idol top 5

Theme: Australian songs (Ricky leaves)

Not much to say about the actual show this week, as I didn't see the performances (I was at the ARIA awards and the Smarmy Toothpick forget to record it as arranged...wretched boy). Here are the video snippets for Damien, Ricky, Chris, Jessica and Dean. I'm okay with the verdict. I like all five that were still in it this week, so I'm not looking for anyone in particular to leave, but I do think that Ricky was justifiably in line for voting out. I actually would have picked Jessica to go before him ~ she sings beautifully, but there's nothing original about her ~ however the rest of the public didn't agree. I'm not sure who should be next. Dean was upping the ante every week, but he's lost momentum the last few performances. If he's same next week then I wouldn't be surprised to see him go.

Kyle suggested that Ricky and Dean have similar fans and that whoever stayed (they were the bottom two this week) was going to get the votes that usually went to the other. That prompted several threads on the forums about how people vote once their favourite contestant is gone. I'm kind of surprised that no-one's done a PhD on voting culture in reality TV shows yet...mark my words, it'll happen, if indeed it hasn't already. There's always someone out there willing to take an inordinate amount of time to research something completely meaningless to the good of humankind.

A topic floating around that did interest me regarded a comment made at the ARIAs scorning 'get famous quick' TV shows - interesting given that everyone knew it was a direct snub to the Australian Idol contestants (past and present) sitting in the (music industry section of the) audience. The topic turned personal for me when someone labelled Peter Garrett a hypocrite for clapping when the comment was made, on the basis that he (in their opinion) had used his celebrity to get a seat in politics. I had to spend answering that one, because Garrett is pretty much the textbook opposite of the person they're describing, and the ignorance of all he and Midnight Oil have achieved made my blood boil.