it seems like everywhere you look these days, the moody brooder is back. from fox's "the o.c." to the new long player from dashboard confessional, hurt is hip. sometimes i wish my eyes smouldered a tad bit more than they do. maybe then i could be on posters all over town.

so, "the o.c.". let me just say, i'm hooked. although the one-hour premiere certainly sufficed to set the stage, i'm of the mind that if the first two episodes had been combined into a two-hour showcase, it would have been the best series opener i've seen in years. drawing to a close with the entire cast out in the driveway, awkwardly avoiding each other's eyes as the misunderstood bad boy and the not all bad after all boyfriend are led away in handcuffs. fierce. nothing on 90210 was ever this fucked up. not even that one time when they did euphoria.

and then there is dashboard confessional. i've been a skeptic, but this little album has managed to charm the pants off me. of course, it helps that chris carrabba is hotsie-totsie. i mean, do you really think 16 year old girls (and a smattering of boys) would really be so ga-ga over him, if he wasn't so eminently do-able? the lyrics are saccharine and somewhat silly, but these are the same songs that totally spoke to me, you know, when i was a teenager. same sentiment, different decade. god love him.

-finn