Gina's goodbye to TV reporters: Long version

LuzElena did an excellent job Thursday of boiling down Gina Glocksen's conference call with the usual clutch of TV reporters. But I know there are some of you who like to squeeze every last drop of significance from the departed Idol's farewell to the reporters (and I confess, I'm one of them -- a significance-squeezer, not a reporter, that is). So here's the slightly smoothed-out but essentially intact transcript.

Grammatical gaffes have been fixed, spelling has been corrected, and reporters' names have been omitted to protect the guilty. Occasional editorial comments <in brackets, like this> have been inserted by me to help while away the time.

Gina's transcript follows. Again, packing a snack is advisable -- it's lengthy.

Gina's farewell chat

LuzElena Avitia was on the phone listening to Gina's farewell conference call with reporters, and provides her summary of the proceedings:

Simon Cowell, a father figure? Newly eliminated idol Gina Glocksen thinks so, telling reporters she saw him as a parental type on the show. “…He’ll say that I had a bad performance just to make me stronger because he did like me and he does see something special in me. He just wanted to push me to that next level.”

Glocksen was voted off Wednesday night after her performance of Charlie Chaplin’s classic Smile, which by definition clashed with the Idol’s rocker-chick image, but nonetheless seemed awfully appropriate as an exit song.

“As I was singing it, it kind of clicked like after the first couple lines that I sang like, ‘Wow I’ m just actually singing about myself’ and I kind of changed one of the words like, ‘when there’s clouds in the sky, I’ll get by…’ instead of ‘you‘ll get by.’ That song is definitely going to be a very special song for me for the rest of my life now.”

Also special to Glocksen is having made it this far in the competition. She tried out for Idol three times before making it to the top 10 on her fourth attempt. “I’m glad that I got cut on the previous rounds when I did," she said, "because they obviously thought that I had things to work on. And I did that and I had a couple of years to work on it. And I think that it really came out this year.”

The Idol experience, Glocksen says, includes 15-hour days, with their schedule running from Thursday to Thursday. “We pick our song on Thursday, rehearse them for three days, meet with our mentor on Saturday, do the Ford (which sponsors American Idol) shoot on Sunday, rehearse on Monday, show on Tuesday, show on Wednesday, pick songs on Thursday, and it's just a continuous circle.”

Lastly, here are some tidbits Gina fans might want to know:

Favorite star mentor during the show: Diana Ross

Song she wanted to sing but couldn’t: Who Knew by Pink during Top 24 week (Pink doesn’t clear her songs).

Theme week she was most looking forward to: Bon Jovi (she would have sung Livin’ on a Prayer)

Regrets: None

Feelings toward Mr. Pickles (her lucky charm): “I’m a little upset with him, but he got me this far.”

Besides the summer Idol tour, Gina fans can also look forward to a possible record deal. Glocksen hopes to “move to L.A. and try to get a record deal. I want to make music, my own music 'cause I’ve been singing covers for so long, and just try to sell albums.”

A pleasant 'Smile' from Gina

Gina and Sanjaya are going to have a tough time keeping up the pace, which by my count is three definite-plus performances out of five so far (four if you go with the judges on Chris). And Phil was by means a disaster; it just pales by comparison.

But Gina -- stubbornly keeping the tongue stud -- plays the Smile card, a chance to pour on the melancholia. She's in tune and control (unlike with, say, Paint It Black) but those hissing sibilants are distracting. Not bad.

Randy likes it, Paula says it's flawless, and Simon rightly brings up the women who outsang him.

Gina takes a 'Stand'

Score one for the coaches -- Don Waller suggested Gina go Pretenders. She does have a little of that Hynde-ish quaver in her voice, but I'll Stand by You sounded a bit wobbly.

Judges love it. Must have been hearing something different. It was just ... OK for me. (I'm not going to say aiight.)

Gina's back in 'Black'

Paint It Black, eh? Possibly Gina's best song choice yet. Great idea from Lulu to take it up a half step; any lower and she'd be subsonic on the verse. Not crazy about the melodic liberties taken, and she really is kind of a bogus rock singer, but it was kind of messily enjoyable.

Randy consigns it to the "just aiiight for me" file. Paula is fairly incomprehensible. Simon finds "horrible" elements to it, and he's difficult to argue with.

Gina doesn't feel the 'Love' from the judges

Got my official American Idol Family Fun Event Book cracked open to start keeping a record of the performances (I forgot about it for the first three, but now I'm caught up).

Gina once again shows off her rock-chick cred by singing ... uh, Love Child, by The Supremes. Could have done the Aerosmith version of My World Is Empty Without You, but whatever. Shaky beginning but picks up in the chorus. Lot of words, though, and she wrestles with their profusion a little. OK, all in all; I was fearing worse.

Randy is easily bored tonight. Paula has so much trouble expressing anything critical, but that was harsh for her. Simon is Swiss about the whole thing.