FINAL 7 - BONUS PICKS

Time to get your bonus picks in. You know the drill - 15 points divided among 3 contestants giving each one at LEAST one point.

The final 7 pose with a life-size Mariah Carey cut-out.

Last night was kind of a night of surprises for me ...

• I realized that Mariah actually has some artistic credibility.
• Kristy Lee was one of the strongest female performances of the evening.
• I didn't like David Cook's song (no surprise) but the judges shat themselves again.
• Syesha didn't capitalize on Mariah week
• Brooke didn't use a band (bad choice)

Speaking of Brooke - Mrs. Commish watched the performances before I got home and watched them again with me. She warned me that I might not be able to stand watching Brooke's performance. She knows me too well. The piano playing wasn't that good to start with, but after the bridge when Brooke started shaking and bumped the song tempo up a good 6 bps I couldn't bear to look at the TV. It was like watching that scene in Escape To Victory, the soccer movie with Pele, Sylvester Stallone and Michael Caine, when they had to break the goalie's leg so Sly could travel with the team of P.O.W.s and lead them to freedom through the Nazi's drained swimming pool (It is a great movie by the way). You know what is going to happen when they prop that poor goalie's leg up between two boards but you just can't bear to watch it. I actually think Brooke's performance was worse.

Speaking of bad, David Cook once again turned in a low-in-his-register first verse of a song that sounded like poop in a blender. He then butt-rocked his way through the first chorus and then sang power notes over the professional background singers singing the second chorus by themselves. I didn't like it at all. Then the judges thought it was awesome and then Davy pulled a "Hillary Clinton" (as Mrs. Commish said) and pretended to get all emotional after the judges comments. I am over this dude and hope he doesn't win.

Speaking of being over something, during Archie's performance last night I officially announced that I was over his voice. He has a really nice voice and I like his different approach to his little tricks and runs, but I am just plain bored of it. He needs to shake things up a bit and sing something totally against the grain - like a Marilyn Manson song.

Speaking of Marilyn Manson, Carly still looks freaky when she sings. I wonder who finds such freaky facial expressions attractive - Oh, I know - the guy that has his body covered in tattoos and piercings.

Speaking of piercing, Syesha just can't seem to land a big note and it kind of hurts.

Speaking of hurting, those girls must be pained that Kristy Lee Cook - who was at the bottom of everyone's list long before the final 12 - was arguably the best female. I say arguably because I don't think that Carly did a bad job - but Kristy actually sounded the best that I think she has ever sounded on this show.

Speaking of this show, Jason Castro was on it last night. He did a decent job which led to the first ever coherent/quasi-funny comeback that Paula has ever said about a Luau.

Speaking of the first ever coherent/quasi-funny thing that Paula said, the moment was quickly spoiled as she began rambling about beef and poi. Sometimes it is best to just shut up - but Paula is never one to miss an opportunity to sound like a lunatic.

Speaking of missing something, we miss Johnsie (which is a much better nickname than MJ).