The new Batman flick rocks, go see it.

Yesterday, Canada said "we rock" and today, Spain said "yeah, well we rock too, and our country is like, totally fabulous". Thoughts of expatriating dance in my head (do you think we can move all of NYC to Spain?)

New David Sedaris story in the New Yorker. I think my dream job would have to involve reading David Sedaris novels while playing with puppies and kitties.

On Saturday, some guy around the corner from my apartment had a huge used record and CD sale. The sale was to start at 10 am. My train out to Long Island (doing yard work for mom and dad) was at 11:15, so I left the house early enough to allow myself a decent window of time to sort through whatever was there, grab a bagel and coffee, and hightail it over to the LIRR. Since I had planned on getting there at 10 am on the dot, my largest concern was whether the guy would actually be set up yet. I began dreaming of the rare treats that I would find for pennies. Perhaps he would be getting rid of the Adam Beyer remixes to Damon Wild's "Warpath," ending one of my hunts from the past few years.

OK, so it's 10 am, the thing's just started, right? I get to the guy's front stoop and there's like 20 guys there. Every single obsessive compulsive record collector in town was there to get first dibs. Shit was crazy.

Everyone was in this "I'm going to find a bargain" fever. I got shoved about five times within the first minute. I would be flipping through a line of CDs, and someone would come over and start flipping through the same column that I was looking at. I couldn't even make it to the area where the vinyl was, but someone was holding a copy of Nirvana's Incesticide on vinyl that was two bucks.

I was becoming frustrated rather quickly. I hadn't had my morning coffee yet. Then crazy old school Brooklyn lady arrived, and I swear I almost completely lost it.

So this lady comes from down the street, sees everyone going buck wild, and realizes she's missing out on the chance of a lifetime. She grabs the first pile of CDs she sees (from the electronica section I might add, I might also add that this lady is 55 years old) and yells "Can ya hold these aside fuh me?!?" Keep in mind she's not asking anyone in particular this question, as she doesn't see any difference between the crowd of people looking through the inventory for items to purchase and the person sitting by the curb counting his money. Certainly we all would have a hard time identifying the best person to ask questions regarding the record sale in this situation.

She then sees that one of the CDs she's holding has a rather racy cover and decides to tell me "Oh, I won't be buying that one." Then, another question popped in her head that needed immediate attention but was directed at noone in particular - "How much ya got all these tapes fuh!?!?" An important side note here - there were no tapes at this sale, only CDs and vinyl, and all prices were clearly marked with a yellow sticker on each item.

After realizing that she didn't know any of the artists in the pile of CDs she was holding, it was time for the next question. "Ya got any oldies?!?!?" No one answered so she asked this like five times, getting louder each time. I ran over to pay for my item and got the fuck out of there.

I got the Beth Gibbons solo CD that came out a few years ago, but I never picked up for some reason, for three bucks. Word!

There comes a time in every aging record buyer's life when one must ask oneself a truly serious question - do I buy a record I own already re-released with marginal value added content? Sometimes it's really easy to cave in to temptation, especially when it's the best album ever.

Kim's Underground, the headquarters for the wonderfully obscure, got raided. They're certainly an odd target for a crack down on hip-hop mix tapes, being that the store is basically an indie music and film mecca. Why didn't they hit Beat Street in Brooklyn?

The other odd thing is that they're cracking down on mix tapes. These things aren't simple DJ mixes, these things feature tracks that will never be officially released by the artist's label. If the major labels are upset about missing out on this piece of the pie, perhaps its time, once again, for them to reconsider their business models.

Jack FM just played Quarterflash!

So, we just got one of those Jack FM stations that kind of mimic an iPod on shuffle. Pretty eclectic mix so far this morning - EMF, Def Leppard, the Cars, Staind, and Sinead O'Connor within half an hour. So far it seems to be a little too heavy on the 80's rock stuff for my tastes, but at least it's not the same five songs every hour.

Unfortunately, the addition of a new radio station means the loss of an old one, and CBS 101, the oldies station that's been around like, forever, took the hit for Jack FM. I loved cooking to the oldies, I'll have to find a new station for that now.

They're playing Mr. Roboto now. I think it might be the most bizarre song ever.