The relatively mild winter that just passed hasn't made me need the sights and sounds and smells of this game any less. Welcome back. Go Mets.

Seth Stevenson of Slate is writing an ongoing series of articles about his trip to Disney World. I can't say I agree with all of his observations, but its always nice to see someone approach the place with an attitude that's somewhat more nuanced than "Disney's polished version of reality is stupid and/or creepy."

Vinyl Leaves is the go-to book for this kind of thing, but this and this are just as good.

My affectation for The Great Gatsby is well-documented in these pages and in others, but it should be noted that my fondness for Fitzgerald's writing also spills over into his other works, most commonly into his short stories. My favorite of this category is Winter Dreams, a piece written during the early stages of Gatsby and which bears more than a passing resemblance to the novel. I love it however, and to my knowledge it has escaped most of the more widely available collections.

Music I have been listening to lately includes but is not limited to Aloha (Here Comes Everyone, Light Works), Matt Pond PA (the Nature of Maps), and the Polar Bear Club record from two entries down. I'm trying to hasten spring's full arrival through sheer will, though I'm not sure it's working.

These Take Away shows have gotten around a lot but I still think they're one of the coolest music-related things on the internet. The above-posted Beirut one remains my favorite but I'd also recommend the Sound Team or Jens Lekman episodes. Watch them on the actual website, the quality on YouTube is not so hot.

Busy times lately, but getting back into the swing of things.

At midnight my house is ablaze

Despite playing in bands and going to shows for a long time, one thing I've never really gotten trapped into is the whole prospect of doing shows for other bands. I think I can count on one hand the number of times it's happened, and it's always been the result of someone else dropping the ball in some way or me being tricked into it unknowingly.

The last time this happened was two summers ago, and the band in question at the time was called Polar Bear Club, from upstate New York. To this day their set at that show, in a basement that must have been at least 100 degrees, is one of the best I've ever seen and for years will probably be what I think back on when people ask me about New Brunswick and basement shows.

The reason I'm posting this is because their full-length record comes out today, and is worth your time. Stream the whole thing here.

Oh, speaking of Sawyer, once me, him, and most of the usual suspects were in Montreal and at like, 4 in the morning on the tv in the hotel room we were confronted with THIS:



Just let that soak in.

Words of wisdom from Sawyer

[11:03] divefeetfirst518: like, i may have done too good a job making it a band for degenerates
[11:03] divefeetfirst518: i was hoping for drunks and maybe like bums
[11:03] divefeetfirst518: not convicted sex offenders per se

About once every calendar year I try to read a William Faulkner book and quit halfway through. This year's selection was Sanctuary. Given that it's considerably shorter than my other failures (the Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying) I had high hopes for reaching the end, but I just can't vibe with the stream-of-consciousness thing. Probably never will.

Abandoning fiction, I have moved on to The Name of War: King Philip's War and the Origins of American Identity. It's a topic I became interested in after reading Nathaniel Philbrick's Mayflower last summer. So far, so good.

Also! My new guitar is here. She's so pretty. Having it makes me very enthusiastic about starting something new, musically.

Kafka on the shore.

On a day like this when spring seems an inevitability, the record that I always turn to is Sound Team' "Movie Monster." I don't know much about Sound Team, I got into this record only a few months before they broke up and the one chance I had to see them (when they came around with Voxtrot) I couldn't make it to the show. This type of anonymity is sort of refreshing for me. I can count on one or two hands the number of bands I genuinely like that I a) haven't seen and that b) don't have an elaborate history that I know by heart. "Movie Monster" is a subtle summertime jam that somehow sounds equally at place at a party or as I'm falling asleep. I like versatility and I like charm, and this record possesses both in astounding quantities.

I hope that I'm never in a situation where I'm forced to choose a favorite Wikipedia article, but if so I'm about 90 percent certain that this is my choice.