, he was solid--acting a little more like a lead singer, singing a little less timid, and a good song choice could keep him on the show. He was much better than he has been--not perfect, but good.

Phil “The Hat Wearing Bald Guy” shouts too much, sings too little. (Another Journey aside: Randy compares him to Steve Perry--which was a compliment, I’m pretty sure). It was a messy performance of a trite, insipid little song. I’m with Simon: I didn’t get it at all.

My favorite guy on the show is still Chris Sligh.

Open Invitation to Chris Sligh Moment: Dude, any time you’re in Denver you’re invited over for drinks.

Back to his performance. He’s still one of the best on the show--he continues to sing well, he’s mostly good on the stage, and he has charisma that’s surprising. It was probably the best of the night (and Paula, you’re an idiot).

In fact, I thought that the only reasonably good performances of the night were Chris S and Brandon--everyone else just hit one level of suck or another. It isn’t a particularly inspiring group of male vocalists even though almost all of them seem really likable.

Update: Linked by Chris Richardson. Sort of. If you take my meaning.