Sorry, Mr. M, but this is a white baby boomer's list. You can tell by the eager-to-impress, yet not-quite-hip token choices: the Stripes (the third record = the one RS finally noticed), Black Flag (is "TV Party" the proto-alternative choice? Cos it's goofy? "Nervous Breakdown" or even the hoary-but-potent "Rise Above" are much more representative of the Flag catalog), and Dr. Dre (love how RS goes with the ingratiating shorthand "Dre").

I understand that a list of "songs that changed the world" is going to have even more obvious choices than the typical Rolling Stone bagjob, but in Jann-land, the world was evidently called into being around 1955 (and I bet even including music from the 50s must be killing him inside). And I also get that there was a period from roughly 1964-1972 wherein - more or less - anything went, as far as rock expression/experimentation, so this era will always need to have heavy representation.

But I also know that any list without Louis Armstrong can kiss my ass. Ditto to Woody Guthrie (good call, Mr. M). Really good arguments ought to be made for Rhythim is Rhythim's "Strings of Life," Schooly D's "PSK," something from the Buzzcocks' Spiral Scratch EP, Neu!'s "Hallogallo," Minor Threat's "Out of Step," and about a hundred others. But krautrock doesn't really push the tequila, I guess.

I'm actually trying to transition out of temping. Isn't that sad? Let me tell you about the novels I've never written.

The Tornados' "Telstar". Davey Graham's "Anji". Clarence Carter's "Strokin'". Jeez, David, we could do this all day.

Thanks to Traister for not tossing softball practice, but respect is due to Valenti for handling, like, twenty questions about flashing. Would've been nice to hear an actual, articulated take on self-objectification, its perception by society at large, its purpose in forming an aware, complete female human being (perhaps Valenti is that desperate not to offend potential recruits, maybe she just honestly doesn't give a shit), but whatever. I loved her alternative: instead of hand-wringing over images/acts that aren't necessarily representative of society at large, let's focus on shit we can unequivocally get behind: honest-to-God activism and involvement. I read way too many rubbernecking articles (not just in Broadsheet, mind) frantically pondering whether a small segment of young, upper-middle white female culture is out of control/taking control/craving attention/reclaiming power/working out personal issues/re-hashing the same conversations. It's an important debate to have on a personal level, in my dumbass opinion, but it isn't going to effect transnational change.

Anyway. No idea what the book is like, but hopefully I'll find out soon.

What a great fucking song. The cadences are so Paul Simon, I can't fathom what Smith did with it. Hopefully it's still cautiously hopeful.

And there's an apocalyptic-poetry break. Amazingly, Daddy likes.

There was a fantastic article in the Austin American-Statesman a few months back, written by Joe Gross. It was concerned with the insane amounts of compression used for the last 20 years' worth of records. When Dylan said modern music sounds like shit, he meant the sound quality, not the compositions (although that's an argument in and of itself, I guess).

Instead of separation or dynamics, artists began clamoring for pure loudness - everything pushed to the center and shoved upwards. And part of the reason for that is the explosion in portable/personal listening systems. When you're on the highway or crossing a Chicago intersection, traditionally "good" sound isn't what you want; to hear everything in a sea of distractions, you need compression, y'know?

So now the radio only sounds good cranked up; low volume is a mess. iPod earphones are tiny and pump the sound in narrowly. Most computer speakers are shitty substitutes for even a cheap CD player. But this is how we consume music now; as an incremental activity. Vinyl offered a palette of sounds... there's a topography you can get from an analog source that digital find hard to match. I still buy 95% CDs for convenience, for what it's worth. I don't consider myself an audiophile (I use the computer, my car, a low-end record player & a 20-dollar CD player), but when I buy a song from iTunes I can almost always notice the loss in info. MP3s are a necessary evil; small enough to deal with/transfer, but not accurate enough to be an acceptable substitute.

I wanted to say hi-fi isn't going anywhere - and I feel like there's always going to be a swath of folks interested in timbre, range, and fidelity - but in an age when Akon writes hooks seemingly with ringtones in mind... well, these are scary times.

a fantastic set of letters.