Word: jacksonism
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...little corny. On Tuesday, April 24, Idol contestants will sing what Fuller calls "emotive, moving, aspirational, triumph-over-adversity songs." In between renditions of, say, Bridge over Troubled Water and Man in the Mirror, there will be clips of Simon Cowell and Ryan Seacrest's trip to Africa, Randy Jackson's trip to Louisiana and Paula Abdul's trip to Kentucky. When viewers call to vote for their favorites, sponsors will kick in some money for every vote cast...
...have affecting personal stories. Ideally, Idol indulges the idea that the nicest people are the most talented, promising karmic justice in a pop world of Ashlee Simpsons and Paris Hiltons. "There are a lot of people who are not great singers who are selling a lot of records," Jackson puts it diplomatically. And voters will take points off for arrogance. Justin Guarini was Season 1's early favorite but lost steam when he started to seem as if he believed he was as good as everyone else said...
...weirdest of all - and I'm betraying my professional bias here - it celebrates critics. It's not just that more than 30 million people watch judges Paula Abdul, Simon Cowell and Randy Jackson dispense music criticism (if "Dawg, that was all over the place for me" counts as criticism). The show also turns even nonvoting viewers into critics, arguing who deserves success and what makes a "good" performance. Week after week, a society that is not terribly self-reflective asks itself, through Idol, what it likes...
...always, it's TIME's art department that gives a project like this shape and life. Janet Michaud designed the package, Crary Pullen researched and selected the sweep of photos within it, and Jackson Dykman executed the maps and graphics. We'll keep covering the global-warming story as long as there's a story to cover. Scientists tell us we'll be at it for a while, but this year we may have begun the long road home...
...religious left may now see an opportunity to flex its muscles in the 2008 presidential campaign, but the religious left is hardly a new phenomenon. Most Americans are probably familiar with the following names: Daniel and Philip Berrigan, Robert Drinan, William Sloane Coffin, Paul Moore, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Evan Edwards, New York City...