finding that at grad school, liking of j. tim is a litmus of potential friendship. i am surrounded by authenticity obsessed old timey banjo heads, which is quickly becoming a good way to find out what i am not interested in about thinking about music. have been forbidden to use the phrase ' the music in itself ' which would infuriate those christgau anti-immersion types to no end. the difficulties unfold. never bother to think about comparative musicology, aka the bullshit scientific reasoning that evolution left out some cultures (aka the primitives) and, as levi-strauss jokingly posits, allows one to walk back 'a thousand years' when visiting non-Western cultures. all of ethnomusicolgy as apology for colonialism?

the new stars album - pastels-sounding brit pop through the marritt filter aka not new in any way but partially satifying - reminds me of the first, totally wonderful vitesse.

if you've never been to providence, let me tell you this. it is true that all the risd kids live in weird lofts full of broken bikes and nine-foot-high monster costumes. alternately wonderful and ridiculous, i am quickly wondering when i will next pay money to see a show or hear melody. no real complaints.