Different strokes

At lunchtime, Jen was playing Indie 103 in the office. Jonesy's Jukebox provides a pretty decent selection of music; if it weren't for all the annoying discount insurance and legal aid commercials, it would be a most pleasant diversion. Towards the end of his show, Jonesy (Steve Jones, formerly of the Sex Pistols) decided to have a little "name the artist" contest. Jen is totally hip to anything that's current, but she was stumped when the music started. I'm terrible at identifying singers but I got this one right away: it was Peter, Paul and Mary singing "Leavin' on a Jet Plane." I have a PP&M 2-volume live CD that was probably recorded back in the late 1960s that I just love, and although the recording Jonesy played sounded a bit different than the live recording I own, I had no trouble identifying the trio's distinctive voices.

A few years ago, someone at Simon & Schuster sent me not one but two books by pop culture essayist Chuck Klosterman. Both were not merely autographed but were actually signed to me, as if Chuck were a pal of mine and truly hoped I would enjoy his writing. I knew I would never be a fan of Chuck Klosterman's when I read this damning passage on page 15 of Killing Yourself to Live: "I have 2,233 CDs. Approximately 30 percent of these were given to me for free by record labels; that number represents less than 1 percent of how many promotional discs I've actually received. Another 30 percent of those 2,233 have been played less than five times, including one (The Best of Peter, Paul and Mary) I've never even listened to once -- it's still wrapped in cellophane..."

But he does own (and presumably listen to) KISS's entire oeuvre, as well as all of Britney Spears's catalog. If he'll listen to that garbage, I don't see why he can't crack open the PP&M, smoke a little weed, and get mellow.