{"id":932,"date":"2006-04-30T19:28:46","date_gmt":"2006-05-01T00:28:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/idolatry\/"},"modified":"2006-05-01T08:07:31","modified_gmt":"2006-05-01T13:07:31","slug":"idolatry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/idolatry","title":{"rendered":"Idolatry"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m a late convert to American Idol<\/a>. The official VM wife had been extolling the program’s vices for a while, but I never gave it a shot until this season. It’s turned out to be pretty darned entertaining, especially with Dave White’s commentary<\/a> over at The Advocate (so my wife reads The Advocate; is that so wrong?). And the Spoonbender’s preview<\/a> is always a hoot.<\/p>\n

I discovered that nothing can match the lunacy and self-delusion of the first few weeks of auditions, when clueless people try to sing their way onto the show. My boss thinks I’m a bad person for enjoying these so much, but I figure, “You sign your waiver, you take your chances.”<\/p>\n

Anyway, the season’s been pretty enjoyable, but it started to slow down in the last few weeks, as more of the novelty acts got voted off the show. (Sure, there was the train wreck of a night where the contestants had to perform songs by Queen, but it’s otherwise been pretty sluggish.) <\/p>\n

And then there was last Tuesday’s episode.<\/p>\n

The contestants had to sing “great love songs,” as coached by Andrea Bocelli and his producer. Not promising in itself, the episode was redeemed by the sight of Paula Abdul breaking down in tears after a guy’s performance. She tried to talk about some sort of “triumph of the human spirit” moment, but she was just incoherent and crying. What made this more perfect was the mid-range camera shot, in which we saw co-judge Simon Cowell trying to stifle his laughter. Inspired.<\/p>\n

Anyway, I bring this up because there’s a neat article in the NYTimes about the history of show’s own audition<\/a>, when it was being pitched to every network in America. And to admit that I watch American Idol.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m a late convert to American Idol. The official VM wife had been extolling the program’s vices for a while, but I never gave it a shot until this season. It’s turned out to be pretty darned entertaining, especially with Dave White’s commentary over at The Advocate (so my wife reads The Advocate; is that … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Idolatry”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s4C7K-idolatry","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1399,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/be-funny-for-me","url_meta":{"origin":932,"position":0},"title":"Be funny for me!","author":"Gil","date":"March 20, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"As longtime readers (and friends) know, I can be tremendously boring. Fortunately, my readers (and friends) are plenty funny. Writes my buddy Tina, \"Read a news article today. I don't know if I'd believe this particular advocate. . .\" A self-inserted vaginal ring that protects from pregnancy for three weeks\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Pharmaceuticals"","block_context":{"text":"Pharmaceuticals","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business\/pharmaceuticals"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6033,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/who-am-i-16","url_meta":{"origin":932,"position":1},"title":"Who Am I?","author":"Gil","date":"June 21, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm the guy who spoke to three people today: my wife, the cashier at the Baja Express on Rt. 23, and the communications director at a major pharmaceutical company, who called to let me know that the person I interviewed at her company 3 weeks ago for a 2-page feature\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1177,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/one-of-the-side-effects-is-that-it-makes-you-sound-like-a-self-absorbed-douchebag","url_meta":{"origin":932,"position":2},"title":"One of the side-effects is that it makes you sound like a self-absorbed douchebag","author":"Gil","date":"October 30, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"It seems that some people in the military are not fans of the mandatory anthrax vaccine (AVA): U.S. Air Force Judge Advocate Captain Kelli Donley developed Idiopathic Spinal Cerebellar Ataxia after receiving the AVA anthrax vaccine. The disease impaired her brain function and motor skills, a U.S. Air Force Medical\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":869,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/honeymoonin","url_meta":{"origin":932,"position":3},"title":"Honeymoonin’","author":"Gil","date":"March 14, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Flew to San Francisco last night, via Houston, picked up our rental, and drove on up to Sonoma. For our first dinner as husband and wife, we stopped at the In-N-Out Burger on 101 north of SF. Now we're staying in an artsy villa with a really weak wireless connection\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "California"","block_context":{"text":"California","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/travel\/california"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1964,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/what-it-is-32408","url_meta":{"origin":932,"position":4},"title":"What it is: 3\/24\/08","author":"Gil","date":"March 24, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"What I'm reading:Little Nothings: The Curse of the Umbrella, by Lewis Trondheim What I'm listening to: Drunk with Passion, This is How it Feels, and Pure, all by the Golden Palominos What I'm watching: Blades of Glory, unfortunately What I'm drinking: Not a durned thing Where I'm going: Philadelphia, for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Comic books & strips"","block_context":{"text":"Comic books & strips","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature\/comics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1561635235","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4088,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/rufus-see-well","url_meta":{"origin":932,"position":5},"title":"Rufus See Well","author":"Gil","date":"June 16, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week (?) (seriously, I can't keep track of days anymore), the police officer who handled the report for Rufus' dog-attack case stopped by. Because of that letter I got from the Akita's owners stating that Rufus had walked into their yard, I wanted to check with the officer that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis"","block_context":{"text":"Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/adventures-in-rufus-and-or-otis"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}