2 + 2 = 5

1) DSL.
I finally joined the 21st Century and got DSL at home. Now I can blow way too much money at iTunes store, download the trailer for Seed of Chucky in 5 seconds, and get mad bondo porno at the snap of my fingers.
The joke is, of course, that when I woke up this morning the service was down. sigh. Welcome to DSLville.

2) Nine Inch Nails' "The Perfect Drug" video (dir: Mark Romanek).

I hadn't seen this video in ages and was surprised by the humor and how explicit of an homage it is to the work of Edward Gorey. The video holds up beautifully and is (more) proof that Mark Romanek is one of the best video directors out there.

3) A Perfect Circle's The Thirteenth Step.
I bought a used copy of this on a whim and really like it. I'm not all that familiar with Tool (I know, I know... everyone is always trying to get me to jump on that bandwagon), but this just hits me as perfect high school music. All angsty and alt.rock-circa-1996-soundng. Plus it never hurts to hire Jon Brion to work on your album.

4) Chopin's Nocturne in E minor.
The back-story: when I was in fourth grade, we had to watch the Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation of The Secret Garden. It was a blah-whatever-type of TV movie, but I was struck by this melancholic piano music that played over the opening. There were no music credits at the end and I never knew what it was. When I took a music appreciation course in seventh grade, I heard Chopin and realized that was probably the composer of that sad music that I had been tracking down. Then I totally forgot about it and just kind of stumbled upon the Chopin listing at the iTunes store last night. And now, fourteen years later, I finally have that fucking piece of music. I'm going to go put it on, listen to that pretty music, and weep because I am crippled and/or because my parents died of cholera in India or/and my father is Archibald Craven.

5) The Bourne Supremacy.
I loved every second of it. Crazy car chases, brilliant editing, explosions, terse phone exchanges, Julia Stiles (even if she never said "Cafetorium." Which, in case you wondering, should be a prerequisite when Ms. Stiles is in a moving picture show.), Joan Allen in a role that didn't require her to be a frigid, downtrodden wife... A perfect summer movie.