Confession time? I don't like Wilco and I don't like the Bad Plus. Two perfectly likable bands with tremendously talented folks, but I don't know if I'm just not old enough or NPR enough or mature enough to LIKE them. Wilco reminds me that I'm not a native Chicagoan (oops?) and the Bad Plus reminds me of a friend who would put on one of their albums, lean back in his chair ever so slightly, and close his eyes. There would be an occasional smile flirting at the corners of his mouth and eyelids. It was great.

New Years Eve?

There are a lot of bands playing in Chicago on New Years Eve. There's only one I want to see, really, but that's already sold out. Jens Lekman. So I can swoon and stuff? I don't know. But seeing a band on New Years Eve is sort of not my style at all.

VEXED, I am.

But I am seeing Melt-Banana soon.

STOKED, I am.

Crazy.

Craziness has been going on. I've been keeping busier than normal and last night, one of the first relatively slow, quiet nights I've had in a long time, my friend got punched in the head when we were riding our bikes in the direction of my apartment. It was random and made me incredibly angry. I don't like getting heated because I always just end up being sad. No injuries or anything but still. Why the fuck would a dude just come up and punch someone in the head.

Kids, be safe. I love you. I forever want to bump into my friends at shows and bars, to say hello and dance awkwardly to terrible music, friends to ride bikes with, to learn ukulele with, to be friends with. Be safe.

"I can't even tell if it's actually 12-hours of sunlight."

It's the first day of autumn but if you've been outside in Chicago, it's humid. And the sun came out! I'm pretty stoked, in general. Philly won't be closing its libraries. I'm hoping to dominate a Scrabble game tonight. Testing out a new bike soon. Buying records, because Times New Viking's new LP came out today. YESSSSSSSSS.

music's cool but books are, too.

Philadelphia's planning to close all of its public libraries on October 2. I don't know why it's not a bigger deal in national media. I don't care about the latest Kanye West outburst or Lady Gaga stunt when, holy shit, guys, a whole city's public library system may no longer exist in a matter of weeks.

In the short eleven or so years I lived in the city, I frequented the South Philadelphia and formerly-named Southwark branches more often than my friends' homes. There was the time Kelly and I tried to borrow out the movie Splash, but you can't at 8 because god forbid we saw mermaid tits. One year, I went to maybe a day and a half of summer art camp there. My love for books wouldn't exist if these libraries weren't there.

I have been thinking a lot about where I stand on certain things, how gray it all is, how I've increasingly become someone who no longer worries about this or that, if maybe I'm just swapping out a short fuse for apathy. I haven't been able to react viscerally to anything in a long time. These library closing? This made my guts hurt for the first time in months.

old news

US Open Quarter-final is a rematch of the Federer and Söderling French Open final. I know two other people who care.

Foals is a band I listen to when I get ready in the morning.

Duh.

I like the new Pissed Jeans album.