Went home last week for a couple of days to see the parents and sibs in the wilds of central Wisconsin. Watched a lot of TV. At chez Kirschling, that meant Brewers and Twins games, a bit of Wimbledon, CNN Headline News in the mornings, half a Deal or No Deal, AFV, and ? because my parents don?t have DVR ? lots and lots of commercials. Kept stumbling across these Volkswagen ads I guess I've been fast-forwarding through in New York. You seen 'em, the ones scored with tunes mostly off Wilco's new album, Sky Blue Sky?

Well, a strange thing happened to me as I sat through these heavily-replayed commercials OVER AND OVER again: I started to like the new Wilco album a whole lot more than I thought I did. I've been listening to Sky Blue Sky for the past two months, and I?d pretty much concluded that while I ultimately respected it as a noble move in a different direction for Jeff Tweedy and Co., I was also slightly let down that it didn't really live up to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot or especially A Ghost is Born (an album as absolutely good as it gets in my book, even with that 15 minutes of fuzz). Now, suddenly, listening to songs like "Sky Blue Sky" (used in the ad below) and "You Are My Face" in car-commercial context, I'm all over most of the album again, as if with new ears ? especially the opener, "Either Way," which I currently can't stop replaying.

Is that weird? Am I a consumerist whore? Is Wilco? I say no on all counts. (Go here, left column down, to find Wilco rightfully defending itself.) Doesn't that happen to you, where you hear an old song in a new pop-culture context, and suddenly you're in love with it in a way you weren't before? Which song was it? Go ahead and post your stories below. Or else explain it to me why it's not more okay than ever for a band to make money and hook in new listeners by selling their music to TV, when huge numbers of us aren't paying for their music at all anymore anyway?

Former TV host and current New Age musician John Tesh turns 55 today, and I have to confess, I've always thought of his music as just a punchline, even though I've never actually heard any of it. To make amends, I decided to give the gift of an open mind (and two open ears) to the one-time Entertainment Tonight presenter.

Over at Tesh's MySpace page, I found the tracks "Avalon" and "Bareclona." Aside from a jarring mid-number breakdown complete with pan flute and rattlesnake percussion, the former track is the sort of midtempo froth that would be best paired with the opening credits of a mid-80s sitcom, or perhaps with the sound of a dentist's drill as it connects with one's screaming teeth. "Barcelona" is an altogether different story. It opens with the cheers of a moderately excited crowd, and then swiffers its way magically across the musical floor, using tinkling piano lines and an enthused string section. If this had been available back in Midori Ito's time, girlfriend would've taken home the Olympic gold. It's awful, yes, but energetically so.

Still, neither song prepared me for Tesh's video, "Emerald Bay," from 2000's One World DVD. There's a fiddler in leather pants! Tesh sporting some roguish facial hair, pointing dramatic commands at a group of sprightly Irish step dancers! There's even a castle so enchanted, I half expected to see Enya and an army of faeries descend from a nearby mountaintop in an effort to claim it for themselves, and along with it, the crown of New Age supremacy. Whether it's good, bad, or heinous, I won't say. It's the dude's birthday, after all, so view the clip for yourself, after the jump.

I need your help, PopWatchers. You see, last Wednesday, while downing my umpteenth cup of vacation gelato, I made a vow that when I got back home, I was going to return to working out a minimum of three days a week ? no excuses. Trouble is, Mother Nature has decided to celebrate my commitment to exercise by delivering a crushing heat wave to the New York region. In other words, it's 95 degrees in the shade (and humid!) ? and just the mere thought of physical activity is sending me to the emotional mojito bar. Clearly, the only thing that's going to prevent me from ditching the gym today is a killer cardio playlist, which I started working on during lunch today. Here's what I've got so far...

Amanda Ghost, "Filthy Mind"

The Breeders' "Cannonball"

The Butchies, "Send Me You"

B-52s, "Private Idaho"

Christina Aguilera, "Fighter"

Okay, so clearly I've only made it through 'C' in my music library (yes, C+C Music Factory has secretly made the cut... just don't tell anyone), but it's clear I need some help if I'm ever going to have abs like Daniel Craig. (Hey! I can dream!) So help a blogger out; channel your inner Richard Simmons (minus the hideous candycane shorts, please) and contribute to the ultimate cardio playlist in the comments section below.

¡Hola, PopWatchers! I just got back from a two-week vacation in lovely Barcelona, and while the trip was designed to be a much-needed pop-culture detox (I didn't even log on to PopWatch during my time abroad ? ¡gasp!) there was one celebrity I simply couldn't avoid: Eva Longoria. No, BBC World News wasn't relentless in covering the run-up to the Desperate Housewives star's weekend nuptials to basketball star Tony Parker (I took that as proof of God's existence), but rather, I couldn't walk two blocks without seeing one of her ads for Magnum ice-cream bars. Seriously, they were everywhere. And so, to ensure I had something to blog about my first Monday back on the job, I took a picture of one of the inescapable sidewalk banners, and I also broke down and sampled the Magnum (double chocolate flavor) ? which struck me as a richer, more sinful version of the Dove bar. I'll say this for Longoria, she may be a shameless shill, but she's got good taste when it comes to one of Jay Manuel and Tyra Banks' favorite treats.

Only 10 days left till this year's Emmy nominations are announced ? which means two things: My left kidney will soon be deposited on a shrine dedicated to Vanessa L. Williams' very necessary nod, and the good folks at Gold Derby are getting their leak on. Last week, while I was on vacation, the site reported the rumored list of 10 finalists still in the running in the Best Drama and Best Comedy Series categories, and on Friday, a pair of judges who'd attended screenings of various nominated episodes spilled the beans about which series are most likely to hear their names called when nominations are announced July 19. (Click here to read the full scoop.) According to that duo, Best Drama Series nominees are likely to include The Sopranos, House, Grey's Anatomy (pictured), 24, and Heroes, while the Best Comedy Series race could come down to Two and a Half Men, Entourage, 30 Rock, Ugly Betty, and The Office. If Gold Derby's sources predicted correctly, that would mean snubs for the remaining five drama (Boston Legal, Dexter, Friday Night Lights, Lost, and Rome) and comedy finalists (Desperate Housewives, Extras, My Name Is Earl, Scrubs, and Weeds).

Considering how many Grey's Anatomy and 24 fans feel those respective series are coming off weak seasons, their inclusion among TV's five best drama series seems a little surprising. And if a sci-fi show is destined for Emmy recognition, shouldn't Lost (or Battlestar Galactica, which apparently didn't even crack the top 10) get Heroes' slot? On the flip side, if 30 Rock, The Office, and Ugly Betty score Best Comedy nominations (as predicted), I'll be hard-pressed to feel my usual brand of post-nominations outrage. Unless, of course, L. Yeah doesn't get her due. Then I'll be hellaciously upset.

What do you think of Gold Derby's list of predicted nominees? Should the Emmy judges have read the PopWatch Fantasy Emmy Nominees Gallery before going to work? Holla back!

EW Hit Lister Scott Brown and video artist Jason Averett aim to become viral video stars by hook or by crook. You remember their attempt to become YouTube superstars via their 2006 mini-farce "Cheater," a.k.a. "Whose Leg Is This?" (made in collaboration with EW Senior Editor Jason Adams) ? an effort chronicled in epic prose here, here, and here. Now, Brown and Averett are back, having created the music video below with EW alum Joel Stein and a much in-demand lyricist: Paris Hilton. Not that Hilton knew or could have even dreamed that her jailhouse journal jottings and her remarks to Larry King would inspire the majestic power ballad "A Process, a Gift, and a Journey," sung by Brown.

Will Paris' coattails make our heroes famous at last? Maybe. The clip has already been picked up by Will Ferrell's Funny or Die, and the celebrity chroniclers at People have also taken notice, in this awesomely-headlined article. What do you think, PopWatchers? Could this video help make its creators as famous as, say, Pearl? (But with, y'know, much longer careers?)

Saw Transformers yesterday. Liked that one part in the end when that fighter jet kept changing in midair from plane to robot to plane again in the downtown fight scene. That was wild. Only one thing really bothered me about the whole movie. Okay, two things ? first off, why didn?t the Transformers have more discernible heads and faces? Didn't get that, but no big deal. What really got to me is the Strokes T-shirt that Shia LaBeouf (pictured) sported for the entire second half of the show.

Anybody else irrationally irked by this? Don't get me wrong ? I'm a Strokes fan, I hate it when people bash 'em (and their third album last year was much stronger than the band got credit for, especially the song "Ize of the World"). I also usually don?t mind product placement that much; I'm grateful to GM for helping bring the movie in at a reasonable budget. And I get that the design and font of the Strokes logo is metallic, industrial ? Transformers-esque, if you will. But for some reason I couldn?t stop focusing on LaBeouf's distracting torso for the last hour there. The kid might as well have been wearing a T-shirt with a pair of airbrushed female breasts on it. So, good for the Strokes, but bad for the movie, I say. Who disagrees?

EW freelancer Cynthia Joyce sends this report from day one of the Essence Festival in New Orleans. Watch for her wrap-up of the rest of the fest on Monday.

Tell someone in New Orleans you're headed to Essence Fest ? or The Essence, as they say in the local parlance ? and the first thing they'll ask you is not which act you're going there to see (with Ludacris, Ciara, Mary J. Blige, and Beyoncé headlining a bill of almost 40 acts on five stages, it'd be tough to pick just one), but rather, "What are you going to wear?"

The festival, which returned home to New Orleans for its 13th year after being "loaned" to Houston last summer, has long since proven itself as the "party with a purpose," offering free empowerment seminars by day to those who don't necessarily want to pay for the big ticket hip-hop, soul, and R&B acts the event has been known to draw. This year, the old school/new school balance that the festival has long been celebrated for may have finally tipped, with Ne-Yo, Ruben Studdard, Chris Brown, and Robin Thicke giving old soul favorites like the Isley Brothers and Maze a run for their money.

But unofficially, as NOLA locals well know, Essence is really a three-day-long fashion show (the shoe department at Saks deserves to be an honorary sponsor), and every year over the July Fourth weekend, the entire French Quarter turns into a catwalk ? you're not likely to see lower necklines, higher heels, heavier hoop earrings, or whiter white linen anywhere.

The whole thing turns up several notches at night, and I will admit to spending too much time fretting over what to wear for the first night of performances. Believe me, it doesn't matter what you're wearing as you read this: You would have felt underdressed, too.

Yesterday started a little slow, and many a hairdid was nearly undone by the afternoon rains, but by the time the Isley Brothers performed what might as well be New Orleans' anthem ?"It's Your Thing (Do What you Want to Do)" ? things had picked up considerably.   

Few performers could pull off as high-powered of a set as Ludacris did in such an enormous arena without the people in Section K, Row 426 getting a little bored. Unfortunately, Luda himself seemed a little bored. As he admitted during his Jazzfest performance earlier this year, he's got so many hits to pick from that he can't decide what to do. Not surprising then that last night's performance felt phoned in ?maybe now that we're likely to see more of him on the big screen, he doesn't need to be larger than life on stage, but I hope this doesn't mean that his music career has already crested.

Seeing Lafayette's Cupid ? one of few local acts at the festival ? as he played to a packed SuperLounge crowd was like watching a star ignite. Cupid's "Shuffle" has taken him from regional phenomenon to major label recording act in less than six months ? you can't drive through this town and not hear it blaring from a front porch or the car next to you ? and it's caught on particularly online, where people have posted hundreds of homemade videos of themselves shuffling.

Cupid launched into an earnest gospel ballad version of the shuffle last night, accompanied only by his own keyboard playing, before literally stepping into the refrain ? and the entire crowd fell in with him ? clearly these people had been practicing. Afterward, I overheard a woman tell her friend, "I think my deodorant just died."

I have but one thing to say about Ciara (pictured), who performed on the mainstage just before Ludacris: She is all the reason you'll ever need to finally quit your gym membership. Really, if you can't look like that, why bother?

The only person who came even close to matching Ciara's pure physical prowess on the main stage  was Sen. Barack Obama, who brought the crowd to its feet and kept them there during a 15-minute speech, which was pretty closely matched in content by Hillary Clinton's speech today. Like Obama, Clinton was critical of the current administration's failures, and less diplomatically so: "It's almost hard to believe all the problems we're going to inherit when Bush/Cheney finally exit the White House..." 

(After detailing a similar dirty laundry list last night, Obama did pause to add, "... and that's all before you get to Scooter.")

And the Best Showoff Performance Award goes to... Ernie Isley of the Isley Brothers, with his trademark head scarf (is that where Little Steven got that from??). He shredded his guitar, first behind his head, then with his teeth, and all within the first 30 seconds of the opening song, "Who's That Lady?"

And now for a word about our sponsors.

At yesterday's opening ceremonies, a McDonalds VP told the audience that the mass chain has reopened almost all of its New Orleans "restaurants" ? a stretch of a title in a city that has defined the art of both fine and simply fabulous dining, certainly, but there is something to be said for a corporation having delivered on what has turned out to be a mostly empty promise to rebuild New Orleans "better than ever." I don't think anyone anticipated that this would manifest in little more than bigger, better drive-thrus, but you know, down here, we take what we can get.

All for now, I'm off to the Superdome ? this time in sensible shoes.

Blender's got a fun list this month counting down the 100 days that changed music (link is slightly NSFW), a list of landmark dates in pop history that's savvy enough to include some key pre-history (moments involving Frank Sinatra, Robert Johnson, and Thomas Edison) and some little-known events (the day in 1969 that James Brown sideman Clyde Stubblefield recorded the break in "Funky Drummer" that became the most oft-sampled rhythm track in hip-hop history), along with more famous milestones.

Lots to laugh and cringe at, lots to agree and argue with. (Go ahead, in the comments below.) My beef, as with similar lists elsewhere, is that this one focuses too much on moments when things went bad and not enough on when trends and artists were good ? which is why they mattered to us in the first place. Example: Elvis gets mentioned for the day he sold out and signed with Col. Tom Parker (the moment, very early in his career, that began his long artistic decline), and the day he died (which, in retrospect, hardly slowed his career at all, any more than Tupac's death did), but there's no mention of the July 5, 1954, the day that he pretty much invented mainstream rock 'n' roll by recording "That's All Right, Mama." In fact, I might even put that date at No. 1 and demote to No. 2 the Beatles' America-conquering debut on the Ed Sullivan show in 1964. Still, this is a pretty comprehensive list, and I especially love No. 79, though somewhere, Axl Rose (pictured) is not laughing.

Jericho returns to TV screens tonight. I never caught the show back in the fall ? the idea of witnessing a network-approved apocalypse felt too potentially glib to get me biting, while the sight of Skeet Ulrich generally only takes me back to lamentable experiences I had watching cinema in the mid to late '90s ? but I?m thinking of giving the show a chance. As you know, several thousands pounds of peanuts shipped from angry fans convinced CBS not to cancel the thing after all; as a fan of the underdog, I find that tidbit almost amusing enough by itself to see what I've been missing. (Tonight's a repeat of the pilot; next week?s a recap show of eps 1-12 and a rerun of ep 13; the rest of season 1 begins re-airing in sequence the week after that.)

Also amusing: the fact that American Idol alum Clay Aiken is claiming credit for the viewer revolt that made CBS bring the show back in the first place. "The show Jericho... I loved it," he told the Houston Chronicle this week. "It got canceled, and I blogged about how upset I was. I said, 'The Claymates can do anything. How do we get this show back on the air?' Honestly, within a week they had organized a campaign amongst Jericho fans to send nuts to CBS. It kind of started in that place."

Mother of pearl! Jericho/Aiken fans, is this for real? Is Clay Aiken responsible for getting your show back on the air? Is he the most powerful man in show business? And "Claymates": did you watch the show too, or do you just generally do what the dude tells you to do? One more question: did any of you also watch The Black Donnellys, and do any of you think fans can get that show reborn by shipping 45,000 Zesta crackers to HBO?