As I believe I’ve made abundantly clear, I am at heart a huge fan of pop music. But what is pop? When is a piece of music pure pop confection? I think there are two elements that tip the scales. When you hear them, they instantly transform the song to pop. Handclaps Background singers going [...]
Drama? What drama?
Mary J. Blige, the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul, answers questions from readers in Blender magazine’s latest Dear Superstar feature: Mary, you’re a devout Christian. How do you reconcile bling with God? My God is a God who wants me to have things. He wants me to bling! He wants me to be the hottest thing [...]
What’s Hot
A number of downloads seem to maintain their popularity, with no effort on my part. No doubt, some of it is due to links from other sites. Adrian & The Mysterious D’s mash-up of Gwen Stefani and Front 242. Diplo’s Megatroid Mixsoup. Dropbass’ mash-up “Kill Beyonce.” A real oldie: Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room. The [...]
Why do I not watch Idol?
I watched American Idol last night, since I’ve been following this season, and I was reminded why I don’t watch this show. Chris was surprisingly good and Paris and Taylor were fantastic. In fact, my impression was that everyone was operating at a high level. But the performance level dropped off as the show went [...]
Bee in the bonnet
If you’ve been to a Starbucks in recent years, you’ve noticed that they’re becoming a media company. I picked up these insulating cup wrappers from a Starbucks, promoting the new movie Akeelah and the Bee . Starbucks appears to be promoting the movie in a real selfless fashion. Then I hop over to Jim Romenesko’s [...]
It’s bigger than hip-hop
From Jeremiah 17:7-8 (the updated version): Blessed is the man that trusteth in HIP-HOP, and whose hope HIP-HOP is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not [...]
Holiday Food, Part Two
You want to see a five-dollar artichoke? I read online that there are 140 varieties, but less than 40 are grown commercially. I have no idea what kind this big one is, but it’s six inches across at its widest point. These were prepared in a traditional Italian style, stuffed with bread crumbs, Parmesan, salt, [...]
Holiday Food, Part One
We’re passing through Passover. In fact, last Wednesday I was invited to a Seder. I ended up talking to the most interesting person at the table (to me), the one teenager. I can report that high school appears to be the same living hell it always was. As I’ve said before, our society doesn’t seem [...]
Hippity-hoppity, ya don’t stop.
You know, if you decorate your home for Christmas, nobody looks at you funny. You can put up the gaudiest, tackiest conglomeration of lights and blow-up snowmen and animated reindeer, and people might think it’s a little much, but that’s it. But you decorate your house for Easter and people drive past and think: freak. [...]
H-A, double R, I, D-A-N spells Flanagan.
A couple months ago, I carried on (at length) about Caitlin Flanagan, of The Atlantic Monthly and The New Yorker. There is a new profile by Ella Taylor in the current LA Weekly. Here are some of the points that struck me as interesting: What understandably drives a lot of feminists right up the wall [...]