David Cook is the new American Idol!!!

I'm SO HAPPY AND EXCITED!!!!!!!!
Since auditions and Hollywood week, I had my eyes, ears, and heart on David Cook. He was my favorite since day 1 all the way to the finale today, where he won by a landslide 12 million votes, and deserved it more than anyone else! Not only is he mature and versatile in his singing and demeanor, he seems most ready to take on the tough music industry and really record an amazing album. I LOVE how he can turn any song into a rock rendition, and is a total rockstar, inside and out. And when I saw him go from singing Mariah Carey (his rendition of my all time favorite Mariah song "Always Be My Baby" is the ringtone on my cell phone) to The Turtles to Lionel Richie to Michael Jackson to Phantom of the Opera, I knew that his vocal range and diversity in song choice and arrangement made him the best contestant to win Idol. And I just love him since the beginning and have been voting weekly for him to stay in - and now he's won! My favorite thing about him is how he picks songs and bands that aren't the most popular, that not everyone knows, and that he takes risks to sound different and choose an offbeat arrangement. And he has proved to be a superstar each and every time, with every song, and I know he will go on to do fabulous and great things in music...I will definitely be buying his album, seeing him in concert, and following his career! He reminds me of Chris Daughtry - my other Idol fav :-)

"The grown-up rocker triumphed over the smooth-voiced kid as David Cook claimed the American Idol title Wednesday. The former bartender from Blue Springs, Missouri, beat out David Archuleta of Murray, Utah, to win the seventh season of the show. Host Ryan Seacrest says 97.5 million votes were cast, beating the previous record by 23 million votes. Cook won 56 percent of the vote, while Archuleta got 44 percent. Cook beat Archuleta by 12 million votes. Cook was overcome by emotion, bending toward the stage after his name was announced."

BFF Priya visits me in NYC!!!

So my best friend Priya visited me in New York a couple weeks ago. We BFF's had SUCH a blast together from walking, shopping, and eating chocolate on 5th Avenue to going to her friend's NYU film screening to eating all the time at all times of the day and night to having coffee at cute cafes to taking the subway to hanging out at fun clubs and lounges and dancing the night away to late night chats with champagne to shopping in Soho to being a tourist in Little Italy and drinking Boba tea as well as more shopping in Chinatown. It was very spontaneous - she booked her flight on Tuesday and flew out Wednesday morning from San Francisco to New York. We had a fabulous 4 days together :-) I've been here less than two months and 3 friends and lots of family have visited me from out of town, including BFF Priya and my parents this past week, and more are coming from Europe and other parts of the US - later this summer, so if you come visit me too, we shall have a blast! They are proof of that :-) This really is the greatest city! woohoo!!