Giuseppe Zangara

Traveling around the states isn't as easy as it is around Europe. This country doesn't embrace rail travel like you guys across the pond have; if you're really intent on seeing as much as you can, you'll either have to do it by bus (not recommended) or rent a car (which can be pricey). If neither of those are terribly appealing, you should just stick to one or two major cities.

Do you need a dictionary, pbone? I understand you may not be able to afford one. Lucky for you Merriam-Webster has a website!

Sparks is pretty fucking lousy.

I'm a terrible father.

tee hee

Yesterday, I noticed my dog had cracked a nail on one of his hind paws—when, I don't know—so today I took him to a vet to have it looked it. It was already infected, though only a little bit; they put him under sedation, removed the nail, cleaned up the infected area and prescribed him some anti-biotics. His hind left paw is bandaged up, but it doesn't seem to be bothering him. He'll be okay. I guess the stress of the vet visit + the drugs he's currently on caused this, but man, he just totally ralphed into my housemate's shoe, which, along with its unblemished sibling, was sitting innocently in the living room. I hope he's understanding about this, because I have no intention on reimbursing him for it, outside of maybe buying him a beer.

You'll have to explain the irony here, bro.

These two, yeah, but "Big Brother" is a snoozer. Gene, you don't like the title track to Diamond Dogs? Just as good as "Rebel Rebel," if not better.

Man, the New York Dolls' s/t was a pretty fucking great rock record. Top 20 material for me, definitely. Too Much Too Soon is good, too. We can pretend there isn't some people calling themselves the New York Dolls now. Also, The Last Waltz is interesting from a historical standpoint, though really it's just two hours of cocaine and Scorsese fellating Robbie Robertson. But hey, maybe that's your idea of fun.

Whattaya think happened to Kotz? I googled his name the other day, but learned nothing other than he posts/ed at A LOT of message boards.

Is it acceptable to post goatse now? This thread needs it.

Even during their golden era, the Who were churning out great songs and shitting the bed in equal measure. Before realizing that, I spent way too long convincing myself that the Who had really good albums. Wrong! The only good one is Live at Leeds.

Your track record of terrible opinions continues unabated. edit: Actually, his "Let's Spend the Night Together" is cute, but sort of an "okay, let's move on, David" thing.

I can tell this Station to Station-bashing is really bothering you, Byron.

Just now listening to Challengers for the first time. I'll give the New Pornographers some credit for trying something different, but this is kind of boring. Maybe it's a grower.

The title track, "Golden Years," and "Stay" are all that matters on Station to Station. Sometimes I feel a fondness for the chorus of "TVC15," but not often.

She annoys me only slightly less than Rufus Wainwright. Not to say I wasn't quietly sobbing during the end credits of Pleasantville.

Without thinking about it much in some time, I've long dismissed Bowie's coked-out trio of mid-70s albums—Diamond Dogs, Young Americans and Station to Station—as honorable failures; some good/great songs on each, but David's brain was too caked in blow to be really into it. After listening to Young Americans again, I'd say it's the best of the three (Station to Station is overrated), but just so weird. Not in the Berlin-era way, no; this album—wherein Bowie goes to Philly and tries to make soul music—is the most soulless soul album you're likely to find. That isn't an insult, either. Bowie's overtly cerebral nature was an awkward fit for the from-the-gut style of American soul. It's an icy, somewhat fascinating and rather disquieting listen.

Yesterday, during some playful roughhousing, I accidentally pulled a muscle in my dog's leg. I didn't know this is what happened right away, of course; all I knew is that he let out this awful shriek of pain and ran off with the hurt hind leg sticking straight out. His crippled sprint didn't take him very far, so, I went over to him to check if anything had broken. Gently prodding the injured appendage, it appeared nothing had snapped, but once I reached the source of his pain, he let out yet another piercing yelp of misery and oh god oh god oh god I'm nearly crying because I just broke my dog's goddamn leg because what do I know about feeling for broken body parts anyway. My friend, much calmer than I, pointed out that my dog seemed to be fine otherwise, not whimpering and generally content-looking, aside from the leg, and that maybe we should wait a few hours before running him off to the animal e.r. He's fine now. Not even limping.

And it's only decent. I'm not sure why I, for so long, thought "Across the Universe" was a would-be great song that hadn't been given the proper treatment—well, no, I know why I used to think that—but I wonder why I thought it for as long as I did. There's no diamond in this mine.

Do you think he still does that?

I recently bought Samuel Delaney's Dhalgren, which I picked up because it is usually mentioned in discussions of sci-fi books for more "literary" types who aren't into sci-fi. This is a subject I shall be treading cautiously in, so, if anyone can help me out here, feel free. I already have Gene Wolfe and Octavia Butler on my to-do list. I suppose I should add William Gibson while I'm at it. In other news, I'm only about 30 pages into Denis Johnson's thick new novel, Tree of Smoke, and I may already be in love. Vietnam may not be an exhausted subject, after all.

We're getting old, Slayer. We're getting old.

Five 2007 Albums I Like A Whole Lot, In No Particular Order: LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver Stars of the Lid - And Their Refinement of the Decline The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes are the Dark Horse High on Fire - Death is This Communion Frog Eyes - Tears of the Valedictorian There are some other albums from this year I like, but those are the standouts for me. Also, I'm not very "with it" on new music, so there's still a lot of stuff I haven't heard. Like Animal Collective's Strawberry Jam. I need to check that one out, though, fair warning, the only album by them I really like is Sung Tongs. Very spotty band.