Time for a couple more in that attempt to say a few words about everyone eliminated before the end:



marjory (Week 14 - Sacrifice) It's always interesting for me to take a second look at someone who has been around for several seasons. One of their biggest challenges is that they have to find a way to keep the interest from the people had read and supported previously - while attracting new readers from the people coming through the doors the first time. Which is of course a bit more difficult when you *don't* have the same "omg - what is this???" energy as the rest of the newbies. You're more of "OK, we have a few weeks of getting into this before things start evening out." It's less of a rush to impress than it is getting by until you *need* to start showing up on people's radars.

Which is why I thought marjory this season was so interesting. She was one of the multi-season veterans that I didn't think came out out of the box playing it safe. Which may have been what allowed her to do better than she had in any of the previous attempts. http://marjory.livejournal.com/244141.html had a stylized structure and given the sheer diversity that is out there in Idol - http://marjory.livejournal.com/245178.html could have very well ended up polarizing. Apparently only one pole was working since everyone seemed to agree. :p

Still, obviously she had her work cut out for her, ending up in an elimination tie-breaker in Week 3. http://marjory.livejournal.com/246185.html

My opinion? Neither of them should have been there. But that's why it's not "Gary only voting". Sometimes the voters find you and sometimes it takes them awhile and you just have to hope that it happens before it's too late.

I don't think the piece that put her there was one of her strongest. But for week 3, that was a surprise.

Due to being immune that week, I think a lot of people missed out on http://marjory.livejournal.com/274216.html - or if they didn't miss it, they certainly didn't comment a lot. That was one striking thing with some of the veterans specifically, the lack of commenting. You now have a second chance to correct that oversight!

Which you definitely should, if you missed out before, because there are things like http://marjory.livejournal.com/265237.html , that capturing of what it was like to be young, when you understood what was *really* scary.

Heck, you might find out that "educational entries" are indeed out there: http://marjory.livejournal.com/252914.html
http://marjory.livejournal.com/291594.html is definitely an example of how the "choppy scene-break" style can work. The pacing and voice was woven very nicely into the piece.

Or a mirror image/side-by-side http://marjory.livejournal.com/269929.html done with such a quiet beauty to the lines.

She sacrificed to bring in norda, which was an unexpected in some ways. In others? I think it was a way of stepping back so she didn't have to pull out her secret ninja skills on anybody. (I suspect all damn foreigners have secret ninja skills. It's just a matter of "would they use them"? She totally would!)

It's better than contemplating the alternative http://marjory.livejournal.com/294495.html

http://marjory.livejournal.com/tag/therealljidol6 contains some, but not all of the pieces. For the truly curious, you can follow her tags to the Season 3, Season 4 and Season 5 entries as well! I think she keeps getting better, and look forward to seeing what she is going to be doing next.


notbatman (Week 33) - His introduction had him getting eliminated before the first vote even happened. http://notbatman.livejournal.com/294159.html

Instead, he ended up walking away with 8th place, a missing herniated disc, and more rice-a-roni than he could eat in a lifetime. Not bad.

The thing that I love about finding tags like http://notbatman.livejournal.com/tag/lj%20idol is that I can go back and look at things like the introduction. I remembered bits and pieces of it, but looking back over the course of the season and rereading that introduction, I don't think anyone should be surprised at how well he ended up doing. In it, he's able to pull off something that either comes naturally or it just plain doesn't come at all - the ability to laugh at yourself. People are funny creatures. We do ridiculous things. The ones who can embrace the absurd nature of our own day to day existence http://notbatman.livejournal.com/314075.html , who are willing to go above and beyond http://notbatman.livejournal.com/304246.html or - those are the people that are worth knowing.

notbatman is definitely worth knowing.

A man of adventure http://notbatman.livejournal.com/317346.html , http://notbatman.livejournal.com/310433.html and http://notbatman.livejournal.com/299320.html
and heart http://notbatman.livejournal.com/309107.html , http://notbatman.livejournal.com/301036.html , http://notbatman.livejournal.com/311982.html , http://notbatman.livejournal.com/315511.html , http://notbatman.livejournal.com/311439.html or even http://notbatman.livejournal.com/312844.html

oh, and of course FREAKING PEOPLE OUT http://notbatman.livejournal.com/321085.html and http://notbatman.livejournal.com/321010.html - or just plain unnerve http://notbatman.livejournal.com/328259.html and http://notbatman.livejournal.com/323990.html .

Although I wasn't expecting it, having him decide to pair up with kittenboo made so much sense that it should have been the first and only choice. Well, unless of course he went with his wife! ;) Still though, they share the same sort of self examination and overwhelming love of family. I can easily see them sitting down and sharing their "war stories" http://notbatman.livejournal.com/327518.html , http://community.livejournal.com/therealljidol/287103.html

One thing that I was holding off talking about until now - is that there were 2 contestants who had a "clean sweep" of the first Gatekeeper round. He was one of those two. He was always 1 of the 2 (a different two) who managed to come away with one of the higher scores in *every* special vote (Gatekeeper and contestant only). With stats like that, I was definitely thinking that he could have been the one to break that glass ceiling of Idol.

I think he had a really good shot, but I think being well loved may have ended his Idol dreams. There were definitely people who didn't want to see him go through the final few weeks of the competition while recovering from surgery. Was it the only factor? Of course not. There were some great entries this week from everyone else as well. But I think it certainly qualifies as a "factor".

Go back up to where I posted that tag and click on it, and just start reading from the start. Even my "insert entry here" approach can only cover so many of them, it's well worth your time to explore on your own.
"Because we are everything when we refuse to be nothing." Somehow I don't think "nothing" is something he ever has to worry about.


Miss one?
Part 1: http://community.livejournal.com/therealljidol/330062.html
Part 2: http://community.livejournal.com/therealljidol/347182.html
Part 3: http://community.livejournal.com/therealljidol/348753.html
Part 4: http://community.livejournal.com/therealljidol/351336.html
Part 5: http://community.livejournal.com/therealljidol/355319.html
Part 6: http://community.livejournal.com/therealljidol/357155.html
Part 7: http://community.livejournal.com/therealljidol/358961.html
Part 8: http://community.livejournal.com/therealljidol/361618.html
Part 9: http://community.livejournal.com/therealljidol/363128.html
Part 10: http://community.livejournal.com/therealljidol/363838.html