A defense of my last entry.

I knew I'd have to do this, and Ped has now forced my hand. A defense of my picks in the last entry:

Napoleon Dynamite, as Ped said, is "one of the best thought out comedies ever made." That pretty much sums it up. It was supposed to be stupid on some level, and that is its brilliance. So there, Naomi and Rebekkah.

Star Wars III- the acting and dialogue, particularly Portman's, wasn't the best, but I loved the story. I love Star Wars, what can I say? Palpatine's acting was good, and there were some soon-to-be classic lines. My favorite: "So this is how freedom dies - to thunderous applause." Very true.

I almost never buy CDs as a matter of economics, being a broke college almost-grad, and CD rentals were outlawed by congress many years ago at the behest of the music industry, so I get my music from friends and the radio. Still, I think my picks are worthy of a listen.

I really have to defend Good Charlotte. Ped, have you listened to the whole album, or just their singles? The album not only is a unified piece of art, unlike most such popular works, but does an excellent job of telling the (true) story of Benji and Joel's father who left a great home for a miserable life of sin, at Christmas when the boys were 15. Yet one of the last songs says, "I'm writing this letter to tell you, it's not okay, but we're okay." Powerful stuff, and it's heart-rending to see how close they get to forgiveness without touching it. To be honest, a dad that stupid and who acted so wrongly, I'd have a hard time forgiving. But they miss him in spite of all.

There are two closely-tied themes in this album: not wanting to be like popular society, and not wanting to be like their dad. Both of the goals are worthy ones, if incomplete by themselves. The album does a good job of showing the bankruptcy of both popular society and Mr. Madden.

Hoobastank is good at least for a limited audience - those whose hearts are sore after a relationship breakup, as mine is. It does a good job of vocalizing some things I felt last year. For the audience, they're good, better than most country out there, anyway. (I'm not anti-country, for the record).

Readers, check out the first picks of each list. They're all amazing.