When I thought of what to do next with this blog after Saturday’s AI Tour Show in Oakland, it came down to a little story telling, a little newspapering, a little…well, to be honest, I didn’t know what to do.
Why?
The AI Tour folks brought in five of the 10 Idols on Tour (five are subjected to press interviews one day, the other five the next) and I was given five minutes with each (turned out I had 2 1/2 minutes with Adam Lambert). Now what kind of a tale could I spin following a five-minute interview? Not much.
But we aren’t in Kansas any longer Toto and this isn’t exactly Journalism 101. It’s a blog, for goodness sakes. I can do what I want. I’ll mix in opinion, but what I’ll never do here is lie or misquote or intentionally give you misinformation.
So, I’ll go back to one of those journalistic basics – take the reader there. I had the professional privilege of being there. So, sted of giving you too much info on their lives and careers, which you probably know anyway, I’ll tell you my impressions of what they were like, much of what they said, how they came across to a Boomer who actually saw Gene Pitney in concert once upon a time and to this day swears that the best concert he ever saw, or ever will see, was Simon & Garfunkel in San Diego back in the 1970s. But I digress.
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First let’s do a little bookkeeping.
It was July 11, 2009.
I pulled into the Oracle/Coliseum parking (got there at 2:15 p.m., hence no $30 parking fee) and was instructed to go down to the tunnel entrance. On the other side of said massive parking lot were about 8 portable basketball hoops and kids in some sort of competition. Of course, there was the obligatory music, and, of course, this day it was Michael Jackson. I walked in asking an attendant where the press conference was being held. While he inquired in a walkie-talkie, Adam Lambert walked by on his way to what appeared to be a lunch room. Pretty ordinary looking guy without the makeup, I thought.
So, I finally found the media, back outside and up a level. The press was gathered outside Oracle waiting to be ushered inside.
The press gathering. I was shocked. Myself and five others, all from small radio outlets. Maybe the Chron and the Merc and the CCTimes all knew something I didn’t. Or maybe they didn’t care. I did get a little antsy. What was up with this?
Fifteen minutes later we were led into the Arena and down to a lounge area – all six of us and one camera crew by a very professional, very regimented member of the AI Tour team.
What did she think of the show this year? “I don’t know,” she said, “I don’t watch it because I don’t have a television and besides I live on the beach in Mexico.” I have no problem with either one of those choices.
Our instructions: five minutes with each Idol, no autographs, no cell phone calls asking them to say hello to grandma back home, no photos.
No problem.
So, that’s how it all started. Stories on each will appear on this blog during the week.
But here they are and in a word, to whet your appetite so you will hopefully return to this blog, my initial impression of the five I met:

Michael Sarver – confident
Anoop Desai – intellectual
Scott MacIntyre – inspirational
Allison Iraheta – young
Adam Lambert – polished