{"id":59,"date":"2009-05-22T12:00:24","date_gmt":"2009-05-22T12:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/outthere\/wp\/?p=59"},"modified":"2009-05-22T12:00:24","modified_gmt":"2009-05-22T12:00:24","slug":"american_idol_-_the_judy-dean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/outthere\/2009\/05\/american_idol_-_the_judy-dean.html","title":{"rendered":"‘American Idol’ — the Judy-Deanna Version"},"content":{"rendered":"

 
\n\"Adam<\/a><\/span>
\n\"Judy<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong> <\/p>\n

<\/strong> <\/p>\n

<\/strong> <\/p>\n

Now that <\/strong>our Idol<\/em> hangover is over, we may regain some composure and perspective about the relative importance of a manipulated mass election — sounds presidential, no? — within the body politic of popular culture. Right? Then how do I explain why I woke up literally singing the word “swing” — but like a cat wail, “swiiiiiiinnnnnng.” <\/p>\n

Judy was talking to me again.<\/p>\n

“Didn’t you see me?” she asked. “I was hard to miss. I had to share some space with Freddie, but I like Freddie, and even with that awful Lee” — I knew instinctively that she meant Liberace — “but that was mostly me inside Adam.”<\/p>\n

And inside Kris? “Yes, it was dear Deanna.” <\/p>\n

But Judy, Adam lost, and you …<\/p>\n

“Won? I’m 40-years dead, sweetie, and dear Deanna’s still kicking.”<\/p>\n

So that’s why I couldn’t get my eyes off chubby Glambert, why in spite of his mall-nite hair and lycra-sausage limbs I waited week after week to watch his raw, unstoppable, insoucient nerve.<\/p>\n

If for reasons of age or memory you don’t know which Judy or Deanna I mean, please let me offer a holiday reprise of American Idol’s <\/em>earlier version, an MGM short subject from 1936 called Every Sunday. <\/em>In it, 14-year-olds Judy and Deanna are introduced to the filmgoing public in a sweet cinematic duel: classical versus swing. But they’re not really rivals; in fact, the girls are as tender in their teamwork as Adam and Kris.<\/p>\n

If you like, you can drag the YouTube bar and start the piece at three minutes, but the whole thing is only 10, so take a chance.<\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

By the way, after seeing the short, some MGM genius told a line producer to “dump the fat one.” <\/p>\n

And in case any novice wants to know why Judy is indelible, just slide the button to 6:20 and look at the way this teenager moves her hips and lips when she gets into her groove and instructs us to … swing. <\/p>\n

I guess I still take her advice to heart.<\/p>\n

For an automatic alert when there is a new Out There post, email jiweinste@aol.com<\/font><\/a><\/ST1:PERSONNAME>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

  <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        Now that our Idol hangover is over, we may regain some composure and perspective about the relative importance of a manipulated mass election — sounds presidential, no? — within the body politic of popular culture. Right? Then how do I explain why I woke up literally singing the word “swing” — […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[87,85,16,86,84,14],"class_list":{"0":"post-59","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"tag-adam-lambert","8":"tag-american-idol","9":"tag-gay","10":"tag-judy-garland","11":"tag-popular-culture","12":"tag-tv","13":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/outthere\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/outthere\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/outthere\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/outthere\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/outthere\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/outthere\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/outthere\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/outthere\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/outthere\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}