Okay, okay. Back by popular request (by the blog mistress), I'm back ("I'm" meaning "E.M." purveyor of the illustrious American Princess) with this weeks Cracker Jack philosophy, and uber-pretentious song lineup.

When things are bad, you find out who your real friends are. They don't include Lincoln Chaffee, though I'm not sure if he's ever been on the list. Saying its bad, even, seems to me to be a massive overstatement, and despite the rationalization being thrown into full swing (how many are defending their call not to vote now), its really not necessary. In true Karl Rove tradition, even the mistakes we made will be little tiny gifts to ourselves, hopefully including the systematic implosion of at least one multiplayer nutroots blog with local ties.

Somehow, the world didn't end. The trees aren't bursting into flames (global warming is apparently at bay since Democrats won the election and reversed it with their Hollywood celebrations), we're not falling over dead, and I certainly don't feel and less inclined to relentlessly mock our elected officials. Once, those officials were mostly Republican, so my feeble attempts at satire felt almost...treasonous. Now, I can rip apart the children of the majority party's predisposition to posting records of their drunken benders on MySpace and feel nothing except the slow blackening of my own uncaring soul. And who cares? I'm Republican and a legal mind. There's an escalator waiting to take me to Hell.

Otherwise, its been a good week. The sun is shining, the grass is green(ish) and the finishing stanzas of that song are still months away. Christmas? Heavens, no. The year can stagnate on this week forever. Its just enough time away from finals that I don't feel any particular pressure, just enough time away from the start of school that I've figured out a system by which I can read and prepare just enough to comprehend, but not nearly enough to pass an exam. Theres no Christmas shopping, or threat of bikini weather. Its not snowing, its not raining, but Michigan is in a perpetual state of warmish brown mud and fallen leaves. To some, this would be depressing, and to those gainfully employed, blah. But to the student, its priceless.

The music this week is a little big Austin City Limits, a little bit Euro (both the Rakes and The Long Blondes are top of the charts in England, but only recently debuted in the states), a little bluesy and a little bit alt-country, a genre I typically avoid, but seem to find produces quality folk singers who've attached themselves to Rhett Miller just to market themselves to the hip.

1. Retreat -- The Rakes
2. Once and Never Again -- The Long Blondes
3. Everybody Lets Me Down -- Ad Astra Per Aspera
4. White Daisy Passing -- Rocky Votolato
5. We Intertwined -- The Hush Sound
6. Hotel Roosevelt -- Augustana
7. Walk In The Park -- Oh No! Oh My!
8. Rock Me Baby -- B. B. King & Eric Clapton
9. Beware of the Boys -- Panjabi M.C. (by now, how many of you have discovered that I have a thing for Asian Underground...hm?...hm?)
10. Lonely Boy -- The Eisenhower

Bonus, by request: Lebanese Blonde -- Theivery Corporation (also somewhat Asian Underground, but co-opted into indie-dom by Zach Braff)

Happy listening, and happy mud.