This Path

 I've seen people talk about the returning old school players and  that got me thinking about the first two seasons of Idol, before it "took off",  

So here is a bit of an Idol history lesson. Just in case you were curious, and even if you weren't, here it is anyway!


The first season was 9 people and hosted on my own personal LJ!  It was 8 of my friends and 1 person who heard about it and signed up. The contestants were: 

animagus
deyaniera
falkenna
helenangel
mezzominty
misskitten77
onyxblue1
quoth_the_maven
tinhuviel (Winner) 



Two of the people on that list have actually signed up for the 20th anniversary!  One of them is definitely here in spirit (Love you forever Tin, our Dark Sith Master!) 

The second season we had 24: 



bateleur
bhyphen
bluestocking7
brandedeclipse
brujah
deyaniera
dissolvedgurl
dubheach
simplymelodious
jagette227
john_flint
lifeofjason
meriadesrai
mezzominty
jinxleah
onyxblue1
quoth_the_maven
riayn
simplysakka
terrasias
tru2myart  (Winner) 
twirlandswirl
twisted_badger
wikkidpixie

There was a mechanism in those first two seasons that was SUPER frustrating for contestants. I hadn't come up with the 'bye" system yet and I didn't just want to eliminate people who actually submitted an entry or eliminate you right away for just missing a single deadline.  So if there was more than one person who DiDN'T - those were the people up for elimination.  Until we got to a point where everyone submitted, and then it would be a regular vote.  I can't even imagine what would have happened if I was stubborn enough to not look for an alternative.  :D  We certainly wouldn't be here celebrating the 20th anniversary! I can guarantee that! 

Season 3 was 75 and it kept rising until we topped out at over 300 contestants before the great LJ implosion. (one of the early ones) 

Even though she wasn't a part of Idol until Season 4, it should be noted that Adpaz played Fanfic Survivor, which in a lot of ways was a very early prototype of what became Idol. (and definitely the forerunner to that LJ Idol: Survivor special event we had a few years ago! If memory serves it was part writing competition and part scavenger hunt!) 

If you know any of these people - let them know what is going on here. (I tried messaging a few of them, but honestly there are some that I'm not entirely sure I even know how to get in touch with these days!) 

It always makes me laugh when I think about what I did just before I started Idol (and posted a list for people to choose from on "what should I do next?"  One of those was something called "Livejournal Idol". In that first season I was VERY insistent that people call it by it's proper name.  By Season 2, helenangel created that graphic I'm still using. I ended up just giving up and admitting that "LJ Idol" was far more catchy!

But I digress - for those who don't know, what I did just before starting Idol is that I took the list of everyone on my Livejournal friends list at the time. (No idea how many there were, but a decent amount) and paired them up in Death Matches.  I would then explain who I thought would win in a fight to the death. It kept going until I got to the end and declared a winner!  :D 

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The sign up sheet is still open. So please keep spreading the word! therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1219874.html

If you have any questions, head on over to the FAQ: therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1218443.html

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Because I was asked to post a direct link to it, there is also the Idol Patreon, although it sort of has become an all purpose "Gary Stuff Patreon" given that the only benefit listed currently is access to poems that I found in my high school and early college notebooks. I was transcribing them and offering commentary.  I gave up after a few of them when I realized I was the only one even vaguely interested in my old teen angst-ridden poetry!  But the ones I posted are still available if you want to point and laugh at teenage Gary who thought he could write and was positive he was going to go on to do it professionally!  www.patreon.com/c/u70027


Definitely the world's loss.  ;)   *inserts loud laughing, and pointing. Especially the pointing* 

I like to think that some good came out of it though, because that desire to create inspired me to want to create this community.  (and there's plenty of my writing out there to be mocked from my late 20s and early 30s when I no longer thought I was going to be a pro, but had a lot of fun writing comic book universe fanfic. Most of which is very bad, some of it is quite horrible, cringe and absolutely embarrassing that I put it out in the world. Some of it is solidly "OK". 

It is funny though because writing fanfic was how I got both opportunities to work with Marvel. Neither of them were the right time so one I passed on to a friend and the other I passed on entirely. (An editor was looking for a proposal about obscure characters that I loved, for a potential mini series. He put it out there to a mutual friend of ours who immediately came to me with it. Which was incredibly kind.  Unfortunately in both cases my head was still too scrambled from that first divorce to feel like I had the time or motivation. *shrug*   If it had happened, Idol would not have, and I'm very grateful that it exists, and that so many people care about it. 

(/end history lesson) 

 Happy "Gary is going to see Cheekface" day to all those who celebrate!!!

For those who know how great this band is, who have been putting out music steadily since 2017 without a label or really any support other than their growing fanbase. 

I was exposed to them a couple years ago because one of our local promoters always adds a line on their listings "for fans of..." and lists the bands they "sound like". Which can be very helpful to find groups you may never have heard of otherwise I saw them, and yep. I knew I would be seeing them every time they came through the area again!

There were a bunch of different "they sound like" - but the ones that got me, and I think would "get" a lot of people around here were Jonathan Richman and They Might Be Giants!!!!

(the singer has that Richman "speak-singng" style - SEE ALSO: CAKE, and they very much have that TMBG turn of phrase and just plain fun, even if the actual subject isn't. 

The song that convinced me that I needed to see them was "I Feel So Weird"  I can't link it from where I'm posting. But if that description resonated with you - check it out!   www.youtube.com/watch




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The Sign Up sheet is still opened, and there have been friends (old and new) showing up over the last couple of days:  therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1219874.html





Keep spreading the word!  There will be an important announcement in the next couple of days. So remember to follow us to get notifications. Although DW can be pretty sketchy at times. I'd just manually checking in as well. 

I've recently been asked how to participate from your LJ account. (or Open ID, so any site that uses this same system).  Under the login bar on the upper left-hand side (on the website) there is a clickable link that says "Open ID?"  Click it and it will take you to a screen that asks you to input your Open ID account.  In my case it would be: clauderainsrm.livejournal.com   Yours would be YOUR username. Because you can't sign into my account.  Get your own identity!!! :) 
 
From there it will ask you to login to your LJ/Open ID if you're not already.  You should be able to post here once you link the sites.  I had to play with it a bit to figure out, but that seems to be how it works!   I'll be adding that to the FAQ   therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1218443.html


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How are you doing today?