Idol idle

This is pretty interesting to me. I'm used to wondering whether the acoustics in the studio are totally different than what comes through the TV - 'cause the judges obviously are never hearing the same thing I am. But I'm also used to the girls being better than the guys at this stage of the competition.

And tonight, the girls are sorta stinking it up. I mean last night, I think David Archuleta (baby-faced kid), Jason Castro (dreadlocked kid) and Robbie Carrico (phony rocker) all did great, and a handful of the other guys did OK.

So far with the girls, I think Amanda Overmyer (the rockin' nurse) and Alexandrea Lushington (um, I dunno, the one wearing fatigues, I guess) were great and all the rest were... eh.

For a season that was supposedly loaded with ringers, the only interesting performances are coming from genuine outsiders. I suppose that's kinda heartening.

Oh, and I totally forgot the best part: Seacrest and Amanda Overmyer were talking about how her car got wrecked by a semi on her way to Hollywood, and whether the driver was watching the show ... and Overmyer goes "He's like, 'I hit that.'" Sooo awesome. Seacrest didn't have the common humanity to fall down laughing, but I'm 100 percent certain Randy and Simon were on the floor.