MERRY CHRISTMAS! It's been a while since my last post for a variety of reasons. First off, I finally succumbed to a bit of Big Star fatigue. After two and a half years focusing on one band and three albums, I just kind of got worn out a bit. I've been listening to two types of music that are anything but power pop. The first is a CD called The Legendary Cantors. It's a compilation of renowned Jewish cantors from the early to mid part of the last century. I got hip to them reading an interview with Ornette Coleman and it fell right in with an increasing interest in the Old Testament (there's far more of an emphasis on the New Testament in your typical mainline Protestant church such as the one I attend) and my wife's family's Jewish roots. The music has something so timeless, universal, soulful and even eerie about it - like listening to an old Charley Patton record. The Jews Blues. And then get this. Despite making a snide comment about them in the promo copy for the book ("Released at a time when ELP and Elton John were plodding from one packed stadium to the next"), I;'ve been listening to ELP (along with early Moody Blues, Yes, and King Crimson) for the first time ever (other than what you'd hear in your college dorm or in passing on the radio). So it's been Tarkus and Lark's Tongue In Aspic around here! Can't say that it will be a permanent habit but it's good to walk outside your little listening box (actually mine is pretty darn big) and visit some other places for a while. So I get in the car and crank up Knife Edge. Sort of clears the mind and ears a bit...