...when one is at a loss for words. I'm sure some will come to me. I'm just experiencing technical difficulties with my emergency broadcast system; is this all just a test? Only a test?

Great "Theme Time Radio Hour" tonight! I'm a very happy bobcat just now. :)
Sorry nothing more deep to say; "happy" that's all. Thanks!

I ought to know myself better by now, and at the first sight of a "favorites" survey, I SHOULD RUN, but no, no I find myself strangely attracted to them...I end up writing WAY too much, and still feel like I've not done the thing justice. I know I'll wake up in the middle of the night thinking about all of the artists that I forgot. I also realize as I read this, that I've focused for the most part on those I've grown up with, rather than the more current work that is happening.

Here's to friends--past and present, both in this world and absent (but not forgotten):

"Walk in front of me,
and I may fall behind.
Walk behind me,
and I may lose our way.
Walk beside me always
and beside thee I will stay."

Cheers!

Unbidden tangent into the world of the Grammy Awards or "Guilt by Association":

Rick Rubin (producer of "Seeing Things") won the Grammy for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical and Corigliano's "Mr. Tambourine Man; Seven Poems of Bob Dylan" fetched two awards--one for best classical performance, and one for best classical contemporary composition. Additionally, the Krauss-Plant collaboration won for album of the year (T-Bone was a part of that project).

I know, if you're an independent, what should you care? Well, for myself, I feel the Grammy Awards a way of reminding myself of what I'm NOT missing-and simultaneously an opportunity to realize how much great music is out there that I AM missing! Here is a link to the Grammy Awards page that has all the listings for different categories and what is going on within said genres:

http://www.grammy.com/GRAMMY_Awards/51st_show/list.aspx

What a fantastic Theme Time Radio Show this week! The topic is madness/insanity! I notice more times at XM to get a second listening--which I'll certainly be doing. Everything about this show works--it has to be my favorite of all the shows I have heard so far, although as I've said before, I always think that--but this show is amazing--the music, the history--brilliant.

Mr. Dylan, I could listen to you and your music collection all night (and then some). Thank you!

...or couldn't find the lyrics page on their own! Well, reposting here anyway, my favorite song in the whole wide world of all music everywhere, anytime, all told, all times (and with my mercurial nature that is saying a lot):

Lay Down Your Weary Tune

Lay down your weary tune, lay down,
Lay down the song you strum,
And rest yourself 'neath the strength of strings
No voice can hope to hum.

Struck by the sounds before the sun,
I knew the night had gone.
The morning breeze like a bugle blew
Against the drums of dawn.
Lay down your weary tune, lay down,