Salon: Real Life Rock Top 10 Greil Marcus on the new Eminem song from 8 Mile:
The piece builds into crescendos of power, climbing ladders of refusal and willfulness step by step, rushing nothing, never reaching the top because it is the music itself that has put the top so high.
It's Eminem's greatest single recording, but it's more than that.

Courtesy of the seattle weekly, Nirvanapalooza: Following in the Seattle Footsteps of Kurt Cobain, Grunge and All in the washington post. I like how they include the EMP on their list of Historical Grunge Sites To Visit....

A nice review of one of my favorite albums: Blur: Parklife - PopMatters Music Review

Free Ladytron mp3s

SeattleWeekly.com - A Stiff Drink In A Strange Place Guide to a few Seattle bars, for when you need something stiffer than a quad-shot latte.

May
The ONLY mention of "cream cheese hotdog" on the web, according to google.com... and it's from someone talking about the cream cheese hotdog stand in Pioneer Square. I wonder if that's the only place that sells them? And I wonder what tiny percentage of his clientele is sober? I'd never heard of these hotdogs before Friday night, but the stand is down on 1st -I think outside Central.

Twilight downtown, it's dark on the sidewalk; store windows, streetlights, cars taillights give off a yellow light that hugs downward. If you forget to look up and notice that the sky is still bright, it feels later than it is. I still haven't found any gloves from last year, so with no pockets my fingers are freezing. Low Tide (by The Town Pants) has been on repeat through this walk. If my player has a repeat 1 mode, I haven't found it, so I keep fishing it out of my pocket & hitting the back button. I'm intrigued by the play between the words--a lot of regret & loneliness-- and the upbeat fiddle & guitar that sound like a rock interpretation of traditional Celtic folk music.

Bear in mind that this is an aol-time warner publication.... does this article make any sense?

nytimes.com covers the birth of DFA (home of Radio 4, LCD Soundsystem)
So an influx of new sounds, new bands, new clubs and nostalgia led to the re-emergence of New York as an innovative music hot bed....

whoops, double posting for a moment there... *(@&# netscape. the article is pretty good- the most interesting part to me was the mention that they plan to compile "all of its singles on a CD next year" -nothing further about that, but hopefully it will happen; it would be a nice compilation to have.

Seattle Weekly - music: Clash and Carry
Tiny article on Chicks on Speed.

All Music Guide: Souvlaki
I'm up too late, I'm stressed out, but I'm happier than I've been in months. Not directly because of this CD, but I listened to it a few times tonight, and it fit my tense but blissful mood well. Trying to motivate myself to stand up, walk a few feet & go to sleep isn't working; mostly because I know that I'll lie there & stare out the window at the lights.

BBC Wallace and Gromit film premières
Wallace & Gromit!!!!!

Dunkin' Donuts Coffee this morning- it's really good. No doubt that's because I asked for cream, and they put in so much that it's only a few shades darker than white. For all the regional differences that mass media and plane travel are supposedly killing off, a few remain- I can't imagine a shop in Seattle putting your cream or sugar into your coffee for you, for one. Coffee cup lids out here are also largely the annoying kind that you have to rip open-- they seem (thankfully) to be few and far between back home. I'm not the only visitor here dying for some Dunkin Donuts coffee, though- I saw a few other sleepy folks walking through the hotel lobby this morning clutching syrofoam cups of it- there's one only about 3 blocks away, so it's an easy walk.

Seattle Weekly - SFA @ the EMP Of course, it's while I'm gone.
Music for a looooooooooong day at work before leaving:








The drums in Live Forever were my favorite bit- I've been feeling wiped & unable to come up with anything useful to say all week. Bits of happiness (a great latte Sunday night, email from a friend) have been making me happier than any CDs I've listened to recently. It's probably what's led me to choose albums this week which I don't really listen to, but let just sit in the background of my mind. Music as a mental pacifier- hopefully something that a change of scenery will jolt away.