9.17.2001
After a week spent listening to some mighty aggro stuff (The Pagans, The Misfits - okay, I didn't pull The Feederz LP out, but if I had thought of it before now, I might have. It was, as I'm sure you're all aware, that kind of week.), I appear to have begun healing by music: I'm playing The Velvet Underground's third album over and over again. I remember cathartically and compulsively playing "Pale Blue Eyes" and "Some Kinda Love" weekly on my radio show in the spring of 1986 as monuments to a particularly confusing emotional situation I was privileged to be a part of (in addition to my generally confused state regarding interpersonal relationships then - and now, I guess). Then it was "The fact that you are married/Only proves you're my best friend/But it's truly, truly a sin" ("Pale Blue Eyes") that struck home. Now, it might be "I saw my head laughing/Rolling on the ground" ("I'm Set Free").

9.11.2001
Inspired by recent comments of Mark and Rusty (who will still, for unknown reasons, be Walt to me), I pulled out my copy of Steve Tibbetts' Yr.
While you could pigeonhole this as aggressive new-age music, I think you'd be wrong. The constant comparisons to art-rockers Jade Warrior in the linked review are probably not far off (which I say despite not having actually heard the Jadesters...), in so much as there are swirls of art-rock in here, along with jazz, breathtaking rock-and-roll, indescribable noise and, well, new-age. Listening, I remember my first encounter with it, on a cheap cassette I made from Mark's LP, sitting in my darkened dorm room (which smelled like the cheap strawberry incense of your average head shop), lying on my back, and thinking.
Dangerous stuff, that.

9.9.2001
Saw "Ghost World", and left feeling like I do when I see really good art of any sort: uplifted, inspired and thinking a mile a minute. The movie was great - you should go see it most definitely, and not just because one character (played by Steve Buscemi in a remarkably understated performance) is a misanthropic record collector and therefore near-and-dear to my own heart, but because it's a great statement on adolescence, humanity (the adjective, not the species), growing up, love and stuff. SPOILER: I want to talk about the ending a little now, so only highlight the following text if you are unafraid to find out about it: The conclusion is a good part of what makes me so enthusiastic about the film, echoing the similar ending of "Dazed & Confused" (a movie which is a great statement about the same things, I think). After two hours or so of reliving an adolescence that's a lot more familiar to me than any John Hughes movie, we see the main characters moving down a long open highway into an uncertain future - not a happy ending, necessarily, but a very realistic one. I don't think I'd scream and shout if someone wanted me to see this one again.

9.6.2001
The songs of the Eggs keep going through my head. These guys should have been stars, they just should have...

9.5.2001
In a power pop mood: "Whenever You're On My Mind" by Marshall Crenshaw and "Girl Of My Dreams" by Bram Tchaikovsky and "Yellow Pills" by 20/20 and like that.

9.2.2001
A clarification:
After listening to an NPR spot on the upcoming feature Rock Star, I realized that Spinal Tap, unlike Rock Star and Hard Core Logo, was meant to be funny - parodial, that is. The others probably mean to be funny, just not to make fun of what they're portraying, you know?