- hanging out a bbq with a couple I know. They had gone to see the movie "Once," and asked if I had seen it yet (not yet, but it's on the agenda). They said they really enjoyed it. I said "yeah, that's Glen Hansard from the Frames and the chick in the movie is his real life girlfriend. And they scored the film together as the Swell Season." I think both their jaws dropped because I knew so much about the film and the actors. I didn't feel like blowing their mind further by telling them that Glen was also in the film "The Commitments."

- I further wowed them when I'd told them I'd met Glen several times. Perhaps I should get a photo taken with him Labor Day weekend to prove I'm not lying.

- same couple: the woman was telling me they'd been listening to KCRW earlier in the day and a song came on that she thought was Third Eye Blind. I tried to hide my cringing because Lord knows KCRW would never play that shit. Her boyfriend looked it up online and it turns out it was Spoon. Hmmm, I don't really hear it. We then brought up that the only time my friend had heard of Britt Daniel was when I brought up my whole "Who Hasn't Fucked Britt Daniel?" t-shirt idea.

- went shopping this weekend and heard Duran Duran tuneage over the loudspeaker at two different stores upon my entering. Coincidence????

- while at dinner Saturday night, the bar was playing what sounded like a bootleg of a Love and Rockets concert. Kinda sweet, actually. It was circa "Earth Sun Moon" era.

That reminds me I downloaded Express and Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven on the weekend.

Glass houses, d.

aw, fuck off, old man!

Today at Boston Market (lunch), songs on the ceiling speakers went from Greatful Dead "Eyes Of The World" straight into Decemberists "The Sporting Life." That makes like 4 or 5 times I've been in some place with the roomate and said "holy shit what are THEY doing on the radio in here?" I apologized today... "I know I say this a lot, but-"

Last time it was Built To Spill and Spoon at Quizno's. Something's going on.

- discussed the possibility of shelving great albums (in this case, ziggy stardust) for years in the hopes of, like, listening to them again for the first time. questions posed: how easy is it to lay off your favorite albums? would this really work? can you trick your brain?

- talked about okkervil river lifting significant portions of music for their own songs. examples: tim hardin's "lady from baltimore" (some song on black sheep boy), beach boys' "sloop john b" ("john allyn smith sails"). (side note: discovered a prominent obner poster had apparently never heard "sloop john b" before yesterday.)

i heard arcade fire at a burrito place in an office building last week. a guy i know heard lcd soundsystem at old navy over the weekend. it's this satellite radio to blame.

When I was 14 I set a rule for myself like this with the song Axis Bold As Love. I only hear it once every few years now, and it's managed to keep a little of the magic.

I think you can trick your brain. The other thing is-- you want what you can't have. Speaking of Ziggy Stardust, I recently gave up my copy of it, but not because I wanted to. I've been missing the hell out of that album since, yet I haven't replaced it.

or maybe it's the fact that you listen to the same music as everybody else.

oh, like i give a fuck about listening to the same music as some yuppies?

I didn't have a conversation about it but as I ate at Quizno's yesterday I recognized they were playing "Come Around" by Rhett Miller.



I even sang along. Awesome.

I will always have a soft spot for "Saudade."

So you have saudades for saudade?

Absolutely -- I've gone through like 3 different iterations of getting tired of DSOTM, not listening to it for a long time, then listening to it again, and falling in love with it all over again.

There's plenty of new music to listen to during the "not listening to it" phases.

Easy, star. I'm just sayin' it's just not much of a mystery.

- another random musical moment... just like 10 minutes ago. Was listening to David Sylvian's "Blemish," and my co-worker across the way asked me, "is that a car alarm I hear?" I thought it was my music. I turned down the volume, and no, it was in fact a car alarm outside.

Not really the same thing. I don't miss or long for "Saudade." I just really like the song, and it always makes me smile.

- guy I work with sent me an email this morning saying he'd seen "Sufjan Stewart" on Austin City Limits. I had to politely correct him. (big sigh)

In a coffee shop. a woman in her late 30s or early 40s of means talking to a middle age man of means about her ticket broker: he's pretty good, he got us 2nd row tickets in NYC to see Billy Joel but I don't know if he's gonna be able to get us tickets for Hannah Montana in Dallas.

Man: Oh, you should use my guy. he can get anything.

In the stairs/elevator cubicle here at work (a newspaper) I heard that one song ("Fake Empires"?) by The National playing on the piped-in music last week. That one threw me for a loop.

In less than 60 seconds, I was able to answer both of these questions at work:

"What's the name of that stupid song the Crash Test Dummies had?"

"Hey, what's that song from way back that mentions 'Gorky Park'".

oh my god, this just made me laugh out loud. not just "lol"... i heartily laughed.

i wish it wasn't an email though... you just know he'd pronounce it "suf-JAN".










ps. that was a fucking killer episode of acl.

- Yuppie looking guy on a nice part of Fillmore yesterday on his cell, "Do you mind if we drink 40s tonite?"

ok not music related but it made me laugh

-Ethan to Cary, putting on a CD:
"This is (Beethoven's) 9th Symphony, Cary. Lots of people say that it's his best, but my favorite song is still Für Elise". But that's not a symphony.