'American Idol' Season Eight Auditions Under Way - Say It Isn't So!

Oh, but it is so my friends. Just when we all think around here that "American Idol" has finished and we can put away our "Cook Cooks" and "I Love Archie, Not Jughead" signs and t-shirts (OK, we really don't have those - I just made that up) the auditions return. Barely two months have passed since the finale wrapped up, and my six month long tension headache went away, and the first round of auditions are already under way. The first stop took place in San Francisco, Calif. You would think by season eight I would be bored of all this, but alas, I hauled my butt up on a plane to San Francisco to check out the auditions last week at the Cow Palace. 

After a $111 dollar cab ride from my hotel at 5:30 AM (sorry, accounting) I arrived to find, first, that it was freezing cold on a July morning. Yes, yes I have heard the Mark Twain quote, "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco." Thank you to everyone who told me this after I wore the wrong clothes and froze my tail off. Second, I found around seven thousand plus people lined up for their chance at stardom. 

The crowd seemed a little smaller than I found during season six in Los Angeles but still a huge number for a show now going into its eighth season. Two years later, there seemed to be one major difference - this crowd was a whole lot more tame. I remember arriving at the Rose Bowl and spotting a guy in a chicken costume, girls in their prom dresses and tiaras, a clown and just about every other type of costume.