1) The edits in the radio version of Christina Aguilera's Beautiful are astonishingly clumsy. Why, program directors and record label execs? The album version is only 3:58.

2) Turns out, I am embarassed by my deep-seated love of the band Chicago. Peter, Bjorn and John comes on the radio, and I'll slowly cruise down crowded streets with the windows down, whistling along. But scan to "Hard Habit To Break," (a Billboard #3 hit in 1984!) and, oh yes, I will turn it up and listen, but I'll roll up the windows and do it incognito. Check out Peter Cetera double exposed, elementary school picture-style, in the video.

3) Speaking of hearing Peter, Bjorn and John on the radio, what I love about this song is how it sounds like a mix with half the tracks muted. We will hear many more versions of "Young Folks."

For weeks, I have been unimpressed by every new song I've heard. Uninspired arrangements, soulless, digi-tweaked performances, asinine lyrics, a waste of sound waves... And then, one morning, I checked out VH1's Top 20 Countdown. Which song snapped me out of my music funk? Believe me, I was surprised too.

Before He Cheats, a perfect pop/country nugget performed by Carrie Underwood, green-screened in the appropriately dramatic video, with broken glass and debris whipping behind her.

After one listen, I knew every note of the melody and every word. That, my friends, is catchy. Slickness and all. Well done, Josh Kear and Chris Tompkins. This song is a bulls-eye.

Still 8670 items, 22.2 days worth of music. I've started ripping new music onto the other computer, as this old workhorse, bless his OS 10.2.8 soul, is not compatible with my iPod shuffle.

"I've Got A Crush On You" - Luscious Jackson from Red Hot + Rhapsody

What could be better than an assortment of musicians reinterpreting Gershwin tunes for a good cause?

Ah 1998... AIDS awareness, indie rock, heavy-soled shoes and corduroy pants, Bill Clinton, that newfangled internet... Ah the days before corduroy had its own Wikipedia entry.