Jason Castro: In Memoriam

And so we bid farewell to Jason Castro, the singer who brightened this season’s American Idol proceedings with his song choices (think about it: dude brought Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan to the Idol stage, even if the results were decidedly mixed), big dreadlocks, and the fact that he generally seemed to be having a good time on stage, unlike some stage-managed kids who seem to be on the verge of passing out every time they’re forced to stand on stage while not singing. Some may have referred to him as a Sanjaya-like figure because of his unquenchable goofiness, like his line last night about shooting the tambourine man, and his hair, but I kind of appreciated the fact that he was actually having fun with the proceedings, and not being as deadly self-serious as some of the other people still in the running. (Congratulations, Syesha, on making that Presidential race reference–we knew you had it in you.) At least his semi-glazed expressions and “it’s all good, man” vibe made for good TV.

Anyway, in a best-case scenario he’ll get picked up by Brushfire Records and make a light album that’s heavily influenced by the surf, then tour university rec centers with Josiah Leming; the more Jason progressed through the competition, the more I realized that Leming couldn’t have made it through to the top 24, if only because the two of them would have been mirroring each other, song-choice and trajectory-wise, week after week. Well, maybe without the forgotten lyrics on Leming’s part.

Man, the next two weeks are not going to be fun to watch at all, huh.