OK, it's time for the annual book poll. I only read 79 books this year, compared to last year's 86, but I ascribe that to some long books and a lot of traveling in August when I read only three books in the whole month. I'm also surprised at how much genre fiction I read, but a lot of those books are really fast reads (I think I read the whole five books of the Time Quartet in three days).

(Apologies: I left out a lot of books, and therefore had to restart the poll.)

( The Poll )

Tags: books, memes

So, I'm an English geek, and proud of it. Welcome back shunn and thanks for a solid 15 minutes of rainy Tuesday work avoidance.

( Meme below )

Tags: memes

shunn posted an interesting listing of the songs he's played most often on his music server. Thanks to iTunes, and the fact that I play almost all my music via the iPod nowadays, I can do something similar:

Title	Artist	Plays
I Don't Love You Much Do I	Guy Clark	18
Long Road	Patty Griffin	16
White Freightliner Blues	Townes Van Zandt	16
American Idiot (Entire album)	Green Day	14
Strong Hand	Emmylou Harris	13
New Slang	The Shins	13
Stacy's Mom	Fountains Of Wayne	12
Little Red Light	Fountains Of Wayne	12
88 Lines About 44 Women	The Nails	12
Chief	Patty Griffin	12

This list excludes songs of my own and songs I practice frequently (on a bittersweet note, the most frequently played song in the whole library is a Kate and Lou tune, a fast mandolin number I had to work very hard to learn), but I guess it shows that I mainly like Americana and great pop songs.

Tags: memes, music

This was a fun meme to do (thanks rednoodlealien). I was surprised to see so much Dixie influence. Maybe it's those chicks...

Your Linguistic Profile::

45% General American English

30% Yankee

15% Dixie

0% Midwestern

0% Upper Midwestern

Tags: memes

I wrote (or rather, finished writing) two new songs this weekend, including "The Scars Of Robert Moses" which I started in Toronto last year. And a third is on the way, so there'll be a lot of new material for April 21.

( And in other news, I passed 8th grade math. )

Tags: gigs, memes

Could NOT resist this one, via shunn. The Politics Test tells me:

You are a Social Liberal (71% permissive) and an Economic Liberal (16% permissive).
You are best described as a Socialist.

( The chart... )

Tags: memes, politics

OK, I did it:




Next on the list: Mississippi (and Arkansas) if I finally go to the King Biscuit Blues Festival this year, maybe New Mexico, and Missouri if I go to SPAH this year.

My visited-countries map is too pathetic so I'm not going to bother with it.

Create your own visited states map.

Tags: memes, travel
Current Music: "First I Look At the Purse," The J. Geils Band

I am, apparently not as nerdy as shunn:


Thanks to markbourne, one of whose stories is among the top downloads at Electric Story, I found this wonderful journalism wish-fulfillment piece by Terry Bisson: Meat the Press.

And finally, a post on newyorkers brought back memories of the charmingly obnoxious 1980s NYC traffic signs:

Tags: books, memes, nyc
Current Music: Bob Dylan, "Hallelujah" (Leonard Cohen cover)

My journal is called Riffs and Licks because it refers to both my musical and conversational styles, and because it's somewhat suggestive.
My subtitle is nonexistent because it seemed superfluous.
My friends page is called Ken's Friends because I never bothered to change it.
My username is steelbrassnwood because guitar strings are steel, harmonica reeds are brass, and both instruments are made (usually) out of wood. steelbrassplasticivorynickelteflonebonyovankolpearwoodandelectronics was too long.
My default userpic is a customized Marine Band harmonica resting on the strings of my Taylor 414 guitar because balancing the guitar on the harmonica was too difficult.

Via shunn via curmudgeon via roadnotes.

( Do your own )

Tags: memes
Current Music: Patty Griffin, "Top Of the World"

I never meme, but here we go. The first, via shunn:

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal...along with these instructions.

"In the middle of saying that she was a former Miss Czechoslovakia, his eyes dropped to my scraped, bloody knee."

And this one's via rubytramp but I'm disturbed that I turned out to be my least favorite Op-Ed columnist...

You are Maureen Dowd! You like to give people silly nicknames and write in really short, non sequitur paragraphs. You're the most playful of the columnists and a rock-ribbed liberal, but are often accused of being too flamboyant and frivolous. You tend to focus on style over substance, personality over politics. But your heart is in the right place. Plus, you are a total fox.

And the new icon is courtesy regyt.

Tags: memes
Current Music: "Hokey Pokey," Richard Thompson