1.

My favorite thing I read on the internet last year was Martin Seay’s epic essay on Ke$ha, the Beastie Boys, and Beyoncé:

Although “TiK ToK” contains stupidity—in much the same way that a Twinkie contains high fructose corn syrup—it is anything but a stupid song.  Unlike three decades’ worth of kegstanding fratboys, Sebert misses the point of “Fight for Your Right” deliberately: she interprets the Beasties’ (limited and unsuccessful) attempts at irony and connotive suggestion as amounting to no more than inefficiency, and as such she excises them.  […]

It’s erudite, funny, and very, very correct.

2.

Blake, this is for you. (Play it LOUD!)

3.

I wrote some posts at Big Other about overlooked Smiths songs:

• Part 1: “The Smiths”
• Part 2: “Meat Is Murder”
• Part 3: “Strangeways, Here We Come”
• Part 4: “Hatful of Hollow”
• Part 5: miscellaneous uncollected songs
• Part 6: a chart explaining where you can find every Smiths song