The battle over beat-boxin’ Blake

Read the online discussions about Idol, and you’ll soon realize that Blake is the most-talked-about contestant. It seems there’s no middle ground: Either you’re for him or against him. Here at the Times-Union, it’s no different.

Love him
1. He’s the Dean Martin, the John Belushi at this party.
2. He would be the first Idol to produce his own album. Ask Taylor Hicks what that’s worth.
3. Don’t buy the judges’ hype that his arrangements have harmed the classics; You Keep Me Hanging On = Ode to Joy? I don’t think so.
4. If Blake wins, it’ll be like sticking another needle in the Simon kewpie doll: two straight Idols whom the judge didn’t want and can’t categorize.
5. Without Blake, the final three weeks of Season 6 would have been all diva, all the time.
JOHN TIMPE/The Times-Union

Leave him
1. It’s a singing competition, right? Put his noise-making talents aside and listen to him SING. He’s not bad, but he’s not as good as his fans (and the judges) make him out to be.
2. He wore a tuxedo T-shirt. That is not OK.
3. Without the blond highlights, he’s just not as attractive.
4. He needs to stop the “dancing.”
5. Would you honestly buy an entire CD of “ba-chick-booow-boom-boom-chi-chi-bee-boop”?
ERIN PATTERSON/The Times-Union