I felt like I'd received something better than a Grammy.

Wow. High praise from Pete T.

High praise from Pete T.

Your reading of Pete's reaction is clearly what he meant, but cynical bastard that I am, had I read "I felt like I'd received something better than a Grammy" out of its context I'd think he was damning it with faint praise.

I found the link to the Petra Haden interview.

Marianne Faithfull was on Fresh Air today. Interesting trivia: her great-(great?)-uncle was Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, author of Venus in Furs, whence the term masochism and the Velvet Underground song; her dancer mother used to see Brecht & Weill all the time when she danced in Berlin; and her father was a British spy.

Hayden, the new High Hat is great. I started reading Phil Nugent's Bush article, but when I realized (a) how absorbing it was & (b) how long it was I decided to print it out for the subway ride home. Looks like a lot of other good stuff, too. It was a long time coming, but I'm glad you kept at it.

Your reading of Pete's reaction is clearly what he meant, but cynical bastard that I am, had I read "I felt like I'd received something better than a Grammy" out of its context I'd think he was damning it with faint praise.

Yeah, I thought it was a funny thing to say, but figured that Pete meant it (and I meant my post to be as ambiguous as the 'compliment'). Which is kinda sad, really. Especially the part about me.

Thanks for the kind words about the High Hat! Nugent's a bad-ass writer. I've been trying to convince him to apply for Pop Matters' thematic columnist spot, which would be 77.4% more prestiguous than writing for the HH.

Interesting stuff about Marianne Faithfull, too.

Would there be any interest on starting round 2.0 of the mix trade? I'm thinking something shorter and snappier than msbelle's -- something like, send X copies of your mix plus postage to the contact person, get copies of X other mixes back within two weeks. I'm not sure how we'd do it so everyone got everyone else's mix without it taking a year or costing a fortune in postage -- thoughts?

I'd love to participate in something again!

In other news, I would give a toe to be down in San Diego right now, with a ticket in my hand for the opening date of the U2 tour tonight. Am starting to feel squee-age for the upcoming Seattle shows!

I lucked out and scored a cheap single seat for the first Seattle show through eBay. It's almost behind the stage, but it only cost me $41 including shipping. Woot! I may also be getting a GA ticket for the December Portland show from a gal in England. Being at the final show of the tour would be extremely cool indeed!

Something we've tried on PF is to set up a Gmail account and do a quick round robin thematic mix from the comfort of our own homes. This is different in that each person adds a song to a mix with a pre-conceived topic, rather than having a list of topics to create a full mix disc, but it's definitely fast-moving.

In other news, I would give a toe to be down in San Diego right now, with a ticket in my hand for the opening date of the U2 tour tonight.

I wouldn't give a toe for that, but i would give one to have been at the dress rehearsal this weekend. Because ... U2! Dress rehearsal! *incoherent squee!*

It sucks that I have to wait until OCTOBER. And I only get to go to one show! Woe is me.

hayden, the Gmail thing sounds intriguing. I don't really use my gmail account -- can they hold a whole bunch of music? How does the trading start?

Something we've tried on PF is to set up a Gmail account and do a quick round robin thematic mix from the comfort of our own homes. This is different in that each person adds a song to a mix with a pre-conceived topic, rather than having a list of topics to create a full mix disc, but it's definitely fast-moving.

Hmm, that sounds like a good idea.

How about each person builds a killer robot that hunts down the next recipient in the list, breaks into their house/apt at 2:00 and then blares the entire mix CD from giant speakers, before it steals the neighbor's car and drives to the next person in the list?

I think my sense of humor may be a little "off" today....

can they hold a whole bunch of music? How does the trading start?

Well, they have some 1000MBs of space, so they'll hold several mixes of 192kpbs (or higher) mp3s.

The way we've done them in the past is that interested parties choose a topic, then someone organizes a list of everyone who wants to be involved. When it's your turn, you either email a song (plus liner notes) to the account or you can upload the song by mailing it from the account to the account. I have plenty of Gmail invites and would be glad to set up the account and help organize the first one.