Let’s get right to the recap:

> Lee Dewyze – Fireflies (Owl City)
For the first time this season I’m going to give Lee a compliment: I can’t stand that song by Owl City but I REALLY liked his version. It was like a grittier John Mayer and that’s always a good thing. Have to think Lee is heading to the Top 12, despite the judges’ less than stellar feedback.

Alex Lambert – Trouble (Ray LaMontagne)
Can I go two for two on compliments tonight? Yes I can, baby! This was the first time I could actually understand why someone would vote for Alex (break out the champagne, Alex fans!) He’s still lacking any semblance of a super star persona (or even quasi-star persona, for that matter) but his vocals continue to improve each week. Hopefully he can stick around long enough for his confidence to follow suit.

> Tim Urban – Hallelujah (Jeff Buckley)
Going into this week, I thought for sure Tim was a goner, but now I’m not so sure. This was his best performance to date, but was it enough to get voters – that already have their own favorites – to suddenly jump on the bandwagon?

Andrew Garcia – Genie in a Bottle (Christinia Aguilera)
If nothing else, Andrew has absolutely NO FEAR about covering any type of song. I really like him as an artist because of the tone of his voice and the depth and meaning he gives to lyrics that are typically dismiss as just part of pop tracks known more for their beats and hooks. I’m actually a little nervous for Andrew’s fate for some reason this week, but I’m hoping it just paranoia.

> Casey James – You’ll Think of Me (Keith Urban)
One of the more perfect song choices by any of the contestants so far this evening. I could really see Casey making it as one of those country/rock/pop crossovers. I just think he needs to commit to the country side a little more to sure up those voters.

Aaron Kelly - I’m Already There (Lonestar)
I gotta give Aaron credit because he is just plowing through America’s Generic Songbook week after week. You have to appreciate the consistency if nothing else. The judges summed up his performance perfectly: not a great vocal but a great song choice for the artist he is and wants to be. Should be good enough for the girls and grandmas to push him through to the next round.

> Todrick Hall – Somebody to Love (Queen)
I’m a huge Todrick fan but I’m an even bigger Queen fan and VERY protective of this song. The vocals were solid for sure but these lyrics have to have so much passion and emotion behind them and I just didn’t feel it from him. Elliot Yamin absolutely crushed it a few years ago (that performance has become the Idol standard for that song) and I just don’t think Todrick came close. Here’s hoping it impressed enough viewers and he stays alive because I think he could prove to be very entertaining if given the right genre.

Michael Lynche – This Woman’s Work (Maxwell)
Wow. He made Kara cry! This is what I like about Michael: that’s not a song that I would normally have any interest in, but he made me care. He and Crystal seem to be the only contestants that already know who they are as an artist – and that’s huge at this stage of the game. And again, HE MADE KARA CRY!

My two least favorite performances were Aaron Kelly and Todrick Hall but if I had to put money on two guys leaving, it would be Todrick and Andrew Garcia. Hope I’m wrong on both counts!

What do YOU think? Let me know below…

> Katie Stevens – Breakaway (Kelly Clarkson)
Just like Jermaine Sellers last week, Katie is another one of my early favorites that is in a little bit of a free fall here lately. The whole performance felt heavy and her vocals fell flat. She could be in serious trouble sooner rather than later.

Siobhan Magnus – House of the Rising Sun (The Animals)
Admittedly, I haven’t been the biggest Siobhan fan but I did appreciate the peace offering she extended with that rock classic. Very controlled yet passionate performance and I will always respect that kind of approach. Never going to be my personal favorite (the difference between her off the stage and on it is always a little too jarring), but I definitely acknowledge her leap from a dark horse to a legit contender.

> Lacey Brown – The Story (Brandi Carlilie)
I still like the tone and uniqueness of Lacey’s voice over anyone left in the competition, but even I have to admit that this was a little too lullaby-ish. So, of course, the judges loved it. I don’t even care anymore – I’ll accept whatever it takes to keep Lacey around!

Katelyn Epperly – I Feel the Earth Move (Carole King)
Have to agree with judges that there just wasn’t enough of a connection to the song (or the lyrics), but I’m starting to wonder if Katelyn is wandering into the Kellie Pickler “attractive female with just enough talent to help her advance farther than she normally could (or should)” zone. Thoughts?

> Didi Benami – Rhiannon (Fleetwood Mac)
When she’s on, Didi seems like a more marketable combination of Lacey’s vocals and Katelyn’s look. That song didn’t do a whole lot for me personally, but it was good to see her rebound (emotionally, if nothing else) and I think it was solid enough to keep her around for another week.

Paige Miles – Smile (Charlie Chaplin)
This performance solidified the sleep inducing theme of the evening and Paige’s vocals just aren’t strong enough to help her navigate her way through the song. Unfortunately, she could be in real trouble after last night.

> Crystal Bowersox – Give Me One Reason (Tracy Chapman)
A complete, professional, ready to tour, radio-quality performance all the way around. Crystal is just at a different level than the rest of the field so far and is living proof of the judges’ point about needing to know who you are as an artist. Easily the best performance of the night.

Lily Scott – I Fall to Pieces (Patsy Cline)
There’s just something comforting and relatable about Lilly and her vocals but I really have to agree with Simon in that it wasn’t the best performance as the last performance of the show. Hope that doesn’t come back to bite her.

If I had to put money on two to go, it would be Katie Stevens and Paige Miles. What do YOU think? Let me know below!

Yo! It’s The Camel here… again.

Ladies! Ladies! Thank you for that warm welcome! Please, my word count is tight, so we gotta move along.

Last week Josh wrote about how he and that red-headed girl that he hangs out with lost her car, but no one is talking about how all of these recent events are affecting ME.

What Josh failed to mention was that the red-headed girl had a Mazda Protégé, just like me, and that her name was Silver Sass, and that she was my best friend in the whole world. Sitting next to each other at home, we would trade war stories about that ridiculous drive that they put us through from Virginia to Colorado and keep each other warm during the cold Denver nights.

Then that little red-headed girl drove off one morning and I never saw Sassy again.

You think they held any kind of memorial service in her honor? Or asked me how I was handling it all?

Nooooooo.

What do these two clowns do? They immediately go looking for a new car to replace her!

And not even a new car, but a… gulp… SUV.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that red-headed girl talk about wanting “something bigger” with “all-wheel drive”. Well excuse me for getting you around the best I can in the meantime. You’re the yahoos that wanted to live in this climate, so don’t blame me.

They drove me out to a dealership this past Saturday and I’m not going to lie, I had I had to use my windshield wipers to wipe away tear when I saw them blow past me in this beautiful, dark red Land Rover SUV on a test drive. I knew it couldn’t be a good sign when they got back and were in the office a long time. Sure enough, about an hour later, they drive home in the Land Rover and gave my keys to Josh’s buddy, The Bull, to drive me home.

To borrow one of Josh’s lines: Unbelievable.

I know what you’re thinking. Instead of being bitter, I should welcome and try to get to know the newest member of the family (they’re calling her “Hey, Red!” as of right now – that’s not even a real name. That’s an exclamation!), but believe me, I’ve already tried.

She’s one of those typical Colorado SUVs in that she’s good looking and she knows it.

I can already feel her looking down her hood at me with her good mileage, sunroof, leather interior (with heated front seats), and of course, her all-wheel drive. We attempted some awkward chit-chat for a few minutes, but I couldn’t help notice her getting distracted everyone time one of the big muscle trucks in our neighborhood drove by.

Josh keeps trying to convince me that this whole ordeal is a good thing for me. He says that now they won’t have to use me as much for long trips or journeys into the mountains and how that will hopefully add a few years to my life. I guess that could be nice. They took me up to Vail during a snowstorm on Valentine’s Day and it was like we had gone off-roading in Alaska.

But I also know that Josh is a couple months away from buying the motorcycle that he’s been pining for ever since I’ve known him. I guess my ultimate question is if they use the SUV during the winter and long trips and the motorcycle during the summer and shorter trips, when are they going to use me?

I know that I’ve racked up a ton of miles, and I know that they’ve put a lot of money into me over the last year. I’m grateful for that, I truly am. And I even realize that ever since Josh “accidentally” broke off my inside door handle on the driver’s side, that I’ve become an extremely less attractive option (since you now have to roll down the window and reach out to open the door), but c’mon on!

Oh wait… Josh is walking towards me!… he’s opening the door!…

Never mind.

He just got his sunglasses and then hopped into that Land Rover with that red-headed girl.

I GOT YOU HERE, SKINNY! YOU’D BE FLIPPING BURGERS BACK IN VIRGINIA WITHOUT ME!

Whoa, what’s this? Well, you will have to pardon moi because a pretty little two-door just pulled up next to me in our apartment parking lot. I am in the market for some friends, since Ol’ Slim and his girl are off joy riding in the Colorado sun.

I’m actually glad Sassy isn’t around to see this nonsense. It would break her already broken engine.

Rest in peace, dear friend.

I caught a lot heat last week for ranking Siobhan, Lee, and Alex so low in my inaugural power poll. I’ll admit that after her performance on Wednesday night, I probably did have Ms. Magnus a little too low. While I’m still not sold on Dewyze or Lambert, I did move them up considerably (probably not high enough for their supporters, but I just can’t live with myself if people are flying up and down the poll each week!)

Here’s the combination of factors that I look at when making out my Power Poll:

- Would you ever realistically buy their album or go their concert?

- Do they show any signs of possessing a star persona – meaning could you see them being famous? Can you envision them on talk shows or magazine covers or crushing the national anthem at the Super Bowl?

And most importantly:

- Compared to the other contestants remaining, can you actually, physically imagine Ryan announcing that contestant as the winner at the final results show?

This isn’t about personal favorites, this is about who can actually win and make an impact on the pop culture scene.

With that said, here are my Top 16 rankings after last night’s results show:

1. Crystal Bowersox (+3 spots from last week)

2. Big Mike Lynche (+3)

3. Casey James (-2)

4. Andrew Garcia (-2)

5. Katelyn Epperly (+2)

6. Lilly Scott (+4)

7. Didi Benami (-3)

8. Lee Dewyze (+6)

9. Siobhan Magnus (+9)

10. Todrick Hall (-2)

11. Katie Stevens (-5)

12. Aaron Kelly (-3)

13. Alex Lambert (+7)

14. Lacey Brown (-1)

15. Paige Miles (+1)

16. Tim Urban (-1)

Were you OK with John, Jermaine, Michelle, and Haley going home? Is there someone else that you think should have been sent kicking rocks? Let me know in the comments section below!

I wouldn’t have it any other way.

So for at least one week, enjoy a happy, satisfied recap from yours truly. Here’s how it went down:

> Crystal Bowersox – Long As I Can See the Light (CCR)
Glad to see that Crystal was feeling good enough to sing last night, both for her and for us! As recently as Hollywood week, I didn’t care for her but she just keeps growing on me. I am glad she was a little bit more true to herself with this song selection (even though I enjoyed her last week), and if this is who she is going to be as an artist, I’m all in.

Haley Vaughn – The Climb (Miley Cyrus)
I’m still not a huge Haley fan but if she has to stick around, then this is the style she should stay with. Good to see the contestants starting to have a little bit more self awareness already about who they are and the entertainers they can be.

Lacey Brown – Kiss Me (Sixpence None the Richer)
As I’ve noted before, I always get nervous whenever I like a contestant because that usually means they won’t be around for long. I thought for sure Lacey was a goner last week and I’m sure she will leave sooner than I want, but I’m going to enjoy it while it lasts. My Wife said it perfectly: that song was made for her voice.

> Katie Stevens – Put Your Records On (Corinne Bailey Rae)
As much as I enjoyed her rendition of Feeling Good last week, I have to admit that the judges were right on Katie needing to market herself a little younger. She does have one of the bigger voices in the competition so I hate to see those vocals restrained; she needs to find a young, vibrant song that she can unleash on.

Didi Benami – Lean on Me (Bill Withers)
My biggest concern for Didi is if she can keep her emotions together over the course of the Idol process. I personally enjoyed her performance last night and felt like we finally caught a glimpse of her star persona but she started to crack a little due to the criticism from the judges. She has to be able to keep that in check if she’s going to have any shot – and not just here, but in the music industry in general.

Michelle Delamor – With Arms Wide Open (Creed)
I got way nervous when one of my favorite contestants said she was going to be doing one of my all-time least favorite songs, but I liked the Whitney/Mariah stylistic spin she put on it – even if she doesn’t have Whitney or Mariah’s range. From what Michelle has shown us so far, she has a definite vocal ceiling and she may have hit it last night.

> Lilly Scott – A Change Is Gonna Come (Sam Cooke)
Wow! That was the first performance of the night that actually made me sit up and pay a little more attention. Way to represent Denver, Lilly! We’ve heard that song a kazillion times on Idol in the past but that was the first time I’m going to remember it.

Katelyn Epperly – The Scientist (Coldplay)
Contrary to the experience with Michelle above, I got way excited when of my favorite contestants said she was going to be doing one of my all-time favorite songs. I liked that she scaled it back and focused on connecting with the lyrics. It proved to be an intimate showcase of her vocals and I think it was good enough to keep her around a little while longer.

> Paige Miles – Walk Away (Kelly Clarkson)
This was the most karaoke performance of the night for me but Paige really is starting to let her big vocals loose and that’s not the worst thing in the world.

Siobhan Magnus – Think (Aretha Franklin)
OK. I finally saw what all the Siobhan supporters have been trying to sell me on the past few weeks. I didn’t care for her performance last week at all but this was legit. She appears to be a little “unique” when she’s off the stage, but is completely in her element when she’s on.

Who did YOU like? Let me know below…

I’ve been invited to participate in an American Idol ranking pool this year with the Idol reporter from The Seattle Times and you can see how my weekly rankings (posted the day after the results show) stack up with other writers across the country.

Check it out here!

Here’s my thoughts on the guys’ performances from last night:

Big Mike Lynche – This is a Man’s World (James Brown)
I will admit that there was nothing technically wrong with Big Mike’s performance at all, but just like last week, I just didn’t feel any depth or substance to it. Of course the judges loved it. I’m positive America will too.

John Park – Gravity (John Mayer)
Great song choice for his vibe and his voice but I will agree with judges in that he didn’t really seem connected to the performance. I’m always confused when the judges rail against a contestant because they are the ones responsible for him being there. I could have told you this was his ceiling after his audition.

Casey James – I Don’t Want to Be (Gavin DeGraw)
With my boy Tyler Grady out, I’m glad to see someone else pick up the rock mantle – I was just a little surprised that it was James. I loved the electric guitar addition to the one Idol standard that seems to get trotted out every year. Vocals weren’t necessarily stellar but it was a great performance and I can’t see him going anywhere anytime soon.

Alex Lambert – Everybody Knows (John Legend)
Good news: Alex seemed less nervous than last week. Bad news: Still can’t imagine a single person (other friends and family) picking up the phone to vote for this kid. PLEASE someone explain it to me.

Todrick Hall – What’s Love Got to Do with It (Tina Turner)
I think I was one of the only people in America that loved Hall’s rendition of Since You’ve Been Gone last week. This performance started a little slow for me but he saved it down the stretch. I hate to admit that I actually agreed with Ellen in that he over-compensated a bit too much by not moving around enough this week.

Jermaine Sellers – What’s Going On (Marvin Gaye)
I will always unfairly compare anyone who does this song to Cuba Gooding’s version in Jerry Maguire. I liked Sellers a lot in his audition, so I hate to say that I’m honestly starting to lose a little interest. Not feeling that look either.

Andrew Garcia – You Give Me Something (James Morrison)
The reason I have Andrew as my odds on favorite to win this contest is that he just has the purest, richest, deepest voice of the field; the words always mean a little more when he sings them. Not my favorite song choice, but (to borrow a tired Idol cliché) he could sing the phone book and I would enjoy it.

Aaron Kelly – My Girl (The Temptations)
I feel like the generic Idol contestants are now playing their own little game to see who can do the most generic performance of the most generic song. Ladies and gentlemen, your winner this week: Aaron Kelly!

Tim Urban – Come on Get Higher (Matt Nathanson)
I guess it was better than last week, but it was still a bad knock-off and just an overall forgettable, boring performance.

Lee Dewyze – Lips of An Angel (Hinder)
If Tim Urban is the poor man’s Kris Allen, then Dewyze is the homeless man’s David Cook.

What did YOU think? Let me know in the comments section below!

It was the 2004 season opener and the Giants were visiting their division rivals, the Philadelphia Eagles. Since Manning was only a rookie, Kurt Warner (recently of the Arizona Cardinals) was starting behind center for the G-Men. The Eagles were running away with the game late, so Manning got the call to go in for some late mop-up duty in the 4th quarter.

On one of his first plays, he rolled out to his right, looking for an open receiver. The only problem was that since he was only a rookie, he hadn’t developed the ability to sense defenders coming from every angle yet. While Manning was in mid-stride, an Eagles’ defensive lineman came up from his blindside, and along with two other Eagles, they absolutely OBLITERATED the newly-minted, franchise quarterback (click here to watch the video).

And as Manning slowly got up from the ground, looking for his teeth, one of the broadcast announcers couldn’t resist the customary “Welcome to the big leagues” greeting that you typically hear after a rookie gets rocked for the first time, whiffs on an ugly three pitch strike out, or gets his shot rejected into the eighth row.

I only remembered that Manning hit this past week, because my Wife and I received our first “Welcome to the big leagues” moment as a married couple.

I’m not going to lie. We have been cruising through this whole married thing for the first six months. Every other married couple we knew kept telling us how difficult the first year was going to be, but I was beginning to think that they just weren’t as awesome as we were; because this was easy.

I also am of the mindset that while you can’t ever be totally prepared for every fun thing that life throws your way, all you can do is position yourself in the best place possible, and hope you can navigate your way through from there.

Yeah, we weren’t ready for this one at all.

Last Tuesday started off like any other normal Tuesday until my Wife called me at work that morning. I always get a little nervous when she calls because she always texts. In our modern world, no one ever calls unless it’s really important, so in my mind there was no way that this was a good call.

I hate being right all the time.

Sure enough, my poor Wife’s car had broken down on the side of the road. She said that it had just stopped and now she couldn’t get it started again. I immediately called for a tow truck and my boss said I could use my lunch hour early to go take care of the car and get her to work.

There was some early good news: the tow truck guy was able to start her car again so my Wife was able to drive it to our mechanic’s shop. But that was followed with more bad news: the tow truck guy charged her 60 bucks to start the car (I picked the wrong career) and now she couldn’t get the car to go above 20 MPH.

I’m the first to admit that I know nothing about automobiles, but even I knew that this wasn’t a great sign.

Our mechanic said he’d give us a call when they figured out what was going on, so I took my Wife to work and then we waited. I hate waiting to hear back from a mechanic. It gives your brain too much time to think, and wonder, and imagine the worse.

Only this time I didn’t even imagine the worst.

Here was the worst case scenario that I knew would be bad but I thought we could handle: a day or two or repairs, right around one to two thousand dollars that we would have to put on the credit card.

Nope. Sorry. Wrong.

Try needing a new engine that would only cost SIX THOUSAND DOLLARS to replace.

As I slowly got up from the ground, looking for my teeth, reality began to set in piece by piece. The car is nowhere near worth that much money. It wasn’t going to be worth it to fix. We’re not going to fix the car! We’re not going to have a second car!!!

So what did I do? Well, naturally I freaked out.

Actually, to simply say I freaked out would not do justice to the all-out, overreacting, panic attack that I indulged in for the rest of that day. It was one of my finest performances. I can’t say that it was up there with George Banks getting arrested for taking hot dog buns out of their packaging in a grocery store, but it was up there.

Fortunately, we’ve been blessed with level-headed family members and friends that instantly helped us figure out a plan and have offered their cars and rides in the meantime. And fortunately for me, I’ve been blessed with a wonderful Wife who helped me see that this is our first real opportunity to get through a legit crisis together.

It still blows my mind that one day we had two cars and the next we were donating one of them to Goodwill for a tax write-off and I still don’t know how we are each going to get to work every day with our conflicting schedules.

But I know we will get through this.

Even though we weren’t ready for it and even though it’s going to be uncomfortable for a while.

If nothing else, I’ll just keep reminding myself of how well things have worked out for Eli and hope for similar success for my Wife and I at the big league level.

WHOA! Did America actually agree with me on three of the four eliminated contestants? As much as I am sad to see my boy Tyler go, I will take that sacrifice to see Ashley, Janell, and Joe get voted off. Now I can be as objective as possible and we got rid of a lot of the riff raff.

I’ll take that compromise even though I can’t imagine anyone picking up their phone to vote for Alex Lambert – can someone please defend that to me?

So good to see Allison Iraheta by the way. She was one of my all time favorite Idol contestants, and I can’t wait for her to be out from under her Idol contracts so she can actually be the artist we all know she can be. Also good to see Tim Urban – er, I mean Kris Allen perform as well.

On to my first Power Rankings! Again, I’m going to put personal feelings aside and these are my rankings based on who I think can actually win from everything we’ve seen thus far:

1. Casey James

2. Andrew Garcia

3. Didi Benami

4. Crystal Bowersox

5. Big Mike Lynche

6. Katie Stevens

7. Katelyn Epperly

8. Todrick Hall

9. Aaron Kelly

10. Lilly Scott

11. Michelle Delamor

12. Jermaine Sellers

13. Lacey Brown

14. Lee Dewyze

15. Tim Urban

16. Paige Miles

17. John Park

18. Siobhan Magnus

19. Haley Vaughn

20. Alex Lambert

What do YOU think about the 20 contestants remaining? Feel free to post your comments below!

ONCE AGAIN, this is how my recaps are going to work this season:

After the night(s) that the contestants perform, I’m going to review the performances in order and provide my personal thoughts. On the day after the results show each week, I’m going to post a quick recap of that show as well as a overall Weekly Power Ranking (that will be more performance/judges’ comments/popularity based than my own opinions – which ALWAYS seem to be in conflict with the reality of the show).

So what did we learn from the judges’ comments about the guys last night? The more safe and generic you are, the better – but you can’t be too safe and generic or they’ll be all over you.

Here’s how it went down:

Todrick Hall – Since You’ve Been Gone (Kelly Clarkson)
One of the only guys that didn’t look petrified going into the evening and he completely OWNED the stage. Forget what the judges said, that was an excellent performance and was exactly what American Idol is supposed to be about – unknown artists putting their own, original spin on something familiar in order to stand out. I already prefer his version of the song to Clarkson’s.

Aaron Kelly – Here Comes Goodbye (Rascal Flats)
A boring, generic performance of a boring, generic song that the judges and (and probably America) loved. I can’t tell you how different I felt about these first two contestants than the judges. Just absolute polar opposites.

Jermaine Sellers – Get Here (Oleta Adams)
One of the only ways I judge any contestant on Idol is (A) could I imagine hearing them on the radio ? And (B) would I stop to listen to it if they were? It would be a “yes” on both accounts for me in regards to Jermaine’s performance last night. PS – I wish the judges would stop trying to make everyone younger. There’s enough Neos and Maxwells, out there already, Randy. I personally prefer an older soul, thank you.

Tim Urban – Apologize (One Republic)
Wow look at that: I compared Urban to former Idol winner Kris Allen after the Top 24 was announced and he didn’t even wait a week to do a song that Allen crushed during his run. Unfortunately for Urban, this song crushed him.

Joe Munoz – You and I Both (Jason Mraz)
While I would never go to his concert or buy his album and I can’t dream of scenario where Ryan announces his name as the next American Idol, I have to admit that it was a pretty solid performance and a rock solid song choice.

Tyler Grady – American Woman (The Guess Who)
I have no way of being objective when it comes to Tyler. He’s going to skew my perspective as long as he is in the competition because I’m such a classic rock fan and he totally embodies that era. I agree with the judges that he needs to work on the vocals a bit, but I always enjoy him when he’s on the stage, and that’s all that matters to me.

Lee Dewyze – Chasing Cars (Snow Patrol)
That was the most amazing performance… if it was 2004. Really? Chasing Cars? You either have to go classic or a lot more modern for me. I’m really confused by the judges so far by the way. If Simon’s comments didn’t prove that he’s completely on cruise control for this season, then I don’t know what will.

John Park – God Bless the Child (Billie Holliday)
I liked his sense of humor in the Shania Twain set-up piece and I will always appreciate a good jazz standard, but I actually did agree with Kara (for once tonight) in that the performance was a little on the “sleepy” side. I’m just not seeing him as a legit contender yet.

Big Mike Lynche – This Love (Maroon 5)
So far, he seems to be the perfect contestant for what America loves. Ultimately both Mike and the performance were pretty standard and predictable but he has just enough personality to mask it with some smoke and mirrors. We love our style and no substance characters that are easy to comprehend and put in our safe little mental boxes. Enjoy a nice long ride, Big Mike!

Alex Lambert – What a Wonderful World (James Morrison)
Alex made this easy on me by describing his own performance with lyrics from the song he sang: I’ve been down so low/People look at me and they know/They can tell something is wrong/Like I don’t belong. Couldn’t have said it better myself, buddy.

Casey James – Heaven (Bryan Adams)
All Casey had to do last night to ensure that he keeps moving on was to not create some sort of internationally offensive incident on stage. He played it safe for sure, but I gotta admit that he was solid nonetheless. By the way, the Casey-Kara love affair is getting borderline creepy. What is the ceiling for those two this season and aren’t we kinda there ALREADY?

Andrew Garcia – Sugar We’re Going Down (Fall Out Boy)
This is how much I love Andrew: I HATE that song (and Fall Out Boy for that matter) but I LOVED his performance. He sang the song with meaning and purpose and gave it a sweet, bluesy vibe. Very cool! I give him the nod over Todrick for originality on the night just because there was a little more depth.

MY TOP 3 OF THE NIGHT: (1) Andrew Garcia, (2) Todrick Hall, (3) Tyler Grady

MY BOTTOM 3 OF THE NIGHT: (1) Alex Lambert, (2) Tim Urban, (3) John Park