I almost titled this “brandump”, which is also somewhat appropriate. Herein, a list of things that I’ve thought “that’d make a good blog post” over the last several weeks but never developed. If some of this sounds like Greek to some of you, I apologize in advance for the lack of well-developed context I would inevitably have added to each one.

• Fraction wrote a pretty scathing take on the White Stripes’ new album a few days back. I’ve had it for something like two or three weeks now and only got around to actually listening to it today. For the most part, he’s spot-on, but I tend to think that Jack White’s actually found a new model for their stuff: early David Lee Roth-era Van Halen. Compare and contrast the Stripes’ “Rag and Bone” with 1978’s “Ice Cream Man” and tell me I’m insane. Otherwise? This will likely not be getting lot of repeat play on Ye Olde iPod.
• Wilco’s SKY BLUE SKY, on the other hand, is like my perfect summer album right now. It’s very mellow; it’s the “sitting on the porch with a glass of lemonade watching the kids run around on the lawn” album the Eagles never made. I fear that means I’m getting too old to really ROCK, y’know? Saw Columbus’s Evil Queens with Casey at Comfest a few weeks back (hey, here’s a video of the show!), but that’s the extent of my ROCK-ness of late.
• Vote for Springfield, Ohio! Whoops, it’s over. We couldn’t even muster 10,000 votes? There’s more people in the TOWN than that.
• Vanilla Coke Zero is awesome.
• So is Jon J. Muth’s ZEN SHORTS, which has become my favorite bedtime story for the kids for many reasons, not the least of which is the opportunity it has given me to perfect my Panda Accent. Muth’s work is just so damned pretty.
• In light of recent events, spent some of last week’s vacation beginning to re-read Hunter S. Thompson’s FEAR AND LOATHING ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL ’72, for about the third or fourth time. I always get to “June” and quit. It’s amazing to me how many parallels you could find between the current political campaign atmosphere and the Democrats’ scramble in ’72 — though they weren’t exactly jockeying for position sixteen months before the actual election took place…
• I got a new grill. It has four large burners and a side burner. Also, today Val accidentally dropped an earring down the drain in the bathroom and between the two of us, we managed to get the u-bend pipe off, retrieved the earring, and replaced the pipe, all without the aid of a monkey wrench — and there’s no water spraying in the bathroom, so I’d say the home repair was a success. Domestication, if not complete, is nearly there.

Vacation photos are up on Flickr but I’m too tired to deal with the formatting they will require tonight, so for the moment just turn your head for the ones that are sideways, and we’ll all get through this together.