i bought an umbrella today, thanks to my dear mum. i think i must have spent twenty-five minutes trying to decide between fit-into-my-bag size, and large-sword-brella-sized-sturdy-thing. I opted for the latter: i'd just lose something that I have to carry around.

the only problem with having an umbrella is now I won't get to walk being rained on. that is, i'll probably opt not to. it remains to be seen whether this will cause a complete-and-utter shift in my musical taste. the days of sad may be over!!

or maybe not.

speaking of which, though - rumours suggest Elliott Smith committed suicide earlier today. If this is true - and I certainly hope it's not - it's terrible news. not only was Elliott Smith a beautiful, idiosyncratic talent - Figure 8 is a marvel, - who almost defines a genre on his lonesome, but the oscar-nominated artist was on top of his game. though the anticipated album has been heavily delayed, label-hopped, etc, the 7" released a couple of months ago (with two songs on it) counted among his best work. still, i'm leaning towards believing that this is empty rumour... still no kind of legitimation from official sources.

I picked up a cool Outkast promo photo thing at the laundromat, with photos of Andre and Big Boi in swanker suits than I will ever wear... it also happens to have a $3 off coupon for Speakerboxxx/Love Below at HMV. Between this and the $9.99 sale for the last Johnny Cash record, I feel like HMV may have won the marketing war and enticed me back into their hellish depths. I really hate that place: megacorporate rip-off artists... but a bargain is a bargain. (Unless someone wants to trade me a copy of Speakerboxxx? I've got the lovely Molasses double-record I'd be willing to part with... An old Counting Crows record? Between the Bridges? Hello?)

oh, about Outkast:

I bought shakeitlikeapolaroidpicture.com.

For the moment it simply points to tangmonkey (and sends email on to me), but if anyone has bright ideas for its use -- I plan to use something else as a personal storage (etc) site -- please share. A lyric that genius needs something genius to live on its webspace.

(And yes, you may infer that as I listen to the Outkast mp3s on my Grados right now, they are sounding very very good.)