for your enjoyment, installment four (20-11) of the official redhothalos fifty greatest records ever (as compiled in november 2002 and tweaked in january 2003) is available for your mockery.

because i had been thrice emailed about it, a gift i received in the mail today was not necessarily a surprise. however, it is super. it was received from someone best described, i would say, as a friend of a friend, a friend of a friend who shares an interest in music (although not necessarily the same kind of music), and who had promised me that he had created "the greatest mix cd of all time." seamlessly produced (dig the cross fades, including a baby's bottom-smooth one into "i'm trying to break your heart"), it is eclectic and exciting, and i've got nothing more to say at the moment--after all, i've not been through it even once yet. it came tracklist-less, but with an o.henry-like message on a post-it note: "TRACKLIST AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST--BUT, IS CONSIDERED AN ADMISSION OF DEFEAT." i'll eventually cave, i'd guess.

i feel old. not old, rather, but senile. you ever get that feeling that you've misplaced something, but convince yourself that you haven't, but then when you go to look for it, it's gone? that happened to me last night, with an excellent book i've been reading, John Helyar's Lords of the Realm, a book about the labor history of baseball that my dad initially loaned to me in about 1997. i was getting to the juicy stuff--the collusion leading to andre dawson's bizarre 1987 appearance at chicago cubs spring training--and now it's gone. i'll scour, but i'm not optimistic.

sigh.