Reaching Out to the Stars (16 page)

Chapter 15

Facebook

Although I consider myself to be a pretty level headed person, not going beyond the limits of the obsessive fan, I do tend to go on websites every now and then to get updates on my favorite ‘Idols’ while waiting for an upcoming CD. In keeping the excitement alive and impatiently waiting for Jason to release his new CD, I was surfing the web looking for any information I could possibly get on new release dates.

While quickly scanning through articles I noticed something on Jason having a girlfriend. I couldn’t help but click on it to see what that was all about. There were several posts from fans reactions to the possibility of him having this girlfriend. One woman had commented on them looking cute together and how she was happy for him. Now, correct me if I am wrong, but even though we say that we are happy for them because we want to be and we always mean well, are we really that happy for them? Fans never really want to hear about their favorite celebrity being involved with someone. The truth is, we actually all like to think of ourselves as his or her boyfriend or girlfriend. Sometimes we even refer to them as our boyfriend or girlfriend. Come on my friends, any talk of a significant other just ruins the fantasy for us. Yes, in reality, he is allowed to have a personal life but do we really need to know about it or hear about it for that matter? Just keeping it real, my friends. Just keeping it real.

Anyway, I have always had my reservations about becoming a Facebook member. I decided to join because I was intrigued by this: “Sign up for Facebook to connect with Jason Castro.”

Although many good experiences such as connecting with old friends, and horrific experiences like the end of my friendship with my former best friend Maria, have come from my Facebook interactions, this was my initial reason for joining. I thought to myself, Could it really be that easy? I seriously doubted it but I was determined to prove a point.

I joined Facebook just shy of getting taken over by a new season of American Idol. You got it, season eight. From early auditions, I was already of fan of twenty-nine year old Danny Gokey.

One of my first Facebook interactions was with my sister-in-law, Erica, who asked me if I had been watching (what a silly question), who had referred to having her first “love of her life” Idol crush. At the time, she did not know his name but when she mentioned theater, I remembered his name was Adam.

As I had several friend requests from past friends who had immediately found me, I still needed to research my initial reason for joining Facebook. I typed Jason Castro’s name in the search bar and found myself on a page amongst 35,000 other fans and thought that’s just what I figured. There was not even an “add as a friend” option but only a “become a fan” option. Furthermore, as I wrote on his wall, remembering that I did not want to overstep that fine line into the irrational fan zone, my post contained only four words, “Is this really you?”

Again, I do not believe that Jason Castro is really reading 35,000 posts and responding to them individually and in reality, how could he? Just like a fan letter he posts a generic message every now and then to ‘all’ of his fans to update us on his plans and future career. Although it is good to be in the circle of upcoming events, always looking for an opportunity for a Jason fix, there is no true connection or interaction on a personal level. I do enjoy some of the cute videos and of course the “date nights,” short videos from wherever Jason is to say hi to his many fans. At least he is making an honest effort in keeping his fan base alive.

I loved reading the posts on my friends’ walls every Tuesday and Wednesday night about Idol performances and results shows. Either I would smile, laugh or even get a little frustrated about the comments on the most loved and the most hated contestants. I would only find myself chiming in when I agreed or could find humor in a situation, not being a person who likes argument and confrontation.

Facebook also has a cool tool for taking different AI quizzes or even casting votes for your Idol favorites. There was always a lot of love for Danny Gokey. One of my friends even once posted that she was going to “fight Paula for her new ‘boyfriend’ Danny Gokey.” There were also many Kris Allen crushes and a lot of very mixed emotions about over the top performances by Adam Lambert.

My friend Bonnie was clearly an Adam Lambert fan. I sent her a message that read, “I’m guessing you are an Adam fan?” I felt like I could really relate to her when she emailed me back and said that “Adam Lambert made her heart flutter.” Although I had no real connections or Idol crushes this year, I had known from past and even still present experience what it is like to have an Idol crush and where it can sometimes take you.

At the end of it all, though, when push came to shove, people started getting downright nasty about the contestants they didn’t like as opposed to the ones that they did. There was a lot of sadness after the Danny Gokey elimination and I remember getting really agitated after one post read “Kris Allen is better than Danny Gokey because he plays instruments.” There was even more so of an explosion before and after the Adam Lambert vs. Kris Allen finale.

As I was a fan of all of the top three guys, despite musical style, if it was a singing competition and only a singing competition, Adam Lambert should have walked away with the title. Looking at this year’s Idol from a singing standpoint, I started to get angry with some of the comments like, “Go Kris, kick the screaming drag queen’s ass!” and, “Hey Adam, Mary Kay called, she wants her make-up back.” I realize that not everybody wants to jump aboard the Adam train when it comes to black nail polish and guy liner, but I was just hoping that wasn’t what people were voting on.

Although I would buy a Danny Gokey or Kris Allen CD because I prefer that type of music over rock, I don’t believe that it was fair to take away from Adam his amazing vocal ability to sing them all under a table. It showed complete ignorance.

That night my post read, “Congratulations Kris, although when the winner expresses that the title should have gone to his opponent, that is really saying something. It is too bad that society is so caught up in sexual preference. I saw the same thing happen to Clay Aiken 5 years ago.” Moments after my post, my Facebook page exploded. I guess you would not think that I am a person who does not like confrontation, but I did not know I was not entitled to my opinion.

I was so fired up that night that I wrote a short article which I tried to submit to several papers including the Worcester Telegram and Gazette, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Boston Phoenix, Boston Metro, New York Times and Hartford Courant. The article read as follows: