100% All-Natural Content
No Artificial Intelligence!

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

I hope and pray...

...that this lady they keep showing as they go to commercial on American Idol tonight isn't from Reidsville.

This is one of the most bizarre installments of Idol that I've ever seen.

EDIT 9:53 PM EST:She wasn't from Reidsville (thank goodness), but Ronetta sure didn't do Charlotte any favors. That was genuinely painful to watch, but only because this was a symptom of one of the worst things about American character: our unhealthy obsession with the cult of the celebrity. People believe too much that they have to be famous before they have a real identity of their own. Contrast Ronetta's attitude with that of those that have gone far on American Idol: none of them come to mind that didn't have some degree of humbleness and proper perspective.

EDIT 10:11 PM EST: These posts at Free Republic probably say it best:

To: retrokitten

To all NC freepers....we'll pretend this never happened....

2,358 posted on 01/24/2006 6:59:56 PM PST by mystery-ak


To: mystery-ak

What happens in NC stays in NC. :)

2,363 posted on 01/24/2006 7:00:36 PM PST by beandog (Poor, poor Pinkos. Beat at your own little game)

EDIT 10:20 PM EST: May have had some serious differences with the operators of this site before, but the live thread for American Idol at Free Republic has been a hilarious commentary to read alongside these auditions. Well worth checking out.

EDIT 10:34 PM EST: Enter "Kellie Pickler" into Google and right now only 79 returns come up. But already she's got fan websites popping up (Kellie Pickler Fans and Kellie Pickler Online came up immediately). She had one of those bio videos too... meaning she's probably made it into the semifinalists round.

EDIT 10:44 PM EST: The girl from Eden who got through to Hollywood is named Halicia Thompson. And she sang really well. Hope she goes far.

EDIT 10:47 PM EST: Can't recall the guy's name off the top of my head, but the dude from Salter Path (it's a village on the Outer Banks near Morehead City) did very good.

EDIT 10:51 PM EST: Fox 8 WGHP is running footage they shot during the auditions, stuff they've been saving for now. Simon Cowell got to celebrate his birthday here in Greensboro (complete with a cake decorated with the Idol logo). One clip has Ryan Seacrest going into the Stamey's barbecue restaurant on High Point Road, across the street from the Coliseum. Turns out that Simon was eager to eat some real southern fried chicken and beans.

The sound I'm hearing outside my window is that of thousands of my fellow Greensborians running out to get sedatives. Randy said at one point tonight that this was the "weirdest show" they'd ever done. I remember last year's auditions in New Orleans and that was pretty nutty, but I'm hard-pressed to disagree with Randy's assessment. There were times tonight that me and Lisa's mouths was literally hanging wide-open in stunned disbelief... we were like "this can't be our town... can it?"

But all in all, I think tonight was a lot of fun to watch, and maybe poke some fun at ourselves in this neck of the woods. And there were some low points, but there was also some really brilliant talent that is representing us in this competition, and I'm going to really enjoy seeing how far they go.

And, THAT is all I think I'm going to post about tonight's edition of American Idol featuring auditions here in Greensboro. 'Twas great that this lil' burg was the most-watched town in the country, if only for two hours. Lord help us if this show ever rolls into town again though :-P

EDIT 11:18 PM EST: The guy from Salter Path, NC is named Jeffrey "Ryan" Baysden. And he had a really curious accent. He sounds almost English/Australian. But very strong singing voice.

5 comments:

Jackie S. said...

Heh. It can't stay in NC. It's nationwide. Who woulda thunk it? Love your observations. But it's too late to hide some of the non-talents of Greensboro! ;-)

Chris Knight said...

So many good things about Greensboro... and then tonight happens. We're never gonna live this down :-)

Anonymous said...

about Ryan's accent. Out on the coast there is a group of people who's accent is like that. I saw a thing on PBS about dialect in NC and it was really intersting.

Chris Knight said...

Hey Geoff,
I think you might be talking about "Voices of North Carolina". The same guys who made that also did "Mountain Talk", which you absolutely have to watch just because Popcorn Sutton is featured in it: do a Google search on him and see what you turn up :-)

Anonymous said...

Yup, that's a real accent. They all sound like pseudo-Aussie accents UNTIL you get them next to an Australian. My guy's from Harker's Island, and they call his accent "Harkenese". People always ask where he's from and think he's from down under automatically. They ask him to "say something in Australian." Then he actually met an Aussie who said "THAT's not Australian." Boy it was interesting to hear the two talk. Typical phrases of this area include, "Boys, I swear," which is used in any situation they think is funny and "Is that all," when they hear something shocking. The Idol contestant Jeffrey is actually related to my boyfriend by marriage (but then again, he jokes they're ALL related.) It's his brother-in-law's nephew.