Here’s an excellent interview with Johnny Marr, courtesy of Magnet. A greatly abbreviated version appears in the new issue.

Check out some of the freaky shit at Anomolies Unlimited. I apologize for their crappy interface, but there’s some cool stuff there to delight your inner conspiracist.

Fun with Flash at Vector Lounge.

You know you’ve been cooped up indoors for too long when you finally do go out one evening and all you can think is, “Why is everyone so loud? Why is everyone shouting?”. I am not accustomed to being in a non-volume regulated environment anymore. Does this mean that I should make an effort to get re-acclimatized to the decibel levels common to public houses, or just crawl under my bed and hide for the rest of time? Magic eight ball says… unclear.

Kevin brought me a care package of comics comics comics. The stack of stuff I have to read grows ever-taller. It’s just as well I have no more television to watch, at least until next week.

I have made a list of things in the apartment that need to be cleaned, but am not particularly enthused about any of them. The washroom evokes a particularly strong sense of foreboding. Buck up, fella. It’s more afraid of you than you are of it.

Note – new mp3 of the week is up. Shift them peepers to the sidebar, if you please.

np – For Against / Shelf Life

Does that look like a 24-related subject line? Well fancy that. I am now all caught up with season two. Judge me not. Random thoughts…

1) Kim is useless, and doesn’t really rate with me as eye candy, either. Something about stupid girls, I guess.

2) Everyone is evil. Evil evil evil.

3) Kate’s sister is pretty cute. Too bad she’s evil.

4) I genuinely feel bad for Mason. Poor Mason.

5) Almeida should really expand his dating pool outside the office.

6) why in god’s name is there no new episode this week? “State of the Union address”. Fer fuck’s sake. I’ll give you the Reader’s Digest version… “Evil-doers… blah blah blah… Saddam is lying… blah blah blah… Freedom-loving peoples… blah blah blah… With us or against us… blah blah blah.” Insert random and numerous crimes against the English language anywhere you see fit. Chumps.

Anyway.

I was sort of productive today. Since this was the first not-totally-frigid weekend in a while, I took advantage of it and got out of the downtown core. Drove out along the Danforth to do some shopping – bought some drill bits, a new tuner and an old suitcase from the Goodwill that’s a perfect fit for my pedalboard. Which I’ve dismantled again. The way I see it, my pedalboard is my Bonsai tree. I find it almost meditative to sit and surround myself with tools and music electronics, and put it all back together. Keeps me out of trouble, anyway.

I am actually going out tonight, the first time I will be out in sort of social capacity in a few weeks. I haven’t deliberately been a shut-in, but none of the usual crowd seems to have been doing anything, and I couldn’t be arsed to call anyone. Plus it’s been utterly freezing out, which tends to diminish one’s motivation to leave the house.

np – Elliott Smith / Elliott Smith

“Any time I see all those American flags – and I love the country and everything – somebody is going to die.”

— Tom Petty, Magnet 57

In celebration of the mercury creeping back into single digits (albeit still on the lossy side of zero), I decided to not make a bee-line back home and swung by Songbird for a little guitar sampling. Also headed up to Soundscapes and snagged the new issue of TapeOp and the Rilo Kiley album. It’s nice to finally break hibernation.

Another article about the impending demise of the major-label record industry can be found here, this one from Wired.

I think that while my brother is out of the country, I will record all my daring adventures in his absence so he can get caught up when he returns. Veracity optional.

np – Rilo Kiley / The Execution Of All Things

Alas, Bettie Serveert are not coming to Hogtown on their North American tour in March. That should probably just read “American” tour since there are no dates north of the 49th. And none of the driveable shows (Detroit, Cleveland) are on weekends, so that’s not going to happen.

517 lent me all of season two of 24 yesterday – only 10 episodes so far – so I’ll have to get caught up for when they start running new episodes again. Seeing as how I have the place to myself this week, I can sit and watch television all day like a slob with impunity. There are upsides to the bachelor lifestyle.

np – Luna² / Lunapark