Catching Up - Idol First...

I'm way behind. Last week was such a busy week... I was at the church Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday night, our wedding anniversary was also Wednesday night (can you say 'doghouse'?), Jeff's bachelor party Thursday night (which may or may not have involved strippers and/or a keg), up early Friday morning to drive a few hours north and play horrible ugly wet golf, rehearsal dinner Friday night, up early for wedding music rehearsal Saturday morning, non-stop insanity through the wedding Saturday night (which may or may not have included groomsmen drawing explicit pictures on the newlyweds' car windows), driving home a few hours Saturday night, up ridiculously early Sunday morning for the first service in the new church building, immediately heading up to Joyce Park for a friendly game of baseball (aka "the best worst idea ever"), followed by cutting my grass which hadn't been cut in over 2 weeks. It was ridiculous.

(Of the above 'may or may not' statements: there were no strippers or kegs at Jeff's bachelor party, but there were unfortunate drawings on the car.)

Sunday morning at church, the power supply on the laptop died. Blogger, Yahoo Fantasy Sports and Gmail are all blocked at work. Obviously the blog has slowed down considerably of late, the fantasy teams have struggled (still dominating one league at least), and I had approximately 74,338 emails when I finally powered up the trusty old Vaio a little while ago.

I might as well give concluding thoughts on Idol now that it's over. Katharine and Taylor are both very good. (Personally, I think Elliott and Chris are both better, but that's water under the bridge at this point.) After several months of singing popular cover songs that everyone knows and loves, Katharine and Taylor were both whored out to the record labels for their final song of the competition. Both new "hit" ("barf") singles were horrible songs. I wanted to throw up in my own mouth they were so bad. But these horrible new songs proved exactly what I think should be a huge deciding factor in who wins competitions such as these: which contestant can better take a piece of crap song and make it sound (smell?) better than a piece of crap. The answer is Taylor, and thus, his victory. America got it right in the final. And the Puck-Pickler segments were high comedy. I'm done. No more Idol.

Ok, I lied... quick hits... Why is Prince popular? What is it that makes him good? I mean, I know he's past his prime and all, but isn't he just a weird freak? And how is Meat Loaf still alive? Are we sure that Meat Loaf isn't just a reincarnated Chris Farley? Did anyone else find it humorous that Taylor's duet was with Toni Braxton (Braxton-Hicks)? Is Chris Daughtry already the singer of Live? Carrie Underwood is really really good. Burt Bacharach is still the man. I listened to Daniel Powter's album all the way through twice today. Would he even be on the Top 40 radar screen without Idol? I actually am beginning to like Ryan Seacrest, although Ryan Campbell is an even better Seacrest than Seacrest. I don't think that last sentence made sense. I'm very glad Bo Bice didn't get to sing. Clay Aiken... can anyone say "extreme makeover"?

All in all, it was a mostly entertaining finale. The important part is that Taylor beat Katharine. I'm proud that America voted for a 29-year-old average-looking goofy grey-haired spazz who constantly screams "SOUL PATROL!!! SOUL PATROL!!!" over a 22-year-old young lady who was clearly trying to use sex appeal to gain votes. Even if Taylor is a little kooky, he deserved the crown over Katharine.