pinchy dot org.

I always felt so far from you, like something wasn’t right. But tonight I rest my head inside the crook of your arm, and I feel like a golden star.

Music for Shuffle.

All the cool kids probably know about this already, but if you like the sort of music they review over at Pitchfork, you should check out woxy.com. It’s a fantastic Internet-only radio station with unusually high-quality streaming audio. At the moment, they’re airing an excellent live set with Architecture in Helsinki; before that, they played Sleater-Kinney, Bloc Party, Sondre Lerche, and Magnolia Electric Co. It’s what radio would be if it didn’t suck.

My folky French wish has been answered: Julie Doiron’s Desormais. That sound you hear is me swooning.

Do let me know, though, if you find any other French acousticness that fits the bill.

I’ll keep this short so I can get to class on time.

Sunday: The Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in Golden Gate Park. I saw Gillian Welch and Emmylou Harris, both of whom were amazing. My fingers are still thawing.

Monday: A debate between Mark Danner, a journalism professor at Berkeley, and William Kristol on whether we need a new president. Unsurprisingly, they did not reach a consensus. A Lyndon LaRouche supporter sitting behind me kept standing up and yelling at Kristol; police eventually came in and removed him. The LaRouche supporter, that is, not Kristol. Berkeley isn’t that ridiculous.

Today, later on: Butternut squash risotto, the vice-presidential debate, and drinks with my former housemates. Deliciousness bracketing bitterness.

Does anyone know of a musician who sounds like Jolie Holland, Sean Hayes, or Gillian Welch, but who sings in French? Some folky Québécois, perhaps? If such a person exists, that person’s music would likely cause me to melt into a small puddle of bliss.

If you liked The Grey Album–a mashup of Jay-Z’s Black Album and the Beatles’ White Album–you should definitely check out The Slack Album, which combines Jay-Z with Pavement’s Slanted and Enchanted. Super-cool stuff.

Incidentally, when The Grey Album came out, I was delighted to learn that Jay-Z also calls himself “Hov’,” which has a rather different meaning in transportation circles. That discovery led me to rewrite some of the lyrics to Jay-Z’s “Public Service Announcement“:

My name is HOV, H to the O V

I drive cars with high occupancy

I guess even back then you could call me

So concerned with air quality. HOV!

I could probably be a bigger dork than I am, but I’m not sure how.

This Indian music video is fantastic. If, like me, you have 11 major tasks on your to-do list for the week (not including school assignments), it should serve as a welcome distraction. Tunak tunak, tunak tunak tunak, tunak tunak tunak, tun da da da!

I’ve been listening to all of my music on shuffle lately, which is unusual for me—usually I pick an album that suits my mood and listen to it straight through. Certain songs come up on shuffle way more often than they should in a random distribution. Here’s what my iPod thinks I need to hear more than anything else:

• Nick Drake bootlegs
• The Clientele
• Charles Mingus, Presents Charles Mingus
• Los Aterciopelados, Caribe Atómico
• Caviar, “Tangerine Speedo”

If there’s a hidden theme, I have no idea what it is.

I saw Low and Jolie Holland in San Francisco last night, along with a couple of other bands I didn’t care for so much. Low was amazing live, as I’d been told it would be. I had never heard of Jolie Holland before, but I was captivated from the moment she started singing. She sounds a bit like a cross between Billie Holiday and Chan Marshall, more so in concert than on her album.

The show was at the Great American Music Hall, which would be a fine venue were it not for the complete lack of chairs (unless you spring for a dinner seat upstairs). Not an ideal situation for a four-hour show, especially if you’re as sleep-deprived as I was.