Some random thoughts on Idol in Charleston

Once again, just some quick thoughts about tonight's Idol, an hour which had fewer good singers than the first three shows and not much that was particularly memorable:

Who knew that someone would ever say the words "The Black Clay Aiken" and that it would accurately describe someone? That guy did kind of sound like Clay Aiken. Perhaps the funniest thing about that audition, though, was Simon referring to it as "1970s cruiseship cabaret." This apparently means that not only has Simon been to cabaret shows throughout the world (I have marveled at his apparent knowledge of cabaret in places such as Brazil based on his audition comments from past years), but apparently he's been attending cabaret shows for at least 30 years. He must be a big cabaret fan.

Boy, that auditioner from Kellie Pickler's hometown sure was angry. First, she talks about how upset she'll be if she doesn't sing better than Kellie Pickler, and then she started rambling about preferring a baseball bat to red shoes--to be honest, I wasn't really sure what she was talking about but I was entertained.

To answer the questions of some of you, no, I've never met a woman on the American Idol message boards. But perhaps it's a good idea.

I see what Simon was saying about the abstinence girl being annoying, but I'm not sure she was good enough to make it through to the final 24 anyway. Then again, Antonella Barba and Sanjaya Malakar made it last year, so anything can happen.

Finally, London Weidberg was very intriguing. She was attractive, had a nice voice, and appeared to be wearing a Magen David (Star of David) around her neck. So I did a little Internet research and found out that her late father was actually a rabbi at Beth Shofar congregation in Charleston. Unfortunately, at least for my prospects of rooting for a female Jewish contestant in this year's Idol, Beth Shofar is a messianic Jewish congregation. Oh well. Having said that, if that's true, London makes the final 12 and starts talking about her religious background in one of the biography pieces, it could get very interesting and uncomfortable....