Once again, Television Without Pity loves Cookie.

Thought I'd bring over the good write-ups from TWOP. I'm just posting the parts about David. The full article (which is pretty hilarious) can be found here.

Ryan explains his life with Neil Diamond to David Cook, who's singing "I'm Alive" and "All I Really Need Is You." Neil is surprised by all this noise, because they're kind of not huge hits -- although you'll recognize them -- and as usual, is totally shocked by how awesome David's voice sounds all the time. He seems hopeful.

The first one starts way low, as usual, so you know there's going to be screaming. It's one of those songs that goes higher and higher and higher. I like it, because he definitely puts a Neil spin on his voice, that "Solitary Man" kind of gruffness. Even if I didn't love it, I would still be happy because anything is better than the Hootie voice, no matter how much magic he does with it. The track itself is about one second long, so you kind of have to just try and keep up, and again: too short to really matter, but very exciting while it's happening. And again, Ryan introduces Brooke immediately in such haste that maybe he's talking about MicroMachines.

Cook's second, "All I Really Need Is You," starts out with a black suit jacket playing acoustic guitar and breathiness verging on the tubercular, but builds -- in the tiny short time it's allotted -- to a location very near awesome. You've heard the song: it's the one with the "Just say/ What you wanna say" chorus. His control is even better than usual, and he even slips up into falsetto at a good part, and then slows it down again. That's how you arrange a song to rock even when it's this short. Way to go.

Randy calls himself a fan, and loved it. David's hair looks good for once, I should mention that. Paula again praises him for grabbing obscure tracks and actually making it work, and calls him the presumptive American Idol. Simon agrees that the first song was okay, but the second was brilliant: he made it both current and suited to his own style, which is what Jason has suddenly found himself unable to do. I agree with every word but I wish somebody would mention the stupid jacket he's wearing, which has red flames appliquéd up one arm and "AC/DC" on the opposite side. Dammit, David.

Augustana.

Just curious if there are any Augustana fans here, and if so, have you heard the new CD yet?

I just downloaded it off of iTunes (it's only $11.99 with a bonus track and two videos -- definitely worth the money!) and got through listening to the whole thing, and it's just beautiful. My favorite songs right now are "Dust", "I Still Ain't Over You", and "Rest, Shame, and Love". But that will probably change tomorrow.

Anyway, I freaking love this band and I don't really know anyone else who does. And you people are awesome and seem to have great taste in everything, so I thought I might be able to find some fans here. I am itching to talk about the new album with someone!

What changes would you make?

A few days ago I was listening to the morning show on a local station, and they were talking about how American Idol's ratings have gone down this season and how the producers are planning on doing some tweaking to the show's format in an effort to boost the show's ratings.

I just found this blog on Vote For The Worst that discussed the same topic. I thought I'd share it with you guys and see if you had any input.



What do you guys think?

Personally, I agree with getting rid of the two or three weeks' worth of "bad" auditions and putting all that into a two-hour show. I usually don't even watch the show until Hollywood Week because I can't stand watching that garbage. It's funny for about five minutes, but after that I just get sick of it and would rather see the actual good singers.

I also like the idea of a duet night, although I'm not sure how fair that would be in terms of voting, or how they would decide who gets paired with who. It would be interesting, though.

I was reading through the comments on this blog, too, and a few people suggested an "America's Next Top Model" type format for the show, following the contestants' "behind the scenes" lives and their daily interactions with each other. One of the DJs on the radio show I mentioned earlier suggested this too. I personally hate that idea and hope it never happens. One of the things I like about Idol is that it's actually about the singing, and not stupid drama and catfights. I think that would make it really hard for me to watch.

Anyway, I just thought this was interesting and wondered if you guys had any thoughts on this.

Always Be My Baby is #1 in the Phillipines.

Someone posted this in a comment on an article on VFTW. If you ignore the fact that this person is a jerkface, it's pretty cool.

Nice write-up on Television Without Pity.

I was pretty excited to see that Television Without Pity actually had some nice things to say about Cookie this week.

After the break, Ryan's in the audience wearing a silly hat and sitting next to Ramiele. This is how I picture his weekends, when he's not busy hosting a red carpet somewhere. Anyway, David Cook is next, and he "surprised" Mariah by choosing "Always Be My Baby." I'm not sure which Mariah Carey song would have been a better fit for David, so I don't know where the surprise comes from, but more importantly: "Always Be My Baby" is my sister's favorite Mariah song, I'm fairly certain, so Liz Reid, this portion of the recap goes out to you. David works the song out on his guitar, and Mariah can't help but trill along with it, which is kind of cool to see. Mariah's kind of psyched at the idea that someone else might be able to make a go with this song in a whole other style. I have to say I agree with her, because once again I find myself completely onboard with the whole David Cook thing. We've had our rough spots, but here I am again, putting down the remote and not typing anything and just enjoying the performance. As far as I know, this isn't an arrangement he cribbed off of anyone else, so I get to praise the arrangement here, which is of course bombastic and dramatic and has a great build to it. The judges, of course, think it's the bravest brave that ever braved, which we've already covered. Randy thinks he's the most album-ready of the bunch, which is true but which also reminds me of why I have to enjoy David while I can, while he's covering old songs in new and fun ways, because once he gets to make his very own Daughtry album, I'm going to lose interest, I think. Paula, in perhaps the best moment of the night, says she could see that song on a movie soundtrack right now. Which probably earned a whole lot of scoffing across the country, but from where I was sitting, a) yeah it could, and that would be fantastic. Ladies and gentlemen, your Love Theme From Iron Man. Simon begins his comment saying "It was like coming out of karaoke hell..." and of the course the dumbfuck audience starts booing because they don't understand things like context and tone of voice and logical progression of words and are too busy wondering where Barack Obama gets off being so elitist to hear what Simon's building to. But of course the payoff is that David broke free of that karaoke hell into the best performance of the night. The crowd goes nuts and David ecstatic and he starts crying, which is a combination of a billion things including his brother being sick, and Ryan Seacrest being many things but not a dummy zeroes in on this as an excuse to touch David a whole heck of a lot.