Who Framed Roger Rabbit: a good soundtrack

Roger Rabbit got kinda annoying, so I ended up fast-forwarding through much of this movie, but one thing was a winner: the soundtrack. Alan Silvestri did a great job evoking post WWII LA with a mix of smoky, swingin' hard-bop and grandiose, symphonic statements (think Back to the Future.) It all screams HOLLYWOOD! I'm always looking forward to the perfect soundtrack to my LA expeditions. I'll pop this one in next time I'm in search of "classic" studio Hollywood . . . when I'm putzing around Warner Brothers studio or Universal City . . .

The Game . . . gangster rap that won't make you blush.

"Rap is just a white man's tour of the ghetto." If I hear that tired old adage one more time I'm gonna . . . admit that 99% of the time it's true. So, as a well-to-do white girl in the 'burbs, I must confess that I get a little touchy when I start hearing the musical equivalent of Gangsters blasting through my mustang's subwoofers. That said, I rarely unplug the 'pod because, well, I like my rap thuggish.

And that's what made the LAX Files such a great album. It oozed gansta glamour without the histrionics. The Game seems to be a fan of Contemporary R&B so the production generally consisted of cooing women and soulful keyboards. The gangster grit was all in the beats and the Game's voice and rapping. Being relatively unschooled in hip-hop, it's difficult for me to be terribly specific. I can only say that his album sounded tasteful. I'm looking forward to his next release . . .

The finally found bigfoot. Phew!

What a relief, I'm glad to know that Smosh got to the bottom of that mystery. I was getting a little apprehensive about my upcoming trip to the Sierras. Now I can rest at ease.

Paris, I love you, too!

In this video, we learn that Paris loves everything. The color pink, lasagna, her boobs.

Paris: "You've never had sex?"

Anonymous Paris Hilton Fan: "Nope, never had sex."

Paris: "I love that!!"

??

Random.

Best Breakthrough Video

Funny. Poignant.

My VMA votes . . . .

It's that magical time of year again, MTV's Video Music Awards are just around the corner. Here's my picks:

1) Best Female: Taylor Swift, "You Belong to Me"

2) Best Hip-Hop: Eminem, "We Made You"

3) Best Male: Eminem, "We Made You"

4) Best New Artist: Lady Gaga, "Poker Face"

5) Best Pop: Lady Gaga, "Poker Face"

6) Best Rock: Green Day, "21 Guns"

7) Breakthrough Video: Gnarls Barkly, "Who's Gonna Save My Soul"

8) Best Video (that should have won a Moonman): Beastie Boys, "Sabotage"

Crossing my fingers!

Vote here:

http://www.mtv.com/ontv/vma/2009/categories.jhtml

Cut the ribbon: This Side of Paradise

. . . and the reading marathon of the Everyman's Library 100 essentials begins. I'm starting things out with a bang by reading F. Scott Fitzgerald's first novel, and, incidentally, the novel that made him famous: This Side of Paradise. He was only twenty-two when he wrote it. Wow.

The first draft of the novel was rejected by the publishers, so Fitzgerald had to revise things before they took it up. He revised with fury and passion: if this novel didn't make it, he knew he'd lose his chances forever with the lovely Zelda Sayre.

Zelda, a well-to-do southern belle, broke off her engagement to him after about a year, when it seemed like Fitzgerald's career was going nowhere. After This Side of Paradise turned him into a celebrity, she decided she liked him after all. Sounds like true love. Fitzgerald was so smitten that he took her back . . . but he always held it against her.

Rightly so.

I don't like her.