I’m coming to you (almost) live from the inside of Flight 1871, service to Orlando, Florida!  Christy and I are on our way to Orlando for vacation.  We’re planning on going to Disney World tomorrow and Friday, and then we’re driving an hour or so away to Merritt Island to see some close friends of ours.  After the performances last night during Idol Gives Back, we had to pack and ready ourselves for the journey, so there’s been no time to do the review of the performances…until now!  And what better way to pass...

I’m starting a new feature, although it’s not really anything…coming on Aug. 4th, a bunch of us are going to see John Mayer in concert, so every week leading up to the show (14 weeks in all), I’m going to post up the lyrics to one of my favorite John Mayer songs, just to get us in the mood…and so, this week’s Mayer… Covered In Rain (for Connie, for the time when Johnny started playing this at the 2nd show we saw him at and we thought it was Comfortable because we so wanted it to be and we made a cool gesture to one...

So one more hour with Ryan and our Top 7, as the voting results from Country Night are in, and someone is going home tonight…this is American Idol! First off, let me go on record by saying that I’m really excited about next week’s shows.  I hate that we’ll be traveling to Florida that Wednesday, but we should be settled in by the time the show starts at 8pm EST next Wednesday night.  I had thought they were going to do postpone an actual competition show for the benefit, but it’s going to be a two-hour extravaganza both...

With a tribute to the tragedy that occurred on the campus of Virginia Tech leading off the show in a solemn way, let’s get this thing started…this is American Idol! The show kicks off with the bit showing Martina McBride, this week’s guest mentor, helping the contestants get a feel for country music. I thought that Martina was very well spoken and seemed genuinely interested in the contestant’s success. We’re down to the Top 7, which really is now getting down to what we call the nitty gritty! So without further adieu, let’s...

The results are in…who captured your vote and who is going home…this is American Idol! Every week we’ve done this, and every week I had some thought as to who might go home…and I’ve really been wrong in previous weeks.  There’s still no way that Gina Glocksen should be gone, but she is.  Chris Sligh is gone, and he also should still be here.  Sanjaya is still here, Phil Stacey is still here…for now. So the results went down and American Idol petitioned for more time for the rest of the season’s results...

It’s Latin Night! Jennifer Lopez is your guest mentor for the Top 8 as the performances take a latin flair, and the contestants try to win your vote…this is American Idol! So let’s get things going tonight…I thought the show itself was great…the performances were better (overall) than the judg