Looks like I'm going to be missing Emma Pollock again. She played SXSW earlier this year—which came as a complete surprise to me—and I fully intended to make the drive up just to see her show(s), but illness and an unexpected financial crunch pretty much 86'ed those plans.

And, from the sounds of things, it's just as well that I didn't go to all the trouble; reading reviews of the performances as well as between the lines of her online diary, it sounds as though sound and technical problems made it a well-intentioned but disappointing attempt. SXSW isn't my scene,…

R. Kelly is a comedic genius. Here are the dedications (typography presented as-is, like always) from his latest album, Double Up:

To my kids:

Joann: Daddy is so proud of you. You are doing really good in school and you've gotten really good at singing and you dance just like your mommy. Keep up the good work. I love you, Daddy

Jaya: Daddy's also proud of you for doing so good in school just like your big sister and you have become so good at playing with your dolls. I'm also proud of you for that. I love you,…

LIFE NEAR A CONSTRUCTION SITE, DAY 313:

I can now say with authority that all norteño music sounds exactly fucking alike. It's just one long intolerable song forever.

Never let it be said that I don't look on the positive, or "brighter", side of a situation, and bearing my own musical experiences in mind I offer, free of charge, this suggestion of a marketing slogan to the norteño music combine:

"¡Norteño: gracias a Dios, no es Reggaetón!"

Am I losing my touch? Probably! All you need is hate, folks.

2Pac - "Pac's Life": You know, I was hesitant to even say anything about this at all. I do not give a wet cardboard tinker's damn about Tupac Shakur; I was in high school during his career peak and the sleazy fucker was overexposed enough in his natural lifetime. And all the jokes about the avalanche of posthumous releases have been made and re-made, etc etc, so much so that I honestly cannot remember if I've made one or more myself right here in this fucking journal.…

Five lists of five.

Five songs that make me think of water:

Lush - De-Luxe
Boards of Canada - Dayvan Cowboy
His Name is Alive - What Else is New List
Saint Etienne - How We Used to Live
Slowdive - Alison

Five songs with underappreciated lyrics:

Lush - Superblast!

Me in the world
Losing tears, shedding fears
Strain for the sun
Make you run, make you come

You don't know
You don't know

I'm in my home
All the time, on my own
Low finger fine
Take what's mine, from behind

You don't know
You don't know
It's not…

Dear Barely Legal Last.FM:

So I have been insanely busy this month and the Compact Disc Source shipment (which was actually really disappointing, humor-wise; it's not that we got anything good or necessarily above my contempt, mind you, but it's all just so very… average. Am I getting old, Last.FM? Am I mellowing out?) came in right when my body decided to roll out the red carpet for a cripplingly massive and very literally frightening sinus / upper respiratory thing so instead of doing my customary ten thousand word writeup I will sum up the month of November…

It feels like ages since I wrote the last Compact Disc Source roundup–it's only been a month, give or take a few days, but good lord, it's been one hell of a month here at the library. Did you know that I am actually an Authority Figure at the library? Well, heaven help us, it's actually true, even if I supervise all of three people and my supervisory role is more or less approving sick leave and delivering bad news. And! One of my people had a Bad Attitude towards work, in that she considered some of her tasks…

Celebrating thirty value-for-money, long-winded, largely ignored Last.FM journal entries!

It's September, and the Compact Disc Source has played its crafty tricks again, gracing your correspondent with a grab bag of music to be cataloged and distributed to the local masses to pour directly into their thirsty tin ears. And I'm really beginning to believe that it's a grab bag, too–that there is simply no way that any one human being, or even a couple of dozy-headed ones working together, could make as many bad decisions as are evident every time one of these boxes appears at my desk. I hope…

Oh, good, it's the library's August 2006 standing order from The Compact Disc Source. Let's dig right in, shall we?

Marc Anthony - "Sigo Siendo Yo": For the cover, the photographer has put him in a dim room, sat him up against a wall (nice paint job, by the way—how many sixteen-year-old girls' bedrooms did you go through before you settled on that one?), and told him to "look like you've got a lot to think about, Marc Anthony".

(Marc Anthony is one of those people whom, no matter how long or how well you know them, is always addressed…

My top ten artists, and how I found them. If this is already a meme that's going around, I apologize in advance for what will no doubt be a tired rehash of the shit you've doubtlessly read and re-read elsewhere. The thing is: I got to thinking, recently, about the webs of influence we spin in the lives of other people, either accidentally or by design. Music is such an integral part of my life - as it no doubt is for most other people my age; I'm not making any claims to unique conceit, here, and I know that…