Thursday Thoughts

-Now that American Idol is over for another season, it's up to the contestants who have garnered enormous notoriety, and created a fan base, to capitalize on their new-found stardom...like the person to the right, Kelly Clarkson, was able to do. For some, (Taylor, Katharine, Elliot and Chris) the initial job will be fairly easy.. if they trust their career path to the right type of management person, or persons. The others (Kellie, Ace, Paris, Mandisa, Lisa) will have to act quickly because they haven't been on the gigantic national AI stage with its millions of viewers for a while. (Kevin, Bucky and Melissa..the remaining three in the top 12...I don't think have much hope of going anywhere) Yes, they all will tour for three months and have that exposure. But, that's nothing compared to what they've enjoyed for the last couple of months. Even the top four or five will soon be forgotten, (a la Justin Guarini) unless they have bona fide talent with staying power...are marketed well...and make smart career decisions. The opportunity is now theirs, they must jump on it. We'll see.

-I wrote about this last week when it began, and now it bears some more attention. What is Albert Pujols doing? Why on God's green earth would he be inclined to go out of his way to support the likes of Barry Bonds? His agent, or somebody, should have pulled him aside after his first venture into bonding with Bonds and asked what the hell was he thinking? I can't understand what would make him go out of his way to cozy up to the man who is so cancerous to baseball that nobody really cares about his current accomplishments outside of San Francisco. Then Albert does a shot with Bonds on his pathetic "unreality" TV show on ESPN...and once again speaks out in support of the guy. Is Albert so soft-hearted that he feels the necessity to soften Bonds' current catastrophic situation? Or is he just so out-of-touch with the reality of Bonds' public perception that he doesn't understand the damage he's doing to himself, and all the other former and current stars of the game? Albert seems to need a course in public relations. Some fans will now, undoubtedly, question any accomplishment by Pujols because of the waters in which he has chosen to swim...and the other big fish in those waters.

-Belleville's Art On the Square continues to make enormous progress every year. The effervescent and unbelievably energetic Patty Gregory has put together an art show that is rated by just about everybody in the art world as one of the best of its size in the nation. They reported over 1 million dollars in sales at this year's show. And many of the artists who came said afterward that it is by far the best show for them...moneywise...and every otherwise. Many thanks and kudos to my friend Patty and her fantastic organization for bringing such a positive experience to all of us who live in the Belleville area. Bravo!

-The Grizzlies opened their season with a 5-4 loss to River City last night. I hope that's not the start of another difficult early season for Danny Cox's team. They struggled out of the gate last year and couldn't recover. This year's team has much more potential for early success...but, you still have to go out and do the job. The Grizzlies open their home schedule next Wednesday (5/31) at GCS Ballpark in Sauget. Joe Pott calls the rest of their season-opening road trip on 1380 ESPN radio. Check the link to the Grizzlies website on this page for times.