My Top 6 Guys

American Idol: After watching the 12 male finalists, it was fairly easy to pick my top 6. Actually I ended up with a top 4 that were especially impressive and then added in 2 of the more or less 'forgettable' (as Simon would say) ones that I liked better than others.

My top 4 (in order of their appearance on last night's show) are:


David Cook--Love the texture and tone of his voice.




David Archuleta--This kid is a natural. I don't think he could sing badly to save his life. It's like he was born to sing. Reminds me of Kelly Clarkson and Clay Aiken in that regard--flawless and seemingly incapable of hitting a wrong note.




Jason Castro--Jason made it into my top 4 because he surprised me so much. I was fully prepared not to like him, and then he did such a fun authentic performance, singing on tune and sounding like he would sound if he had actually lived and performed in the 60s, but still sounding fresh and today as well.


Michael Johns--Great-sounding voice, star-quality presence and consistently excellent performances.





My add-ins so that I could come up with a Top 6:


Colton Berry--Pleasant voice. Sings on tune.




Robbie Carrico--Pleasant voice. Sings on tune. But not quite the rocker sound he seems to want to have.

The rest of them and why they didn't make it into my Top 6:

Chikezie--Aside from the odd name, he just has such a stock sound that doesn't stand out in any way. Plus I didn't like his attitude. The best way to respond to criticism from Simon is with grace, not attitude. What Simon wears is irrelevant since he is there to judge, not to be judged by arrogant contestants. Every one of these contestants signed up to be on this show, very well-known for criticism given by Simon Cowell, so for any of them to come back with any kind of arrogant attitude towards one of the people that gave them their shot on national TV is just plain tacky and trashy.

Danny Noriega--Too flaming full of himself.

David Hernandez--I just couldn't take the overdone mouth manipulations and stylizing.

Garrett Haley--Looks and sounds too much like a girl.

Jason Yeager--Moon River brings back bad childhood memories, and he just wasn't impressive enough to overcome that.

Luke Menard--Sang pretty much his whole song out of tune and then alarmingly failed to recognize that fact during his after-performance interview, even AFTER the judges pointed it out to him.

I sure hope that at least my top 4 end up in the top 6.

Big Brother 9: Bonehead move #1--Jen and Ryan telling their respective partners about the fact that they are a real-life couple, together for 10 months before entering the Big Brother house, thus giving up their distinct advantage in the game.

Bonehead move #2--Jen and Parker telling everybody the secret about Jen and Ryan already being a couple out of some strange need to tell before Allison tells, even though Allison had no reason to tell anyone.

Bonehead move #3--Allison and Sheila pretending to be a lesbian couple of long standing before entering the Big Brother house and announcing this to Joshuah and Neil (and maybe others?) AFTER the swearing-on-the-Bible ceremony where everyone swore that there were no other prior relationships in the house other than Jen and Ryan.