OK, two videos for the price of one today.

The owner of a local gym chain managed to get himself two cover articles this month over his gym's TV ad campaign. They're insensitive, cruel, and very much to the point. Now, we all know that being cruel and abusive to fat people (there, I said it) is wrong, but the price for obesity is high and what if this is the way to motivate people?

I suspect that the real truth is these ads only get attention in a crowded market. I doubt they do any good for those who might be truly in need of it and only attract the business of those who already wrap too much of their self-worth in their body images.

Judge for yourself:





CDs listened to today:

• Roger Sessions: Suite From The Black Maskers
• Tricky: Pre-Millenium Tension
• Kevin Puts: Dark Vigil
• Various Artists: Project Human, disk 2
• Konono No. 1: Congotronics
• Alfred Schnittke: Symphony No. 8
• Esa-Pekka Salonen: L.A. Variations
• Candy Flip: Strawberry Fields Forever
• Chemical Brothers: Setting Sun
• Arild Plau: Concerto For Tuba And Orchestra
  

Some might take this as proof of the divine.

But I'll take this as reasonable, if flawed, skepticism. I'm taking about an opinion piece written by Paul Davies. In it, he argues that science is just as much a kind of faith as any religion, based on the belief that the rules governing the observed universe are consistent in all its precincts, unvarying in every respect. I agree that it is absurd to believe this--and equally absurd not to, given our observations so far.

There are some problems with his article. He fails to emphasize how the Physics establishment he assails as unwilling to examine its assumptions has actually overturned major theories every now and then. Relativity? Particle Physics? He's unwilling to simply acknowledge that the practice of science itself is not rational, let alone some of its social and metaphysical underpinnings.

The error here is that the author has forgotten about the bizarre immutability of reason itself, especially in its purest form: mathematics. Two plus two equals four, and it seems beyond imagining that this formula would ever produce a different result. Until we can conceive of a universe or a location within our own where two plus two equals three (imagine how easy nuclear waste disposal would be--just bring two barrels together with two more and you have 25% less waste?), I remain rooted in my faith that there are "laws" of physics. He's right to question this, but the questioning is as irrational as science itself and refuted by reason and mathematics.

CDs listened to today:

• Pop Will Eat Itself: Box Frenzy
• Ingram Marshall: Hymnodic Delays
• Ottorino Respighi: La Boutique Fantasque
• Kenny Wheeler: Music For Large & Small Ensembles
• Bill Watrous: The Tiger Of San Pedro
• Sleater-Kinney: The Hot Rock
• Alfred Schnittke: Symphony No. 8
  

I have evidence of the downfall of Western Civilization.

In a couple of weeks, NBC will premiere a pilot for a renewed version of Knight Rider, the moderately awful TV series from the early 1980s that brought David Hasselhoff to stardom. Now, I know what you're thinking: "Well, there's a writer's strike so they recycled some old scripts for camp effect!" Apparently, it's not a comedy--this was an original script written by actual union professionals!

CDs listened to today:

• Sofia Gubaidulina: Concerto For Bassoon And Low Strings
• Korn: Issues
• William Schuman: Symphony No. 10 (Gerard Schwarz conducting)
• Gyorgy Ligeti: Lontano
• Fats Navarro: The Fats Navarro Story, disk 3
• Bill Watrous: The Tiger Of San Pedro
• Remy Shand: The Way I Feel
• Alfred Schnittke: Symphony No. 8
• Claudio Monteverdi: Il Secondo Libro Dei Madrigali

What's new in pop music this week?

My tracking of pop hits always includes MTV's TRL, which has a top ten countdown as well as a couple of "featured" tunes that I suspect the big music labels pay heavily to air on the program. This past Thursday's TRL seemed more like a clearance sale--the top ten was announced in the first two minutes and the rest of the program was devoted to the unranked feature videos. What I'm saying is that my list is longer than usual and I'm blaming MTV for that.

• Chasing Pavements by Adele leads off from the UK. This is a rather good illustration of the Brits' love for old-school R&B and soul. She sings the verses in a butter-soft delivery (what, like every other singer-songwriter these days?) and the chorus in a brassier tone that may remind you of Amy Winehouse.
• Rise Against brings you The Good Left Undone, a brawny example of a punk band that's more interested in politics than I really care for. They follow a traditional strain of punk, of course, where the melodies are flat and tuneless and the main emphasis is pummeling riffs to go with the lyrical pummeling. The goofy thing is, a lot of the best punk bands were tuneful--Rise Against are not the best punk band.
  
• Too Much, Too Young, Too Fast from Airbourne is a remarkable distillation of the lessons you can learn by listening to AC/DC all day long. I'll stick with the originals, thank you very much, although this isn't bad.
• Cobra Starship, best known for the title track from Snakes On A Plane, comes back with The City Is At War. It's a big danceable groove with bits of organ and synthetic drums that just sounds like commercial product rather than art.
• Shiny Toy Guns' epic Rainy Monday arrives with lots and lots of acoustic guitars for an expansive sound to go with sweeping, arching melodies.
• Fat Joe, whom a writer in the New York Times once called the most-respected, least-loved rapper around, is coming around with I Won't Tell. He's always been a reliable performer and this is another solid tune, although the backing is a bit sugary compared to his past hits.
• Radiohead hasn't seen a big hit in a long while, despite being a big commercial success with their albums, but the critical darlings have a video to go with Jigsaw Falling Into Place. They're still pretty good after all these years and Thom Yorke's singing is improving. Check it out.
• Robyn's been a bubblegum popstar with dance tracks for some time now and she's back with Be Mine. She still does the teen-pop thing pretty well, best in small doses.
• Simple Plan's sounding less punk and more power-pop these days with When I'm Gone. This isn't bad, if a bit anonymous.
• Janet Jackson alert! She got featured on TRL with Feedback this week. She's always been a limited singer who's relied on big-time producers (like Britney Spears, but with slightly better media coverage) and this is a remarkable sleek, synthetic production. Not brilliant, but not bad.
• Matt White's Best Days is out of the same vein as James Blunt or Daniel Powter. You won't hate it, but perhaps it's not as strong as Blunt's best.
• Kid Rock's Amen got a nice spot on TRL, perhaps a bit more sincere than we're used to seeing from him. He's true to his country-rock style here, with considerably less rock. The arrangement is pretty spare. I think you'll like it.
• Blake Lewis is here with Break Anotha! The American Idol finalist sounds like a hyped-up version of Maroon 5 or perhaps Jamiroquai, with a bright-toned voice and a tightly-sprung groove. This is one of those songs that makes me think he has some talent, but I'll bet you he doesn't have many more songs to prove it...
• And please welcome The D.E.Y. with Give You The World. Golly I really don't like tunes like this. It's just a re-tread of Earth Wind and Fire's chestnut, Fantasy, but without the good stuff. Apparently, they got to make this junker before the Black Eyed Peas...
• I should have known that Omarion and Bow Wow had a new single in the wings when they had a brief cameo on Ugly Betty. That single is Hey Baby (Jump Off) and both stars show a lot of charm. The song itself is slim on substance, but I think we'll enjoy this for a while.
• The Wombats are back, although Moving To New York isn't as good as their last single, Let's Dance To Joy Division. It's a synthetic dance beat at high tempo and a melody that gets lost in the production. Maybe next time, guys.
• The Benefits' single, Physical, is actually not very new, but it didn't take off much beyond a feature on Fuse's Oven Fresh. I had trouble tracking it down until now and it was worth the trouble. I think you can say this song comes from the same bucket as acts like Devotchka or Gogol Bordello; think East European accents. How often do you get to hear tubas in the top hits?
• Ashlee Simpson is coming at you with Outta My Head (Ay Ya Ya). She keeps her rock sound, this time with a retro 80s beat and a delivery that seems to borrow from Lydia Lunch or The Motel's Martha Davis. I like it less than some of her other performances.
• John Mayer has a feature from the soundtrack for The Bucket List. It's called Say and it's hardly up to his usual standard.

CDs listened to today:

• Louis Armstrong: Volume VII: You're Driving Me Crazy
• Matias Aguayo: Are You Really Lost
• Luciano Berio: Differences
• The Cure: Disintegration
• William Schuman: Symphony No. 9
• Bill Watrous: The Tiger Of San Pedro
• Frederic Chopin: Etudes
• Alfred Schnittke: Symphony No. 8
• Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band: Swingin' For The Fences
• Bill Frisell Quartet: (eponymous)
  

We live in a strange country.

Here's your proof: The National Post of Canada is reporting that in the American South, some of those who seek to conceal their racism have replaced the notorious "N-word" with "Canadian".

This at the same time that we have a man whose father is African who may be the next president. I suppose we may never end the scourge of racism, but if you hear the term "Canadian" when there aren't any around, don't say I didn't warn you. I suggest you point out this usage and ask if that's what the speaker intended.

CDs listened to today:

• Juraj Filas: Sonata For Trombone And Piano (At the end of the century)
• Ludwig van Beethoven: The Piano Trios, disk 1
  

CD review time?

I think so. Let's talk about Are You Really Lost by Matias Aguayo. This is a brief bit of out-of-print (but still available at Amazon.com as of this writing--see my link for updates) electronic music that is not straightforward dance music, nor is it pulseless ambient atmospherics. Rather, the tempos are a bit relaxed and Mr. Aguayo sings occasionally in a reserved, slightly withdrawn, whisper-toned voice to minor-key melodies that are usually carried by hollow-sounding drum samples below round-toned synthetic ostinatos.

At times, a track like Drums & Feathers moves into dance territory, but this track and a couple of others wind up sounding like the sort of thing you might hear at a vaguely hip coffee shop: relaxed, but with enough rhythm to sound fresh and energetic, topped with anonymous-sounding mutations of small melodic elements. The stronger tracks, like the title tune, take those same building blocks but add a feeling of urgency and intensity. Overall, this is pleasing stuff, but you may have trouble recalling specific sounds or melodies the next day.

6 out of 10.

CDs listened to today:

• Arild Plau: Concerto For Tuba And Orchestra
• Bill Watrous: Manhattan Wildlife Refuge
  

I wish we could trust the health advice we get in books and news media.

My sister has been reading The China Study, a book reporting results from a study of nutrition and diet in, well, I guess it's kind of obvious where. It argues for an essentially vegan diet as the healthiest, based on a very large study of self-reported diet habits by Chinese citizens. Here's the thing: it's a single study, based mostly on rural Chinese. Not only are they ethnically different from most Americans, they live substantially different lives in a huge number of ways that are hard to quantify and analyze.

Mostly, what bothers me is that people tend to find one book that suits their prejudices and attempt to follow the book's dietary arguments as gospel. If you follow The China Study as gospel on nutrition, you ignore findings on the so-called French paradox, the much-ballyhooed Mediterranean diet, and the findings about the Japanese diet, among others. My niece and I chatted briefly about this and I pointed out to her that the news media tends to report on these studies in isolation, failing to point out conflicts between the studies, or how they may not complement each other.

More broadly, I'm troubled by the continued move to think of food as a kind of medicine where you get heart health by eating oat bran and fish, brain health with soy, and healthy bones with cheese and milk, while yogurt will give you good digestion. Author Michal Pollan takes a more sensible look at the problem of what to eat and you can see good example of his thinking in this op-ed piece in the New York Times.

And is life really so great when you follow strict veganism and you can't sit down with friends or family and share food with them because they put butter in the peas or used a hamhock to flavor the beans?

CDs listened to today:

• Roger Sessions: Sonata for Piano
• A Tribe Called Quest: People's Instinctive Travels And The Paths Of Rhythm
• Various Artists: Project Human (disk 1)
• Kevin Puts: Dark Vigil
• The Breeders: Cannonball
• C + C Music Factory: Gonna Make You Sweat
• Juraj Filas: Sonata For Trombone And Piano (At the end of the century)
• Konono No. 1: Congotronics
• Bill Watrous: The Tiger Of San Pedro
  

"Consumer" is not a word I like to hear.

The term is redolent of the science of economics, where I suppose it's important to distinguish between the activities of production and consumption. That's fine when the econometricians are talking about measurements, but the news organizations have glommed on to the term and so have businesses. They use it to refer to citizens, individuals--you know, people.

How about a little human dignity?

CDs listened to today:

• Richard Wagner: Tristan und Isolde
• Kenny Wheeler: Music For Large & Small Ensembles
• Bill Watrous: Manhattan Wildlife Refuge
• Juraj Filas: Sonata For Trombone And Piano (At the end of the century)
  

You'd think I'd avoid thinking of bacon for a while.

Last week, I encountered a bad bit of pancetta, a.k.a. fancy-pants Italian bacon. The stuff was probably the cause of the food-poisoning I enjoyed the following day (nothing too serious, just ruined my stupid day).

Still, I'm a red-blooded, four-square American and bacon is just what makes this nation great! Is there anything its smoky goodness can't improve? In case you needed proof, here's an unforgettable recipe for chocolate-chip cookies--with bacon!

And yes, I have already bought and cooked some proper smoked American bacon to make that cream sauce with peas and bacon recipe again. The next time I make the béchamel sauce for that dish, I may use the leftover bacon fat rather than butter...

CDs listened to today:

• Darius Milhaud: Saudades do Brasil
• Poor Rich Ones: Happy Happy Happy
• Remy Shand: The Way I Feel
• Steve Reich: Tehillim
• Sleater-Kinney: Dig Me Out
• Bill Watrous: Manhattan Wildlife Refuge
• Ingram Marshall: Hymnodic Delays
• Juraj Filas: Sonata For Trombone And Piano (At the end of the century)

Let's review a CD, shall we?

Naïve from KMFDM was released in 1990 and was withdrawn from release, edited, and re-released due to a copyright hassle involving an apparently unauthorized audio sample used in one track. Later versions of this disk lack the offending sample, but I'm proud to say that my copy is the original, un-edited version! Apparently, KMFDM fans are passionate enough that the used disk commands a nice premium in the used market, so if you think you have an original, don't sell it without checking the value first.

KMFDM is a good example of what was called industrial music back in 1990, with metal-tinged guitars merging with sampled sounds, drum loops, and drum machines. The grooves are danceable but not nimble, and the singing is typically guttural growling while the songs explore ugliness and brutality in a fashion that might disturb more delicate listeners (especially those who might find fascist imagery disturbing in a German band--but they clearly revel in things that are completely antithetical to that movement, so don't go making accusations). Even the cover art, by Brute, reflects this unholy melange of force, anti-authoritarianism, and sex (I store this face-down at the office). How dark, yet playful does this get? A favorite track of mine features the refrain, "I want to go to hell," while another revels in the sheer sonic glory of a machine-tinged wall of guitars to exult, "you'll be god-like!"

I have often found the Cookie Monster-stylings of metal and industrial singers not so much off-putting as kind of goofy and cartoonish, but singer Sascha colors his singing with enough real feeling and melody to give KMFDM a beautifully ugly kind of melodiousness that suits the sound of the grinding, chugging guitars and thumping bass notes accompanying him. He sounds especially good in his native German, although the lyrics in both English and German have a feral simplicity--goth kids looking for their Romantic poetry should look elsewhere. This is an album that won't make you angry; it'll make you realize you're glad you're angry.

9 out of 10

CDs listened to today:

• William Schuman: Symphony No. 9
• Edvard Grieg: From Holberg's Time
• KMFDM: Naïve
• Bill Frisell Quartet: (eponymous)
• Fats Navarro: The Fats Navarro Story, disk 2
• Bill Watrous: Manhattan Wildlife Refuge
• William Schuman: Symphony No. 10 (Gerard Schwarz conducting)
• Juraj Filas: Sonata For Trombone And Piano (At the end of the century)

Time to look at what's new in the pop-music spotlight.

• Soulja Boy debuts his follow-up single to Crank Dat, called Yahhh!, and it's a stinker. Crank Dat wasn't too bad, a shout-along kind of track pushed along by a YouTube-fueled dance craze--pretty much a hip-hop Macarena. The new single is another rapper complaining about how he hates the trappings of fame and fortune. Isn't that rather tiresome? And this from a guy who had one novelty, dance-craze hit? And the shouted, low-fidelity refrain is ear-splitting compared to the rest of the recording, to the point of unpleasantness.
  
• Chris Daughtry presents what seems like the only track from his album that hasn't been a single, Feels Like Tonight. How many is this? Five hit singles? Like all the other Daughtry songs, this features his big-time voice belting boilerplate lyrics in the high-volume style you expect from a competitor in American Idol. He's hard to dislike, but I don't hear a song that you'll remember ten years from now.
  
• Timbaland's latest single release is Scream. His last single, the gorgeous remix of One Republic's Apologize, is still on top of the charts as this one comes out and it's really unfair to compare the two. He brings along a couple of the Pussycat Dolls and between Timbaland and the ladies, you have three very undistinguished voices on the track to go with an undistinguished melody and some lame rapping. Still, it's a Timbaland track, so the beat is the usual unbelievably sophisticated groove. He's a genius at rhythm and production.
  
• Kanye West's Homecoming is out and about on the radio. You know, Mr. West is a vain preener and I find that off-putting, but when Jay-Z or other stars do the same thing, I'm unperturbed. The difference? Jay-Z has talent as an MC. This guy's one-note, sing-songy delivery is nothing short of tedious and grating. Every track I've ever heard from Mr. West is the same basic phrasing. This was charming when I first heard him perform Through The Wire, but the charm wore off quickly. Just to make things less appealing, Homecoming features Chris Martin of Coldplay singing, whose voice and style hardly elevate the chunky piano-riff and plump, stomping rhythms.
  
• The big debut in the UK is from Booty Luv (I'm pretty sure that name would be illegal in the states), called Some Kinda Rush. Another act that you'll probably never hear in the United States, this is a dance track with a big synthetic bass groove reminiscent of the sound of Jive Records in its heyday (think early Britney Spears or 'N Sync). It's fun.
  
• And we finally see formal pop chart success from the Disney star of Hannah Montana, as Miley Cyrus cracks the top 20 with See You Again. I've really been surprised she hasn't got more radio play and singles chart success, given the huge live show numbers reported by her tour. She sings with a slight twang, befitting the daughter of a country singer, but this is pure Disney product. Unlike the gang from High School Musical, Ms. Cyrus is a sufficiently capable singer so you don't hear many signs of that dreadful electronic "auto-tuning" to correct her pitch. The tune is a sinuous melody of basic teen, boy/girl stuff, but the rhythm track is a grotesque amalgam of dance, country and sugary pop. Yeesh, the Disney machine at full bore almost overwhelms the poor girl.

CDs listened to today:

• Girls Against Boys: Freak*On*Ica

I can't believe this story hasn't been discussed more.

I was catching up on my reading and found this news story buried in obscurity: Information Week reports the CIA has confirmed that foreign cities have experienced power blackouts due to cyberattacks. While the attacks seem to have been criminal in nature (I've seen scattered reports of Chinese hackers attempting to attack US government networks), this is a big sign of the future. When hostile nations like North Korea, Iran, or China attack us in the future, it won't be with missiles or atomic weapons--they understand that we would respond in kind and destroy their civilizations. They'll attack our power grids, our banks, and our telecommunications via the internet.

I hope our privately-held utilities are paying attention and are taking basic security precautions. You know, like not using Windows on sensitive systems and not allowing WiFi access to those same systems. The other interesting part of the story is that the CIA feels it's likely that the cyberattacks in question involved insider help. This is why you need to make sure your computing is secure: somebody is always willing to sell you out if you don't take the right steps.

CDs listened to today:

• Luciano Berio: Continuo
• Cure: Bloodflowers
• Matias Aguayo: Are You Really Lost
• William Childs: Concerto For Solo Percussionist
  

I think I gave myself food poisoning...

A colleague predicted disaster when I told her my plans, but I think even she would be surprised at the outcome. The idea was to try making a cream sauce with pancetta and peas over linguine (I couldn't find fettucine at the store, but yes, I know linguine is too narrow for cream sauce). I made the dish from scratch, and that went pretty well, following what I learned watching a cooking show or two to make a béchamel sauce.

So what was the disaster? The pancetta was awful. I bought it on Sunday and kept it in the fridge until Friday, when I browned it up in a skillet and added it to my cream sauce. It was so bad, I picked it out. I now realize it must have gone bad, which seems odd to me, given that it's bacon. I mean, bacon! Cured meat! How can five days in the fridge make it go bad?

Well, the peas and the cream sauce were good.

CD review time!

Esa-Pekka Salonen is a well-respected conductor whom I have admired for a long time. He has produced a large number of recordings of modern and contemporary works with some really good bands like the London Sinfonietta and the Los Angeles Philharmonic and I highly prize his recordings of the works of Witold Lutoslawski and Olivier Messiaen, among others. It turns out that he's also a composer at heart and this disk features Mr. Salonen conducting five of his own works with the L.A. Philharmonic, the group he's led with considerable artistic success as music director for some years.

The disk is Esa-Pekka Salonen's L.A. Variations, a nod to that long and successful tenure with the orchestra. The L.A. Variations is the largest work on the disk, which also includes a five-song cycle for soprano and orchestra, two works titled Giro and Gambit for orchestra and a feature for cellist and orchestra. The L.A. Philharmonic sounds great here, showing a lovely string sound and impeccable wind playing.

Mr. Salonen's compositions show skill, but don't exactly make my hair stand on end. He's generally not afraid of dissonance and the odd complicated voicing of multiple lines that thread their way through the Variations at times. The work seems to have this rather peculiar quality of seeming like the orchestra is speaking in a slightly too-loud voice, even during the softest passages. The voice work, Five Images After Sappho, features Dawn Upshaw singing. Her delivery mars the work slightly, as she sounds as if she's singing to very small children, exaggerating phrases and vowels at times in a mannered style. The melodies are pleasing, however and the orchestra parts remind me a great deal of the late Witold Lutoslawki's elegant writing. The remaining works on the disk are each melanges of episodic writing that struggle to hang together in a cohesive way, robbing them of drama or a feeling of motion. There are chattering, bucking rhythms, beautiful string writing and some fun tunes as well as shifty constructions of riffs, outbursts and other kinds of flash in the writing on this CD but overall, this is a minor treat.

6 out of 10

CDs listened to today:

• Konono No. 1: Congotronics
• Arild Plau: Concerto For Tuba And Strings
• Ludwig van Beethoven: The Piano Trios, disk 2
• Louis Armstrong: Volume VI: St. Louis Blues
• Esa-Pekka Salonen: L.A. Variations
• Bill Watrous: Manhattan Wildlife Refuge
  

I'm gonna go with some video for you today.

My work teammate loves this video. When she wants to tell me she's frustrated, she just types me an instant message: "bang bang bang"...



CDs listened to today:

• Carl Vine: Symphony No. 3
• Various Artists: Oriental Dancefloor
• Kenny Wheeler: Music For Large And Small Ensembles
• Zwan: Mary Star Of The Sea
• Arild Plau: Concerto For Tuba And Strings
• Kevin Puts: Dark Vigil
  

I honestly doubt Steve Jobs is worried.

I saw a headline a couple of days ago about how the rapidly-improving Amazon.com music download service is a threat to Apple and its iTunes store. Apparently, the buzz is that Amazon will offer a free download promotion around the Super Bowl--rather like Apple did a few years back to help launch the iTunes store.

Why would this be a threat to Apple? Mr. Jobs has made it clear that the iTunes store is there only to make the iPod experience more satisfactory. Apple doesn't make money off that store. As always, Apple is thinking of what you need to make the iPod better for you. If you're technically adept enough to shop at Amazon for your music downloads, good for you. You'll be able to get those Amazon tracks and put them right on to your iPod--it'll work right away. If you aren't that skilled (and I admit, the bar is rather low--because Apple has made iTunes and the iPod easy to use), you'll still have the iTunes store to stock your device.

If I were advising Apple, I would tell them to contact Amazon and work to integrate Amazon purchases directly into iTunes, making life easier. Imagine if you had a option in the Amazon check-out page that allowed you so say "yes, I'd like to add these to my iTunes library."

This is good news for Apple, overall. Yes, the iTunes store will lose some customers, but people will have more ways to fill those iPods and be happy with the part of the iPod/iTunes ecosystem that makes money for Apple: the iPod.

CDs listened to today:

• Steve Reich: Octet
• Skinny Puppy: Too Dark Park
• Remy Shand: The Way I Feel
• Kazimierz Serocki: Suite for Four Trombones
• Travis: The Man Who
• Konono No. 1: Congotronics
• Ingram Marshall: Hymnodic Delays
• Arild Plau: Concerto For Tuba And Strings
  

Sometimes, Bill Maher can be a real sanctimonious jerk.

But that doesn't mean he's wrong. Check out his profanity-laced review of, um, jerks of the year. You'll probably agree with me that not all of his choices are ideal, but it's still funny...

I'm sorry that it was posted at the Rolling Stone web site, which is a display of horrible web design.

CDs listened to today:

• William Schuman: Symphony No. 9
• Fats Navarro: The Fats Navarro Story, disk 1
• Bill Frisell Quartet: (eponymous)
• Edgar Meyer: Quintet
• Poe: Haunted
• Konono No. 1: Congotronics
• William Schuman: Symphony No. 10
• Arild Plau: Concerto For Tuba And Strings
  

TV discussions for me today.

After all, my most faithful reader prefers the TV discussions--when he's not accusing me of OCD! There won't be many mid-season replacement series on TV this winter, courtesy the writers strike. While I'm enjoying the extra time for reading, I kinda miss new shows coming out. At the same time, I'm getting a little resentful of the networks for continuing to air new scripted episodes of some shows (ER, Ugly Betty) and premiering others. I like not watching too much TV!

How are the new shows? Cashmere Mafia was first out of the gate, presumably because something this awful can't be restrained. Well, it's not as terrible as its male doppelganger, Big Shots, from the fall. But it's bad, bad, bad, as the networks try to catch the lightning in a bottle known as Sex and the City. Hey, I thought that show was bad, too, but at least Cashmere Mafia has better-looking leads. Sadly, there's no chance for nudity on ABC to improve this show (and the nudity on HBO wasn't enough to make Sex and the City watchable, anyways...).

The venerable Law & Order finally returns, and with a better time slot than it has seen in a while. While the reported network-imposed budget cuts are noticeable, this remains a classic, if not the most dynamic and inventive show on TV. Hey, it premiered in 1990, how could it? I suppose you could also say it has a bit of a wide-open field, with most popular shows already on strike hiatus for the foreseeable future. Here's hoping people take advantage of the lack of competition and rediscover an old favorite.

Prison Break has also returned with a sort of winter story arc, following the autumn arc (a bit like mini-seasons). These long-form serial programs don't do well when they take long breaks--I tend to forget where we left our heroes. I'm getting a little tired of this show anyway; it gets a bit dull, always plotting breakouts from one prison or another. I would prefer more of the "on the run" action after the heroes escape.

If Cashmere Mafia was an unwelcome shock, the pleasant surprise is Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Much as I loved the films (the first two, anyways), I wasn't optimistic that the movies would translate well in the small-budget world of series TV. I'm wrong--it's sensational. You wouldn't really know this isn't a big-budget program, the look is fine and the fights, effects, and stunts are well above-average for TV. Still, that's not what has made the first two hours of the show worth watching. The dramatic tension has been continuous and, even better, the plots work brilliantly. This was always a strength of the films (again, number three wasn't the best), the ability to logically use the implacable machines as the bogeymen. And I also think a strength of the Terminator series has been that both the machines and the protagonists, John and Sarah, have characters greatly formed the same way that comic book heroes are shaped--also a part of why Heroes is so good. Comic heroes like Superman, Spiderman, or Batman are deeply shaped by destiny and overwhelming circumstances--like John and Sarah, destined to save humanity from the evil machines, or the evil machines, utterly focused on their tasks, undistracted by any human feelings. Plus, the show has one needed extra that separates the good from the great action entertainments: tough-guy one-liners. Arnold made a legend of himself with his one-liners, and there have been a few in this show (a terminator, struck by a car, instructs the frightened bystanders: "Remain calm." Perfect.) I hope this show can keep up the good work!

CDs listened to today:

• Gin Blossoms: New Miserable Experience
• Matias Aguayo: Are You Really Lost
• Percy Grainger: The Warriors
• Gyorgy Ligeti: Le Grand Macabre
• Konono No. 1: Congotronics
• KLF: The White Room
• Arild Plau: Concerto for Tuba and Strings
  

What's entering the pop music spotlight this week?

• Avril Lavigne's Hot is the highest debut of this week's new songs. You know, her stuff pretty much all sounds the same. It's not genius, but she's got reliably decent songs with solid production and OK singing. This one is a little quicker than mid-tempo and has plenty of rock guitar sound, but it is such a standard-issue Avril Lavigne song that it seems familiar--even if you've never heard it before.
• Ludacris returns to the charts with Down In The Dirty, featuring guests Rick Ross and Bun B (who, I presume, is looking for opportunities to make a career after the death of his UGK partner, Pimp C). I found Ludacris' last couple of singles painfully bad, lacking his self-effacing humor and cheerful exaggerations, so I find this tune to be a bit of a return to form for the man from Atlanta. And his return is very much welcome.
• In the UK, the big debut this week is Basshunter's Now You're Gone. It's funny, this is exactly the song that illustrates how British, and more broadly, European pop music differs from what we enjoy here in the United States (and is a big reason why I watch the UK charts). This is a club track at its core, using a triple-meter variant of good, old-fashioned trance music. You would never hear this on the radio or see it on MTV in these parts, but the Brits are considerably less prejudiced against dance music. Still, this isn't really a very good song and the odd triplets, programmed to be intentionally stilted, make the song's rhythm track feel awkward.
• Another UK debut I'm listening to this week is a new single from Scouting For Girls called Elvis Ain't Dead. While I thought their last single, She's So Lovely, was pleasant enough, this track is hard to listen to carefully. It's a pedestrian, guitar-and-keyboard-driven sound that the folks on that island like to call "indie-rock". This song does illustrate a bit of a trend in the British indie-rock scene where bands are increasingly using layered vocal arrangements rather than the formerly more-typical solo singer.
• Finally, the band Mika sees its fourth single, by my count, reach the UK top 20. This time, it's Relax, Take It Easy, and this is the weakest song yet from this group. It's based on a vaguely electro-funk beat with a falsetto chorus and the whole thing just doesn't fit together particularly well. I was pretty sure I wouldn't buy their CD after hearing their cringe-inducing, treacly paean to heavier women, Big Girl, but this cinches the decision.

CDs listened to today:

• Louis Armstrong: Volume V: Louis In New York
• Lightning Bolt: Hypermagic Mountain
• The Cult: The Singles, 1984-1995
• Esa-Pekka Salonen: L.A. Variations
• Chen Yi: Chinese Folk Dance Suite
• Konono No. 1: Congotronics
  

I'm steamed at the Federal Government again.

If you peruse this blog for a while, that won't surprise you, will it?

This time, it's the Real ID law that has me bent out of shape. The Congress has decided to set new standards for driver's licenses and other state-issued IDs and to require all states to conform to those requirements by this May. I kept hoping some group of legislators in Washington, D.C., would come to their senses and repeal this foolish act.

My problem is that the ID law sets new standards for verifying the identity of citizens who apply for IDs, presumably foiling illegal immigrants, identity thieves, and those pesky terrorists (it's notable that this law wouldn't have stopped the criminals who perpetrated the mass murders of September 11--they had valid passports and no need for additional IDs). This law, ABC News reported, would cost states roughly $4 billion to implement and it's little more than a half-baked effort to create a backdoor method to force states to enforce the federal immigration policies, since it's clear the Congress won't fund effective enforcement--or better yet, come up with an immigration policy that makes sense.

But none of that really peeves me much, we're all used to Washington not making sense, right? My problem is that those IDs will have encrypted security data on them, ripe for theft and hacking by any criminal with a magnetic card reader and a bit of software. This is supposed to protect me from criminals? How? But here's the best part: states are required to verify our identities by collecting and recording all of our identity information. You know, all the stuff the criminals want to know about us: Social Security Number, date of birth, place of birth... So the states will have to store this information in computer databases, right?

How long do you think it will take before thieves find a way to steal all that data? What state will they go after first?

By the way, did you know that there is no constitutional right to privacy to prevent this? There's also no basic, over-arching federal legislation guaranteeing you comprehensive, clear rights to privacy.

Don't worry, the feds would never abuse that, would they?

CDs listened to today:

• Gyorgy Ligeti: Requiem
• Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Fever To Tell
• Kevin Puts: Dark Vigil
• Ludwig Van Beethoven: The Piano Trios, disk 1

Still reviewing the CDs.

I feel like I should start out my review of Lightning Bolt's Hypermagic Mountain by imagining them taking the stage: "Hello, we're Lightning Bolt and we've come to destroy Western Music! One! Two! Three! Four!" The band has an aggressive, noisy, energetic sound that seems to hide some ambitions to bigger ideas. And I've never seen them in person, but I doubt they harbor such dark ambitions to destroy Western music.

I had assumed when I first heard the band that they were a drums/guitar duo. In fact, this is an electric bass and drums only, but if you give them a listen, you'll pardon my mistake when you hear what Brian Gibson does with that single four-stringed instrument.

When they take a brief, calmer interlude, it gives the same sort of impression the cartoon character, the Tasmanian Devil, gives, that the band is merely panting and will resume the hyperactivity shortly, but in the main, Lightning Bolt powers ahead at full speed. That full-speed approach is a wild ride built on chattering, restless drumming and distorted, sharp-edged bass-playing. Mr. Gibson is a constant fount of harmonic and melodic ideas, grafting warp-speed riffs with kinetic solos and chunky power chords. I assume that the recordings contain dubbed second or even third basses in spots, but for the most part, the duo play together in a connected, intimate fashion that shows how intimacy isn't necessarily a quiet, calm thing as all those wimpy singer/songwriters would have you believe. These two show a real connection in their music that's just as visible in the squalling, tumbling noise (complete with indistinct, muffled wailing in a couple of songs).

While I think the relentless thrashing and noise might be a bit much for some listeners, this is a sensational band in its prime: inventive, spontaneous, and confident.

9 out of 10

CDs listened to today:

• Ingram Marshall: Hymnodic Delays
• Heitor Villa-Lobos: String Quartet No. 6
• Various Artists: Only For The Headstrong
• Kenny Wheeler: Music For Large And Small Ensembles
  

I have an executive function!

There's a lot of bull floating around about diet, exercise, medicine, and so on. I lean heavily on the research and opinion from the New York Times, where the reporters on these issues tend to be actual, trained experts in the subject on which they report, rather than just the good reporters you see at smaller newspapers or TV reporters. They also seek opinion pieces and articles from leading experts like the one I read the other day.

The article is an argument to ignore those stupid brain activity games where the manufacturers claim they'll improve your acuity or your memory or whatever else you might worry about. The authors recommend plain old exercise--you know, aerobic stuff: walking, running, old-fashioned aerobics, or whatever. It also conforms to my prejudices!

The main thing I like is how they describe the set of abilities that combine to govern decision-making and activities as the "executive function". We all have one!

CDs listened to today:

• Olivier Messiaen: Visions de l'Amen
• Pixies: Surfer Rosa
• William Schuman: Symphony No. 10 (Gerard Schwarz conducting)
• Steve Reich: Music for 18 Musicians
• Frank Sinatra: The Capitol Years, disk 3
• Remy Shand: The Way I Feel
• Humphrey Searle: Symphony No. 2
• Trash Can Sinatras: Cake
  

I saw an interesting argument in an article the other day.

Basically, the point was that lower tax rates lead to bad government. Not because the government is under-funded, but because when you pay more for government, you demand greater accountability. After all, you have very different expectations of your car if you paid, say, $5,000 for it than you would have it you paid $75,000 for it.

So the constant drumbeat from conservatives to cut taxes looks very different in the context of such an idea... I like Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul as men, despite Gov. Huckabee's distasteful views on social issues, but both are fools if they think that reducing taxes will magically shrink the federal government. Apparently though, it might lower expectations for their governing...

CDs listened to today:

• Debbie Gibson: Out Of The Blue
• Matias Aguayo: Are You Really Lost
• Percy Grainger: A Lincolnshire Posy
• Kinky: (eponymous)
• William Schuman: Symphony No. 9
• Gyorgy Ligeti: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra
• Fats Navarro: The Fabulous Fats Navarro, Volume 1
• Bill Frisell Quartet: (eponymous)
  

Another CD review!

I hardly feel worthy to review a disk featuring György Ligeti's Requiem. I've been an admirer of his since I was a teenager and his works are one of the reasons I'm an enthusiastic fan of modernist music. While the late Mr. Ligeti wasn't terribly well-known (composers are like that these days, especially radicals like him), the Requiem is something a lot of people have heard, courtesy its prominent inclusion in the film, 2001: A Space Odyssey. It's a fascinating work for orchestra, two choruses, and a soprano soloist, using his trademark mid-period (think mid-1960s) densely layered clouds of sound, dissonant harmonies and shifting, subtle counterpoint. Rather than seeming like an overwhelming amount of voices, the choruses are so deftly arranged that they only add to the remarkable harmonic richness of the work. While the work isn't exactly traditional, it uses the traditional structure of a requiem to a point (not all the sections are present); still, it's awfully hard to pick out the structure beyond the overall shape of what can only be called a soundscape. Somehow, the variations of thick and thin, dissonant and consonant, motion and calm make for a brilliant musical structure.

The disk also has the sensational Hamburg Concerto for Horn and Orchestra from the late 1990s. I think there are better works from Mr. Ligeti's late period, like the amazing Piano Concerto, but this one has a lot of respect from the experts and it deserves all of it. The soundscapes are gone, and the rhythms have become more focused and intricate, while the harmonies are less dense and create a sense of formal structure that's a sign of a composer who has mastered his craft. The confidence of the work is breathtaking, but surpassed by its beauty.

The disk is filled out by the Double Concerto for Flute and Oboe plus Ramifications for a string chamber group. Both are nice bonuses and you won't feel like you're wasting your time. The Requiem is performed by the legendary Berlin Philharmonic, a group that we sometimes forget can play anything when they get stuck recording Brahms for the eighteenth time. Reinbert de Leeuw conducts and the combination is felicitous, as he brings out all the sophistication in the venerable band. The other pieces are recorded using the ASKO Ensemble and the related Schoenberg Ensemble, both of Amsterdam. There's almost no drop in quality from the Berlin as de Leeuw leads these modernist ensembles, although one might wish for a little more rhythmic detail and vigor in the Hamburg Concerto.

Despite a very minor quibble or two, this is a tremendous recording featuring two essential works from a giant of the 20th Century. You shouldn't ask if you need to hear these works, you should only ask if you're ready for them. When you are, this is the disk to get. And please, stop listening to the Mozart Requiem. This is better.

10 out of 10.

CDs listened to today:

• Louis Armstrong: Volume IV, Louis Armstrong and Earl Hines
• Lightning Bolt: Hypermagic Mountain
• Alban Berg: Wozzeck
• Crowded House: Together Alone
• Esa-Pekka Salonen: L.A. Variations
• Jacques Casterede: Sonatine
  

Time for something different!

How about I make a few comments about the hottest new pop songs? I've previously mentioned that I have a self-created pop radio program so I can listen to pop songs without those irritating ads, DJs, etc. So I put together the Billboard Hot 100's top 20 songs, along with the Billboard Pop 100 top 20, Billboard Modern Rock top 10, Billboard Hot Adult top 10, featured tracks from Fuse TV's Oven Fresh program, the BBC Radio 1 top 20, and the MTV TRL Top 10. It usually adds up to about 60, maybe 80 tracks that I listen to at home on the computer to simply enjoy the same popular music I've been listening to all my life (OK, the songs and styles have changed since I started).

So, what's new on my Top Hits playlist each week isn't necessarily the "next big thing". It's more like an indicator of what has moved into the spotlight. We'll see if I find this enjoyable...

This week's newest tunes on my Top Hits playlist?

• Rihanna's Don't Stop the Music is the biggest mover. This is her weakest single yet (some previous hits were pretty good, others so-so). Abandoning her usual combination of Caribbean and hip-hop beats, this tune uses an odd, pudgy trance-style beat with her usual peppy choruses. I think this will be bigger in Europe than here in the USA--they like those grooves better over there.
• Avenged Sevenfold returns to my playlist with Almost Easy. This is a band with a reliable, hard-edged rock sound that's pretty conventional, despite their punky appearnce on stage, in video, and in photos. As always, the tempo and energy is high, if a bit pointless.
• The Silversun Pickups, inexplicably popular with critics, debut with Well Thought Out Twinkles. The specialize in layered, luxurious guitars and a singer who clearly isn't comfortable with the job. Why is this band so hyped?
• Teen country-pop sensation Taylor Swift debuts for the second time in three weeks. Our Song is a bit more country than Teardrops On My Guitar and is another one of those country songs that's blandly straightforward and first-person. I mean, country songs like this don't even try for anything beyond self-absorbed insincerity.

CDs listened to today:

• Sandor Veress: Hommage a Paul Klee
• Various Artists: One A.D.
• Ingram Marshall: Hymnodic Delays
• XTC: Oranges and Lemons
• Kenny Wheeler: Music For Large & Small Ensembles
• Kevin Puts: Dark Vigil
• Ludwig van Beethoven: Octet
  

Boy, gotta review them CDs.

I kind of surprised a colleague the other day when I referred to a recording as "eponymous", so let's just get that out of the way now. It means "self-named" and when I use it in the context of a compact disk title, I mean that the title of the CD is simply the artist's name. Technically, the title of the Beatles' and Fleetwood Mac's "white albums" are the bands' names, for example (and the singer Seal has released more than one eponymous disk, as has the band Weezer--thankfully, Weezer's are different colors...). Today's review is an eponymous disk by the American band, stellastarr*. Hey, the asterisk and lower-case letters are their idea, not mine!

stellastarr* is the band's self-titled debut album. They are clearly coming from New York at a time when there was a nascent revival of pop styles from the early 1980's and the band's sound reflects that then-pervasive interest. There isn't a huge amount of electronics in the sound of two guitars, bass, and drums, recalling those earlier times. But where the acts from the Reagan years used straightforward guitar rhythms (listen to The Cars for a while), stellastarr* indulges in occasionally more intricate patterns of plucked notes over rolling, kinetic drumbeats that give the grooves a nice forward motion.

But the real news with stellastarr*'s first album is not only a solid band sound, but some high-quality singing--a rarity in bands playing rock or pop music on smaller labels. Most of the vocal duties are handled by Shawn Christensen, who has a remarkable instrument, capable of sounding bright, yet deep, and executing vocal swoops that generate real excitement. Bassist Amanda Tannen adds her voice as a counterpoint or chorus now and them, although she's clearly working her sound as leavening to Mr. Christensen's remarkable singing. Most of the songs on the disk are brisk, catchy affairs, emphasizing a bit of minor-key anxiety here and there. The final two songs are an untitled slow song that add keyboard washes to the first sighting of acoustic guitars, and a tune that very much feels like an added bonus track (the sort that's usually "hidden"): a near-perfect imitation/not-quite-parody of the old British band, Pulp. Even without the clue of the title, this is a dead-on re-creation of the Pulp style of songwriting and arranging!

8 out of 10

CDs listened to today:

• Frank Sinatra: The Capitol Years, disk 2
• William Schuman: Symphony No. 10 (Gerard Schwarz conducting)
• Alexander Scriabin: The Symphonies, disk 3
• Train: Drops Of Jupiter
  
• Remy Shand: The Way I Feel
  

Boy, this is just plain arrogant.

I've been catching up on some of my news and bumped into an op-ed piece in the New York times from the former Senator and Attorney General, John Ashcroft. You may recall he served as President Bush's first Attorney General before the sorry term of Alberto Gonzales. Mr. Ashcroft argued in his opinion piece that the telecommunications companies that co-operated with the Bush administration by handing over customer information and access to their networks should be protected from legal action--you know, immunity.

Mr. Ashcroft seems to be arguing, and in fact Congress passed such an act, for an ex post facto law, making this legal when the actions, at the time, were of dubious legality.

But the key point of his argument is that the telcos who participated in this violation of our privacy shouldn't be held accountable because they relied on the administration's--and Mr. Ashcroft's Justice Department's--assurances that the data in question were not protected by law. That's just arrogant, to say that they shouldn't suffer the consequences because the Attorney General said so. Each of these telcos has an enormous legal staff that's quite capable of judging the matter for themselves. What's more, they are the putative experts in the field, not the Justice Department.

But here's the part that really makes me angry: Mr. Ashcroft's entire argument is based on the assumption that the executive branch of the United States government is responsible for interpreting the law. Um, excuse me, but what do we pay our judges for? And why didn't the telcos do as Qwest did and simply ask the administration to get a subpoena for the requested information? It's worth noting that the Justice Department, when challenged by Qwest, didn't even bother to attempt to get that subpoena. Presumably, that indicates they knew this wouldn't pass judicial scrutiny.

How dare he make such a preposterous case to cover this abuse? Didn't Mr. Ashcroft attend eighth grade Civics class? They teach these things there, you know.

CDs listened to today:

• Charlie Musselwhite: One Night In America
• William Schuman: Symphony No. 9
• Pixies: Bossanova
• Bill Frisell Quartet: (eponymous)
• Steve Reich: The Four Sections
  

This breaks my heart a little bit.

Today's less-important headline (important ones are the presidential race and things like that, although it's important to her) was that the pop star, Britney Spears, is in the hospital today and has lost custody of her children. I think that even the most hard-hearted, callous celebrity watchers are beginning to see that she's no longer an object for our amusement.

I've been involved in the lives of people like her. My brother is severely mentally ill, for starters, and there have been other incidents in life's journey where I've seen things like Ms. Spears' troubled life. She's been hospitalized more than once and she can't seem to find a way to set a course that allows her to be a happy, prosperous person. I'm sure she feels trapped and can't find a way out. Now she's had a meltdown and is in the hospital, she's lost her children, and it's hard to imagine a stable professional future for her (Although her recent hit singles will probably help cushion her, what will she do for a living in ten years? Twenty?).

As I write this, I'm listening to a diet expert talk to us about how it's one thing to know what to do, it's another to actually do it. That goes for all of us, but perhaps a little more for lost souls like Ms. Spears, who probably does know what she's supposed to do (stop partying, spend more time with the kids, stop fighting with their father, work hard), but doesn't know how any more. She's been trapped in this life for quite a few years now, this entertainment thing, and I'm sure that her family's neglect of their duties so they could enable her career as a child star has combined with the sheer force of habit of years of her lifestyle to leave her foundering.

She has so much, but all she can see (and all we can see) is her troubles. I hope someone will manage to help her find the key to make those changes.

CDs listened to today:

• Lightning Bolt: Hypermagic Mountain
• Dario Castello: Sonata No. 12 for Two Violins and Trombone
• Garbage: Bleed Like Me
• Esa-Pekka Salonen: L.A. Variations
• Morton Gould: Stringmusic
• Kevin Puts: Dark Vigil
• The Kills: No Wow
• Matias Aguayo: Are You Really Lost
• Peter Lieberson: Piano Concerto

You want video content?

Well here's another gem, this time from The Onion and their TV news network:

In The Know: Is The Government Spying On Paranoid Schizophrenics Enough?

One other note, a little blog honesty housekeeping, if you like. My post from yesterday was a rant regarding the RIAA's claim in a court document that digital files copied from CDs are not a protected "personal use" under copyright law and was based on a Washington Post story that our friends at CNet are saying is a careless distortion of the facts and they argue the story should be retracted.

Speaking of honesty, today was the day I was going to call that hotel chain that under-charged me. I swear I will, but I ran short of time!

CDs listened to today:

• Kenny Wheeler: Music For Large & Small Ensembles
• Ludwig van Beethoven: Missa Solemnis
• Louis Armstrong: Volume III, The Hot Fives and Hot Sevens
• Gyorgy Ligeti: Requiem
• Kevin Puts: Dark Vigil
• Alban Berg: Neun kurze Stucke fur Quartett, Sextett oder Violine und Klavier
• Crowded House: Woodface

Why is the music industry falling apart so fast?

Well, when your one remaining business model is to sue the people who are most enthusiastic about your products, you have a problem. But according to a Washington Post article, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has now reached megalomaniacal views on the matter. The story is that the recording labels are claiming in court documents that "ripped" copies of CD tracks, intended for personal use on one's computer or iPod, are unauthorized copies that infringe on their copyright.

Presumably, this logic would extend to the copy you put on your iPod, despite the rather obvious flaw to this logic: the only reason that the iTunes store exists is to download a song to your computer and then copy it to your iPod. This is just absurd, that they would attempt to force us to purchase multiple copies of a recording to support our different devices and locations. Does this mean that I would need to pay once for the CD, a second time for the ripped copy on my computer's hard drive, a third for my iPod, a fourth for my iPod shuffle and a fifth time for my backup hard drive? That $15 compact disk would now cost me, say, $55 (using the going iTunes rate of $10 per album)? And if I don't pay, they could review my blog and sue me for the practice?

Thankfully, this is just a wild claim in a litigation document right now. As I have always understood this practice, attorneys make all sorts of irresponsible claims in filings like these and we shouldn't take them seriously until a judge rules on the specific item. There's no such ruling at this time, I gather, so we needn't worry just yet that the claim has any legal merit. Still, you have to be alarmed at the prospect of these people even trying to apply such a claim. My personal iTunes library would cost me $11,680 to keep on my hard drive (at $10 per CD), and then you could quadruple that sum to cover my backup drive, iPod, and iPod shuffle.

Do they really want anybody to ever buy recorded music again?

CDs listened to today:

• Ralph Vaughan-Williams: Sinfonia Antarctica (Symphony No. 7)
• Various Artists: Northern Exposure: Sasha & John Digweed, disk 2
• Remy Shand: The Way I Feel
• X: Los Angeles/Wild Gift
• Ingram Marshall: Hymnodic Delays
• Kevin Puts: Dark Vigil
  

Happy New Year!

This joke is probably not the politest, but it's clean:

Q: How many kids with ADD does it take to screw in a light bulb?

A: Wanna go ride bikes?

CDs listened to today:

• Touch And Go: I Find You Very Attractive
• William Schuman: Symphony No. 10 (Gerard Schwarz conducting)