Watched the performances online during lunch. I still think Ty and Jordis are in the bottom three, and that Ty is headed home, but I don't think Suzie will be down there with them. In fact, I think she'll get the encore. J.D. is the most likely candidate to replace her in the bottom three. After Ty, I think Jordis is the next to go, followed by J.D. MiG seems to be fading rather fast lately, so I'd bet on him leaving after J.D., leaving Marty and Suzie as the final two. I know I seem to label someone different as the favorite every single week, but I'm really starting to think Suzie has a legitimate chance of winning this thing. Andrew Farris adores her, and I've mentioned before that I think his opinion means a lot to the other band members. Plus, I recently came across an interview with Kirk Pengilly from a while back in which he said he'd prefer a female singer because it would be the easiest way to avoid comparisons to Michael Hutchence. MiG is too "nice," Marty's voice is too unpredictable, J.D. causes too much turmoil, and Jordis is too sappy. While Suzie may be a bit "plain-Jane," that also means she's not "too" anything. She has one of the strongest voices in the bunch and (perhaps more importantly) the widest comfort zone when it comes to singing different musical styles. But then again, I am biased.

So, you got it right two weeks in a row, and you were flying blind this week! Are you starting to think that the mere fact that Australians are allowed to vote on this thing means that MiG will never be in the bottom three, fix or no fix?

I was wondering if the show ran in Australia at all, or at least at the same time as it does in the U.S. I doubt highly that there's a pro-Mig Australian movement, but I know little about the country. The whole scenario reminded me a bit of the NBA allowing the Chinese to vote for All-Stars (Yao Ming, anyone?) but not Germans (Dirk who?) Anyway. As to Ty's racism accusations, my wife made comments similar to yours after the show, and I called her "Whitey." While I agree with you and my wife that racism had little if anything to do with Ty's departure, I *do* understand why he might feel that way. I don't know anything about Ty's background, or anything about the struggles he's faced as he's tried to make it as a black musician in an overwhelmingly white genre (which was co-opted from blacks). But, if he's faced the racial taunts and ill treatment that Bad Brains, Fishbone, and Living Colour faced, I can understand why he *thinks* racism is the reason he's gone. You know my job, and know what I deal with. There are people who see racism everywhere. There are people who think that it simply doesn't exist any more. In Ty's case, he needed some sort of scapegoat. As you mentioned, he has a fairly large ego and a rather high opinion of himself. So, when he loses a talent competition, a competition that, in his mind, he should win hands down, there must be some other reason he lost. Something nefarious. Something evil. I think that when J.D. is eliminated, and that's all but assured now, you're going to see the exact same thing. Only J.D. won't blame racism, he'll blame the backstabbing from the other contestants. He'll blame the band. He'll blame voter irregularities. Anything to soften the blow to his ego. We are headed to a point in this country, where liberals like me and you are going to have to walk a pretty thin line of knowing when someone's claim of racism is valid in his/her own mind only, or if there's a chance that racism actually played a role in some event. A few weeks ago in the T.O. versus Donovan McNabb brouhaha that no one outside ESPN gives a shit about, Stephen A. Smith reported that Donovan McNabb was "offended as an African American" when Terrell Owens called him a "company man." Essentially, a black reporter was reporting that one black athlete was accusing another black athlete of racism, based on a comment which isn't remotely racist. "Company Man" is not akin to "Uncle Tom" or "House Negro." But, the white folks on EPSN gobbled it up and dared not challenge the notion that the term itself was racist. In the Ty situation, it's something that's been festering on the show. He made a comment a few weeks ago that "you can count the African Americans in rock 'n' roll on one hand" and started to cry in one of the "mansion episodes." What Ty should realize is that nine white contestants were eliminated prior to him. If racism was the only thing at play, or even a major factor, he would have been eliminated long ago. I feel like I'm starting to get redundant, so I'll stop before I get redundant. Later.