Kicking up my heels

It's the three-year anniversary of breaking my leg at Disneyland. My, how the time passes … and now, three years later, I'm in much better shape than I was in 2005 – stronger, fitter, healthier. Sometimes you just need a wake-up call.

Speaking of Disneyland, we'll be there this weekend, for Gay Days – our third time there for the weekend, and hopefully our second without any broken limbs. Look forward to seeing many of you there.

Music nerd

The My Bloody Valentine concert last night here in San Francisco (and posts by sftekbear, kevin_v5 and bearzbub) reminded me of something I haven't pulled out in a while ... my own personal eight-CD history of British bands that were part of the shoegazing movement (or contemporaries who influenced it).



Back in the late '80s and early '90s, I was an obsessive CD collector, and visited London nearly every year, loading up my suitcase with music every time. I wasn't a huge concert-goer by that point, but did see My Bloody Valentine, and they were just as overwhelmingly, transcendently loud as Scott and others have said last night's concert was.

Nowadays I'm not so much interested in hearing new music as in re-listening to the music I already love, often in new, homemade configurations that reveal unexpected beauties, symmetries and links. I made this Shoegazing one about three years ago, and among its 120 songs (all from my own CD collection; nothing from iTunes) are tracks by MBV, Lush, Swervedriver, Curve, Chapterhouse, Bleach, the Catherine Wheel, Slowdive, Teenage Fanclub, the Boo Radleys, the Telescopes, the Pale Saints, Moose, Spiritualized, Ride, Eugenius, Loop, Kitchens of Distinction and many others.

I suppose I could have made a podcast out of all these songs, but I'm old school. I like the physical artifact.