Brandon's Buzz

“Here’s where I landed on Lady GaGa: the kids need it. She speaks for the freaks of the Midwest…. It doesn’t matter if it’s boring music; she’s still waving the freak flag. It doesn’t matter if it’s inauthentic — it matters that if you’re 14, you get the message that it’s okay to be weird…. But here’s the barb with Lady GaGa: since she’s waving the freak flag but conforming so heavily to the pop structure, is she ultimately doing more long-term harm than good by telling kids, ‘Be yourself, be weird, but be thin and beautiful and….'”

— The Dresden Dolls’ frontwoman Amanda Palmer, discussing Lady GaGa — in what may be the most concise, astute, and acutely observed dissection of Gags’ current spot in this society that I’ve ever heard expressed — in Spin magazine’s annual year-end roundup issue.

My beloved A brought this to my attention and insisted that I bring it to yours. Hence:

“…I’d go ahead and proclaim [“Use Somebody”] the instant front-runner [for Song of the Year], but since everything seems to be breaking in Taylor Swift’s (whose ability to sing I still strongly question, no matter how wide-ranging and accessible her abilities as a songwriter undeniably are) favor lately — I’m stunned that little heifer didn’t win the Nobel Peace Prize last month! — she seems like the one to beat.”

— me, assessing Taylor Swift’s odds in this year’s Grammy race, in an instant-reaction nominations live blog last December.

“Taylor Swift, whose trophies now require a warehouse, is up for best female vocalist in pop and country. The crossover sensation may be able to write a tune, but she sure can’t carry one, as her live performances over the past year have demonstrated.”

— USA Today music critic Edna Gundersen, summing up this year’s Grammy race in a column earlier this week.

“Chicas, Chicas, Chicas!”

— the illuminative text found on a twelve-foot streetside banner advertising The Pink Flamingo, a new strip club which just opened for business in East Austin next door to my weekend workplace. (Again, probably not funny to anyone but me, but I laughed over this for two hours this morning.)

“…but the album’s strongest track is the wickedly strange “Fly On the Wall,” on which Miley-as-sex-kitten ends up channeling — and convincingly, at that! — both Debbie Harry and Pat Benatar in an off-the-wall instant classic.”

— me, reviewing “Fly On the Wall,” an unexpectedly brilliant gem from Miley Cyrus’ stupendous summer album Breakout, in a Buzz post dated July 29.

“The album’s second single, ‘Fly On the Wall,’ finds the singer influenced by Gwen and Avril, while her more experienced (read: older) co-writers wink and inject some ’80s new wave influences, a la Blondie and the B-52s, which means fans’ parents can join in on the fun, too.”

— critic Chris Williams, reviewing “Fly” for the November 15 issue of Billboard Magazine.

“In Russian, we don’t call dill pickles ‘dill pickles,’ we call them ‘salted cucumbers.'”

— A, further explaining the semantic quirks of his native tongue. (How this came up: A was telling me about his dinner, which included a baked potato graced with dill, and I asked if dill is used in dill pickles. I have no idea why the quotation is funny, but it just struck me as absolutely hilarious.)