Despise her, love her, question how many years she really has left, either way, no one can deny, Britney Spears knows how to make headlines, whether it’s for all the right reasons, or the wrong.

Once again, Miss Spears hasn’t failed to disappoint. Upon launching a so-called “comeback”, and cracking her whip all the way to the top of the charts, the self appointed Queen of Pop (seemingly ever more true with the sales of Madonna’s latest album) has ushered in a new type of underground dance music that lays heavy with synch pops and spins, and her latest offers all that and more amidst a flurry of controversy.

Adoring public, or not so a adoring, meet “If You Seek Amy”, Britney’s latest dance creation that will most likely prove to burn its way up the charts, even if it is only from digital downloads. Why so controversial? Say the title fast, if it hasn’t come to you yet, try again, it will.

Some radio, and the Parents Television Council (something like the PTAs of all PTAs), have attempted to stifle the song, with little success. It has entered the Billboard Hot 100 on airplay alone, but radio is beginning to stop spinning the disk with worry of fines from the FCC. Spears and her camp at Jive have quickly recovered, issuing statements that they will tweak the song, so it sounds like “If You See Amy”.

Isn’t that wonderful (insert eye roll here). All the headlines have really got me wondering, is Britney’s success or failure up to her, or up to us? The public turned an uncaring eye to Spears over the past three years, reviling in her downfalls and attacking her for the slightest misstep. (Most people stumble, even while carrying a toddler. Lets be honest, my friend’s sister dropped her on her head. Yes, I did want to get her story on here just so I could show her).

Now a real question is has Britney comeback from a dark place because she’s shaped up, or is it that we feel bad for making her life really terrible, so the public is finally rationalizing the idea of being nice to her because she has “changed”. The point is, the Parents Television Council really doesn’t care that Lady Gaga is saying “I had a little bit too much” (I’m sure she meant sugar), and that Lil Wayne wants you to “lick his lollipop”. So why Britney? Why try to stop her song from being played?

I suppose the real irony here is, why should the Parents Television Council have any say in what is played on the radio anyway? I guess what I’m trying to say here is, Britney Spears, while not an angel, is certainly no different from anyone else here on planet earth, 100 million dollars give or take.

If it was you, wouldn’t you like a chance, at least a chance? Her song is no more unplayable then most of what is on top 40 today, so the next time you hear Britney on the radio, help her out a little, and turn it up. You don’t have to listen.

So I don’t write blog posts often. As a matter of fact, it’s just kind of hard to work up the effort to do so, kind of like how hard it is to commit to going to the gym more as a New Year’s Resolution.

Well, I made the realization that I would rather write blog posts than go to the gym.

And not only that, but I was treated to a good kick by a piece of news I came across on imdb.com. One of my favorite shows, Absolutely Fabulous, will be making the move to America and will be doing so on Fox.

Now, I love BBC, and I do appreciate how sometimes the BBC/America transition works (see: The Office). But I also realize how crossovers fail (see: Coupling, Kath & Kim). And there’s also the underlying fact that I LOVE Absolutely Fabulous, and know there’s nothing in the world that could translate it to America and still be great.

The show follows Edina, a high-ranking PR woman in the fashion world, along with her best friend, Patsy, as they have their various adventures in a totally, outrageously, British way. They’re friends devoted not only to each other, but to the alcohol that is almost always found in their hands and the famous lifestyle they both lust after.

That, along with seeing Edina as a fashion victim in a new way every shot, makes for one insane show. It even has an insane theme song (This Wheel’s on Fire, check it out) that fully exemplifies the psychedelic roots of the characters themselves, and further contrasts them with Edina’s daughter, Saffy, an uptight academic. To give you an idea, one episode follows Edina as she looks for her can opener. This seemingly mindless journey follows her to Saffy’s college classroom as she studies DNA, where Edina first calls on the cell phone (which is huge, by the way), and then intrudes in the middle of class to ask about the can opener, thereby mortifying Saffy in ways she had never been mortified before. Genius.

All of this, encapsulated in a perfectly ’90s way, is why I love it. And I’m not saying it won’t work, but I am saying it won’t unless Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley return as the characters they made famous.

If that could work, maybe then it could be fabulous.

Although this is a little delayed, I think the time is right to start upon the A-Z Project that I expounded upon in this column: > In the next month, I will compile a list of musical artists in alphabetical order, starting with numbers and symbols — for consistency, I’ll use the list provided by Allmusic. Since I obviously won’t find all of this music, I’ll post everything I can find from www.allmusic.com, and place an asterix next to each artist I’m still looking for. Once the first list is compiled and I have enough music at my disposal, I’ll start listening to the available albums of that artist. Starting on New Year’s Day, I’ll post comments on The Beat Goes On blog. They’ll start with observations of songs I’m listening to, including research on the artist’s background and explanation of that work. I’ll give some evaluation of the music, but it’s more about what I’ve gathered from the work more than how good or bad it is. Unless, of course, it’s really bad. Then I have to skewer it.< Well, the allmusic.com list didn’t actually pan out. That would require downloading massive amounts of music everyday, with some prepared ahead of time to make it work. So, I’m taking the easy way out and starting with a smaller pool of material: Going A-Z on Napster. However, this doesn’t mean I won’t occasionally find some categorized material on a web site somewhere or won’t accept yousendit offers to listen to an album or two from readers. But understand that as I’ll be juggling a lot of music at once and may need an occasional detox from a type of musical style, it may come in out of order. A few other things that I’ll be doing on this blog: -New Music Tuesday reviews will start next Tuesday. Keeping my promise on that one. -Weekly update on what has been covered, with some synopsis of my opinions on the music I’ve listened to, figuring out what was the best of the bunch and posting any interesting bits of information that might link the artists. -Any up and coming bands out there? Send in or link to your stuff and I’ll fit it in. If I get enough submissions, I’ll dedicate a day to DIY/local stuff. This is going to be very sporadic in nature (after all, I don’t really know what I’m doing or why I’m doing it, to be completely honest with you) but expect the onslaught of posts to come later in the day.