1. Happy Birthday, Dad! [note: not chaff!]
2. I finally watched High School Musical. It was cute! I knew all of the songs except one, which ended up being my favorite! "What I've Been Looking For," much better in its pre-reprise version, the dolled up one show-off Sharpay twins do. Not sure what sort of solo career Ashley Tisdale or Vanessa Anne Hudgens has ahead of her...Ashley could fit the Hilary anonymous-whatever mold, except Hilary's still in that mold (unless Disney does a performing talent swap every two to three years, not like Matt Gerrard or whoever else [recognized a Lucy Woodward writer, too] is going anywhere). Vanessa has less charisma as a performer and seems to do best in ballad country, not really a strong suit in homegrown Disney cross-platform land (most ballads are still imported from Billboard, along with Daniel Powter, WHAT THE HELL, KIDS).
The only thing notable about the movie, aside from the weak subtext of adolescent sexual ambiguity (bi-curricularity!) that was actually more endearing than it was subversive (or whatever), was that EVERYONE in this movie is rich. Even the basketball coach has a mansion! (Maybe mom is an IP lawyer for the Diz.)
3. I've been getting a lot of email and comments about an old September post I wrote about Aly and AJ back when I first heard the album. Please keep death threats at a minimum (or was that just a Miley Cyrus fan?). I will post the best responses, ranging from thoughtful to unintelligible, soon.
4. I'm struggling to find albums from this year I'm even interested in looking for, let alone listen to and evaluate. Please help!
5. Finally found that Snook song here after looking for it forever. Kinda fun!
6. Very belated, but I should link to this Toy-Box special from Don't Stop the (Dansk) Pop, which will be added to the blogroll soon-like. I might write something about Aneela's solo project (Daughters) later.
7. I'm giving the Leslie Carter single to Ross because he correctly named the last mislabeled song, TIK N' TAK, also because I save on postage that way. Apologies to all other worthy contenders. I'm going kind of acrostic crazy these days, probably because of Anthony Burgess's autobiography. Pre-emptive apology to my step-mom if tomorrow's Taylor Hicks blurb actually runs.
8. Someone just wrote this over on ILM:
99% of all music is boring and dull irrespective of corporate origins unless you are some nascent child molestor who fancies teen pop.
I would just like to point out that this person technically just said he/she does not think teenpop is boring. Welcome to the wonderful world of teenpoptimism! Soon to be known as emo enthusiasm!
9. Which is to say, I like this Meg and Dia album a lot. Best track is "Indiana," completely revamped from the Myspace demo version. Will write about it (the album) later.
EDIT: 9 1/2. Egregious overlook on my half-year singles list: "Black Sweat" by Prince. Probably around #4-5 for the year so far.
10. Bye! Happy Fourth!
Have you got the Pipettes album?
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