David Cook won. Wow, y'all, it's over. Weirdly, last night while I was watching, I kind of got sad. You know that summer camp sadness you used to experience when you were young? You'd go to camp, meet great friends and then have to leave them a week or two later. It was always so traumatic on that last day. When they showed clips of the first auditions last night I kinda had that feeling. I know it's cheesy, so don't hold it against me. But if you think about it, we've been doing this since January. That's a heck of a long time to be committed to something like this. You guys have been great. I've had a blast doing this blog (most days, anyway).

Thanks so much for reading and supporting me and calling me out; that's the whole point of a blog. And I feel this one was successful because of the readers.

What next? For now, check back for my full analysis later this morning. It's for the newspaper, but I'll post it here, too.

Round 1

David Cook opened the show and kicked it off with U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For." (Duh, at first I wrote The Police...thanks to the commenters who corrected me). Once again it was nearly perfect, complete with star presence as he perused the crowd and took center stage right behind the judges. Randy loved the song choice. Paula pulled out one of her puns ... "You may have not found what you're looking for, but WE have found it." Simon pointed out David's nervousness and said even with him being so nervous he did a phenomenal job.

Little Archuleta sang "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me." A good choice for him, although he skews a little older in his song choices. At least this one has a little more beat to it so he had to really show off his pipes. He did a good job with it. Randy called it one of the best performances of the season. Paula got chills. Simon agreed with Randy that this was the best performance so far.

The Davids will perform three songs each tonight ... their choice. Should be a good watch.

So if you want to see Taylor this summer, you have to take a trip to NYC.

Thanks!

Have at it. Only one week to go. What will we do for entertainment then??

Next week should be a real "humdinger." David vs. Goliath.

Observance: Justin Guarini, who was in the audience, looked kind of old.

The producers chose a Rihanna song for newly sassy Syesha. She seemed a little uncomfortable with it, but I think she pulled it off OK. It wasn't any worse than David Cook's Switchfoot song or David Archuleta's rendition of "With You." Just my two cents.

Aerosmith's "I Don't Want Miss A Thing" ... very fitting for David Cook. I love the song, personally. Frankly, this one was my favorite of the night. It moved me to want to get out of my seat, and not to turn the channel. That's talent in my opinion. Apparently by the applause (and Paula's standing O), it was the crowd's favorite, too. Again, Randy, what's with your whole "very predictable" comment?? You never say that to Archuleta. You only say "you can sing the phone book." I think the phone book would be very boring.

I'm with Simon ... David Cook wins the night. And hopefully the competition.

Aren't y'all glad I'm back?? :-)

Again, he flubbed when he had to sing something fast. I'm not trying to pick on the kid; he has a great voice. He just needs more practice. Simon said it was like "a chihuahua trying to be a tiger." Looks like he might've needed Daddy's help afterall on song choice.

I know I said last week I was sure Syesha Mercado was on her way out, but that was before Jason Castro destroyed two perfectly good songs.

Can Mercado hold on one more week and displace one of the Davids?

Unlikely, but she's come this far, and with the right song, who knows? I was listening to my iPod in my office today and heard the late, great Eva Cassidy's version of "People Get Ready" and thought that would be a great arrangement for Syesha.

Do you ever do that? Hear a song and think, wow, I'll bet [insert name of favorite Idol contestant here] could bring down the house with that? Am I a real dork for admitting that I do that?

Anyway, it will be interesting to see what happens Tuesday. All three contestants get to tour their hometowns this weekend, which sounds nice but I am sure is actually jam-packed with work and completely exhausting and distracting.

It's been a real pleasure blogging here this week, folks, but I must return to my dog blog now.

Wendy's back next week.

Peace out, readers!

I'm okay with that. Funny guy, nice kid. This was just not his venue.

As Wendy said so eloquently a few weeks ago: See ya at FloydFest, Jason.