Picked this up from Maura. Here's a hypothetical CD of my best of 2006 so far.

1. "Lloyd, I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken," Camera Obscura
2. "Quit That Scene," Tommy Keene
3. "Doctor Monroe," Casey Dienel
4. "Running the World," Jarvis Cocker
5. "Cruel Storm," Espers
6. "Marie," Allison Moorer
7. "Circus Time," Euros Childs
8. "Ann the Word," Beauty Pill
9. "You Are What You Love," Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins
10. "Nothing to Do But Dream," Jolie Holland
11. "If You Didn't Love Me," Cordalene
12. "Over My Head," Ray Davies
13. "Star Witness," Neko Case
14. "Pink Steam," Sonic Youth
15. "Death Culture Blues," Quasi

(I linked to the Beauty Pill track because a) it is only available on MySpace at the moment, and b) right now I just cannot get enough of this song.)

Post your CD too, if you like.

Update: Since he kindly linked to this on his blog, I should mention that Matos started this meme.

Pick here.

And then there's this. (Scroll down to the last item.) Sometimes, things that are private jokes between you and maybe two or three other people can somehow become writing assignments.

Sometimes, old articles you wrote show up in the strangest places.

In other news, I watched Lukas Moodysson's Together last night and it was pretty wonderful. Moodysson's ability to move plot and characters in natural but just-so-unexpected ways is really something. Apparently, his subsequent work is much darker, though. I guess this quote he gave to the Village Voice in Aug. '01 no longer applies:

People are very much aware that it's a difficult world. We don't need films that tell us life is a tragedy. We need films that tell us life is very difficult but possible. There's a misunderstanding that serious art needs to be dark. This pessimism in contemporary art is very much a luxury problem of the Western world.

A column here. I think it's pretty neat that Gorky's Zygotic Mynci got to be the music lead. Aren't you sorry you broke up now?!

He's back. (Note: The song posted contains many dirty words, so maybe listen with headphones if you're at work.)