Hollywood Week: The Non-Recap Recap

The good news: We got to see some actual singing on the third night of Hollywood week, where the contestants got to sing with the band, and play instruments if they so desired.

The bad news: We will continue to be terrorized by Tatiana Del Toro and Norman Gentle.

There were so many performances, and they were so short, that I can't possibly recap them all. But here were the highlights, for me:

- Adam Lambert, doing a stripped down version of Cher's "Believe." I loved it.

- Nathaniel Marshall, playing guitar and doing an acoustic version of Rihanna's "Disturbia." I liked it better than I like the actual song. I love Rihanna, but it's not my favorite.

- Kristin McNamara, singing "Because of You" by Kelly Clarkson. That chicks's got some pipes.

- Jamar Rogers singing Plain White T's "Hey There Delilah." Up until this moment, I've thought of Jamar as Danny Gokey's less talented BFF, but he rocked it. Also, I've only just now realized that Danny Gokey is like a bizarro Robery Downey Jr.

- Anoop Desai getting his Bobby Brown on with "My Prerogative." What size balls must one have to even attempt that? And he didn't just attempt it, either -- he owned it.

Lowlights:

- Casey Carlson, Joanna Pacitti and Stephen Fowler all forgot the words to their songs, but they still made it through.

- The amount of airtime given to Tatiana Del Toro. She can sing, sure, but there are better singers who are not completely batshit crazy. The producers are no doubt tenting their fingers like Mr. Burns in anticipation of her complete emotional meltdown when she gets voted off the show.

Not going through to the "Judges' Mansion": India Morrison, Michael Castro, Leneshe Young and a bunch of other people we never got the chance to know.

Tonight: The final 36... finally! In a two-hour special! With shitloads of filler! We're almost to the live shows, people! Hang in there!