6) "Bubblegum Babylon" (VH-1, debuting Nov. 24)

From west of Philadelphia, Widmerpool reports on a "'history' of pop pop-music, which the show seems to think began with David Cassidy and culminated in Britney": "At one point, Danny Bonaduce says that at the height of the 'Partridge Family's' popularity, on tour, 'It was like Saddam Hussein -- you had to keep moving from safe-house to safe-house.' After this context was placed in my mind, I wondered what stopped the producers from spirit-gluing a beard onto the also-interviewed Monkee Peter Tork, so he could do his uncanny Osama bin Laden impersonation. The repulsively casual pop-group/Hussein comparison gave a new perspective to the 'Dick Van Dyke' episode in which Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore provide a 'safe-house' for British invasion hitmakers Chad and Jeremy. Except C & J didn't ask DVD or MTM to kiss their armpits in fealty; I bet Peter and Gordon would have."

7) Varin Frères (Amédée and Eugène), "Reims, cathèdrale, gargouille et jeune homme en casquette, vers 1854," in "Chefs d'Ouevres de la Collection Photographique de la Musée d'Orsay" (Paris, through Feb. 23)

In a passageway high in the cathedral, near a gargoyle, a man in a white shirt, dark pants, a scarf around his neck and a dark cap with a big bill slouches against a wall, right hand on his hip, left hand on his knee. It's perhaps the earliest photograph ever made of '50s cool -- of Marlon "Wild One" Brando-James "Rebel Without a Cause" Dean-Elvis leaning-against-a-motorcycle Presley cool. Eighteen-fifties cool.

8) "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (1956), directed by Don Siegel (Ojai Playhouse, Ojai, Calif., Oct. 19)

Muzot (Genevieve Yue) writes: "Stars Dana Wynter and Kevin McCarthy were there for a brief Q&A session at the end. The screening itself was disappointing -- a DVD instead of 35 mm, a false start in the Spanish language option and an uncomfortable shoebox theater preserved as a historical landmark -- but I had the great experience of watching the movie with a group of junior high school students, a few rows in front of me, who were seeing it for the first time. No real fright, but plenty of giggling and cheering. When the actors stepped up, Dana Wynter looked blankly at the audience and declared herself a card-carrying pod. Kevin McCarthy scanned the theater suspiciously, everything about him gruff, and, speaking to no one in particular, said, 'Are they all pods? No! We have to do it again.' Not everyone knew how to react; it stung like an accusation, a familiar panic that wasn't so easy to laugh at. I got the feeling this had become his line, worn not like the flat joke of an aged actor but a reminder of what made his warnings in the film so powerful to begin with, a sounding of the voice from the hills."

9) Northern State, "Dying in Stereo" (Northern State)

I wouldn't say a word against a Long Island hip-hop trio with an MC who calls herself Hesta Prynne -- except that with that name she's going to have to deliver stronger stuff than the charming "The country's getting ugly, and there's more in store/ But don't blame me, 'cause I voted for Gore." Something like --

10) Election flyer, www.moveonpac.org (Princeton University, Nov. 5)

"REGIME CHANGE BEGINS AT HOME -- VOTE"

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