Talking 'Bout Other People's Gen-er-ations

Official Friend of BA! Jeff Leeds wrote in Sunday's NYT that the AARP is getting into the taste-making biz, pimping music acts and offering Pandora on its Web site. Jeff's story suggests it'll be a hard sell, as many bands will be loathe to have their names associated with a group better known for Medicare lobbying than, you know, rocking.

On the flip side of the age spectrum, Vogue-ite Amy Goldwasser is editing a book of essays written by teenage girls. (Which I wrote about for Fishbowl.) This doesn't sound new, but I think the idea behind it is: Goldwasser believes that the age of constant texting and MySpace fiddling is creating a highly literate generation that is more comfortable expressing their hearts in the written word than in person. And it's not all "I H8 U Loser. I Want 2 Divorce U." It's actually good stuff. So good, she says, that some of the essays are actually e-mails and text messages.