let's go lambert let's go

that's right, i've been following american idol. not religiously, but i've seen a bunch of the performance nights, probably because tuesday night is my only night off and we don't have cable. but since tonight was the penultimate show for the eighth season, i thought i would weigh in, because to my surprise i think adam's going to win.

this is not the opinion i've held for the last couple weeks, watching the far tamer and sympathetic and john mayer-ish contestants and thinking to myself, how would a pimple-scarred 27 year old with slightly androgynous tendencies and an unnerving at-the-camera serial killer grin possibly have a chance at such a popularity contest?

yet logic be damned, he's still in it, and i think he's gonna do it. kris allen is cool i guess, if you were (are) the kind of kid whose heart skips a beat when your dorm-mate grabs his martin for singalong acoustic renderings of top 40 ditties (heartless? come on, don't you remember that gin n juice cover that everybody thought was phish but really wasn't and was just fuckin stupid to begin with?).

i'm not going to speculate on the social and cultural implications of america electing someone like lambert over someone like allen, but here's to adam, who i think we'll all be seeing a lot more of, regardless of whether that douche bag that sings out of the side of his mouth wins tomorrow.

lambert's picked some good ones; here are two (sorry, i would have posted cher but to my embarrassment/disappointment i don't actually have it):

Led Zeppelin - Whole Lotta Love

The Rolling Stones - I Can't Get No Satisfaction

UPDATE: it seems the times, with infinitely more time on their hands (not to mention a paycheck for the fruit of their labor) has read my post and expanded upon it. thanks for the shoutout new york. below is a little snippet that i sort of subconsciously understood watching the show but never really put my finger on it until reading this:

The family concept, in which we visit the contestants’ hometowns, is a major marketing tool that touches every aspect of “American Idol.” This year the addition of a fourth judge, Kara DioGuardi, added a surrogate older sister in a panel whose idiosyncrasies are as familiar to today’s television audience as those of Archie Bunker’s 1970s television family.

Mr. Cowell is the cranky, opinionated paterfamilias and teller of hard truths who usually gets the last word, and Paula Abdul the neurotic, dithering mother with the crocodile smile, who is fiercely protective of her brood. Randy Jackson, the good-hearted uncle, is the family’s unofficial peacemaker, and Ryan Seacrest, the host, its fiercely ambitious oldest son, a golden boy engaged in an Oedipal battle with dad. Clive Davis, the chief creative officer of Sony BMG Records who supervises many of the recordings of “American Idol” finalists, is the benign great uncle and senior accountant who drops by occasionally to dispense statistics about chart positions and sales figures.