"She said wake up its no use pretending." - Iron & Wine

I have been listening to the latest Iron & Wine record for just about 24 hours straight. It is a remarkable and beautiful record. It doesn't have as much of a dusty, ageless feel as its admittedly stellar predecessor. But the same sort of domesticity and introspection shine through, aided by a more pro-sounding production and broader instrumentation. And the melodies and understated singing are simply gorgeous. I will probably listen to this at least a hundred times before getting tired of it, and it is the first record in years I can really say that about.

Before my attention was consumed by I&W, I was heavily involved in a handful of discs sent me by KooMahhhhh. I was surprised by how glossy sounding the new Von Bondies is, but golly that record packs a wallop. And I was exceptionally pleased with the various mixes. I had to spin Rollins' "You Didn't Need" a handful of times 'cause I haven't heard it in years and it is totally rad.

Spent the weekend parsing the contents of 30 Magazine Street and putting them in boxes. Surprisingly tiring work. Offloaded Dave "Drums" Dean's excess drums onto Brig-Dawg this afternoon, which enlarged the dent I put in the box pile on the back porch this afternoon. Whiled away many pleasant hours Friday evening with Logie and Ms. W and Lopez at Central Kitchen and the Middle East. Beer out of pitcher for some reason seemed like a novel concept. And helped smooth out the sting of getting robbed of the $40 bucks we paid to see a student production of Donnie Darko, which was abominable. Glorious beer would never do to me what that awful play did.

One thing I am very excited about is the prospect of turning this into an MP3 blog. I think I have the set-up figured out, I just need to get some time to go ahead and do it. But I am even more excited about the new blog curated by the Good Doctor, which aims to offer some really cool music in a no-nonsense (well, there will probably be some nonsense) manner with some insightful editorial context. Doobz maintains the best private collection of music I've ever laid eyes on, which is likely second only in awesomeness to that maintained by superstar Joe McInally, who I have mentioned here before. And having mediated access to some of the choice cuts in said library is a very exciting prospect.

Well, tomorrow is the final inspection of the new condo. Hopefully we will also close this week, and by this time next week we will be well on our way to transferring the entirety of our domain so many blocks southwest, if indeed that is southwest.

Oh yeah, here is a very solid review of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which I enjoyed very, very much. The movie that is. Not that the review is bad. It's good.

That is all.