Rock Candy

So, as you'll see above, Kris Allen did not own Rat Pack week on "American Idol." His voice didn't hang particularly well amidst the big band bombast, but it doesn't matter, his voting bloc ain't turning away because of one not-awesome night. Particularly, if the 1,500 hundred or so rabid fans I saw last night at the Farris Center watch party are suggestive of something broader. There was all the screaming and homemade signs and T-shirts you'd expect, but more importantly, as soon as the phone lines opened, there was a sea of cell-lit faces texting furiously.

 Of the 20 or so folks I talked to, from ages 13 to 50-something, men and women, nearly everyone voted, most to the limit of their cell phone plan. I found two who said they averaged 1,800 texts a night, one of whom said she and her husband together usually squeezed in around 4,000 texts.

The secret, I learned, is to input the Idol number in your phone book as many times as you're able and send it mass texts at once.

UPDATE: Here's MTV's report of the watch party, and the reporter's ode to Conway's Southern hospitality and the idea of Toad Suck Daze. Elsewhere, the LA Times "Idol Tracker" blog has some interesting demographic conjecture, mainly about tweens. I'm not sold on the idea that Kris Allen has the cougar bloc, but is fighting with Danny and Adam for the tween side of things.

ALSO: The Onion AV Club's Noel Murray, who lives in Conway, writes a dispatch from the watch party.