#79 - pop.

i don't even know what's considered pop music any more. back in the eighties, it was clear. everything was pop music (for the most part). these days, every year they're all "& the grammy award for best pop album goes to...duffy! (2009) or steely dan! (2001) or joni mitchell! (1996) and i'm all "wait, didn't taylor swift/N*SYNC/hootie sell the most albums last year? they're all pop, right? why didn't they win? clearly they had the best pop album of the year."  joni mitchell's considered pop?

(please note that lil wayne actually had the best-selling album of last year, but he's cool in my book & taylor swift scares me, so she gets held up as last year's pop example.  she seems too "perfect" to really be perfect & she's not even disney, so that frightens me...some anti-christ shizz or something going on there).

so what exactly is considered pop music?  there's u.k. indie pop like belle & sebastian or blur or the divine comedy & u.s. indie pop like death cab for cutie or vampire weekend or the magnetic fields.  there's the more mainstream u.s. rock stuff like fall out boy or the foo fighters or green day.  then there's the more blatantly pop stuff like the jonas brothers or justin timberlake or kelly clarkson.  all of them could be considered pop, even though they're all quite different. 

basically, someone needs to clear this up for me ASAP, before my genre-programmed brain explodes all over my keyboard.

#79 - pop.
snack: sea salt & vinegar popchips
drink: jones fufu berry pure cane soda

tonight, i'm rocking out to some "pop music"--a little weezer & a little kanye west--and having a bag of sea salt & vinegar popchips.  they're one of five flavors made by a company out of san francisco that has recently expanded distribution to the eastern part of the u.s.  these popchips are supposed to be awesome because they've taken chip healthiness to the next level.  they don't fry their potatoes.  they don't even bake them.  they pop those puppies, making them through heat & pressure.

the resulting chip has a not-unpleasant light fluffy texture somewhere between a rice cake & a ritz cracker.  without the grease you'd get from a regular ol fried chip, the flavor definitely stands out better.  in this case, it's salt & vinegar, which you could sprinkle on pretty much anything non-living & i'd probably still eat it.   on the popchips, you get a good dose of salt & vinegar, but without the choking kick-back that you get when a salt & vinegar chip is too damn powerful...i'm looking in your direction, lays.

since i'm going all healthy & natural with my snacks today, i'm having a jones fufu berry pure cane soda along with the popchips. for you midwesterners...POP!  i call it "soda," my boston-based grandmother calls it "tonic," others call it "coke," you call it "pop."  to each his own, but "pop" is just silly sounding.

all the jones sodas are made without the usual soda corn syrup tastiness (they use cane sugar), which gives their beverages a slightly unsettling taste.  i've tried their blue bubble gum and strawberry & lime flavors and essentially, they all taste like derivations of the same berry flavor that's in the fufu berry flavor.  berries?  yawn.  they're nothing spectacular.

i think i need to get away from their berryesque flavors & try out the new orange cola flavor or sample one of their holiday packs before completely pooh-poohing their pricey, natural sodas away.  last year's halloween pack had a candy corn flavor!  that rules!  what doesn't rule is their past thanksgiving packs, which have included turkey & gravy, green bean casserole and mashed potato & butter flavors.  that's just gross & disturbing & makes me want to pop the one who thought that making those flavors was a good idea square in the kisser.  POP!