Day four at the 2003 Ottawa Bluesfest.

It's rainy and Sum 41 is playing. Thus: I am not there.

Listening to:

Beulah - Yoko (lacks the dusty heights of their last couple albums. less glittery, more shiny. or something.)

Four Tet - Rounds (i really like this. organic dance music that is neither too organic [Mum] nor too dance [St Germain]. comfortable, and exciting in the background.)

Ben Gibbard and Andrew Kenny - Split EP (since the Postal Service album, I've become addicted to Ben Gibbard's voice - and the acoustica on here feeds my craving better than Death Cab. Kenny's stuff is terribly ho-hum, though.)

The Decembrists - Castaways and Cutouts (not super-enthused, but the opening track is sweet-and-sour in a good way. i hear neutral milk hotel's name dropped a lot, but really this band sounds closest to John Vanderslice. which is good - he's a man who could use more imitatin'.)

Jay-Z [with Eminem] - "Renegade" (this is fun and intense in a "Gangsta's Paradise" sort of way [which is probably an awful thing to say, but it's the truth]. Eminem is so much more fascinating to listen to than Jay-Z. It has something to do with the way you can hear the force in his eyes, the passion in that stare. it's not superserious, though, at least i can't take it superseriously when they do that sliding "renegaaaaade!!!" thing at the chorus.)

I'm not going to rant about Harry Potter here - to sum up my position, they're enjoyable books, I haven't read the new one, and I have a lot of issues with the so-called "phenomenon". I couldn't let this article [NYT] by A.S. Byatt go without a link, however. Between it, Prospero's and grumblebee's comments in the resultant MetaFilter thread, my feelings are expressed perfectly - and far more articulately than i could have done myself. go read!