the awesome/terrifying freedom

i'm one step closer towards becoming an asian tv personality. yesterday morning i shot two hosting segments for imaginasiantv's .sales reel. they seemed to like me, and promised that they would be calling when the actual show goes into production sometime during the summer. we shall see - in the meantime, it's always great to be in a studio - and to still feel the novelty of the experience, the joy of the craft service table, the glee of watching jaded techies begrudgingly adjusting the lights and cleaning marks off of the green screen, learning to use the teleprompter, and realizing that what you think looks like natural behavior is in fact you, making a series of horribly ugly faces.

so i have added sympathy for some of those american idol kids, who haven't yet learned to control their nerves - because the tiniest bit of nervousness can be masked from the stage, but on screen you look like a stammering idiot. poor red headed johnny, and poor jon peter lewis who absolutely cannot sing. and man, country music night is the worst night of the entire american idol competition, but somehow, inbelievably, latoya london did the countriest song ever (that mealy mouthful of garth brooks josh gracin destroyed with unfocused oh-so country energy last year) and managed to make it work. only the pink haired girl had a comperable night - sounding great, looking great, and saving her pink haired self for another week.

yoanna is america's next top model. i missed shandi's kickoff. the thing i'll miss most is tyra saying 'one step closer to becoming america's next top model' 'america's next top model.' you're one step closer towards becoming america's next top model.' there was an incapability on the show of saying 'you might win.' no, tyra must say 'you're journeying down the road that winds through many obstacles until you arrive at a proverbial staircase, which you will ascend, and with each placement of your foot above the other, you position yourself in a locale that is different from that which you began, a position ONE STEP CLOSER TOWARD BECOMING AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL.'

except the phrase has been spoken so many times that some syllables get left out. the final version is more like 'congrasion, yonestep closetoe com'amerca's nestop modl.'