I'll kick your sister's ass

1. Dave Chapelle takes his turn on Inside the Actors Studio on February 12th and does some thinking outloud about Hollywood. More episode previews on the front page

2. The Wand, The Flaming Lips : From the first Lips' album since 2002's Yoshimi. And in a completely different although Lips' related story, an earlier Lips' album, Transmissions from the Satellite Heart, always reminds me of downtown Jersey City, NJ. Specifically, the intersection of Columbus and Grove by the PATH station. I was driving through that intersection, slapping the shit out of my steering wheel in time to When Yer Twenty-Two, when the van I was following side-swiped and then completely ripped the side-view mirror off another van. I wouldn't have done more than brake to rubber-neck for a second before going about my business if the van that I was following hadn't been full of my campaign staff. And a rental. With a 17-year old driver. Who had no driver's license.

I tried to imagine a non-cement shoe related repurcussion of being the one responsible for the campaign being dropped from its rental agreement statewide. Drawing a blank, I ran to the van and told the kid behind the wheel to run. Run fast, far away. But the kid's hesitation blew it and we had to make our stand.

Luckily the guy was a Democrat and didn't want to hassle us. When I got back to the car, the CD had played through back to the beginning:

"It's like at the circus, when you get lost in the crowd.
You're happy but nervous, definite sign that you've lost it"

It's got handclaps too, y'all.

With a Gun, The Minus 5 : The Gun Album, the latest by The Minus 5, features a guestlist that could easily fill out a festival bill. The Minus 5, along with Golden Smog (also dropping a new album this year), are where Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy goes to re-connect with his alt-country roots. If this song also turns out to closely resemble the sound on Wilco's upcoming studio album, I would not be unhappy.