Things that I and only I are interested in.

Jahidi white*, I am excited, because I just learned that the great Sufjan Stevens is continuing his 50 states project with an album about Illinois. Check out this track list and tell me you're not excited too:

01 Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, IL
02 The Black Hawk War, or, How to Demolish an Entire Civilization and Still Feel Good About Yourself in the Morning, or, We Apologize for the Inconvenience But You're Going to Have to Leave Now, or, "I have fought the Big Knives and will continue to fight them until they are off our lands!"
03 Come on! Feel the Illinoise!
-Part I: The World's Columbian Exposition
-Part II: Carl Sandburg Visits Me in a Dream
04 John Wayne Gacy, Jr.
05 Jacksonville
06 A Short Reprise for Mary Todd, Who Went Insane, But for Very Good Reasons
07 Decatur, or, Round of Applause for Your Step Mother!
08 One Last "Woo-hoo!" for the Pullman
09 Chicago
10 Casimir Pulaski Day
11 To the Workers of the Rockford River Valley Region, I have an Idea Concerning Your Predicament, and it involves shoe string, a lavender garland, and twelve strong women
12 The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts
13 Prairie Fire That Wanders About
14 A Conjunction of Drones Simulating the Way in Which Sufjan Stevens Has an Existential Crisis in the Great Godfrey Maze
15 The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us!
16 They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back From the Dead!! Ahhhhh!
17 Let's Hear That String Part Again, Because I Don't Think They Heard It All the Way Out in Bushnell
18 In This Temple, as in the Hearts of Man, for Whom He Saved the Earth
19 The Seer's Tower
20 The Tallest Man, the Broadest Shoulders
-Part I: The Great Frontier
-Part II: Come to Me Only With Playthings Now
21 Riffs and Variations on a Single Note for Jelly Roll, Earl Hines, Louis Armstrong, Baby Dodds, and the King of Swing, to Name a Few
22 Out of Egypt, into the Great Laugh of Mankind, and I shake the dirt from my sandals as I run

Things mentioned I am most pumped about include: Bushnell (site of Cornerstone Music Festival), Rockford (where my wife is from and where I lived for a couple of years), Casimir Pulaski Day (for which Illinois schoolchildren get a day off), and references to Abe Lincoln and Superman. It should be a great disk. i'm looking into ways to download it now, since it comes out on July 5. Don't worry, Mr. Stevens, I will purchase it straight away, and probably buy more copies for friends. Jahidi white, get off my back.

Also, David Lynch has put down his positive-vibe machine long enough to make a new movie. Really, if you're David Lynch, how can you be doing anything but making movies now? His website and Baghwan Rajneesh have hijacked him! It's a travesty!

Also, the new Hoop Dreams special edition should arrive from Netflix today. If not for American Movie, it would be best.documentary.ever.

*Think of it as meaning "Mercy, me!" or "Whoa Nellie". I put this in here because I spontaneously said this to myself when I got the good news. And yes, I'm going to try desperately to cram it into common English usage.