shakira: is she meant to sound like alanis morrisette? and is this the first time mtv has put a completely spanish-language song into regular rotation? or was that marc anthony/jennifer lopez's "no te ames"? or was that only shown on vh1?

and do people really like pete yorn? i mean, really. i see he has a second video on mtv now; did that first one ever take off? are the video channels just really big fans of his? and, if so, are we meant to suffer for this?

last week, whitney houston's, what, 10 year-old version of "the star spangled banner" (?) was at #6 on the billboard hot 100. this week, it's PLUMMETED to 18, leading me to ask: is patriotism dying down?