Joe? I think it's still your turn . . . .

My turn? I thought I was at or near the end of the list. I only see Hec's and DX's contributions.

I won't have access to my real contribution until tomorrow, but in the meantime I sent Sinatra's "I Wish I Were In Love Again" (courtesy of Lorenz Hart's twisted little mind). Was tempted to send "Lola" in honor of a guy I went to college with whom I just found out is now a woman with two kids. (Not sure if they're her husband's, or adopted, or -- and I really hope this is the case -- he fathered them and is now their mother.) He could have just stuck with Chris, but she goes by Christy.

Sorry, Joe, I mistyped. I meant Jon B's turn.

Jon's in NOLA at the F2F ...

Oh. Well, then, that explains it.

Corwood's next, want to take it?

Sure. I'll get on it when I get home this evening.

Corwood, here's the part of the interview with Craig Thompson (author of Blankets -- click the Pacman second from the left -- the graphic novel with its own soundtrack) I was telling you about:

[Growing up] I was always taught that feelings were bad. And the brain! Just recently, when "Blankets" was first printed up, they told me that one of the things they felt had "tempted me away from Christianity" was my brain. Well... of course! They said "The brain is the devil's tool, Craig!" I had laid out all these reasons why I was leaving Christianity and they just didn't get any of them. And they thought the worst part was that I was rationalizing things. My parents find both emotion and the brain to be negative, to be the devil's tools.

I still find Heather Havrilesky's writing irritating more often than not, but she has once again come up with a line I'm tempted to tag: "OK, I'm really preoccupied by sluts this week -- I apologize." Except the "this week" qualifier isn't really accurate, and I'm not likely to apologize for it. Well, maybe to my fiancée, but not to you good folks.

Thanks, Joe! Interesting read. I'm going to have to check out Blankets now.

Also, I'm in the process of uploading a song for the current mix.

I know that I am way down on the mix contribution list (#9 is what I remembered) but I sent mine in because I expect to have a crazy rest of the week.

My pick is "Under the Hedge" by Ted Leo / Pharmacists from Tyranny of Distance.

My alternate is "International Small Arms Traffic Blues" by the Mountain Goats from Tallahassee.

Corwood's pick was really interesting. There are sooo many Eff You Shitbag type of songs from one former band member to another, but you don't hear too many Sorry I Was A Big Jerk and Can We Get This Worked Out and Make More Music? songs.

I've always thought that "Steal the Crumbs" (Uncle Tupelo, last song on their last album) was one of the crueler examples of the former. I've never read this anywhere or had it confirmed, but I am pretty sure it's Jay's Eff You song to Jeff. I've heard tell that at their last gig Jeff's Dad was already wearing a Wilco hat and that Jeff had really shoved that he was starting a new band and taking half of Uncle Tupelo with him when he did it. The chorus "no more/no more will I see you" and "you borrowed more than you know/better steal the crumbs/makes it easier to go" and the line about your "vocal chords cutting out." I just don't think it's about a chick...and it makes it easier to understand why they didn't speak for almost ten years after.

Oh, yeah. No love lost there. Actually, Cardinal had a fairly acrimonious split, too -- just look at the truly awful partisan reviews of Richard Davies's (excellent) albums on Allmusic. I've been thinking about contacting Allmusic to see if they'd let me write a few less obnoxious reviews. There's no need to slag Eric Matthews's albums (which are also brilliant, and to which Allmusic gives excellent reviews in their own section) when the reviewer very clearly has a bone to pick outside of the aesthetic value of the albums. It's just unnecessary.