A little of this, a little of that.

+ "My Holocaust" has me in a trance. I should be done with it by now, but transferring from bus to El to work to home to coffee shop just creates so many breaks in the flow. It is captivating in it's absolute crude and blunt approach to the Holocaust "industry," but there's also an honesty to it. I also appreciate that several characters from Mara have appeared in this book! I enjoy the flow and continuity it creates (reminds me of good ole Salinger).

+ "The Con" -- Tegan and Sara's new album -- is pretty flippin' amazing. "Are You Ten Years Ago" makes me want to just move ... I think it's the raw nature of their voices that just gets to me. I have yet to hear a T&S song I don't love. That doesn't make me want to claw at my skin and scream and just feel alive. Check it out. If you don't know their stuff? Check it out anyway. It's on the iTunes! Free previews are a girl's (or mensch's) best friend!

+ Rilo Kiley's new album is coming out next month. I'm not going to lie ... I'm not looking forward to it. I feel about it as I did about Weezer's last album. Fearful. Full of dread. The album is "Under the Blacklight" and they have their single, "Moneymaker" on iTunes. It seems really divergent from the RK I know. I approve of evolution, all great bands evolve, but it doesn't even FEEL like Jenny Lewis. The other single out for a listen can be found here, and it's "Silver Lining." It's more bearable, and has a definite retro feel with sort of a gospely roller-disco quality. But it just feels overdone, excessive, disappointing. I'll buy the album anyway, but I might regret it ... EDIT: Okay, the more I listen to it the more I dig it. It's just so different!

+ I didn't get to Torah tonight, and I might not. After fasting for Tisha B'av and staying home from work, I had so much to do today that it was non-stop. I didn't get to hit my regular work-trafficked websites (Yelp, facebook, COG, cnn.com, etc.). So I've spent my regular Wednesday night coffee/tea shop time mulling about the web, playing catchup. Doing my facebook scrabble games, etc.

+ Ian and I finalized our hotel/flight plans to Italy for the end of September/early October. How amazing to travel the world on someone else's dime. Oh academia, I love thee so. I do need to start working on preparing the paper though ... turning a PowerPoint presentation about a topic I'm not completely familiar with into a paper should prove to be quite the challenge, I think. But I'm a writer/editor. It should be sort of easy to pull off, nu?