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The Fiery Furnaces - Widow City: One of my growing favorites, this one isn't quite as bizarre as a lot of their tunes...although it does go a bit piano-wacky by the end.

Chemical Brothers - The Jazz...: One of the lengthy "tracks" as cropped on the Brothers Gonna Work It Out CD, probably my favorite DJ/remix album.

Snog - Is There No-One That Can Save Us From Today?: Two weeks in a row for the electro protester

Marillion - Sugar Mice: The cornball pop song for the morning.

Miss Violetta Beauregard - I Can't Believe Hedgehogs Have A Bone Inside Their Cock: Sorry.

Cursive - Rise Up! Rise Up!: Fast song on the Happy Hollow release that, unfortunately, fell into the "this isn't The Ugly Organ" category for me.

Tom Waits - Flower's Grave: Quietly bringing the Random Eight to a close.

R.E.M. - Driver 8: Fun old tune.

Snog - Slide into Extinction (Shaolin Wooden Men Live in Room 23 at the Alt): Very speedy remix of the political-electro Aussie.

Enablers - Sudden Inspection: That distinctive indie raw-guitar sound with droning, spoken-word vocals (that, I might add, I have no memory adding to the iPod).

Tool - Eon Blue Apocalypse: A morning reminder that I'll just never be able to spell "apocalypse" correctly on the first try.

Lou Reed & John Cale - Hello It's Me: The fine conclusion to the duo's tribute to Andy Warhol.

The Boomtown Rats - Dave: Oh, the controversy.

Neil Young - Guitar Solo 2: Noisy distortion from the Dead Man soundtrack.

Pixies - Isla De Encanta: At their speedy best.

Joe Walsh - Got Any Gum: Spacey transitional song from a forgettable 80's Walsh album that, perhaps related, is the only one of his I ever liked.

Stereolab - Emperor Tomato Ketchup: That's exciting.

Wooden Wand and the Vanishing Voice - Didn't it Rain: That's creepy.

Tom Waits - On The Road: Fun Tom track from the Orphans release.

Sugar - Slick: From Bob Mould's post-Husker Du, solo-interrupting project.

The Replacements - Valentine: Best band ever (and perhaps interesting timing for the iPod to throw this into the Random Eight).

Chainsaw Kittens - Savior Boyfriend Collides: Loud and fast, if not a little rough, from the first Kittens album.

Robyn Hitchcock - Wind Cries Mary: Robyn likes his moldy covers.

The Paper Chase - Don't You Wish You Had Some More: Challenging the Whigs for the most dismal song of the Random Eight. They may win simply for the off-tune music.

Peter Holsapple and Chris Stamey - My Friend the Sun: Obviously they never half-blindly drive I66 at sunset.

Asian Dub Foundation - La Haine: Loud and fast dub from this fun band.

Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians - Dwarfbeat: Robyn likes his goofy songs too.

Perfect - Flap: The short-lived Tommy Stinson band platforming his post-Replacements material.

A 2.5 hour drive home on Wednesday, complete with numerous near-injury (and possible near-death) experiences has biased this viewpoint, and perhaps rightfully so. But even taking that away, there has been little fun about the snow this year.

Until today. I took a walk on one of the well-traveled trails that I tend to hit from March through November with regularity. The trip wasn't terribly hard considering the snow I had to trudge through. The biggest threat was the falling ice that has clung to the trees for four days and was finally pried loose from an afternoon of sun.

That said, the trip was still tiring. Tiring as hell, really. I was panting fairly hard come the last stretch which I accurately predicted was going to be full of deep drops into slushy, cold, snow-covered water. I stopped for a while, hydrated myself for the last stretch, and looked behind me to see this formation of clouds.

Had I not been tired and in need of a break, I certainly would have missed this. We'll see if my pending sore legs tomorrow will be worth it.

Paul Westerberg - If I Had a Hammer: Cover available (or it used to be) as a free download from his website and, oddly, one of the favorites of the iPod shuffle (and now I finally know the real name of the moldy folk tune).

Gang of Four - It's Not Made By Great Men: Going back even further to the ever fun Gang of Four.

Alias - Beginagain: Bouncy, though not groundbreaking.

American Music Club - Cape Canaveral: The ever great dark and dismal Eitzel lyrics.

Consonant - 3 a.m.: Essentially a Mission of Burma song, and a powerful one at that.

Snog - The Last Diamond (Xingu Hill Slices The Soft Earth): Relax Into the Abyss is full of remixes of the already synth-driven tunes. Many are fun, though this one doesn't seem to go anywhere beyond repeating the same riff.

Ministry - Corrosion: Now that is the loud the morning needed.

Knut - Solar Flare: Slow, plodding metal.