Let me start off by apologizing for my sudden and unannounced departure back in May. There’s a very good explanation for that, but it’s one that I can’t share with you. What happens in my personal life has to stay there, and I can’t and don’t want to make it a part of this blog. I’m sure you are thinking that I could have written something, or at least anything in the way of an explanation. All I can tell you is that it wasn’t at all possible. Even now I’m a bit hesitant to start writing again, as the problems that led to the temporary abandonment are not completely cleared up. Hopefully though, they will be eventually. For now, I know some of you were disappointed when I didn't finish my American Idol analysis. So here it is, a somewhat much briefer analysis than what it would have been.

The Final Competition:

What a waste of time this turned out to be! They could have done away with it and just gone directly to the final results show. From the time it went on the air it was quite apparent where they were headed and who was going to win. Add to all this the fact that Kat and Taylor both sang songs we had heard them do already and it was straight out of Snoozeville, U.S.A.

For her not so instant replay, Kat sang Black Horse and Cherry Tree and Over the Rainbow. Both songs were okay, but they were also quite well done the first time she sang them. When the judges began knocking the first song, it seemed like a replay of past seasons. Here’s the way it works. They knock the underdog’s first song, praise the second song endlessly, and then really blast them on the third song. They were true to form this year and you could almost have written the script.

The second part of this sham fest is that they praise the favorite contestants first song, mildly criticize them on their second song, and then sing the praises loud and clear by the time they get to the third song. Don’t believe me? Just check the season finale from the previous two seasons. In this case, it was be-bopping harmonica chewing two left feet Taylor Hicks. Everything held true to predictable form from him and the judges as he warbled through Living in the City, Levon, and the made for TV song Do I Make You Proud? So if you had anything else fun to do on that particular evening, such as wash the dishes, wash the car, or taking the dog for a walk I hope you did it.

I guess the most hideous thing of the whole evening was watching poor Katharine perform that god-awful song they gave her to sing called My Destiny. How bad was it? It was so bad that within a week of the season ending, they changed the songs on her CD single. Originally it was supposed to be My Destiny as the main song, with the song Think thrown in as the B tune. It was promptly changed to Over the Rainbow being the main song, and My Destiny relegated to B status. I do believe that was the first time that ever happened. As for Taylor’s made for TV number, Do I Make You Proud, it was better, but not by much. And why were they singing different songs? Why didn’t Taylor get the crap song also? Didn’t they always sing the same song in previous seasons?

The whole point I’m making though is that if you watched the show, you pretty well knew it was just an exercise in trying to get all the tweeners to think that their phone in votes matter. When you get to this stage of the game, it certainly doesn’t. The results this year were probably etched in stone before the first commercial break of the season back in January.

Thankfully, the results show was at least somewhat entertaining and not because there was any kind of suspense. If you didn’t know the results by then, let me be the first to welcome you home from the Antarctic. The highlight of the evening was the surprise performance by Prince to wrap things up before Secrest could tell us what 99 99/100 per cent of us already knew. I thought it was very nice of your royal highness to honor this cheese fest with his presence. Of course, never to be outdone, the next day Simon Cowell was bitching about Prince not wanting to hang around, offer advice, and have some mug shots taken with everyone. Simon always has to have the last word. Maybe he was angry because Prince got more applause in one night than Cowell’s had in five years.

I may have also been one of the few who actually liked the duet between Kat and Meatloaf. And yes, I actually thought the comedy bit between Pickler and Puck was a bit humorous if not over the top hilarious. And then there was that Clay Aiken guy showing up. I didn’t even recognize him at first. I thought he was a badly made clone of Mike Myers and somehow the genes got a bit scrambled. The Bacharach Medley went on way too long, then Dionne Warwick came out to sing then ask Cowell if he wanted to finance her in a new psychic hot line adventure. When Warwick told him that she was sure Kevin Covais would win, the deal fell through.

So what have the idols been doing since the end of the season? Taylor made a Ford commercial that began to drive me bats by the second time it aired. Was it just out here or was Ford sponsoring ever damn show on the networks with that same commercial? No word on how many cars Hicks sold, but I’d have bought one if they promised never to show the thing again.

Katharine got herself in a fickle by speaking her mind about a few things. Some of them misinterpreted some of them not. Hey, when she said Pickler should have gone sooner than finishing sixth, Katharine was just saying out loud what everybody already knew.

Next Kat came down with some laryngitis and the Doctors told her to rest her voice for a while which meant she couldn’t join the tour right away. Some fans were up in arms because they thought she should be out there warbling Over the Rainbow to them unless she was on her death bed, or maybe in her casket headed six feet under. No matter, she finally returned to the tour and promptly broke her ankle. No, this time she stayed on the tour although it cut her performance down some what. Anyway, I won’t be going to the concert this year. I’d have to go to L.A. to do so and my living room recliner is as far as I’ll go to watch that stuff. Don’t know when their Cd’s will be out, but when they do, you can bet I’ll have something to say about it.

Speaking of CD’s, it seems Kellie Pickler has signed a contract for a CD also. No, it’s not a comedy album, and she will be singing on it. No word on whether or not William Hung is doing the backup vocals.