Nationwide Insurance is doing an ad with Sanjaya mocking his hair. Here’s more info:. Or you can access behind the scenes video here.

Sorry. This is rather short because I’m in New York today goofin’ around and just taking just a momentary break to see what’s floating around. Not much apparently! I’ll add more tomorrow if I have time. Have a great weekend y’all!

I’m on Long Island this week visiting my parents and plan to stop by NYC Friday, missing the two Davids by a day because I just saw them on the “Today” show this morning. My timing also means I missed Taylor Hicks by a week for his debut on the “Grease” play. Bummer!

I’m also grappling with a wonky Internet access so I’m sorry I didn’t post all day. And my parents don’t have a DVR so that means missing shows like “So You Think You Can Dance” and I’m afraid I’m going to miss parts of “Lost” live tonight. Ugh!

Anyway, here’s some other news before the Web dies on me again:

-TMZ reports that Clay Aiken has given his sperm to artificially inseminate his best friend Jaymes Foster, David Foster’s wife. No on-the-record confirmation but TMZ said it got the news from multiple sources.

-David Cook has 11 songs debut in the Billboard Top 100. Many of these songs would have already been on the chart except iTunes withheld sales numbers until he won last week. Still, that’s the most songs by one artists since the Beatles in 1964. Cool, eh?

David Cook confirmed on “Live With Regis & Kelly” yesterday that he had a date with Kimberly Caldwell, a season two contestant who now hosts a couple of shows on the TV Guide Channel. Cook was one of the few single contestants (besides virginal Archuleta) on the show this past season.

-This is old news but Bo Bice’s second child will be named Caleb, he told People. His first song Aidan is two. Hard to believe but Bo is now 32 years old.

-Carrie Underwood claims she’s too busy right now to date. “If I found something worth finding by now I would have made time for it, but right now I’m so busy I don’t need a boyfriend,” she told “Fox News.” “This year is the year for me to be on the road and focus just on myself. That’s what I want.” Carrie’s previous beaus include Chace Crawford of “Gossip Girl” fame and quarterback Tony Romo.

Her single “Last Name” is at No. 7 on the country charts and still climbing. Surprisingly, after more than six months on the charts, Josh Gracin’s “We Weren’t Crazy” has gutted its way into the top 20.

And David Cook’s coronation song “Time of My Life” was picked up by 59 top 40 radio stations last week, including Q100, which has spun it 22 times in the past week. Jordin Sparks’ “No Air” has peaked at No. 2 and is now slipping down the charts. Will “One Step at a Time” become her third hit single? That song will have to go top 10 for her to have a chance of selling 1 million copies of her CD.

Carrie, Jordin and Daughtry all sold about 20,000 copies each of their latest CDs this past week, seeing sales growth thanks to the “Idol” finale and subsequent publicity, although Daughtry wasn’t even there.

Welcome back from Memorial Day Weekend. I’m more or less off this week, out of town, but throwing in a few tidbits when I can. I’m also going to miss Jordin Sparks opening for Alicia Keys tomorrow at Philips Arena. Bummer.

-Josiah Leming talks about his Warner Brothers record deal with mtv.com.

“I signed my deal with Warner Bros. about a month and a half ago, and I’m glad to finally announce it. The songs are written, the arrangements are done, and right now it’s time to work with the producers,” he said. “I’m so excited. I’m just beaming inside right now. Since I signed the deal, it’s been a lot of wait, wait, wait. Now it’s finally come. I’m in this awesome studio, working on songs. … It’s amazing. This is everything I ever wanted.”

Then he goes all “indie” and critiques the show as “glorified karaoke” because it doesn’t allow original tunes by the singers. That’s true. And since he got this record deal from the exposure, he has zero complaints:

*”As everyone clearly saw, I poured my heart and soul into the process and into the competition. But looking back now, things could not have gone any better. Things happened perfect,” Leming said. “I got the exposure. … People liked me, which was amazing, and I love my fans more than anything. I’m happy I didn’t make it.”

More about him and his ill mom in this USA Today story.

Already a soulful songwriter, Leming says his mother’s condition has further sharpened his senses. “Her being close to death brings me closer to death,” he says. “It makes every single moment, every word and melody, count as if it were the first and last ever.”

-And here is David Cook on “Ellen,” on his whirlwind trip through TV talk shows, courtesy of MJ’s Big Blog:

And Linny, yes, Cook’s coronation song is No. 1 right now on iTunes, not a surprise. He also has two other songs in the top 10, including the song he sang on Tuesday.

It’s now Sunday morning and I just noticed I missed an email note from Thursday evening that there would be a phone press conference with David Cook land then David Archuleta ast Friday morning. Wish I had known that! I would have been there!

They sent me the transcript Friday night, which I just caught. Here are some highlights from the press conference I missed. Cook was pretty bland at times, though Archuleta couldn’t be duller.

First up: Cook:

On Simon thinking early on he was cocky: “I didn’t have any expectations as to what the show was going to do for me or what I was going to do for the show. I just went into as an opportunity to expose myself musically to a large audience. So my confidence level really never wavered and maybe that’s what got misinterpreted as cocky or arrogant. I think as the season went on maybe he saw the work that I was putting in not just on my own stuff, but really just to try to make it a positive working environment for everybody.”

His performance background:: “I started in bands when I was 15 years old in Kansas City and was fortunate enough to get to play in and around Kansas City quite a bit and got to travel around the Midwest on occasion. The move to Tulsa, I’d graduated college and the opportunity to continue music presented itself in Tulsa, so I went. I played acoustic gigs a couple of times a month. I played full band gigs a couple of times a month and I just kind of hoofed it around the Midwest for about 10 years.”

On the 12 million vote victory. “You know, I think that number is actually really misleading. Obviously within the bubble of Idol, it’s hard to kind of get a vibe on what’s going on. I thought Archie was probably a little bit ahead of me if I’m being honest. I think as far as the finale goes, there’s a lot of conspiracy theories out there. I attribute the finale vote discrepancy just to my fans just being awesome. I don’t really know how else to explain it. You know, my hats off to Archie for the whole scenario. I mean, he handled himself with a lot of grace. More importantly, he’s just an amazing human being, so I was just honored to share the stage with him.”

He was very vague about what type of record he’d come out with, just it will be rock: I’m going to try to recreate that energy within this record. I want this record to have some twists and turns. I want people to feel like they got taken on a trip from beginning to end. I got my work cut out for me. It should be a lot of fun.”

Would he have been better off not winning, like Daughtry?” “I think going into this was an idea that you don’t want to win I think is a huge slap in the face to the 103,000 people that auditioned this season that really wanted to win, so I definitely went into this to try to win it. As far as having more success by not being a winner, I think that’s something that’ll get played out hopefully in the next couple of years. I think Daughtry’s success is amazing. So for me like right now I’m not trying to be Daughtry. You know, I’m just trying to put out a solid record. Even if it doesn’t do well commercially, as long as I can say that I put out a record that I’m proud of, that’s the goal right now and hopefully if I can do that, then success will follow.”

On auditioning when he didn’t initially want to “[David’s brother Andrew] really wanted me to audition with him and I was just hesitant, not for any negative stigma associated with the show, but I didn’t really see this as my path for whatever reason. To stand in line at 5:30 in the morning in Omaha and the sun hasn’t come up. The producer comes by with a camera and interviews my brother and then turns to me and I’m like, ‘I’m not auditioning,’ and he goes, “Well you are now.” Life has a weird way of working itself out sometimes.”

On how he changed over the course of the competition “Well, this show’s been great for my diet. I’ve lost probably 10 - 15 pounds through the season. There was definitely a progression for me on this show. Early on - I’m talking like the third or fourth week in - Debra Byrd, our vocal coach, really hit home with me on a particular lesson. I think going into this, I put up a wall, kind of a protective barrier between me and the audience just to kind of protect myself, a little bit of a defense mechanism. She kind of forced me to break that down and I think it helped in the performances. Everybody talks about how towards the end I started crying a lot. Well, you know there was just a lot of intensity into the last few weeks as far as just what was at stake and all the work that had been put into it. I said in a lot of interviews yesterday the crying after I won was like an exhale. “

Why is he single? [A TV Guide reader question]: “I have no idea. That’s all I can say.”

Now onto what little I could cull from the Archuleta transcipt that wasn’t packed with boring cliches. He likes to prattle on a bit and gosh darn it, he’s kinda dorky, too. Favorite self-description: “I’m pretty much an airhead.”

Blah blah about Cook “The fact that Cook won, I think he deserved it so much. He just proved it week after week that he deserved to be the American Idol even early in the competition. He’s such a great guy too. My main priority wasn’t to win the competition, but it was just to do my best because you can suck and people can vote, but not for you to win and that wouldn’t feel very good. I think we both gave it all.”

On his dad “I hadn’t really heard much of it until later on. I tried to stay away from the press and my dad also. He understood that I didn’t like to hear anything going on in the news about me good or bad, just because I didn’t want it to distract me or let it go to my head or anything like that. I just wanted to stay myself and how I was at the beginning of the competition before all this happened. I wanted to keep who I was, the normal teenage David. In interviews and stuff it started coming up and it was just kind of strange because there were really weird things. I heard one thing was like he refused to give me water or something like that. That’s the weirdest thing. I mean, I’m 17 and if I want water I’m pretty sure I would just go get it anyway. Another thing was like he made me cry during one of the recording studios or something like that. I can’t remember really. Just weird things like that. I’m old enough to have enough control over myself. Then the next thing is he’s a great guy. There isn’t really anything he’s done that’s bad like the things that have been spoken about him. You know, my whole family has been such a great support and they’re the ones who’ve kept me grounded and allowed me to be who I am today. No one understands what I’m here for more than they do. They get what I love about music and how it’s changed my life. They’ve witnessed what it’s done for me and so they understand what I want to do while I’m here.”

What he’d like to record “Well I’d love to do the pop thing just because I’m still a teenager. On the show I was getting a little mature with my songs even though I love to do that stuff. I still want to be able to relate to the kids my age. I like the pop music, but I still want to have meaning in my music. So I’d still like to do some fun stuff along with songs that have more meaning in them. John Mayer and … are examples I use as people who have done the more pop side of music, but their music is so - I call it - real. It’s real music where it has meaning and depth to it still. They’re respected as real musicians and artists.”

On the differences between “Star Search” and “Idol”: “When I was little I didn’t even think I deserved to be on Star Search. I didn’t think I was good enough and I was confused that I kept going on. I was such an airhead. Well, I’m still pretty much an airhead. I was just like I don’t get why I’m still here. The people are going against are better than me and stuff. It just helped me to really keep focused I guess, because I understand that it takes a lot of work to do these kinds of things and to be able to show what you can do in that small amount of time. This show, fortunately, allowed more time and it lasted longer. I don’t know. I don’t know where I’m going with this.”

How he used to hate getting his picture taken “I hated pictures at the beginning of this. I’d always like run away from cameras even just with friends and stuff. I’d always be the one hiding behind a bush or something. It’s because I hate looking at myself. I still don’t really like looking at pictures of myself. I’ve never watched myself on the show. I would just do something else when the show was on and maybe like my family was watching it or something. I can’t stand hearing my voice. I’m okay with just talking to the cameras and stuff as long as I don’t have to hear it afterwards unless maybe I can learn something from it.”

What did we learn from season 7 of “American Idol”?

• Love those instruments! We’ve been wondering why they didn’t do this sooner. Folks like Bo Bice would have truly appreciated it. This year, the instrument rule two final five contestants we probably wouldn’t have otherwise gotten in Brooke White and Jason Castro. Clearly, the producers liked the addition, too, and it will be back in 2009.

• No Sanjaya sideshow worked fine with me (though train wreck Amanda Overmyer verged on caricature at times). Sure, there are folks who watched “Idol’ for the spectacle of the Chicken Littles of the world. But “Idol” needed a year off from that to bolster its legitimacy, however amusing it might have been to have little politico Kyle Ensley in the top 24 or flamboyant Danny Noriega in the top 12.

• That there’s still talent out in dem woods. We’re a big country and thank goodness the likes of Syesha, Brooke, Jason and the two Davids still exist, that the talent herd hasn’t been completely sucked dry.

• Experience is not a sin. Some folks still gripe that Carly and Michael and Kristy alreadly had shots already in the “biz,” but nobody knew who they were so who cares? I thought it added an interesting element, a nice mix of the naive and new such as Jason and the almost desperate in Carly.

• Forgetting lyrics is okay. Clearly, this is not a deal breaker for viewers, that it sometimes humanized the contestant more than demonized them as in Brooke and David A. But in the case of Jason “uh uh uh uh” Castro near the end, it solidified in people’s minds that he was simply ready to go home at that point. Memorizing two songs in one week is hard, dude!

• Country isn’t quite king or queen but it certainly helped Kristy Lee Cook. She lasted far longer than most expected and being the single representative in the country world kept her alive weeks longer than she otherwise should have.

• I pledge allegiance… Pull the patriotic card out when needed. Kristy Lee Cook, at a point in the competition where she needed help, pulled the Lee Greenwood song out. Brilliant! Archuleta later made a similar, though less successful, move by opting for Neil Diamond’s “America.”

• Expand your vocabulary, dawg. Randy’s tiresome, limited choice of descriptions got especially tiresome this year. Everyone was “molten red hot” and “on fire,” and heck, “you can sing the phone book,” too.

• Don’t wave your hands like you just don’t care. If “Idol’ brings back the mosh pit, how about recruiting some minorities, maybe even a male or two. And prohibit them from “spontaneously’ waving their hands in semi-time to the music.

• Bring the band closer to the stage. The new layout kept the band so far away, I think that often made it harder for the singers to connect with them. The times when they brought members of the band near the contestants were often quite effective. (See Chikezie.)

• Q&A quandary Yes, that Q&A was a time waster if we ever saw one. And posting the questions on that board, then having the caller ask them was pure redundancy. It will surely be gone next week if Fox’s promise of 30 minute results shows holds.

Add your own. Those were just a few off the top of my head.

In other “Idol” news;

-USA Today reports that on Tuesday, teleprompters were in use for the singers. Can’t imagine David Cook needed them but perhaps Archuleta did. I don’t know if either copped to using them. I haven’t read the post-show press conferences yet.

-NY Daily News posed five reasons why David Cook won, including the integrity he showed. One great point: he refused to let the show exploit his brother’s ills. That is true and I respect that greatly..

-MTV asks why Archuleta lost. His “aw shucks gosh gosh gosh” personality hurt him, yes. People hate the blatant frontrunner, yes. He was pre-coronated, annoyingly, yup. He had that creepy stage dad, check. And he was one dimensional, check, check.

Dear loyal blog readers,

As a mostly David Cook crowd, we’re warmly buzzed this morning, not hung over. But this blog entry won’t be about the show per se, but about you.

Thank you for supporting this blog for a fourth season! And I want to remind folks that I am such a psycho. I actually keep this blog alive the other seven months of the year! With 82 “Idol” alums, the “Idols Live!” tour, auditions for season eight, three peripatetic judges, the ubiquitous Ryan Seacrest, offshoot reality shows, et. al, there’s always something to write about in “Idol” country.

So keep this site bookmarked if you need your fix, say, on a lazy August day. Or come back any day and talk with the regulars. This was a bit of a rough year in “mushblog” land. We have insanely slow comment posting and we lost our one-year effort at social networking. I hope we’ll be using some sort of new software by 2009 that will be faster and better in many ways. And I’m still sorry to have seen the “Idol Exiles” leave the scene, but, alas, communities build and they splinter. That’s the natural progression.

Now I’d like to thank the regulars by name (or at least the names they use on the blog): Deirdre and Linny stuck with me through thick and thin, my two lieutenants in “Idol” arms, keeping the conversation flowing and egos (more or less) in check. War Eagle, JTesla and Flats provided a surprising dose of testosterone for a show not known for studly appeal. Thanks to Mike S for his insights, though I can tell by his busy schedule, he hasn’t been able to “break” as much news as he has in the past. Thanks to Negativo for his brilliant, cutting remarks and amazing predictive powers. Thanks for past regulars such as Songluvr, Harmony and Lara for stopping by, even on occasion. And welcome to newcomers such as Harrieth, Justin, DawnH, Menana, and mvt. I also appreciate y’all who merely lurk and any other regulars I may have missed.

It’s a pleasure and a privilege to serve you all.

Cheers,

Rodney

P.S. Some of you have intimated I should blog about “So You Think You Can Dance.” There are other reality shows I can write about too but naturally “Dance” is the closest kissing cousin to “Idol.” Unfortunately, my knowledge and ability to critique dance is far weaker than singing. Not sure what I can add per se there. But I might throw my two cents when on occasion.

P.S.S. I lied about this not being about Idol. I just got the early ratings and it appears despite lower ratings most of the year, the show ended on a high note thanks to the most compelling final two in years. It drew about 32 million viewers, up from last year’s 31 million. The only episode this year that did better was the premiere. So congrats all the way around! Even in the younger 18-49 demo, it was flat, which is a victory in this day and age.

Here’s the holding spot for the annual bloated two-hour affair called the results show, packed with stars, highlights from the season, duets, alums and that moment at 9:54 p.m. when we find out whether it’s David.. or David.

I’m at the Mike Farrell (of MAS*H fame) book signing/talk right now and will start watching the finale late.

With only a couple of exceptions, year over year ratings have been down for “Idol.”

But interest waned a bit last year for the Jordin/Blake faceoff. (I don’t remember a single thing from last year’s finale show.) So it’s good to know the David vs. David finale performance show last night actually did slightly better than Jordin/Blake. The early ratings show 26.1 million viewers vs. 25.3 million last year. Usually, “Idol” actually goes up in the final numbers so it might be closer to 26.7 or 26.8 million in the end. Among those 18 to 49 year old viewers, ratings were flat but will end up being slightly higher.

Last year’s finale pulled in about 30 million viewers. I anticipate tonight’s will probably do about the same.

SPOILER ALERT E! reports that George Michael may be the big star who shows up tonight.

Other names popping up, courtesy of MJsbigblog: Donna Summer, Seal, ZZ Top (strange!), Jonas Brothers, OneRepublic. And expect lots of former Idols.

-Neither song sung last night from the songwriters’ contest finalist pool will be the actual coronation song. Instead, it will be “Time of My Life,” which presumably won’t sound anything like that Bill Medley/Jennifer Warnes song from “Dirty Dancing.” More info here in USA Today. And more info on the songwriter here.. He also co-wrote a song on Clay Aiken’s album.

Sample lyrics: I know this is the time/This is the time/To be more than a name/Or a face in the crowd/I know this is the time/This is the time of my life/Time of my life

More “Idol” news to come as we count down to the big two-hour finale.

-Clay Aiken’s second week in sales land was rough. After opening at about 94K, his latest dropped to just 20K and has sold 114K total. Jordin sold another 17K and has 758K total. Carrie’s latest sold 16K and is up to 2.1 million. Daughtry moved another 15K and is up to 4.06 mil. Carrie’s first album moved another 9K and is up to 6.4 million. That’s it for Idol folks in the top 200.

This is the holding spot for the “Idol” show tonight. I’ll update with bits of news I know as I get it.

Tonight’s show will feature three songs each. One picked by Clive Davis, one the songwriters’ competition winner and one pick by the contestant. Archuleta will reprise his “Imagine.”

Tomorrow’s finale will reprise that Celine/Dion live/dead duet with another live/dead combo. They tried to do that with a dead Marvin Gaye and a live Mariah Carey for “Idol Gives Back” but for whatever reason, couldn’t do it. Ryan Seacrest interviews Nigel Lythgoe on his Los Angeles radio show.

At 1:06 p.m., “Idol” publicists said scheduling conflicts mean no Q&As for either David for us poor scribes. Oh, well.

-Carrie Underwood probably needs a separate room for the awards she keeps scarfing up. She won female vocalist of the year again at the ACMs Sunday night. (And congrats to Atlanta’s own Sugarland for winning song of the year with “Stay”!)

-MJ posted Kellie PIckler’s performance of a new song “Don’t You Know You’re Beautiful” she wrote with Taylor Swift. (She lost to Swift for best new female performer) As MJ noted, she was not in good vocal form:

-I was busy Thursday, then got sick so I missed this rather pertinent detail in the Fox TV announcements. They have scheduled “Idol” results shows back to 30 minutes, which was the norm until season six. Oddly, the results shows did better in season six than the performance shows, the only time that has ever happened. This year, it’s gone back to the norm of 5 to 10% fewer viewers for results than performance, which makes logical sense since there’s only 3 minutes of real news. We’ll see how desperate Fox is by spring of 2009 to see if they hold to the 30 minutes. (That means no more trumped up Q&As. Hold back the tears, people!)

-Any thoughts yet on Jennifer Hudson, who looks kind of leaden in the promos for “Sex & the City.” She pops in at 1:04 in this trailer:

-But good news for Hudson fans. Her album is set to go September, with a single “Spotlight” out June 9. More info here at E!. Ne-Yo, Robin Thicke, Diane Warren and the ubiquitous Timbaland were all involved.

-And for the second year in a row, I failed to get through the songwriting contest candidates. I fear the worst, hope for the best. I mean, after last year’s debacle, who knows? I still say “Inside Your Heaven” is the worst winner song ever but many will argue for last year’s painful “This Is My Now” that poor Jordin had to sing or Taylor’s “Do I Make You Proud?” We find out tomorrow what the song is. Bring the dramamine!

I got a nasty case of food poisoning Thursday and I was mostly down for the count Friday. So here is a summary of my talk with Jon Peter Lewis at the Starbucks near DIsco Kroger, same place I met Jordin Sparks earlier this year.

Lewis, an eighth place finisher from season three, has spent the past four years in the post-“Idol” trenches, selling a few albums here and there, making appearances and doing concerts. Though he hasn’t gotten a lot of attention by the media, he’s managed to leverage “Idol” to make a living as a musician. “I’m not working at McDonald’s,” he said. He possesses low-key charm.

And how about this for strange? He had been singing “Stand By Me” with a smidgen of Sean Kingston’s “Beautiful Girls.” He said when he visited “Idol” the week Amanda Overmyer was eliminated, he said he ran into Jeff Archuleta, David’s dad, who said nice things about his “Stand By Me.” Perhaps Jeff was inspired by Jon Peter Lewis? Probably a stretch but check it out here, when he performed the song April 1, 2008 at Albright College in Reading, PA:

He has a new album coming out in July and is shopping the single “Break the Silence” around the country.

Here’s the video and honestly, it’s a pretty darn good song with top 40 potential:

His voice actually sounds much deeper and textured than I recall is from season three. He said at the time had very little stage experience and wasn’t really clear in his mind what he wanted to do as an artist. And he admits what people remember the most is his goofy dancing. You can see he’s come a long way:

In other “Idol” news:

-Yes, another one goes Broadway. This time, it’s Taylor Hicks, who will star in Grease next month as the “teen angel,” who sings “Beauty School Dropout.” I didn’t see that one coming! He’ll do it from June 6 to Sept. 7. More info here.

-“Idols live” tour tickets went on sale today. It looks like a few thousand have been sold already as of 2:40 p.m. Saturday. You can get them here..

-[Oddsmakers still have David Cook favored to win.}(http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2008/05/american-ido-14.html). I think Cook has broader appeal but you can’t count out the rabid Archuleta fans who will work double time to text message him to victory.

-Traffic is down on this blog 35% year over year. Apparently, that’s not as bad as what’s happened on www.americanidol.com. Last March, 2007, the unique audience on that main “IdoL’ site was 7.27 million. This past March? Just 4.3 million. That’s a dropoff of 41 percent. Nielsen provided these stats and more. Nielsen ratings are only down about 10 percent.

Film! Broadway! An album! Books! An organic restaurant! Start a lupus charity foundation!

“I’m real goal oriented,” said Syesha Mercado. who is all about optimism. “I write them down and keep looking at them.” And as she noted, “I want to do everything!”

I noted to her that Paula Abdul twice Tuesday said she sang songs that didn’t define who she is. So I asked— who is she really as an artist? “I’m a mix of a lot of things. I think that’s why people say, ‘She’s Broadway!’ I’m like a black Christina Aguilera or Alicia Keys. I definitely see myself putting together a Christina Aguilera album like the one she recently did [which had Broadway elements in it.] I could do a ‘Diary of Alicia Keys.’ I like pop and I like R&B and I like old-school musicals. I’m growing into an artist and developing. I’m glad I did ‘American Idol.’ You were able to see the transition I went through. I’m still learning about myself every day… People will know who I am.” [As you can see, even she can’t define herself in 25 words or less, the way we can the two Davids or Brooke or Jason—her strength and weakness.]

For my folllowup question, I asked her to clarify her comments equating her own experience to the Civil Rights movement in relation to the Sam Cooke song “A Change is Gonna Come.” I wasn’t sure she was aware that it was a rather uneven comparison and thought she could give us some clarity. My interpetation: she says the song meant something different to her in terms of her own life vs. what the song meant to an entire generation, not that there should even be a comparison per se: “It’s a signature song for the Civil Rights movement. For me, it meant something different. It took on a completely different meaning. It came during a transitional time in history. This is a transitional time for me. For me, a change is gonna come.”

Here’s the holding spot for the results show. Sorry-thought I had posted this early but forgot to press “save” before leaving work.

Here’s the holding spot for tonight’s “Idol” featuring the three contestants singing their own song, a producers’ pick and a judge’s pick.

Will Archuleta stumble without daddy whispering in his ear? Will Cook find enlightenment via Collective Soul? Will Syesha keep digging deep and prove us all wrong?

In the TV Guide interview, Archuleta defended his dad before Jeff’s banishment: “I’ve heard the weird things that people have been saying, and it’s kind of a bummer. My dad’s been great. He understands more than anyone what I want.” (Would you expect anything else from the Arch?)

While everyone is anticipating the long-awaited David vs. David finale, let’s give Syesha some due and weight each person’s strengths and weaknesses as we enter the home stretch of season seven:

David Cook

Four-word description: Daughtry, with more soul

Strengths: He brings growly sincerity and manly confidence to all his work. He can take a seemingly shallow pop song and shape it in a way that gives it a real depth. He’s comfortable on stage. And he doesn’t seem arrogant in an offputting way, like Daughtry did at times season five. Vocally, he seldom misses a note. He could be packaged quite successful in the rock-pop realm.

Weaknesses: He’s not the best-looking dude on earth and when he tried to pull off a Simon LeBon-like sexiness last week, it didn’t really work. And his fallback position is to ape that grunge-lite Nickelback sound, which can be a bit repetitive and tiresome in large doses.

Odds of winning: 3-2

David Archuleta

Three-word description: Donny Osmond redux

Strengths: He has a pliable, comforting voice that can warm the soul when properly engaged. He’s got puppy-dog good looks, appealing to 13 year olds and their moms. He can take on a ballad with surprising depth, especially if it has some sort of social message. He possesses a real heart. And he could do quite well in a Josh Grobin sort of way.

Weaknesses: He is only 17 and seems like he’s 13. His lack of maturity means it’s hard to predict where he’ll land in 10 or 20 years. He seems uncomfortable with anything with an edge and doesn’t seem to know how to apply himself on stage when it comes to moving more than two or three inches to his left or right. (Jordin Sparks had the same movement problem last year.) Guys don’t generally seem to find him all that interesting, but they aren’t the primary voters either.

Odds of winning 5-4

Syesha Mercado

Two-word description: Broadway bound

Strengths: She clearly has great acting ability, able to take on different genres with verve and a take-no-prisoners raison d’etre. Her vocals are always solid, if not distinctive or spectacular. She’s pretty, though not in an intimidating way.

Weaknesses: She always seems like she’s acting. If she has a “real” core to her, it’s sometimes hard to see. She is not a pure pop singer, lacking a top 40 sensibility.

Odds of winning: 20-1

I have to meet some friends for dinner but will add some extra “Idol” news later.

In the meantime, here’s MJ’s video of Jason Castro performing “Daydream” on “Ellen DeGeneres”:

I remember when Fox did this for Diana DeGarmo four years ago in Snellville. It’s a highly orchestrated hometown visit for the final three. Here’s a summary of their trips.

-Murray, Utah. greeted David Archuleta at his high school and at a mall, where 2,000 showed up. The governor named it “David Archuleta Day.” He sang the National Anthem at the NBA playoff game though ESPN wasn’t allowed to air it because of some sort of exclusivity deal with Fox. He apparently drew far more people to his mall A&T event than comparable events for Syesha or David Cook, which isn’t a surprise.

-Syesha Mercado hung out in Bradenton, Fla., doing a concert at the riverfront where she sang “Proud Mary,” visiting her elementary and high school (which is in Sarasota) and singing the anthem at a Rays game. This Tampa blogger captured the scene quite nicely.. She also attended Florida International University. This Miami Herald piece claims she’s the first Floridian to make the top 3, which I’m sure makes Vonzell Solomon (top 3, season four) feel great! The story noted that Randy Jackson wants her to sing Alicia Keys’ “I Ain’t Got You”on Tuesday as the judge’s choice. And yes, Manatee County proclaimed it “Syesha Mercado Day.”

-In Kansas City, David Cook sang “Living on a Prayer” and “Always Be My Baby” and later did the anthem for the Royals.

-And how about this for juicy gossip? TMZ is claiming David Archuleta’s dad Jeff was booted from the show for being a pain in the patootie. Apparently, he had insisted Archuleta add a line from Sean Kingston’s song “Beautiful Girls” into “Stand By Me,” which producers nixed. Archuleta did it anyway. It caused problems with the song’s publisher and cost “Idol” money, TMZ claims. Jeff has been nixed from the backstage although technically Archuleta is a minor and needs a guardian. I wonder how the legalities of this will play out and will Archuleta be better without his dad breathing down his neck while he rehearses with the band and vocal coach?

Simon Cowell generally hates precocious young teen singers, though he has been fairly kind to David Archuleta. But he told Extra that going younger may be the way to go, especially on a show that is losing younger viewers.

“All these shows, including Idol, in the future are going to have to go younger. We’re going to have to drop the age from 16 to 14 soon.”

Do you agree? I’m not too psyched about the idea. Younger kids don’t tend to know who they are yet and that can be a handicap.

Remember “American Juniors”?

In other “Idol” news:

-Some “Idol” reject from season three who compared himself to Clay Aiken was arrested for soliciting sex with 10 year olds,. I think I blocked this dude out of my brain.

-Carmen Rasmussen from season two thinks that David Archuleta is still the fav to win it all.

-Today is the day each of the top 3 is getting the hometown treatment. I’ll post some of what happened over the weekend.

-Some fans of Jason Castro didn’t believe he said he wanted to go home to Entertainment Weekly. Well, he admit he said it to her in a follow up interview. and he was just frustrated at the time.

-Sacre bleu! A hometown writer in Salt Lake City dares to critique the hometown teen contestant in the form of David Archuleta!. Been there, done that!

In today’s press conference, Jason Castro proved he could say full sentences and denied he was tanking on purpose.

He also said the yawning he did on camera was not an indication of ennui toward the show, that people who noticed thought it was funny. “I am a chronic yawner,” he said.

I asked him specifically if he said “Don’t vote” Tuesday night.

“I was trying to emphasize ‘Vote,’ ” by saying it twice, he said. “Nobody heard me. I sat down and was thinking about it. It had the same syllable. [Don’t and vote.] [The second time,] I consciously went and said ‘vote’ once.”

On Simon saying he forgot his words on purpose. “I did not do that on purpose. I can’t believe I forgot such a popular line [during ‘Mr. Tambourine Man.’] THat’s writtong on your soul. It somehow slipped my mind.”

Insisting he wanted to win: “I still wanted to win. I think it came down to my inexperience. Once we doubled on songs, I couldn’t focus. My mind was just split. I couldn’t deliver either [song.]” Later he added. “I was doing my best.” He said when he said he wanted out to “Entertainment Weekly” a couple weeks ago, “A lot was going on that morning. I don’t know. That kind of came across wrong. People were kind of thinking I didn’t want to be there. That was never my mindset.”

How much experience does he have: “I started playing guitar freshman year and singing soon after. I’d learn songs but never all the way through. So trying to do two was tough.” [Longest set he’s ever done: 30 minutes.]

Songs he couldn’t get cleared: As we know, he said “Crazy” by Gnarls Barkley didn’t get aired because Danger Mouse nixed clearance after he had already performed it. He also almost got “Santeria” by Sublime cleared, then it wasn’t.

Why so mellow? “I’m grounded. Nothing comes as a surprise to me, but, um, I don’t know. I am like that. I’m not always so calm. I am kind of goofy. Some don’t see my hyperness. I still have fun. I am pretty relaxed about everything.”

Doing two songs: “I was losing that power. I couldn’t connect with the songs in the given time. I wasn’t committed to either one. I couldn’t fall in love with them.”

HIs speaking skills: “I’m an awkward conversationalist. I’m trying my best now! What you see is what you get. I didn’t change at all coming here.”

HIs singing and performance skills: “I’m as raw as it gets.”

On Paula’s snafu last week: “That was kind of funny. I was confused… I don’t think it affected my performance [of his second song.]”

Was he relieved by his departure: “It was my natural reaction. I felt relieved. The pressure was off. I loved my time on there. I would have liked to have gone farther.”

Watching “Idol” in past years: He vaguely remembers watching it one season in college.

On Jeff Buckley’s “Hallelujah” doing so well after he sang it: “I realized the power of ‘American Idol.’ It was such an honor. Cool. People hadn’t heard it. Now they have.”

What he wanted to sing next week: “Blue Eyes” by the Carey Brothers, from the “Garden State” soundtrack. (see below)

In other “Idol” news:

-DJSlim has what is a song by Jennifer Hudson called “All Dressed Up In Love.” I really like it but it sounds very ’60s, very old school, not modern at all. I have no clue where he got it from or whether it will be on her upcoming album.

-Reports are that Jordin Sparks is back to work, her voice recovered.

-Jon Peter Lewis from season three is going to be on “Good Day Atlanta” on WAGA-TV next Thursday, May 15. I can’t say he was going to be a star, but he seemed like a nice pen salesman. I’m not sure if he’s selling pens right now but that was Simon’s prediction for him.

-Q100 had Randy Jackson, Kat McPhee and Elliott Yamin on the phone this morning at the same time. McPhee said she was thinking of throwing in the towel earliy on and both said the show was extremely stressful. She felt she got worse as she went along. McPhee had Kellie Pickler at her wedding. Randy placed Kat and Elliott on his album. The trio are promoting the song “Real Love.”

-Phil Stacey’s self-titled new album opened at No. 43 with 13,000 copies sold, which is about what I would have expected. That’s comparable to Josh Gracin’s second CD, which opened a few weeks ago at 18,000. Stacey’s single “If You Didn’t Love Me” is at No. 28 on the country charts in its 15th week while Gracin’s “We Weren’t Crazy” is at No. 22 in its 29th week, according to Radio & Records. Last year, Bucky sold 61K in his first week.

-Jordin Sparks passed Taylor Hicks with 19K more sold and has 717K total. She’s now the fifth highest selling “Idol” winner, only behind Taylor. She’s now selling far more downloads—more than 3 million. Daughtry is at 4.02 million with 17K more sold. Carrie’s latest is at 2.06 mil with 14K sold while “Some Hearts” moves another 9K and is at 6.4 mil. These numbers all courtesy of Idol Chatter.

-For Clay Aiken’s “On My Way Here,” first-week sales, as projected by Hits Daily Double,, based on first-day sales is 80,000 to 85,000. That’s down from 205,000 for his last release “A Thousand Different Ways” in 2006, 270,000 for his Christmas CD in 2004 and 612,000 copies of his very first CD right after he came in second to Ruben Studdard in 2003.

And according to Georgia Claymate prez, Jenna McBride, this is what I missed Monday night at Manuel’s while I was trying to find my camera (to no avail):

*We had about 25 or so there last night. Most of the Georgia Claymates were in NYC for Clay’s last performance in Spamalot and some stayed over to attend the NYC CD Release Party and some stayed over for the CD signing today at Virgin Megastore in NYC. We had two girls who had literally just flown in for the party last night and came straight from the airport. It was an awesome party. And we especially enjoyed having my friend Jason there who came and played and sang. I think that Jason said that he knows you. His name is Jason Bowen. He is a singer/song writer for Sony/AVT or ATV (one or the other). Sony has changed so many names recently with so many different departments it’s hard to keep up.

Jason has been writing songs for Sony for about 12 years and he just happens to be friends also with Ryan Tedder, the guy who wrote the lead song on Clay’s new CD, “On My Way Here”. Of course Jason sang it for us last night and did a magnificent job. He and Ryan have co-written songs before and he sang one of them last night also. It was awesome too. And another song that he sang last night was one that he wrote that Sony has sent to Kelly Clarkson for consideration. Jason also sang a couple of other songs that Clay has recorded. Hopefully Jason will be able to write some for Clay some day and since their voices and style are somewhat similar, I would love it if he could sing backup for Clay also. Jason has toured with Barry Manilow as a backup singer.

Here are a couple of reviews for the new Clay Aiken CD:

The Daily News gave him one star.

The music Aiken’s writers matched to such hoary bromides continues the singer’s established love for the kind of power ballads that died in the mid-’80s. In this world, the band Mr. Mister still rules; Rick Springfield remains a pop player.

At least such warm-milk pop suits Aiken’s creamy tone. More than ever, he sounds like Boy George, only not so butch.

Here’s the Baltimore Sun, somewhat kinder:

As much as his record company would want him to be, Aiken isn’t a crossover pop star. He’s a male Celine Dion, a nerdier Michael Bublé, a new-millennium Barry Manilow, and there’s nothing wrong with that. The sooner he embraces that, the better his albums will sound. With “On the Way Here,” he’s not quite there.