Just Sticking My Head In... (A Note to the Fans Who Have Asked)

Hi guys,

I've gotten quite a few messages from a lot of you who are wondering where I am, and where my American Idol coverage went. I haven't answered very many of you, because I honestly didn't know what I would do for the rest of this season.

For starters, I had trouble initially with having time to devote to this blog. One thing I was concerned about way before I had anybody even reading this blog was that the blog always be done as well as I could do it, and between the job I was at when I last posted and my new marriage, I didn't have the time to devote to the blog to make it worth your read. And by the time season 7 of American Idol rolled around, I was having to record the audition episodes, watch them on another night, and generally speaking by the time I watched them, I was too tired to really enjoy them. That plus I was dealing with a temporary dial-up connection which made getting online more aggravating than it was worth.

And I realized one thing that was even more important... I wasn't having fun with it anymore.

My short list of annoyances were as follows:

--I was getting tired of Idol. It wasn't so much the show as it was the fans. Never in my life have I seen a more volatile group of people who, through the anonymity of the internet, would say such unbelievably hurtful and mean things about someone just because of their preference of a singer. Now before you object, I realize that I made fun of certain people. But the fact is that I never once, not even in Kellie Pickler's case, meant it as a personal gesture or insult. It was always in good fun, and meant for us all to laugh at the absurdity of it. But there were people who sent me some really not-so-nice stuff, both in the comments here and in private emails and messages, that were extremely hurtful and ugly, and they just took away the fun of the show.

--How many jokes can you make about a show? To tell the truth, I was running out of material.

--The Idol Waves show. Actually, I loved doing the show, and the show will always be special to me. If Idol Waves management wants me back, I'd probably still do the show again, when I can focus on it. I continued the show a bit longer--about six months after my last posting here--going as far as to record 2007's Christmas special, but my heart wasn't in it, and I think it showed, especially on the last few episodes. Priscilla loved the show too, but her extreme self-consciousness about how her voice sounds made the show a bit more nerve-wracking than she would have liked, and since my job was packing in long hours and a long commute, the time I spent in the editing bay for the show was becoming a drain on our time together, and I wanted to give that time to her. So, y'know, you have to cut some things loose.

--I also got fired at Reality TV Magazine for not answering an email quickly enough, which was stupid, and certainly a big fat "no thank you" for helping make sure that they had any Idols at all at the Reality Convention, a favor that I most likely won't be returning any time soon. Apparently new management has taken over at that site, and it's corporately owned now by the same people who run soaps.com. Another example of a great fan site being destroyed by a corporate money-making machine.

--And speaking of the convention, although I had a great time with the stars (particularly Heather Cox, Dani McCulloch, and Will Makar) I was highly disappointed with the way that it turned out.

It's been refreshing, really, taking this break. As hard as it may be to believe, I haven't seen any episodes of American Idol this season since the end of the auditions, and that has freed my time up considerably. Priscilla and I have re-located to a much better and more rewarding job. I've had a moment to pull back out of the spotlight. I've no delusions of grandeur, but the small amount of fame I was getting certainly caught me off-guard, and I wasn't really ready for some of the responsibilities of it. And though I miss sharing 3 hours of Idol music with the faithful listeners, I've definitely not missed the 8 hours it takes to produce the show. (Yeah, you read that right. Show prep is tough, and post-production is even tougher!)

So for now, it's back to square one. In fact, I'm not all that sure any of you are still checking in or reading me. I haven't checked the page hit counter in months.

To answer the questions that any of you who haven't forgotten about me might have:

Will I be writing more? Yes. I fully intend to start writing again, here in these very pages. I've posted some articles at another site which I shall not mention because the articles were not written as my best work, and I'd rather not take credit for them. They were simply written as exercises to sharpen me up for coming back here.

Will I be writing about Idol? I don't know. My answer to that varies from day to day. The only thing I'm really sure about is that I will not be writing about this season, as I haven't watched it and don't really want to spend the time catching up on it. Perhaps next year, Idol will again be my focal point, but until then, I'm just going to write about whatever it feels good to write about.

Will I still be funny? I hope so. I'm hoping to start writing more humor, because laughing makes me feel good, and I laugh at my own jokes even if nobody else does.

And if I'm the only one reading it, that's okay too! If you're still reading, you'll never know how much that means to me.