Breaking the silence

I'm going to take a few moments away from my strict regimen of assal horizontology because it's been too long since I've posted anything substantive.

I am currently listening to The Letting Go by Bonnie "Prince" Billy, which is simply lovely. So far, possibly his best work since I See a Darkness. Yes, that's right - better than Superwolf, even.

Marianne Faithfull announced today that she has been diagnosed with breast cancer, but it was caught in the early stages. I wish her a full and speedy recovery.

The second least likely reunion in all of rock music (after The Beatles) is actually happening! The Sugarcubes are playing a one-off show in Reykjavik. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they decide to tour and come to Phoenix. I'm not holding my breath, though.

Grumpator has tagged me with a meme (though I saw it at Carraigduibh first) which I shall now attempt to complete - without a net!

THE BOOK MEME

1. Book that changed your life: Coming of Age in Samoa by Margaret Mead. It was the first ethnography I ever read, years before even thinking about getting a degree in anthropology. For me, it has inspired a way of thinking more broadly about culture, a premise for a musical and the name of a band I shall someday form: Margaret Mead & The Samoans.
2. Book read more than once: The entire Tales of the City series. I read it about once anually. Armistead Maupin has helped me through some difficul times.
3. Book on a desert island: Tape Delay: Confessions of the Eighties Underground. It compiles a number of interviews that Charles Neal conducted with dozens of artists from the period, such as Marc Almond, Genesis P-Orridge, Mark E. Smith, etc. The inner workings of the musician's mind has always fascinated me.
4. Book that made you laugh: Non Campus Mentis by Anders Henriksson. A professor compiles a comprehensive history of the world from actual papers submitted by real college and high school students. I was howling at the references to monks taking vows of pottery and to caramelized nuns.
5. Book that made you cry: The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. No need to elaborate there.
6. Book you wish you'd written: A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking.
7. Book you wish had never been written: Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, only because I was forced to read it both in high school and in college. Classic or not, it's an awful book and I'm not embarassed to say it.
8. Book currently reading: When Religion Becomes Evil by Charles Kimball.
9. Book meaning to read: Messiah by Gore Vidal. I've made a couple of false starts in the past couple of months. Eventually I'll finish it.
10. Tags: Anyone who reads this blog, feel free to continue the meme.

Here's what I've been listening to since Saturday:

1. Fujiya & Miyagi: Transparent Things
2. Jason Molina: Let Me Go Let Me Go Let Me Go
3. Soulwax: Nite Versions
4. Klee: Honeysuckle
5. The Whitest Boy Alive: Dreams
6. Ohsees: The Cool Death of Island Raiders
7. Erase Errata: Nightlife
8. Ratatat: Classics
9. Basement Jaxx: Crazy Itch Radio
10. Antony & The Johnsons: Antony & The Johnsons
11. Iron & Wine: Our Endless Numbered Days
12. Bonnie "Prince" Billy: The Letting Go