Pick a new dumb column costume for SD!

If you ever wonder what happens to your keen playlist suggestions and related audience participation, you should know that a lot of it winds up in the Sunday paper. Sure, I take all the credit, thus bamboozling loyal reader Madge in Clearwater into thinking I'm some sort of pop-culture savant. (Madge, it should be noted, also thinks "cats are just like people.") But I do appreciate each and every one of you.

Anyway, Sunday's Pop Life column in the Floridian section of the St. Pete Times is where you guys usually show up. It's art-designed by my genius friend Girl Thursday (aka Holly Ringwald) and copy edited/policed by my brilliant pal Dawn. I hope you guys get a chance to see the real ink-on-paper deal sometime. It's a great-looking page. Alas, the Web version of the column isn't very nice at all. But here you go anyway: the Cracker Barrel Playlist (I like the final version a lot better actually), the most melodic TV 'toons (a little different than the blog one) and the Glee soundtrack. CHECK IT OUT.

By the way, it's getting time to shoot more of these nutty column shots. We're looking for costume ideas, so let 'er rip. You know me: There's not much I WON'T wear, mantyhose included. Whatever you suggest, I'm sure Halloween Queen Stephanie Hayes has in her zany closet at home.

Sexy new songs by Adam Lambert, Ashley Tisdale and Jennifer Lopez & Pitbull

Adam Lambert, Time for Miracles: What was the name of that Aerosmith song from Armageddon? This overblown apocalyptic ballad sounds like that overblown apocalyptic ballad, doesn't it? By the way, as the nerve endings of our nation get considerably more frayed, do we really need to see our planet get decimated by wrath-of-God special effects?

Ashley Tisdale, Crank It Up: I really have been better about my Tisdale fixation. In fact, I found this relatively filfthy video by accident. (Seriously!) In this grindy vid, Miss Tisdale returns to her unnatural blond, totally going for the Brit-Brit sluthouse effect. I'm not saying I approve, but I have watched the video 476 times in a row now.

Jennifer Lopez & Pitbull, Fresh Out the Oven: Because it worked so well for Garth Brooks, Lopez is rebooting her career via a new performance name. Ladies and gentlemen, please give it up for...Lola!!! Oh well. At the very least, this item allowed me to use that picture of Lopez playfully touching her toes. So limber, that Lola!

Mail Bonding: 'Woodstock: 40 Years On: Back to Yasgur's Farm' & other delectables

One of the great perks of my job is opening my mail. This is especially "perky" the first day after vacation -- re-entry day, if you will --  when I can put off any actual work by taking solace in my parcels.

I had some nice stuff waiting for me today, including a big ass 6CD Rhino box called Woodstock: 40 Years On: Back to Yasgur's Farm. Now, I gotta be honest: I don't care that much about Woodstock. That's probably a sad thing for a music fan to say -- and a bad thing for a music critic to say. But alas, it's true. When I see the pictures, I'm glad I wasn't there. Despite its counter-cultural importance, the whole thing seemed, well, inconvenient.

For me, the most interesting aspect of the N.Y. festival that ran August 15-18, 1969 was that Sha Na Na somehow got an invite. Oh sure, the Jimi Hendrix thing is cool and iconic. But c'mon, Jon "Bowzer" Bauman was there, too? Doing that weird thing with his fists?! That would make a grotesquely interesting story, don'tcha think? I'm gonna try and get that guy on the phone. Hope he's not busy.

Anyway, here's some other stuff I found in my mailbox today:

Mac McAnally -- Down by the River
Loudon Wainwright III -- High Wide & Handsome
Patty Loveless -- Mountain Soul II
Ian Hunter -- Man Overboard
Ashley Tisdale -- Guilty Pleasure: Exclusive U.S. Version
Demi Lovato -- Here We Go Again
Joe Henry -- Blood From Stars  

Ashley Tisdale: Five reasons why millions of tweens (and one doughy music critic) love her

Ashley Tisdale's new album, the titularly self-aware Guilty Pleasure, comes out next Tuesday. Her new movie, Aliens in the Attic, arrives next Friday. That’s a whole lot of Tiz coming at you. So because Pop Life is rife with haters and naysayers, here are five awesome reasons why the 24-year-old is more than another vapid Disney doll:

1) Tisdale is a bad singer. But here’s the thing: Whether she’s vamping as HSM’s Sharpay “Fabulous” Evans or warbling her bubblicious pop, Tisdale is seldom overproduced or monstrously pitch-tuned. Why? Because unlike, say, Vanessa Hudgens, Tisdale has an actual personality, and it’s based on charming imperfection.

2) Tisdale is a good comedian. Her deliciously vain Sharpay was the saving grace of the HSM flicks. And while gamboling with twins Zack & Cody on the Disney Channel, she proved a slapstick star. I like a girl who can take a pie in the face.

3) Tisdale’s grandfather, Arnold Morris, created the Ginsu knife craze. Oh, please, don’t pretend that’s not cool.

4) Tisdale is not sleazy. In a day and age when her Hollywood peers are getting caught on sex tape or wrapping Ferraris around parking meters, we only see Tisdale on TV and in magazines when she wants us to. Sure, she did give a lapdance to an Obama impersonator, but it was funny and, more importantly, totally unconvincing.

5) Tisdale is pretty, but not THAT pretty. When Tisdale went out and got herself a new schnoz, the rhino-response was vitriolic. But people were upset mainly because we already have enough perfecto Barbies out there. Tiz was cool because she had a giant beak. Although we miss her old honker, she’s still unconventionally lovely — a little mousey, a little gangly — a decent message for kids who don’t look like Brit-Brit. Of course, if she gets a boob job, she’s dead to me.

Ashley Tisdale naked -- almost

Much like free-market capitalism and the works of James Joyce, High School Musical's Ashley Tisdale is a great polarizing force. You bash her; I celebrate the 24-year-old's moxie and spirit. Her new album, Guilty Pleasure, comes out July 28, and I will approach it as a work of art, a piece of her soul.

In related news, here she is in a skimpy bathing suit.

Ashley Tisdale + lap dance + Obama = ???

Last week, a brave Ashley Tisdale appeared on zany Spanish talk show El Hormiguero (which, ironically enough, was also my nickname in college). Hijinks ensued when the High School Musical star demonstrated what not to do when giving the Leader of the Free World a lapper. Her technique is lousy, but her moxie is first-rate! Tisdale's new album, Guilty Pleasure, is due out July 28. Hopefully she won't have to resort to stripping for years to come.

DALY TV: Bring your own bail money

Here's a cool segment with John Thomas of ABC Action News. Despite the fact that I look 400 lbs. and supremely greasy (I totally blame a blousy shirt and Dippity Do), I like these weekend bits a lot. We're talking upcoming concerts (No Doubt, Lynyrd Skynyrd/Kid Rock) and albums (Black Eyed Peas, Ashley Tisdale). Once again, thanks to the gods of the screen grab for making me look like I'm accentuating my man-bosoms.

Ashley Tisdale Hot Zone! New song, movie, picture gallery, nose, body & more!

You'd be shocked how many people come to Pop Life for the latest Ashley Tisdale news. Or maybe you wouldn't. Either way, Interwebbian studies have shown that my earnest, not-creepy-in-the-slightest appreciation for the 23-year-old High School Musical star has seduced a steady blog readership, one made up of wee ruddy-cheeked rapscallions and hirsute grunts doing 5-to-10 in the Big House. Yep, Ashley Tisdale: the Great Equalizer!
 
No matter who we are, or where we're incarcerated, Sharpay Nation must be appeased. So here's a few new linked-up goodies about the fabulous Ms. Tisdale:

* Another song has leaked from Ashley's upcoming sophmore album, Guilty Pleasure (due July 28). Here's I'm Back. I recently gifted you with first single It's Alright, It's OK.

* According to sify.com, Ashley recently "sent her young fans into a tizzy with a surprising performance at a primary school in Illinois." Sounds a lot like when Mummenschanz, the Swiss pantomime troupe, came to my elementary school. Except without the tears and horrific Swiss nightmares.

* Ashley posed for the cover of some magazine I've never heard of. It's called Sugar. They dressed her up like a disco queen (or something). Here's a snapshot. She's also on the cover of the new OK! mag. Here's that hotness.

* And finally, Ashley has a new flick coming out: Aliens in the Attic. From the looks of the trailer, it's from the people who gave you "the worst movie of all time." Check it out here. Of course, with Ash in it, it can't be that bad. Am I right, Cell Block 12?

Here's Ashley Tisdale's new song

Ashley Tisdale |MTV Music

The less I say about this the better. It's called It's Alright, It's OK. Ash is a brunette now. She kicks over a garden gnome. New album June 16. I'm putting in an interview request. I have issues.