So Touch and Go Records are apparently shutting down distribution and quitting signing new acts. Depressing! when the economy gets to this point, that a label which has always been there just can't go on.

Girls' Night was pretty fantastic though! Last night - after being kinda sick all day - I watched Barton Fink and Thin Red Line, and started out Blast of Silence but only got a bit into it. Now I'm listening to Lionel Marchetti's 62 Stars and this is grand. Today we're seeing Coraline, and then the Academy Awards!

he had a Colt .45 and a deck of cards

These captchas are getting pretty audacious - I mean, really now:



Today I've got class at 2.00. I think we're discussing Beloved for what, the fourth time in my academic career. I've been in school much too long.

Tonight, then, Top Chef! Also to watch La Ronde or Some Came Running. Also Noriko's Dinner Table and Crazy Love which have both lingered near the top of my Netflix queue for a while...Honestly I'd been meaning to check out Ikiru forever - maybe I'll rent that tonight!

I just found out that they're increasing postage rates from 42¢ to 44¢ (I like using the "¢" symbol). This makes me pretty happy - always troubling to get back 58¢ in change (since 5 + 8...).

I just finished listening to the latest Mitsuhiro Yoshimura release, which finds him with Toshiya Tsunoda and Taku Sugimoto. It's wonderful, of course, but anyone could have guessed I'd say that.

The confidence of this recording! There's something so tentative about Sachiko M's sine waves, but here it's one plateau mounting another: a crucial, thrilling passage a little after halfway in where the pure tones of (I assume) the three different musicians intertwine at intervals and then drop out, leaving the wavering buzz of (again assuming) Yoshimura's headphones alone - then a pure sine wave enters the mix again, receding and gaining ground. Accustomed as I am to this kind of music, I was nervous of playing it at full volume.


Over the last two nights I realized I really can't sleep to music. Thursday I made it to sleep while listening to Echospace, but drifted unpleasantly in and out of a doze until I turned it off. Last night Brian Eno's Apollo wouldn't let me sleep at all - such a beautiful album that I kept waiting for the next sound, and those steel guitars.

A beautiful day outside too! I thought of going out and reading, but nah. I have A Wedding and The Third Mother to watch later - the latter I've been anticipating literally for years.

This has been a pretty fine weekend! The other night Raquel and I watched Heathers, Trainspotting and Femme Fatale. Seeing Trainspotting again makes me think Danny Boyle could well have been somebody.

Saturday - most of the day I spent reading, did some homework, a WebCT posting, then we went out to dinner at the Texas Roadhouse - this, around six. After that to the mall, then we dashed out to Vintage Stock (to buy Saw IV) then to Gardner's Books which was closed. Rachel and I watched Saw IV, then we finished off the night with Smooth Talk. I really can't breathe for the last half-hour of that movie.

Today, then, half-watched a ton of Battlestar Galactica with Raquel, Matt and Kyle. (We started off with Assassination of Jesse James which was a disappointment somewhat in the vein I'd expected - sub-Malickian lyricism consisting of clouds drifting, fields wavering, overstated mythic mumbling. Turned it off about half an hour in - maybe I'll catch it on TV soon.)

In the afternoon we went to the library for more BSG and I checked out Contempt and started watching it - oh, it's quite good so far, but feels actively hostile toward itself. A certain sense of conscious smothering from the Delerue soundtrack weeping over every scene, and yet moments like the intertwining interior monologues from Paul and Camille - yes, gorgeous. I really want to watch that Four Short Films DVD again.

In the evening Raquel and Amy and Matt and I went out for dinner. First couple places we showed up at were closed so we finally went for pizza, something tasty. Now I just got out of a calming bath and I've been reading Girls Like Us - a biography of the musical lives of Carole King, Joni Mitchell and Carly Simon. This is pretty good. I also have Book of Disquiet to start soon but I'm kinda dragging my heels, certain it's gonna be depressing. For tomorrow's class, Harriet Jacobs and Frederick Douglass. I ate a ton of ice cream earlier, but I'm still hungry, this is weird!