Today had a very nice flow to it, I thought as it was happening. I did things but was still suitably inactive. Also, the weather was spectacular.

It was glorious (as in sunny) in the morning, so I sat outside after some cereal and read the second fifty pages of Lanark. Then I came in and played the piano for a little bit, songwriting scant progress. The atmosphere grumbled noisily as I returned to the book, and soon burst into a fantastic thunderstorm of the sort that always makes me want to be on the porch. So I went out on the porch, read some more, while (the Real) Tuesday Weld sang "It's Raining," not loud enough to be heard. I finished Book Three, which is the first Book in the book (now I'm about to start Book One, which is the second) - this is a fabulous book, at least so far. Big and sprawling in the Pynchon/DeLillo tradition, and with reminiscent themes and tone, but almost more like Vonnegut (and come to think of it Hoffman) in its sorta-sci-fi way: magnificently surreal; dystopian but not in a cliched way; intriguingly peopled and a lot of fun while still strikingly dark. Whoopee! (and apparently it's about to get all Portrait of the Artist, but with a twist, 'cause it's Glasgow, see.)

As the storm settled down into a slightly quieter, though persistent, patter, I returned inside, found a cracklin' John Lee Hooker LP to scope out and made myself two creative fajitas from orts and spices. Our fridge is overflowing with tortilla and pita, but we're pretty short on normal bread. Suits me.

My occupation for the afternoon was the making of several CD mixes - work if it can be called that; great because it feels productive, and of course is, but is still quite a lazy way to spend an afternoon. I put together the "nighttime" half of the summer mix project the other night (Monday, must have been - oh yes, I stayed up until four working on it and finishing The Language Instinct), and it turned out okay but not completely satisfactorily. I'll have to try it out some evening when I'm hanging out with some folks. The problem is that the cornerstone of most mixes (mine anyway) is variety, and that's not really what you want in that situation - even if everything on the CD is mellow, it jumps around among several genres (country, IDM, tropicalia, acoustic ballads), and that still manages to disrupt. I was having trouble narrowing my selections down for the "daytime" disc (a problem with CDs, but not so much with tapes, where you have less control from the outset, and so time limitations and spontaneous decisions make for a much more organic product), so I decided to effectively broaden it into two discs: one mostly a recreation of the misplaced "Mingle and Squeal" mix from February (modified with hindsight and my diminished library to fit the smaller space and substitute in some fresh blood), and the other a proper mix for the status quo, full of toothy rockers and soul throw-backs, with some hip-hop squeezed in. Martha saw me at work and asked for a mix, so I obliged (pulled out about fifty more discs for that, but unfortunately had to cut out a lot of the more offbeat choices in order to fit in most of the somewhat more standard "definites" - still good, I'm listening to it now.) That one had to wait until after dinner (L-Os and silly family dynamics - arguing and laughing back and forth) and the movie. Tracklists forthcoming.

By the way, Rah Rah Sis-Koom-Bah for Mr. Jonah Gold, who has made with much fanfare his entry into the swatblogcommunitythang. Yes, and hello to the rest of you as well. You may not be reading this, but I'm reading your'all'n, at least until I start doing something with my summer. Gosh, it feels good to be a part of something. Foster community, that's what let's.

others find pleasure in things I despise:
I like the Christian life