So it looks like the end of the line -- at last -- for Casey and the Sunshine Bland.
Most weeks on "American Idol," Casey James has chosen some vaguely upbeat tune that goes nowhere and does nothing. In Sinatra week he did "Blue Skies"; in inspiration week he did "Don't Stop."
Judges kept warning him -- sometimes gently, sometimes not -- that he has to impress the voters. You don't do that by seeming like you're in the corner of a coffeehouse, being pleasant and easy to ignore. Still, he never changed. Tonight -- given virtually any song to choose from -- he went with something like "OK, It's Alright."
It was a shrug of a song, done with a shrug of a performance. Next week, we'll get Crystal Bowersox and Lee DeWyze in the finals.
Here are a few of my other comments; please add yours:
1) Crystal chose a much better song, Melissa Etheridge's "Come to My Window," and sang it well. Lee also did a good job on a good choice, ZZ Top's "Simple Man."
2) The judges gave Casey a fairly good song, John Mayer's "Daughters." He found a way to make it bland.
3) Ellen DeGeneres threw Crystal a bigger challenge, Paul McCartney's "Maybe I'm Amazed." Among other things, this seemed to require her to sing (quite inaccurately) "I'm a Man" several times. It also required some high-octave blasting. When someone said this showed "parts of your voice I've never heard before," Crystal simply replied: "Me either."
4) Lee got a much bigger break when Simon Cowell assigned him to sing "Hallelujah." He nailed it.
5) Maybe that's why Simon is a successful record producer. He understands that the most effective songs are usually straightforward, melodic, emotional and accessible.
6) Some years, it's fun to see the finalists go to their home towns. This time, we just saw Crystal and Casey standing in front of small crowds at AT&T stores. (Gee, thanks for the home-town flavor.) For Lee, we didn't even get that; he was sitting in an airplane.
7) I stayed in front of a TV set for another hour, in order to see the second-to-last episode of "Lost." That was helpful; it expanded the quantity of things I don't understand.