The Last Waltz

Tonight was the finals for this year's American Idol, with the choices coming down to 25 year old bartender David Cook and 17 year old David Archuletta. As in other years, the producers threw an awesome 2 hour party before naming the winner. Star-studded (and full of stars and studs and other shiny things) and excellent for the most part, I really did enjoy watching to see which star would show up to share stage time with the top 12 finalists.

Side note: I think it's great that the other 10 finalists get to come back and participate in the final in a positive way. I'm grateful that it's not done Survivor style, with those scorned brought back to toss in various monkey wrenches before the actual winner comes around.

SO--I think I'll start with my favorite highlights, since there's still another hour my time (11:08 pm Central time right now) and I really don't like giving spoilers so I do my best to avoid it.

There were several group numbers by either the ladies, the men or the whole top 12, usually joined by the artist whose songs were picked for the medley. Donna Summer stole the show--she may be physically less able (and I can't find any information on why that is the case) but that voice hasn't missed a note in all this time.

George Michael and Bryan Adams made similar appearances as did people showing up during solos, as Seal did during Syesha's song. Most of all, let's not forget watching David Cook as the front man for ZZ Top! All the performances were very cool, and I don't know which is cooler--Syesha and the rest getting to sing with such high-profile performers, or those performers getting to sing with the newest of the new in the music industry.

Oh, well, I'll call it a horse apiece and be done with it--seeing the celebrities is always cool.

Wish I could say the same for Renaldo La Puz, this year's version of William Hung. I have to give the producers credit for trying to cover that fiasco up by bringing in the entire USC Trojans Marching Band, but they made the mistake of giving him a microphone so it kind of defeats the purpose of having a full marching band in the house. Not brilliant.

One of the detriments to the show was the use of thinly disguised commercials that happened during the show. What, you can't get enough fucking credit using the commercial breaks? You have to add "announcements" that fail to hide the fact that you ran commercials for The Love Guru, Ford, and the movies that Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr. and Ben Stiller have coming out soon or sooner. I SO hated that--I put up with enough commercials on the way to the last two minutes of the show that I shouldn't have to put up with more commercials DURING the show. Seriously--that sucked, so don't do it again even if Ford DOES give the finalists their own SUVs in return.

One last note--when did Carrie Underwood discover whoredom? Or was "Last Name" a song from "What Happens?" Hold on, I'll go look--otherwise it'll bug me all dang night.

Nope, not finding it on any list of songs from the soundtrack, but there's no official soundtrack being released so far either, so who knows if it is or not?

Anyhow, on with the babbling.

Finally, we wade thru the extravaganza and reach the final moments of the show... those few minutes we've hung in for...

And finally we see that sometimes the system works just as it is supposed to. The David with the talent, originality, and voice wins. (That'd be David Cook, y'all--you know I'm a sucker for a rocker and that's something that will never change).

Congratulations to David, and thanks to all of you who have sat thru my drivel week after week. It's ok to cheer that I'm finally stopping these posts--I did it for fun, not because I'm under the impression that I'm the best thing since sliced bread. Thanks to those who enjoyed the posts, and sorry to those who did not, because I'll definitely be doing this again next time around, possibly on the Anthill.

And with that, American Idol is over until January. Enjoy the warm evenings--because that's what I'll be doing, because watching Idol really maxes out the amount of TV I watch in a week. Have fun, everyone, because I will too.