Vinyl LPs played the role of “state of the art” for decades, and I’m reminded that time ended not so long ago. I came across this quaint note last night on the Elvis Costello album Get Happy!:

Hi!

You’ll have noticed that there are ten (?) tracks on each side of this, Elvis’ new L.P., making it a real “long player”!

Elvis and I talked long and hard about the wisdom of taking this unusual step and are proud that we can now reassure hi-fi enthusiasts and/or people who never bought a record made before 1967 that with the inclusion of this extra music time they willl find no loss of sound quality due to “groove cramming” as the record nears the end of each face (i.e. the hole in the middle).

Now get happy.

Your friend,

Nick Lowe

Producer

We’ve used space-age polymers and other NASA technology to cram those grooves. Those peaks and troughs in the songs, we got ‘em covered.

The year? 1980. In 25 years, we’ve gone from cramming grooves to practically unlimited groove capacity. Rock on, brother.

Somehow, it all works.

I was checking out the media diets of the Poynter roster, and found this site - 180° News. The site aggregates news based on reader interest.

After adding a few feeds to NetNewsWire, I found this item. It mentions a British band called Arctic Monkey, which apparently tears up the UK charts.

ITunes only has five tracks on two EPs. I bought three songs that caught my ear. The band’s Web site lists an album that came out today, Whatever People Say I am, That’s What I’m Not, which is also mentioned in the Yahoo news item. It’s a shame they don’t have a US store on the site.

They drive hard, maybe a bit rougher than say, Supergrass (one of my favorite current British rockers), but just as catchy.

I guess when you sit down to type and nothing comes out, it’s called writer’s block. First, it was the holidays. Then, it was visitors. Six weeks pass with only two or three posts. I need to call a duck a duck: It’s writer’s block.

I’ve already sent both of my avid readers packing from boredom. I might as well do one of those dumb listing posts, and get over it.

Reading: Economist and Esquire. Economist over the holidays did a comprehensive double-sized issue on Evolution. An interview with Bill Clinton welcomed me to my new Esquire subscription.

Eating: Chipotle. I have a twice-weekly habit.

Drinking: Too much coffee in hopes of one day achieving fast forward.

Watching: Sin City, Family Guy, and Charlie Rose.

Writing: Not much at all.

Building: A pine bookcase. It’s not my best handiwork, but the books shouldn’t mind. Next project?

Downloading: A Rubik’s Cube widget for my Dashboard. I just can’t figure out, though, how to take it apart and reassemble it solved.

Listening: To a lot of music. Ripping LPs is my new time-wasting hobbie. High in the rotation are Kiss, Alive!; the Waylon Jennings project album The Outlaws; David Bowie, Live at the Tower Philadelphia; and Stevie Wonder’s Innervisions.

Just how wicked do you have to be to earn persona non grata status in the Holy Land?

Overheard at the Salvador Dali museum here in St. Petersburg:

“Mom, that’s disgusting!”

“That’s not digusting, it’s surrealism.”