The First Echo

To celebrate the release of Britney's debut single from her sixth studio album, Circus, I've gone ahead and put it up for all to enjoy.

Not as addictive as last year's "Gimme More," but it continues to prove that the hot mess can still pump out catchy dance pop. Damn.

GET IT HERE.

"I think when you're 18, your personalities conflict, and then you meet up 10 or 15 years later and the playing ground is totally different and you're fine...of course there were nerves going in. But half of it was the buildup everyone else put in on it."

- Shannen Doherty on returning to 90210



The way I see it, there are two kinds of people who attend their 10-year high school reunion.

First, there are those who have stayed close to their hometown, their roots, and welcome with open arms the chance to see familiar faces from the past, regardless of what they've achieved over the past decade. The second group, on the other hand, accepts the invitation to return to their alma mater in hopes of subtly showing off what they've achieved since stripping off the cap and gown and bidding adieu to the lockers and lunchmeat.

And then there's me: a sucker for nostalgia, slightly masochistic in his curiosity and simply looking for a reason to escape the palm trees and…

Diablo Cody makes me smile.

Yeah, she's the former stripper chick who won an Oscar for writing Juno and is now working with Spielberg on her own Showtime series starring Toni freakin' Collette.

She makes me look forward to the day when I'll work alongside my own childhood idol, have an assistant who can watchdog my Facebook account while managing my iPhone address book and attend random movie premieres simply because my mere presence can up the pedigree quotient of the red carpet.

Little did I know Ms. Cody has a significant number of haters, and yesterday she posted a blog on her MySpace addressing said hate. It is something I couldn't have written better myself and reminds me why I j'adore her so:

1. She's proof that a writer in the twilight years of his/her 20s can cause a seismic shift in Tinseltown.
2. She's one of the few writers whose words jump off the page, slap my chubby cheek and make me bust a gut in the middle of the workday (her acute observations…

In an attempt to keep up with today's text-obsessed generation, I have joined Twitter. In other words, I am somewhat pathetically clinging to a youth that is quickly eluding me with every Breakfast Club reference I make.

If you need to know how I'm feeling, what I'm doing, where I'm going, who I'm seeing...you have this (consider it my own personal and voluntary virtual tracking device):

twitter.com/TheFirstEcho

Oy,

H.P.M.

I hate celery (as most of you already know).

I hate that I am rejoicing over the price of gas falling below four dollars per gallon.

I hate that the writers strike has prompted Warner Bros to rip the heart out of the 2008 holiday movie season by shuffling Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince to July 17, 2009.

I hate all of those ridiculous and useless applications on Facebook (F**k off, I do not want to be invited to your little Vampire party, and I do not need a little flirty face telling me I'm hot - I have the drunk tranny at the corner of Santa Monica and La Cienega to tell me that, thankyouveddymuch).

I hate the Robertson Boulevard exit off the 10 Freeway because of its one-laned ramp that can easily be transformed into two lanes allowing traffic to flow more smoothly into Culver City.

I'm starting to hate how this town can make 28 feel so old so quickly (but no hate on the town itself).

I hate how vain some housewives of a particular ethnicity can be when they come to the gy…

It's a given that I am a TV junkie.

I grew up watching characters named Bobby, Roseanne, Michael and Mulder, knowing full well that there could never be a Hiko written into a script, that there could never be character created with my unique moniker. Even in movies I cherished (Forrest, Freddy, Bender - hell, even Keyser) my name was never uttered. I could always rely on my name being unique, forever one-of-a-kind (untouched by Hollywood at least).

Then along comes Samurai Girl, ABC Family's miniseries about a girl who is forced into an arranged marriage by her rich and powerful father and later gets thrust into a dangerous Alias-like web of secrets and swords after witnessing the murder of her older brother, HIKO.

I'm sure one can understand how giddily distracted I was today when two of my coworkers (and my dad - via a phone call from his vacation in Atlantic City) had told me that they had watched me get stabbed in the chest and become the focal point in a murder mystery …

Sometimes I think I would make a kickass music supervisor someday.

Selecting the right tracks to incorporate into a movie, placing the right hook at the right moment, milking an emotional scene for all its worth...I'd live for that shit.

Ladies and gents, here's your soundtrack to the fall, an eclectic collection of tunes you already know (Mr. Archuleta, I hesitate to put you on here, but you're just so damn irresistible)...and tunes you should know (hello, Black Kids and Alphabeat).

Ready...set...download:

1. "Right Here (Departed)" by Brandy

2. "Save the Lies (Good to Me)" by Gabriella Cilmi



3. "Keeps Gettin' Better" by Christina Aguilera

4. "Spiraling" by Keane

5. "Boyfriend" by Alphabeat - Take Madonna circa 1985, thrown in some male vocals and then shake until all excess sequins and fishnets fall off.



6. "If This is Love" by The Saturdays

7. "Crush" by David Archuleta

8. "Don't Stop" by Inner…

Forget those rumors about the cast of Melrose Place reuniting for an appearance on stage at the 60th Annual Primetime Emmys on September 21 (btw, it's more than likely - I happen to have a good source).

If producers can revive 90210, why not bring back America's favorite courtyard complex? It doesn't necessarily have to be a spin-off of the new show. Why not a two-part reunion miniseries? They don't make those anymore, and there's an audience just ready to wax nostalgic over flannel, grunge and camptastic catfights by the pool.

Network execs, here's my pitch (And please, my Labor Day weekend wasn't completely occupied with these fantasy scenarios...Well, maybe it was):

It's been ten years since Amanda Woodward and Dr. Peter Burns got married on a private tropical island after running from the law and faking their deaths in a fiery cabin explosion. Psycho Eve Clearly dies in jail after writing a confessional which explains everything that had happened with …