Tag Archives: American Idol

Does this kind of life look interesting to you? Apparently, for an American Idol alum, the answer is “Yes”

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I wouldn’t know an American Idol alum if he or she were biting my ass at this very moment.  And, while I am glad that is not the case, I have, for the first time in my sheltered life, some reason to be interested in that monstrosity of foolishness that passes for entertainment.

Leslie Hunt, the nice young lady featured in the video above, was apparently a finalist and performed to an audience of millions.  I suppose she would have preferred to win and become the next Kelly Clarkson or Taylor Hicks, but considering the abusive sounds those two artists have created (similar to fingernails on a chalkboard), I am glad that she lost.

Through some stroke of good fortune she has become connected to a Chicago-based instrumental outfit that fancied itself to be a junior version Liquid Tension Experiment.  Great music to aspire to, but nothing that would pay the bills.  But, if there is a way to bring a bit of sex appeal to the nerd-tastic sounds of District 97‘s modern prog, then these folks might have a tiger by the tail.  Judging from the video, I am interested.  The record is due out later this year, and I’m sure I’ll give it a listen.

Is this the record I’ve been waiting for all my life?  Based on the early snippets, probably not.  But I don’t have anything against popularity.  And if a prog band can sell a million records in this decade, then all the better.

Special thank you to Bill’s Prog Blog, which brought District 97 to my attention.  He’s featuring a Q&A with the band’s drummer at his wonderful site.

Sin Tax

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Ed_Rendell

Rendell, the illustrious governor of my Commonwealth, has proposed to bridge the $3.2 billion budget gap by raising income taxes for a three years.  As a second term lame duck in this world-wide recession, he can get away with that suggestion, but that still doesn’t mean it’s going to fly.

Personally, I don’t really have a problem paying higher taxes for a few years, especially considering the alternative of living in a major city without the appropriate civic services of education, police, fire, etc.  The argument against is that we will quickly fall down the ever-popular ‘slippery slope’ and taxes will never go down.  I simply don’t think that is a concern when politicians must stand for election and taxes are a total no-brainer for the elctorate.

But it made another idea jump into my head.  We should be paying higher taxes and we should have been paying higher taxes starting back in 2003, when our elected federal governemnt decided we sould go to war in Iraq.  Residents of this country have been getting their heads blown off and having their internal organs reduced to a pulpy mess of blood and sinew ever since that decision was made.  From the moment we went to war, we should have been compelled to make sacrifices and to pay higher taxes.  But instead, we all sat home and watched reality TV.

Reality TV is bad for you.  American Idol is bad for you.  Cigarettes are bad for you.  Are you starting to get the picture?  Tax viewers of American Idol and you’ll accomplish two important goals.  You’ll raise revenue and you’ll make the show go away.