Dengue Fever - Both Sides Now: From the City of Ghosts soundtrack, this was the first exposure I had to Dengue Fever and Cambodian music in general. Decent movie, but great soundtrack.

Sonic Youth - SYR 8: Andre Sider Af Sonic Youth: The experimental collection of noise from the band's own label; this 57 minute excursion is going to drag out the morning shuffle play for some time.

Subtle - A Tale of Apes 1: An interesting band, somewhat hiphoppy, but also somewhat experimental and often loud and brash. This track starts the entertaining For Hero: For Fool release, and the latest Exiting Arm CD is very fun as well.

Ministry - Thieves: A number of months ago, a hastily planned rally for McCain and Palin occurred a few hundred yards from the office where I work in a park that, conveniently, has no parking. People were filling the office parking spots as early as 7:00 when I arrived and were roaming on the roads without care for the fact that other folks might be trying to live their lives in the area. By pure coincidence, I swear, the song Thieves came on my car CD player. It wasn't by coincidence the volume was turned very, very loudly.

Death Cab for Cutie - President of What: Another reasonably fun, simple track from the band's 90's music.

Meg Lee Chin - Deeper: Piece and Love was a fine release from an artist who I became interested in with her work with Pigface. Deeper isn't really one of the better tracks from the CD, but still captures a hard sound with Chin's generally angry-sounding vocals.

Cabaret Voltaire - Do the Mussolini: Pretty much a band and release I never listen to minus the appearances on the Random Eight; this is a droning noisefest (fortunately about 55 minutes shorter than the one posed by Sonic Youth earlier).

The Locust - Wet Dream War Machine: As if the iPod knew it was running late, it closes out the Random Eight with a 50 second punk scream fest that would make Mike Watt proud.

I'm not sure I ever saw the boy lion at the National Zoo prior to last week. He is quite majestic.

Again, a sleepy day for cats at the zoo.

Tom Waits - Gospel Train / Orchestra: It seems like The Black Rider is a favorite of the shuffle play lately. This is a odd assortment of percussion and crazy horns and strings, likely meant to support part of the stage show that the iPod doesn't display very well.

Archers of Loaf - South Carolina: Again? Two weeks in a row? Weird.

The Flaming Lips - Moth in the Incubator: I do miss the raw energy the Lips had with songs like this.

Rush - Mystic Rhythms: A total earworm for me. I put it on the iPod a few months ago and played it over and over again until it decayed in my memory. I bet this brings it back to life.

Butthole Surfers - Dust Devil / Something: Combined track from one of the many live shows available for download from the BH website. Something is one of my favorite BH songs for the anguish that seems to exude from the guitars.

Twink - Ten Thousand Words in a Cardboard Box: I have a feeling the Butthole Surfers listened to this band a bit back in the day.

The dB's - Ups and Downs: One of the faster, and maybe sillier, songs from the Repercussion release.

Isis - The Beginning and the End: and eight minutes of noise and screaming like a bear in between.

The animals seem to lose energy earlier now that the heat and humidity of summer is here.

Frogs live amongst the animals in small ponds strategically placed throughout the park grounds. Some live right by the cheetahs which, knowing our cats, I always think is a bad idea.

And yet, the frogs live on, apparently.

Curtis Mayfield - Between You Baby and Me: I bought The Essentials because I am always so enthralled by the Afghan Whigs' cover of "If There's a Hell Below." That said, I'm not sure I truly appreciate Mayfield's music, especially these slower, mellow tracks.

Marillion - Slainte Mhath: The opening track from the live La Gazza Ladra release culminating the band's era with Fish at lead vocals and main song writer. Covering the first four albums, this is a pretty nice collection, especially in the day when it wasn't possible to download practically every show from these tours off the internet.

Edith Piaf - J'ai qu' a l' regarder: No real strong reactions from me. These are fun songs to hear, but not much more than that.

Sugar - The Slim: Dismal song from Bob Mould about an acquaintance dying from AIDS. As the tours went on, this song became more and more emotional, and subsequently miserable, to the point when he stopped playing it.

Dengue Fever - Tap Water: Another fun song from the Dragon House CD. It bugs me that the band was playing at The State Theater in our area a few weeks ago and I didn't realize it until we were driving past the venue, the night of the show, on the way to dinner. Oh well, maybe next time.

Velvet Underground - That's the Story of My Life: A short song probably most notable for preceding "The Murder Mystery."

Galaxie 500 - Fourth of July: A band that I think would be very hard to not like. The relatively recent reissuing of all their releases (tongue-twister intentional) was a nice bonus for fans, although I've stayed away from the live DVD which I read isn't terribly high quality (something that really bugs me about reissues at times).

Archers of Loaf - South Carolina: Sing about it all you want, I'm not going back there.

Question: do your cats do this to shopping bags from Barnes and Noble?

The picture above is Coco on Saturday night when we came home from dinner and a trip to the local book store. This scene plays out in a similar fashion every time we have such an evening. We place the bag on the floor while we settle in for the evening, and within seconds one of our cats cautiously sniffs the bag, pats it a little with a paw, then dives into it either with bites of aggression or fits of nudging love.

And this doesn't stop until we empty the bag, crumble it into a ball, and shove it deep down into the garbage (sorry, recycling folks...the cat attacks leave us little option).

This act occurs on no other bags that enter the house. Giant, Borders, Wegmans, Trader Joes, etc.; only the B&N bags seem to draw the loving attention of our felines.

It is just weird.

Does this happen to anybody else?

...said the turtle to the dork.

Sugar - Changes: A power track from Bob Mould's post-Husker Du band, this is one of the more uninspired songs from a group who could really put together some blistering music during their short tenure.

Tom Waits - Just the Right Bullets: From The Black Rider, part of the creepy musical Tom was a part of in the early 90's.

R.E.M. - Maps and Legends: This is a live acoustic version that was floating around on bootlegs for years before being released by the band, in this case, on an "extended" version of my favorite album, Fables of the Reconstruction. Twenty-some years after the fact, there are some tracks from R.E.M. that haven't necessarily aged well for me, but this is not one of them as it is a fantastic song with a great composition.

Death Cab for Cutie - Scientist Studies: An enjoyably placid song from a band that grew tiresome for me shortly after the We Have the Facts... release.

Tom Waits - 16 Shells from a Thirty-ought Six: A very energetic some from Tom, comically fitting in well with the Big Time songs.

Stereolab - Perversion: From the Peng album, probably on the whole my favorite release from the band. They weren't quite as trippy at the time as they would grow into being, but still very fun to listen to.

Marillion - Script for a Jester's Tear: Well, this drives away from the happy 90's indie sound the iPod has focused on most of the morning. This is the title track from the first full length album from the band, a typical progressive song introducing the misery the band would sing about for four records before their split with the lead singer and everyone got sober, happy, and relatively dull.

Divination - Dream Light: From one of the many Bill Laswell ambient releases that litter my iPod, I really need to remember these albums are loaded on the machine when I want basic yet enjoyable background noise.

There is no violence between the squirrels and the birds, but the doves put up a good fight to keep the rodents off the food. The doves, for their goofy appearance, are by far the most aggressive birds when it comes to going after food. The grackles and crows are the meanest, but seem easily intimidated by either the doves or the cats from our window watching them.

The blue jay seems very interested in me watching her.

Coco can't figure out why the animals aren't afraid of her.

I put some food out on Saturday morning, and the fun came in waves.

We have a very alpha squirrel who isn't into sharing with his peers.

We have a cardinal who isn't going to win any beauty awards anytime soon.

And a blue jay who is just happy to be fed.

Warren Zevon - Roland Chorale: Not very exciting without Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner following it, which is the curse of random play from time to time.

Underwater Culprit and the House of Assassins - Sissyphus: Probably the most accessible song from Jason's debut record, this fits nicely on the Gallons of Perception release.

Tantrum - In Blood We Trust: A few of these synth industrial-ish songs sit hidden on the iPod awaiting their escape on random play days. I don't really mind having a few of them on the machine as they make decent background noise at times, but really, there isn't much reason to have more than a couple tracks as they all sound the same anyhow.

John Cale - Perfect: Black Acetate was an unexpected surprise from Cale a few years back; it is a great collection of songs that departed from his general sound that, while good, has become a little stale over time. Cale shows with this song and many others on the release that he has gobs of energy left.

Archers of Loaf - Dead Red Eyes: One of the slower tracks from the band, bit it evolves into a fun, bass-driven beat.

The Fiery Furnaces - Whistle Rhapsody: Bitter Tea is an interesting recording, kinda dark and on the fringe of an older 70's sound (matched by the artwork of their following release, Widow City) but with many modern sounds and noises sprinkled in.

Skinny Puppy - Death: Happy title. From The Process, my favorite Puppy recording.

Talking Heads - Pulled Up: I was very happy when The Name of This Band is Talking Heads was released on CD after years of listening to my vinyl recording of it. Some songs have aged better than others, but it is still a nice live snapshot of a groundbreaking band.