In Five (and My Top 12 American Idol All-Stars)
In response to Dean's five questions:
1. I love the pictures you share, of flowers and of the things that catch your attention. What are your three favorite pictures? What makes them special to you?
I love most of my Gates pictures, but this one is my favorite. It was one of those unexpected things you find when you download the pics into the computer.
Image: http://bro.jr5.net/kennyshoes2.jpg
Kenny's Shoes. I hardly talk to Kenny these days, but I took this during the time when I first got my digital camera (the swivel Coolpix 2500). I was finding my creativity again with this image which I submitted to the Mirror Project.
The pictures of my friends I also love. This was one of those magical moments when lives intersect in the most unlikely of places (or maybe it's the magic of New York?)
2. Imagine that it’s American Idol All-Stars. Cast your 12 finalists from any of the 4 shows. Now give me the boot sequence, in order, all the way to the final two and your AI All-Star winner.
Finalists: Fantasia Barrino, Kelly Clarkson, Clay Aiken, Anthony Fedorov, Mario Vazquez, Bo Bice, Constantine Maroulis, Carrie Underwood, Mikalah Gordon, Frenchie Davis, Tamyra Gray, William Hung
Elimination:
Week 1: There is no Bottom 3. Mikalah just gets eliminated. Unfortunately, she still can't sing her way to the top.
Week 2: Bottom 3: Tamyra, Anthony, Frenchie. Bottom 2: Tamyra, Frenchie. Eliminated: Tamyra! We want the first shocker very early. The diva vote was split between Tamyra, Frenchie and Fantasia. Tamyra unfortunately sang A House Is Not A Home too early and the voters thought she was safe.
Week 3: Bottom 3: Will Hung, Carrie, Frenchie. Bottom 2: Will Hung, Carrie. Eliminated: Carrie! Another shocker. Will Hung's fans are jubilant and start a website called votefortheworst.com. Carrie sings Alone which she sang in Week 2.
Week 4: Bottom 3: Will Hung, Bo, Frenchie. Bottom 2: Bo, Frenchie. Eliminated: Bo! Paula starts crying. The audience favored pop this year and Bo's fans thought he was safe after singing Whipping Post in Week 1.
Week 5: Bottom 3; Mario, Frenchie, Fantasia. Bottom 2: Frenchie, Fantasia. Eliminated: Frenchie. We need to send a signal to the audience that there can only be one diva, and we need to get Mario's fans excited. Frenchie sings Band of Gold.
Week 6: Bottom 3: Will Hung, Anthony, Constantine. Ryan asks Will Hung and Anthony to step forward, Constantine is eliminated! This was an exciting week since both Constantine and Mario sang Bohemian Rhapsody. Paula starts crying.
Week 7: Bottom 3: Will Hung, Anthony, Mario. Bottom 2: Will Hung, Anthony. Eliminated: Anthony! There is tremendous buzz now as to how Will Hung has survived this long. Conspiracy theorists go crazy on the Internet. Anthony sings Angel. Viewership is now quadrupling.
Week 8: Bottom 3: Will Hung, Mario, Fantasia. Bottom 2: Will Hung, Mario. Eliminated: Will Hung! Paula starts crying. Will Hung sings She Bangs.
Week 9: Bottom 2: Mario, Clay. A subliminal message to the gay audience that they must choose. Eliminated: Mario! On the brink of tears, Mario sings Angels Brought Me Here.
Week 10: Eliminated: Fantasia. The combined fans of Clay and Kelly was too much in the end. Fantasia sings Summertime then segues into I Believe.
Week 11: Runner-up: Clay! Winner: Kelly! Clay sings This is the Night. Kelly sings A Moment Like This... then sings Since U Been Gone, the audience goes crazy.
This of course would have been the perfect season, when everybody, except Mikalah records an album. Clay of course is the perfect runner-up, and Kelly Clarkson is the gold standard of what it is to be an American Idol.
3. What is the single thing you miss most back here?
Mommy.
4. You’ve been cursed or blessed with one peculiar thing: your days will continue, changing as they do, but from 7PM to 9PM, you have to do exactly the same thing, over and over, for the rest of your life. This can be a single task or a combination of things, but it will remain consistent (if you choose to watch TV, you will watch the same channel, forced to watch whatever is in that timeslot forever). How will you fill these repetitive two hours ad infinitum?
First from 7-7:30, I will do chores which thanks to you I can now do on a regular time schedule. These would be: water my herbs, feed the fish, throw garbage, clean the apartment. Then from 7:30-8, I will prepare (quickly) and eat some Bulalo (Philippine beef stew). After cleaning up, I will sit down and watch the National Geographic channel from 8-8:55, so I will learn something new everyday. And finally just for fun, at five minutes before nine I will stand up, strip naked and dance.
5. If the Seven Deadly Sins knocked on your door and one of them said, “Aha! Rickey! He’s mine!”, which one would it be?
Lust. He/she and I go a long way back.
Optional bonus question: What were the circumstances of the strangest, most unbelievable sex you've ever had?
OMG, at first, I thought that I've never had unbelievable sex, but then given a different context, I have had some strange and unbelievable sex. I guess it's been so long that I've had sex per se, every single memory is distant. At any rate, I actually have a section reserved for "strange encounters" in my memoir, so the circumstances I cannot divulge, specially in this wholesome blog. Although I guess one of the juiciest can ultimately be summed up in one word: quadriplegic.