Politics versus popular culture

I watched American Idol last night rather than listen to the blather of idiots talking about the Democratic Primary Election in Pennsylvania.  It was a lot more fun.  Go David Cook!

This is the first season of American Idol that I have ever watched.  I just never got around to it before.  Before this past year, I didn't watch television more than a couple of hours a week.  Then my roommate had my television connected to his Dish-thingey.  Now I get three or four hundred channels in high definition.  Lucky me.  Whereas I used to read about a dozen books a month, now I struggle to read two or three.  I don't just casually watch AI, I watch it with half a dozen dedicated Idol enthusists.  We have a pool of sorts with a nice chuck of change to the person who successfully predicts the season's winner.  The rules of the pool requried our picks be made when the the top dozen contestants were chosen.  There are six contestants left on American Idol:  Syesha Mercado, Carly Smithson, Brooke White, Jason Castro, David Archuletta, and David Cook.  My money is on David Cook.  I've also made money on side bets over who gets eliminated each week. 

Bye bye, Brooke.  She stumbled over the lyrics, and if my memory serves me correctly, this is the second time she's done that.  The first time it was less obvious, but the one last night was bad.  I'm not a fan of hers.  She's pretty and has loads of talent, but is totally lacking in charisma.  She has appeared to be on the edge of tears since her opening audition.  Tonight when she's sent home, I expect gushers.  Somebody wake me up when she's left the stage.

I'm also ready for Jason Castro to go away.  He annoys me much the same way Tiny Tim annoyed me back in the 70s.  Anybody remember him?  Think tip toe through the tulips.  Maybe it was his rendition of Somewhere Over the Rainbow while accompanying himself on the ukele.  To be fair, Jason can sing better than that, but he is about as vapid as I've ever seen on national television.  His is so vapid that he gives stoner's everywhere a bad image.  He had never heard of Andrew Lloyd Webber before American Idol.  By his own admission, he has never seen a staged musical.  I'm willing to go out on a limb here and say he's probably never seen nor heard an opera.  Mitigating in his favor have been his incredible blue eyes.  They're startling.  Simon (yes, that one) said a few weeks ago that if AI were on radio rather than television, Castro would never have made it as far.  I think he's going to be around for a few more weeks because he has connected to a fan base.  I have no idea who those people are, and I wish they'd stop it so we can be rid of this annoying creature.

In my cynicism, I suspect the producers of American Idol of manipulating the results somehow in order to achieve a pre-ordained outcome.  Was it coincidental that half a dozen of the final contestants are rock singers?  Right now I suspect them of working overtime to keep one or two of the women around to the final showdown between Archuletta and Cook. 

David Archuletta is a very sweet and tender White, Mormon Michael Jackson.  He's been trained and groomed by his stage father since he was in diapers.  He comes across as an innocent.  Maybe he is.  He has a promising voice, but I don't feel any emotional connection to his singing.  All of his songs have sort of a sameness to them.  He is, however, technically proficient and incredibly cute.  I suspect he's a ringer, though.  He won Star Search a few years ago, so he didn't exactly wake up one day and say, maybe I'll do American Idol.  He's got a huge following among pubescent girls.  They recognize one of their own.

My favorite is David Cook.  He has an interesting voice, and most importantly, he sells his song.  I actually went on iTunes and bought his recording of Billie Jean, a song made famous by Michael Jackson back in the 80s.  David did a version of the song arranged by Chris Connell.  He got a bit of bad buzz on the Internet because credit was not given to Connell for the arrangement and it appeared that the judges thought is was David's own.  David also has a charismatic stage presence.  Whether he wins American Idol or not, we're going to have plenty of opportunities to enjoy his music.  He's here to stay.

So there's my take on American Idol.  On the other side of the television dial we had the same inane crap being spewed by the many commentators of news as entertainment.  Last night's buzz word was "close the sale."  Obama just can't "close the sale."  That phrase was used on all networks about once every two or three minutes, all night long.  They were still braying it this morning as well.

These commentators are more like town gossips than anything else.  That they influence the outcome in any way whatsoever speaks to the tragedy of our system of politics.  Gossips have the ability to influence people's perceptions.  The pundit-gossips have determined for us that Hillary's a bitch, Obama's an unpatriotic, secret Muslim who can't "close the sale," and that John McCain is an "independent maverick" that relates to Joe Six-Pack because despite the fact that he's married into incredible wealth and has never had a job off the public payroll, he is not "elitist" like the Democrats.  This same group of gossips determined that Dubya was a regular guy, unlike that blowhard Gore and that Frenchified Kerry.  And people keep eating it up, election cycle after election cycle. 

Fuck this shit.  I'm going back to American Idol. 

Comments

[Kathy]

I've been too busy these days to pay attention to AI or the rampant politicking (operation chaos seems an apt term somehow) but I did get the chance to watch the debates on April 16. There were a number of things that bothered me about that debate.

But then there it was, the reason that I will never, ever, ever vote for Obama, ever:

Gibson: in each instance, when the rate dropped, revenues from the tax increased. The government took in more money. And in the 1980s, when the tax was increased to 28 percent, the revenues went down. So why raise it at all, especially given the fact that 100 million people in this country own stock and would be affected?

Obama: Well, Charlie, what I've said is that I would look at raising the capital-gains tax for purposes of fairness. We saw an article today which showed that the top 50 hedge fund managers made $29 billion last year -- $29 billion for 50 individuals. And part of what has happened is that those who are able to work the stock market and amass huge fortunes on capital gains are paying a lower tax rate than their secretaries. That's not fair.

...

Gibson: But history shows that when you drop the capital-gains tax, the revenues go up.

...

Mr. Obama, if you raised revenues, isn't it possible you could use at least some of that money to fund some of your social program of the week, or to bail out the folks for whom the reduced capital gains tax is taking advantage of?

I just wish that Mr. Obama realized that struggling families like ours own stock too, and that a family of four making $100K/year in California is far from "rich". And that's not taking into account the medical bills.

As a matter of fact, we refi'ed our home less than a month before hubby lost his job and took money out to be reinvested in stocks because it seemed like stocks were better than real estate.

And we got an undocumented loan, and with the drop in real estate the amount of our current loan is pretty damn close to what we owe now.

But I promise you we will make whatever sacrifices we need to to prevent foreclosure if it ever comes to that.

And if they bail out the idiot mortgage companies who extended loans they should never have extended to people who didn't have the ability to pay, oh well.

If Mr. Obama is really interested in punishing the hedge fund crowd, he should be adamantly opposed to bailing out the mortgage companies, because it's the hedge fund folks who will win in that transaction.

Just what I've come to believe, those clowns don't, and apparently will never, represent me.

And my personal hero this week is Rep. Douglas Bruce.

Now I will get back to my other life struggles. I only wish I had more time to devote to AI, but I guess there's no sleep for the wicked.

[Houston Bridges]

Vote for whomever you want for whatever reason, Kathy. Obama's opinion about taxes is not what has this country in such a crisis. You should worry more about the trillion dollar bill for Bush's adventure in Iraq that John McCain thinks is a good way to commit American resources.

Are you that detached from reality, Kathy?

Right now I'd vote for a yellow dog if it were being run as a Democrat. The Republican Party, in complete control of all three branches of our government, have run run this country into the ground. But at least those damn homosexuals can't get married.

Sorry, Kathy, no pass on this one. If you're going to fall in line like a good little Republican, then take some responsibility for the mess this country is in.

Anybody would be better than George Bush, but Jesus fucking christ, let's go forward and not backwards. McCain? Dear sweet Jesus in heaven. The man's an absolute idiot, and a psychopath to boot.

Like paying $4 for a gallon of gasoline? Get used to it. The Republican Party had 7 years of total control of this country, and what did they do to get the country ready for this? What?

Seven years, Kathy, seven years. What did they do in those seven years? Is the world safer? Are we healthier? Are we happier? You dislike Barack Obama's answer to one question so much that you'd condemn this country to another four years of the same miserable shit?

I don't care if you vote for the same candidates or the same party that I choose, but for chrissake, hold the politicians you vote for accountable. Tell your legislator that holding down taxes is one thing, but educating the next generation of Californians has to be a priority. FIND A WAY! It's not just about not raising taxes. It's about solving problems. You are poorly served by your political party.

Am I better served by mine? Oh hell yes. I'd go on, but I'm late for a meeting.

It's not that I don't care who wins the Democratic nomination for President, but I cannot afford to worry about it too much. Another four years of Republicans in charge of our federal judiciary will be a disaster of tremendous proportions that will touch each of our lives. There is much at stake.

[Darren]

Wow good stuff, You really know what your talking about, I will be adding you to my news feed to come back and see what you have been adding to this wonderful write up :)