Top 36

Kinda really enjoyed the "sing for your life!" twist in tonight's Idol.  Kept me on my toes (though seriously, Seacrest didn't need to point out the "irony" of almost every single sing-off pairing... are we really so stupid we can't understand irony when it's in front of us without it slapping us in the face for comi-tragic effect).  Especially that last sing-off... I was like "really?" when we were made to think one of them was going home.

Wondering whether Tatiana or Nick "Normal Gentle" Mitchell is going to be the more annoying contestant.

Praising the judges for letting ZOMFG DRAMZ QUEEN Nathaniel Marshall through.  He's going to be entertaining as long as he lasts (not seeing Top 12 here) and the costumes.  THE COSTUMES!

Loving that the show played Embrace's "Gravity" under a section of rejections.  God I love that band, they need more American exposure.

I think the show did a decent job filling viewers in on a lot of the Top 36 who weren't featured in the audition episodes / ones who were featured in auditions but not so much in the Hollywood rounds, but there are several who I'm still like... "who are they, again?" (Alex Wagner Trugman? Anne Marie Boskovich? Arianna Afsar? Jeanine Vailes? Junot Joyner? Kris Allen? Meghan Corkrey? Mishavonna Henson? Rick Braddy? Stevie Wright?)

My favorites right now are Lil Rounds and Danny Gokey, next tier would definitely be Jasmine Murray and probably Michael Sarver (hence my "you're going to make him sing-off?  Really?").  Looking forward to Adam Lambert's performances (either going to be really musical theater, really cool and current, or really terrible), and Jackie Tohn rocking out.