I was listening to Cat Power MP3's at work today and suddenly, after years of not liking her music at all, I was struck by how lovely and pure her guitar-playing and singing and writing are. When I say pure, of course, I don't mean sonically pure, I mean emotionally pure. I guess I wrote her off too soon, based on her first album.

In insect news, all the rain we've had in the past month has made this an extraordinary time for mosquitoes, a real breakthrough for these misunderstood bugs. As we speak, I am sporting at least 10 bites.

Today I got an e-mail via my MP3 site, which I suspect to be a friend goofing on me:

Dearest friend
How are you?
I'm a 19 year old boy from Sweden...I just heared your songs here on mp3.com for the first time, You�re very good..I wish I was as talented as you are
I just wanted to ask if you could send me an autographed photo/cd or something? That would really make my day thanks anyway...for the tunes I mean :) Take care and good luck/ Freddie