Thursday, July 12, 2007

Why don't you listen?

OK, so clearly you people have not listened to me about the whole Tara Oram/Canadian Idol thing. I asked you, heck even begged and pleaded with people, to just ignore the show. Turn it off, go out and have a drink. And if you felt any guilt about not being there to support a Newfoundland girl in her attempts to get fame and fortune...go downtown and watch a band play. Or go buy a Colleen Power CD.

Then again, you should all be buying Colleen Power CDs anyway.

But noooo, you went and sat in front of the TV and watched Idol and then scrambled off to payphones or whipped out your cell phones and began the same doomed campaign that’s happened each year for the past five years – trying to get a Newfoundlander to win a reality TV show talent contest.

Good on ya, she’s in the Top 10. I now wash my hands of all you. Go begin your silly campaign to have her win the show. Organize your little armies to make sure as many Newfoundlanders as possible can vote for her. Be sure to call VOCM’s Open Line when you can’t get through and darkly mention conspiracies against Newfoundlanders by Aliant, CTV and Stephen Harper.

"It's bad enough he doesn't give us the offshore revenues, Randy, but now he won't even give us an Idol winner."

And God help us all if she makes it to the final two and loses. By all means, feel free to lose your shit and please make sure it gets picked up by national media who will once again wonder if we’re not all retarded for believing our identity as Newfoundlanders is some how tied to the success of a person on this show.

This is the best part, though. When she doesn’t win, promptly forget she ever existed and repeat again next summer with the next helpless victim of this show’s grist mill. How are Craig Sharpe and Jason Greeley doing these days? Buy many of their records lately?

I despair sometimes. I really do.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've read your blog for at least a year and I must say I enjoy it.
But this entire rant of Canadian Idol is getting on my last nerve.

Jason Greeley and Craig Sharpe are doing fine. They may not be living the industry lifestyle but they got a chance to live their dream. Is that so wrong?

I'm not one of these people that run out and vote on payphones or vote for that matter. However, my mom did for both Jason, Craig and Rex. My family is from Upper Island Cove. I can tell you this, she is not retarded even though I feel she may at times take it too seriously! It's not my place or your place to judge the people that do. Are they really hurting anyone?

towniebastard said...

Yeah, I think they are. Not catastrophic harm, but I think this show does more harm than good in most cases. And by supporting the show and contributing to its success, then local people are indirectly doing harm.

How? I think whatever experience that many of the musicians get from being on the show is offset in many cases by the fact they are forever tainted in the music industry for having been on the show. Contestants are not respected in the music industry. At all.

Are they living their dream? Four months of glory and then mostly spat out, abandoned and forgotten even by the people who were fanatical in their initial support? That's the dream?

My resentment comes in two ways: First, that people don't pay enough attention to local talent in their own backyard. There's so much struggling to get noticed and be successful in the province, but people don't go to their shows or buy their music. But stick them on a crappy reality show and suddenly they're beloved.

I honestly wonder how Jason Greeley hasn't lost his mind. Going from bar singer, to 6,000 screaming fans on George Street to playing at the Atlantic Trap and Gill in Edmonton on a regular basis in that short a period.

And finally, as I've said, people lose their shit on a biblical scale over this show. I wouldn't mind the ignoring of local talent so much if I wasn't seeing national stories with people whining that Newfoundlanders were being screwed over because we didn't win Canadian Idol.

I love my province, but I die a little inside when I see foolishness like that. So if I can't get people to act sensible, then I'd just as soon there be no Newfoundlanders on the show, to at least reduce the possibility of seeing one more national story that makes me want to bang my head off a wall.

A long answer and, I suspect, it will make you no happier with me. But I do appreciate that you like and read the blog on a regular basis. Sorry we disagree on this point.

Anonymous said...

Good posting. I agree with your comments on Idol. I just don't get the appeal. And the Open Line crowd going nuts every year is out to lunch and embarrassing. However, I disagree with you on Colleen Power. I have not seen her live but seen her numerous times on Rogers Cable channel 9. I find her voice pitchy. I think there is better locally. But I do get your point on supporting local talent. There is lots of good stuff here to see live and listen to on CD!