KEEP YOUR FEET ON THE GROUND, AND KEEP REACHING FOR THE STARS...

What's the deal with Rickie Lee Jones? I was listening to her new song on the local public radio music station, WXPN, and all I can say is, long gone are the days of her sweet warbling on "Chuck E.'s In Love". Now, she sounds like if she were on American Idol, Simon Cowell would leap over the table and smother her with a Hefty Cinch-Sak to keep her from singing, permanently.

Speaking of popular music, a topic about which, admittedly, I have as much authority to comment as say, Walter Cronkite, I've had just about enough of "Five For Fighting". It's just one guy. What exactly is wrong with using, for example, your name? Why must you act as though you are some sort of ensemble? I mean, Ben Folds Five is only three guys, but at least Ben Folds is one of the three guys. Get over yourself.

One more tidbit: if I hear 19-year-old millionaire Avril Lavigne declaim one more time about how "that's how life is" in her lyrics, she'll learn very quickly that life is much less pleasant than the one to which she has become accustomed.