In the Beginning There Was Darkness...

It all started out innocent enough. I was stuck at home trying to repel an invasion of a determined army of ants marching around my living room, and the only thing on TV that fateful night in January 2005 was the Season 5 premiere of American Idol. This is how I documented the experience in my now-departed social blog that I had at the time:

January 17, 2005:
"I must confess that I've never been a big fan of reality TV shows. Indeed, out of protest I've deliberately avoided watching almost all of them. I think I've seen maybe 3 episodes of The Apprentice and probably half a show of Survivor way back when just to see what the hubbub was all about, but that's it. These shows just seem so stupid to me that I want to do my part to get them off the air, and this is from someone who used to watch pro wrestling shows religiously.

Then there's American Idol. I must admit that I took some interest in the show a couple years ago as a sociological study when there was all that controversy surrounding the fact that the talented African-American girls were getting voted off and a much less talented Filipina from Hawaii was still kept on. The fact that one of the girls voted off was from right here in beautiful Oakland made it almost impossible to ignore, but it was interesting to me to see, hear, and read about who people were voting for and why and how some thought there was a conspiracy to keep the Hawaii girl on and the African American girls off that I had nothing to do with how well these girls sang, but instead because of their racial identity. Thus we had a group of girls not old enough to drink booze representing different racial and ethnic groups in America in what was essentially a remake of Star Search. Fascinating stuff. Then, of course, there was the saga of William Hung, which was water cooler material at work for a number of weeks since he was a UC Berkeley student (like many of my co-workers), was from China (like some of my co-workers), and became famous because he couldn't sing worth a damn (like almost all of my co-workers dream about doing)."

"Despite my curiosity I never did actually sit down and watch the show. That is, until tonight, and I must admit it was an entertaining two hours of television. Despite the ants crawling around my living room I couldn't keep my eyes off of the TV. It amazes me to what lengths some people will go to get on television, and how some of these people actually think they have talent when it's clear to everyone except perhaps deaf people that they don't, and there were a few that even deaf people would say no to in an instant. Is this what I've been missing all these years?"

"I must confess that it is likely that I'll be watching again, at least until baseball season starts."

Little did I realize at the time that I would miss all of one episode of American Idol for the next two years. Thus began the saga that led to the creation of this blog (the fact that my favorite baseball team has stunk for the last 2 years probably helped). I decided that year that I would post comments after the show each week as if I were the 4th American Idol judge. Slowly the format evolved into a cavalcade of good times as I used my podium to bash the contestants, the judges, Ryan Seacrest, the guest mentors (especially the mentors), Chris Daughtry, and finally myself as I tried to predict who would be voted off the next night. I'm still proud yet disappointed that I predicted Daughtry's departure the night before it was announced.

Now that my social blog has passed on to the next realm (as have the ants, at least for now anyway) I've created this new blog to continue the fun and frivolity. To whet the appetite I'll be posting my judging from both Seasons 5 and 6 here until January when lucky Season #7 starts. I hope that those of you who've found this blog enjoy what I'll be writing as much as I'll enjoy typing it, though it'll mean no social contact on Tuesday nights for about 5 months.