Ah, the infamous Seattle auditions. That was the show that caused all the controversy. Simon was too cruel. The parade of wacko contestants was relentlessly brutal. Before the show even aired, Simon had publicly denounced the Seattle turnout as "the worst bunch of miserable contestants EVER." Even Paula agreed, labeling the auditioners as "unusually fantastically delusional."

Seattle was the butt of Idol's jokes, deemed a pool of untalented crazies. Yet here we are, down to the Top 24, and the last laugh may be on Simon. A total of FIVE semifinalists were found in that "atrocious" city. In comparison, only one semifinalist was found in Birmingham, lovingly dubbed "Idol Country" by the show's writers.

American Idol always provides some interesting and inspiring back-stories on some of the more unusual and/or "unique" contestants during the audition episodes. But if you're like me, you might also hunger for more information on some of those who don't merit an individual AI spotlight. Don't you wonder, "Who are these people? And what rock did they crawl out from under?"

Folks you're in luck, because Eric over at Death by Camera has done a little legwork and compiled a list of links to the MySpace pages for last night's rejected and accepted Minneapolis contestants. Dying to know more about The Juggler, The Jewel-Wannabe, or The Cowardly Lion Girl? Then check it out.

(S06E01) At 8:00 PM, I sat down with my Diet Coke, set the DVR, and got ready to take notes for my first ever American Idol Reviewcap. At 10:00 PM, I realized that my DVR didn't record one fricking minute. Not a good start. Good thing I took extensive notes during the show.

Season Six began with a stirring intro by Ryan Seacrest, making me realize that AI employs some pretty good writers. After highlighting past Idol successes and reviewing last year's Grand Finale show with Prince (Minneapolis was chosen because it's Prince's hometown), we were ready for the auditions.

Weird story out of Minneapolis. Katie Couric made an appearance in the city recently as part of her "Eye on America" campaign to introduce herself as the new anchor of the CBS Evening News (she starts in September).

Here's the weird part: Matt Bartel, who does the MNSpeak blog, was given an invitation to one of the events as a journalist. But at the last minute he was pulled out of the crowd by organizers because they found out he was a blogger! They told him "we don't want you to participate," and asked him for his notebook. When he refused, they decided he could stay if he gave them his pen.

Yeah, because there's no way that he could report on what happened by memory or a digital recorder or a second pen or something. But Bartel says there really wasn't that much to report.

But there is some shocking news to report: Bartel told Couric he doesn't own a television. Doesn't own a television?! What's up with that?

Apparently there was some excitement here in Minneapolis last Monday, but I missed it. A student activist group called the Soulforce Equality Riders, who travel around visiting colleges with religious policies against homosexuality, were locked out of North Central University in downtown Minneapolis, a private Christian university. One PR person from the university said the protesters declined an offer last week to have a third party mediate the discussion. Well, whatever the situation was, the group of thirty-three wound up rallying in a park across the street, where they were eventually joined by Star Trek's George Takei (Mr. Sulu) who was in town for a gay pride event at the University of Minneapolis and who recently came out himself. Naturally, he compared their struggle to Star Trek, referring to it as an "equality trek."