Overheard in a grocery store today:

Guy to girl: "If a woman wanted to sleep with me, I would be open to it." That's big of you, dude.

Watched American Idol. This phase of the show is my least favorite--2 hours a night, for 3 straight nights, is an admittedly ridiculous expense of time. There were 2 or 3 legitimately excellent female performances, though. 2 white girls will be going home tomorrow, that's for sure. Best line was when Simon compared one of the white girls trying to sing a Rufus & Chaka Khan song to being as believable as Ryan Seacreast doing the news. Ryan is a total turd and picked a fight with Simon yesterday just for airtime.

I got this import box set, Squeeze - Six of One, which has the band's first six albums in one small box with bonus tracks on each disc (all pretty forgettable b-sides/unreleased tracks). I'm pretty sure I got some knockoff version of the set. The discs came in paper sleeves like you could get anywhere, with folded disc liners around them but no actual cases, not even slimlines. Also, I went on a Squeeze fansite and there were quotes about various songs that were attributed to the Six of One set, yet none of those quotes were in my version. My version had one paragraph liner notes for each disc, most 80%-100% lifted from www.allmusic.com. The only new additions were errors, such as calling "Labelled With Love" the standout track from East Side Story when of course it was the enduring hit, "Tempted." Also, midway through someone forgot the numbering, so the fifth album was called their fourth and the sixth their fifth. Very silly. The discs sound good, though, and I'm happy to have all the albums again, as most or all are out of print or only available separately at much higher prices.

Heard yesterday on my execrable local Fox news, beginning with a story about the discovery of some abused animals: "Some were in cages, while others were chained and neglected...Next, it's party time! Mardi Gras hits San Diego!"

I've been kinda catching up on blogs and things lately. Not a focused effort, but I find the people I used to like I still like a lot: Steven Grant, Christopher Butcher, Chris Tamarri (great cd reviews!), Lying in the Gutters, Dirk, Spurge. Not a huge Larsen fan but I like the inside-publishing stuff in his column. Comics Curmudgeon. There are a couple guys like Ferraro and one or two others I'm just now getting into based on the recommendations of others. I'm kinda sad Comic Book Galaxy is dormant right now. Maybe I can do a little something about it.

I was really saddened by that CBR feature where they went inside Mark Waid's house. Does he have no female friends that can help him pick a paint color for the walls, a decent piece of furniture from Pottery Barn, a piece of fine art? Mark, you make a decent living--ditch the pressed wood.

Much more impressed by Mark Millar's. I don't dig his taste, but the writing really told you more about him than you get from his comics, and it just seemed like a nice, lived-in HOME, with love in it. I'm not trying to beat up on Waid--heaven knows I'm a lonely old bastard myself and I have a few Justice League figures on my bookshelf. But, ya know, prepare that nest for a mate, is all I'm saying.

Wrote a couple nice pages yesterday. Outlined at lunch, fleshed out at night.