My iPod is Not Lame – Part Deux

I know you’re all expecting it. Dreading it, perhaps. Knowing that in the past weekend there have been not one, but three airings of the tween hit, High School Musical 2. “What the heck will Megan have to say about this one?” you may be wondering. Or you may just want me to shut the hell up about all of this stuff. You wouldn’t be the only one, trust me.

Before I give a quick rundown of what I thought of the premiere, I just wanted to leave a little disclaimer about all of the crappy entertainment I’ve been writing about lately. I’m sure it’s fairly obvious I’m a 13-year-old kid stuck in the body of an almost 25-year-old working mom. I know it’s dorky. And if I didn’t, there are plenty of people in the last month or so that have driven that point home.

It’s just that I spend each and every day working my butt off. Up at 5 (on a normal day) and working for 9 hours, then picking up Lucy and making dinner and being a mom. Then cleaning up after the husband, the baby, the dog, or whoever else feels like they should leave dishes in my sink and old banana peels and eggshells on my counter. And, sometimes, I just really don’t want to do it anymore. Any of it. It’s too much responsiblity and too stressful. Being a primary caregiver for another person plus bringing in all of the family’s income plus trying to have a life of my own is pretty much impossible, and I feel my whole body start to implode and I just need to do something that makes me smile, but also requires absolutely no brain power.

This may be why I’ve been spending some of my free time reading books written for kids or watching crappy reality TV or patiently waiting [read: obsessing] for some stupid TV movie made for 10-year-old girls. I get that I could probably be spending my time reading War and Peace or watching the new French film that won at Cannes or reading the newspaper. But I can’t. I just can’t. I listen to NPR during my drive to and from work, and that’s about all of the real, horrible world I can deal with an a daily basis.

And really, if watching a bunch of teenagers sing some catchy pop tunes about being yourself and sticking up for your friends and knowing that in two hours everything will end happily ever after makes me feel better about all of the stress in my life, then, seriously, what’s so bad about that?

As for the movie, the music and dancing was much, MUCH improved from the original. The self-tanner was a little frightening and my poor little Zac Efron was given a very unfortunate solo dance sequence, which made him look like one half a total freak and one half complete eff-tard. In general, it was a sweet, badly lip-synced, summer chick (very young chick) flick. Even if the watching the movie makes you want to jump off the side of a building, you may enjoy the soundtrack, which has lots of pop songs, mixed with some swing music and showtuney tracks. Which I’ve now added to the list of strange music on my iPod. Bet the whole office will be clamoring to borrow it now!

For any of you who actually are interested, click here to listen to some tracks from the movie. They really are quite cute and catchy. I know at least one of your who ownes a copy of the movie Crossroads starring Britney Spears, don’t make me out you, and I promise, this is no worse than that. I recommend tracks 3, 4 and 6.