Then tomorrow I'm heading to the Apple store where I can get the feel of a regular-sized iPod and see their weekly presentation on the iPod/iTunes.

Oooh - once you touch one you will just have to have it....

I'm fully expecting to want to buy one on sight, but will have to remind myself that I'm pre-ordering the U2 one instead.

...for the upcoming critter.

hayden, I had no idea. Congratulations! When is the release date?

Thanks, Fiona! February 18 is the projected release date. It's a little kicker!

We have been immersing ourselves in chanson, so I found some Chevalier in English. It was all silly novelty songs. (Including, of course, "If the nightingale could sing like you/They'd sing much sweeter than you do/'Cause you brought a new kind of love to me.")

I went out and bought a Chevalier album in French. ("Valentine"). Apparently he sang silly novelty songs in French, too. Chevalier: Silly Novelty Songs guy.

Hayden! Congratulations!!

Did anyone here read the piece in today's NYT about rockism? It was rilliy good I thought.

I'm reading it right now! (AIFG?) [link]

A rockist is someone who reduces rock 'n' roll to a caricature, then uses that caricature as a weapon. Rockism means idolizing the authentic old legend (or underground hero) while mocking the latest pop star; lionizing punk while barely tolerating disco; loving the live show and hating the music video; extolling the growling performer while hating the lip-syncher.

Definitely one of the arguments we made in the Bubblegum book. Goes back to the age-old valuation of what's "authentic" - even though time and again that's proven to be a false and indefensible virtue.

Still...

You can argue that the shape-shifting feminist hip-pop of Ms. Aguilera is every bit as radical as the punk rock of the 1970's (and it is),

I think this overstates Christina's value as a pop creator and/or icon.

And let's stop pretending that serious rock songs will last forever, as if anything could, and that shiny pop songs are inherently disposable, as if that were necessarily a bad thing. Van Morrison's "Into the Music" was released the same year as the Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight"; which do you hear more often?

This seems a little specious. Van's Astral Weeks is about 35 years old and it is still a consistent seller. That's eons in pop terms. "Rapper's Delight" was a signal event in pop music - it probably gets played as much for its iconic value as it does for its own "pop" qualities. And Van's "Brown Eyed Girl" was a near-perfect pop song. Right down to the Sha la las.

Ms. Aguilera's work is feminist?