Idolmania - Part 2 of My Front-Row Experience

Continued from Idolmania: What's A Cynic Like Me Doing in the Front Row?

The Word Nerd won me over last week when I finally took the time to listen to his pre-Idol stuff. Jason's still my overall favorite, but as an artist I prefer D-Cook's type of music. I started out hating him, thinking he was just another Daughtry wannabe with weird hair to boot. Never did I imagine that within a few short weeks I'd find myself flirting with him on national television. Okay, so maybe the flirting didn't take place on camera exactly, but close enough. When he was waiting around for his cue during rehearsal no one seemed to be paying any attention so I decided to capitalize on this and leaned forward and waved until he waved back. From then on he acted a little interested and I couldn't help but half-wonder if he was the reason I was invited back, because the looks continued during the live show and he didn't seem surprised to see me back for round two. And ladies...his boots were GINORMOUS.



The light show truly was painfully bright, which is part of the reason I didn't enjoy the actual performance as much as most people at home seemed to. Kat turned to me and said, "time to get blinded again." The only upside of this was that it made us more visible. My face can be seen during Paula's "frontman" comment (4:01), and there are lots of shots of my back throughout.

Brooke White is my daughter's favorite, but until now I didn't see her as anything special. She really came off as being as super sweet as she's been depicted on TV, and has this angelic glow about her. She did some voice warm ups while she tuned the piano in rehearsal, and kicked off one shoe to play both times. I figured she'd just take them both off after seeing that it was going to be too tough to put the one back on quickly and gracefully (she held them in her hands during the fake judging), and when Ryan brought them over to her during the live show she kinda looked down at them not sure how to proceed. Unlike Gnarly Carly, Brooke had a pedicure recently and was sporting a peachy pink shade of polish.



Due to the angle of the piano, we could only see the top of her head during the performance, but there are shots of me (resentfully) doing the hand-wave (1:11) and looking at her during judging (3:05) because of the tears.

Hernandez had a lot of nervous energy and came off as the most vulnerable and eager to please. He was chugging a mini Dasani both times right before his song, and there was a production assistant waiting at his side to take the bottle when the time came, which looked funny. We cringed during his video when he announced his song choice, did a random Derek Zoolander impression ("Beatles 101 class") and of course made the "PIZZA BISTRO" comments. When the judges commented that he overdid it I was surprised because his performance was wayyyyyy more campy and obnoxious in rehearsal (he got a talking-to from Nigel), but now I see that they meant vocally.

Despite having the cheapest looking weave in AI history, Amanda is actually really beautiful and has perfect skin. She was also very cool to the crowd, who cheered like she was the second coming. Out of everyone, seeing her in person improved my opinion of her the most. I didn't know Taye Diggs was in the audience until I saw it on TV, although I do remember hearing his name mentioned.

As I mentioned in my review, I gave Michael a thumbs up when he said he would be singing "Across the Universe" in his video, and I received an odd look in response. I now think it's because I didn't hear the part where he went on to say that the song helped him through a painful family experience.

There I am doing a one arm hand-wave (1:40) and you can see my face a couple of times during judging (4:00, 4:38).

I had the hardest time clapping and smiling for Kristy, and I'm sure you all know why. Still, when someone is drowning right in front of you, it's hard not to toss them a life preserver, even if you don't particularly want them to catch it.

My feelings were a little different about having front-row tickets to see The Chosen One take the fall. Again, he did not forget the words during rehearsal, but it was never good. When I found a spoiler that said he'd be doing the Stevie Wonder version of "We Can Work it Out" I thought it was probably fake, because it just didn't seem like a good choice. I can't hate the poor kid, but I refuse to give into the hype.

When they rolled the re-cap at the end I could see the back of my head on the screen at the same time the East coast was seeing it (not that I think any of them were paying attention to the back of my head, mind you) and it was just weird.



At the end of the show we were told to stay put for something "very special." This ended up being footage for the results show--the taping of the top 12 lined up while we cheered, then the six guys and the six girls. Once again we were blinded by the stage lights.

I left the studio at 7:15 pm, but between traffic and stopping to pick up my daughter I didn't get home until 8:30, so I missed the beginning of the show and still have not seen the parts which cannot be found on YOUtube. (Must. Get. TiVo.)

My daughter was proud to see her mama on TV. Lately she's been annoyed with AI because she says I "talk about it too much" (LOL) but she said she'd watch just to see me and told her whole class that I was on American Idol.

People keep asking me if I'd go again if given the chance. My answer is yes, even though it involves several aspects of my idea of hell--like being crushed by the Archuleta Army, subjected to Simon's critical eye and of course, being forced to hand-wave.