out like a lamb

it's officially spring, as far as the calendar is concerned, and the weather seems to be on board, finally turning towards warm for good. you can smell it, even on the still-cold days. spring is my favorite time of year, without question. fall comes in second, losing points for being a bit too somber at times; you catch it at the wrong angle every now and again, and it looks exactly like...death. i mean, 'cause it is. i'm not trying to slag fall or nothin'. i love fall; it's my second favorite season.

but spring... spring is where it's at. i am most fond of early spring, like right now, when it is just starting to stay light a little later, and the warm breeze hangs on into the nighttime. good stuff. there are lots of exciting things on the horizon, along with the onset of spring. i will be seeing the amazing m.ward play the bowery ballroom in new york on april 10th, for instance, which is pretty freakin' awesome. i will also have the pleasure of seeing the shins at the norva on april 28th. jealous, much???

on top of all that, the mountain goats new album, The Sunset Tree, comes out on april 26th. i acquired the previous mountain goats album, We Shall All Be Healed, around this time last year. i suspect that it will forever remind me of my first few months in richmond, driving around with the windows rolled down, cranking 'pigs that ran straightaway into the water, triumph of' and 'palmcorder yanja'. actually, i have a really strong memory of driving home from my sister's house, with 'palmcorder yanja' blasting, singing along at the top of my lungs, at the tippity top, the likes of which you can only truly achieve when you're in the car, alone: "if anybody comes to see me,/ tell them they just missed me by a minute/if anybody comes into our room while we're asleep,/ i hope they incinerate /EVERYBODY IN IT"

and damn if that didn't feel really good. quite cathartic. you should try it sometime. also, giving a good hard listen to 'against pollution' while driving around on a beautiful spring day is a rather stirring experience. not that i want to influence anybodys listening habits. but you know what? i do. this spring, go out and get yourself a copy of the excellence: We Shall All Be Healed by the mountain goats, and drive around with it, windows down, pollen flowing, warm air coming on like it's been let out of captivity. you won't be sorry you did. and then go get yo ass The Sunset Tree.

you know, sitting here typing this, being the sort of person i am, i naturally had to cue up the mountain goats. 'and you send your dark messengers/to tempt me/i come from chino, /so all your threats are empty.' yeah dog.

it's nice to be able to ramble on here with little regard for any sort of "structure". i enjoy that about this space, certainly. however, i will shortly be getting a quick, perhaps harsh lesson in working within a very different format. i have signed on to take part in the production of a news program at richmond's local indie radio station, www.wrir.org . i am very excited about this; one of my greatest concerns about the state of our nation is the direction in which our media is heading. the prevelance of commentary-based "news programs" has grown exponetially in our post-9/11 society, and the most disturbing aspect of that growth is the fact that these commentary-based programs are often foisted on the public as straight news. this is an enormous problem, and when it is taken along with other failures of the media, such as the rash of incidents involving the fabrication of stories by journalists like jayson blair of the new york times, or the planting of "journalists" such as jeff gannon in the white house press corps, or the use of video press releases from government agencies as viable news stories, when they are actually much closer to propaganda, created with the intention of furthering the agendas of those agencies. things are truly a mess.

after the election on november 2nd, i had a lot of pretty strong, yet rather directionless feelings regarding the outcome. i was upset, i was angry, i was disillusioned. talking with friends in those days that followed, one of the things that i found myself coming back to was the need for me to do something, something that went beyond hanging up fliers or putting stickers on my car. it took a little while to find what that something was, but i think this is a really good place to start. i am looking forward to taking part in something that is independent, and that will be dealing with straight news rather than taking news and spinning it for specific purposes. this will require a restructuring of the way that i think. it will require a new stringency in the way that i process information, not to mention a new attention all those pesky grammar and usage rules that i so cavalierly tend to,well, ignore. i am extremely interested in the results.