Posted 6:19 PM by Gene

I wish I knew what could willingly get me to stand in line for hours. Today some scruffians stood outside that rickety old TLA theater on South Street awaiting standing-room seats (shades of -- Great White?) for The Dresden Dolls, a "critically-acclaimed" second-string pseudo-Cabaret punk act, and my first thought was, who was the last pop star to sell more than 10 million units of an album? I'm guessing Alanis Morissette -- and her career went down in whirring-vibrato-like flames with DE-Lovely. Who speaks of her anymore? And the name got me to thinking of Pussycat Dolls and their alleged "burlesque" turns (from this dispatch they sound like mere no-talents who dress too skimpily); will they be around in ten years? And then I thought, what would get ME to stand in happy anticipation for hours? Al Jolson at the Winter Garden? The Four Marx Brothers at the Walnut Street for I'll Say She Is? Mickey and Judy at the Capitol? The opening of South Pacific? Duke and the band at Newport? And then I think, America has almost three times the population of show-biz' golden age. Where's all the talent now? Who in his right mind would line up for -- The Dresden Dolls?

Although it goes without saying most of today's "music" fans don't have a mind.