I've got the itchin', and skritchin'

Today at work I was listening to Peter Gabriel's album "Scratch my Back" and someone walked in, says "Oh, you're on the phone" I looked up and said "huh, no" (yes, I say huh) and they respond with "Are you listening to Elevator music?" I sent a mental punch to the throat their way and went on about my day.

Lately, For some unknown reason I am once again Jonesing to listen to good music. and lots of it. Not necessarily live shows, but I am liking listening to music as I drive, work, mow the lawn, and just hang around. The only obstacle to doing this outside of work is those darn kids of mine! Em and Matt only want to watch movies in the car, and if I try to listen to music in the house they look at me like I've grown a few extra heads. (I can and do listen to whatever I want when I mow the lawn, it's just my own laziness that stops me from mowing too often.)

My latest album stack (From the Library) is as follows: (most with comments, or justifications as to why I'm listening to them)

• Scratch my back / Peter Gabriel (It's Peter Gabriel, you can't go wrong with listening to him!)
• Draw the line / David Gray (A few years back I was turned on to him, but never spent any time listening to his music, as you can see currently listening to 3 albums = making up for lost time)
• A new day at midnight / David Gray
• Fight with tools / Flobots (Great band from Denver, I could care less for their political stance)
• Ganging up on the sun / Guster (Ever since "Amsterdam" I've been meaning to listen more to Guster)
• Greatest hits / David Gray
• Walk On / John Hiatt (I really like "Crossing Muddy Waters" and am hoping for more of the same, but if memory serves his music is hit and miss)
• The Good, The Bad, & The Queen / The Good, The Bad, & The Queen (I grabbed this at the library because DangerMouse produced this album - I know nothing of them)
• Hotwired / The Soup Dragons (Trying to relive the early 90s, next up is some "God Fodder")
• Bring the Family / John Hiatt
• Heart On / Eagles of Death Metal (Just seeing if they're worth more than a 1 hit wonder)
• Death by Sexy / Eagles of Death Metal
• Now That's What I Call Music! 30 / Various (Sometimes I pretend to care about "current" top 40 music - and the NOW CD's make that possible)
• Antony and the Johnsons / Antony and the Johnsons (a few years back someone sent me a song by these folks, it has intrigued me, and I've meant to spend some time listening to more)
• Bright Yellow, Bright Orange / The Go Betweens (no idea about these, at the library grabbed it based solely on the cover)
• CHARGE!! / The Aquabats (I haven't heard an Aquabats album in about 10 years - guilty pleasure, luckily they're a good ska band)
• Stolen Moments / John Hiatt

If anyone from Denver is reading this, you may be asking - where is all the Techno John?! don't worry! I still listen to techno/club/rave music...just in moderation. I've recently been pilfering some podcasts from various DJs from Denver (DJ DMX & DeeJay Diabolic from the 303 Collective are rapidly becoming favorites)

Why ramble on and on about music you may ask? well, because I REALLY want this little toy

This hand-held wonder is the Tonium Pacemaker DJ - it holds 60 gigs and lets you mix live, or record and upload to your computer where you can tweak your mixes.- and Sarah says I can get this hand held DJ unit. It's a nifty little thing, and I'm kind of stoked to get it... the one caveat to getting it, is I must get rid of ALL my other DJ gear. It's a compromise I just may be willing to make in order to play with this. Because I know darn well, I'm not ever going to get back into DJing again, so it really doesn't make sense to hold on to all my old gear - and upgrading from all my CD decks, Turntables, mixers, into this little thing would really do wonders for the available space in my garage.

Will I actually do this? I dunno. but it's fun to dream of it for now.