2007-07-01 - 8:46 p.m. My weekend reading was a good Maigret story (and here is a cool Simenon/Maigret obsessive fan site), and my listening has been the Lavender Diamond EP from last year (you can hear the new album here). It's one of the mysteries of the ages as to why Joanna Newsom's squeaky vocals disturb me but Lavender Diamond Becky's squeaky vocals seem uplifting and charming to me. I can't decide how I feel about Nick Lowe's new one. It's very simple and direct and I like the tunes, but his new croony style of singing verges on Percy Faith territory. I give it a tentative thumbs up, and some bonus points for having Chrissie Hynde on backing vocals and also for the very pretty country shuffle "Long Limbed Girl." I played Boggle for the first time today. And while it's certainly more fun than Scrabble, I think it could be improved with a little Pop-o-matic technology. I think almost any game could be improved with Pop-o-matic. thoughts? (9 comments so far) previous - next blog archive contact