Two weeks

Sorry for the prolonged absence from the blog. It's getting serious now -- I have to simultaneously work on a 3,000-word feature tha's due before Thanksgiving, write a news story by tomorrow, figure out a 750-word feature to pitch for next week, write a short paper about sustainable development for next week, and all the while keep progess on my thesis project lurching forward. So I've been pretty damn productive for the last few days. And then last night I just reached the point where I could do no more, broke open the bottle of pinot noir at 8ish and spent the rest of the night going under and IMing friends. Every superhero has a weakness. I'm a lush.

Finds of the week at the music library: The greatest hits collections for both Dire Straits and the Allman Brothers Band, the latter being spectacular. The Allman Brothers play the kind of bluesbreaker music you wouldn't tolerate from white people if they weren't so damn good. And I realized that they played a lot of those songs I knew by heart from classic rock stations, but couldn't place to an artist. "Melissa," "Jessica," "Midnight Rider" -- I didn't know. You're always finding out something knew if you're looking.

But the best find of recent time is "The Queen Collection" by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Sure, I'm a sucker for such nerdy endeavors, but this one is special. There really is no rock band more deserving of the full orchestral treatment than Queen. The black bow tie style takes a lot of the camp out of it, but highlights what a great group of songwriters and melodians they were. And listening to a full chorus sing "We are the Champions" is more compelling than I could ever tell you.

I'm doing interviews tomorrow about how much carbon wildfires emit into the atmosphere, and about public awareness of computer security problems. Maybe I'll get a haircut, or buy more wine. When you have to 'on' all the time, stupid errands start to seem more and more attractive, simply as an excuse to throw on the iPod and stop thinking. On the plus side, when Thanksgiving comes I'm going to get to take a big goddamed deep breath. And hopefully I'll be on the bus to Philadelphia.

Two weeks. I can do it.