Can't let the terrorists win

It's been brought to my attention that my gnawing on the subject of the election endlessly has grown boring. Apparently, if all 12 of my readers can't get a daily dose of female musicians I like and ragging on shitty advice columns, then the terrorists have already won. I happen to agree completely. After all, literate women who can broadcast their opinions over the Internet is exactly the sort of thing that pisses Osama bin Laden off.

In interest of getting back on the horse, I'm going to address the issue of Debbie Harry today. There's not likely a person reading this who doesn't know who Debbie Harry is, and if you think you don't you probably just mix up her name with the name of her band. Since this is true, there's no need to describe her or what she does or any of that. Time for the time-honored narcissism of blogging.

I've loved Blondie since I could walk, which is something that I got no end of shit for in high school and college, but since then people all of a sudden seem to have grown to respect the band. That, or I have better friends now, which is my theory. It was a combination of factors that appall your average snob--they aren't serious, they are popular, and they have a female lead singer who is a sex symbol. While none of these things appeal directly to the snob factor, these are exactly the three factors that make Blondie the #1 karaoke band for the Mouse.

I can't sing, not at all. Debbie Harry can. Which is why it's weird that I can actually manage to sing a few Blondie songs well at karaoke. Not bring down the house well, but good enough that people applaud vigorously, and that's all I need. It's probably because I have been listening to these songs for 25 years. Plus, because of the sex symbol factor, you can really sell a Blondie song by bouncing around like a moron, trying to look like Debbie Harry trying to look cute. And because they are popular, everyone in the room is likely to light up when the song comes on.

But mostly I like them because they are goofy. Most people do not listen to enough goofy music, in my opinion. And if you are a big fan of karaoke, and I am, this can be very disheartening as one person after another gets up to sing his/her favorite song and that song is depressing and deep and sad. And most sad music isn't even clever, which is even more sad. When out having drinks and trying to laugh at karaoke singers, I want some peppy, silly, fun music. So I always try to sing fun songs.

This is a principle that can be applied across-the-board, by the way. It's just common sense to play "Heart of Glass" instead of "Heroin" on the jukebox. Granted, Blondie wasn't really stepping out and making a much-needed statement about music being fun on their own, but were part of a larger punk rock push towards making music fun, but I think they reached a certain giddy zenith that I can really appreciate.