This Show is Automatic, It's Systematic...

When I was a kid, my parents owned a huge, pale green station wagon. Before my dad traded in his Ford Maverick for a Chrysler Caravan, the station wagon was the family car and we would all pile into it whenever we visited my mom's parents in Santa Cruz or went on road trips.

What I remember most about that car (besides the fact that it was huge, pale green, and a station wagon) is that it had an eight-track tape deck. As soon as we lost radio reception, my mom would play one of three tapes she kept in the glove compartment: ABBA - Gold: Greatest Hits, Go West by Village People, or Grease - The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack.

For most of my childhood, I grew up believing my parents only owned three tapes. It wasn't until much later that I discovered the tapes in the car were just my mom's half of the collection. My dad's half was kept tucked away in a bookcase drawer in the living room. He had more than four dozen tapes by artists like Gladys Knight and the Pips, The Temptations, The Association, and The Lettermen.

To this day, I don't know why we never listened to my dad's tapes (in retrospect, I wish we had), but what I do know is that as a result, my mom's half of the collection had a monopoly on the car tape deck. And because of that, I have a love-hate relationship with the music and artists from those three albums.

Whenever I hear "In the Navy", I'm simultaneously drawn to it because of the happy car trip memories it recalls, but also repulsed by it because of the sheer number of times I've now heard the song in my life. It partially explains why I was tempted to buy The ABBA Generation by A*Teens when it first came out, but vehemently dislike Madonna's "Hung Up", which borrows heavily from the group's "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!". It also begins to explain why I've been watching the BBC-produced Grease: You're The One That I Want on television after so many years of actively avoiding anything related to the musical or the movie.

For those who don't know, the show is an American Idol imitation, but instead of choosing who will be the next Idol, America gets to choose who will play the lead roles of Sandy and Danny in an upcoming Broadway production of Grease.

There is nothing extraordinary about the show to merit watching it every week other than the fact that the music is so ingrained in me that it almost seems as though I would be denying who I am if I didn't watch it.

Okay, that's not true, but that's the line of reasoning I'm going to use the next time someone gives me a disapproving look when I mention the show. It's your typical blame-the-parents defense and it fits perfectly with one of my favorite quotes from A Mighty Wind: "There was abuse in my family, but it was mostly musical in nature."

Last night was a two-hour episode of the show. After three weeks of hearing David Ian, the obligatory British judge on three-judge panel, tell contestants, "You [long pause] are not Sandy/Danny" or "You [longer pause] are the one that we want", the field of contestants has been narrowed down to fourteen finalists - seven Sandys and seven Dannys. From this point forward, the Sandy and Danny receiving the least number of votes each week is eliminated.

Right now, I'm rooting for Max (nicknamed "Slacker Danny"). He seems to be the underdog of the bunch. He has the talent, especially the vocal talent, but the judges keep harping on his looks. Of the women, none of them really stand out, but if I were to root for one, I would probably go with Ashley S. ("Ballerina Sandy") because her dance experience sets her apart.