Welcome To Hollywood!

Hey Idolites!

Well, we've been through the first round of auditions, which were stellar as usual. The first two Hollywood shows have brought some interesting cuts and the painfully uncomfortable group song auditions. I thought it would be a good time to check in and start getting you all prepared for the upcoming pool. Most of you know the drill, but I wanted to recap some time lines and the basics of how this pool works.

The pool doesn't start until the Top 12 are determined. Here is what the Idol schedule looks like from here:

• Top 36 Semi-Finalists Revealed Wednesday, February 11.
• Voting Begins Tuesday, February 17.
• Top 12 Singers Revealed After Judges' Wild Card Round Thursday, March 5.
• Top 12 Finalists Perform for First Time Tuesday, March 10.

That means I will be sending out the pools on Thursday, March 5th after the show. You will then have until 5:00pm PST, Tuesday, March 10th to get your completed pools back to me.

So that means now is the time to really start paying attention.

THE POOL

• Each entry is $10. More than one entry is acceptable (and expected).
• Fees are due in to me by May 1st, 2009. They can be sent to: 1423 SW 151st St., Burien, WA 98166. Make checks payable to Aaron A. Soenke Ruona.
• The object is to predict where each member of the Top 12 will finish.
• Points are awarded based on how close you are with each pick in the Top 12 (scoring below)
• Entry with most total points wins.
• Payouts: They will be determined by the total number of entries. Last season we paid out the Top 12 out of 77 entries.

SCORING

• 10 points for each contestant you guess EXACTLY right in their finish.
• 7 points if you are off by one place (either way). 6 points if you are off by two places. 5 points if you are off by three places. 4 points if you are off by four places. 3 points if you are off by five places. 2 points if you are off by 6 places. 1 point if you are off by seven places. 0 points if you are off by eight or more places.
• 20 points if you correctly pick the American Idol.

Those are the boring nuts and bolts of the operation. If you haven't yet seen the standings spreadsheet...beware! It's quite large and highly geeky (you may actually need to wear a pocket protector to understand it...you'll also need a new prescription on your glasses by the end of the season).

RANDOM IDOL THOUGHTS

• I think there are a ton of really good guys this season. All my favorite girls seem to be getting chopped.
• All the hype around 'Bikini Girl' (who was on Extra tonight kissing Mario Lopez), led me to set up two new polls. Please vote in the right sidebar.
• Did anyone else think Jennifer Hudson did an amazing rendition of The National Anthem before the Super Bowl? (I can't believe I forgot to add her to the poll, as she'd be in my top 3...she's dissed yet again by all things Idol...et tu Aaron? Et tu?) Man, I had goosebumps.
• I really thought David Osmond had a good chance. If he made the Top 12, I think he would have been a force in the competition. The Osmond name and all of Utah working the phones...look what it did for Archuleta.
• In our first poll, it was quite clear that you feel pretty good about new judge Kara. As long as she doesn't decide she needs to sing again to prove her point all should be good. Although based on what I've seen so far, I'm guessing she'll be tougher on the attractive female contestants. That's right, I said it...meeeoooooowww!!

PARTING SHOT

Not sure I need to say more than Sanjaya Malakar has a new CD and book............

OK, now that you are off the floor from laughing....when I first saw this (Thank you Lynn Sherk!!), I was speechless. Even cheesier than I could have dreamed up. If you click here: http://www.amazon.com/Dancing-Music-My-Head-Exclusive/dp/B001OVSV78/ref=sr_f3_1?ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1233904126&sr=103-1 you can download one of the songs for free. So, of course I did and it's priceless. Very post 1980's Michael Jackson-like lyrics ("You don't know me...you haters!").

The other interesting twist is the artwork. When I first saw it and purchased the song, the artwork looked like it does above. Well, when you check it out now, you'll notice that they have changed his picture entirely. No more hand running through his hair or squinting eyes. Kinda took the 'specialness' away just a little bit. Well, at least I have the old one on my iPod forever.

Check back for new polls and posts. If you know someone that would be interested in joining the pool, have them e-mail me directly so I can add them to the e-mail list.

Until next time...Pool Boy out!

Has It Really Come To This? A History Of This American Idol Pool...And Other Potentially Useful Information

Historical Perspective
It was the Summer of 2002 and I was channel surfing at home. I came across this new reality show called American Idol. I stopped to watch and was instantly hooked. The bad auditions, the brutally honest British judge, the purity of the competition and the fact that some unknown singer was going to get a record deal was quite intoxicating.

Of course, if you know me (as many of you do), you understand how I love to compete. I couldn't just sit back and passively watch the show unfold. So, I offered up a bet with one of my sales reps at the time, Nate. We each drafted 5 singers from the Top 10. Once one of our singers was eliminated, we received points equaling their finish (ex. a 10th place finish got 10 points, 9th place, 9 points, etc.). The person with the lowest point total at the end of the show would be the winner.

Nate got to choose first and took Kelly Clarkson (which I thought was stupid, because I didn't think she should have made the Top 10...this was a prelude to my lack of ability to pick winners in this competition). I then had two picks: I first chose my favorite to win, Justin Guarini. I then picked Tamyra Gray. Nate stepped out and took Ryan Starr as his second pick. Here is how the rest of the picks ended up:

Nate: Kelly Clarkson, Ryan Starr, Christina Christian, AJ Gil, and Jim Verraros
Aaron: Justin Guarini, Tamyra Gray, Nikki McKibbin (My first Idol crush), RJ Helton and EJ Day.

Needless to say, with the #2, #3, #4 and #5 place finishers, I wiped up the floor with Nate before the season was even over.

That was the last time I did well in this pool.

When Season 2 came around, there were more people starting to watch (though few people would admit it) and I was able to set up the pool as it is runs today...predicting the order of finish by the Top 12 finalists. Here is a snapshot of how the pool has grown and who has come out on top:

Season........# of Entries............Winner
#1.........................2...................Aaron Soenke Ruona
#2........................24..................Beth Shanaman
#3........................32..................Rosann Albasi
#4........................34..................Barbara Ruona (woo hoo Mom!!)
#5........................54..................Jennifer Harowicz (and her mom)
#6........................52*.................Valerie Black
#7........................77...................Nancy Ging

* The Taylor Hicks effect

By the looks of things, I'd say it's time for a dude to step up!

It will be interesting to see how many entries we end up with this season. I imagine we will easily top 100, given the current interest level. Thus, this blog.

Why a blog?
Through the first 7 seasons, I have made my post performance comments via e-mail. Of course, that would result in a pretty full in-box for most people on Wednesdays and Thursdays as the 'reply-to-all' button was used liberally. I found it to be very cool and looked forward to hearing what people had to say. However, I know it became annoying for others.

For someone who considers himself fairly tech savvy, I have kept myself at a distance from things such as MySpace, Facebook, blogs, etc. I could never understand why people would want to read them. I took the Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer stance. Well, within the past 3 weeks, I have started up my own Facebook page and am now hosting a blog...times they are a changin'!

This blog will give everyone that wants to, a chance to express their opinions and hate on me in a format that won't annoy those that just want to be in the pool.

What To Expect?
For those of you returning to the pool, welcome back! You know the drill.

For those of you new to the pool, here are some semi-interesting things to know:

• I refer to the wonderful people in our pool as Idolites...that means you, Idolite.
  
• I love American Idol (I have seen all 284 episodes)!
  
• I was in the Kodak Theater with my good friends (and long-time Idolites) Leanna & Nadia Mix in September, 2002 when Kelly Clarkson was crowned the first American Idol (and, yes, I was one of about 8 people in the building rooting for Justin).
• At times, my commentary may lead you to think I don't like the show.
• I agree with Simon about 90% of the time.
• I HATE when singers do songs by Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, Christina Aguilera, etc.
• I tend to root for the "rockers".
• I like to use periods a lot....just like that! (and exclamation points too!!)
  
• After each Tuesday performance show (once we hit the Top 12), I will give my take on the performances. I will then list my best and worst performances, my best and worst dressed, my thoughts on who should be in the bottom 3, and my thoughts on who will be in the bottom 3.
• I make comments in bullet-point format and they are mostly random in nature...just like I'm doing now (might I have a deep-seeded love of dots?).
  
• You may always tell me how full of crap I am on this blog.
  
• I am almost never right.
• I most always finish horribly in the pool.
• I update the pool standings after each Wednesday decision show. Since they are in a crazy-big Excel spreadsheet, I will send the updates via e-mail.
• Once you see the standings page, you will think I'm a freak...if you don't already.
• We host an Idol finale party at our house in May for those living in the Seattle-area. Details will come as we get closer.
  

I don't normally do any commentary until we get to the Top 12 and the pool is underway, as I don't want to influence any one's picks...trust me, this is for your benefit (unless you just pick the opposite of what I am saying, I suppose). Given we have this cool blog tool now, I may comment on some of the bad singers and judges from time to time over the next couple of months. I will also be posting polls for your entertainment. So check in from time to time and see what I have come up with. I believe you can subscribe to this blog below and get e-mails whenever I make a post, but don't quote me on that. The caveman is still thawing after all.

Thank you for being part of this. It is always a lot of fun.

Aaron