So my hard drive bit it on Thursday; luckily, Andy the IT guy was still in the office, and got me a replacement about an hour before leaving for vacation. This means I have to wait until Tuesday to find out whether he can recover anything off my hard drive. Not a ton of stuff I'll need, but enough to be a complete pain in the ass. So I get to be in limbo, not knowing what I have upcoming in terms of assignments, until then--if I send a query to all my writers it might be in vain, and if it's gone I'll find out late. Fuck fuck fuck.

Speaking of limbo, got Da Capo Best Music Writing 2005 in the mail today. Last year's edition was 360 pages; this one's 202. The honorable mention list is almost twice as long as usual to complement the page count being nearly halved. I like SFJ's Clash '79 piece, haven't read Michael Corcoran's, and seriously question the wisdom of including both, considering the downsizing. It's a relief, though to note that they included Ingrid Sischy and Camille Paglia's ever-so-enlightening back-and-forth on the relevant topic from that bastion of thought, Interview magazine. How else could I have known that Paglia thinks that "People generally view Eminem as a rapper trying to blend with black culture, but I classify him with the punks"? Thank you, "J.T. LeRoy." Thank you.