I caught the last 15 minutes of the "Idol" final (no really, I didn't watch anything prior - just the last 15 minutes) and what really surprised me was the crowd in the St. James. It was much larger than I would have assumed. Which is a tad worrying.

Of course, once you subtract the participant's family members and friends from the mix, the audience would probably consist of a family of six up from Hamilton and the dealer principal in charge of handing over the keys to the new Daihatsu Terios. But still...

I guess the chap who won (can't remember his name - probably won't need to worry about trying to commit it to memory) can sell the car if no record deal comes through.

Yay! Dancing with the stars! Glad that the state broadcaster is committed to bringing us quality viewing.

Haven't we used all the "stars" now though?

Maybe we should start an online sweep to guess who'll be up next year.

Marc Ellis

Why are all the people who win NZ Idol Christians? It's a tad worrying.

And - my celeb for the Dancing with the Stars sweep is : Dom Bowden.

Why are all the people who win NZ Idol Christians? It's a tad worrying.

Because God tweaks the voting.

Ok, ok. I'll do the serious answer.

This was discussed over on Idol Blog about a year ago. It all comes down to singing in church. For their whole lives, rain or shine, these kids have gone to church every week and sung songs. And with weekly practice like that, they get better and better. And they're probably also used to singing in front of their congregations, so they can perform to a crowd.

So it's not much of a leap from a church to a theatre.

If you're worried, why not start a young atheists choir?

NZ Idol - more excting than licking the inside of a toilet bowl?

No.

Why are all the people who win NZ Idol Christians?

Something to do with the types of people who vote for NZ Idol I suspect.

I was quite fond of I and II of NZ Idol, not because I thought that they were digging up some awesome talent who would have long-lasting careers, but rather because making fun of them online - and to a lesser degree in real life - was so much fun. The community spirit of coming up with a thousand ways to make fun of Jesse's merkin was a beautiful thing. But this series, after being so so so in to <I>Rockstar</I> (and thanks Russell, for helping me share my obsession with the NZ interweb world) I couldn't bring myself to watch Idol at all, to the point where reading this post was the first time that I found out who actually won, since I'm out of the country right now.

On that note, I went to see Storm Large play tonight, because I could, and I felt dreadful for the people who must normally populate the indie rock club she played at, to have it so overrun by people from the suburbs who only came out because the lady was on TV. I, meanwhile, was a tourist, so I had every excuse.

Speaking of Rock Star Supernova, they will be touring Aotearoa early next year. No doubt it will be as rockstastic as the recent INXS tour.

NZ Idol - more excting than licking the inside of a toilet bowl?

you might actually find something of substance in the bowl.

OMG! \m/! I might get to sleep with Tommy Lee after all then! I like how that article in the Herald fails to mention that Magni and Storm and the Houseband were supposed to be on the tour too, except that they seem to have run into financial difficulties. And a bass fell on Jason my ass - I'm glad he's managed to find a way out of this thing.

\m/

Is that rude? It sort of looks like it might be ...

Hey, thanks for the reports. I feel privileged to read it here before Hubris ...

The \m/ is a goat being thrown, of course. So it's not really rude, as long as you're not an animal lover.

If I go to update Hubris then it's going to have to be a long full two week update, and that's going to take a lot longer than to just rave some more about Rockstar here. And speaking of rockstars, I'm gutted I only just read that Courtney Love was signing her new autobiography this afternoon here. I would have loved to have seen her.

And in order to get back on topic, I think it's safe to say that NZ Idol is like, so totally over that it's not even any fun to talk about in comparison to many other things.

That reminds me. The two new Idol people (apparently one of them won, but I wouldn't be able to say which) were performing at the fireworks display at Alexandra Park on Saturday night.

They got ten minutes each, as opposed to "New Zealand's Answer To Tina Turner" and an Austin Powers impersonator, who both got half an hour on stage each.

My ladyfriend recognised them as they were walking through the crowds afterwards (totally unmolested by fans, adoring or otherwise, I might add) and got a wee bit excited, but then she's like that.

I can see Matt having more of a career in the industry than that Lummis kid, the fat chick or the rent boy, Michael something...

...even if it probably means singing crap covers on a cruise ship

I think we've found ourselves the next Frankie Stevens...

...homai te pakipaki !!!