31. Ying Yang Twins, “Wait”

"The thing about 'Wait,' " he added, "instead of being high in our voice, we just whisper. You can't always holla at every lady you talk to. Every lady you talk to is not a hoodrat. Every lady you talk is not a whore, they not all bitches — some women are women. To get a woman's attention, you have to be an adult. To step to a female and whisper to her would be more attractive than trying to make a point out loud and being in a crowd." (mtv.com - these opinions are not necessarily shared by the cut'n'paster currently laughing his ass off)

32. David Banner feat. Mr. Magic & Lil Boosie, "I Ain't Got Nothin'"

Tough shit!

33. Eels, “Hey Man (Now You’re Really Livin’)”

Not totally sure if he changed or if I did, but as I haven't had the urge to buy any Tom Waits, it's probably him.

34. Lil Jon feat. Usher & Ludacris, “Lovers & Friends”

AHH-AHH HOOO! AHH-AHH HOOO! AHH-AHH HOOWOOHOOWOAHOAH!

35. Spoon “I Turn My Camera On”

In hopes that its popularity will reach karaoke-bar heights. I do a mean falsetto.

36. Missy Elliott feat. Ciara, “Lose Control”

Please tell your lovers & friends that Missy and Ciara had to do it again.

37. Jason Mraz, "Wordplay"

I want to write a book called Glib White Males: Kill Us Now and Jason Mraz wants to be in it.

38. Lindsay Lohan, "First"

Rips off "Half-Life" by Local H, whose video featured a demolition derby, and Ashlee Simpson's "La La," whose video featured an exuberant, marginally talented celebrity. Her video has both so you gotta figure its twice as good. It also has Herbie so it might even be better than that.

39. Basement Jaxx, “Oh My Gosh”

"Still" "got" "it."

40. Good Charlotte, “We Believe”

Sums up everything I like about Christianity, including the occasional Edge guitar riff.

41. Billy Idol, “Scream”

Dude's lemon tree is fifty years YOUNG, dammit!

42. Mannie Fresh, "Conversation"

Helpfully lists all the dances chubby dudes can get away with.

43. 112, “U Already Know”

I really need to find some DeBarge.

44. Bobby Valentino, “Slow Down”

I'm not above getting sentimental about the asses I've passed.

45. Arcade Fire, "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)"'

Brings up childhood memories of playing late in the snowlit night with my pet turkey.

46. Hold Steady, "Your Little Hoodrat Friend"

I'm not Catholic, I'm not from Minnesota, never done hard drugs, haven't seen 'em live, but I am a schlubby, bespectacled nerdcrit with thinning hair.

47. Ciara feat. Ludacris, “Oh”

Most women who acknowledge urban chaos either feign masculinity or play the horrified daughter-mother bystander. Ciara ain't giving up authority OR her halter top. Guest spot from best guest rapper ever neither hurts or helps, she's on her own.

48. Green Day, “Holiday”

Combines the real-band swing of "Boulevard" with the mushmouth politiwhine of "American Idiot," sums up everything great and horrible about these trad rock democrats.

49. 50 Cent, “Disco Inferno”

"On Fire" + personality

50. Trillville feat. Cutty “Some Cut”

I don't want a picture of Trillville, I want a picture of Cutty! Cutty makes the song (the song...). I'm settling for this guy (this guy!).

Radio playlist:
Franz Ferdinand - Love & Destroy
Starflyer 59 - Good Sons
Yo La Tengo - Sugarcube
Normal - Warm Leatherette
Polyrock - Romantic Me
Raveonettes - Uncertain Times
Kasabian - LSF
LCD Soundsystem - Tribulations
QOTSA - In My Head
Martha Wainwright - When The Day Is Short
Fischerspooner - Happy
Danielson Famile - Fathom The Nines Fruitspie
50 Foot Wave - Dog Days
Cornershop - Lessons Learned From Rocky I To Rocky III
Elvis Costello - Kinder Murder
Ben Lee - Get Gotten
Patterson Hood - Miss Me Gone
Paul Westerberg - It's A Wonderful Lie
Louis XIV - Illegal Tender
Decemberists - The Engine Driver
R. Kelly - Sex In The Kitchen
Local H - Toxic
Spoon - I Turn My Camera On
Morrissey - Sister, I'm A Poet
Thunderbirds Are Now - Enough About Me, Let's Talk About Me
Hold Steady - Multitude Of Casualties
Dig - Believe
Dump - Secret Blood
Magnetic Fields - I Don't Really Love You Anymore
Electric Six - The Future Is In The Future

Someone requested whatever the 8+ minute track on Picaresque is. Yeah, I'm gonna hand 9 minutes of my show to the NORTHWESTERN BELLE AND SEBASTIAN OF HISTORICAL MELODRAMA, WHO I HEAR WEAR OLD TIMEY CLOTHES ON STAGE. RIGHT. It was a girl, though, so I played "The Engine Driver." Turns out its a great song. Nonetheless, I was so bothered that I had played the Decemberists on my show that I threw Kells on right after, damn the format.

I'm finally going to listen to Picaresque later this week.

Sometimes, when Common is having sex, he likes to imagine John Mayer is watching him from the window. Go...

Other tracks that would make my top whatever if I forgave weak rhymes in the name of hot beats: "Hollaback Girl" and "Don't Phizzuck With My Heart."

Al and Nathalie pegged me for a meme (it's pronounced "meh-MEE," right?) and as I'm killing a healthy bit of time before I catch the bus, I'll handle it now.

Total volume of music files on my computer: it was 22.1 GB when I did this meme in lj-land back in May. I'll see how its changed when I get back home tonight. It's probably heftier, as I've been a burnin' fiend lately. I must suck every bit of good music out of State College before I split.

The last CD I bought: went to AKA Records with my friend Dave yesterday and bought Sugar Ray's 14:59, Enrique Iglesias' 7, Usher's 8701, Wu-Tang Clan's The W and Mountain Goats' The Coroner's Gambit. They always have used pop/hip-hop for cheap and I picked up the Goats album to fuck with the clerk (plus I want it, but still).

Song playing right now: NO SONG IS PLAYING RIGHT NOW. The batteries on my discman burnt out yesterday just as soon as I'd discovered that Iglesias' "Free" steals the riff from "The Joker." I'm picking some up on the way to the bus station. 7 is damn good, you know. Possibly even more Banderasian than Escape. Where is Enrique? We need Enrique!

Five songs I listen to a lot these days:
1. Queens Of The Stone Age, "I Never Came"
2. Spoon, "Was It You"
3. Wipers, "Over The Edge"
4. Electric Six, "Electric Demons In Love"
5. Natalie, "Goin' Crazy"

I'm passing it on to:
Sara
Maria
J.T.
Keith
Leila

update: the current volume is now 22.8 and it turns out Thomas hit me up for this thing too. Flattered!

Listen to Usher's "Burn" immediately before Frankie J's new single "How To Deal" for one hell of a laugh. I guess I should be proud my favorite single of last year has been jacked this blatantly by someone following up a top 5 hit. Same co-author, it turns out, Mr. Bryan Michael Cox. I sure hope Frankie scrunches his fist and face in the video. That's how we know he means it.

I'm headed up to Philly for a few days, checking out apartments, hanging out with pals and looking for a cheap used copy of Confessions: Special Edition. When I get back I'm gonna reveal my favorite albums and singles of this year so far (it's what we do, people). Will I be forced to admit my top 20 includes a critblog fave I've been dissing on ILX or will I find enough superior albums beforehand to knock it off? Soon you'll know the SHOCKING truth!

In my absence, please enjoy six faces you will not see on my Favorite 50 Singles Of The Year So Far (Hooray!) list:




Ok, Howie might sneak on.

today's radio playlist:

Electric Six - Electric Demons In Love
Alkaline Trio - Back To Hell
Basement Jaxx - Oh My Gosh
Clinic - The Equalizer
Depistado - Victim
Emperor X - Use Your Hands
At The Drive-In - One Armed Scissor
Fall Out Boy - Dance, Dance
Guided By Voices - Big School
Hold Steady - Your Little Hoodrat Friend
Imperial Teen - Birthday Girl
Jawbox - Breathe
Chris Knox - The Inside Story
Loquat - Need Air
Modest Mouse - So Much Beauty In Dirt
New Wet Kojak - Love & A Sick Beat
Of Montreal - I Was Never Young
Presets - The Girl And The Sea
QOTSA - I Never Came
Ravonettes - Love In A Trashcan
Moldy Peaches - Anybody Else But You
Spoon - Sister Jack
Thunderbirds Are Now - Better Safe Than Safari
Unrest - Can't Sit Still
Vines - TV Pro
Martha Wainwright - Factory
Yo La Tengo - Tom Courtenay (Acoustic)
M83 - Don't Save Us From Flames
Marbles - Out Of Zone
Eels - Sweet Lil' Thing
Louis XIV - Ball Of Twine
Electric Six - The Future Is In The Future

INDIE! I complain about the formal restrictions of the show now, but you know I'll miss it once I move to Philly and have no show at all. And that time is creepin' up something fierce.

I totally forgot these guys had a new album coming out! So psyched! Read my cream about their debut if you can't imagine why.

from billboard:

Modern rock outfit the All-American Rejects will release its next album, "Move Along," July 12 via Interscope. First single "Dirty Little Secret" can be sampled on the group's official Web site and purchased from iTunes.

A making-of-the-video special for the accompanying clip is scheduled to air later this month on MTV2, and the track is tipped to appear in the opening sequence of the upcoming film "Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo."

Let's hear it for the unexpected and unexpectable.

I always question the worth of Cornershop's "Lessons Learned From Rocky I to Rocky III" whenever it's not playing. It's just Tjander Singh doing his CB radio shtick over a trad riff and some bongos, right? Why did I put it in my pazz'n'jop ballot back in '02? But when the tape rolls (I've got my fave tracks from Handcream on a c90 along with songs by Jason & The Scorchers, Thurston Moore and the Swell Maps) and I'm caught in the swirl (that's one GREAT trad riff and the bongos RULE), I can't believe how effective his employment of jargon is. Singh's laconic drawl acknowledges distance but never commits to any emotional reaction to the rawkout cultural insanity he witnesses. He's conveying not so much a commentary on the "overgrown super shit" but a simple acknowledgement of it. It's possible I'm missing nuance or he's just a bit of a cold fish, but I find this aloofness seductive and extremely listenable. Even on more openly expressive tracks like "Brimful of Asha" and "People Power" he keeps himself at slight remove, avoiding the earnestness others strive to express. I wish he'd drop a singer's album - all the full-lengths I've heard are riddled with uninvolving instrumentals and guest vocalists. His voice strikes me as his greatest gift.

The best American rock album of 2005 has been in out in the UK since February and won't be out here until the fall, if then. If Warner Bros. doesn't put out Senor Smoke this year I'm going to flip out like some Fiona Apple fan and start buying placards.

I've put these realplayer links up before, but anyhow, here are the Electric Six's five no. 1 hits on the modern rock chart of my mind:

"Rock'n'Roll Evacuation"

"The Future Is In The Future"

"Future Boys"

"Be My Dark Angel"

"Dance Epidemic"

"Bite Me" only made it to no. 3. "Radio Ga Ga" hit no. 19 based solely on airplay. No promotion whatsoever. The neurons are flabbergasted. Lots of top 40 crossover action too! "Future Is In The Future (All Night)" was big! "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams" big!

I'm spending months working on my Senor Smoke piece for Stylus. Months. Every sentence, every parenthetical statement, every hyphenated adjective will be carefully sculpted into a critical piece worthy of the album. The Michelangelo's David of webzinery. It's gonna fucking GLOW, people.

The new White Stripes is good and all, Rock Hasn't Left, but on the bus, where the music was reduced to cymbal crashes and barely audible yelping, what was really making my day was the liner notes.

your morning can go however you want it. no one owes you breakfast for example. no one owes you a ride. and you know damn well you could walk there if you wanted to. and you know too that you could have what you need. to give is true and admirable too, but to be taken from is loss and and totally false. imagine that you are being taken from. what faith is tested? what hope is wuthering? what angel was persecuted who worked so hard at something never to achieve it? prove it to me. and what child who was innocent was pushed to the ground never to get up again? where's he/she at right now? where's a starbucks when you need one? am i in destiny, am i in my kitchen? you're the book dammit, you are the morning. don't deny yourself with this duty-woman! don't damn yourself with a painted smile on skull-man! put it on the table. and don't deny it. whatever it is. do yourself a favor and breathe real, get it? funny, we're all still here man. nobody left and it's odd because the more you deny it, the funnier it gets.

That's less than a quarter of the spiel. This is how you reward people who buy the liners, folks. Pics are great too.

I'm way too pessimistic to ever make it as a booster, plus my descriptions usually aren't the kind bands want to hear - "You're like Weezer to Les Savy Fav's Pavement! That's a compliment, dude!" But I'm happy to announce that Trouble Everyday's upcoming itunes-only EP (Sympathy) features three songs as tense and catchy as those on Days Vs. Nights, the only album I've ever had Stylus make Album Of The Week (though Bumblebeez 81 deserved it too - another undesired reference, I'd suck at P.R.). First time I saw them they played to two dozen in a bar in State College, second time they were opening for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs on a pier in Philly. It's Shea Stadium in two years opening for Good Charlotte, I tells ya - damn, did it again. So here's my classy blurb:

"That part of a Les Savy Fav track you can sing along with, that one song they’re always playing on the college radio station, that one number that gets everybody jumping a little higher than everything else. It’s as if they’re trying to make Chairs Missing push like Pink Flag, distilling a quarter century of innovation and exploration into a sonic rush that any adolescent could appreciate."

DJed last night, in the play-cds-between-bands-on-indie-night sense rather than rock-the-fader-MATCH-THAT-BEAT-DIPLOOOO.

Pussy Galore - Sweet Little Hi-Fi
Mission Of Burma - Academy Fight Song
Trouble Everyday - Days Vs. Nights
Make-Up - They Live By Night
Self - Dead Man
Guided By Voices - Quality Of Armor
Sugar - Your Favorite Thing
Weezer - I Just Threw Out The Love Of My Dreams
Rocket From The Crypt - Turkish Revenge
Bloc Party - Banquet
Hot Snakes - Audit In Progress
Electric Six - Future Is In The Future
LCD Soundsystem - Too Much Love
M83 - Don't Save Us From Flames
TV On The Radio - New Health Rock
Queens Of The Stone Age - I Never Came

Then Astronaut Jones played. They were all terrific musicians, but I really loved how the guitar player rocked very little tone while playing chords and then she'd pedal-hop on the solo, the tone would rush in and everybody in the audience is like 'hey' and woooooo, worse things I can do than date a female J Mascis I tell ya. Volcano girls, they really can't be beat.

Smashing Pumpkins - Apples + Oranjes
Fugazi - And The Same
Talking Heads - Thank You For Sending Me An Angel
Pere Ubu - Final Solution
R.E.M. - Wolves, Lower

Then came Kid Casanova, who I didn't really pay attention to because I was busy acting all coathanger with A-Jones, but they were cool and one member asked if I had any Ian Dury only to get "Oh my god, no, but I've heard about him and I see his stuff everywhere and which album should I get first, dude???" Then came that part of the night where you try to inspire drunk people to sing along or dance without scaring away those who just want to stand still and drink.

Cure - The Lovecats
Girls Against Boys - One Dose Of Truth
White Stripes - Blue Orchid
Edwyn Collins - A Girl Like You
Sloan - False Alarm
Mudhoney - Good Enough
Swell Maps - Harmony In Your Bathroom
Darkness - Growing On Me
Ted Leo/Pharmacists - Ballad Of A Sin Eater
Cult - She Sells Sanctuary
Pixies - Debaser
Pavement - Stereo
Spoon - Sister Jack
Basement Jaxx - Lucky Star
Rapture - Killing
Go Team - Huddle Formation
Walkmen - Little House Of Savages
Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart
Dinosaur Jr. - Freak Scene
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Y Control
Weezer - The Good Life
Strokes - 12:51
Ciara feat. MIA - Goodies (Richard X Remix)
Spoon - I Turn My Camera On
Louis XIV - Paper Doll
Urge Overkill - Sister Havana
Prince - Kiss

Good times!

If you get a kick out of movies where Johnny Depp wears old-timey clothes, you need to see the new White Stripes video, available here. It's way cuter than the average Floria Sigismondi clip. I wish Jack's vocal was clearer but Death From Above 1979 fans should love the track.

"Blue Orchid" is the only good video I've seen in a while. Two recent videos bad enough to be endlessly entertaining are the Backstreet Boys' "Incomplete" (embellishing the anguish of their fine Evanescence ballad by taking the visuals from "Burn" and "Hero" to the next level, if not the one after that) and the Game's "Dreams" (who died and made this pathological name-dropper the savior of black culture? EVERYBODY!). I'm still baffled that people take this guy seriously. There's a reason he had to play second banana on his first two hits.

I have seen the video for part one of "Trapped In The Closet," but it's part four of this disappointingly literal translation that will be noteworthy. How exactly will he act out the leg cramp? I need that DVD now!

"Miccio, you give meaning to everyday" - Nellie McKay, "It's A Pose"

(or does she mean "every day"? I may never know.)

Along with a bevvy of British '80s post-punk I burnt off my friend William (The Sound! The Chameleons! The Cure's Pornography! Siouxsie's Kaleidoscope! So tempted to turn invert the background-text color scheme again and be a happy lil' pop-goth), I've been listening Desaparecidos' Read Music/Speak Spanish and Nellie McKay's Get Away From Me, my favorite albums from 2002 and 2004, a lot. I guess politics have been on my mind. No idea why.

While I've spoken my peace on Desaparecidos, my attempts to sum up McKay's appeal basically add up to a blurb (#30 on that list, should be waaaay higher). I undoubtedly wrote a hooray or two here but all I can remember announcing is that I thought she and Howlin' Pelle should cover "Somethin' Stupid." I want to say more.

Like Dirty Mind-era Prince with a more specific concept of non-sexual politics (thank god), McKay makes a thrilling demand for liberation from societal expectations. Her body, her mouth, her album, herself. It doesn't matter if "I Wanna Get Married" is ironic or not, she can play it either way depending on her mood (I sure do). There's no reason she can't call out men as "copulatin' populatin' masturbatin' denegratin' birth of a nation instigatin' violator(s) of her escape" and then coo "give me head or you'll be dead, salute the flag or I'll call you a fag. Oh, won't you please be nice?" two tracks later. Surely you don't have to be free of selfish impulse to point it out in others - if anything acknowledging said aggro desire tells you she isn't holier-than-thou. Listening to her flip through a mess of emotions and insights with such giddy intelligence and reckless freedom provides me exactly what I want from art. That she reminds a lot of folks of the batty thespians that hollered through their high school hallways and has Geoff Emerick give her album a rather "lite" vibe is even better. Capitulating to common concepts of hip would distract from the point.

I just feel like there's so much you gotta do, and half the time I feel like, "I'm going to do it, goddammit, I'm going to do all of it, and there's nothing I can't accomplish." And then the other half is just like, "Oh, fuck it." Those are my two emotions. I go through the whole day just like this. Even in an interview, it just goes back and forth.

This Onion interview still rocks my world every time I read it. "Won't U Please B Nice" is evidently on the Monster-In-Law soundtrack (wtf)! New album in September!

I'm not sure how I feel about "Girlfight" - it's a real mess of female POV and male gaze, which you think would make it really noteworthy and impressive, but I have to wonder if Lil Jon's the one who came up with Brooke's take. God, is there anything that muppet won't turn into burlesque? It really does seem like crunk Cabaret sometimes (hate me for suggesting Lil Jon in Joel Grey garb? you should). I am glad Big Boi's rap has something to do with the lyrical content, even if Brooke evidently didn't hear what he just called her. I'm so tired of guest raps in R&B songs where the guy just pops in to remind us that he's awesome. Can you think of other cases where the cameo makes thematic sense? I'm sure there's more than a few, but the only one coming to mind is when Ma$e reveals that he's the one whose love comes all over Mariah like honey.

Must go vomit now.

Reason #4853 I think ratings are simpleminded horsehooey that I will only deal with when a publisher demands it: I'm at the bar and after the game ROCKY III comes on and I'm like WOO because this movie has Hulk Hogan as Thunderlips, Burt Young in a performance W.C. Fields would tip his hat at, and MR. T suggesting that TALIA SHIRE get with him if she wants a real man, inspiring SYLVESTER STALLONE to throw a defensive, paranoid fit while BURGESS MEREDITH cantankers and foreshadows a heart attack. Then I realize that back when I was tossing numeric scores around this site back in day (they're in the archive, maybe I'll get embarassed enough to chuck them someday soon), I gave Rocky III two stars because it petered out, had a bullshit ending (so like Rocky is a sell-out at the beginning but because he gets JUST ENOUGH "tiger" from Black Dude Apollo he's allowed to beat the Best Boxer Out There Clubber, who is working for selfish and hateful rather than All-American reasons) and all kinds of system-supporting nonsense. While that's all well and good, surely a movie that has THUNDERLIPS et al deserves more than two stars, right? And then I remember how idiotic this whole 'stars' nonsense is.

Despite this antipathy, you will see reviews of mine with ratings attached. I don't feel strongly enough about this to deny myself the platforms. I just won't answer mail that notes: "SURELY indie band xyz deserves a 7.9 rather than a 6.5!"

Btw, I hope Cinderella Man fails miserably.

I'm just bein' real, you know. I'm like the sun, I'm tryin' to shine on everybody. You know what I'm sayin'. But it's like situation after situation, you know. So I write about it to get it off my chest, you heard.

Just in case there is ANY person reading this blog who hasn't been paying attention to the 5-part masterpiece that is R. Kelly's "Trapped In The Closet," here are links to sites hosting the four available parts.

ONE!

he says "mister, wait!"

TWO!

she says "please don't shoot!"

THREE!

he says "don't shoot me!"

FOUR!

SHE SCREAMS!!!

Hey ladies,

1. I graduated from Penn State with a film degree and still live in Central PA. When I met Julianne in NYC at the big Matos party, I had to take a Greyhound for 9 hours. But then hey, if we're going to talk about everything but the review in question, I guess we can talk about everything but the reviewer in question.

2. I guess if you don't bring up all the revolting shit that happens in society when describing a song, you are ignoring it. When you don't mention James Brown's criminal record when discussing Live At The Apollo, you're being negligent. If I don't mention that Kathleen Hanna once equated eating meat with beating wives when reviewing This Island, I'm letting shit slide.

3. I never said the Ying Yang Twins don't deserve a slap in the face for coming on strong. I simply said that fans of "Wait" (something I never said I was or wasn't) aren't scum for enjoying it, the track was defensible and that a lot of folks (who, as I noted, are more than welcome to dislike the track) are being melodramatic about it. I see no reason to take back any of this. I wanted to see a review where someone wrote about the track without either saying "best of the year! so funny!" or "GOD, WON'T SOMEONE PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN?" I did my best to deal with it at face value without making associations based on my privilege or others' lack thereof. No regrets.

4. What's with hyperactive bloggers calling out ILMers as internerd shut-ins with few friends? That's totes some presumptuous pot-kettle bullshit.

5. From the ILM (I mean, if we're bringing it up) "Wait" thread:

I don't think "Wait" is nearly as bad as the tracks referred to in this xgau review, but I think this is some worthwhile food for thought when you think about where your sympathies lie.

This Is the Shack [Def Jam/RAL, 1995]
Lazing around in Warren G's groove without making a pass at his tragic sense of life, these arrogant hangers-on would be yawns if they weren't the ugliest sexists to make a three week splash all year. Although the hatred is everywhere, it's most painful on an early "skit"-song-"skit" triptych: "The Train" (a backslapper about gang rape in the dark),"Fuck Ya Mouth" ("To all our hookers and hoes"), and "Slap a Hoe" (a device invented for punks too yellow to do the job themselves). Heaven forfend the rappers actually doing any of these things, except maybe buy a Slap-a-Hoe--this isn't advocacy, it's constitutionally protected representation, harrumph. What I don't understand is why anyone who doesn't hate women is outraged when C. Delores Tucker goes just as far overboard in response. If they understand when self-serving black men express themselves in these, harrumph, metaphors, why don't they understand when self-serving black women counterattack by any means necessary? C+

-- miccio (anthonyisright@GEEmail.com), May 12th, 2005.

So yeah, play on. I understand. I'd still love a copy of that Pitbull mixtape, too.

Leila was one of the first non-ILXor non-rockcrits to link to my site (she thinks she found it off of TMFTML). I finally got to meet her while up in Boston. She's hopped around several blogs and recently resurrected this one. She's just as smart and observant when talking about politics (she did an honors thesis in government at Smith) as she is when describing television (she watches a lot of crap). She's pretty funny, too. I'd never demand that someone keep blogging (hey, you! routinely write opinionated rants and blurbs for free! NOW!), but I'll be glad if she does. Check it out!