I got some nice feedback about last week’s Friday Face Off.

From longtime a reader (and accomplished musician):

Hey, just saw your latest blog post — I haven’t had time to check it out thoroughly but I just want to say that the only KP song I know is California Girls (sic), which I think is an awesome song.  I remember being really against it when I first heard it, in large part because I’m a huge music snob, etc. etc. but I have concluded that it is a truly great pop song.  The thing that clinched it for me was seeing her on SNL and I realized that she is a pretty impressive musician and performer, and she was actually singing while jumping around instead of lip synching and her band is actually funking it up and can play.  So there you go.  Am I jealous of her and other super-successful musicians?  Yes, and it makes me hate so many of them, but I have decided that KP is legit.  So there we go.  One person’s opinion.

From reader RO:

Thank you thank you thank you for the Friday Face-Off. This Friday’s FFO was awesome! It made my day.

Backstory: The previous night I’d been disappointed to learn that the video I submitted for a (REDACTED) competition had not been recognized for its obvious greatness. I was bumming. Then your FFO brought me back up.

I should probably also say that FFO played a major influence in my video. FFO feels very cutting-edge, insofar as it celebrates this new phenomenon of making public what are often private or at least very personal expressions of joy via the internet …. In spite of the rough production quality of these videos, there’s usually a strong visceral appeal that makes you just a little more in love with the human race after experiencing it. Who doesn’t want that?

ANSWER: We all want that!

Speaking of music and personal expression, boy did I get a real taste last night. After I was done hosting Lollygaggin’ (which was so much fun, thanks to everyone who came out), a gang of us went to a bar to sing karaoke. The Thursday-night karaoke scene at this place is kinda insular — mostly people who know each other and sing with a lot of talent even if I don’t always like their repertoire (Tool, Rob Zombie, et al). Last night the place was more crowded than usual and I saw a guy holding a huge tray of shots and I said “What’s the occasion” and he said everyone had just come from a wake; turns out the karaoke scene had lost a good friend. The deceased was best friends with the karaoke DJ (who is himself a talented singer). So the first song of the night was dedicated to the late friend. It was “With or Without You” by the famous Irish band U2. And the performance of the song was … the karaoke DJ and another friend hugging in silence on stage for the duration of the (wordless) song. Very intense. It motivated all of us to bring our A-game. Unfortunately they didn’t have the song I wanted (“Cowboy Song” by Thin Lizzy), and I didn’t totally kill “When You Were Young” by the Killers. But that’s okay because blog reader JK went a little haywire on “Just the Two Of Us,” and took the crowd into an unfamiliar emotional realm, which seemed appropriate for the evening.