*Cowellelujah*

The title is in quotes because it is taken from a 2008 article in The Mail Online. Yes, Simon Cowell owns the rights to Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah. He has been making buckets of money off of it being recorded by contestants on all his talent show productions in England for the past few years. And it is a great song. But I wondered why this song, written by a pretty obscure songwriter back in the late 60s or 70's was all of the sudden the new *Amazing Grace*. I mean, I know who Leoanard Cohen is only because I hung around with a person who was very savvy musically back in 1972-73 (thank you L) . I didn't hear his songs on KLEO top 40 hits back in those days. And, I had never heard Hallelujah until Jason Castro sang it on Idol (courtesy of rights owned by Simon Cowell). And I have wondered why some of Cohen's other songs have not been sung on Idol...such as Suzanne and Bird on A Wire. Guess Simon didn't buy those.

So...Lee had his moment. And it was a very emotional performance to follow his earlier emotional performance. Lee is was all emo and that was a very smart thing to be tonight. You cannot go wrong singing about your mama and God. And it certainly helps that Hallelujah is not vocally challenging. Even Tim Urban had a moment with it. And Lee had the choir and some smoke behind him too. So, it is no wonder that he is number 1 on Dial Idol rankings.

Now, before KK goes bonkers at my sarcastic tone about Lee, let me explain that for the past week, Lee's fans are verging on Adam/Siobahn fan hysteria. Crystal posts a tweet on facebook and there are 2 or 3 Lee fans whose comments are generally as profound as the following: U suck! Go Home. Lee Rules! I kid you not, some 47 year old woman posted almost that exact verbiage. I looked up her profile and found out that she considers herself *a happy person*. She also made the error of telling the entire world the name of the doctor she works for and what town she lives in. Now...some people might be inclined to contact her employer and let him know how she spends her work hours on facebook telling strangers they suck. (Believe me, I was tempted but I'm not going to get sued for tortious interference with her employment or anything like that). So, i just reported her to the Facebook police. Speaking of which, I wish someone would police Mr. Aunt Tee on Facebook. He has now bonded with strangers in London who share our last name.

Moving on. I thought Crystal was great tonight. What can you do when your up against mom and God? I like her better when she doesn't use the harmonica. And Come To My Window is not my favorite song in the world either. When it was hinted she was doing Melissa Etheridge I went to youtube and heard Melissa sing a song called *Indiana* which I wish Crystal had sung instead. I have no idea if it was a big hit for Melissa or not but its lyrics would have been very compelling. Crystal did knock Maybe I'm Amazed out of the theatre. And she didn't wimp out on it like that Jem woman on Youtube did. She did it in Paul McCartney's style. I also liked that she didn't compromise the lyrics and sang *maybe I'm a man*. I think she's not going to mess with another songwriter's lyrics.

I love Casey. In fact, if Crystal doesn't make it to the finals, I'm voting for Casey just to piss off the horrible Lee fans. But he wasn't very good tonight. Have to agree with Randy's comments on the first song...it was just all right. He had no choice but to do Daughters. Which is a good song I had never heard before. However, I have been following John Mayer a bit on the gossip sights lately and have to say that he is not a very admirable person doing his kiss and tell about all of his conquests. But that is not Casey's fault. Still, Casey has a very strong fan base (they are not obnoxious like Lee's fans) so..I'm hoping Crystal pulls it through.

Of course, the last thing Mr. Aunt Tee wants to watch somewhere in a rural NY state motel next week is American Idol. And the last thing I want to watch in a rural hotel in Indiana is 4 hours of Lost. Hope you all voted for Crystal just to make sure he suffers as much on Tuesday night as I will suffer on Sunday night!