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various comings and goings...

It's been a crazy month of March so far, hence the lack of updates. In the last three weeks I've made to overnight trips to Michigan (Bay City one week, Ann Arbor five days later), worked more hours than I really should have worked, dodged snowflakes during the official first blizzard of Spring, made a significant dent in wedding plans, and still found time to read three books and watch a few movies. Oh, and I squeezed in a couple of reviews for the fine folks over at Static. Click through and read what I thought about Peasant (good!) and Gary Reynolds and the Brides of Obscurity (not so good!).

One of those books I just finished reading was Perfect From Now On: How Indie Rock Saved My Life by writer, blogger, and all-around solid Midwestern dude John Sellers. It's a musical memoir of sorts, tracing Sellers' musical crushes and obsessions from childhood through his more recent Guided by Voices mania (really, can you blame him?). Dude also has a bordering on scary relationship with footnotes. Seriously, the Joy Division detour was insane, but good reading as was most of the rest of the book. If nothing else, he managed to reignite my fire for Guided by Voices, The Smiths, Sebadoh, and New Order. So kudos for that. Well worth checking out for any fan of indie rock, or anyone who loves reading an opinionated, funny guy riff on music and pop culture in general (see also: Chuck Klosterman).

On the movie tip, don't bother with Semi-Pro. I'm officially sick of Will Ferrell, and this comes from somebody who still watches Anchorman and Old School religiously.