NPR listeners submitted what they thought were the best songs of the year, and NPR compiled the results here: NPR Listeners Pick The Year’s Best Music. You can also see the complete poll results.
Maybe I’m just out of touch with pop culture, but I actually hadn’t heard of a fair number [...]

The Vocaloid program sounds best in Japanese (what else would you expect from a singing synthesizer from Yamaha?), but it’s actually pretty entertaining to hear it sing in English. It definitely sings English with a classically Japanese accent. The clip above is from the song “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles).”

I’m constantly amazed with what you can find (by accident) on YouTube. Here is the “The Fast Food Song” by British pop group the Fast Food Rockers. Can you believe the song managed to reach #2 in the UK charts in June 2003? I think it’s hilarious.

Yesterday I wrote on the Takeshima/Dokdo dispute that’s currently driving a wedge between Japan and South Korea. If the US had any sense it would keep the mess at arms-length — but no. Perhaps in response to the ROK’s vehement objection to a decision by the US Board of Geographic Names to change [...]