SAVE SOME SPACE IN YOUR MIND

The contents of my fridge/freezer at the mo:

Becks Light
3248932 varieties of mustard
Nando's hot sauce
ice packs (???)
faux leather leggings (yes)

I should explain, if only to diffuse Imran's desire to tell people that I live like a frat dude. I'm curious to know if I'm the only work-from-home-r who plays with this philosophy - but keeping loads of food in the house is dangerous. It's equivalent to holiday season in pre-recession offices when you got showered with frivolous gifts like slabs of chocolate and popcorn tins (sigh, I miss those days). You get bored? You eat. And when you work from home there's a tendency to get bored. A lot. I go for a lot of walks. Mainly because I enjoy making iPod playlists to suit them. One time, I even tried listening to Vampire Weekend (after reading this NY Times review, I wanted to be sure my opinion of disdain was well founded, and whaddaya know, it is) (best line of the review - "They looked effortlessly of the moment." How nice).

One of the good things about this whole recession business is the humbling effect it seems to be having on everyone. Whereas for some of us it's things like forgoing pumpkin spice lattes, for others - like say, bands - it's doing wonders in terms of bringing them back to fans' levels. I'm talking about silly little things - like bandmembers selling their used equipment to eager takers (most recently, Jeph from the Used shedding his bass via Myspace) or bands offering incentives for fan spending (TBS offering early access to a new track with holiday card purchase, Idlewild offering loads of free downloads in exchange for album preorder, etc). It also means a greater likelihood for intimate gigs, more frequent touring, and a more hands-on approach to their careers (I imagine there are staff cuts everywhere, thus requiring artists themselves to participate more personally in their promotion and such). It's a shame that the circumstances are grim, but I think it ultimately bodes well for a change. The days of caring about our music heroes may actually return.

Speaking of music heroes, I was recently commissioned for an article in which I had to pinpoint the moment in my life when I fell in love with rock n roll. It was pretty impossible to decide, but for the sake of the story I settled on 6th grade - when I wrote in my diary that I wished to marry Axl Rose. It should be noted that I was in 6th grade in 1992. As in, when Axl Rose was still sexy. And Stephanie Seymour made one hell of a bride in that November Rain video (up til that whole dying thing). I was convinced that a thigh-skimming wedding dress/garter belt combo was my destiny (oy va voy, indeed).

Anyway, that said, I fucking love Chinese Democracy. I know I'm a couple of weeks slow to mention it, but I've been distracted, soz. I got really annoyed reading Jon Pareles' review in the Times. He refers to the album as Titanic - as in a modern marvel, but one that's doomed to sink. I don't care about sales figures - lord knows few people buy music these days, and there is definitely a reason I quit the proper music biz (I'll give you a hint - it's cuz I don't care about sales figures) - but I think Chinese Democracy, purely as a product of our era, is FAR from being a shipwreck. Pareles argues that today's industry won't tolerate the excessive perfectionism that delayed this record for over a decade. That Axl is stuck in a bygone era - the one in which he thrived. But you know what? Fuck that. A throwback to that era is precisely what us music fans have been aching for. Axl Rose is fullblown crazy. And so he's made a fullblown crazy record. But even Guns N Roses at its most watered down (ie, now, when Axl is the only original member) is more interesting and exciting than Vampire Weekend ever will be (I love coming full circle). So fuck you, Jon Pareles. If you're not a Guns N Roses person, would you even expect to like what may very well be the Ishtar of the rock scene (as in the punchline that only a true fan would love)?

My fave song off the new GNR (ah, summertime memories):



(I chose this particular version because the pic is cornrow free, thanks).