Susan Boyle is my hero! Seriously. She's a forty-seven-year-old woman, unemployed and only lives with her cat, who cherished a lifelong, unfulfilled dream to sing in front of a large audience. She's also a socially awkward goofball - ideal for reality television. And when she appeared on the stage of Britain's Got Talent, the whole audience thought she was a joke. We're talking rolling eyes and raising eyebrows. But then: the music starts, her cue arrives, and she BLOWS THEM AWAY!! Everybody starts clapping after her first line, because they all knew they'd acted like snobby judgmental jerks, and then she delivers a stunning performance. I love her. You go, Susan!

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Zack Weber

I discovered Zack Weber at Bamboozle 2008. It had been a really chilly day full of screaming and getting beaten up in mosh pits, and my friends and I decided to seek warm refuge in the football dome. And there on the little stage platform was Zack Weber and co. playing this delicious, mellowed out alternative-pop-jazz. Mind-blowing. I fell in love at once. That smooth sound, simultaneously fresh and familiar. . . It was such an intimate show, too; just imagine a hundred people lying back on rubber grass, relaxing after concert-hopping (through screamo and pop-punk) in a indoor football dome acoustically conductive to the rich, light jazz. Exactly. [webpage, myspace]

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What the Buck?!

What the Buck?! is an awesome youtube channel written by and starring Michael Buckley. His videos are fierce, snappy, hilarious commentaries about what's going on in the entertainment world, and cover everything from Britney Spears to America's Next Top Model to Lonelygirl15, intermixed with smack talk and the occasional musical performance. Plus he’s really nice out-of-character. Buck is often featured by big news companies like Fox and ABC and he recently won the Youtube Award for Best Commentary of 2007. [youtube channel, fave video]