Randy Newman on the brain

I love my job as a high school voice teacher. The human voice goes through some dramatic transformation during these four years. I encourage my students to bring performance materials to their lessons for assistance - college audition songs, choral music, solos for church, whatever. Always glad to help.

Then there are weeks like this. One school I'm involved with is holding auditions for their spring musical revue, so my last 13 lessons have been coachings of "Friend In Me," made popular in Disney/Pixar's Toy Story. It's safe to say that, whenever I close my eyes, this is what I'll be hearing for the next week or two.

It could be worse, though. It has been worse - at another school, the fall audition was "Memory" from Cats (so many students didn't know it!), and last year's High School Musical audition song was "What I've Been Looking For" (they all knew it). I still don't see the appeal of HSM. No disrespect intended, but the government should consider the effectiveness of showing this particular musical 24/7 to Guantanamo detainees...