Sidebar Update

I removed the "Borderline-Stalking" joke from the "Object of My Affection" heading. You can all just take it for granted, I guess. Especially with this week's mega-nerd crush, Katee Sackhoff, who plays Starbuck in the new Battlestar Galactica. I've liked her since she was on the little-seen show The Education of Max Bickford, with Richard Dreyfuss, but she's really blown me away on Galactica, which, despite the last two relatively weak episodes, remains very nearly the best drama on television.

Speaking of which, I recently managed, after a long time of trying, to get a friend of mine to watch the Galactica mini-series which preceded the regular series, and it totally hooked him into the show, just like I knew it would. I plan on watching the DVDs of season one with him in the coming weeks. Yay for me!

I recently once again gave up trying to read Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver, and now I find myself trying to tackle Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, another epic period piece from your local book store's Sci-Fi/Fantasy section. I fear I'll get a few dozen pages into it, like it a lot, and put it down and not pick it up again, like I did with Quicksilver. We'll see.

Have I mentioned this album before? I bought Kathleen Edwards' Back to Me for my brother-in-law for Christmas, and he let me copy it, and I have to say, it's pretty fantastic. I'm not sure how to properly classify her music; "alt-country" is the term I see used most often, and I guess that's as good as any. I've also read a number of comparisons to Lucinda Williams, which may or may not also be appropriate. I just know I like it. Fantastic lyrics, some upbeat and rocking, some hauntingly sad and beautiful. If I were to make my own comparison, I might suggest some of Neil Young's more acoustic-y albums, like Harvest and After the Gold Rush. Good stuff. And her first album, Failer, is supposed to be even better.

The Hating category returns, this week featuring the NFL, who invited the Rolling Stones to perform at the Super Bowl halftime show, then bleeped two of their three songs. Apparently, the Stones were aware in advance that this would happen, but it still seems stupid and cowardly to me. Why even ask someone to perform a song when you know you're too chicken to let them perform it uncut? A song that's been played uncensored on the radio for almost 25 years, by the way. Why bother? Or at least why not ask them to play any of their 800 other hits instead?

And Lyric of the Week is XTC's "Your Dictionary," a surprisingly light and funny song about an abusive relationship. "H-A-T-E, is that how you spell love in your dictionary?"