Update

While I sit listening to Miles Davis's Bitches Brew waiting for potential tenants looking to be shown around, I thought I would  post a brief update detailing various developments. Records and comics after the jump.

There can't be any vinyl purchases for a couple of months. There are simply too many records not listened to. Yesterday I picked up a box for 12" records and a double lp. Immediate transportation worries have been taken care of by said box and so I should be able to cart things back to London where I can listen to them.

All told it hasn't held up over the years as well as the box for 7"s. Still, it cleaned up O.K. and some duck tape ought to improve matters.

Here's a list of records, there'll be more commentary and photos in a future round-up.

Lps
Exile on Mainstreet -- The Rolling Stones
Think of One -- Wynton Marsalis
Eps
Teen Jamz -- Gross Magic
Singles
"Roman Holiday" -- Fanzine
"Medecine Jar" -- Queenadreena
"Boys Better" -- The Dandy Warhols

When I wrote the last comics round-up I forgot to mention that I'd been re-reading Alan Moore's V for Vendetta. Having finished it now for the third or fourth time, I'm of the opinion that it raises some very interesting issues when read today but I'm still not sure where I stand on it. Read it, definitely.

I just wonder what it's implications are when regarding baby boomers (the strong individualist message and the anxiety about conformity that is probably less present in my generation) and, funnily enough, Salvadore Allende and the idea of cybernetic socialism (Stafford Beer's Cybersyn system). Also the LSD, seriously? What to make of the cultural conflict on display? There's a lot going on.

I'm onto rereading Watchmen now (signed by Dave Gibbons!), I definitely prefer it. Maybe it's the broader bounds of the superhero genre with which he is contending or the discipline imposed by the documentational elements of the narrative (reminiscent of a Victorian epistolary novel).

While the subject matter is dark, the generational concerns play out in a  less preachy way. The artwork and prose segments are amazing and the dialogue has a great quality of ventriloquism--I find myself giving the characters different voices in my head as I read. I'm feeling rather circumspect about the forthcoming Before Watchmen  prequel series that DC is putting out this summer.

I also got two more Casefiles volumes of Judge Dredd out of the library. Fun and games.