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(I lost this once so I will try again!)

First post of the year (anyone miss me?) so I will add a few season-based comments.

1. ADAM is the real deal, with a good voice and judgment and song acumen. Varied enough from the original tonight to not be a copy. Credit to for actually taking an expert's advice. Most astonishing moment of the season: Danny Gokey nodding when advised by Smokey Robinson (if I member correctly -- it was one of the true talents) to sing the chorus rather than let the backup singers handle it, and then disregarding his advice in the performance without a peep.

2. ALLISON is under-rated as a 17 year old with values and her head on straight, but slightly overrated as a performer. She still has a narrow niche and tonight she gave up the gains she had made in recent weeks by going back to the Ancient And Way Overrated Janis Joplin. This is my biggest criticism of AI; it's become Genuflect At The Signs Of The Cross Of Famous Songs And Artists rather than sing good and contemporary music. For goodness sake, Joplin has been dead for almost 40 years! Steve Wonder's best decade was the 1970s! Motown's best decade was the 1960s! Meanwhile, a Kris Allen actually signs a current song, a brilliant one that fit the week's theme perfectly (I'm talking about "Once"), and Kara "Conform To Your Industry Niche In These Tough Times" dioGuardi opines that it's obscure. Anyway, Allison Irahita (AI) has a bigger future than American Idol (AI).

3. KRIS. A genuine performer who rightly edged out Matt "Justin Too" Giraud for the hipster slot in the final four. Jason Castro with much more drive and talent. Unfortunately, out of his field today and thought that being a rocker meant singing slower. Credit for honesty in admitting awe at playing Slash's guitar -- who of us would not have had the same reaction?

4. DANNY. A favorite literally since his first audition (in a way David Cook never was), partially justified his standing by never having a truly poor performance (as opposed to a safe or boring one) -- until this week. Does not get the credit Kris gains for being ambitious, because he did so so poorly. Enunciating every word was as much a mistake as failing at the ending high notes and drawing a direct unfavorable comparison to Adam.

Brain: Kris.
Heart: Danny
Guts: Adam. I'm not one of the Conspiracy Theorists. The risks of cheating on the voting are much greater than the rewards. So I take it as genuine that he was second to last last week, despite a great performance. Why wouldn't he be in trouble? He's not everyone's cup of tea, as Simon would say.

Random comments on departed contestants:

* I hate how the judges twisted ALEXIS out of her comfort zone and then slammed her for having no core. She was a good singer and beautiful, yet we were stuck with the awfulness of MEGAN over Alexis. Megan's "Rockin Robin" was Sanjaya-Bad.

* I may be one of the few writers who was genuinely moved by SCOTT and thought that he earned his place on the merits. He did a better job in branching out of his comfort zone (after being urged to do so by the judges and then slammed for doing so) in the week he was booted than Danny did tonight.

* ANOOP, ditch the New Letterman look. Good pipes though.