A few quick hits:

Download me now, or you’ll be sorry!

Just a reminder, you can now listen to or download a new episode of the PopPod (which might be changing its name to PopCast, patent pending). As always, you can either find it here or to the side of the PopPulse main.

We teamed up with Jeff Vrabel, the editor of The Guide, and Liz Farrell, who runs he Island Packet's InCrowd blog, for this half hour look at the absurdity of pop.

This week, we’ve cut the price in half to zero for the full 30 minutes, so you can’t be that savings. Unless we paid you to listen to it. Which we’re thinking about doing.



This week: Biz Markie, Marilyn Manson, Alice Cooper, Jay-Z and more.

America: Go back to Australia you freak!

Last night’s American Idol was quite a shocker. We, for one, were sadden to see the Australian lug Michael Johns go. Even though he was mediocre most weeks, he was at least interesting to listen to. And he provided (we thought) a real challenge to David “We really can’t stand you nor do we understand why anyone thinks you can sing when you obviously can’t you lip-licking weirdo” Archuletta.


His ouster proved four things we’ve known all along:

1. America is fickle, as Johns had the week previous provided the ONLY highlight in the otherwise dreadful Dolly Parton night. Seriously, whose idea was this, and can we fire them? We can name only two Parton songs, and no one even sang 9-to-5. We really, really hated that night, although Johns was the only one to remotely come off better than he started. This, kids, is a great performance:

2. Country music fans will listen to ANYTHING! This has been our mantra for the last year, since we started this blog. Country fans routinely prop up talentless Idol contestants because they will support anything. Joshua Gracin. Bucky. Kelly Pickler. Kristie Lee Cook. All HORRIBLE. The exception is Carrie Underwood, who has talent. HOW IS COOK STILL IN THIS CONTEST!?!? She stinks.

3. Americans are obviously racist when it comes to Australians. This is clear.

4. You vote for the person you want to win, not the one you hate (which is not how it should be). So contestants who aren’t spectacular (or who go first, making them forgettable) are in trouble every week. Ditto if you get a mediocre review from the judges. (Better to be trashed, for the sympathy, or praised.)

And while we’re talking about Idol, we want to reiterate what we wrote about last year: We think Idol Gives Back stinks. And we hate it.

First, Idol doesn’t give back, we do. Idol makes billions world round and could give back, of course. Those horrible iTunes performances, for instance, it sells to you, it could give 100 percent of those profits to charity. As it could that horrible touring stage show. It could give 10% of ad revenue to charity, if it wanted. But, no, it wants YOU to give to ITS charity (all while selling commercials for a bloated special that gets ratings and drives up the sponsor fees). Do we not give Idol enough just by watching? Now it hits up its audiences to give even more, all the while making us feel guilty for, what?, for watching a horrible TV show that is overproduced. Trust us, we already feel guilty for that.

Jonesing Lost?

In case you’re missing Lost, EW has a report from the set of the show. Lots of tidbits to follow.

Beth and Val

Here is this week’s PopPulse Recommends column, which you can find weekly in the Guide:

We are always on the backside of trends. Like, we jump on right after the bandwagon stops to let off all of its passengers. The only people left on it are us, some old dude in Kansas and a kid whose parents just now let him watch R-rated movies.

And it’s not because we’re too-cool-for-the-room, it’s because we’re slow to embrace anything that we didn’t find first. If we were hanging with Ponce de Leon after he discovered Florida, no matter how much he tried to convince us to come visit, we’d refuse. “No, it’s cool. We’ll just hang over here in Alabama.”

Anyway, we found this digital show called “Ask Anything With Beth and Val.” It’s an online vlog, which is a video blog. (Which is also a term that means nothing, because even though it’s called a “vlog” there’s nothing remotely bloggy about it. Like, the two women don’t stare into the camera and talk about their day.)

(Warning, the language in the links might be spicy.)


The concept is people write questions and the two actresses/writers/comedians riff for three minutes, staring into the camera, playing off each other, taking the initial question into tangents and bizarre areas. It’s an incredibly basic concept that works because the two women are wickedly smart and really, really funny. And, it turns out, that is the key to having a humorous three-minute comedy bit.


And we’re pretty sure these two are some underground internet sensation. And we’re almost certain they haven’t already apexed with delirious ‘net fan sites and MySpace devotees, because when we Googled their names, we got very few responses. So, let us drive the bandwagon for once!


Topics have included celebrities and who is prettier and what animal could you beat up. On the subject of who is prettier, Beth said, “It depends on who you’re talking to.” Val: “If you’re talking to me, then I’m much hotter. But if you’re talking to Beth ...” Beth: “Then SHE’S hotter. Because I have no self esteem.”