Music 1: The Best Is Yet to Come?
Work has begun on my Christmas list, and I am sad to note how many CDs I am asking for. In years past, I have had to, in a limited fashion, scrounge around for CDs. I mean, I own all of the releases by most of the bands I love (2003 releases potentially excluded). The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Reel Big Fish, MxPx, Flogging Molly, Less Than Jake, The Hippos, Green Day, New Found Glory, Mu330, The Eyeliners. With my finances being as non-existent as they are at present, though, there are a number of discs I do not possess. I have suspicions as to the quality of The Ataris' lastest album, but nonetheless I am asking for So Long, Astoria. I need MxPx's new Before Everything & After and Barenaked Ladies' Everything to Everyone; as a last hurrah before they break up, The Hippos are releasing their third album, though I do not yet know the title. The most troubling request is Blink-182's Blink-182. Without getting into the politics of self-titling an album, Take Off Your Pants and Jacket was, at best, disappointing. Aside from the fact that those chodes have sold out more thoroughly than Benedict Arnold, I'm not sure they're even a decent band anymore. But, I will ask for the new album, sight unseen, out of respect for the Dude Ranch-era Blink-182. If the album doesn't deliver as an album, though, I'm done with them. Just done.

Music 2: Music Self-Played is Happiness Self-Made
Both the Mountain of Love and K. Steeze have raised serious concerns about the feasibility of making CODENAME:Koala, the second Real Can of Yams album, this holiday season. It's been two years since Good or Suck! and something tells me if we don't make Koala now, we never will. Bitter experience has taught me to pay attention to that kind of gut feeling.

Indulging Myself
First and foremost, I am sincerely happy for the Mountain of Love and wish to congratulate him for the happiness he has found in the Bassoonatic's embrace. She is awesome and seems entirely worthy of my august brother's affections. However, simply by the nature of who I am, I cannot help but dwell upon how their relationship throughs my own loneliness into stark relief. There is a distinct difference between being alone and being lonely. I have always been alone, but at present I am also lonely. As much as anything else, I miss longing for someone. Perhaps even more than I miss Never Girl, I miss longing for Never Girl. Pining is what I do in lieu of dating, historically speaking, but right now I do not have anyone for whom to pine away pathetically. I do not need a girlfriend, I have always been and continue to be quite alright on my own, but as an added light in my life, I would like a girlfriend. For the foreseeable future, though, 'tis not to be.

Also, the Mountain really needs to get the Bassoonatic away from that Sinatra crap and into some ska.