Last night, like so many nights before, I did not go see Pilot to Gunner. I really need to buckle down and see them again. Instead I minded my own business drinking Carlsbergs at JJ Foleys down town. Their jukebox, among the top in the city in my opinion, is broken. This is sad, in a rented hatchback, as Haywood used to say. I also found myself yesterday minding my own business in the Target Greatland (i.e. we paved over a wetland to make walls for all the shit we got in here) commercial retail establishment, where, like many other big-box retailers, they sell many cds for just $10. This led to my purchase of Hot Hot Heat's Make Up the Breakdown and The Streets' Original Pirate Material for the knavely sum of $20. The former platter is air-tight synth-rock, an updated take on the pop chicanery of one-time Costello tour support The Yachts, whose S.O.S. was revealed to El Woodrow and myself by the uber-cool Joe McInally when we were still whelps in high school. Anyhoo, both records, the latter in particular having already been widely lauded in the press last year, get an enthusiastic thumbs up from me. There is evidently all manner of crazy music going on in London these days. I particularly like the Streets' effort because it is quite spare, the rhymes, delivered in a heavy cockney, are given a lot of room. The overall effect is eery, evoking images of London clubs winding down in the wee hours. So go out to Target and get that stuff on the cheap. I am returning to a regular record shopping schedule, and have yet to note any decrease in prices pursuant to the UMG announcement of earlier this month. But I eagerly await it. Perhaps prices can drop in time for 10/7, when the new Belle and Sebastien, Strokes and Death Cab for Cutie will all be in the racks taunting my otherwise parsimonious nature. A slow Sunday otherwise. A big pile of dishes, Thank You cards by the score needing to be written. One final point of interest. I have begun to colocate these missives at http://jbreitling.blogspot.com in preparation to a full switchover at some point, presuming I can finally break free from my financial ties to AT+T. While the contextual material from this site is lacking, there is a current list of things that I like to read, including NealPollack.com, a site Mssr. Brighaaaaaaaaaam turned me on to recently. That is all.

Lopez just bought an expensive chair at retail. I don't know why, but that is sort of amuzing to me. Perhaps because, thank God, it ain't my money. Listening to the rereleased version of "The Clash," real good stuff. Writing this here now to see if it is just that much easier than using the AT&T joint. Seems like it is. I have to shill out $50 a year if I want to include all the old clicky clicky content under one URL. That seems dumb. It would be nice to have a photo or two though. Carbon Leaf was totally on last night and the place was packed and the crowd was amped. Sort of exciting. That is all.

Co-locating and eventually replacing clicky clicky since Fall 2003. Here come the warm pants.

jcb