American Idol Returns to Atlanta

The second night of American Idol auditions began Wednesday night in Atlanta, Georgia, the audition state that gave us Clay Aiken, Fantasia Barrino and Jennifer Hudson.

As with Tuesday night's premiere episode, we were introduced to a very interesting cast of characters.

27-year old Dewone Robinson started it all off by telling us about how music is "in his blood."

That's a bad sign.

As he sang an original song and repeated the line "it's over" again and again and again, I couldn't help but wish it was over.

Nine seasons later and auditioners still can't take responsibility for their lack of talent. This time it was apparently Simon's fault for interrupting him and asking him what the name of the song was.

The ladies sizzled from the start, although I wasn't as impressed as the judges were with 26-year-old Keia Johnson, the former Miss America pageant contestant who sang Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On." I found her a little too loud for my taste. And I could have done without the neon green leggings.

Jermaine Sellers, 26, was the first one of the night to impress me. He sang Joan Osborne's "One of Us" and as guest judge Mary J Blige pointed out, "it was anointed."

19-year-old Vanessa Wolf reminded me of a female Jason Castro, and that's not an insult considering I'm a huge Castro fan. The girl from the country surprised the judges and probably a lot of other people. I hope she takes Simon's advice to begin believing in herself. I'm looking forward to watching her grow as a person and an artist.

Unfortunately many of those who audition for Idol have no previous audition experience and can't take "No" for as answer. This is pretty obvious as many auditioners emerge from the audition room swearing, yelling and giving various hand signals to the camera. They just don't understand why they didn't make it.

Word to the wise: when up against thousands of other people, chances are very slim that you will actually make it to the next round, especially when you can't sing.

The gimmicks are also getting old.

Case in point: 20-year-old Holly Harden, "the human guitar." Sure, she actually had a decent voice, but I didn't find the mini guitar outfit cute or funny. And her guitar glasses, as Simon pointed out, made her look like a bug. She reminded up of an even ditzier Kellie Pickler.

BFF's Lauren Sanders and Carmen Turner were not only ditzy, they were annoying. Carmen obviously had the better voice and made it through, while her best friend did not. I can only hope Simon was right when he told them, "Don't worry, you won't be apart for too long."

22-year-old Antonio "Skii Bo Ski " Wheeler didn't have a bad voice, but his ramblings about being like a package deal from the Dollar Store left me scratching my head, as did just about everything else that came out of his mouth.

Randy and Simon seemed truly confused. In fact, all Randy kept saying was "That doesn't even make sense," and yet somehow the judges put him through to Hollywood.

I would love to know what's really in those cups the judges are drinking from. Whatever it is, it can't be good.

The final audition of the night was 62-year-old General Larry Platt, and I must say, he was a personal favorite of mine, even though he was a bit over the age limit.

Larry sang an original song called "Pants on the Ground" which of course, refers to the way that some guys choose to wear their pants (and a style I never understood or liked.)

With catchy lyrics like, "Lookin like a fool with your pants on the ground," this is one song that will remain stuck in my head for a while.

Unfortunately nobody really stood out as a star this time around, but hopefully that will change during Hollywood week. Jermaine and Vanessa are the only ones from Atlanta who I am curious to see more of.

I just wish Larry had made it. He's already got my vote!