Rebecca learned the hard way that in show business, the producers control everything. She and several friends are going to participate in the school's talent show and are trying out for it next week. Their act consists of lip synching and dancing to a song. The songs have to be approved by the teacher supervising the show, otherwise they would doubtless end up with 7th graders grinding on stage to F**k It by Eamon (#18 on this week's Billboard Top 100). Their first choice of song, Don't Mess With My Man, which seemed an unwise choice for a bunch of 12 and 13 year olds, although it did not contain any outright profanity, was rejected by the teacher. She cited the line "bring it to me", apparently some sort of suburban teenager gang code for "let's fight each other right now with guns and knives and other weapons of mass destruction". They also reported that the teacher was completely arbitrary in her rulings, turning down a song for one group and then turning around and approving it for someone else. They have since chosen another song - Drama Queen - which pretty much sums up the life of an adolescent girl.

Music: Nellie McKay. She's 19 years old and sings like she's been in the world for two or three times that long. Listen to "David, Can You Hear Me" - any song with "blah, blah, blah" and George Bush in its lyrics is a hit with me. (In the interest of complete disclosure those lyrics are not in any way linked in the song. Although they should be.) And how come the "clean" version of this song on iTunes is one second longer than the "explicit" version?