"With the radio on, you make the wheels turn." - boys life

Bloggifying in the early afternoon 'cause I can. Oh yeah, and I have a bitch of a cold, and after spending the prior two afternoons in my office off in space due to the cold medicine, I figured my time would be more valuably (is that a word?) spent at home. Since I have sick days, they are paying me either way, so what the hell. Plus, with Monday off for MLK day, taking today off turns this into a three-day work week. Not so bad.

So I turn 30 tomorrow. I don't really think much of that. I spose I would prefer not to be sick for the day. Oh well. It is sort of just another day, what with all the celebrating over the last month due to the holidays and Woody's wedding, the latter being a superlative experience. So anyway, the big plans for the weekend have sort of been scaled back to cake and maybe seeing a condo with a realtor on Sunday. Oh yeah, and brunch Sunday AM with my aunt, uncle, cousin and cousin's girlfriend, which I am looking forward to since they are cool people.

Anyway, in my travels of late on the InterJohnson I came across this and this. The former argues that the album is dying and the single will rise again, what with the digitalimification of the music product. No real surprises there -- this is something that smarter people than me have been saying for years (i.e. the rest of the Noize posse). But the piece has a really good tagline, so I read it. Plus I think the graphic is a shot of 30th Street Station in Philly.

The latter article again doesn't tread any territory that the good doctor wasn't treading back in his Fenway days. But the acknowledgement of the phenomenon by the Mainstream Media would suggest that TV is the real deal purveyor/force-feeder of stardom for so-called recording artists. Personally I think most of us here in the know gave up on acknowledging the idiot universe of mass culture and the tripe created to titillate it, so I could care less that the Jay Z needs to hug Regis Philbin and pat Kellie Ripa on the ass to sell his records. My entertainment comes right to me on my lightbox. Everybody else can go fly a kite.

As far as music to look out for, I have a few things to review for JunkMedia that I think are pretty solid. First and foremost is the oddly named act Volcano.. I'm Still Excited. Their latest joint on Polyvinyl is above average, but their song "2nd Gun" is astounding. Great synth pop with stunning harmonies that I would have to have someone explain to me. Great song. I also have the new Isan record spinning 'round these parts. It is solid downtempo electronic stuff that sounds a fair deal like Mum, though I think Isan has been around longer than Mum. Oh yeah, and Isan has no vocals, whereas Isan does. Anyway, it is very melodic and pleasant. The press release is pretty funny too, though maybe it wasn't sposed to be. Oh well.

Finally, props must be bestowed upon CRM, who set some academic dipshits straight on a matter relating to securities law in a letter in the Wall Street Journal earlier this week. I would repost the whole letter here, but I think it probably looks cooler on the WSJ site or in print.

That is all.