I'm so sorry about your mom Polgara.

I don't know much about REM's recent stuff, but I have a great fondness for Up. It's so shimmery and sad.

Honestly, I think they owe their entire careers to Radio Free Europe, which was a great song--twenty some-odd years ago. And probably It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine); The One I Love; Orange Crush; and possibly Man on the Moon (although I got tired of that one), are all that stand between them and irrelevancy. They make quintessential college music.

Reckoning, honestly, is one of my favorite albums, ever ever ever. If I had to choose one album out of my Desert Island Discs, it would probably be that one. Susan was singing hymns to get Annabel to go to sleep, I was singing "(Don't Go Back To) Rockville."

And you skipped over it. Completely. Because it's irrelevant?

I'd think you needed re-education, but if after plentiful exposure to the good stuff you still didn't like it, I'd conclude you were just missing the right gene to appreciate it and not bug you as long as you were clear that Riverdance is Celtic very very Lite.

"Stand" is REM very very Lite.

There are a handful of songs from the post-Document era that I like, but I don't like any of them anywhere near as much as I like (insert almost any song off of any of those albums, especially if it's off of Fables of the Reconstruction).

Exactly how I feel (down to being large with the Fables love, which was the only album I saw them live on tour for, especially "Feeling Gravity's Pull" and "Old Man Kinsey" e.g. the really, REALLY moody songs). But I should probably cull those songs at some point, since I have everything up to before Bill Berry quit. It would probably make a decent anthology tape.

There are a handful of songs from the post-Document era that I like, but I don't like any of them anywhere near as much as I like (insert almost any song off of any of those albums, especially if it's off of Fables of the Reconstruction).

Fables is always the one people never liked, but I liked it. It's pretty clear that they were all going through depressions at the time. Buck's guitar has never been more jingle-jangle or majestic. And Stipe was never more mumbly.

The first four albums (+ Chronic Town) are foundational pieces of college rock, what came to become known as "alternative," and even modern pop music.

I'm not sure why I haven't managed to replace my worn out tape copies with CDs, except perhaps a lingering distaste for the recent output.

That's what half.com is for. Or you can ask politely and secretly and someone might be willing to make you a compliation CD or two of early REM.

a bunch of us in the office just took an ice cream break. YAY! and now this public service announcement.

Reminder today is Tuesday, it is dollar scoop night each Tuesday from 6-9 at Baskin Robbins.

I'm probably between five and ten years older than you, dw. Our relevants don't have to be the same where music is concerned (and really, I'm so out of season on anything new, you probably don't want them to be).

"Stand" is REM very very Lite.

Duly noted. Even if it is kinda catchy.

And you know, dear, if you really want to use your musical mojo for good, instead of subliminally trying to turn me into an REM fan, you could always help me track down more stuff like all those songs I love but have no idea where to place in terms of Musical Trends and If You Like A You Should Try B. E.g., I wouldn't mind a whole CD of stuff that pings me like "1952 Vincent Black Lightning," "Fairytale of New York," and "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow," but I don't have your encyclopedic knowledge to even begin to know where to look.

I'm so sorry about your mother, Polgara. Strength to you and your sister.