This Week in Sanjaya!
Yes! It had to happen. If Paris Hilton can do it, so can Sanjaya Malakar. Seattle's most famous (only?) American Idol contestant has written an autobiography, Dancing to the Music in My Head (Pocket Books, $19.99), and he'll be promoting it this Sunday. (Details after the jump.)
Now, we've never actually seen American Idol or heard Sanjaya sing. But in the jacket photo of his book (co-authored, ahem, by Alan Goldsher), he is just so adorably tousle-haired and squirrel-eyed that we can't help liking the now 20-year-old pop munchkin. Sure, there's a wealth of biographical information on his Wiki page, but we just had to crack open the book for some of the wisdom contained within...
During the Idol audition process, Sanjaya recalls,
"My plan was to keep real and grounded, to go with the flow, to take each day and each audition one at a time, and to have as much fun as possible."
So true. And more pithily expressed than anything Reinhold Niebuhr ever wrote. Then, while speaking on a chat show about the selling of his celebrity to rabid fans, he says,
"It's freaky. I'm still just Sanjaya from Seattle, and I wouldn't think that people would even care to chase me. It really feels kind of unnatural."
Adorno couldn't have put it any better. We were not aware that Sanjaya was so familiar with the writings of the Frankfurt School. Finally, Sanjaya addresses the mutable nature of the self, as signified by his most iconic attribute:
"It's just hair, and there's nothing wrong with having fun with it, a philosophy that a lot of Idol's older and more rural demographic didn't necessarily agree with."
Exactly! And where have I heard that same sentiment expressed before? Was it Foucault or Mudede? Whatever—great minds think alike.
Reading details: Barnes & Noble, 2675 N.E. University Village St., 517-4107. 2 p.m. Sun. Feb. 15. "Book signing only," which we presume means no singing, kissing, or boob signing.
3 comment(s)
tictoc says:
I like you have never had a Sanjaya experience (radio, tv, in person) but he does have pull doesn't he? It would be interesting to go to the reading just for the people watching.
Posted On: Friday, Feb. 13 2009 @ 1:26PM
Spaulding says:
Putting Sanjaya aside for a moment, I'd just like to thank Mr. Miller for a job well done. Any piece mocking Chuck Mudede is a piece I can get behind. I'd love to see that elitist douchecicle on the next season of Tool Academy.
Posted On: Friday, Feb. 13 2009 @ 1:38PM
grace says:
nicely written by a nutrul party,your judging his book the way it should be with an open Unbais mind, unfortonly not all people are like that, sanjaya has shown be is an natural writer taken himself by surprise, sanjaya did a nice job on his first book.
Posted On: Tuesday, Mar. 3 2009 @ 7:28AM