Thanks to those of you who offered your takes on last night's American Idol. Wow. Quite a night? Usher, the man who signed Justin Bieber is doing the mentoring. And if you don't know who that is, consider yourself lucky (and my eleven year old daughter can fill you in if you're really curious) ... So okay, here we go...! Here's my deal, I say stuff before I hear the judges (and I skimmed the comments from yesterday to not be biased...)

Siobhan: "Through the Fire" - Scary song choice tackling Chaka. Nope, not good enough. It turns out she has limits. It's one thing to hit some of those notes, but you have to be able to control the in and out between those and the regular notes. She did not do that.

Casey: "Hold On, I'm Coming" - This was a great performance and it was totally awesome. The most alive he's been. That being said, the song is written as one note, and it lacked levels.

Michael: "Ready for Love" - I am ready for a nap.

Didi: "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted" - Clutching onto her mic for dear life. Seriously, I would make fun of this performance at Karaoke night.

Tim: "Sweet Love" - Are you kidding, Anita Baker? I haven't even heard him and I know it's going to be brutal. And yes, it was. Fast forwarding.

Andrew: "Forever" - Best performance since "Straight Up." But man, at this point in the competition that just isn't saying much.

Katie: "Chain of Fools" - Tart.

Lee: "Treat Her Like a Lady" - Wow. Finally.

Crystal: "Midnight Train to Georgia" - Believed every minute of it. Nice.

Aaron: "Ain't No Sunshine" - I love this song soooooo much. Will he ruin it? His toupee is brilliant tonight. But he's not great. Not for me anyway dog.

Can we please just get rid of everyone else and spend the next several weeks watching Casey, Lee, and Crystal duke it out?

Last night I got to see the Phoenix Suns clinch a playoff berth live in Chicago against the Bulls. It was a great game, I got great seats, and they were complimentary thanks to a childhood friend who is a business partner with Dan Majerle, one of the coaches of the Suns and a former player. Pretty cool! Dillon and I went to the game, along with Elic and Carrie, who "bought" their tickets before I thought to ask my friend if Dan could hook us up.

All this to say, I got home late last night and instead of watching American Idol, I watched LOST. Because my allegiances have changed somewhat for Tuesday night viewing.

So I'll check out the AI week this afternoon maybe, and then let you know my thoughts. What did you think? I heard Lee did really well. Anyone else?

Hans Hemmert is a funky artist whose website displays some of his "art in public spaces." This picture is from an exhibit that featured the opportunity to wear shoes that eliminated height disparity. Very cool. Tripp Crosby pointed it out to me.

As a tall person (non-NBA tall) I would be very interested in participating in an experiment like this. What about you?

Top eleven y’all. Is anyone going to surprise us tonight? Remember, it’s not about where you end up, it’s about… the climb… here are my comments before anyone says anything…

LEE: “The Letter” – great pick for his voice fo sho. Love having the horn section up there. I can’t tell if he’s going to turn into Taylor Hicks or Jay Leno. Looks a little bored, and he’s just telling everyone that this is the top of his range.

PAIGE: “Against All Odds” – If you have problems with pitch, don’t start sitting down! Seriously, if she doesn’t go home tomorrow night I’ll eat my hat. I understand why Simon thinks she has so much potential, but it just isn’t showing up.

TIM: “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” – is the name of the Disney movie he’ll be starring in later next year. I mean Paige was worse, but this was hardly singing. He was just placing his voice at the note. And his elbow never unlocked.

AARON: “I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing” – Again, I think he’s getting better and better. Give him some pitch problems due to illness, and he’s still miles ahead of the previous two. I’d like to hear him “bubblegum-ify” other Aerosmith tunes.

CRYSTAL: “Me & Bobby McGee” – Finally, a Janis song! The last half of this song was awesome.

MICHAEL: “When a Man Loves a Woman” – good, predictable a bit, but he was the most polished he has been so far.

ANDREW: “I Heard it Through the Grapevine” – Hey, remember when he sang “straight up?” Seriously, what is this guy doing here. I think he sold me a cell phone accessory last week.

KATIE: “Big Girls Don’t Cry” – I want to like her, but this is Karoake. Didn’t like it.

CASEY: “Power of Love” – I’m digging this. It’s not a vocal prowess song, but he nailed it, and took some risks to go this arena pop with his selection. I approve.

DIDI: “You’re No Good” – She’s ready for her Desperate Housewives cameo… Smokin’ hot. Loved it.

SIOBHAN: “Superstition” – Best quote of the night: “I think it’s so wicked cool that she said that my voice had swagger.” Holy crap it’s 1983. She’s still got the pipes but she is bringing an unwanted comparison to Sheena Easton with that hair and outfit.

There are probably three different people who should go home and who I would prefer not to see anymore, but if it isn’t Paige I’ll be so surprised. But then I said that a couple weeks ago.

About a month and a half ago, roughly, Kristi and I began watching LOST. We started with the DVDs from Season 1, and have just caught up with the most recent episode of Season 6. It was quite the winter marathon. But extremely rewarding.

I can't recommend enough watching LOST in this way. The storyline plays not like a soap opera, but rather more like a Greek Epic, like the Orestia (my theatre degree coming in handy once again)... It doesn't try to "catch you up" each week, but rather, simply continues to tell the epic story. And because I watched each episode back-to-back, sometimes 3 in one evening, I didn't spend any time hypothesizing about the many mysteries of the show - I just watched, took it all in.

I won't spend any time in this post going over all the cool spiritual symbolism that exists in the storyline, many others have done that much better than me... (I mean, come on, Jack SHEPHERD has a son named DAVID who is a musical genius and his significant number is 23.)

Let's just say that I'm enjoying it, and I am glad that I caught up to the pop culture epic before the series finale.

Do you watch LOST?

It's the top twelve y'all...

Looking forward to seeing the song selection from the Rolling Stones Anthology. I think that the girls have a real chance to shine here, since anything they do will be a departure from Mick Jagger's take on the same song, and the guys would all have a hard time matching Jagger's swagger, especially since that 70s retro guy left in the first round of the top 24...

Alright, enough yammering. Here are my thoughts on each performance, notes and scribed before I hear the judges chiming in...

Michael Lynche: "Miss You" - Good falsetto, but disco is just not memorable, even when it's the Stones...

Didi Benami: "Playing With Fire" - This is the kind of arrangement that reveals how unnecessary most of the verses of Rolling Stones songs are. Just seemed mad, not sexy.

Casey James: "It's All Over Now" - I can't say that this was the best RS song in the world to pick, but again, he's so solid. I love his voice and he's just so dang consistent.

Lacey Brown: "Ruby Tuesday" - Now we're talking. I think overall it worked, though knowing that she's a PK makes me think that her voice mimicking Sixpence is more than just a happy coincidence...

Andrew Garcia: "Gimme Shelter" - not a fan of this arrangement. It's like if Richard Marx was forced at gunpoint to cover it with Mr. Mister in 1986.

Katie Stevens: "Wild Horses" - Man, why in the world would they lose the acoustic guitar? I'm really disturbed with these arrangements tonight. I don't think this is going to change the judges minds, but after the surprising vote last week, they might phone in a vote of confidence not to look like total heels.

Tim Urban: "Under My Thumb" - He is the clinical hybrid of every Disney Channel tween-dude on every show/musical/movie of the last 6 years. This song should not be reggae, and he should not sing reggae regardless. But puppydogs get votes.

Siobhan Magnus: "Paint it Black" - That was theatrical genius. At first I thought she was gonna fade out into boring with the uptempo section, but then... that note. She makes Adam Lambert sound like a warm turd.

Lee DeWyze: "Beast of Burden" - Like Casey, his voice is always right in the pocket. I bought it.

Paige Miles "Honky Tonk Woman" - I feel like this song should not be gender switched, but that's just me. She did great this week but still should have gone home last week. Fighting for her life.

Aaron Kelley: "Angie" - So it looks like his eyebrows' civil war have sent his toupee into convulsions. He's more talented than others in his category in years' past, but that doesn't mean he doesn't need to go home.

Crystal Bowersox: "You Can't Always Get What You Want" - She's getting a little dolled up, and it's working. That was great, I wanted to hear the full song. March 28 y'all, at a CCC campus near you.

So who's going home? The judges didn't crucify anyone tonight, so it'll be interesting...

8 Guys, little time, so let's make it happen. My reactions written before the judges say their stuff.

Lee Dewyze: "Fireflies" - a good choice for his voice, in the sense that you can't compare what he did to the original recording, but not exactly a vocally dynamic song.

Alex Lambert: "Trouble" This is the first performance where I thought this kid actually had a shot. This kind of growth over the weeks is what is fun about AI.

Tim Urban: "Hallelujah" - As much as I love this song, please someone bury it and hide it from pretentious children with guitars.

Andrew Garcia: "Genie in a Bottle" - I totally dig this. But I really wanted the band to kick in.

Casey James: "You'll Think Of Me" - I think this guy has such a pro voice. Enjoyed that.

Aaron Kelley: "I'm Already There" - Based on the first notes, he's going home. Youngest toupee wearer I've ever seen. His eyebrows are engaged in a civil war against each other.

Todrick Hall: "Somebody to Love" Great falsetto in the beginning. He's a guy who I totally forget about from week to week. He gets lost in the rest of the song though, because he doesn't play on what's great about this song - he isn't blending with the BGVs at all.

Michael Lynch: "This Woman's Work" - Another tough falsetto start. I know this is Maxwell's arrangement, but this kind of makes me crazy because I love the Kate Bush version so much. He looks like he's going to tip over any second and people will get hurt. I think they're gonna love it but I was kinda meh.

Random Notes: Sometimes Randy convinces himself midsentence that he actually likes a song... Has anyone given these judges the note to stop hitting on the desks? ... this week is awfully full of acoustic guitars... Simon getting on Kara's case is awesome... Kara's finally pulling out the Paula-crazy: "As a Woman who doesn't have a child, I can totally relate..." - huh?

Well that was annoying. I got all finished with my post, and then pressed a goofy delete button and lost it all. Gotta remember not to do that in the future. Here's what I remember about what I said about the ladies:

Katie - better than last week, but the judges still won't like it.

Ciobhan - Good, still very odd. Someone will call her a dark horse after this.

Lacey - The leopard print might save her, and she did well with this quirky performance.

Katelyn - I didn't like the overalls, but I still like her.

Didi - I really liked it. Way cool, and I even opened iTunes after to see if it was there.

Paige - Going home girl. No one sings "Smile through the pain and sorrow" without singing it again on Thursday night. It's AI law.

Crystal - Hot from the moment it started. Yowsa!

Lilly - This wasn't as bad as it seemed considering she had to follow Crystal (and I think the judges had to assume that and gave her high marks)

Random notes: I think Kara is working with a bookie in Vegas to predict how Simon will react to a performance and then is using hand signals to try and align herself with what he's going to say. It's very "I thought of that first."

Gotta be Paige goin' home. Is it only one this week?

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Or do you? Here's an excerpt:
According to a Reuters report, a lawyer for Lohan filed the massive suit against E-Trade Financial Corp. in Nassau County, New York, state court on Monday claiming that a female baby character labeled a "milkaholic" and named Lindsay improperly invoked her "likeness, name, characterization and personality" without permission, violating her right of privacy.

Lawyer Stephanie Ovadia — who did not return calls for comment at press time — filed the suit on behalf of the 23-year-old Lohan seeking $50 million in compensatory damages and $50 million of exemplary damages. Ovadia also demanded that E-Trade stop running the ad and turn over all copies to her.

Read the full article here, and make your own decision. The Ad Agency claims they made it based on someone from their own firm.

And here's the commercial itself. What do you think?

Just saw this article about a sequel to Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera. Read about it here. Is there any chance that this is even remotely a good idea?