A mental exercise

Things I like...(random order)

my record collection, orange juice, my fantasy football league(s), pickles, reading, writing, going out for pizza, Saturday Night Live, making people laugh, baseball (watching it, playing it, talking about it), spending time with my daughter, watching my niece grow up, Mac, Charlie, Dennis, Sweet Dee, the Peanuts, the Onion, boneless wings, my loyal friends, taking naps, the dogs at Miller Park, having worked out (not working out, but having worked out....big difference), the promise my future holds (with hard work), the State (obvious to loyal TLC readers), my work, cold showers, hot shaves, peaches, strawberries, my wrestling DVD's and you.

I recommend making a list for yourself, and revisiting it often. It feels good.

Let's review a record! This won't be like the Elvis Costello "bit" I did a few months back. I promise. I got a lot of mixed reviews on that. No real middle ground, people either loved it or hated it.

Tonight I'm listening to R.E.M.'s Reveal. If I remember correctly, this came out the same day as Weezer's self-titled "green" album in 2001. I had anticipated the weezer album for some time, and bought Reveal on impulse. I had seen the video for "Imitation of Life" on MTV2, and liked it. Sonically, this album is really good. A lot of good melodies. I think it gets buried amongst all their other really good albums, but I like it a lot. Another thing that sets this record apart from most other R.E.M. records is that Michael Stipe tries something called enunciation. It is common to hear people harken back to a bands' "old stuff", and although R.E.M.'s old stuff is their best stuff, this album deserves to stand on it's own and the best post Bill Berry album they've recorded.