blog cacophonySteroids or voting scandal? Petulant, whiny prima donnas who play a game for millions a year, or overeager amateurs trying to win a recording contract?
I'll be in Denver this week attending the United Way's annual leadership conference. It's a terrific conference, with great speakers. The dillemma is on Tuesday night.
I am attending as both an advisory council member and a Gold Sponsor. The advisory council has group tickets to Tuesday's Dodgers v Rockies game and is a fun group to go out with. The Gold Sponsors have tickets to a sky box for the same game. But then I'd have to miss American Idol.
I can't explain why I like Idol so much. I'm not a freak about it--I never vote, I don't read the idolsonfox.com web site, I don't really care who wins. But I really like the show. When I was in college, I tried out for the UC Men's Octet even though I'd never had any singing lessons, voice coaching, or anything like that. They gave me two chances. The first time, I sang in the wrong key. The second time, I sang quite well but ended with the melody instead of the harmony line I was supposed to sing. Fortunately, they had a dozen other hopefuls, most of whom sang really well. Anyway, they were nice and gracious and didn't make fun of me. And I'm glad I tried... and I'm really glad they held the auditions in a closed session instead of in front of FOX's TV cameras.
On the other side, I can't exactly explain why I despise major league baseball. OK, yes I can. The game is boring. Ticket prices are astronomical, as are prices for food, parking, souvenirs, merchandise, etc. The players make far too much money. Free agency has robbed the game of any consistency of rosters for more than about six months at a time. And at this time of year, besides a few column-inches and a photo or two of the NBA and NHL playoffs, baseball gets the entire sports section. I am mostly ignoring the whole steroids hullaballoo because I mostly try to ignore the entire sport anyway. Add to this the fact that Little League turns normal parents into crazy bitches from hell this time of year and that if your little boy doesn't play little league everyone thinks you're gay, communist, or a devil-worshipper (or that your little boy is "special needs"), and I think I know exactly why I hate the "sport."
So, my dillemma: Do I stay in the hotel room and watch Idol and try to get some revision in on my novel, or do I go out with the gang and pump up the machine with United Way's money, or do I go to the sky box to be a good corporate drone and get the red carpet treatment?
Decisions, decisions.
May 14, 2006
MLB vs Idol
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7 comments:
1. Do you think I have turned into one of those "crazy bitches"??
2. Skybox. Definitely Skybox. I don't think Denver is going to be all that warm and the chairs are way better in the skybox. Bring your laptop.
no, Gracie, you're not a crazy bitch, at least not about baseball.
I love going to the ball games but for me it is all about the food and the cute boys.
The sky box was fun, though somehow I got stuck in the suite without the dignitaries. They were down the hall in another suite. Coors Field is a very nice ball park. The hot dogs are decent, but the pizza was just OK.
Most surprising was that we had an assortment of bad beers, not just Coors and Coors light.
The Idol episode was one of those take it or leave it ones anyway in my opinion!
As far as baseball and a kid's social status, it's ok -- ours will be doing sailing and tennis. The truly macho sports.
Please tell me that your kids play soccer! I don't care if my kids like the game or not; I still shove them out on the field.
(Actually, I'm lucky - they love to play soccer.)
And I have one other confession to make - please, no banning me from your blog for what I'm about to admit - I don't like to watch American Idol.
There, I've said it.
All of the guys and girls sing the same (or try to). The vocals are all booming and over-done. It's worse than watching Mime Jugglers on Star Search (and although Star Search gave us LeAnn Rimes, it also gave us Britney Spears). The only interesting part of the show is the auditions. Other than that, I watch occasionally just to see who is surviving. Paula is crying and acting weird, Randy is...Randy, and Simon is giving honest evaluations of the performances. Actually, American Idol is like Survivor, except the people on Survivor get to vote each other off.
Why on Earth would I ban 33% of my audience?
Anyway, LOTS of people don't like American Idol. Nothing wrong with that.
As to soccer: the little one plays, the other doesn't really. Not much into team sports. But the little one... small and fast, like his dear ole papa. Unfortunately, both he and I have the natural sensibilities of a sweeper. But pair us up with a good, tall stopper and you've got a great central back pair.
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