A couple interesting items

From The Onion AV Club's best albums of 2003 article I thought these two items were interesting.

First, Josh Modell on Eliott Smith's untimely death:

An alarming amount of chatter immediately following Elliott Smith's October suicide had the same strangely arrogant message: "Didn't you see it coming?" The answer: "Of course not." Smith's music connected not only because it was often immaculately despairing, but because of the between-the-lines message in its delivery. Songs of exceptional, harrowing beauty were born from his depression, but they served as therapy both for their writer and for his audience. Why not think that the music he created right up to the end—a double album he was finishing will likely come out in 2004—would continue to sustain him? Here's hoping that Smith will be remembered more for his stunning songs than for the horrific way he died.

And Stephen Thompson on the sad state of country music:

The debate over war in the Middle East yielded abysmal songs on both sides of the issue's ideological divide, but no single track was worse than Darryl Worley's "Have You Forgotten?", which vaulted the opportunistic country-music obscurity from roadhouses to arenas virtually overnight. The song doesn't explicitly state that Saddam Hussein attempted to acquire uranium from Niger, but it's packed with distortions: It creates the false choice between going to war and "backing down," and it crafts arguments against positions no one has taken. "And you say we shouldn't worry 'bout bin Laden"—who ever said that? In 2003, mainstream country music's widespread rejection and blackballing of the Dixie Chicks illustrated one more factor contributing to the genre's creative bankruptcy: Where the greats once challenged authority, today's self-proclaimed "outlaws" (Toby Keith, et al) attack dissenters while defending the establishment with a maniacal, censorious fervor.

In the meanwhile, blogging will continue to be slow for some time. I'll be going to the Grand Canyon this weekend and spending the night at Phantom Ranch, so that should be enjoyable. Anyway, happy whatever. As a non-practicing Jew, this just becomes the season of random gift giving whenever it's damn convenient.