Cleaning up my livejournal account... leaving communities I never use, removing friends who have long ago deleted their accounts. Hurrah.

Now I just have to change the layout, which has been bugging me for forever.

Honestly, it feels so very good to know that I won't have to go to school for another two weeks.

Anyways, apparently today was British pop group purchase day! I was doing a bit of shopping with my mom, and we went into the Beat Goes On, which is a used cd/dvd/whatever chain, and there on their 'buy two get one free' display rack is a big beautiful copy of 'Very' by Pet Shop Boys, and it's actually one of the original copies, so it's got the crazy raised Lego bumps on the cover... and then I look and there's a copy of Blur's self-titled album and both albums are four dollars each... sigh. So then I had to look through all the cds to find my free cd, and after getting through all the cds on the first side of the display I'm beginning to think that I may have already found the only good albums they had out. But then on the other side I found 'Copper Blue' by Sugar and '(What's the Story) Morning Glory?' by Oasis. I grabbed the Oasis on the logic that if I wanted to buy a cd by a band Bob Mould was in, I would buy Zen Arcade instead -- later I regretted this a bit because I wasn't sure whether Oasis are supposed to actually be any good or not and Sugar at least have 'indie cred' (by which I mean Pitchfork cred lulz). Anyways, it turns out it's okay because I didn't technically pay anything for it and I guess Oasis' first two albums are supposed to be classics -- we'll see.

Also yesterday I bought 'Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga' by Spoon because that's pretty much the only album released this year that I've listened to so far and I really enjoyed it. Plus it comes with a "limited edition" (har) bonus CD and I wanted to buy it before the bonus cd disappeared. I am a sucker! Seriously, though, the bonus cd -- well, the album comes in a digipak -- those cardboard environmentally cases that are all the rage now -- and after I opened the case and basked in the warm glow of black and white photos of Britt Daniel & co., I was struck with the sudden fear of where's my bonus cd????? Anyways, it turns out that like the front cover is slit and carries the liner notes inside, they've managed to wedge the bonus cd inside the cardboard behind the album cd's plastic tray. But it's wedged in there something good... like, seriously, that cd was a bitch to get out. I finally got it out when I came home from work and stuck it into my cd book where it will remain for either eternity or until I get it its own case. Anyways, it's nice to have a walkman now to listen to the album with because when I originally had it out from the library, I was subsisting on stereos, which I am not especially fond of as a device for serious musical listening.

One of the greatest things about new albums though, especially with ones that you kind of know of but you've never listened to, is just looking through the track listing and seeing all these crazy song titles that you've never heard of and wondering what they could possibly sound like... like looking through the Blur tracklisting: "Theme From Retro"? "You're So Great"? (meant in sarcasm?). I remember when I first got a copy of Nevermind, looking at the tracklisting, and of course the first half is filled with songs I at least knew the names of: "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and "In Bloom" and "Lithium" and "Come As You Are" and everything, but then in the latter half there's like, "Lounge Act" and "Something in the Way" and "On A Plain", and it was sort of like, whoah, what are these?

On that note: I am making a mix cd of songs I've enjoyed this year for a friend, and it's actually the first mix cd I've ever made! So that's exciting. I was actually listening to a bit of Nevermind while I was selecting songs, and was kind of reminded just how dark and weird and effective an album it actually is. I guess kind of its reputation overwhelmed the actual music for me when I was listening over the summer -- I enjoyed it but I didn't quite get all the fuss or how it was so dazzlingly brilliant. Anyways, I've been intentionally not listening to it for a while in hopes that maybe coming back would assist me in getting it in some manner and apparently it sort of has.

Anyways, the mix cd is fun. I tried to split it into two sides just to be cute, one happy and one sad. I realize this is a somewhat simplistic filter for song moods, but there you go. I also put "Teen Age Riot" by Sonic Youth, which is the first song on its album, as the last track of the album, which gives me a perverse sense of glee. I think it will actually make a really good closer, though.

So I guess if you ever thought it would be neat to have your very own personal mix cd made by moi (or not) consisting mainly of Belle and Sebastian, The New Pornographers, Nirvana, Spoon, and Tokyo Police Club, I would be more than happy to send you one.