What a Difference an L makes

1. Emo. A massively popular style of music featuring whining vocals, monotonous melodies, static rhythms, and vacuous lyrics. [Embrace, one of the originals, is pictured top.]

2. Elmo. A massively popular monster, nephew of Grover on Sesame Street, featuring soft red fur, a curious mind, and a winning personality.

Household Rhythms

The spirit of John Cage [pictured] is alive and well, and you know he's looking down with a rakish grin. Check out this four-movement percussion piece video from Sweden called "Six Drummers," created entirely of found objects in an apartment!

http://video.aol.co.uk/video-funny/1866682

More Snap in My Rap

Recently I've been listening to Beck [top], who proves that rap can be articulate -- even exquisite -- yet lose none of its power. For my money, the only other interesting innovations in rap right now are coming from Kanye West [bottom], who uses the style as a backdrop for his gospel-music sensibility and his intense social criticism.

Dinner music

Last night I was sitting in a diner, sipping a Diet Coke and waiting for my souvlaki. With no one to talk to and nothing to read, I concentrated unnaturally hard on the Lite Rock station playing in the background.

It was the typical mix of '70s Rod Stewart, '80s Michael Jackson, '90s Cher...all of which suddenly began to strike me a really silly. Then they moved on to the truly ridiculous: Donna Summer singing "Macarthur Park", featuring that inimitable chorus,

Someone left my cake out in the rain / Don't know if I can take it, 'cause it took so long to bake it / and I'll never find that recipe again.

At this point I was having to control my breathing, because everything seemed so funny. And what should follow, but the single most annoying, grating, self-important song of the 21st century thus far, Snow Patrol's "Chasing Cars." I nearly did a spit take.

Even a lowly diner can become a first-rate comedy club if you listen right!

The Brits Invade Motown

I assumed young British singer Amy Winehouse [top] would be as annoying as her compatriot Joss Stone, but I sure was wrong. She's got a huge, complex, and eminently musical voice, bringing grace and sophistication to her Motown-style songs in the tradition of Darlene Love [bottom]. I hope, when she gets a little older and her voice continues to mature, she treats us to an album of jazz standards, because she's really got the stuff for it. For now, she's off to a fantastic start.

Have to Finish the Hat!

Last year there was a revival of Sondheim's Sunday in the Park with George in the West End. Wonder if it will really make it to New York, as has been rumored. Wonder if I'll bother to see it. Not a great fan of minimalist opera... Oh, wait, it's a musical, or so they call it.

Fab Falco Flubs Faux

For all his apparent madness, the late Austrian wacko-pop star Falco certainly had an original sound. Heck, "Rock Me Amadeus" helped to define the '80s musically. There are some other gems, too, lesser known in the US (check out "Ganz Wien," about the Viennese party scene). True, he would occasionally devolve into lame impressions: "Macho Macho" is perhaps the worst fake Bowie song of all time. Still, I say Prosit, Falco, und immermehr in Ruhe schlafe!