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I am certain that it was the day-before-classes-start malaise that made me tune in to Fox tonight for American Idol. I haven't seen one episode of it before tonight, and frankly, based on the concept alone, I didn't think that it would hold much appeal. Honestly, I didn't plan on watching the whole thing, just enough to convince myself that I was right in not caving in to radio DJs and workmates and students going on and on and on about it in past seasons.
The biggest shock for me was how many people with voices heinous enough to make one's ears bleed, voices that sound less like they are singing and more like a yak giving birth, are 100% convinced that they have not just average or passable or good voices but GREAT voices. People who think that the judges just got it all wrong by cutting them. Unfuckingbelievable.
I sing in the car. Often. I was in chorus in middle school. I don't have a great voice, and I know it, and even when I was young enough to qualify, I would never, ever, ever just think, "Gee, perhaps I'll audition for American Idol." It pays to know one's limits.
The thing that surprised me most is the length people will go to just for the chance that they might get to audition. One guy who was not accepted was outside begging for spare change because he was totally broke. Another woman pawned her wedding rings for $200 to be able to stay in DC long enough to audition. She made the cut.
Yes, yes. Ambition, drive, being focused on your goals and willing to sacrifice for them: all qualities that are laudable. However, this seems like pawning your wedding rings to buy lottery tickets. One person out of 100,000 (or something like that) will actually win the contest.
Ummm, not that I plan on watching the show religiously or anything. Errr, certainly not.
My greatest fear-besides the fact that I might have to keep watching to see what happens-is that I will watch the show that shot here in Cleveland, every last horrifying performance captured on film, and then I will walk into class, and I will see my town's equivalent of Mary Roach sitting there. She'd be in the front row, naturally, and she'd be smiling at me.
Until I critiqued and graded one of her papers. And then...
The biggest shock for me was how many people with voices heinous enough to make one's ears bleed, voices that sound less like they are singing and more like a yak giving birth, are 100% convinced that they have not just average or passable or good voices but GREAT voices. People who think that the judges just got it all wrong by cutting them. Unfuckingbelievable.
I sing in the car. Often. I was in chorus in middle school. I don't have a great voice, and I know it, and even when I was young enough to qualify, I would never, ever, ever just think, "Gee, perhaps I'll audition for American Idol." It pays to know one's limits.
The thing that surprised me most is the length people will go to just for the chance that they might get to audition. One guy who was not accepted was outside begging for spare change because he was totally broke. Another woman pawned her wedding rings for $200 to be able to stay in DC long enough to audition. She made the cut.
Yes, yes. Ambition, drive, being focused on your goals and willing to sacrifice for them: all qualities that are laudable. However, this seems like pawning your wedding rings to buy lottery tickets. One person out of 100,000 (or something like that) will actually win the contest.
Ummm, not that I plan on watching the show religiously or anything. Errr, certainly not.
My greatest fear-besides the fact that I might have to keep watching to see what happens-is that I will watch the show that shot here in Cleveland, every last horrifying performance captured on film, and then I will walk into class, and I will see my town's equivalent of Mary Roach sitting there. She'd be in the front row, naturally, and she'd be smiling at me.
Until I critiqued and graded one of her papers. And then...