So walking to rehearsal tonight : it’s almost white-out conditions. In just under a block and a half, I am covered completely and utterly in the dandruff of the gods. The scene is so at odds with the soundtrack on my headphones, Luna’s Romantica, a summer album if ever there was one, that I actually laugh out loud. I am in a good mood.

So at rehearsal tonight : It’s just the three of us, as always. I install my new Z-Vex power plate on the Fuzz Factory, works like a charm. No more batteries in my rig! Huzzah. We actually get a fair bit of work done on two new songs – one a skeletal loop-based affair which I’ve decided to just do five minutes of background squall in, and a simple little country number for which I need to brush up on my chicken-picking and remember how to play 6ths’ without thinking too hard. Good fun. But we still need to find a drummer…

So on the way home from rehearsal tonight : The snow has tapered off and once again, it’s all slush. But this time, the slush on the roadways has been caked down into a super-hard and super-slippery uber-slush. I do not know this, and as I run to catch a streetcar, I wipe out in grand fashion. The right side of my pants is initially covered and snow and slush, and when that melts, is just WET. I landed on my side wrong and *that’s* all sore too. Whee. Oh well, I meant to wash these pants tonight anyway. And you know what? I’m soaked, it’s cold out, my side aches and I’m still in a good mood. Lord only knows why, but I’ll go with it.

My nomination for best domain name of the year : dubyadubyadubya.com

Snarky little article at Slate – The Return Of Mope Rock. Someone got beat up by some dude with a Flock Of Seagulls haircut when he was a kid…

np – Luna / Romantica

I think the site speaks for itself.

Real Ultimate Power.

np – Death Cab For Cutie / The Photo Album

Here’s the skinny on the Uncle Tupelo reissues, out on March 11. Looks to be remastering, about a half-dozen bonus tracks on each album and extensive liner notes from noted rock scribes.

Picked up the trade paperback for Y – The Last Man tonight. It’s the new flagship Vertigo title now that Preacher is done. The premise of the title is that everything bearing a Y chromosone in the world suddenly dies, with the exception of one Yorick Brown. The paperback collects issues 1 to 5 and the series is only on issue 6, so hopefully they’ll keep publishing the collections but a month or two behind as I’d like to keep up with things but don’t want to be buying any more individual issue comics than I currently am.

I’m leafing through a University of Waterloo Engineering alumnus magazine that had been sitting in the junk mail pile for maybe months… there’s a Class of ’99 reunion set for June 5, 2004. How fascinating. I must be sure to forget to go.

np – Beachwood Sparks / Once We Were Trees

In lieu of anything interesting to say, I am posting some wonderful Mountain Goats lyrics. It’s even better in song – get Tallahassee. Nuff said.

“I hope that our few remaining friends

Give up on trying to save us

I hope we come up with a failsafe plot

To piss off the dumb few that forgave us

I hope the fences we mended

Fall down beneath their own weight

And I hope we hang on past the last exit

I hope it’s already too late

And I hope the junkyard a few blocks from here

Someday burns down

And I hope the rising black smoke carries me far away

And I never come back to this town

Again in my life

I hope I lie and tell everyone you were a good wife

And I hope you die

I hope we both die

I hope I cut myself shaving tomorrow

I hope it bleeds all day long

Our friends say it’s darkest before the sun rises

We’re pretty sure they’re all wrong

I hope it stays dark forever

I hope the worst isn’t over

And I hope you blink before I do

Yeah I hope I never get sober

And I hope when you think of me years down the line

You can’t find one good thing to say

And I’d hope that if I found the strength to walk out

You’d stay the hell out of my way

I am drowning There is no sign of land

You are coming down with me

Hand in unlovable hand

And I hope you die

I hope we both die”

— John Darnielle, “No Children”

np – The Mountain Goats / Tallahassee

This is an interesting phenomenon. Yahoo Messenger has been on the fritz all day, not informing me when I have messages and whatnot. Well it’s now playing catch-up, happily informing me whenever I get an email… circa about 13 hours ago. It must have had every email notification backed up in a buffer and now it’s clearing it out. Hopefully it’ll sort itself out by morning, cause it’s pretty irritating otherwise.

So, since it’s due back at the video store tomorrow, I made the time tonight to watch The Man Who Wasn’t There. God love a black and white movie. There’s something about the visual impact that technicolor just can’t hold a candle to. And in the hands of a directer like Joel Coen, well it’s something to behold. The story is a convoluted murder-mystery, but told from the perspective of the man who actually knows everything that’s gone on. The trademark Coen eccentricities are kept to a minimum, but there’s a few distinctly Coen touches. A fine piece of moviemaking.

Blowing money… bought Dinosaur Jr’s Bug. Bought another distortion pedal – a Vox Distortion Booster – online. This one’s going in the home rig. It was cheap, it looks cool, sounds good. What’s not to like?

Also fixed up Brad’s beater guitar, it’s actually pretty cool. Holds tune pretty well if you go easy on the whammy and intonating a floating bridge was easier than I expected. Overall tone is a little woolly, I’d hoped for something janglier, but there’s some good twang to be had. I think it’s a keeper. I still need to take some decent pictures for ID-ing purposes. Would really like to know what this thing is.