I haven’t been watching much American Idol so far this season, particularly the audition rounds, because of a general sense of life’s-too-short-itis. Also, past Idol judge transitions have taught me that you can’t really get a sense of the new judging panel from the heavily edited audition and Hollywood rounds; you need to see them assessing singers one-by-one. Last night I watched the first Las Vegas semifinal round to get some first impressions of this year’s new panel. And I was… kind of impressed? Cautiously? At least for one night, it seemed like the end of the ... Read More