Well the new season of American Idol debuted tonight. I'd like to say my wife forced me to watch it this evening but that would be a lie. She in fact was at her monthly book club meeting and I was alone on the couch watching (but I did wait until after the Lakers game lest you think me totally void of machismo!).
I'm pretty sure I've brought this up in the past but why in the world is it that folks who are totally terrible at singing think they are good singers? It baffles me. After much thinking on the subject I've realized that I am asking the wrong question. The real question is "why won't anyone tell their loved ones they are bad singers?" If it were a guitar competition would it be different? Is it easier to tell a loved one they are a poor guitarist than a poor singer? I wonder. The human voice is such an intimate and powerful instrument that people are willing to embarrass themselves rather than admitting they stink. That probably sounds arrogant coming from a musician but I just calls em' like I sees em'.
You know what is similar? Poker. A few years ago when poker was the hottest thing around everybody you met who knew a flush from a straight would tell you how great of a poker player they were. But with poker it makes sense why nobody would tell you if you were any good or not, doesn't it? ...
Things have been pretty quiet around here. I've been spending a lot of time with Milo just chilling out, watching sports, and gearing up for our Hawaii trip. Spoke to Dad tonight, we are all really excited for the visit.
Speaking of nobody realizing how bad they are at something, George Dubya Bush will be out of the White House in eight days! Oh, happy day! To celebrate (kind of ...) please check out this list of 128 Failures of the Bush Administration. There are some real doozies in there. Have fun! It will all be over soon!
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9 months ago
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9 comments:
It will be interesting to see how many of those 128 items President Obama is able to fix... without raising taxes and/or the deficit.
When did he promise that he wouldn't raise either? Or did I miss something?
We bounced between Idol and Biggest Looser. Funny, seems there were some big loosers on idol. I was amazed at how they were able to fill two hours of idol, just dragging us on until the good people duke it out.
Oh yeah, we all know I'm a better poker player than you. And to quote Booger, "Frush, what the F@!* is a frush?"
Oh, you just CAN'T tell someone you don't like their voice! It'd be too terrible! And it's heartbreaking if somebody does tell you your voice is off. I mean, you have to be a real a-hole to tell someone who's singing from their heart that the sound is anything less than joyful. I guess the good news is that these over-confident singers just have some really supportive friends and family. The bad news is, they're so supportive that when their friend gets "promoted" to see the "panel", they just don't have it in them to say, "You know, two types of people get promoted - people who are really great and people that are made fun of. Are you 100% certain they're not going to make fun of you?"
Blogger KHM said...
You know what I think? Very many of the folks who we see on the auditions actually KNOW they suck, have no chance; they think it will be *fun* to audition and get a little camera time. I also think the producers encourage that behavior. I'm watching night two now ( I hate these early episodes) and with a reported 11,000 people to audition in Kansas City we'd have to be silly to think that the lot consists of the folks who make it through (frankly some stinkers there) and the ridiculous. I'll bet the majority of the folks who audition are actually fair enough singers who just aren't competitive in the American Idol paradigm. We never see those folks. As much as this is a "singing" contest there's much more than that being sought: a look, a marketable package, the "Idol"-ness of the singer. Need proof? The best singer has YET to win a single season of the show. It totally pisses me off the way it skews the public's notion of what musical talent is.
I love to hate American Idol. But I hate it much more than I love it. Particularly this stage: the circus of freaks looking for their few seconds of camera time.
Kelly, I'm glad you see things the way I do. My question is why is it such a big deal? I can tell someone they aren't any good at basketball and they wouldn't get offend, tell them they can't sing and its a heart breaker.
And I'm sure the producers encourage those who suck to make and ass of themselves. Sad. But funny!
And just to touch on Don's point again, I actually voted for Obama because he said he was going to raise taxes and is under no illusions that the deficit will inflate with his bailout plan. I don't know where the confusion is.
I guess because it's so personal - if you're playing basketball, for example, it's somehow external - but with singing, it's like an expression of your soul - to say someone is a bad singer is like to say their a bad person.
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