I have just made the most wonderful discovery. I was busy gluing some pieces on to a writing table I’m making and I had some old “goth” post-punk CDs in the changer. A bit of Bauhaus, a little Sisters of Mercy, some Siouxsie Sioux… I had also included one of my favorite bands, (Clan of) Xymox, which was on the 4AD label back when it had claim to Lush and The Pixies and the Cocteau Twins. It shames me to admit it, but I’d never really listened to a lot of the lyrics very closely—which helps to explain how I was surprised today to find that CoX quotes my favorite poet Swinburne in their song “Back Door,” which appears on the Medusa album.

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On Friday, my web host (WebQuarry) performed some service upgrades on the server, which is great, because now we have the latest versions of everything, and it’s all on a faster, more reliable machine, and ain’t life great, yada yada yada, except that some of the programs I was running before the upgrade no longer worked afterward. Of course, I didn’t know about any of this, until Friday afternoon when I tried to update my page here with Important News that you Can’t Live Well Without.™ I have since forgotten what that Important News was. At any rate, I couldn’t update all weekend, and I watched anxiously as my blog sat idle for days, and I felt as if I had Failed the World.

I’m sorry, World, I failed you.

But everything’s fine, now. The good people at Movable Type were able to pinpoint the problem quickly, and now I can post more drivel to my blog. Never again, World, will I let you down. Blog on, Michael. Blog on.

Ohohohoh!!! I remembered one piece of the Important News! My good friend, Stephanie Pytlinski, turned… um… well, she turned old like me on Friday.

Happy Birthday, Steph!

NP: Sisters of Mercy, More