OK, I lied about that being my last "American Idol" post (Sorry, Joe)

Tonight is the first half of the big "American Idol" finale, so of course I'm gonna acknowledge it even if it means breaking an old promise. I'm not going to watch it live, because the weather is finally nice and I'm looking to rock buck night at the Timber Rattlers. But I will rush home to catch the DVR version.

Like I said, I think Taylor is taking it in a walk. Personally, I don't care who wins. Katharine is uber-foxy, but as a singer I'm lukewarm about her. Taylor, well, I think he sorta blows, but it might be awesome to have a bad white boy blues/soul singer on the pop charts again.

What inspired me to post (again) about "AI" was this story in Slate that made me feel good about my "American Idol" fandom.

In the first couple of seasons, critics (including yours truly) complained that Idol was too immersed in one style—that it was a Mariah impersonation contest, with vocalists vying to outdo each other's acrobatic gospel "runs." But as the show has evolved, the singing has gotten more stylistically diverse, and more adventurous. Today, Idol is an occasionally revelatory, often garish, but always engrossing collision of genres and traditions. This season's finals featured a couple of country singers; a twee boy-soprano whose voting block of pre-pubescent girls and their grandmothers kept him in the running for a while; and a large-lunged gospel diva who was eliminated at least a few weeks too soon. The most compelling character was The Rocker, Chris Daughtry, who, despite his knack for turning every song he touched into joy-killing post-grunge dirge, earned admiration for his fine chops (I never heard him hit a bum note), and what Cowell rightly identified as his refusal to compromise. During Barry Manilow Week, when contestants were required to tackle songs from the 1950s, Daughtry shocked everyone (and probably bummed out Manilow) with a solemn rock arrangement of Johnny Cash's "I Walk the Line," and in the weeks afterward everyone seemed to catch the spirit: Bongo players and acoustic guitarists appeared flanking singers at center stage, and even the most uptight contestants started taking little risks with arrangements.

Any thoughts on who's taking this sucker?