It was a good CD-listening day. The iPod has turned me into a constantly fast-forwarding slave of the the shuffle setting. It makes me miss the fine art of the sequenced album.

I started out with Keith Richards' Talk is Cheap into At Folsom County. I re-listened to the last Buckner album and its still boring. I'm listening to the new Broken Social Scene, which still suffers from an extreme lack of humor and an embarassing stab at rap. It's not bad, it's just tough to judge it being that I got it within a day of getting DangerDoom.

Somewhere in there I listened to the first half of the first Third Eye Blind album. And I'm not going to say I listened to it ironically. In the bar of my mind, I was dancing on a table to "Semi-Charmed Life".

The Washington Post travel section profiles three college town known for their music, including the birthplaces of R.E.M. and Superchunk (the third being Charlottesville, best known for giving rise to Dave Matthews Band, and for that reason may eat one. "One" presumably being a penis). So that right there is a roadtrip I'd like to take.

In high school, my R.E.M. love led me to consider for a hot minute going to University of Georgia. And maybe I should have if only for that and their adorable bulldog mascot, trotted out at football games. But I chose the school of the Pixies, Buffalo Tom, and Ben Stein's Money. Go Minutemen!

Lord, it's been a while...

I am so totally voting for (or "4") The Veronica's "4ever" on TRL. Woooo! I don't know what it is, but recently I haven't been able to explain my recent love of girly Top 40 power-pop. The fact that "4ever" is obviously built on the foundation laid by "Since U Been Gone" doesn't hurt it at all. It's my new cocaine. Total musical bubblegum trash.

"Everything I'm Not" is nothing to sneeze at either.

And I finally saw Walk the Line. Joaquin Phoenix was great, but he'll be even better in Something Unsanitary: The Greg Dulli Story. Am I right or am I tight? I mean, he's a drop-dead ringer...

The Washington Post doesn't care much for Get Rich or Die Tryin'. But I'm more interested in how the review genuflects before the holy trinity of middle-class patronization of rap and hip-hop. I'm by no means an expert on rap or hip-hop, but these three things always seem to pop up when someone even more unfamilar has to comment on the genre:

1. The "These-rappers-and-their-crazy-names! How-am-I-ever-to address-them-properly?" cliche joke:

"...his first record was about to hit the streets in 2000 when Jackson (Mr. Cent?) was gunned down..."

Bah-dum dum! And how do you feel about airline food? The French?

2. The romanticizing of the old school:

"The young Marcus, played by Marc John Jefferies, plasters his bedroom with Public Enemy and KRS-One posters, wistful reminders that rap was once a vehicle for provocative agitprop rather than macho posturing."

Saying that all rap was political back in the day is idealizing the past. Saying that rap is only about macho posturing now is ignorant of a lot of rappers who don't get airplay.

Of course, Talib Kweli pretty much says the same thing on the DangerDoom album. Which is awesome.

3. The co-opting of out-of-date slang for irony's sake:

"As Howard's character says in the film's first genuinely observant moment: 'I see you have a little Napoleon thing goin' on there.' Word."

Word? For some reason, this reminds me of an old Chris Rock punchline: "Uh-oh, here comes the neighborhood."

Sony/Columbia/whoever is going absolutely balls out for this new Born to Run box set. On November 14, movie theaters literally across the country are going to show selections from the documentary and concert film included in the reissue. For the locals, the closest theater to D.C. is at Ballston Common. Goddamn Virginia. At least they elected a democrat governor. Also - and this is old news but I'm no Matt Drudge - Amazon.com has a clip from the concert DVD.

As if all that wasn't enough, there's a Born to Run 30th Anniversary Podcast, which I'm sure would interest the hell out of me if I wasn't so frightened about this "Podcast" phenomenon. I can't explain it, I just don't support it. It might have something to do with my inate laziness, but I'm in no mood for soul-searching right now.

In addition to all that, XM is starting an all-Springsteen channel that's going to run through the new year. I know, I know: this is old news, but I was saving all this stuff so I could hit you with the full weight of this Springsteen coverage. You wouldn't attack someone with a sockful of nickels if the sock was only half full, right? This is pretty much the same thing.

In not-so-old news, I think I gave myself tennis elbow from lifting those King Kong beers at Recessions last night. I don't know if this speaks of the absolute enormity of the beers or the pitiful shape I'm in. I'm sure if we graphed it out, it would land somewhere quare in the middle. Either which way, those beers were firearms. Hell of a deal.

Next week and next week only: live Bowie/Arcade Fire tracks on iTunes. Supposedly it's from some "Fashion Rocks" show that was on a few weeks ago. According to this Arcade Fire fan site, they collaborate on "Wake Up" and "Five Years", and Bowie's version of "Life on Mars" is going to be available. All in the name of hurricane relief. (Isn't that so September? I think I saw Rachel Harris making jokes about hurricane relief on VH1's "I Love September 2005".)

And in other news, Pitchfork seems to require their writers to work song lyrics of the band being written about into the actual story. Which is adorable. GOd knows I loved it when Rob Sheffield did it in every issue of Rolling Stone a few years ago.

Is there an industry that adapts to new technology quicker or better than the porn industry? Whether it's using space-age polymers to create a better rubber mold of female genetalia or making movies and pictures available for video-capable iPod, these porn people are always thinking; sometimes about pussy (vulcanized or real), but always about the Benjamins (are the kids still referring to paper currency in this manner?).

Because I got my iPod way, way back in December 2004, I don't have sound or even picture ability. I know! Somehow I make it through the day with this technological albatross, but when it came (hee hee) to the nasty nasty, I could only listen to the soundtracks.

Friend: What's that you're listening to?
Me: I think it's the sound of someone getting it in the pooper.
Friend: So... the new Franz Ferdinand?

Ba-dum-dum! You got served, Alex Kapranos! Thank you and goodnight, ladies and germs!