Top Chef, etc. (Spoilers!)

Jeff and Fabio just got eliminated! Gotta suck for Jeff, since he was clearly in the top 3 for the elimination challenge and still got sent packin'. And I'm gonna miss Fabio, even if I didn't always love him. I didn't think this show would ever again reach the peak of Season 2 (not that it hasn't been good since then, really really good in fact, just not that exceptionally good), but everybody in this season has been so talented and interesting that it's really hurting to see them go.

So, looks like I haven't been posting too much lately (again). I have, however, been listening to and/or buying a lot of new music and catching up on a lot of great albums from last year that I missed (Cars by Now, Now Every Children, Waited Up 'Til It Was Light by Johnny Foreigner, Life Processes by ¡Forward, Russia!, Rearrange Beds by An Horse, Common Reaction by Uh Huh Her). Expect posts in the near future on the following:

Now, Now Every Children
Johnny Foreigner
¡Forward, Russia!
Uh Huh Her
Allison Weiss
Zoe Keating

i've also been listening to a lot of old (well, older) music - The Smiths, New Order, Sonic Youth. i picked up the New Order Singles compilation and Washing Machine by Sonic Youth (mostly because, since hearing that amazing Yeah Yeah Yeahs cover, i've been curious to check out the original Diamond Sea). it's interesting to me how i can listen to a band like, say, Bloc Party, whom i adore, and be absolutely blown away, but when i go to listen to some of their most major influences (ie. Radiohead, Joy Division, New Order, The Smiths, Sonic Youth, Smashing Pumpkins, Weezer, Pixies), the music that must have inspired them the same way they do me, i often don't connect with it (or at least, not nearly as much). i was at a record store in Calgary (Sloth Records, nifty place, check it out) and saw a bunch of those Smiths reissued 7" singles. they were $14 each (some with a b-side, some without) so i didn't pick any up, but i kinda think i should've just randomly grabbed one that i had never heard, just so i could put it on the turntable when i got home and hear something new, and maybe recapture some of that feeling that kids in the 80s must have had when they heard Morrissey's voise for the first time.