2 + 2 = 5.

1) Gwen Stefani's new wave streak.
After this blurb, Gwennie is banned from being mentioned on this blog. I've hated on her a lot, but I have to give her minor props. First things first: the album is terrible. You know how I feel about the retarded title. And despite Pitchfork's yelping, I do not think "What You Waiting For?" is single of the year. (And who knew that Andre 3000 could tank so hard? The two tracks he contributed to the album are awful.) All that said, I think for a three song stretch ("Cool," "Serious," "The Real Thing"), when Gwennie got her new wave on and hired the guys from New Order and hooked up with ex-Prince players Wendy & Lisa, she achieves pure retro-pop bliss... like some longlost b-side from OMD or Yaz that John Hughes always meant to use during one of his end credits.

2) Tivo.
I joined the Tivo nation over the weekend. And it is good. I now have many, many episodes of Cops to peruse, can watch Chris Matthews in 15 minutes, won't miss Conan, and can tape a bunch of stuff off TCM at 4:00 in the morning. Huzzah.

3) Cops from 1988.
It's like some Spike Jonze-hell with crazy bemulleted, Marlboro-chaining, yahoo Cops beating the shit out of teenage drug dealers (who favor argyle socks). Insanity. Again: thank you, Tivo.

4) Sea bass on the grill (as prepared by my father).
Super best.

5) Feeling rested.
The mini-vacation went by waaaaaay too quickly, but it rechraged the batteries. To be sure, I'll be miserable and back to hating my job in about, oh, 12 hours, but it's nice to feel slightly energetic and rested and up.