"Less Talk, More Rock"

Before last night's finale, I couldn't have cared less for American Idol.

I'm sorry, were you expecting more?

There are many things about this show I don't like, but I will admit to watching only the first two or three episodes of the show each season, due purely to the scads of horrendous singers that continue to try out, invariably to be rejected via increasingly demeaning methods — although this season, the teasing crossed a few too many homophobic, sexist and racist lines for me to tune in again at the outset of next year's competition.

Well...maybe. Those poor ignorant fools who have no clue they can't sing are just too entertaining to pass up.

But, today while Connor and I were getting tore up from the floor up at the playground, I suddenly discovered a positive side to the otherwise banal television show: it gives parents something to talk about at gatherings.

While Connor and I sat digging in the dirt, several other parents with children arrived at the playground. While their children played, almost all of these parents huddled in the shade at a picnic table, waiting for their children to tire out so they could leave (a subject worth of a separate entry, for sure). They all sat stonefaced until someone mentioned American Idol. You would have thought that these people knew each other their whole lives the way they were prattling on about who should have won, who is secretly gay, who should wind up sleeping with the fishes, and so on.

Since few people seem to keep up with world events anymore (more people cast a vote for an "American Idol" last night than for any American president), and many of those who do are getting their "news" from a biased source (cough-Fox News-cough) so we need something in common, right?

I guess we could talk about the weather.


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By the way, since this blog has become something of a job, I am taking a well-deserved, two-week vacation to remodel the basement, stain the deck and maybe make another baby.

Deal with that image for two weeks.

See you back here on June 12.