American Idol: The night of bad song choices

Am I the only person in the world who gets really annoyed when the contestants hold up their fingers to tell you what number to dial so you can vote for them? I don't know why that irks me, but it just does. Now that I got that off my chest (she breathes a sigh of relief), I must say that I found tonight absolutely boring. Practically every performance was just boring. I normally sit and watch Idol  with semi-enthusiasm, but tonight I think I got up in the middle of virtually every performance. I helped my roommate make iced tea. I looked for my nail clippers. I put socks on because my feet were cold. I flossed my teeth. Tonight's performances were just plain boring.

Typically, I give my two cents on each of the contestants, but I don't even feel the need to do that. Every performance was so similar in mediocrity that I feel like I would just be repeating myself with every evaluation.

I know a lot of you are rooting for a woman to win again this year, but with a night like tonight...I still think it's the year of the men. The problem that most of the performers had tonight was poor song choices. (To see a list of song choices, click here for AOL's Idol Central.)  Last week, a reader pointed out that the contestants normally do poorly when they jump the gender ship, 'ala Patrick Hall doing Melissa Etheridge. Tonight, most of the women stuck with the same gender, but they just picked songs that were too big for them. For example, Heather Cox doing Mariah Carey? Is she out of her mind? Why would you ever pick a Mariah Carey song if don't even have 1/100th of a voice that great? It's like she's trying to point out the fact that she sucks.

But besides the bad song choices, I just felt like tonight was a snoozer. All the contestants just looked half asleep up there. Although, I thought that Melissa McGhee finally made herself known by being one of the only contestants who didn't look half dead. That makeover did her good and she really showed a lot of energy. Kinnick Sky was another one who used the lackluster performances of the other key girls (i.e. Paris, Katharine) to garnish some more attention. I really liked her doing that Gretchen Wilson song. It was fun to watch. But Gretchen Wilson songs are always fun to watch.

And Kinnick was the first person to showcase the fashion trend of the night -- bustiers. I saw bustiers under jackets, over dress shirts, under yellow tank tops. It was an all-around bustier night. And somehow, even with all those pushed-up breasts, tonight was still boring. (By the way, I hope someone is impressed with the amazing cut and paste job I did of Simon's head on that sexy model pic. The half a semester I spent in that graphic design course really paid off with that top-notch job I just pulled off. It's practically seamless if you squint your eyes. Or maybe even close one. Heck, put on an eyepatch.)

The one shining moment of personality came with Kellie Pickler's pre-interview. I liked her description of her first spinach salad as tasting like something that had just been picked off a bush. And, of course, her drawn-out pronunciation of caaaa-la-maaa-ri will go down in American Idol history. Although, I find it odd that she's never had calamari before. Are there no Olive Gardens in North Carolina? I think there are. Maybe she always orders the fried ravioli appetizer. I don't know. I also like how, during her post-interview with Ryan, she always answers the questions like she's really answering them. It's not a canned Hollywood/job interview-type answer. She goes on and on like he really cares about her answer. But it's weird because I really do care about her answer. I would actually like it if they interviewed her more and she sang less. I think her voice is good, and she didn't look as nervous tonight, but I still think her performance was just so-so.

I'm glad they separated Paula and Simon tonight, but I wish that they would have separated Paula by putting her in another room. She's so annoying. Simon never talks during Randy's and Paula's evaluations, but they just don't shut up during his. They never let him speak. I would get ticked off too. But I noticed tonight that Simon has a monitor in the desk in front of him. What's on that monitor? Is someone telling him what to say, or is he looking at what is currenly on camera? I really want to know what's on that thing.

My favorite performance was Mandissa. Not just because I think she sang amazingly, but because of Taylor Hicks in the background. Did anybody notice Taylor during Mandissa's performance? He was rocking back and forth like Rainman. He looked like he wanted to jump up there and start singing too. That is actually something I would really like to see, Mandissa and Taylor doing a duet. It would be weird, but it would be passionate, and I think a harmonica would somehow be involved.

My picks for elimination:  Heather Cox and Brenna

My vote: Mandissa