Thursday, October 4, 2007

Idol Worship

I'm not an American Idol fan. I was going to say that I don't have anything against the show, but now that I think about it, that's not exactly true. I actively dislike the show. Even though I don't watch it, it's so ingrained in our culture that I know who Kelly Clarkson and William Hung are, and there's a big black guy named Reuben who should have wowed me. From what I've seen on YouTube videos and in the quick flip-by glimpses on television, there are two types of contestants: the laughable and the annoying. I don't enjoy laughing at people who can't sing, because I have them all beat in terms of poor singing talent. And of the decent contestants, most of them have the same melismatic pop style derived from the likes of Christina Aguilera, which is not a good thing in my book. Instead of hitting one note, why not run through a bunch of notes? I blame it on Jimi Hendrix and his ridiculous rendition of the national anthem at Woodstock. Now everyone has to show off their range of notes. Oh say does that star spangled banner yet wa - hay - HAY - hay - HAY - ave . . .


That said, a co-worker sent me this link of a phone salesman who thinks he can sing opera. I liked it, corniness and all.


8 comments:

  1. why does listening to that make me feel like weeping?

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  2. andy--because it's that time of month for you?

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  3. Bob, check this out:

    http://www.sltrib.com/faith/ci_7098024

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  4. I read that article, Botched. I don't really like the idea of belonging to a post-Mormon group, but I'm not against it either. However, I now have a handy label for myself when I'm in Utah. If someone asks me if I'm Mormon, I'll say, "Post-Mormon." Ah.

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  5. "We choose to no longer base our lives, and the lives of our children, on so-called truths dictated by others,"

    This 'mission statement' of the group just kills me, because no one imposed their 'so called truths' on me more than did my vehementlty anti-religion PhD advisor. --and I'm not talking about religion here.

    Who (living in the 1st world) gets to live life free from the imposition of what other people feel to be correct?

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  6. I suppose there are varying degrees of imposition. In this case, the post-Mormons don't like their entire world view dictated to them in such black and white terms. For myself, I wanted to stay in the Mormon church because it was my only opportunity for genuine community worship (and it still is), but there isn't much wiggle room for honest dissent. That said, the whole mission statement cracked me up too. It seems so sincere and respectful as to be laughable.

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  7. I saw this on my guilty pleasure of Perez Hilton a month or so ago. I myself wept when I first saw it. I know he's no Pavarotti, but - well, he seems like the kind of guy that everyone would just walk by at that cell phone kiosk in the mall and never give a second look, but here he has this lovely singing voice. And he seems so heartbreakingly sincere and unassuming. It makes me sniffle for every unsung artist in the world. Also, the reaction of the pop tart female judge makes me want to lift her over my knee and break her in half. She is why I hate reality tv shows.

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  8. Reality TV is not realy reality. I realy, realy think it sucks in the most suckitive way possible.
    Boz

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