Said the Gramophone headquarters is having some tense deliberations on the subject of mp3 sampling and cease and desist orders, so we're going to have to pause our regular scheduled programming. Not to worry your pretty little hearts, however - I still have some things to prattle on about.

First of all, I just came home from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. It's beautiful and funny and sad: in short, it's everything it should be, and I'm so so glad. Moments of complete intimacy flutter against the backdrop of normal, mundane life, and then fade into it. Houses collapse. Tears trickle over smiles and voices break into morning haze. Every loss is tangled up with hope, every broken heart affirms its importance. And the best of all, the snowy crown, is that amid the sublime (ice) and the ridiculous (bird-house), the doubters are allowed to doubt (and we're all doubters, some days). Those hopes may be false, those loud broken hearts may diminish with every hour, those footsteps on the beach may vanish into the surf. In short, it may be a loop of love or a loop of senseless loss. In short, it may be a loop of love or a loop of senseless loss. A loop

Gondry's music videos feel like they were practice for this. The underrated Human Nature feels like a slapstick working-up-the-energy. And I get my own back against all the Jim Carrey haters (he's slow and small and brilliant). Lovely, heartless, both.

Onward and upward -

For any and all of you in Montreal, this Friday is VAGANZA, a 24-hour improv marathon, all proceeds from which go to charity. If any of you are in town and wish to drop in for an hour (or sixteen) of ridiculous, absurd, good-natured (and unscripted) fun, tickets are a measly $3.00. I will be on the stage. (right, so: 9am-9am, Feb 26-27. 2nd floor, 3480 McTavish St.)

Every year for the past three, in honour of this thing called Vaganza, some friends of mine and I record a song. These songs are nonsense, but they are also an excuse to get together and make nonsense music. Kyla Drushka on guitar; Julian Smith on clarinet; myself on vocals. Submitted for your approval, then, are two little slices of whimsical fun.

Drushka - "Devil's Dance/Vaganza". 2003's entry is a bizarre, windy bit of Tom Waits klezmer; a twisting guitar line and some terrific improv from J. The best bit is the quiet interlude in the middle - some mystical chasidic chants, with a squeeze of absurdity - and then an accelerating finale that quickly degrades into hisses.

Drushka - "The Dark Vaganza Dawn". Recorded/composed last night (Feb. 23, 2004), in the space of about three hours. The increased production values (ie, ocean sounds and percussion) come courtesy of Apple's GarageBand. Everything else makes its way in through the built-in mic on my iMac. "The Dark Vaganza Dawn" is a humid european cabaret that's been visited by the javanese gamelan orchestra and mr Scott Walker. There's also a crazy girl in the back (a member of modest mouse?) who's playing slide-guitar. I dream of brown and pink elephants, ice, and good tobacco.

Admittedly, they're good and they're not, but I'd love to hear any of your thoughts.