So, given the resounding silence surrounding my previous American Idol postings, I’m guessing that no one watches this show but me.  In all honesty, I can’t blame you.  In fact, hats off.

Last night I found myself sitting through the two hour monstrosity, watching Barry Manilow (side note: BARRY MANILOW?!?!) coaching the kids through their fifties theme night.  We heard a very Pearljammy version of Johnny Cash’s “Walk the Line,” some Patsy Cline, some Buddy Holly and poor pitiful Kevin Covais warble his way through “When I Fall in Love.”

It was all just as painful as usual, but I was glued to my television nonetheless.  Or, rather, made dinner and read a book while it played in the background.

Not that it matters, but here are my predictions for tonight’s bottom three and the ill-fated crooner of the evening.

Bucky Covington’s Buddy Holly song, “Oh Boy,” was probably the worst singing of the night.  It was all rasp and growl and cro-magnon grunting.  However, his name is Bucky and he’s from the south and there are enough people left in the competition that he will still benefit greatly from the git-er-dun demographic.  Kevin Covais was just as bad as he always is, but he might slip into the bottom three because of Simon Cowell’s decision to not mobilize hoards of tweens by tearing him limb from limb.

Even though he wasn’t the worst performer last night, I think Lisa Tucker’s done tonight.  She’s talented, but she’s not magnetic and (second to last week’s ouster Melissa McGee) the most forgettable finalist.

So, do with that information what you will.  We’ll see how it shapes up.

I recently decided that my workout playlist needed a face lift (to be frank, I mostly just listen to Since U Been Gone on repeat for 20 minutes while jogging, then go home to eat ice cream) and, because I’m a sheep with no ability to form opinions myself, turned to the iMix page on iTunes so that other, more athletically motivated people can tell me what they listen to while they’re out completing triathalons for fun and shit. If I can sidebar for a moment, let me just say that the iMix page is one of the most disturbing collections of thoughts since Craig’s List– more than a handful of people have made “tribute” mixes in honor of recently passed relatives. Okay, things you should not do on MySpace/ IM/ iTunes: (1) Announce your recent engagement (2) Converse with dead people. When I go, I hope my friends all know that I would vastly prefer having them ingest a fifth of jim beam in my name than putting together a Cristin Tribute list on iTunes which, really, would go something like this: Miss Independent, We Didn’t Start the Fire, OPP, Ignition (remix), repeat as necessary.

But, oh, the iMixes have their place. Particularly the Celebrity iMixes. And, best of all, particularly Kiefer Sutherland’s Celebrity Playlist.

Yes, jack bauer uses iTunes. I bet he’s got all his songs nestled happily on his PDA alongside his Big List of International Terrorists and Wednesday-To Do List (Kill terrorists, reconfigure government agencies, pick up dry cleaning).

As a fun little game, do your best to select which of these songs *was actually* on Kiefer’s list. Answer in the comments. Let me know how you do. And tell me what I should download for the next time I want to go running/ spend 3 hours watching “8th & Ocean.”

• “Kick Some Ass” Stroke 9
• “Break Stuff” Limp Bizkit
• “Bring the Pain” Method Man
• “Angel” Sarah MacLaclan
• Theme song to “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”
• “Bombs Over Baghdad” Outkast
• “Butterfly Kisses” Bob Carlisle
• “To Be With You” Mr Big