Thank You For The Music,

She Was The First Person On Either Side Of Her Family To Go To College, And She Held Herself To Insanely High Standards. She Worried A Lot About Whether She Was Good Enough. It Was Surprising To See How Relieved She Seemed Whenever I Told Her How Amazing She Was. I Wanted Her To Feel Strong And Free. She Was Beautiful When She Was Free.

'the Sopranos' Gets Praised As Novelistic, But It Follows The Most Banal Of Life Patterns, Showing The Sheer Tedium Of Being A Mobster. It Has Dead Spots, Boring Plotlines, Weak Episodes. Characters Develop Slowly, Or Don't. Like Viewers, A Gangster Might Get Bored, Fade Out Of The Action, Then Come Back To Find None Of His Debts Forgotten.

The First Season Of 'community' Stumbled A Bit Because The Plotlines Too Often Veered Into Realism, But That Is Not A Problem Anymore. Not When Prize Episodes Concern A Campuswide Blanket Fort, Or A Secret Garden With A Magic Trampoline.

'the Voice' Has Lots Of Singers Who Fit The 'idol' Mold Of Young, Innocent Ingenues With Psycho Stage Moms. But It Also Has Long-suffering Adult Pros, With A Whiff Of Thirtysomething Despair In Their Voices. That Adds An Edge Of Realness.

Celebrity Despicability Is A Precious Thing.