NOTE: The link to my NPR review has been fixed

Did you guys watch Glee on Fox last night? You know, the show about the trials and tribulations of a high school glee club? Created by the guy who brought up Popular and Nip/Tuck? If you didn’t see it , don’t worry. Fox will be previewing the pilot episode online all summer.

I’ve gotta say… I think I’m in love. Check out my review of the pilot right here on NPR.org.

Hey y’all… I’ll be on CNN.com’s “blogger bunch” at around 12:10 PM today. I’ll be discussing whether Twitter is a force for good or evil.

To watch, just go to cnn.com/live.

See you there!

We’ve talked about the “important” movies we just can’t see and the “under-popular” films we wish more people loved, and now I’m wondering… why do we like what we like? Loathe what we loathe? Where is our taste coming from?

I know taste is influenced by all sorts of things—age, economics, family, etc.—but wherever it comes from, it ends up guiding us through hundreds of choices a day. Last week, for instance, I bought the new Pussycat Dolls single (God help me), and I can analyze what I like about it–decent pop lyrics, interesting beat, nice vocal stuff at the end—but the next question is… why do I like those things?

After the jump, I’m going to try a little experiment. I’ll pick a movie I really enjoy, and I’ll try to pinpoint why I react to it the way I do. After that, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the same basic premise. Where are your tastes coming from?

(And next week, we can do the same thing for something we don’t like.)

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Whether or not you’re celebrating Christmas today, I’m sure you can enjoy this clip from Dolly Parton’s unforgettable TV movie A Smoky Mountain Christmas. (It involves both an irascible hobo and a witch.)

I feel comfortable speaking for Dolly when I say we both wish you the happiest of holidays!

In this week’s Sound’s Like a Plan, I take on cheap friends, skittish lovers, and besties who won’t give you space to hit that.

Enjoy!

Before we begin: Yes, the title of this post is a coy reference to an album by Tracy Bonham. Remember “Mother, Mother?” Yeah. I figured it was just me.

Anyway… To extend my earlier post about this site’s purpose, I wanna discuss my perspective on “being right.”

Simply put, “being right” isn’t my job. As a critic, I’m trying to start conversations about our culture, and if I take the position that I must have the final word, then I’m killing other ideas before they’ve even been expressed. That shortchanges everyone who reads my work, and it shortchanges me, because I can’t learn anything new if I decide in advance that my opinion is infallible.

However, I do believe my opinion is valid, and I do believe it’s strong. If I didn’t, why would i do this?

So even though I’m not trying to be right, I am striving to be articulate, insightful, and readable. My job is to get the ball rolling… to use my natural talent for analysis as a launching pad for discussions that will hopefully become more sophisticated than I can imagine.

To me, that’s why criticism is so fulfilling. I’m not here to pass final judgment. I’m here to toss my well-reasoned position against the well-reasoned positions of others. Blended together, our arguments could create new ideas that will legitimately affect our lives.

That’s much more satisfying than insisting everyone should like Ugly Betty.

So at The Critical Condition, let none of us be right, so none of us can be wrong.

Does that mean we should agree on everything? No. That would be blander than a Happy Days reunion. But if we disagree with someone about pop culture, it doesn’t mean we’re right and they’re wrong, you know? We’re just marching to our drummers, etc.

And now, back to the show!!

Over at Variety, I just reviewed the last-ever New York incarnation of Forbidden Broadway, a musical revue that spoofs current Broadway theater. FB has been cranking out material since 1982, so its swan song is a big deal.

Also, check out my review of The Marvelous Wonderettes, which is a musical about a campy girl group… that doesn’t include a single reference to Dreamgirls. Odd!